Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/499

* WELS. itiS WELSH LANGUAGE. chinerv, ])aper, copper, brass, oil, leather, flour, etc. Topulation, in 1000, 12,187. WELS'BY, William Newland (c.1802-G4). An Kii^^lish lefjal writer, born in Clieslurc. He was educated at Saint Jolin's College, Cambridge, as a pensioner, and was called to the bar in 182li. It is as a writer and editor of legal works rather than as a practitioner tbat he is remembered. He edite<l, in collaboration with variims other la^Ters, 20 volumes of Exchequer Iii'ports (1837- 50)"; Reports of Mercantile Canes (1829-30); Chiily's Collection of Statutes (18.51-54) ; a set of Blaekstone's Commentaries (1847), and sev- eral other works of smaller proportions. WELSEB, vel'zer. The name of a famous Inirijhrr family of .Xug-sburi;, Germany. Its his- tory can he traced back to the thirteenth century. Later its members became widely known as prom- inent merchants. Bartholom.us Welseb lent the Emperor Charles V. a great sum of money for which in l.')28 he received as security the Province of Venezuela, but in consequence of their rapacious acts the Wclscrs were deprived of their rule befoi'c the Emperor's reign w'as over. Bartholomiius's niece, riiiLiPPiNE (1527- 80 ), daughter of Franz A'elser. renowned for her learning and beauty, secretly married the Arch- duke Ferdinand, second son of the Emperor Ferdinand I. Her children were debarred from inheriting their father's rank, but one of them became a cardinal and the other distinguished himself as a soldier and was created Margrave of Burgau. Another member of the Welser family, JL^KKfS (1558-1614), became famous for his learning. In the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turies branches of the family settled at Nurem- berg and in Austria, respectively. WELSH, Herbert (1851 — ). An American political reformer and worker for the betterment of the Indians. He was born in Philadelphia, the son of John Welsh (q.v.). He gradu- ated at the University of Pennsylvania (1871), became known as an earnest advocate of the rights of Indians, visited the Sinux Res- ervation in 1882, and urged upon the pub- lic and Congress education for Indian chil- dren, holding of lands in severalty by the In- dians, and the extension of the civil law to their reservations. As a result of his lectures and addresses, the Indian Rights Association was founded in Philadelphia in 1883. He was also prominent in State politics as a reformer, espe- cially in the election of 1890; was president of the Civil Service Reform Association of Pennsyl- vania, member of the executive committee of the National Civil Service Reform League, and editor of Citji and State, a weekly devoted to the inter- ests of good government. His more noteworthy books are: Four Weeks Among Some of the Sioux Tribes in JSS2 ; Civilization Amoncj the Sioux Jndiiins; A Visit to the Navajo, Puehlo, and Hualapai Indians of Nen^ Mexico and Arizona in ISS'i: and The Other Man's Country (1900), a criticism of the Government's Philippine policy. WELSH, John (1805-80). An American mercluint. born in Philadelpliia. He was edu- cated in that city and became prominent in busi- ness there. For ma*iy years he had an active interest in public affairs. During the Civil War he promoted measures of relief and in 1864 became president of the Philadelphia Sanitary I'air, which raised $1,080,000 for army hospitals and ambulances. In 1873 Welsh was elected president of tlic board of finance of the Centen- nial Exposition and was chosen at each subse- quent election. To his. executive ability the suc- cess of the Exposition was largely due, and his services were recognized by the city in a sub- scription of .$50,000. With' this he endowed the .Tohn Welsh chair of English literature at the University of Pennsylvania. He was appointed Minister to Great Britain in 1878. but resigned in the following year. WELSH CALVINISTIC METHODISTS. See PlllOSI! VTEl: 1 A .N ISM. WELSH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (AS. Wralh, Welshman, 0H( J. Walh. I''rencliman, from walhisc, Ger. irelsch, foreign ; cnnnectcd with Celtic Volcw, name of a tribe in (Jaul). The lit- erature of Wales is more ancient and far more extended than that of citlicr Cornwall or Brit- tany, and is to be compared rather with that of Ciaelic Ireland. Irish is richer than Welsh as re- gards the quantity and interest of its ancient monuments, but modern Welsh has held its place as a literary language more successfully than modern Irish. In the history of Welsh, as in that of all the Celtic languages (q.v.), three periods are regularly recognized; Old Welsh, ex- tending from the time of the earliest nmnunients through the tenth century; Middle Welsh, from the eleventh to the sixteenth century; and Mod- ern Welsh, from the sixteenth century to the present time. Old Welsh. The monuments of the earliest period are of the same sort in Wales as in Ire- land, though much more scanty. The very old- est material is found in funeral inscriptions, some of which date back to the fifth century. These are written in L.atin, but the proper names furnish valuable evidence with regard to the character of ]]rimitive Welsh. A considerable number of Old Welsh glosses have been pre- served in manuscripts ranging from the eighth to the tenth century, but no literary texts have come down from this period. Whether any of the pieces preserved in later manuscripts, but traditionally ascribed to ancient poets, really be- long to the times of their reputed authors, is still an unsettled question. The hemic age of ^^ elsh history falls in the sixth century, and several great bards are supposed to have lived at that time*. The most famous are the so-called ejinfeirdd: ,- eurin, Llywarch Hen, Merlin, and Taliesin; and many poems bearing their names exist in manuseriiits of the twelfth and suc- ceeding centuries. Only a few poems have come down to us which purport to have been written in the period between the sixth centurv and the twelfth. Middle Welsh. The earliest continuous texts of assured date ajipear in the liool: of Llandaff {Liher Landavensis), a manuscript of the twelfth century. To the early ^Middle Welsh pe- riod belongs also the collection of ancient laws ascribed to Howel Dda and probably compiled in their substance in his time. The oldest manu- script of the laws belongs also to the twelfth century. These monuments of course possess rather historical than literary interest. The Middle Welsh literature, properly speaking, falls