WESTPHALIA, PEACE OF WEXFORD. 



25 



secute or oppress those of their subjects whose re- 

 ligious faith differed from their own. After all 

 impediments in the way of the system of toleration 

 had been overcome, the ambassadors embraced and 

 shed tears of joy. Several religious foundations 

 were secularized, and given as indemnifications to 

 several members of the empire, in which the em- 

 peror acquiesced to secure the integrity of his here- 

 ditary states. The empire ceded Alsatia to France, 

 to its lasting injury ; Sweden received Hither Pome- 

 rania, Bremen, Verdun, Wismar, and 5,000,000 

 of German dollars for her troops. Brandenburg 

 received the secularized bishoprics of Halberstadt, 

 Minden, Camin, and the version of Magdeburg. 

 Mecklenburg received the secularized bishoprics of 

 Schwerin and llatzeburg; Hanover, alternately 

 with a Catholic bishop, the bishopric of Osnabrtick 

 and some convents ; Hesse-Cassel, the abbey of 

 Hirschfeld and 600,000 German dollars. The 

 United Netherlands were acknowledged as an inde- 

 pendent nation, and the Swiss as entirely separate 

 from the German empire. France and Sweden un- 

 dertook to guarantee this peace. The solemn pro- 

 test of pope Innocent X. against these terms, par- 

 ticularly in respect to the injury done to the papal 

 see by the secularization of bishoprics and abbeys, 

 &c.. was not regarded ; but the complete execution 

 of. the conditions of the treaty was obstructed by 

 many difficulties. The war was even continued 

 between France witb Savoy on the one side, and 

 Spain with Lorraine on the other; also between 

 Spain and Portugal. See Von Woltmann's History 

 of the Peace of Westphalia (2vols., Leipsic, 1808). 

 This peace gave the death-blow to the political 

 unity of Germany. It made the German empire, 

 which was always a most disadvantageous form of 

 government for the people, a disjointed frame, with- 

 out organization or system. Ferdinand II., had it 

 not been for his intolerance, might have had it, in 

 his power, after the peace of Liibeck with Den- 

 mark, in 1629, to give once more consistency to 

 the empire; whether, on the whole, to the advant- 

 age of the people, or not, we do not say. But by 

 the " edict of restitution" effected by the Jesuits, 

 he deprived himself of the fruits of Tilly's and 

 Wallenstein's victories. Every German prince and 

 petty monarch now thought only of his own house; 

 and the German empire not only lost, by the peace 

 of Westphalia, a territory of 40,000 square miles, 

 with 4,500,000 inhabitants, but also its western 

 military frontier ; while Lorraine, on the side of 

 Alsatia, and the Burgundian circle in the west and 

 north, were left without defence. The internal 

 trade of Germany was also grievously obstructed by 

 the establishment of above 300 sovereigns. On 

 the other hand, the right procured by France for 

 every member of the empire to conclude separate 

 alliances, which gave to Bavaria, Brandenburg, and 

 other German houses, importance in the general 

 European politics, together with the influence of 

 foreign powers, as Sweden, on the politics of Ger- 

 many, made this country thenceforth the theatre of 

 all the quarrels of Europe. One military state 

 after another was established ; and the German na- 

 tion, impeded, in a thousand ways, in its manufac- 

 tures and commerce, laboured only to support a 

 number of petty, yet overgrown armies, ridiculous 

 courts and foreign embassies. The aristocratic 

 principle \vas developed at the expense of the 

 monarchical, so that the empire, which always bad 

 the disadvantages both* of an electoral and a here- 

 ditary monarchy, without the advantages of either, 



now became entirely crippled. France and Sweden 

 acquired great influence in Germany by this peace, 

 owing to the contemptible pride of the petty princes 

 of the country, and their insensibility for the gene- 

 ral well-being of the nation. Though well aware 

 that such speculations are useless, the historian can 

 hardly help asking himself, How different would 

 have been the destiny of Europe but for the ball 

 which put an end to the precious life of Gustavus 

 Adolphus, on the field of Lutzen? 



WETSTEIN; the name of a family long re- 

 sident at Basle, several of the members of which 

 were highly distinguished as scholars and theolo- 

 gians. 



John James Wetstein, born in 1693, is said to 

 have graduated at Basle as a doctor in philosophy 

 before he had reached the age of seventeen. Hav- 

 ing entered the church, he devoted himself, with 

 uncommon ardour and perseverance, to the restora- 

 tion of the purity of the text of the New Testa- 

 ment, and, in pursuance of this object, visited most 

 of the principal libraries of France, Switzerland, 

 Germany and England, examining and collating 

 their various manuscripts. On his return to Basle, 

 he declared his intention of publishing a new trea- 

 tise on this important subject, under the title of 

 Prolegomena ad Novi Testamenti Grceci Editionem 

 accuratissimam e vetustissimis Codicibus Manuscrip- 

 tis denuo procurandam. This annunciation excited 

 considerable uneasiness among the German divines, 

 who exerted themselves with such effect to procure 

 the suppression of a work which, they feared, might 

 unsettle the received version, that the council re- 

 fused to sanction or permit the publication. Wet- 

 stein, in consequence, removed to Holland, where 

 he published his book in 1730, and was soon after 

 appointed by the Remonstrants to the professorship 

 of history and philosophy, then become vacant by 

 the resignation of Le Clerc. In 1751 1752 ap- 

 peared his last work, an edition of the New Testa- 

 ment, in two folio volumes, with the text as gene- 

 rally received, and the various readings, notes, &c., 

 below. To this he also annexed two curious 

 epistles of Clemens Romanus, from a Syriac manu- 

 script, with a Latin version. He died at Amster- 

 dam, March 24, 1754. 



WETTER, a lake of Sweden, in East Gothland, 

 six-ty-five miles long, and from ten to sixteen wide, 

 is deep and clear. It is supposed to prognosticate 

 the approach of stormy weather. Like all inland 

 pieces of water surrounded with mountains, it is 

 subject to sudden storms in still weather ; and su- 

 perstition has reported that these storms are' occa- 

 sioned by a subterranean communication with lake 

 Constance, in Switzerland. 



WETTIN, COUNTS OF; a distinguished family 

 in the middle ages, from which all the present reign- 

 ing houses of Saxony derive their origin. The name 

 is taken from a Sclavonic place, in the duchy of 

 Magdeburg. The first of this family, known with 

 certainty, is Dieterich, count of Wettin, who died 

 in 982. His descendant, Frederic the Warlike, was 

 infeoffed by the emperor Sigismund, in 1423, with 

 Saxony, and the dignity of elector was connected 

 with his fief. See Saxmii/. 



WEXFORD ; a maritime county in the south- 

 east of Ireland, is bounded on the east and south 

 by the sea, on the west by Waterford, Kilkenny, 

 and Carlow, and on the north by Wicklow. It is 

 about fifty-six miles long from north to south, and 

 thirty-two from east to west, and contains 934 

 English square miles, and 597,760 English acre* 



