Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3b.pdf/608

WET  conceived the plan of the Royal Academy of Music. He pursued this plan with great spirit; obtained the patronage for it of George IV., and called a meeting of noblemen and gentlemen to consider it, on the 5th of July, 1822. It was then resolved to raise funds by subscription for the support of the proposed institution, and to open the academy on the ensuing first of January. In the intervening September, Lord Burghersh was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the court of Tuscany, and went consequently to Florence, leaving the embryo school for music to the care of a committee. These delegates, however, lacking his energy, failed to gather subscribers so quickly as he had done, deferred therefore the commencement of operations, but were induced by his urgent letters to open the academy on the 24th of March, 1823. Lord Burghersh obtained a royal charter for the institution at the beginning of 1830; and to the end of his life he exerted himself most zealously to promote its interests. In 1841 he was appointed ambassador to Berlin, but his departure was delayed by the death of his father and his succession to the earldom, so that he could not enter upon his office until 1842. In 1851 he was appointed ambassador to Vienna, which office he relinquished in 1855. The earl's musical abilities are proved by his compositions, which consist of seven operas, an English church service, a mass, and a very large number of detached solo and concerted vocal pieces.—G. A. M.  WETHERELL,, was an eminent English lawyer, celebrated for the tenacity with which, in an age of political transition, he clung to the high tory principles in which he was educated. He was the son of Dr. Wetherell, dean of Hereford and master of Magdalen college, and was born in 1770. He profited fully by the opportunities afforded him of obtaining a learned education, was admitted a student of the Inner temple in 1790, and called to the bar four years afterwards. He soon acquired an extensive chancery practice, and was regarded with favour by Lord Eldon, who in 1816 procured him the honour of the silk gown. Yet the very next year Wetherell astonished his tory friends by defending with extraordinary vigour, earnestness, and success, Watson and Thistlewood from a charge of high treason instituted by the government. In 1820 he entered parliament as member for Oxford, and vehemently resisted all proposals of a liberal character. In 1824 he was made solicitor-general, and two years later attorney-general, but resigned in 1827 when Mr. Canning became premier. He resumed office with the duke of Wellington in January, 1828; but on the introduction of the catholic emancipation bill in 1829, he violently denounced from the treasury bench his chief and his colleagues. Yet he grotesquely refused for some time to resign his office. After the passing of the reform bill he never sat in parliament. In 1831 he was the exciting cause of a riot in Bristol, of which city he was recorder. He was ill-used, and some lives were lost. He continued practising in the court of chancery till old age, and died on the 17th August, 1846, from concussion of the brain, caused by a fall from the driver's seat of a hired carriage, in which he was returning home from Maidstone.—R. H.  WETHERELL,. See.  WETSTEIN,, a celebrated biblical scholar, was born at Basle on 5th March, 1693. Having finished a course of Latin at the age of thirteen, he studied philosophy, mathematics, Greek, and Hebrew, under the most distinguished men of the day in those departments; and was made doctor of philosophy at sixteen years of age. In 1713 he became a minister of the gospel. His mind had been already turned to the various readings of the New Testament, for which reason he examined all the MSS. of the New Testament in the library at Basle. Afterwards he undertook a literary journey with the same object in view; lived at Geneva for some time, and subsequently at Paris, where he came in contact with the most illustrious scholars of that city. From thence he passed over to England, and attached himself to Bentley. In 1716 he joined a Swiss regiment in the service of Holland, of which the chaplaincy was offered him; returned to Basle in 1717, and filled the office of deacon for nine years, during which he gave lessons in theology to pupils of the university, and continued his researches among the various readings of the New Testament. In 1730 bigotry and suspicion assailed him on the assumption that his theological opinions tended to Socinianism and indifferentism, and he was cruelly deprived of his office. He then withdrew to Holland. In 1733 the Remonstrants gave him the chair of theology at Amsterdam, with which was joined soon after the professorship of ecclesiastical history. He died there on 23rd March, 1754. His principal work is the edition of the New Testament in Greek, with a copious collection of various readings and Latin notes, 2 vols., folio, Amsterdam, 1751-52. Prolegomena are prefixed to each volume. The work constitutes an epoch in the criticism of the Greek Testament, and is an immortal monument to the author's learning, ability, and industry. The prolegomena were reprinted, with additional remarks, by Semler, Halle, 1764.