assume new activity, &c. It is not strange that, on so important a day, the devil and the witches were supposed to be more active than usual, and to assemble in a particular place to organize the work of evil. This superstition, however, may have had its origin in the ancient German mythology. Hence straw was burned in many places, on the Walpurgis-night, with a view of dispersing the malignant beings-a custom still preserved in some places. The chief convocation of the witches was considered to take place on the Brocken. Many customs connected with the first of May, in Germany, originated in this superstition.

WALRUS (trichecus rosmarus); a marine quadruped, resembling the seals in the structure of the feet, but differing in the teeth and digestive system. It is large and unwieldy, sometimes attaining the weight of 2000 pounds, and inhabits unfrequented coasts in the arctic seas. The head is oval, short, small, and flat in front: the flat portion of the face is set with very strong bristles, which are pellucid, about a span in length, and twisted; the orifices of the ears are very small, but the sense of smelling appears to be exceedingly acute; the incisors are four in the upper jaw, but the two middle ones are shed as the animal advances in age; the upper canines are large, elephant-like tusks, directed downwards; the feet are very short, and the toes are connected by a membrane, and armed with strong nails; the tail is short. Formerly, vast herds of these animals frequented the shores of the islands between Northern Asia and America, Davis's straits and Hudson's bay, in lat. 62°, and even as far south as the Magdalen islands, in the gulf of St. Lawrence, between lat. 47° and 48°; but, at present, the walrus is no where numerous, except on the icy shores of Spitzbergen and the remotest northern coasts of America. Voyages were once made to procure its tusks and oil, and it is said that 1200 or 1500 individuals have been sometimes killed at once out of a herd. The walrus is slow and clumsy while on land, but quick and active in the water. It often comes on shore, and the female brings forth her young there in the spring. It is fearless and inoffensive, unless disturbed, and strongly attached to its mate and young, but becomes fierce and formidable when attacked, especially if the young are present, furiously endeavoring to sink the boats by rising and hooking its tusks over their sides; and frequently the violence of its blows is sufficient to

stave the planks of small boats. Its principal food, it is said, consists of shell-fish. The tusks grow to the length of ten or twenty inches, or sometimes even three feet, weighing from five to ten pounds. They are worked like ivory, but turn yellow in a shorter time. The skin is about an inch in thickness, and is used for a variety of purposes.

WALSALL; a market town and parish of England, in the county of Stafford, 116 miles from London; population, 15,066. By the reform act of 1832, Walsall was constituted a borough, returning one member to parliament.

WALSINGHAM, Thomas of, an English chronicler of the fifteenth century, was a Benedictine monk of the abbey of St. Alban's, where he held the office of precentor; and he also styles himself royal historiographer. His works are, Historia Brevis, containing the annals of England, from the end of Henry III's reign, form ing a continuation to the history of Matthew Paris; and Hypodigma Neustria, giving an account of the occurrences in Normandy, from the time of Rollo to the sixth year of Henry V. These pieces were published by archbishop Parker (London, 1574, folio).

WALSINGHAM, Sir Francis, an English statesman, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, descended of an ancient family, was a native of Chiselhurst in Kent. He was educated at King's college, Cambridge, and, at an early age, travelled on the continent, and acquired a knowledge of the languages, manners and policy of foreign nations. His first employment was that of ambassador to the court of France, whence he returned in 1573, and, being appointed one of the principal secretaries of state, and a member of the privy council, received the honor of knighthood. In the important situation which he filled, he rendered great services to his sovereign, and contributed, by his policy, to the stability of her government. The means which he adopted, however, for the attainment of his purposes, were not of the most honorable description. Lloyd, in his State Worthies, says, "Sir F. Walsingham outdid the Jesuits in their own bow, and over-reached them in their equivocation and mental reservation; never settling a lie, but warily drawing out and discovering the truth. Few letters escaped his hands, whose contents he could read and not touch the seals. He had the wonderful art of weaving plots, in which busy people were so entangled that they could

