the Emperor Joseph. After a residence of two years at Dresden he was sent to take part in the war in Pomerania, and was commandant-general of the siege of Stralsund, which he brought to a successful termination on the 23rd November, 1715. He was not less fortunate in his efforts to restore the fortifications of Varsovia and other places, and in the negotiations with which he was intrusted for the marriage of the electoral prince of Saxony with the Archduchess Maria Josephine, niece of Charles VI. At the age of sixty-eight (1730) he commanded at the celebrated siege of Zeithayn; and when his sovereign, the elector of Saxony, was invited to assume the crown of Poland, Wackerbarth, with the rank of field-marshal, commanded the troops which escorted him to his new dominions. He returned shortly afterwards to Dresden, where he died in 1734.—F. M. W.
* WADDINGTON, George, D.D., Dean of Durham, was educated at Trinity college, Cambridge, where he took his M.A. degree in 1817, and became a fellow. He was afterwards made a prebendary of Chichester, and attained to his present dignity in 1840. He is the author of the following works—"Prospects of the Greek Church," 8vo, 1829; "A Visit to Greece in 1823-24," 8vo, 1825; "Visits to some parts of Ethiopia," 4to, 1822—this book was published in conjunction with the Rev. B. Hanbury. In 1833 there appeared, under the auspices of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Dr. Waddington's "History of the Church from the earliest ages to the Reformation," 8vo. This work was somewhat severely criticised in the Edinburgh Review (lxii. 144), which journal, however, spoke more kindly of the doctor's next publication, "A History of the Reformation on the Continent," 3 vols., 8vo, 1841, a solid, well-written book, not yet completed. The great success of D'Aubigne's brilliant history of the same epoch, may have had some influence in deciding Dr. Waddington not to complete the work.—R. H.
WADHAM, Nicholas, the founder of the college at Oxford which bears his name, was born in Somersetshire, but when is uncertain, and indeed little seems to be known of his personal history. He is said to have been descended from an old Devonshire family; to have been a gentleman commoner either of Christ church or Corpus Christi college, Oxford; and to have gone to the university about 1548. He was the inheritor and improver of a considerable property, a portion of which he bequeathed to establish and endow Wadham college, Oxford; and his design was carried out by his widow in the years 1610-12. Wadham himself died in 1609.—F. E.
WADSTRÖM, Carl Berns, was born at Stockholm in 1746. Entering the Swedish service as an engineer, his attainments in mineralogy and mechanics raised him to a high position. In 1776 he travelled in Germany, and in 1787 went with Sparrman and Arrhenius to Senegal and the western coast of Africa. After his African voyage he came to England, where he zealously advocated the abolition of the slave trade, and in 1794 wrote in English a somewhat remarkable book on the subject. Wadström subsequently visited Paris, and died in London in 1799.—J. J.
WAFFLAND, Alexis Jacques Marie, a French dramatic author, was born at Versailles, 1787; died at Paris, 1824. His pieces were celebrated for their sprightly dialogue and variety of effects; but owing to his invincible dislike for the details of stage management, most of them were brought out in conjunction with one or other of his associates—Moreau, Picard, or Fulgence. The best known of his plays are—"Le voile d'Angleterre, ou la Revendeuse à la toilette," 1814; "Un moment d'imprudence," 1819; "Le voyage à Dieppe," 1821; "Les deux ménages," 1822; "Le celibataire et l'homme marié," 1823; "L'Écolier d'Oxford" (posthumous), &c.—F. M. W.
WAGER, Sir Charles, an English admiral in the reign of Queen Anne. He was born in 1666, and at the age of thirty-one was captain of a man-of-war. He was knighted by the queen on account of a brilliant exploit he achieved on the coast of South America, near Carthagena, in May, 1708, when he conquered with a squadron of four ships seventeen Spanish galleons. He gradually rose to the highest rank in the naval service, was elected a member of the house of commons, and was first lord of the admiralty in Sir Robert Walpole's ministry. He died in 1743, and was buried in Westminster abbey.—R. H.
