WIERTZ, ANTOINE, a Belgian painter, born at Dinant, did a great variety of pictures on a variety of subjects, some of them on a large scale, and all in evidence of a high ideal of his profession, and an original genius for art (1806-1865).

WIESBADEN (65), capital of Hesse-Nassau, a famous German watering-place, abounding in hot springs, 5 m.  NW. of Mainz; has a number of fine buildings and fine parade grounds, picture-gallery, museum, and large library; is one of the best-frequented spas in Europe, and is annually visited by 60,000 tourists or invalids; it was famed for its springs among the old Romans.

WIFE OF BATH, one of the pilgrims in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.”

WIGAN (55), a town in Lancashire, 18 m.  NW. of Manchester, in the centre of a large coal-field; cottons are the staple manufactures; is a place of ancient date, and has some fine buildings.

WIGHT, ISLE OF, an island in the S. of England, included in Hampshire, from which it is separated by the channel of the SOLENT (q. v.); it is of triangular shape, is 23 m. of utmost length, and about 14 m. of utmost breadth; it is traversed by a range of chalk downs from E. to W.; the soil is fertile, especially in the E.; the scenery rich and varied, and the climate charming; Newport is the capital in the centre; near Cowes is Osborne House, the summer residence of Queen Victoria.

WIGTOWNSHIRE (36), the most southerly county in Scotland, in the SW. of which the largest town is Stranraer, and the county town Wigtown; it is an agricultural county, and largely pastoral.

WILBERFORCE, SAMUEL, English prelate, born at Clapham, third son of the succeeding; entered Oriel College, Oxford, at 18, where he distinguished himself by his powers of debate; took holy orders, and rose to eminence in the Church; was made Bishop of Oxford in 1845, and of Winchester in 1869; was a High Churchman of the pure Anglican type, and equally opposed to Romanism and Nonconformity; shone in society by his wit and powers of conversation; Carlyle often “exchanged pleasant dialogues with him, found him dexterous, stout and clever, far from being a bad man”; “I do not hate him,” he said to Froude one day, “near so much as I fear I ought to do”; he found him “really of a religious nature,” and secretly in sympathy with himself on religious matters; was killed by a fall from his horse; he was popularly known by the sobriquet of “Soapy Sam” (1805-1873).

WILBERFORCE, WILLIAM, eminent philanthropist, born at Hull, son of a wealthy merchant; attended St. John’s College, Cambridge, at 17; represented his native town in Parliament as soon as he was of age; he was early and deeply impressed with the inhumanity of the slave-trade, and to achieve its abolition became the ruling passion of his life; with that object he introduced a bill for its suppression in 1789, but it was not till 1801 he carried the Commons with him, and he had to wait six years longer before the House of Lords supported his measure and the Emancipation Act was passed; he retired into private life in 1825, and died three days after the vote of 20 millions to purchase the freedom of the West Indian slaves; he was an eminently religious man of the Evangelical school; wrote “Practical View of Christianity” (1759-1833).