rich in bituminous coal; has extensive manufactures; is a great railway
centre, and carries on an extensive trade.

WHEWELL, WILLIAM, professor of the "science of things in general,"
born at Lancaster, son of a joiner; studied at Trinity College,
Cambridge, of which he became successively fellow, tutor, professor, and
master; was a man of varied attainments, of great intellectual and even
physical power, and it was of him Sydney Smith said, "Science was his
_forte_ and omniscience his _foible_"; wrote "Astronomy and General
Physics in reference to Natural Theology," the "Philosophy of the
Inductive Sciences," the "History of Moral Philosophy," an essay on the
"Plurality of Worlds," &c. (1794-1866).

WHICHCOTE, BENJAMIN, Cambridge Platonist, born in Shropshire; was a
Fellow and Tutor of Emmanuel College; was distinguished for his personal
influence over his pupils, many of them eminent men; he gave a
philosophical turn to their theological opinions (1609-1683).

WHIGS, name given at the end of the 17th century to the Covenanters
of Scotland, and afterwards extended to the Liberal party in England from
the leniency with which they were disposed to treat the whole
Nonconformist body, to which the persecuted Scottish zealots were of kin;
they respected the constitution, and sought only to reform abuses.

WHISTLER, JAMES ABBOT M'NEILL, painter and etcher, born at Lowell,
Massachusetts; studied military engineering at WEST POINT (q. v.),
and art at Paris, and settled at length as an artist in London,
where he has exhibited his paintings frequently; has executed some famous
portraits, in especial one of his mother, and a remarkable one of Thomas
Carlyle, now the property of Glasgow Corporation; paintings of his
exhibited in the Grosvenor Gallery, London, provoked a criticism from
Ruskin, which was accounted libellous, and as plaintiff he got a farthing
damages, without costs; very much, it is understood, to his critic's
disgust, and little to his own satisfaction, as is evident from the
character of the pamphlet he wrote afterwards in retaliation, entitled
"Whistler _versus_ Ruskin: Art and Art Critics"; _b_. 1834.

WHISTON, WILLIAM, divine and mathematician, born in Leicestershire;
educated at Clare College, Cambridge, of which he became a Fellow; gained
reputation from his "Theory of the Earth"; succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as
Lucasian professor, but was discharged from the office and expelled from
the universit