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WIL

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WIL

characteristic features of Wilson's mind." He had a high sense

of honour; was scrupulously truthful and just, generous and benevolent; was social and affectionate in his disposition, and remarkably temperate in his habits. He had great conversational powers, and showed by a somewhat dictatorial manner that he was conscious of his high mental endowments. His temper, too, was irritable, and he was obstinate in his adherence to his own opinions. His ruling passions were the love of fame and the love of knowledge; and though cut off in the midst of his days, he lived to see his extraordinary labours acknowledged, and the value of his researches appreciated. Before his death there was not a monarch in Europe who had not become a subscriber to the "American Ornithology." He composed several poetical pieces after his emigration to America. The longest of these, the "Forresters," a narrative of a pedestrian journey performed by himself and two friends to the Falls of Niagara, shows that he had made great improvement both in taste and in the power of composition, after leaving his native land. In his personal appearance Wilson was tall, handsome, and athletic; his eye penetrating and intelligent; his mien and bearing were dignified and thoughtful, and his whole appearance and manner indicative of his intellectual superiority and genuine nobility of character. In striking accordance with his enthusiastic love of nature, he expressed a wish that he might be buried in some rural spot where the birds might sing over his grave.—J. T. * WILSON, Sir Archdale (of Delhi), Major-general, K.C.B., first baronet, is the third surviving son of the late Rev. George Wilson, vicar of Didlington, Norfolk, and was born in 1803 at Kirby-Cane in that county. Educated at the Norwich grammar-school and at the Royal academy, Woolwich, he entered in 1817 the military service of the late East India Company, on the Bengal establishment, as an artillery cadet. In 1848-49, in the war with the Sikhs, he commanded the artillery with the force of Brigadier-general Wheeler, and at the outbreak of the Indian mutiny he commanded at Meerut. On the 27th of May, 1857, Colonel Wilson, with his small force, moved from Meerut towards Delhi, and on the banks of the Hindon, at a point considered the key of the Doab, he defeated a formidable body of rebels who opposed his further march. Joining the force before Delhi, he was appointed, in the middle of July, to command the besieging army on the resignation of General Reed. He infused new vigour into the troops, restored discipline and finally abandoning the defensive attitude which he had assumed, planned and executed the assault on Delhi which, resulting in the capture of the city, preserved the English rule in India from destruction. After this great service, he was made a major-general, a K.C.B., and created a baronet; the East India Company voting him a pension of £1000 a year. On the arrival of Lord Clyde in India he resumed his former position, and commanded the artillery as general of division at Lucknow, March, 1858.—F. E. WILSON, Arthur, the historian of James I.'s reign, was born at Yarmouth in 1595, and at the age of nineteen was sent by his mother into France. His father, who had impoverished himself, placed the young man with Sir Henry Spiller, to be a clerk in the exchequer; but quarrels with the servants led to his discharge. He then became secretary to the earl of Essex, with whom he remained for some time; but incurring the displeasure of the countess, he was obliged to quit his patron. He then settled at Trinity college, Oxford, but his studies were very irregular, and he gladly accepted the post of secretary to the earl of Warwick, with whom he remained for the rest of his life. He died in 1632, at Felstead in Essex. His "Life and Reign of James I." was published in folio in 1653, and reprinted in Kennet's Histories. He also wrote three comedies, of which one, "The Inconstant Lady," was printed at Oxford in 1814.—R. H. WILSON, Florence, a distinguished Scottish scholar, better known by his Latinized name of Florentius Volusenus, was born near the town of Elgin, about the commencement of the sixteenth century. He received a part of his education at the university of Aberdeen, and subsequently prosecuted his studies at the university of Paris, where he was tutor to a nephew of Cardinal Wolsey. In 1534 he set out for Rome in the train of the bishop of Paris, but fell sick at Avignon, and his funds being exhausted, he was reduced to considerable straits. Having learned, however, that the celebrated Cardinal Sadoleto, bishop of the diocese, was anxious to find some properly qualified person to teach the public school of Carpentras, he proceeded