never escape, but were sometimes spared upon submission; at others, hanged for example. He would cherish a plot for years together, admitting the conspirators to his own and the queen's presence familiarly, but dogging them out watchfully." Such was the policy of this statesman, who is stated to have maintained fifty-three agents and eighteen spies in foreign courts. In 1581, he went on a second embassy to France, to treat of a marriage between Elizabeth and the duke of Anjou; and, in 1583, he was sent to the court of James VI of Scotland, whence he is said to have brought back a higher opinion of the abilities of the future sovereign of Britain than the event justified. He acted a very important, but by no means honorable part, in the detection of Babington's plot against the life of the queen, in 1586, and in the subsequent proceedings against Mary, queen of Scots. His death took place in April, 1590, in the ninetieth year of his age; and his remains were interred privately, by night, in St. Paul's church, apprehensions being entertained that his corpse might be arrested on account of his debts. An account of his negotiations and his despatches from France appeared under the title of the Complete Ambassador (1655, folio); and a work called Arcana Aulica has been ascribed to him, but its authenticity is questionable.

WALTHAM; a post-town in Middlesex county, Massachusetts, on the north side of Charles river, which separates it from Newton; ten miles west of Boston, thirty-four east by north from Worcester, 426 miles from Washington: population, in 1820, 1677; in 1830, 1859. It is a pleasant town, and contains two Congregational meeting-houses, and three cotton manufactories, which are among the most extensive and best conducted establishments of the kind in this country. They belong to a company of gentlemen residing principally in Boston. The capital stock amounts to $600,000, three fourths of which are vested in mill privileges on Charles river, land, houses, three brick manufactories, and machinery, comprising 8064 spindles and 231 looms. These works employ about 400 persons, principally females, and from 60 to 80 men in making machinery. The quantity of cotton annually used amounts to about 700,000 pounds, and the cloth made to 2,000,000 yards. These works were commenced in 1814; the whole completed in 1821. There are also bleaching works, carried by steam, at which 6

VOL. XIII.

two tons of goods are daily bleached, calendered and packed. There are two schools supported by the proprietors of the factories, at which instruction is regularly provided without charge.

WALTHER OF THE VOGELWEIDE, one of the most eminent old German lyric poets of the class of Minnesingers (q. v.), was descended from a noble, but not wealthy family, whose castle, Vogelweide, is supposed to have been situated in Upper Thurgau. Walther resided at the court of Frederic, the eldest son of Leopold VI, duke of Austria and Stiria. Frederic took the cross in 1195, departed for Palestine in 1197, and died the ensuing year, on the crusade. Walther seems to have left the court of Vienna immediately after the loss of his royal patron. After the murder of Philip of Suabia, in 1208, he set out on his wanderings. At the court of Philip Augustus, king of France, he seems to have met with a kind reception; but he remained longest at the splendid court of the landgrave of Thuringia, who had always around him a circle of poets, and instituted that celebrated poetic contest, the war on the Wartburg (1207), in which Walther took part. Walther shows himself, in his political poems, a warm defender of the imperial power and honor, against the encroachments of the clergy and their head in Rome. Some time after the arrival of Frederic II in Germany, we find Walther again at the court of Vienna, where he was kindly treated by Leopold VII. After Leopold's death, in 1230, Walther seems to have left the court of Vienna, of the decline of which he complains; and of the further events of his life, we only know that he was engaged in a crusade, probably the one undertaken by the emperor Frederic II, to Palestine, in 1227. The year in which Walther died is as uncertain as that of his birth; he must have lived, however, till after 1230. The latter years of his life were devoted to a pious contemplation of the world, of death, and eternity. His poems, all of them lyric, may be found in the manuscript collections of the Minnesingers. (q. v.) Lachmann has published them according to the original text (Berlin, 1827). Akland has given an account of the life and character of this poet under the title Walther von der Vogelweide, etc. (Stuttgart, 1822).

