4C3 



WAGER, SIR CHARLES, ADMIRAL. 



WAGNER, RICHARD. 





born at Niirnberg, in 1633, aud educated in Sweden : he finished his 

 academical studies at Rostock and Qreifswald. Gifted with a pro- 

 digious memory, he made himself a name by showing what he had 

 learned. In 1657 he accompanied some young German noblemen as 

 tutor, on a tour through Western Europe; the party remained six 

 years abroad. During their stay in Italy Wagenseil was chosen mem- 

 ber of the Academies of Literature and Sciences of Padua aud Turin, 

 and in Turin ho discovered, in the Museum of Antiquities of the Duke 

 of Savoy, the celebrated Table of Isis, which was formerly in possession 

 of the Duke of Mantua, from whose library it unaccountably dis- 

 appeared in 1630. The faculty of law at Orleans conferred upon him 

 the degree of Doctor in Law ; and Colbert, according to the system of 

 bribery then adopted by France with respect to German philosophers 

 and scholars of reputation, gave him a pension of 1500 livres, in order 

 that he might "blow the trumpet of glory for King Louis XIV. in 

 Spain," whither Wagenseil and his pupils were going. In 1667 

 Wagenseil became professor of history in the University of Altdorf; 

 he also lectured on canon law and Oriental languages : he knew 

 Hebrew well In 1673 the professorship of Oriental languages at 

 Leydon was offered to him, but he declined it. In 1676 he was 

 appointed chief tutor of the young counts palatine. He died in 1705. 

 His daughter Helena Sibylla, married to Professor Mollern, was 

 renowned for her learning, and was chosen member of the Academy of 

 Padua. Wagenseil published a great number of works and treatises 

 on very different subjects. The principal are : 1, ' Sota : hoc est, 

 Liber Mischnicus de Uxore Adulterii suspecta,' 4to, Altdorf, 1674 ; a 

 large volume, containing the Hebrew text and a Latin translation of 

 the Mishna and Ghemara : the author's notes are much esteemed by 

 Hebrew scholars. 2, 'Tela Ignea Satanse: hoc est, Arcani et Hor- 

 ribiles Judseorum adversus Christum Deum et Christianam Religionem 

 'AvfitSoToi,' 2 vols. 4to, Altdorf, 1631. This is a collection of the prin- 

 cipal works written by Jews against the Christian faith, with a Latin 

 translation of Wagenseil, who refutes the Jews in his notes. 3, ' De 

 Re Monetali Veterum Romanorum Dissertatio,' 12mo, Altdorf, 1691. 

 4, ' De Cena Trimalcionis nuper sub Petrouii Nomine vulgata Disser- 

 tationes H. Valesii et J. C. Wagenseilii,' Svo, Paris, 1666. 5, 'Exerci- 

 tationes Varii Argument!,' 4to, 1719, published after the author's 

 death by Roth-Scholtzius, who has added a biography of Wagenseil. 

 A ' Vita J. C. Wagenseilii,' with a catalogue of his works and an 

 analytical examination of them, was published at Niirnberg, 4to, 

 1719. 



WAGER, SIR CHARLES, ADMIRAL, was born in 1666. He was 

 appointed captain of a fireship in 1692, and was promoted in 1697 to 

 the command of a ship of war. Having been sent out in 1707 to the 

 West Indies as commodore, in May 1708, with only four ships of war, 

 he attacked seventeen Spanish galleons, which were sailing close along 

 shore from Carthagena to Porto Bello in South America. The battle 

 began at sunset. Soon after dark the Spanish admiral's ship blew up, 

 and the cargo, which was very valuable, was entirely lost. About two 

 in the morning the rear-admiral struck his colours. The vice-admiral 

 escaped in a shattered condition, and some of the other galleons 

 were saved by running them behind a dangerous shoal off Carthagena. 

 More property was lost than taken, yet Commodore Wager's share of 

 the prize-money was said to have amounted to 100,0002. For his con- 

 duct in this action he was knighted by Queen Anne, and promoted to 

 the rank of rear-admiraL 



Sir Charles Wager afterwards commanded a fleet in the Mediter- 

 ranean till the peace of Utrecht in 1713, when he was made vice- 

 admiral, and was also elected a member of the House of Commons. 

 In 1726 he was sent with a squadron to the Baltic, to keep the 

 Russians in check and to support the Swedes and Danes, and com- 

 pletely effected the objects for which he was sent out. In 1731, 

 having been advanced to the rank of admiral, he escorted Don Carlos, 

 the infant of Spain, to Leghorn, and was soon afterwards appointed 

 first lord of the admiralty. 



Sir Charles Wager and Lord Sundon had been the representatives of 

 the city of Westminster in the parliament which terminated in 1741, 

 and it was expected that they would have been triumphantly re- 

 elected ; but Admiral Vernon and Mr. Edwin were proposed by the 

 opposition, and in the mean time Admiral Wager was summoned by 

 the king to convoy him to Holland. The contest was severe, and the 

 tumult so great on the day of election, that Lord Sundon imprudently 

 got the magistrates to sanction the calling out of a party of soldiers, 

 and while the military surrounded the hustings, the high-bailiff returned 

 Lord Sundon and Sir Charles Wager as duly elected. The return 

 was opposed in the new parliament, the new members were unseated, 

 the magistrates were summoned before the House to be reprimanded, 

 and a resolution was passed that the presence of armed soldiers at an 

 election of members of parliament is a manifest violation of the 

 freedom of election, and an open defiance of the laws and constitution. 



