707 



WOLLSTONECUAFT, MARY. 



WOLSE7, THOMAS. 



798 



Dr. Wollaston's contemporaries iu science, and especially those who 

 have eulogised his philosophical character, have had to lament that he 

 never could be induced to describe his manipulations in print, or to 

 communicate to the world his happy and peculiar contrivances. But 

 they were made known to his friends, and have gradually become 

 public property. Nor did he contribute to the literature of science 

 any separate work. His reputation, beyond the circle of his imme- 

 diate associates, was and will continue to be founded upon his papers 

 in the 'Philosophical Transactions,' 38 in number, which appeared 

 one or more in almost every annual volume from 1797 to 1829, all 

 containing new facts or the soundest theoretical views, enunciated in 

 a, style at once explicit and concise, not a single word being insignifi- 

 cant, redundant, or deficient. His accuracy, whether in experiment 

 or in description, could not of course shield his labours from the 

 common lot of modification and correction by the subsequent progress 

 of science; and this has been chiefly the case perhaps with his minor 

 researches in chemistry, such as tho.se on the blood of diabetic patients, 

 and on the compound of titanium with nitrogen and carbon in certain 

 iron slags, which he (and after him the most eminent chemists of the 

 present day also, down to within these few years) mistook for that 

 metal in an uncombined atate. But probably there is no practical 

 philosopher the truth of whose statements and conclusions upon sub- 

 jects embracing a vast range in nature has been so little impugned. 



Without entering further into an account of the various papers by 

 Dr. Wollaston which appear in the ' Philosophical Transactions,' on 

 which much might still bo said, did our limits permit, we shall con- 

 clude with the following general remarks on his scientific character, by 

 a profound judge of his excellence, the late Dr. William Henry, F.R.S. 

 (' Elements of Chemistry,' llth edit., vol. i., p. 8) : "Dr. Wollaston," 

 he observes, " was endowed with bodily senses of extraordinary acute- 

 ness and accuracy, and with great general vigour of understanding. 

 Trained in the discipline of the exact sciences, he had acquired a 

 powerful command over his attention, and had habituated himself to 

 the most rigid correctness, both of thought and of language. He was 

 sufficiently provided with the resources of the mathematics to be 

 enabled to pursue, with success, profound inquiries in mechanical and 

 optical philosophy, the results of which enabled him to unfold the 

 causes of phenomena not before understood, and to enrich the arts 

 connected with those sciences by the invention of ingenious and 

 valuable instruments. In chemistry he was distinguished by tho 

 extreme nicety and delicacy of his observations, by the quickness and 

 precision with which he marked resemblances and discriminated differ- 

 ences, the sagacity with which he devised experiments and anticipated 

 their results, and the skill with which he executed the analysis of 

 fragments of new substances, often so minute as to be scarcely per- 

 ceptible by ordinary eyes. He was remarkable too for the caution 

 with which he advanced from facts to general conclusions ; a caution 

 which, if it sometimes prevented him from reaching at once to tho 

 most sublime truths, yet rendered every step of his ascent a secure 

 station, from which it was easy to rise to higher and more enlarged 

 inductions." 



WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY. [GODWIN, WILLIAM, vol. Hi., 

 col. 133.] 



WOLSEY, THOMAS, the celebrated cardinal of that name, was 

 born at Ipswich in Suffolk, in 1741. The tale that he was the son of 

 a butcher is probable, though it does not rest upon any sure founda- 

 tion. It appears that Robert and Joan Wolsey, his parents, were poor 

 but reputable persons, and possessed of sufficient means to provide a 

 good education for their sou. After having received some preparatory 

 instruction, he was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he 

 graduated at the age of fifteen, gaining by his early advancement the 

 nickname of " the boy bachelor." (Cavendish's ' Life of Wolsey.') 

 He was made fellow of his college, appointed teacher of a school in 

 connection with it, and was ordained. At this school were three sons 

 of the Marquis of Dorset, with whom Wolsey became acquainted, and 

 through whose patronage he enjoyed his first ecclesiastical preferment, 

 the living of Lymingtou in Somersetshire. He was now twenty-nine 

 years of age, and possessed a winning address, which, combined with 

 great natural ability, and a keen and rapid judgment of character, 

 greatly assisted his promotion. We cannot follow him through every 

 stop of his progress, even at the beginning of his career. Though he 

 was not always discreet, it is apparent that he acquired friendships and 

 obtained confidence iu each place where he resided. It is said that 

 while he lived at Lymington he got drunk at a neighbouring fair; for 

 some such cause it is certain that Sir Amias Poulet put him into the 

 stocks, a punishment for which he subsequently revenged himself; but 

 the first part of the story is probably a fable. Through his intimacy 

 with a Somersetshire gentleman of some importance, Sir John Nafant, 

 treasurer of Calais, he was named by Sir John his deputy in that 

 office, to which he was personally incapacitated from, attending by age 

 and sickness. Nafant's influence at court also procured for Wolsey a 

 nomination as king's chaplain, and introduced him to Henry VII., in 

 whose favour he soon gained a prominent place. Wolsey's insinuating 

 manners and ready ability were not lost upon the king. These were 

 days in which the clergy were barred from no office, ecclesiastical or 

 otherwise. An ambassador was sought to go to Flanders with a 

 message concerning the marriage of the king : despatch was necessary, 

 and the king intrusted the business to Wolsey, who travelled with 



such rapidity as to return to London before, it is said, his master 

 knew of his departure, and acted in such a manner upon imperfect 

 instructions as to give the king great satisfaction. The credit that he 

 gained by this eervice contributed to procure him the valuable deanery 

 of Lincoln, to which he was appointed in February 1508. In the 

 following year the king died, and was succeeded by Henry VIII., 

 whose age and character, widely different from his father's, raised a 

 general expectation of an entire change of counsellors and favourites. 