WALTON, Isaak, an ingenious and amusing writer, was born at Stafford, in August, 1593. He was probably of low parentage, for he settled in London as a

pumpague, or wampeague, or wampampeague, of which wampum seems to be a contraction.

WANDERING; a technical term with German mechanics, to denote their custom of travelling into foreign countries after finishing their apprenticeship. Formerly, they were bound by law, in all German states, to travel in this way, otherwise they could not make their masterpieces; that is, those specimens of their skill, by which they proved to the corporation that they were fit to become masters, and which they are still bound to exhibit in several parts of Germany where corporations exist. Whether this habit of wandering arose from the universal disposition of the Germans for travelling into foreign countries, which scatters German mechanics all over the world, or from the unsettled habits of many classes in the middle ages, as the knights, the vacantivi (see School, vol. xi, p. 251), or the frequent campaigns of the Germans in Italy, where the servants of the noblemen learned many arts not known in Germany, we cannot here discuss. In summer, mechanics may always be seen on the roads in Germany, carrying knapsacks and sometimes a few tools. They receive dinner and lodging, or money, from the corporation in each place, or from the master-workmen, if there are only a few in a place. Many peculiarities and absurdities are connected with this receiving of presents. Instead of a passport, they carry "wanderingbooks," so called, which must be kept in good order, and shown to the police of the places through which they pass.

WANKER, Ferdinand Geminian, doctor of theology, professor of moral philosophy in the university of Freiburg, was born in 1758, in Freiburg, in the Brisgau, was made professor of morals in 1788, and elected archbishop, but died in 1824, before the papal confirmation arrived from Rome. His works would prove instructive to many Catholics who believe that they abandon their faith if they give up certain things which are inconsistent with the present state of intelligence, or with the testimony of history. Among his works are the following:-On Reason and Revelation, with a View to the Moral Wants of Mankind (Vienna, 1802, 2d ed., Freiburg); On the Matrimonial Tie, considered with Respect to Natural Law and Pure Morality (1810); and System of Christian Morals.

WAPATOO ISLAND; an island of North America, formed by the junction of the

Multnomah with the Columbia, twenty miles long and ten broad. Its numerous ponds abound with the common arrowhead (sagittaria sagittifolia), to the root of which is attached a bulb, growing in the mud. This bulb, to which the Indians give the name of wapatoo, is the great article of food, and almost the staple article of commerce on the Columbia. It is never out of season, so that, at all times of the year, the valley is frequented by the neighboring Indians, who come to gather it. It is collected chiefly by the women, who take a light canoe in a pond where the water is as high as the breast, and, by means of their toes, separate the root from the bulb, which, on being freed from the mud, rises immediately to the surface of the water, and is thrown into the canoe. This plant is found through the whole extent of the Columbia valley, but does not grow farther eastward.

WAPPING; a village and parish of England, in Middlesex, on the north bank of the Thames, one of the out-parishes of London, on the east side of the city, inhabited chiefly by persons employed in trade, connected with the shipping of the port of London; population, 5889. Here are the London docks, St. Catharine's docks, &c., and the stupendous warehouses belong to the custom-house, &c. (See Docks, and London.)

WAR, in general; a state of hostility and violence between individuals, or, in a more common sense, between sovereign nations, who, having no superior power to which to appeal for the decision of their disputes, have recourse to force and arms. In contradistinction to international or public war, civil war designates a similar state of violence existing between different portions or members of the same nation. International wars are generally distinguished into offensive wars, or wars of attack, and defensive wars, or wars of defence. The party which carries on what is called an offensive war is not, however, by any means, always the original author of the hostile measures, since the seeming assailant is often forced into his position by the violation of his rights, or the menacing posture of the other party. It is well known that both belligerents aim to acquire the credit of acting on the defensive, partly to conciliate public opinion, which, though often mistakenly, commonly pronounces a defensive war justifiable, and condemns an offensive war; and sometimes, also, to secure the assistance of foreign powers, which has been guarantied, by treaty, to

