ban. The electoral family of the Palatinate received back the Palatinate (q. v.) of the Rhine, and the eighth electorship was created for it, with a provision, how ever, that this should be abolished in case the Bavarian house should become extinct (as actually happened in 1777), since the Palatine house would then recover the Bavarian electorate. The changes which had been made for the advantage of the Protestants since the religious peace (q. v.), in 1555, were confirmed by the determination that every thing should remain as it had been at the beginning of the (so called) normal year (q. v.), 1624. The Calvinists received equal rights with the adherents of the Augsburg Confession (q. v.), or the Lutherans. The princes of the empire were bound not to prosecute or oppress those of their subjects whose religious faith differed from their own. After all impediments in the way of the system of toleration had been overcome, the ambassadors embraced and shed tears of joy. Several religious foundations were secularized, and given as indemnifications to several members of the empire, in which the emperor acquiesced to secure the integrity of his hereditary states. The empire ceded Alsatia to France, to its lasting injury; Sweden received Hither Pomerania, Bremen, Verdun, Wismar, and 5,000,000 of German dollars for her troops. Brandenburg received the secularized bishoprics of Halberstadt, Minden, Camin, and the reversion of Magdeburg. Mecklenburg received the secularized bishoprics of Schwerin and Ratzeburg; Hanover, alternately with a Catholic bishop, the bishopric of Osnabrück and some convents; Hesse-Cassel, the abbey of Hirschfeld and 600,000 German dollars.

The United Netherlands were acknowledged as an independent nation, and the Swiss as entirely separate from the German empire. France and Sweden undertook to guaranty this peace. The solemn protest of pope Innocent X against these terms, particularly in respect to the injury done to the papal see by the secularization of bishoprics and abbeys, &c., was not regarded; but the complete execution of the conditions of the treaty was obstructed by many difficulties. The war was even continued between France with Savoy on the one side, and Spain with Lorraine on the other; also between Spain and Portugal.-See Von Woltmann's History of the Peace of Westphalia (2 vols., Leipsic, 1808).-This peace gave the death-blow to the political

unity of Germany. It made the German empire, which was always a most disadvantageous form of government for the people, a disjointed frame, without organization or system. Ferdinand II, had it not been for his intolerance, mügia have had it in his power, after the peare of Lübeck with Denmark, in 1629, to give once inore consistency to the empire: whether, on the whole, to the advantage of the people, or not, we do not say. But by the "edict of restitution" effected by the Jesuits, he deprived himself of the fruits of Tilly's and Wallenstein's victories. Every German prince and petty monarch now thought only of his own house; and the German empire not only lost, by the peace of Westphalia, a territory of 40,000 square miles, with 4,500,000 inhabitants, but also its western military frontier; while Lorraine, on the side of Alsatia, and the Burgundian circle in the west and north, were left without defence. The internal trade of Germany was also grievously obstructed by the estab lishment of above 300 sovereigns. On the other hand, the right procured by France for every member of the empire to conclude separate alliances, which gave to Bavaria, Brandenburg, and other German. houses, importance in the general European politics, together with the influence of foreign powers, as Sweden, on the politics of Germany, made this country thenceforth the theatre of all the quarrels of Europe. One military stati after another was established; and the German nation, impeded, in a thousand ways, in its manufactures and commerce, labored only to support a number of petty, yet overgrown armies, ridiculous courts and foreign embassies. The aritocratic principle was developed at the expense of the monarchical, so that the empire, which always had the disadvan tages both of an electoral and a hereditary monarchy, without the advantages of either, now became entirely crippled. France and Sweden acquired great influence in Germany by this peace, owing to the contemptible pride of the petty princes of the country, and their insensibility for the general well-being of the nation. Though well aware that such speculations are useless, the historian can hardly help asking himself, How different would have been the destiny of Europe but for the ball which put an end to the precious life of Gustavus Adolphus, on the field of Lützen?

WETHERSFIELD PRISON. (See Prison Discipline.)

