342 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



Wheaton Seminary, Norton, Mass., gift from 

 anonymous friend for endowment, $60,000. 



White, Francis L., New York, gift for endow- 

 ment of Earlham College, Richmond, Ind., $25,000. 



White, Mrs. Catherine M., Chicago, bequests 

 to the Chicago Art Institute, $200,000, and to 

 local educational institutions, an aggregate of 

 nearly $300,000. 



Whiting, William, Holyoke, Mass., gift to 

 public library building fund, $10,000. 



Widener, *Peter A. B., Philadelphia, Pa., gift 

 for the benefit of crippled children, funds for the 

 erection and endowment of a combined home, 

 hospital, and industrial school, to cost at least 

 $2,000,000. The gift became active by his pur- 

 chase of 36 acres of land at Logan, a suburb of 

 Philadelphia, for the site of the institution. 



Williams. Daniel R., Stockbridge, Mass., be- 

 quests to Hampton (Va.) Institute, $5,000; other 

 institutions. $4,000. 



Williams. Bishop John, Middletown, Conn., 

 bequests to the Berkeley Divinity School and 

 Trinity College, his library; and to the former 

 the residue of his estate, estimated at about $10,- 

 000. See OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



Williams, John L., Richmond, Va., gift for 

 endowment of the Charlotte Williams Hospital 

 there, $100,000. 



Wilson, John L., Framinghain, Mass., bequests 

 to the First Parish Church, $2,000; Framingham 

 Hospital, $5,000; Home for Aged and Infirm Old 

 Men and Women, $3,000; and city of St. Augus- 

 tine, Fla., a house and lot for a free public library. 



Wolcott, Mrs. Harriet F., Boston, bequests 

 to the Massachusetts General Hospital, $25,000; 

 Hampton Normal- and Industrial Institute, $3,000; 

 North Bennett Industrial School, Boston, $2,500; 

 and Tuskegee Normal Institute, $2,000. 



Wolcott, Mrs. Roger, Boston, gift to the town 

 of Pepperell, Mass., a soldiers' monument com- 

 memorating the Pepperell men who fought at 

 Bunker Hill. 



Wood, Antoinette Eno, New York, gift to 

 the New York Zoological Society, $5,000. 



Working Girls' Vacation Society, gifts from 

 friends for its summer home, $25,000. 



Wyman, Mrs. Nancy P. D., Bangor, Me., be- 

 quests, to Bangor institutions and foreign mis- 

 sions, an aggregate of $6,100. 



Yale University, gift from friends, funds for 

 a new law-school building, to cost $100,000. 



Young Men's Christian Association, Bar 

 Harbor, Me., gift from summer visitors, for a new 

 building, $21,000. 



Young Men's Christian Association, Cam- 

 bridge, Mass., gifts from friends to extinguish 

 debt on new building, $59,000. 



Young Men's Christian Association, New 

 Haven, Conn., gift from friend, name withheld, 

 for new building fund, $40,000. 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, a 

 monarchy in western Europe, formed by the 

 union of the Kingdom of England and the Prin- 

 cipality of Wales with the Kingdom of Scotland, 

 constituting together the Kingdom of Great Brit- 

 ain, and of this with the Kingdom of Ireland, 

 the whole forming the United Kingdom of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, which holds supreme domin- 

 ion over the Empire of India and colonies and 

 dependencies of various kinds self-governing col- 

 onies, colonies governed and administered partly 

 or wholly by the Crown, and protectorates under 

 native laws and rulers constituting, with the 

 United Kingdom, the British Empire. The reign- 

 ing sovereign is the Queen-Empress Victoria, born 

 May 24, 1819, the daughter of Edward, Duke of 

 Kent, fourth son of George III. The heir appar- 



ent is Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, born 

 Nov. 9, 1841, eldest son of Queen Victoria and 

 the Prince Consort Albert, Duke of Saxe-Coburg- 

 Gotha. George, Duke of York, born June 3, 1865, 

 only surviving son of the Prince of Wales and 

 the Princess Alexandra of Denmark, is next in 

 succession, and next comes his eldest son, Ed- 

 ward Albert, born June 23, 1894, issue of his 

 marriage with Victoria Mary, daughter of the 

 Duke of Teck. 



The power to legislate for the United Kingdom 

 and for all parts of the British Empire, except 

 so far as it is delegated to local legislative au- 

 thorities, is vested in the British Parliament, con- 

 sisting of a House of Lords and a House of 

 Commons. Members of the House of Lords are 

 princes of the blood royal; spiritual lords, which 

 are the metropolitan bishops of ancient English 

 sees; hereditary peers of England, of Great Brit- 

 ain, and of the United Kingdom; representative 

 peers of Scotland, elected by their fellows for the 

 duration of Parliament, and of Ireland, elected 

 for life; and life peers and law lords, created by 

 the sovereign by advice of the ministers. The 

 number of peers on the roll in 1898 was 586. 

 About two thirds of the hereditary peerages have 

 been created within the nineteenth century, and 

 only 16 go beyond the sixteenth century. The 

 House of Commons contains 670 members, of 

 whom 253 represent the county constituencies, 237 

 the boroughs, and 5 universities of England; 

 39 the county constituencies, 31 the boroughs, 

 and 2 the universities of Scotland; and 85 the 

 county constituencies, 16 the boroughs, and 2 

 the universities of Ireland. The franchise is pos- 

 sessed by all householders and lodgers, about one 

 in six of the total population, the number of 

 electors in 1898 being 5,144,222 in England and 

 Wales, 664,095 in Scotland, and 720,312 in Ire- 

 land. The number who voted in 1895 was 3,858,- 

 923. The duration of Parliament, unless it is 

 previously dissolved, is seven years. The Com- 

 mittee of Ministers, called the Cabinet, represent- 

 ing the majority for the time being in the House 

 of Commons, exercise in fact the executive au- 

 thority in the United Kingdom and the British 

 Empire that is nominally vested in the Crown. 

 The Prime Minister chooses his colleagues and 

 dispenses the patronage of the Crown; he initi- 

 ates to a great extent the policy of the Gov- 

 ernment or approves the measures suggested by 

 the other ministers in their several departments, 

 and when his policy or his acts encounter the 

 displeasure of Parliament, manifested by an ad- 

 verse vote on a Cabinet question or a direct vote 

 of censure, he either resigns forthwith, in com- 

 pany with the rest of the Cabinet, or appeals to 

 the country by dissolving Parliament and holding 

 new elections. When a Cabinet resigns the re- 

 tiring Prime Minister advises the Queen as to 

 the selection of the statesman most competent 

 to form a new government, usually the leader 

 of the Opposition in the House of Commons. The 

 Cabinet formed on June 25, 1895, by Lord Salis- 

 bury consisted in the beginning of 1899 of the 

 following members : Prime Minister and Secretary 

 of State for Foreign Affairs, the Marquis of Salis- 

 bury; Lord President of the Council, the Duke 

 of Devonshire; Lord High Chancellor, the Earl 

 of Halsbury, formerly Sir Hardinge S. Giffard; 

 Lord Privy Seal, Viscount Cross, formerly Sir 

 Richard Cross; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- 

 caster, Lord James of Hereford, formerly Sir 

 Henry James ; First Lord of the Treasury, Arthur 

 J. Balfour; Secretary of State for the Home De- 

 partment, Sir M. White Ridley; Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer, Sir Michael E. Hicks-Beach ; Secre- 



