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WALSINOHAM, THOMAS. 



WALTER, JOHN. 



610 



as their tongues, and their countenances were indexes of their hearts. 

 He would so beset men with questions, and draw them on, that they 

 discovered themselves whether they answered or were silent. He out- 

 did the Jesuits in their own bow, and overreached them in their own 

 equivocation and mental reservation ; never settling a lie, but warily 

 drawing out and discovering truth. So good was his intelligence, that 

 he was confessor to most of the papists before their death, as they had 

 been to their brethren before their treasons. He maintained fifty- 

 three agents and eighteen spies in foreign courts ; and, for two pistoles 



an order, had all the private papers in Europe Few letters 



escaped his hands ; and he could read their contents without touching 

 the seals." 



For all this, Walaingham waa the very reverse of a man of mere 

 policy and expediency. His personal integrity and disinterestedness 

 are unquestionable ; his morality was strict, to the verge of asceticism; 

 his religious zeal drew him all his life towards puritanism, and in his 

 latter days lifted him alike above the enjoyments and the cares of this 

 world. For some time before his death he seems to have retired from 

 business, and to have spent his time, with little or no society, at his 

 house at Barn-Elms. Here he died on the 6th of April 1590. Camden 

 says that he had " watched the practices of these men [the papists] 

 with so great an expense, that he lessened his estate by that means, 

 and brought himself so far in debt, that he was buried privately by 

 night, in St. Paul's Church, without any manner of funeral solemnity." 

 Elizabeth, with all her professed appreciation of Walsingham's diligence 

 and important services, seems to have kept him throughout 'his life on 

 short allowance. Even of honours, if we except his knighthood and 

 the offices to which he was appointed, he had none. Camden says he 

 was a Knight of the Garter, and has been generally followed in that 

 statement ; but we believe it is unfounded. 



Walsingham was married to a lady of the name of St. Barbe, and 

 by her he left one daughter, Frances, who became successively the 

 wife of Sir Philip Sidney, of Robert Devereux, the unfortunate Earl 

 of Essex, and of the distinguished soldier Richard Burgh, created 

 by Charles II. Earl of St. Albans in the English peerage, but better 

 known by his inherited Irish title of Earl of Clanricarde. She died, 

 after bringing her last husband a son, in 1602. 



The history of Walsingham's French embassy of 1570-73 is con- 

 tained in Sir Dudley Digges's 'Complete Ambassador; or, Two 

 Treatises of the intended Marriage of Queen Elizabeth, of glorious 

 memory ; comprised in letters of negotiation of Sir Francis Wal- 

 singham, her resident in France; together with the answers of the 

 Lord Burleigh, &c.,' folio, London, 1655. There is a short paper by 

 Walsingham, entitled ' Sir Francis Walsingham's Anatomising of 

 Honesty, Ambition, and Fortitude,' in the 'Cottoni Posthuma; .or, 

 Divers and Choice Pieces of Sir Robert Cotton,' London, 4to, 1672. 

 His authorship of the treatise entitled 'Arcana Aulica; or, Wal- 

 singham's Manual, or Prudential Maxims/ which has been several 

 times printed, is doubtful. 



WALSINGHAM, or WALS1NGHAMUS, THOMAS, an English 

 historian of the 15th century, was a native of Norfolk, and a monk of 

 the Benedictine abbey of St. Albans. Bishop Nicolson conceives that 

 he was " very probably Regius professor of history in that monastery 

 about the year 1440." He is the author of two- historical works which 

 have come down to us, the one entitled ' Historia Brevis, ab Edvardo 

 primo ad Henricum quiotum' (it extends in fact from 1273, the first 

 year of Edward I., to 1422, the last year of Henry V.) ; the other, 

 ' Ypodigma Neustriae, vel Normanniae, ab irruptione Normannorum 

 usque ad annum 6 regni Henrici quinti' (1418). Both these works 

 were published together by Archbishop Parker, in folio, London, 1574. 

 Both are also contained in Camden's ' Angliea, Normannica, Hibernica, 

 Cambrica, h, Veteribus Scripta,' folio, Francof., 1603 ; the ' Historia 

 Brevis,' from p. 57 to 408 ; the ' Ypodigma Neustriae,' from p. 409 to 

 592. Walsingham, in his ' Historia Brevis,' takes up the narrative 

 from the point where Matthew Paris ends ; " and he might well," 

 Nicolson observes, " seem to be Paris's continuator, were his language 

 answerable to his matter." But although his style is not to be com- 

 mended, Walsingham has in both his works preserved many facts 

 which are not elsewhere to be found. His account of the reign of 

 Edward II., according to Nicolson, is wholly borrowed from Sir 

 Thomas de la More, or Moor, a contemporary writer, who drew up a 

 Life of Edward II. in French, of which there is also a Latin translation 

 in Camden's ' Angliea/ &c., pp. 593-603. 



WALTER, JOHA.NN GOTTLIEB, a celebrated anatomist, was 

 born at Konigsberg in 1739 ; the 'Biographie Universelle' says 1734. 

