Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/470

* WEBSTER. 394 WEBSTER-ASHBXJRTON TREATY. a member of the school board. She had wide culture and a great command of rhytlimie efl'ects. Her most important volumes of verse are: Dramatic Studies (1866); Portraits (1870); and the poetic dramas, Disguises (1879), In a Day (1882), and The Sentence (1887). In ISSl she published the interesting Book of lihyme. in which she introduced into English verse the Italian peasant songs called ris'petti. She also made admirable translations of the Prometheus Bound of .Eschvlus (1866), and the Medea of Euripides (1868). After her death appeared an incomplete sonnet sequence under the title Mother and Daughter (1895). Her original essays on social and literary themes, originally contributed to the Examiner, were col- lected in -4 Houseififc's Opinions (1878). For a selection from her poems, consult Miles, Poets and Poetnj of the Century (London, 1892). WEBSTER, No.H (1758-1843). An Ameri- can lexicographer. He was born in Hartford, Conn. He" entered Yale in 1774, served under his father, a captain of militia, in 1777, and then returned to college and graduated in 1778. From 1779 to 1781 he taught school in Hartford and studied law, but receiving no en- couragement to practice, opened, in 1782, a classical school at Goshen, N. Y., where he began the preparation of school books. In 1783 he returned to Hartford and published a spelling- book, grammar, and reader, under the title of .4.' (rrammatical Institute of the English Lan- guage (1783-85). He also published Governor "Winthrop's Journal; contributed in 1783 to the Connecticut Courant a series of papers signed Honorius in defense of the soldiers' pay bill ; pub- lished in 1784 Sketches of American Policy, ad- vocating the formation of a new constitution, and in 1786 traveled in the South to procure the enactment of State copyright laws. In 1787 he became superintendent of an Episcopal acad- emy in Philadelphia, and when the Constitutional Convention closed published a pamphlet entitled Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution. In December, 1787, he established in New York The American Maga- zine, but discontinued it after a year and re- turned to Hartford in 1789. After some years of successful practice as a lawyer he returned to New York in 1703, where he started a daily newspaper. The Minerra, and a semi-weekly edi- tion of The Herald for the support of the na- tional administration. These names were after- wards changed to The Commercial Advertiser and The Mete York Spectator. In 1795 he wrote for The Minerra a series of able articles under the signature of Curtius in defense of .Jay's treaty with F.ngland. concluded the previous year. In 1798 he removed to New Haven, nnd publislicd A Brief History of Epidemics and Prstilrnlial Diseases (1709) ; Tlistorieal yoticcs of the Origin and State of Banking Institutions and Insurance Offices (1802); IHghts of Neutral Nations in Time of War (1806) ; A Compendious Dictionary (1802) ; and .1 Philosophical and Practical Gram- mar of the English Language (1807) ; and began the preparation of his American Dictionary of the English Language. After devoting ten years to the study of the English language he began his dictionary anew, spent two months in Piiris in 1824 and eight at Cambridge, England, and returned to America in 1825 to complete his great work, the first edition of which was pub- lished in 1828. From 1812 to 1822 Webster resided at Am- herst, Mass., where he aided in founding Amherst College. He was for several years president of its board of trustees, and also represented Am- herst in the State Legislature. He had pre- viously represented New Haven in the Connecti- cut Legislature and had Ijeen a judge of one of the State courts. He returned to New Haven in 1822, where he died. May 28, 1843. Among Webster's works, exclusive of his Dictionary, were: Dissertations^ on the English Language (1789) ; The Revolution in France (1794) ; Let- ters to Dr. Priestley ( 1800) : Origin. History, and Connection of the Languages of Vi'estern Asia and of Europe (1807) ; Letters to a Young Gen- tleman Commencing His Education (1823); Manual of Useful Studies (1832); History of the United States (rev. ed. 1838) ; and A Col- lection of Papers on Political, Literary, and Moral Subjects (1843). His Synopsis of Words' in Twenty Languages, written about 1817. has never been published. See the memoir by Good- rich prefixed to the later editions of the dictinn- arv (last ed. 1890), and Scudder, Noah Webster (Boston, 1SS2). WEBSTER, Sir Richard Evekard, first Baron Alverstone (1842 — ). An English jurist. He was educated at Trinity College, was called to the bar in 1868, and became Queen's counsel in 1878. He represented the Isle of Wight in Parliament from 1885 to 1900. and was Attorney- General in 1885-86, 1886-92, and 1895-1000. In 1900 he was raised to the peerage, and in the same year was appointed Lord Chief Justice. He represented England before the Venezuelan Commission, in 1893 was associated with Sir Charles Russell in the Bering Sea Arbitration case, and also appeared on behalf of the Times liefore the Parnell Commission. In 1900 he was made Master of the Rolls. WEBSTER-ASHBURTON TREATY, com- monly called the Asiiburtox Treaty. A name given to the treaty concluded at Washington be- tween the United States and Great Britain in 1842. In 1838-39 the dispute over the northeast- ern boundary had almost brought on a war be- tween the two countries, but a conflict had been averted by a temporary arrangement which pro- vided for joint occupation of the territory in dispute by both parties. In an attempt to arrive at a permanent settlement of this and other points at issue, C4reat Britain in 1841 sent Lord Ashburton to Washington, where, after some months spent in negotiations with Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, the two at length, on August 9, 1842, signed an agreement, which was afterwards ratified by both govern- ments. Ratifications were exchanged in London on October L'itli. and on November lOth the treaty was formally proclaimed. The treaty pro- vided for the free navigation of the Saint .Tohn's River by both nations; gave about seven-twelfths of the 12.000 square miles of territory in dispute, as well as Rouse Point, N. Y., and some other doubtful territory in New Hampshire, to the fnited States; and contained a stipulation that, in consideration nf the losses sustained by Maine and Massaeliusetts, the Federal Government sliould piiy these States the sum of .S3O0.nO0. The t reaty further provided for the mutual extra-