Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3b.pdf/606

WES crucify him," and when Christ is supposed to say to the disconsolate women, "Weep not for me, ye daughters of Israel;" also, "St. Paul shaking the viper from his finger;" "Christ Healing the Sick in the Temple;" and "Death on the Pale Horse;" besides many others, though less in dimensions not of less celebrity, as the "Battle of La Hogue," and the "Death of General Wolfe." The last composition, painted twice by West, the picture at Hampton court being a repetition of the Grosvenor example, created a wholesome revolution in the matter of costume in English art. Our officers were till then painted as Greek and Roman heroes, under the false impression that to encase a hero in a coat and trousers was an absurdity. A judge of the high position of Sir Joshua Reynolds objected to West's Innovation of representing men in their own clothes, at first; but when he saw the picture finished, he admitted his error. To see a man in any but his own clothes, would now be extremely ridiculous. West has rather fallen in reputation, than otherwise, of late years. His works are heavy and monotonous, especially in colour and in expression; but he enjoyed a very high reputation among his contemporaries as a historical painter. —(See Gait's Life and Studies of Benjamin West, &c., which contains also some Discourses delivered by the painter.)—R. N. W.  WEST,, son of the well-known editor of Pindar, was born in 1715. After an education at Eton and Oxford, he entered the army as a cornet of horse, through the influence of his uncle, Lord Cobham, and seems soon to have become sceptical in opinion. He was then private secretary to Lord Townshend, and was at Osnaburg when George I. died there. In 1729 he obtained the reversion of a clerkship in the privy council, and succeeded to the office itself in 1752. His friend Pitt made him also treasurer of Chelsea hospital. Afterwards he spent the most of his time in lettered leisure at Wickham, where he was often visited by Littleton and Pitt (Lord Chatham), and there Littleton received those convictions which led to his Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul. West's mind had at length, and seriously, turned to Christianity. Its truths and hopes delighted him, and in 1747 appeared his famous "Observations on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ"—an argument specially directed against Woolston, Tindal, and others. The proofs are carefully and powerfully wrought out, and the harmony of the various accounts in the gospels is ingenious and thoughtful. The work at once attracted attention, and the university of Oxford gave him the degree of doctor of laws. His spirited version of the Odes of Pindar was published in 1749. He also wrote some English poems—"The Institution of the Garter," and "Imitations of Spencer." Not many months after the death of his only son he was struck with palsy, and died on the 26th March, 1756. "He was one of the few poets," Samuel Johnson says, "to whom the grave might be without its terrors." "Gilbert West," says the same critic, "is one of the writers of whom I regret my inability to give a sufficient account."—J. E.  WEST,, an English antiquarian, the son of Richard West of Alscott, Warwickshire, was educated at Oxford. He was elected F.S.A. and F.R.S. in 1726, became joint-treasurer to the Royal Society in 1736, and president in 1738. He was returned to parliament for St. Albans in 1741, and was appointed one of the joint-secretaries to the treasury. He made an excellent collection of MSS. and curiosities, the former of which are now amongst the Lansdowne MSS. in the British museum. He died on the 2nd of July, 1772.—F.  WEST,, an eminent English lawyer, who became lord-chancellor of Ireland in 1725, and whose son's name frequently occurs in the published correspondence of Walpole, and in Mason's life of Gray. The Lord-chancellor West died on the 3rd of December, 1726. He was author of "A Discourse concerning Treason and Bills of Attainder," 1714; "An Inquiry into the Manner of Creating Peers;" some papers contributed to the Freethinker, and, as some say, a tragedy called "Hecuba."—F.  WEST,, an English topographer, was born about 1716. He was educated in one or other of the continental universities, and before his return home, was for some time professor of natural philosophy. He is chiefly known as the author of a history of Furness, 1774; and of a "Guide to the Lakes of Westmoreland," &c. He died July 10, 1779.—F.  