WESTON
WHEELER
Trinity College. In 1854 he was called to
the Bar (Lincoln s Inn), and he became a
Queen s Counsel in 1874. It is, however,
as a teacher and writer that Professor
Westlake reached his very high position
in the legal world. From 1888 to 1908
he was professor of international law at
Cambridge, and his Treatise on Private
International Law (1898) and International
Law (2 vols., 1904-1907) made him one of
the highest authorities on the subject in
Europe. From 1900 to 1906 he was one
of the members for the United Kingdom
of the International Court of Arbitration
set up by the Hague Conference, and he
was Honorary President of the Institute of
International Law. Edinburgh, Oxford, and
Brussels Universities conferred honorary
degrees on him ; and he was a member of
the Brussels Academie Eoyale, and had
the Italian Order of the Iron Crown and
the Japanese Order of the Eising Sun.
There is no biography, and he never wrote
on religion ; but a series of chapters on
him by legal colleagues (Memories of John
Westlake, 1914) contain one or two slight
references to his Rationalism. He was an
intimate friend of Colenso, and had " no
higher opinion than the Bishop of the
historical character of the Pentateuch "
(he says). Colenso for a time kept him in a
state of very liberal Church-of-Englandism,
but he is quoted as saying: "I at that
time desired to see a wider comprehension
in the Church of England than I now
believe to be possible in any religious com
munion, established or voluntary" (p. 11).
The writer adds that he had " a reverent
faith in reason." Westlake was always
severe and "reverent," but he took a keen
interest in the work of the London Sunday
Lecture Society at a time when its lectures
were often drastically Rationalistic, and
was in entire agreement with Mr. Domville,
who inspired the Society (personal know
ledge). D. Apr. 14, 1913.
WESTON, Samuel Burns, A.B., Ameri can editor and publisher. B. Mar. 10, 1855. Ed. Antioch College (Ohio) and
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Harvard, Berlin, Leipzig, and Geneva
Universities. Mr. Weston became a
minister in the Unitarian body, and from
1879 to 1881 he served at Leicester (Mass.).
He abandoned the Church, and took a
course of political science at Columbia
University (1883-85). From 1885 to 1890
he lectured for the Philadelphia Society
for Ethical Culture. From 1888 to 1890
he published and edited the Ethical Record
(the organ of the American Ethical Move
ment), and from 1890 to 1914 the Inter
national Journal of Ethics. Since 1897
he has been Director of the Philadelphia
Society for Ethical Culture.
WETTSTEIN, Otto, German-American writer. B. Apr. 7, 1838. In 1848 the father emigrated from Prussia to America, and two years later Wettstein was sent to- Chicago to learn the jewellery business. In 1858 he set up a business of his own at Rochelle, where he prospered. A great reader in his leisure, Wettstein became a. Rationalist, and took a very active part in propagating his new creed. He was treasurer of the American Secular Union, and contributed frequently to the Free thinkers Magazine, the Ironclad Age, and other Rationalist periodicals.
WHALE, George, solicitor and writer. B. Nov. 25, 1849. Ed. Huntingdon and Woolwich. He became a solicitor in 1872, and has held various professional and Local Government appointments. Mr. Whale was Mayor of Woolwich in 1908- 1909, and is Chairman of the Woolwich Polytechnic. He was one of the founders- of the Omar Khayyam and Pepys Clubs ; and he has written Greater London and its Government (1888) and Essays in Johnson s Club Papers (1897). Mr. Whale is a life- member and a Director of the Rationalist Press Association.
WHEELER, Joseph Mazzini, writer, B. Jan. 24, 1850. Wheeler was the Secu larist author 9f a small Biographical Dic tionary of Freethinkers (1889), which has 884
