ment and the magistracy, at one time threatened the capital with total destruction. A few months later he was promoted to the office of lord chief-justice of the common pleas, and was elevated to the peerage by the title of Lord Loughborough. The new peer presided over the special commission issued for trying the rioters, and delivered a charge to the grand jury which was much admired at the time for its eloquence and its luminous and concise sketch of the riots, but is now universally condemned for its partiality, its exaggerated statements, and intemperate denunciations of the men who were upon their trial. "At present," says Lord Campbell, "no counsel even in opening a prosecution would venture to make such a speech." On the formation of the coalition government in 1783, Lord Loughborough was appointed chief commissioner of the great seal. On the downfall of that justly unpopular administration he became the real if not the avowed leader of the opposition in the house of lords, and on the king's first illness he recommended a course to the prince of Wales so desperate and unconstitutional, that if it had been followed it would inevitably have led to civil war. The recovery of the king having dashed to the ground the sanguine expectations of the opposition, and rendered their accession to power almost hopeless, Lord Loughborough became exceedingly impatient for the possession of that high office which had long been the object of his ardent ambition. He eagerly urged on the secession of the Portland party from the whigs at the commencement of the French revolution, and was rewarded (January, 1793) by his appointment to the office of lord high-chancellor. He filled that important station for eight years with great dignity and splendour. "His decisions," says Lord Brougham, "evince little of the learning of his profession, and do not even show a very legal structure of the understanding. They are frequently remarkable enough for clear and even felicitous statement, but in close argument as in profound knowledge they are evidently deficient. . . But he was not unpopular at the head of the profession. His manners were courteous and even noble; his liberality was great. Wholly above any sordid feelings of avarice or parsimony, and only valuing his high station for the powers which it conferred and the dignity with which it was compassed round about, he maintained its state with a munificent expenditure, and amassed no money for his heirs. . . . Reasonably accomplished as a scholar, cultivating all his life the society of literary men, determined and unhesitating in his conduct, polite in his demeanour, elegant, dignified in his habits, equal in his favour to all practitioners, unawed by their talents as uninfluenced by any partialities, and resolute in maintaining his own and his profession's independence of any ministerial authority, those who succeeded him never advanced greater claims to the personal confidence or respect of the bar." The notion that the concession of the Roman catholic claims would be a violation of his coronation oath, which took complete possession of George III.'s mind, is now generally believed to have been insinuated into it by Lord Loughborough for the purpose of ingratiating himself with the king; and it is certain that he behaved most unfairly and treacherously towards Mr. Pitt on the occasion of the attempt made by that minister to remove the Roman catholic disabilities. But "the engineer was hoist with his own petard." The ministry to which he belonged was broken up (April, 1801), and he had to submit to the bitter mortification of ceding his office to a successor, who obtained in addition that place in the royal favour which he had hoped to fill. On his retirement from public life he was created Earl of Rosslyn, with remainder to his nephew. He died suddenly of an attack of gout in the stomach, on 2nd January, 1805, in the seventy-third year of his age. Lord Rosslyn was twice married, but he left no issue, and his titles devolved on his nephew, James St. Clair Erskine, a distinguished peninsular officer, who was president of the council in Sir Robert Peel's ministry in 1834.—J. T.
WEDDERBURN, David, a Scottish poet and scholar, was born about the year 1570, and appears to have been a native of Aberdeen, where he received his education. In 1602, after a competitive examination which lasted four days, he and Thomas Reid, afterwards Latin secretary to James VI., were elected conjunct masters of the grammar-school of Aberdeen; and in 1614, on the death of Gilbert Gray, principal of Marischal college, Wedderburn was appointed to teach "the high class" of the university. Three years later appeared the first of his publications—two poems in Latin, on the king's visit to Scotland, which were afterwards reprinted in the "Deliciæ Poetarum Scotorum." In 1619 he was appointed to teach humanity to the students of Marischal college. In 1625 he published a Latin poem on the death of James; and in 1630 completed a new grammar for the use of his pupils, which, however, does not appear to have been printed. He published in 1641 six elegies on the death of his valued and accomplished friend, Arthur Johnson, which were reprinted in 1731 by Lauder, in his "Poetarum Scotorum Musæ Sacræ." Two years later appeared his "Meditationum Campestrium," &c., and his "Centuria Tertia," in 1644. Owing to bodily infirmity, he resigned his office in 1640. The precise date of his death is unknown; but a posthumous work, a commentary on Persius, was published by his brother in 1664. The extent of Wedderburn's learning is attested by Vossius; and he was the intimate friend of Johnson, Bishop Forbes, Duncan Liddell, Jameson the painter, and other eminent men of his day.—J. T.