one or both parties, who may become the object of offensive measures. The right of declaring war, in monarchical governments, is commonly in the king, as the actual sovereign power, or the head of the executive, as in constitutional monarchies. In England and France, the king has the right to declare war and make peace; but this power is virtually controlled by the legislative power to grant or withhold supplies. In the U. States, the constitution provides (art. 1, sec. 8) that the congress shall have power to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, raise and support armies, and provide and maintain a navy. It is not, in modern times, a common practice to make a formal declaration of war, or official previous notice to the enemy; but a domestic manifesto of the sovereign to his subjects, or to the nation, is considered as sufficient to apprize neutrals that a war actually exists. Thus, in the war between England and France, in 1778, the recalling of the British minister from Paris was considered the first public act of hostility; and there was no other declaration of war. So, in the war of 1812, between Great Britain and the U. States, hostilities were commenced, on our part, as soon as the necessary act of congress was passed, without waiting to communicate our intentions to the English government. Individuals have no right to commit acts of hostility, except in self-defence, without a commission from the proper authorities, and are liable to be treated as pirates and robbers if they undertake hostilities on their own responsibility. (See Privateers, and Prize.)-On the rights and duties of belligerents in general, see the articles Nations, Law of; and Conquest. See, likewise, Soldiers, Strategy, Military Sciences, Army, Navy, Tirailleurs, &c.

War, Private, or Club-Law (jus manuarium; in German, Faustrecht, fist-law). Throughout the countries which composed the Carlovingian empire, no feudal right was more universally established and exercised than that of private war, the immediate cause and systematic commencement of which are sufficiently to be found in the anarchy of the ninth and tenth centuries. During the abey ance of all regal or national authority, the great feudatories were, in fact, in the condition of foreign powers to each other: they were without any common superior jurisdiction, to which, had they been inclined, they could appeal for the redress of injuries; and the power of the sword alone remained to decide their quarrels.

(See Middle Ages, and Feudal System.) Their example was followed by their subvassals, and the countries of Europe were perpetually ravaged with internal hostilities. In England alone, of all feudal countries, this scourge was little felt; and, though it cannot be said that the practice of private wars was unknown under the Norman kings, yet the right of waging these feuds was never recognised: their occurrence was denounced, and sometimes punished, as an offence against the king's peace, that is, against the supreme authority of the crown. (See Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. ii, chap. 8.) By the feudal customs of the continent, the righ of private war was extended to all persons of noble quality, or, in other words, to all possessors of fiefs on knightly tenure. But they must be equal, in the scale of infeudation, with their adversaries; nor did every civil cause of offence justify an appeal to arms, but such deadly injuries only as are usually deemed capital crimes in modern jurisprudence, or such outrageous insults as no knight might endure. When the war was once begun, it might legally be espoused by the relations of both parties; and it was even incumbent on them, in some cases, to give aid in the quarrel, under pain of forfeiting the clains and inheritance of kindred. Still more were the vassals of each combatant involved in the contest, since, by the very essence of the feudal obligations, they were bound to defend and assist their lords. The means by which this pernicious custom was finally abrogated, were various. The most remarkable was the truce of God (q. v.), by which men were forbidden to assail their adversaries during any of the holy festivals, and also during the interval between every Wednesday evening and Monday morning, as embracing those days of the week which had been sanctified by the passion and resurrection of the Redeemer. At first, the truce of God, extending from France, was adopted throughout Europe; but, notwithstanding the anxiety of the church, and repeated decrees of popes and councils, its provisions appear to have been little regarded. The interposition of royal authority was necessary to restrain, and finally to extinguish, these bloody feuds; and the first step towards the accomplishment of this object dates from the ordinance of Louis IX, forbidding, under penalty of treason, the commencement of any private war until forty days after the commission of the act in which the quarrel had originated.