Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/597

* WI-JU. 507 WILBERFORCE. crossed over into Manchuria and conquered it as far as tlio, Liao, October, 18!)4. WILAMOWITZ-MOLLENDORF, vl'lA-mo'- vils nifrrii-ilorf, Ui.HicH vo (18-1!) — ). A Ger- man classical scholar. He was born at Markovvitz, Posen, and was educated at the universities of Bonn and Berlin. In 1874 he became privat- docent in Berlin^ and in 1870 professor of classical iiliilology in Grcifswald. In 1883 he was called to a similar position at Got- tin<;pn, and in 1897 to Berlin, where he was also made a memljcr of the Academy of Sciences and a director of the German Archfcological Institute. His works include: Analccia Euripidea (1875); Haupt's Opuscula (1876); Callimachus (1882); translations of /Eschylus's Agamemnon (188.5) and Orcntcia (1896); Euripides's Bippoli/tus (1891) and Heracles (noteworthy for its intro- •duction) ; Aristotelcs vnd Athen (1893); Bal;chiilhJrs (1898) ; and the Persians of Timo- theus '(1903). WIL'BERFORCE, Samuel (1805-73). A distinguished English bishop. He w'as born at Clapham, and privately educated imtil his ma- triculation at Oriel College. Oxford. He was ordained deacon in 1828 and priest a year later, after which he became rector of Brightstone in the Isle of Wight and remained there for ten years. He became Archdeacon of Surrey in 1839 and Canon of Winchester in 1840, in which year he also took the living of Alverstoke in Hamp- shire. In 1845 he was made Dean of West- minster. Here he remained only a few months, however, becoming Bishop of Oxford in October. His position here was unusually difficult, owing to the excitement caused b.y the ferment of the Oxford ilovement. The new Bisliop, however, took firm hold of his diocese and positively transformed it within a short time. Among other activities, he founded a theological college at Cuddesdon and a training college for school- masters at Culhani. He soon became recognized as a power in the House of Lords and in the na- tional life generally. He was the prime mover in the revival of Convocation (q.v. ). and took a leading part in the controversies over Essays and Reviews, the Hampden election, and the Colenso case. In 1809, on the resignation of Bishop Sumner of Winchester, he was translated to the vacant see, which gave him opportunities for more extended work. Only four years later, however, he was killed by a fall from his horse, July 19, 1873. Consult: his Life, by Canon Ashwell and his son Reginald Wilberforce (Lon- don, 1879) ; also a revised biography by Reginald Wilberforce alone (ib., 1888) ; another by Dan- iells (ib.. 1891); Burgon, in Lives of Twelve Hood Men. (ib., 1888); and references in most of the works cited under Oxford JIovement. WILBERFORCE, WiLLi.M (1759-1833). An English statesman and philanthropist, born at Hull, in Yorkshire, August 24, 1759. While at school he addressed a letter to a York paper "in eondenmation of the odious traffic in human flesh," a subject he seems never afterwards to have lost sight of. At seventeen he entered Saint John's College, Cambridge, and in due time he pas.sed his examinations with credit. On attain- ing his majority he can^ into possession of a large fortune, and determined to enter Parlia- ment. In 1780 he was returned for Hull. He Vol. XX,— 33. had known Pitt when at Cambridge, and in Lon- don they became inseparable friends. In Parlia- ment, however, Wilberforce remained independent of party, and when the elevation of Pitt to the Premiership gave him an opportunity of taking office he declined to do so, but rendered efficient service to his friend. In 1784, in spite of oppo- sition from the great Whig families, he was re- turned to Parliament without a contest as a representative from Yorkshire. In 1786 he carried through the Commons a bill for mitigating the criminal law, but the Lords rejected it. Next year he founded a society for the discouragement of vice, and about the same time he entered on his great struggle for the abolition of the slave trade, to which he thenceforward dedicated his whole energ}'. He did not originate the move- ment, but was in every way qualified to take the lead of it. He was powerfully supported by the Quakers, and b}- Thomas Clarkson (q.v.), who collected evidence and kept the general public interested w'hile Wilberforce represented the cause in Parliament. In 1789, after a critical illness, he brought before the House of Commons a series of resolutions condemning the slave trade. Supimrted by Pitt. Burke, and Fox, he carried them, but the planters caused their post- ponement. In 1792 a motion for the gradual abolition of the slave trade passed the House of Conuuons by a great majority. Again in 1804 his bill was carried through tlie Commons, to be rejected by the Lords, and in the following year it was lost in the Commons. In. 1806, however, a resolution was moved by Fox, pledging the Commons to a total abolition of the slave trade in the following session. Meantime a work pub- lished by Wilberforce against the traffic had a remarkable influence on public opinion and on the subsequent debates. True to its pledge, the House of Commons accepted the bill, the Lords finally approved it, and it received the royal sanction in 1807. In the Commons Sir Samuel Romilly. who supported the measure, compared the feelings of >ff,poieon, then at the height of his glory, with those of the English |)hilanthro-, pist, "who would that day lay his head upon his pillow, and remember that the slave trade was no more," and the whole House burst into ap- plause, and greeted Wilberforce with enthusias- tic cheers. Wilberforce now sought to secure the abolition of the slave trade abroad, and at the same time entered on an agitation for the total abolition of slavery itself. Declining liealth, however, compelled him, in 1825, to retire from Parliament, in which since 1812 he had sat for the borough of Bramber. The movement against slavery was then intrusted to Sir T. FowelT Bux- ton. Three days before W^ilberforce's death news was brought him that the abolition bill had passed a second reading. He died July 29, 1833, and was buried as a national benefactor in West- minster Abbey. He was a man of great versa- tility of mind and character: sociable, witty, vivacious, and so kind and sincere that even his opponents loved him. He wrote Practical Viem of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Higher and Middle Classes, Contrasted tcith Real Christianitg (1st Ameri- can ed., Philadelphia, 1798). See his Corre- spondence, ed. b}' his sons (2 vols., London, 1840) ; Private Papers, ed. by A. W. Wilberforce (ib., 1897) ; Wilberforce (sons), Life of ^Yilliam