WESTALL,, R.A., was born at Hertford in 1765. He was apprenticed to an engraver of heraldry, &c., but towards the close of his apprenticeship he was allowed to enter himself as a student in the Royal Academy, with a view to the adoption of painting as a profession. His first pictures were historical subjects, very highly finished in water colours. He afterwards painted many large oil pictures, but they were smooth and tame in manner, and never very popular. "Nelson attacking a Spanish Launch," in Greenwich hospital; and "The Wild Huntsman," the property of her majesty—which were in the International Exhibition of 1862—may be cited as examples of his pencil. He was most popular as a designer of book illustrations, of which he executed a vast number; but, probably from making so many designs without recurring to nature, and with insufficient study, he in his later years became a confirmed mannerist. Of his early designs, among the chief were the illustrations to the Milton and Shakspeare of Alderman Boydell; the Prayer Book, &c.: among his later, the illustrations to editions of Crabbe, Campbell, Moore, &c. Mr. Westall gave instruction in design to her majesty, then Princess Victoria. He was elected A.R.A. in 1792; R.A. 1794. He died December 4, 1836.—J. T—e.  WESTALL,, A.R.A., born at Hertford in 1781, was the younger brother and pupil of Richard Westall, R.A. In 1801 he was appointed draughtsman to the expedition of discovery, commanded by Captain Flinders. He was in the Porpoise when it was wrecked off the north coast of Australia, was carried to China by the vessel which took him off the reef, and afterwards visited the interior of India. After his return to England he made a voyage to the West Indies. Returning in 1808, he opened an exhibition of the sketches and drawings made in his travels; but it proved unsuccessful. In 1810, on the return of Captain Flinders to England, Westall was employed by the government to prepare his sketches for engraving, to accompany the account of Flinders' voyage. Westall was elected A.R.A. in 1812. He exhibited scenes in Australia, &c., painted in oil, but his water-colour drawings were more popular. He was, however, most engaged in making drawings for engraving: chief among them were the views in the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, in Yorkshire, Oxford and Cambridge, the Isle of Wight, &c. He died January 22, 1850.—J. T—e.  WESTERMANN,, a leading jacobin in the early period of the French revolution, was born in 1764 at Molsheim in Alsace. The son of an attorney, his education was neglected, and his strong passions at first found vent in dissipation, until the outbreak of the Revolution gave a new direction to his exuberant energy. He became at once a revolutionist of the most flagrant character, and an active instigator of the cause in Alsace. He was arrested and prosecuted in the time of the constituent assembly, but was acquitted. Settling then in Paris, he joined the jacobin club, and became closely connected with Danton. He bore a conspicuous part in the terrible attack on the Tuileries made by the sans culottes on the 10th of August, 1790. The skill with which he commanded his ragged followers, and his impetuous fury, made him the hero of the day. His military qualities were recognized and rewarded by the rank of adjutant-general, and by being appointed on a mission to Dumouriez, whom he accompanied into Belgium. During his absence from Paris enemies charged him before the convention with theft and other misdemeanours, but the matter was allowed to drop. After the defection of Dumouriez, Westermann was accused of being accessory to that general's treason. Again the accusation fell to the ground, and the terrible jacobin was sent on military service into La Vendee, where he vindicated his republicanism by conflicts with the unhappy royalists so sanguinary and ferocious as to obtain for himself the epithet of butcher. The reckless impetuosity which often gave him the victory, not seldom led him into false positions. Twice he took Chatillon, and was twice expelled from it, not, however, the last time, until he had set the town on fire. He was tried before a military tribunal for his failures here, acquitted, and restored to his command. At length, at Mans and Savenai, he destroyed the last hopes of the Vendeans. Presenting himself before the convention at Paris on the 3rd of January, 1794, with the priestly spoils of the bishop of Agra, he said, in the boastful way usual with him, that not a single combatant was left of the whole catholic army. "Chiefs, officers, soldiers, bishops, princesses, countesses, marchionesses, all," said he, "have perished by the sword, or in the waves; with my own hand I have killed the last of the Vendeans." As he spoke, enemies no less sanguinary than himself were plotting his destruction. The struggle for supremacy in the dark Reign of Terror, brought Danton and his friends into the merciless power of Robespierre and the <section end="606Zcontin" />