10 



WELLAND CANAL WENCESLAUS. 



descend into the hold to examine or repair the pumps, 

 as occasion requires. 



WELLAND CANAL. See Canal. 



WELLS; a city of England, in Somersetshire, 

 nineteen miles south-west of Bath, 120 west by 

 south of London. United with Bath, it forms a 

 bishop's see. It is situated in a diversified and 

 picturesque country, having fertile and extensive 

 meadows to the south, east and west. It is small, 

 compact, generally well built, and contains one of 

 the most magnificent cathedrals in England (381 

 feet long, 131 broad, with a quadrangular tower 

 178 feet high). It receives its name from a re- 

 markable spring, called St Andrew's well (vulgarly 

 bottomless well). Population in 1841, 7050. 



WELSER ; an old patrician family in Augsburg, 

 now extinct. A Julius Welser is mentioned under 

 the emperor Otho I., who was made a noble, in 

 959, on account of his services in the war against 

 the Hungarians. His son Octavianus settled in 

 Augsburg; and from him sprung the family which 

 became so famous. Bartholomew Welser was privy 

 counsellor of Charles V. and so wealthy that, with 

 the family of the Fugger, he lent 1,200,000 florins 

 to the emperor. With the consent of the emperor, 

 he equipped, in 1528, three vessels in Spain, which 

 sailed under the command of Ambrose Dalfinger, of 

 I'lm, to America, and took possession of the pro- 

 vince of Venezuela, which the emperor made over 

 to Welser as a pledge. 480 Germans accompanied 

 this expedition to Venezuela, in order to settle 

 there; but their avarice is said to have involved 

 them in quarrels with the natives, of whom they 

 destroyed great numbers, and they were at length 

 cut off themselves. The Welser family remained, 

 nevertheless, twenty-six years in possession of 

 Venezuela ; but, after the death of Charles V, the 

 Spaniards deprived them of it. During the same 

 period, the Welsers, together with soms merchants 

 of Nuremberg, sent a vessel to the East Indies, in 

 order to seek new channels of commerce. The 

 journal of this journey of discovery is said to be stili 

 in existence. 



The celebrated Philippina Welser was niece of 

 the above-mentioned Welser, and daughter of his 

 brother Francis. She had received an uncommonly 

 good education, and was of great beauty, so that 

 Ferdinand (whose father subsequently became the 

 emperor Ferdinand I.) fell in love with her, in 1547, 

 in Augsburg. She refused all the offers of the 

 young duke (then but nineteen years old), except 

 on condition of marriage. The ceremony was 

 privately performed, in 1550, without the know- 

 ledge of his father, or his uncle Charles V. The 

 archduke Ferdinand was much incensed when he 

 heard of it, and, for a long time, refused to see his 

 son. In foreign countries, this mesalliance also ex- 

 cited much attention. It was not till after eight 

 years that the father was reconciled. Philippina 

 died, thirty years after the marriage, at Inspruck, 

 in 1580. The archduke, her husband, honoured 

 her memory by a medal, with the inscription Divee 

 Philippines. Of her two sons, the eldest, Andrew, 

 became cardinal ; the second, Charles, distinguished 

 himself in the wars in Spain and Hungary, and died, 

 in 1618, without leaving any children. 



WEN ; an encysted tumour. Encysted tumours 

 are formed, in the midst of the cellular substance 

 under the skin, of that which separates the muscles, 

 or even of that which enters into the structure of 

 the different organs. These tumours are compre.- 

 liended in a membrane called a cyst. The causes . 



of the formation are unknown, but a strongly- 

 marked tendency to such swellings exists in parti- 

 cular individuals, which leads to the suspicion of 

 constitutional causes. An encysted tumour, in its 

 commencement, is always exceedingly small, and 

 perfectly indolent; and it is often many years before 

 it attains a considerable size. These swellings are 

 usually spherical, except when this form is altered 

 by the disposition of the surrounding parts. Practi- 

 tioners are not acquainted with any effectual means 

 of stopping the growth of them. The best mode 

 of treatment is amputation of the whole swelling. 



WENCESLAUS (Wenzel), emperor of Germany 

 (frequently called only king of the Germans, be- 

 cause he was not crowned in Rome), and king of 

 Bohemia, of the house of Luxemburg, eldest son of 

 Charles IV., was born in 1361. The lawless state 

 of Germany, at that period, might have bid defiance 

 to the talents and spirit of the greatest ruler ; how 

 much more to a Wenceslaus! At the age of two 

 years, he was crowned king of Bohemia. When 

 six years old, he infeoffed a duke, who kneeled be- 

 fore him, at the command of his father. At the 

 age of ten years, he was married. Two years later, 

 he was invested with the mark of Brandenburg, 

 and made to take part in state affairs ; and he was 

 hardly eighteen years old when he succeeded his father 

 (in 1378} on the imperial throne. Of the admoni- 

 tions which his father gave him shortly before his 

 death, he disregarded the most important ' Keep 

 the pope, the priesthood and the Germans your 

 friends." Pride and cruelty were the predominant 

 traits of his character ; and his inclinations led him 

 to low sensuality. Perhaps his conduct may be in 

 part attributed to the consequences of an attempt 

 to poison him, which was followed by a disease of 

 the liver, attended with a burning thirst. Two 

 circumstances rendered his situation particularly 

 difficult. In the beginning of his reign, the schism 

 in the church became peculiarly glaring, in conse- 

 quence of the election of two popes, and had the 

 most injurious influence on political affairs. The 

 abominable jus manuarium, or right of private war, 

 was universal in Germany, owing to the want of 

 civil order, and of an energetic administration. 

 Private leagues were formed to procure that redress 

 of wrongs which the laws could not afford ; and a 

 confederation of the wealthy and powerful cities in 

 Suabia and on the Rhine, opposed the jealous, ar- 

 rogant and tyrannical nobility and princes, who, in 

 various parts of Germany, also formed alliances. 

 Wenceslaus, in the midst of his revelry and de- 

 bauchery, looked supinely on the disorders of the 

 empire, and seems to have secretly encouraged the 

 great league of the cities, in order to weaken the 

 power of the princes. At length the fear of seeing 

 the royal authority almost annihilated by these 

 leagues, induced him to endeavour to counteract 

 them. In 1387, a violent war broke out between 

 the confederated cities on one side, and the princes, 

 counts, and lords on the other, in which the cities 

 were obliged to yield, after the battle of Doffingen. 

 Wenceslaus remained at Prague ; and it is said that 

 he answered the deputies, who invited him to come 

 to Germany to restore peace, in terms to the fol- 

 lowing effect : " I do not know that I am bound 

 to reconcile the estates, as I did not cause their 

 quarrels ; and I fear the fate of the wolf, in the fa- 

 ble, who attempted to reconc-le two quarrelling 

 lambs." At all events, be acted according to this 

 principle. The defeats suffered by the cities oblig- 

 ed them to remain quiet, and Wenceslaus willingly 