WETSTEIN; the name of a family long resident at Basle, several of the members of which were highly distinguished as scholars and theologians.-John James Wetstein, born in 1693, is said to have graduated at Basle as a doctor in philosophy before he had reached the age of seventeen. Having entered the church, he devoted himself, with uncommon ardor and perseverance, to the restoration of the purity of the text of the New Testament, and, in pursuance of this object, visited most of the principal libraries of France, Switzerland, Germany and England, examining and collating their various manuscripts. On his return to Basle, he declared his intention of publishing a new treatise on this important subject, under the title of Prolegomena ad Novi Testamenti Graci Editionem accuratissimam e vetustissimis Codicibus Manuscriptis denuo procurandam. This annunciation excited considerable uneasiness among the German divines, who exerted themselves with such effect to procure the suppression of a work which, they feared, might unsettle the received version, that the council refused to sanction or permit the publication. Wetstein, in consequence, removed to Holland, where he published his book in 1730, and was soon after appointed by the Remonstrants to the professorship of history and philosophy, then become vacant by the resignation of Le Clerc. In 1751-1752 appeared his last work, an edition of the New Testament, in two folio volumes, with the text as generally received, and the various readings, notes, &c., below. To this he also annexed two curious epistles of Clemens Romanus, from a Syriac manuscript, with a Latin version. He died at Amsterdam, March 24, 1754.

WETTE, William Martin Leberecht de, doctor and professor of theology in the university of Basle, was born in 1780, in the village of Ulla, in Weimar, where his father was minister. In 1796, he entered the gymnasium of Weimar. He there became acquainted with Mounier (q. v.), a French emigrant, whose son he instructed and accompanied on a journey to Switzerland and Grenoble. In 1799, he went to the university of Jena, and studied theology. In 1805, he published a treatise on the Mosaic books; and his lectures on the same subject met with much approbation. In 1807, he was appointed professor extraordinarius of philosophy at Heidelberg, and, in 1809, entered the theological faculty of the same university as professor ordinarius of theology. In 1810, he accepted an appoint

ment in the university of Berlin. The results of the inquiries into which his lectures led him he gave to the public in several works, among which are the following:-Contributions to an Introduction to the Old Testament (1806-1807); Manual of Hebraico-Jewish Archæology (1814); Manual of a Historico-Critical Introduction to the Old Testament (1817), of which a second edition has appeared (vol. i. in 1823, vol. ii. in 1826). His investigations led him, in some cases, to views and hypotheses which met with much opposition; e. g. that the Pentateuch consists of a collection of works which originated independently of each other, and were brought together, towards the end of the Jewish exile, in an epic poem, having for its object the exaltation of the theocracy. He formed a connexion with Augusti, with a view of preparing a new translation of the whole Bible (Heidelberg, 1809-1811, 5 vols.), of which competent judges have thought the parts prepared by De Wette the best. His attachment to the philosophical system of his friend Fries (q. v.) appears in his work On Religion and Theology (1815 and 1821), one of the most important contributions of modern times to the philosophical criticism of dogmatics. His Biblical Dogmatics of the Old and New Testament (1813 and 1818) also has the stamp of the philosophy of Fries, as has likewise his Christian Morals (3 vols., 1819-1821). But, during the writing of this work, the situation of De Wette was suddenly changed. He had found, in 1818, a hospitable reception in the house of the parents of Sand (q. v.), and, after the murder of Kotzebue by that young man, De Wette thought it his duty to write a letter of consolation to the unhappy mother of the youth. The letter contained this passage: "The spirit of faith and confidence with which the deed was performed is a good sign of the times. The deed, considered in a general point of view, is immoral. Evil is not to be overcome by evil, but only by good. No right can be founded on wrong, cunning or violence, and the good end does not justify the means." A dispassionate reader will find an apology for this language when he considers the circumstances in which it was written, and that all allow Sand to have been actuated merely by a sense of duty when he committed the murder. After the letter was made public, De Wette maintained that it ought to be considered that it was of a private character, addressed

