WOOLSACK WOOLWICH. 



105 



profession was very rapid ; and he brought the art 

 of landscape engraving to great perfection. He 

 also engraved historical subjects and portraits with 

 the greatest success. All his best works bring 

 high prices, but particularly his Niobe, Phaeton 

 Ceyx and Alcyone, Celadon and Amelia, and the 

 Fishery, all from Wilson ; and his Death of Gene- 

 ral Wolfe, and Battle of the Boyne, from West. 

 He died, May 23, 1785, at the age of fifty. 



WOOLSACK: the seat of the lord chancellor 

 of England, in his capacity of speaker of the house 

 of lords. It is what its name implies, a large 

 square bag of wool, without back or arms, covered 

 with red cloth. In front of the lord chancellor lie 

 the great seal and the mace. The judges, king's 

 counsel at law, and masters in chancery, who sit 

 in the house of lords, but who do not vote, are 

 likewise seated on woolsacks. The practice was 

 derived from the well-known fact of wool having 

 been, from an early period, the great staple of Eng- 

 land. 



WOOLSTON, THOMAS, an English divine, the 

 son of a tradesman of Northampton, was born in 

 1669. He was admitted of Sidney college, Cam- 

 jridge, in 1685, of which he was subsequently 

 elected fellow, and took orders. Having become 

 an assiduous reader of the works of Origen, he im- 

 bibed a fondness for allegorical interpretations of 

 Scripture ; the result of which tendency appeared 

 in 1705, in a work entitled the Old Apology for 

 the Truth of the Christian Religion against the 

 Jews and Gentiles revived. The object of this 

 tract was to prove that all the actions of Moses 

 were typical of Christ and his church, and to show 

 that some of the fathers understood them as such, 

 and not as realities. In 1720, he left his college, 

 and went to London, where he published a Latin 

 dissertation concerning the supposed epistle of Pon- 

 tius Pilate to Tiberius. In the same year, he pub- 

 lished two Latin dissertations in defence of Origen's 

 allegorical mode of interpreting the Scriptures. 

 His next work was an Inquiry whether the Qua- 

 kers do not, the nearest of any other Sect, in Reli- 

 gion, resemble the Primitive Christians in Princi- 

 ples and Practice. His chief object in this publi- 

 cation was, apparently, to attack the clergy, which, 

 with his refusal to reside at college, according to 

 the statutes, caused him the loss of his fellowship, 

 in 1721. In 1726, he published a Defence of the 

 Miracle of the Thundering Legion. Engaging in 

 the controversy between Anthony Collins and his 

 opponents, he published several pamphlets, in which 

 he not only argued for mystical interpretations of 

 the miracles of Christ, but asserted that they were 

 never actually wrought. He was now regarded as 

 an enemy to Christianity, and a prosecution was 

 instituted against him by the attorney-general, 

 which Whiston, and other friends to toleration, had 

 the interest to get stayed. He was not, however, 

 silenced, and, in 1727, and the three following 

 years, published his Six Discourses on the Miracles, 

 and two Defences of the Discourses, in which he 

 not only maintained his former opinions, but ex- 

 pressed himself with a sarcasm and ridicule which 

 gave serious offence : and the law again interfered. 

 He was tried at Guildhall for blasphemy, wKen his 

 counsel pleaded that it was so far from his purpose 

 to bring the Christian religion into contempt, that 

 he intended to place it on a firmer footing. He 

 was, however, found guilty, and sentenced to a 

 year's imprisonment, and a fine of a 100. He j 

 purchased the liberty of the rules of the king's | 



bench prison, after the expiration of his imprison, 

 ment, not being able to pay his fine. He had ob- 

 tained some money by his publications, which was 

 swallowed up by legal expenses, and he chiefly re- 

 lied for support on a small annual allowance from 

 his brother, and the contributions of some respect- 

 able persons, who regarded him as a man of learn- 

 ing, misled by mysticism and enthusiasm. Solici- 

 tations were made for his release by doctor Samuel 

 Clarke ; but he declined giving any security not 

 to offend again in a similar way. He was, how 

 ever, soon after released by death, being carried off 

 by an epidemic disorder in January, 1732 1733, 

 in his sixty-second year. 



WOOLWICH ; a market town of England, in 

 Kent, on the Thames, eight miles below London. 

 It was formerly only a small village, and owes its 

 consequence to the establishment of a royal dock 

 in the reign of Henry VIII. The dock-yard has 

 been progressively increasing since its establish- 

 ment, and, in its present state, includes about five 

 furlongs in length by one in breadth ; within which 

 space there are two dry-docks, five slips, three 

 mast-ponds, a mould-loft, storehouses of various 

 descriptions, mast-houses, sheds for timber, dwel- 

 lings for the various officers, a very complete smith- 

 ery for the manufacture of anchors, &c. This dock- 

 yard is under the direction of a commissioner, who 

 has also the control of that of Deptford ; and, dur- 

 ing the last war, the number of artificers and la- 

 bourers employed here amounted to nearly 2000 ; 

 since the peace, they are reduced to about two- 

 thirds of that number. The arsenal at Woolwich, 

 called the Warren, is the grand national depot for 

 every species of ordnance, both military and naval, 

 and contains an immense quantity of guns, gun-car- 

 riages, military wagons, and every thing pertaining 

 to the department of the ordnance. The arsenal 

 includes nearly sixty acres, and contains various 

 piles of brick buildings for different uses. The 

 number of artificers, labourers, and boys employed 

 is about 3000, exclusive of the convicts, who 

 amount to about 900, generally employed in the 

 most laborious offices. 



The origin of the royal arsenal at Woolwich is curi- 

 ous. It is thus given in the Penny Magazine, for 1833. 

 ' The government foundry for casting brass ordnance 

 was formerly situated in Moorfields. The process of 

 casting the cannon was then an object of curiosity 

 to the inhabitants of the metropolis, many of whom, 

 of all classes, frequently attended during the opera- 

 tion of pouring the melted metal into the moulds. 

 The injured cannon which had been taken from 

 the French in the successful campaigns of the duke 

 of Marlborough, amounting to a considerable num- 

 ber, had been placed before the foundry and in the 

 adjacent artillery ground, and it was determined 

 n 1716, to recast these cannon. On the day ap- 

 pointed for performing this work, a more than 

 usual number of persons were assembled to view 

 ;he process. Many of the nobility and several ge- 

 neral officers were present, for whose accommoda- 

 :ion temporary galleries had been erected near the 

 "urnaces. Among the company then drawn toge- 

 ther was Andrew Schalch, an intelligent young 

 man, a native of Schaffhausen, in Switzerland, who 

 was travelling for improvement : he was at the 

 bundry at an early hour, and having been permit- 

 ed minutely to inspect the works, detected some 

 lumidity in the moulds, and immediately perceived 

 the danger likely to arise from the pouring into 

 them of hot metal in such a state. Schalch cum- 