to the episcopal residence, and solicited the appointment. His extensive literary acquirements, and the elegance of his manners, made such an impression on the learned and liberal bishop, that the stranger was immediately elected master of the school, with a salary of seventy crowns. He resided at Carpentras from 1535 till 1546, when he resolved to return to Scotland, but he was taken ill in the course of his journey, and died at Vienne in Dauphiny, about the close of 1546. Wilson was the author of a theological tract, published at Lyons in 1539, and of "A Dialogue on Tranquillity of Mind," Leyden, 1543, which has been greatly admired for the beauty of the philosophy as well as for the elegance of the Latinity. He enjoyed a high reputation for his skill in the arts and sciences, and his knowledge of the modern tongues, French, Italian, and Spanish, as well as for his classical learning.—J. T. WILSON, George, a distinguished Scotch chemist and technologist, was born in Edinburgh on 21st February, 1818, and died in that city on the 22nd November, 1859. On leaving the high school of his native town he selected medicine for his study, and entered the laboratory of the Royal Infirmary. In 1834 he commenced his studies in the university of Edinburgh, passed surgeon in 1838, and took his degree of doctor of medicine in 1839, when he wrote a thesis "On the Certain Existence of Haloid Salts of the Electro-negative metals in solution." Chemistry was the department of medicine to which Wilson specially devoted his attention. He continued to prosecute this subject in the laboratories of the Edinburgh university and of University college, London. He began to lecture publicly on chemistry in Edinburgh in 1840, but the broken state of his health interfered much with his duties. Disease in his ankle-joint called for amputation of the foot, and he was long laid on a bed of sickness, which he bore with christian fortitude and patience. He resumed his lectures in 1843, and in 1844 was appointed lecturer on chemistry in the School of Arts, as well as in the veterinary college of the Highland Society. For fifteen years he continued to teach, and during that time he acquired eminence and celebrity. He had a peculiar power of making science popular, and his inventive powers in illustrating his lectures were very remarkable. He delivered popular lectures in various public institutions. In 1855 he was appointed director of the Industrial museum which was about to be established in Edinburgh, and subsequently professor of technology, a new chair which was instituted in connection with the museum. The object of this chair was to give the application of science to art. He had now attained a post of great labour as well as importance, and he worked assiduously; but the exertion was too much for his enfeebled frame. He was attacked with pleuro-pneumonia on the 18th November, 1859, and died after four days' illness. Dr. Wilson was a man of exquisite literary power and fancy. Among his papers were lives of Cavendish and of Dr. John Reid; "The Five Gateways of Knowledge;" "Colour Blindness;" "Paper, Pen, and Ink;" and an unfinished life of Professor E. Forbes, afterwards completed by Mr. Geikie. He contributed papers to the British Quarterly, Macmillan's Magazine, and other periodicals, and to a volume of lectures published by the Medical Missionary Society.—J. H. B. WILSON, Henry, a captain in the East India Company's service, who in 1783 was wrecked with his vessel, the Antelope, on one of the Pelew islands. The king, Abba Thule, received the unfortunate crew with the utmost kindness, and intrusted to Wilson his son Le Boo, who came to England with him, and had made considerable progress in useful studies, when he died of the small-pox in 1784. Wilson continued for many years in the service of the company, and died in 1810.—F. M. W. WILSON, Horace Hayman, Boden professor of Sanscrit in the university of Oxford, was born in London in 1786. After completing his medical studies, he proceeded to Bengal in 1808 as an assistant-surgeon in the East India Company's service. Specially qualified by his knowledge of chemistry and of the practical analysis of metals, he was transferred to the Calcutta mint to co-operate with the celebrated John Leyden, then its assay-master. The companionship of Leyden and the encouragement of Colebrooke directed him to oriental studies. He cultivated them with such success that in 1812 he was appointed, at Colebrooke's recommendation, secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. The first literary result of his Sanscrit studies was his translation of Kalidasa's Mêgha Dûta, published in 1813. He undertook the laborious duty of preparing for the press, from materials collected by Colebrooke, the well-known dictionary,

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