Up to this time Wolsey had had no opportunity of playing a great 

 part. He had risen indeed, and risen very rapidly ; but he was an 

 obscure person, of low birth, and sufficient time had not elapsed for 

 him to gain any very great elevation. But in the changes to be made 

 at the accession of the new king, it soon became evident that Wolsey's 

 power would be materially increased. Many circumstances favoured 

 his promotion : ho was in the prime of life ; he was accustomed to 

 the court, for which his manners and address peculiarly fitted him ;, 

 and he likewise held an important place in the church. The position 

 of public affairs moreover contributed to secure him a place near the 

 person of the king. There were animosities between the Earl of 

 Surrey, the lord-treasurer, and Fox, bishop of Winchester, who held 

 the important "offices of privy seal and secretary of state. Fox, 

 desirous of strengthening his influence, sought to place near the king 

 one of his own friends and adherents. For this purpose he made 

 Wolsey the king's almoner, trusting that his active spirit, his acute- 

 ness, and insinuating address would make the favourite of the father 

 the still greater favourite of the son. The adroit courtier did not 

 disappoint his patron : he rose so quickly in the king's good graces 

 that he soon did nearly what he pleased. His religious scruples were 

 not strong enough to lead him to discourage the king's humours and 

 pleasures; on the contrary, he woiild seem to have promoted his care- 

 less gaiety, knowing well that the more time the king employed in its 

 pursuit, the more necessary he would find it to have some active 

 favourite to supply him with the information which he needed, and to 

 proceed with the business which he omitted to transact. Thus, though 

 the king never wholly neglected his affairs, the conduct of them 

 chiefly devolved upon the favourite. The success of his general 

 management was soon proved by the gifts that were bestowed upon 

 him. Before the year of the king's accession had passed he had been 

 made lord-almoner, and had been presented with some valuable lauds 

 and houses in the parish of St. Bride's, Fleet-street, which Empson 

 had forfeited to the crown. In 1510 he became rector of Torrington ; 

 in 1511, canon of Windsor and registrar of the Order of the Garter; 

 in 1512, prebendary of York; in 1513, dean of York and bishop of 

 Tournay in France; in 1514, bishop of Lincoln, and in the same year 

 archbishop of York. In 1515 he was made a cardinal, and succeeded 

 Warham as chancellor. In 1516 the pope made him legate a latere, a 

 commission which gave him great wealth and almost unlimited power 

 over the English clergy : he likewise farmed, for the foreign bishops 

 who held them, the revenues of the dioceses of Bath, Worcester, and 

 Hereford, allowing them fixed stipends far below the annual proceeds 

 which were collected ; he had also in commeudam the abbey of St. 

 Albans; while the enormous revenues that he derived from these 

 sources were further increased by stipends received from the kings of 

 France and Spain and the doge of Venice. Thus Wolsey had accumu- 

 lated in his own hands the whole power of the state, both civil and eccle- 

 siastical, and derived from foreign and domestic sources an amount of 

 income to which no subject has ever approached : his wealth and 

 influence were almost an encroachrnent on the dignity of the crown. 

 His ambition however was not satisfied ; his anxiety for the papacy 

 was avowed ; nor did his expectations of gaining it appear extrava- 

 gant, for at the death of Maximilian (1519) both the kings of France 

 and Spain aspired to the empire, and each, eager to secure the 

 influence of so powerful a minister as Wolsey, promised to assist him 

 in his designs. At the death of Leo X., in 1522, and again in the 

 following year, at the death of Adrian VI., Wolsey sought the vacant 

 throne, but in neither instauca was he chosen. "His foreign policy 

 seems to have been biassed by his disappointment, which he attributed 

 to Charles V., whom he ever afterwards held iu aversion." We have 

 other instances of tho continuance of his resentment and his inability 

 to forgive. He had taken offence at the Duke of Buckingham's con- 

 duct towards him : that nobleman's indiscretions afterwards subjected 

 him to an attainder for treason; Wolsey prosecuted the case with 

 great severity, and though there were hardly sufficient public reasons 

 for such harshness, instigated his execution. An outcry was raised 

 against him for his want of leniency towards this popular favourite : 

 it soon subsided however, for his power made him feared, and his 

 magnificence admired. 



Nobody could vie with Woleey in display : his retinue on the Field 

 of the Cloth of Gold was more numerous and splendid than that of 

 any subject ; and during each foreign mission on which he was 

 employed, he was attended with extraordinary pomp. At York Place 

 (now Whitehall) his residence was furnished with every luxury ; and 

 he built for himself at Hampton Court a noble palace, of which he 

 eventually made a present to the king. His dress was gorgeous, his 

 manner of living sumptuous, and his household consisted of more than 

 500 persons ; there were among them many people of rank the Earl 

 of Derby, Lord Henry Percy, and others. He had a " steward " (says 

 his biographer Cavendish, who was his gentleman-usher) " which was 