merely to the mother of the unfortunate youth, and that all he wished was to be judged by a competent tribunal; but the ministry of public instruction dismissed him without further inquiry. The senate of the university attempted to intercede for him, but was severely reprimanded. Upon leaving his situation, he addressed manly letters to the king, the minister and the senate. He refused to accept a quarter's salary offered him by the minister, and left Berlin. He received many proofs of the general interest taken in his situation. In Weimar, he finished his Christian Morals, prepared a critical edition of the complete works of Luther (of which the first volume, containing the letters of Luther, appeared at Berlin in 1825), and wrote a work called Theodor oder die Weihe des Zweiflers (Berlin, 1822), which, in the form of a biography, gives his views on the most important subjects of dogmatics, morals, æsthetics and pastoral theology. It shows how his soul had risen above the difficulties of his situation. He now felt the desire of becoming useful as a preacher, and appeared in the pulpit in several places in his native country. He also published several of his sermons, by which the congregation of St. Catharine's church, at Brunswick, were induced to invite him to become a candidate for the place of assistant clergyman, in 1821. He accept ed the invitation, and was unanimously elected; but the government refused to confirm his election, though the theological faculties at Jena and Leipsic had declared that he had not rendered himself unfit for the ministry by his letter to Sand's mother. De Wette therefore accepted a theological appointment in the university of Basle, to which he went in the spring of 1822. He soon acquired the greatest esteem by his lectures in his new situation. His Lectures on Morals (Berlin, 1823, 2 vols.) were delivered before a mixed audience. His Sermons appeared in 1826—1827, and his Lectures on Religion, its Essence and its Forms of Manifestation, Berlin, 1827. We believe that he is at present chiefly occupied with the revision of his works and with his edition of Luther.

WETTER, a lake of Sweden, in East Gothland, sixty-five miles long, and from ten to sixteen wide, is deep and clear. It is supposed to prognosticate the approach of stormy weather. Like all inland pieces of water surrounded with mountains, it is subject to sudden storms in still weather; and superstition has reported that these

storms are occasioned by a subterranean communication with lake Constance, in Switzerland.

WETTIN, COUNTS OF; a distinguished family in the middle ages, from which all the present reigning houses of Saxony derive their origin. The name is taken from a Sclavonic place, in the duchy of Magdeburg. The first of this family. known with certainty, is Dieterich, count of Wettin, who died in 982. His descendant, Frederic the Warlike, was infeoffed by the emperor Sigismund, in 1423, with Saxony, and the dignity of elector was connected with his fief. (See Saxony.)

WEYDE, Roger van der. (See Roger.) WEYMOUTH; a seaport, borough, and market-town of England, in Dorsetshire, at the mouth of the Wey, celebrated as a fashionable bathing-place. It is situated on the British channel, at the western side of a most beautiful bay, well protected from the north winds by hills. It communicates with Melcombe Regis, to which it is united by a handsome new bridge. Weymouth became a place of fashionable resort in consequence of its being frequented by George III, and is now greatly enlarged by the addition of many new and elegant buildings. The fashionable promenade is on the esplanade, which is a beautiful raised terrace, of considerable length and breadth, kept in the most perfect repair, with a slope gradually descending to the sands. The united borough of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis sent four members to parliament previous to the reform act of 1832, which deprived it of two of its members. Population, 7655.

WEZLAR, formerly a free imperial city, in the circle of the Upper Rhine, since 1814, belonging to the Prussian province of the Lower Rhine, in the government of Coblentz, has a romantic situation on the Lahn. It contains 750 houses and 4200 inhabitants. The principal building is the cathedral. Wezlar is famous for having been, as long as the empire existed, the seat of the court of the empire, called the imperial chamber. (q. v.) The papers belonging to 80,000 legal processes are preserved in a particular building in this place. The imperial chamber was fixed in Wezlar in 1693. In 1806, it was, of course, dissolved. In 1803, the city and territory were given to the then chancellor of the empire, subsequently the grand duke of Frankfort.