In 1742, on the defeat of Sir Robert Walpole's ministry, Sir Charles 

 Wager resigned his office as first lord of the admiralty, which he had 

 held about nine years. He died at his house at Chelsea, June 4, 

 1743, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Sir Charles Wager had 

 some reputation for mathematical and physical knowledge, and had 

 devoted a good deal of attention to ship-building. In private life he 

 was much esteemed ; his political influence was considerable, and his 

 character as a public man was unblemished. 



WAGHORN, LIEUT. THOMAS, R.N., was born in tho early part 

 of the year 1800, at Chatham, in Kent. He entered the royal navy as 

 a midshipman, November 10, 1812. Before he had quite completed his 

 sixteenth year he had passed in navigation for a lieutenant before the 

 Royal Naval College, at Portsmouth. He was paid off in 1817, and 

 after serving some time as a mate in a free trader to Calcutta, was 

 appointed in 1819 to the Bengal Pilot Service, in which he remained 

 till 1824. He then volunteered for the war in Arracan, and was 

 appointed to tho command of the Matchless, East India Company's 

 cutter, and of a division of the gunboats connected with the flotilla and 

 army. He was employed in much service by land as well as by sea, 

 was in five engagements, and was once wounded in the right thigh. 

 Ho returned to Calcutta in 1827, and soon afterwards entered into 

 communication with the government authorities there with respect to 

 a project which he had conceived of communication by steamers 

 between Great Britain and the East Indies. Having returned to 

 England with recommendations from some of the chief members of 

 the Bengal government, he immediately began to advocate in London, 

 Liverpool, Glasgow, and other large towns, as he had previously done 

 at Madras, Mauritius, and the Cape of Good Hope, the great project 

 which he had in contemplation, and to the accomplishment of which 

 he applied the whole force of his energetic mind and will. Unfortu- 

 nately the chief authorities of the post-office, as well as nearly the 

 whole of the East India directors, were adverse to his project. But in 

 October 1829, Lord Ellenborough, president of the Board of Control, 

 and Mr. Loch, chairman of the Court of Directors, engaged him to 

 proceed through Egypt to Hindustan with despatches for Sir John 

 Malcolm, governor of Bombay, and he was directed to join the 

 Enterprise steamer at Suez on the 6th of December. The Enterprise 

 however having broken her machinery on the voyage from Calcutta to 

 Bombay, was not there, and Mr. Waghorn, rather than return to 

 England with the despatches, sailed down the Red Sea in an open 

 boat, without chart or compass, directing his course by the sun and 

 stars. In six days and a half he reached Jiddah, on the coast of 

 Arabia, a distance of 628 miles, whence he proceeded by ship to 

 Bombay. This journey convinced him of the advantages of the line 

 of communication through Egypt, and by Suez down the Red Sea to 

 Bombay. With unabated energy and perseverance, supported only by 

 the Bombay Steam Committee, he was enabled to complete the over- 

 land route three entire years before it was taken up by the British 

 government. He accomplished the building of the halting-places and 

 the establishment of the hotels on the desert between Cairo and Suez. 

 He supplied carriages, vans, and other necessary means of conveyance, 

 and also placed small steamers on the canal of Alexandria and on the 

 Nile, as well as suitable steamers on the Red Sea. From 1831 to 1834 

 the overland mails to and from the East Indies were worked by him- 

 self. In 1832 he brought under the notice of the Pasha of Egypt the 

 advantages which would result to that country from the formation of a 

 railway between Cairo and Suez, but that improvement of the overland 

 route has not yet been undertaken. He attained the naval rank of 

 lieutenant March 23, 1842, after which he retired on half-pay. In the 

 winter of 1847 Lieutenant Waghorn effected a saving of thirteen days 

 by performing the journey by the way of Trieste, instead of through 

 France, and he also explored other routes, by Genoa, and through the 

 Papal States, taking steamer at Ancona. The prosecution of the 

 Trieste line in 1846 involved Lieutenant Waghorn in pecuniary 

 engagements, from which the sacrifice of his entire property was 

 insufficient to release him. A short time before his death a pension 

 was granted him by the British government, of which he lived to 

 receive only the first quarterly payment. He died January 7, 1850, at 

 Pentonville, London, in the forty-ninth year of his age, worn out by a 

 life of anxious labour and exposure to inclemencies of weather and 

 climate. A small pension was granted by the British government to 

 his widow, to which a small addition was made by the East India 

 Company from a fund at their disposal. 



*WAGNER, RICHARD, a German dramatic composer of the 

 present day, was born at Leipzig in 1813. He had attained an 

 eminent position in his profession at Berlin ; but, having been in- 

 volved in the political disturbances which originated in the year 

 1848, he was under the necessity of leaving Prussia, and has sub- 

 sequently resided chiefly at Zurich. He passed the season of 1855 in 

 London, having been engaged as conductor of the orchestra of the 

 Philharmonic Society. Herr Wagner is chiefly known as the author 

 of several German operas, especially ' Tannhauser ' and ' Lochengrin,' 

 both of which have acquired considerable popularity In Germany, 

 though they are unknown to the English public, only a few fragments 

 of his compositions having ever been performed in this country. In 

 Germany, his character as an artist is a disputed question. By some 

 critics he is extolled as a great musical reformer, who has thrown 

 aside the established forms and conventionalities of the art, and laid tho 

 foundation of an entirely new style, founded on true aesthetic prin- 

 ciples. By others, however and they appear to form the majority 

 his music is characterised as obscure and fantastic, destitute of melody 

 and symmetry of form, and full of crude and discordant combinations. 

 He haa himself expounded, in some literary essays, the principles 

 which his compositions are designed to illustrate, but these writings 

 are tinged with the mysticism which prevails in German philosophy 

 and which often renders it so incomprehensible to the English in- 