WEDDERBURN, James, a Scottish poet who flourished during the sixteenth century, was born at Dundee about the year 1500. He appears to have embraced the cause of the Reformation at an early period, for two of his dramatic compositions—a tragedy on the execution of John the Baptist, and a comedy called "Dionysius the Tyrant," in which the corruptions of the Romish church were keenly satirized—were acted in Dundee about the year 1540. He was the author of the famous "Compendious Buike of Godlie and Spiritual Songs, collected out of sundrie parts of Scripture, wyth sundrie of uther Ballates changed out of profane songs," &c.—a well-meant but injudicious attempt to substitute religious poems for the profane and licentious songs in common use. Three poems of a different character are to be found in the Bannatyne manuscript, with Wedderburn's name attached. The "Complaynt of Scotland" has also been ascribed to him. Wedderburn is said to have ultimately removed to England, where he died in 1564.—J. T.
WEDDERKOPF, Magnus von, an eminent German statesman, was born in 1638, at Husum in Holstein; studied at Jena and Heidelberg; travelled in France and Italy; and was made professor of public and feudal law in Heidelberg. Called to Keil, he became the favourite adviser of the duke of Holstein; was created councillor of state; ennobled, and sent as envoy to Nimeguen (1678), Altona (1688), and Travendtal (1700); and in 1705 became chief minister and chancellor. But his success had raised against him many enemies. He was denounced as having, whilst envoy, betrayed the interests of Holstein, and was imprisoned at Tönningen from 1709 to 1714, when he was restored to favour. He continued minister till his death, January 17, 1721. Von Wedderkopf had the reputation of being one of the ablest publicists of his time. Several of his writings on public and civil law have been published; one on fiefs was often reprinted.—His brother, Gabriel Wedderkopf—born in 1644; died in 1698—was a distinguished theologian and court preacher at Kiel; and the author of a Latin dissertation on Socinianism and Atheism, some funeral orations, and a treatise on the rites of the primitive church.—J. T—e.
WEDEL, Georg Wolfgang, a physician, was the son of a protestant minister, and born at Golsen in Lusatia in 1645. He studied at Golsen and afterwards at Jena, where after taking a degree in arts, he graduated M.D. After visiting several other universities he commenced practice at Gotha. In 1673 he was offered and accepted the professorship of medicine at Jena, which he held for upwards of fifty years. He died suddenly of heart disease on the 6th September, 1721. Wedel was a scholar and a voluminous writer. He was first physician to the duke of Saxe Weimar, and to the elector of Mayence, and in 1694 he was created a count palatine and an imperial councillor. He was a fellow of several learned societies, amongst others, the Leopoldine Academy, and the Royal Society of Berlin. As a physician he held the pathological opinons of Van Helmont and Sylvius, and was a firm believer in astrology. Amongst his numerous works are the following—"Exercitationes Pathologicæ," Jena, 1675; "Pharmacia in artis formam redacta," Jena, 1677; "Theoremata Medica," Jena, 1692; "De Medicamentorum facultatibus cognoscendis et applicandis libri duo," Jena, 1678; "Praxeos clinicæ sectio prima, do morbis capitis," Jena, 1710; "Liber de morbis infantum," Jena, 1717. Besides many other medical works, he was the author of more than three hundred academical dissertations on various subjects. He had several children, two of whom were distinguished as physicians and medical professors—Ernest Henrich, born in 1671, the author of a work on the