WHALE (balana). These animals so much resemble fish in their external

form, that they are almost universally considered as such by the great mass of mankind. If, however, we examine their structure more carefully, we shall find that they differ from quadrupeds only in their organs of motion. They are warm-blooded, breathe atmospheric air only, and by means of lungs, and bring forth and suckle their young in the same manner as quadrupeds: in short, all the details of their organization are the same as in this class of animals. The body and tail are continuous, the latter tapering gradually, and terminating in a large, horizontal, cartilaginous fin: the hind feet are altogether wanting, but their position is marked by two small, rudimentary bones, enveloped in the skin: the fore feet have externally the form of fins or flippers; but they possess the same bones as those of quadrupeds, flattened, however, shortened, and enveloped in a tendinous membrane: the head is of enormous size, often occupying one third of the total length of the animal; and the opening of the mouth corresponds in magnitude: the neck is excessively short, and externally appears to be altogether wanting: the nostrils are the blow-holes or spiracles, situated at the top of the head, by means of which atmospheric air penetrates to the lungs when the animal rises to the surface of the water: the skin is entirely destitute of hairs; and beneath it a thick coating of oily fat, commonly called blubber, envelopes the animal: the eyes are exceedingly small, compared with the bulk of the animal, and the external ear is altogether wanting: their senses, in consequence, would not seem to be very acute; neither do they display much intelligence: the sea affords them abundance of food, which they are enabled to procure with little difficulty; and they find in their size and strength a sufficient protection against most dangers. The common or Greenland whale (B. mysticetus) is destitute of teeth, but, in their place, the upper jaw is furuished with transverse layers of a horny substance, called baleen or whalebone, which, at the edges, split into long, slender fringes. This species is productive of more oil than any other; and, being less active, slower in its motion, and more timid than the rest of its kind of similar magnitude, is more easily captured. When fully grown, its length is from fifty to sixty-five feet, rarely, if ever, reaching seventy, and its greatest circumference from thirty to forty: the ordinary weight is about seventy tons. When the mouth

is open, it presents a cavity large enough to contain a boat full of men, being six or eight feet wide, ten or twelve high in front, and fifteen or sixteen long. These animals have no voice, but, in breathing or blowing, make a very loud noise: the vapor they discharge is ejected to the height of some yards, and appears, at a distance, like a puff of smoke. The usual rate at which they swim seldom exceeds four miles an hour; and though their extreme velocity may be at the rate of eight or nine, this speed never continues longer than for a few minutes before it relaxes to almost one half. They are also capable of ascending with such rapidity as to leap entirely out of the water, which feat they sometimes perform apparently as an amusement, to the no small terror of inexperienced fishers. Sometimes they throw themselves into a perpendicular posture, with their heads downwards, and, rearing their tails on high, beat the water with tremendous violence: the sea is then thrown into foam, and the air filled with vapors: the noise, in calm weather, is heard to a great distance, and the concentric waves, produced by the concussions on the water, are communicated abroad to a considerable extent. Sometimes the whale shakes its mighty tail in the air, which, cracking like a whip, resounds to the distance of two or three miles. Whales usually remain at the surface to breathe about two minutes, seldom longer, during which time they "blow" eight or nine times, and then descend for an interval of five or ten minutes, but sometimes, when feeding, fifteen or twenty. When struck, they have been known to descend to the perpendicular depth of a mile, and with such velocity, that instances have occurred in which they have broken their jawbones by the blow struck against the bottom. Their food consists of mollusca, shrimps, and other small crustaceous animals. When feeding, they swim with considerable velocity, below the surface, with the jaws widely extended; a stream of water consequently enters the capacious mouth, bearing along large quantities of marine insects. The water escapes again at the sides, but the food is entangled and strained by the whalebone, which, from its compact arrangement, does not allow a particle of the size of the smallest grain to escape. Whales, though often found in great numbers together, can scarcely be said to be gregarious, occurring, most generally, solitary, or in pairs, excepting when drawn to the same