— (See Hagenbach's J. J. Wetstein und seine Gegner in the Zeitschrift für historische Theologie, 1839, part i.)—S. D.  WETSTEIN,, was born at Basle in 1614, and devoted himself early to theology. The university of his native place appointed him professor of Greek in 1637. He subsequently travelled through France, England, Germany, and Holland; and returned to Basle, where he was made librarian. From 1654 he filled the chair of theology. His death took place in 1684. He was greatly opposed to the introduction of the Formula consensus proposed to the churches of Switzerland by that of Zurich; and never signed it himself, though often threatened with the loss of his office. Suicer was assisted by him in the composition of the Thesaurus ecclesiasticus.—S. D.  WETTE,, an eminent German theologian, was born at Ulla, near Weimar, on the 14th January, 1780. He was the son of a clergyman, and received his earliest education in his native place. In his seventeenth year he became a pupil at the gymnasium of Weimar, just when Weimar was at the height of its literary glory. He entered as student in 1799 the university of Jena. In 1807 he was appointed extraordinary professor of philosophy, and in 1809 ordinary professor of theology at Heidelberg. The year 1810 transferred him to the wider circle of Berlin, whereupon the degree of doctor was conferred on him. His fame as teacher, as preacher, as author was spread far and wide, when in 1819 his ardent nature brought him into great difficulties. In March, 1819, Charles Louis Sand assassinated Kotzebue (q.v.). De Wette sent a letter of condolence to Sand's mother, in which the flatterers of despotism pretended to discover treasonable purposes and a justification of the murder. The letter, however, was a simple utterance of sympathy; for, like all enlightened patriots, De Wette felt that the murder, if criminal in no ordinary degree, was still more foolish than criminal. Nevertheless, De Wette was curtly dismissed from his office at Berlin, which he had done so much to adorn. Having published an account of the whole affair, he retired for a season to Weimar. An invitation to one of the chief churches at Brunswick he would have been willing to accept, but the government refused to confirm the appointment. At last he found congenial employment as professor of theology in the university of Basle. The right of citizenship was conferred on him, and the inhabitants and the government gave him other and frequent testimonies of their regard. As a lecturer he was popular; as a preacher still more so. He died on the 16th June, 1849, being at the time rector of the university. His life was written by his celebrated friend Lücke. De Wette's works were numerous, and have been frequently reprinted. His translation of the Bible is one of his most valuable performances. He published a portion of what was meant to be an edition of Luther's writings, responding to the demands of modern criticism. His "Introduction" to the Old Testament, his "Practical Ethics," and his "Theodore, or the Sceptic's Conversion," have all appeared in an English garb. Among the remaining productions of De Wette may be named his "Commentary on the Psalms;" "Manual of Hebrew Archæology;" four volumes of Sermons; "Exegetical Manual to the New Testament;" and "Lectures on Religion." De Wette, like Lücke, kept aloof in the main from the controversies of rationalists and supernaturalists. Shrinking from dogmatism, he endeavoured to blend the freest scientific treatment of theology with the profoundest religious emotion.—W. M—l.  WEYDEN,, a celebrated Flemish painter, known to Vasari as Roger of Bruges, or Ruggieri da Bruggia, and to Facius as Rogerius Gallicus. He was, however, not of Bruges, further than that he belonged to the school of John Van Eyck there. Roger was born at Brussels, but the date is not known. He was already established in 1430, and in 1436 was appointed painter to the city of Brussels. In 1449 he visited Italy, and was at Rome at the jubilee of the following year. He returned to Brussels, and died there on the 16th of June, 1464, aged 