WAGHORN, Thomas, a British naval officer, was born about 1801, and died at Pentonville on the 8th of January, 1850. He entered the navy in 1812, and rose to the rank of lieutenant. He possessed great mental ability and energy of character, which he devoted during the last years of his life, with untiring activity and zeal, to the improvement of the communication between Great Britain and the East. His efforts resulted in the establishment of the Overland mail, to the incalculable benefit of his country; but they led at the same time to the expenditure of his means and the exhaustion of his health; and he died at the early age of forty-eight, worn out by anxiety and fatigue. The British government conferred on him a pension, of which he lived to receive the first quarter's payment only; it was afterwards continued to his widow.—R.
* WAGNER, Richard, a musician, was born at Leipsic in 1813. He studied counterpoint and wrote some sonatas under the tuition of Theodor Weinlig, and subsequently took lessons in composition from Ludwig Schuberth. His first composition that came before the public was a symphony, which was played at Magdeburg in 1833, where he held the office of music director for nearly two years. His first dramatic attempt, an opera called "Die Novize von Palermo," was produced there in 1835. He then gave up his engagement, spent some time at Berlin, and went to Königsberg, where he married in 1836. From 1837 till 1839 he held the appointment of music director at Riga. He then went to Paris, hoping to produce there his "Cola Rienzi;" but though he was greatly befriended by Meyerbeer, he could not obtain a hearing for his opera. Better fortune dawned upon him when he returned to Germany. At Dresden, in 1842, he made the acquaintance of Madame Schröder Devrient, the singer, who interested herself so warmly in his behalf, that, through the influence she obtained for him, he was appointed second kapellmeister to the king. "Cola Rienzi" was produced at Dresden, and "Der Fliegende Hölländer" at Berlin. Wagner's next composition appears to have been "Das Abendmahl der Apostel," a cantata for male voices, performed at a great vocal festival at Dresden in 1843. His first assertion of the artistic principles for which he is especially famous, was in a series of sketches for the reorganization of the German drama, designed to be put in force throughout Saxony; and from the publication of this work dates the commencement of his career as a musical essayist. The opera of "Tannhäuser" was performed in Dresden with enormous success, and has been given with great effect at every lyrical theatre in Germany. Wagner interested himself actively in the political struggle which convulsed Europe in 1848-49, and made himself so obnoxious to the Saxon government that he was deprived of his office, and banished the kingdom. He then went to reside at Zurich, and while there published the following literary works, which have given rise to a most violent controversy, and laid the foundation of a rhapsodical party in Germany, who, prophetically discussing the "music of the future," profess to anticipate its effects in their own compositions. These essays of Wagner are—"Ein Theater in Zurich;" "Die Kunst in die Revolution;" "Daskunstwerk der Zukunft;" and "Oper und Drama." Their object is to show that all dramatic music, if not the entire musical art, has hitherto been based upon false principles; to urge the total reformation of such errors of system; and to organize a model according to which all lyrical works should henceforth be constructed. These views are eloquently stated, but have no originality, being a repetition of those which induced the invention of recitative and of the lyric drama at the close of the sixteenth century, and which were revived by Gluck. The application of Wagner's art theory is shown in his "Tannhäuser," and in his later opera of "Lohengrin," which was originally produced at Weimar under the direction of Liszt about the year 1862, and has been well received throughout Germany. In 1855 he was engaged on a cycle of operas, "Die Niebelungen," to occupy three evenings in performance, of which he produced some portions at a concert in Vienna in December, 1862, but the entire work has not been performed nor printed. In 1859 he published "Tristan und Isolde." To secure the interdependence upon each other of the dramatic, the poetic, and the musical elements in his operas, Wagner has always written his own text and composed the music; and, from "Tannhäuser" inclusive, one part of his system is exemplified in the selection of subjects of mythical rather than of human interest. Wagner was engaged to conduct the Philharmonic concerts in London during the season of 1855. He was warmly welcomed here, but the extravagant new readings he gave of the masterpieces of Mozart and Beethoven, and the contempt with which he treated those of Mendelssohn, lost him the good feeling which he at first elicited. The queen