spot by the attraction of an abundance of palatable food, or a choice situation of the ice. They occur most abundantly in

the frozen seas of Greenland, and Davis's straits, in Batin's and Hudson's bays, in the sea to the northward of Beering's straits, and along some parts of the northern shores of Asia, and probably of America. They are never met with in the German ocean, and rarely within two hundred leagues of the British coast; but along the coasts of Africa and South America, they are found, periodically, in considerable numbers, and are captured by the southern British and American whalers. It is not, however, certainly ascertained, whether this species is identical with the northern, though it evidently approaches it very closely.-The instruments of general use, in the capture of the whale, are the harpoon and lance. The harpoon is an instrument of iron, about three feet in length, terminating in an arrow-shaped head, the two branches of which have internally a smaller reversed barb, resembling the beard of a fish-hook. When this instrument is forced, by a blow, into the fat of a whale, and the line is held tight, the principal barbs seize the strong ligamentous fibres of the blubber, and prevent it from being withdrawn. The lance is a spear of iron, six feet in length, terminating in a head of steel, made very thin and exceedingly sharp, seven or eight inches in length and two or two and a half in breadth. These two instruments, together with lines, boats and oars, form all the necessary apparatus for capturing the whale. Considerable address is requisite to approach sufficiently near to the animal during its short stay at the surface; but when this has been accomplished, the hardy fisher rows directly upon it, and, an instant before the boat touches, buries the harpoon in its back. But if, while the boat is at a little distance, the whale should indicate his intention of diving, the harpoon is thrown from the hand; and when this is done skilfully, it is efficient at the distance of eight or ten yards. The wounded whale makes a convulsive effort to escape. Then is the moment of danger; and both boat and men are exposed to destruction from the violent blows of its ponderous tail. The animal immediately sinks under water: after this it usually pursues its course directly downwards towards the bottom of the sea. The utmost care and attention are requisite, on the part of every person in the boat, while the lines are running out;

fatal consequences having been sometimes produced by the most trifling neglect. When the line happens to run foul, and

cannot be cleared on the instant, it sometimes draws the bost under water. The average stay under water of a wounded whale, which steadily descends after be ing struck, is about thirty minutes. The greater the velocity, the more considerable the distance to which it descends, and the longer the time it remains under water, so much greater in proportion is its exhaustion and the facility of accomplishing its capture. Whenever it re-appears, the assisting boats make for the place with their utmost speed; and, as they reach it, each harpooner plunges his harpoon into its back, to the number of three, four, or more, according to the size of the whale and the nature of the situation. Most frequently, however, the whale descends, for a few minutes, after receiving the second harpoon, and obliges the other boats to await its return to the surface, before any further attack can be made. It is afterwards actively plied with lances, which are thrust into its body, aiming at the vitals. At length, exhausted by numerous wounds and the loss of blood, the huge animal indicates the approach of death by discharg ing from the blow-holes a mixture of blood along with the air and mucus which it usually expires, and, finally, jets of blood alone. The sea, to a great extent round, is dyed with its blood; and the ice, boats and men are sometimes drenched with it. Its final capture is sometimes preceded by a convulsive struggle, in which the tail, reared, whirled, and violently jerked in the air, resounds to the distance of miles. In dying, it turns upon its back or its side. Thus ends this remarkable contest between human ingenuity and brute force, in which man seems to be chiefly indebted for success to his own apparent insignificance, to the animal exhausting itself by its own efforts, and to the necessity it is under of coming to the surface to breathe. The remarkable exhaustion observed in a wounded whale, on its reappearance at the surface, is the effect of the almost incredible pressure to which the animal must have been exposed at the depth of seven or eight hundred fath ms-a pressure on the surface of its body exceeding 200,000 tons, and which is sufficient to force the water through the pores of the hardest wood.-For a full account of the whale, as well as of the various modes of fishing in pack, field, or bay ice, &c.