 He early evinced a desire to study medicine, but his father was opposed 

 to it, and on his death-bed made his son promise that he would devote 

 himself to the study of jurisprudence. But so strong was his desire 

 to pursue medical science, especially anatomy, that he broke his 

 promise to his father, and commenced the study of medicine in his 

 native city. He afterwards went to Frankfurt-on-Oder, where he 

 graduated in 1757. From this place he removed to Berlin for the 

 purpose of studying under the celebrated Meckel, and such was the 

 progress he made in anatomy, that in 1762 he was appointed second 

 professor in the anatomical theatre of the Collegium Medico-Chirurgi- 

 cum of Berlin. On the death of Meckel in 1774 he was appointed first 

 professor of anatomy, and also professor of midwifery. He died on 

 the 4th of January 1818. During the whole of his life he was remark- 



able for the zeal and activity with which lie pursued his favourite 

 science of anatomy, and more especially that department which was 

 connected with the branch of practical medicine which he taught. He 

 collected a valuable museum of anatomical and pathological specimens, 

 which was purchased by the king of Prussia for 100,000 dollars in the 

 year 1804, and which still exists at Berlin under the name of Walter's 

 Museum. This museum consisted of nearly 3000 specimens, the result 

 of the dissection of upwards of 8000 dead bodies. He wrote several 

 works on various departments of anatomy and midwifery. In addition 

 to numerous essays and papers, he published the following works : 

 ' Abhandlung von troknen Knochen' (A Treatise on the Bones of the 

 Human Body), 8vo, Berlin, 1762 ; ' Observations Anatomica;,' folio, 

 Berlin, 1775 ; ' Myologisches Handbuch' (A Manual of Myology), 8vo, 

 Berlin, 1777 ; ' Von den Krankheiten des Bauchfelles und der Schlag- 

 flusse ' (On Diseases of the Abdomen and on Apoplexy), 8vo, Berlin, 

 1785. Of these the anatomical works have gone through several 

 editions, and his miscellaneous papers are valuable contributions to 

 medical science. A complete list of his numerous works and papers is 

 given in the ' Biographie Universelle ' and in the ' Neuestes Conversa- 

 tions-Lexicon.' 



WALTER, JOHN, late manager and principal proprietor of ' The 

 Times ' newspaper, was born in 1784. His father, John Walter, was 

 born in 1739. He was known as the logographic printer, from his 

 having obtained a patent for an invention named Logography, or the 

 art of printing with entire words, their roots, and terminations, in- 

 stead of the arrangement of single letters. On the 1st of January 

 1788, he published the first number of ' The Times/ and was during 

 eighteen years printer to the Board of Customs, but that employment 

 was taken from him about 1805, in consequence of the opinions 

 expressed in ' The Times ' with reference to Lord Melville's administra- 

 tion at the Admiralty. He died November 16, 1812, at Teddington, 

 Middlesex. 



The late John Walter became a joint proprietor and the exclusive 

 manager of ' The Times ' at the commencement of the year 1803. It 

 would not be easy to describe the improvements which were made in 

 'The Times' under his management. The munificent sums paid to 

 the editor and to those literary gentlemen of the highest class who 

 furnished the leading articles, the large staff of reporters at liberal 

 salaries for parliamentary debates, law proceedings, and public meet- 

 ings, the large amount and accuracy of information, the almost 

 universal correspondence, the competition even with the government 

 for priority of intelligence, the distinct arrangement of the matter, the 

 application of steampower for the printing, and the marvellous rapidity 

 with which the whole is produced, have raised ' The Times ' to a 

 position of social and political importance in which it is without a rival 

 not only in Great Britain but in Europe. 



The invention of the printing-machine, and the use of the steam- 

 engine as a moving power have produced so great a revolution in the 

 process of printing, as to require a brief statement of the origin and 

 progress of the invention. As early as 1804 an ingenious compositor 

 named Thomas Martyn had made the model of a machine for printing, 

 which met with the approval of Mr. Walter, who expended a conside- 

 able sum in the attempt to complete the machine ; but having 

 exhausted his own funds, and his father, who had hitherto assisted 

 him, having refused him any further aid, the attempt was abandoned. 

 About the same period Mr. Kocnig, a native of Germany, had made 

 some progress in the contrivance of a machine for printing, but meet- 

 ing with no encouragement in his own country, came to England. He 

 was introduced to Mr. Bensley, a well-known printer, who being satis- 

 fied as to the feasibility of the projected improvement, supplied the 

 necessary funds. An ingenious assistant of the name of Bauer was 

 also engaged, and the work proceeded till the year 1809, when Mr. 

 Bensley, requiring additional funds, invited the late Mr. George 

 Woodfall, and Mr. Richard Taylor, both well-known printers, to join 

 him and Mr. Kcanig in taking out a patent, which they did, the 

 machine even then being so far advanced as to satisfy them as to the 

 prospect of success, and to enable them to have the specifications 

 drawn up. The first patent bears date March 29, 1810. It was taken 

 out in the name of Frederic Kcsnig, and was assigned by articles of 

 partnership to the firm of Bensley, Koanig, Woodfall, and Taylor. 

 Mr. Kcenig states ('The Times/ December 8, 1814) that "sheet H of 

 the ' New Annual Register' for 1810, 'Principal Occurrences/ was 

 printed by my machine, aud it is, I have no doubt, the first part of a 

 book ever printed by a machine." The machine was set to work 

 regularly in April, 1811. Another patent for a machine on an im- 

 proved plan was taken out October 30, 1812. It was completed in 

 December that year, and printed about 800 copies an hour. A third 

 patent for another improved machine was taken out July 23, 1813. 

 Mr. Koenig's first machines were worked by hand, the machines in 

 fact being independent of the motive power. Mr. Perry, of the 

 ' Morning Chronicle ' was applied to, but declined to purchase a 

 machine. Mr. Walter however, seeing the invention accomplished and 

 the machine in full operation, gave an order for two machines, which 

 were to be worked by the power of a steam-engine. Notwithstanding 

 violent opposition from the pressmen, the machines were completed 

 on adjoining premises, and on the 29th of November 1814, 'The 

 Times ' was printed for the first time by machines worked by steam- 

 power. The number impressed in the hour was then about 1?.GO. 



