Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/40

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which he made serious reflections on Cook and his officers. Wales's pamphlet satisfactorily refuted these aspersions, and drew from Forster in the same year a ‘Reply to Mr. Wales's Remarks’ (London, 4to).

In 1776 Wales sailed with Cook in the Resolution on his last voyage. They cleared the Channel on 14 July 1776. Cook was slain at Hawaii in 1779, and the expedition returned in 1780. On the death of Daniel Harris, Wales was appointed mathematical master at Christ's Hospital, a post which he retained till his death. At the commencement of his mastership he found discipline in a very bad state, but by a judicious severity he soon brought affairs to a better pass. He was a man of a kindly disposition, and his pupils became much attached to him.

Wales took great interest in questions of population, and instituted a series of inquiries both in person and by letter into the condition of the country. He found, however, that many people had a strong dislike to any ‘numbering of the people’ from the belief that it was contrary to the injunctions of scripture, and he encountered so much opposition that he became convinced of the impossibility of carrying his researches very far. He published the result of his labours in 1781, under the title ‘An Inquiry into the Present State of the Population in England and Wales’ (London, 8vo), in which he combated the belief then prevalent that population was decreasing. Wales died in London on 29 Dec. 1798. His daughter married Arthur William Trollope [q. v.], who became headmaster of Christ's Hospital in 1799.

Besides the works mentioned, he was author of an ‘Ode to William Pitt,’ London, 1762, fol.; edited ‘Astronomical Observations made during the Voyages of Byron, Wallis, Carteret, and Cook,’ London, 1788, 4to; aided John Douglas (1721–1807) [q. v.] in editing Cook's ‘Journals’ (Egerton MS. 2180, passim); wrote a dissertation on the ‘Achronical Rising of the Pleiades,’ appended to William Vincent's ‘Voyage of Nearchus;’ and assisted Constantine John Phipps, second baron Mulgrave [q. v.], in preparing his account of ‘A Voyage towards the North Pole,’ London, 1774, 4to.

[Gent. Mag. 1798, ii. 1155; Trollope's Hist. of Christ's Hospital, 1834, pp. 95–6; Hutton's Philosophical and Mathematical Dict. 1815; English Cyclopædia, 1857; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iv. 242; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Thomson's Hist. of the Royal Soc. App. p. lvi; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 90; Vincent's Periplus of the Erythræan Sea, 1800, i. 83; Watt's Bibliotheca Brit.]

E. I. C.

WALEY, JACOB (1818–1873), legal writer, born in 1818, was elder son of Solomon Jacob Waley (d. 1864) of Stockwell, and afterwards of 22 Devonshire Place, London, by his wife, Rachel Hort. Simon Waley Waley [q. v.] was his younger brother. He was educated at Mr. Neumegen's school at Highgate, and University College, London, and he graduated B.A. at London University in 1839, taking the first place in both mathematics and classics. He was entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn on 3 Nov. 1837, and was called to the bar on 21 Nov. 1842. Only three Jews had been called to the bar previously, (Sir) Francis Henry Goldsmid [q. v.] being the first. Waley practised as an equity draughtsman, and in time became recognised as one of the most learned conveyancers in the profession. Although conveyancers rarely appear before court, Waley was several times summoned in cases of particular difficulty relating to real property. He acted as conveyancing counsel for the Bedford estates, and, in conjunction with Thomas Cooke Wright and C. D. Wright, edited ‘Davidson's Precedents and Forms in Conveyancing’ (London, 1855–65, 5 vols. 8vo). In 1870 he was appointed one of the conveyancing counsel of the court of chancery. In 1867 he was nominated a member of the royal commission to consider the law on the transfer of real property, and he had a large share in framing the report on which was based the lord chancellor's bill passed in 1874.

Notwithstanding his mastery of his own subject, Waley had numerous other interests. He was known as a political economist, acting as examiner for the university of London, and in 1853–4 he was appointed professor of that subject at University College. He held the post until 1865–6, when the press of other work compelled his resignation, and he received the title of emeritus professor. He was also, until his death, joint secretary of the Political Economy Club.

Waley was a prominent member of the Jewish community. In conjunction with Lionel Louis Cohen he organised the London synagogues into a corporate congregational alliance, known as the ‘United Synagogue.’ On the formation of the Anglo-Jewish Association he was chosen the first president, a post which lack of time compelled him later to resign. He was also president of the Jews' orphan asylum and a member of the council of the Jews' college, where he occasionally lectured. He promoted the Hebrew Literary Society, and assisted to organise the Jewish board of