556 WESEL WESLEY to 1853, in 1857 explored Spain, and in 1862 and 1867 the East. He excels in water-colors. His works include " Venice- in her Zenith and Decline," "The Ducal Palace, with a Scene from the Merchant of Venice," " The Trium- phal Procession of Doge Cantarini " (5 ft. high), " The Zisa Hall in Palermo," " The Li- ons' Court of the Alhambra," and " Jerusalem and the Holy Land," the last comprising 30 de- signs, published with text and colored plates (London, 1866-7). WESEL, a town of Rhenish Prussia, on the right bank of the Rhine, near the confluence of the Lippe, in the circle and 32 m. N. by W. of the city of Dusseldorf ; pop. in 1871, 18,519, half Protestant and half Catholic. It is forti- fied, and the bridge of boats across the Rhine is protected by a citadel with five bastions. The fine Berlin gate has statues of Minerva and Hercules. The Gothic St. Willibrod is the most notable of the five churches. The gym- nasium is of great antiquity and celebrity. It has sugar refineries and manufactories of stea- rine, paper, tobacco, and nails, and much ship- ping and inland trade. Under the original name of Lippemund it was of strategic im- portance in the wars of Charlemagne against the Saxons. Napoleon in 1805 incorporated it with the grand duchy of Berg, and in 1806 with the French empire; and on Sept. 16, 1809, he had 11 prisoners of war, officers of Schill's partisan corps, shot here. In 1813 it was blockaded by the Prussians, to whom it was in 1814 ceded by the treaty of Paris. WESER (anc. Vwurgis), a river of Germany, formed by the union of the Werra and the Fulda at Mundcn in the Prussian province of Hanover, and navigable throughout its length. It Sows northward about 250 m. in a tortuous course, and falls into the North sea by an es- tuary 45 m. below Bremen. Its principal af- fluents are the Aller, from the right, and the Hunte, from the left. The most important towns on its banks are Bremen, the fortress of Minden, Rinteln, and Hameln. WESLEY, or Wcsttey. I. Samiel, an English clergyman, born in Preston in 1662, '66, or '68, according to different authorities, died April 30, 1735. He was the son of a dissent- ing minister, but early joined the church of England, was educated at Oxford, took orders, served a curacy in London for a year, and was then for another year chaplain on board a man- of-war. He was again a London curate for two years, during which he married and made some reputation as a writer for the press, and afterward obtained a small living in the coun- try. He preached against King James's " Dec- laration for Liberty of Conscience" (1688), and when the revolution took place is said to have written a book in defence of it. Afterward ho was presented to the livings of Epworth and Wroote in Lincolnshire. He wrote a heroic poem on "The Life of Christ" (fol., 1693); " Elegies on Queen Mary and Archbishop Tillotson" (fol., 1695); "The History of the New Testament attempted in Verse" (1701), followed by a similar " History of the Old Tes- tament " (1704) ; a poem on the battle of Blen- heim (1705), for which Marlborough made him chaplain of a regiment; a Latin commentary on the book of Job (edited by his eldest son, 1735); and a "Treatise on the Sacrament." According to his son John, he wrote the de- fence delivered by Dr. Sacbeverell before the house of lords. II. Samuel, eldest (or at least eldest surviving) son of the preceding, born at Epworth in 1690 or 1692, died Nov. 6, 1739. He was educated at Westminster school and at Oxford, and was afterward for nearly 20 years an usher in the former. He took orders, but obtained no preferment. He viewed the " new faith" and peculiar conduct of his brothers John and Charles with strong disapprobation, and wrote a letter of remonstrance to his moth- er when he heard that she had become "'one of Jack's congregation." At the time of his death he had been for seven years head master of Tiverton school. A collection of his poems, containing some remarkable humorous pieces, appeared in 1786. His correspondence with his brother forms the principal part of Dr. Priestley's collection of " Original Letters by the Reverend John Wesley and his Friends " (8vo, Birmingham, 1791). III. John, founder of Methodism, brother of the preceding, born at Epworth, Lincolnshire, June 17, 1703, died in London, March 2, 1791. His mother, Su- sannah, combined rare intellectual powers and indomitable will with refinement of manners and devotion to domestic duties. Her homo was the family school, where the children were taught in the most thorough and methodical manner. In his llth year John became a pupil of the Charterhouse, London, and in his 17th was elected to Christ Church college, Oxford. Ho was ordained deacon in 1725, elected a fel- low of Lincoln college in 1726, and appointed Greek lecturer and moderator of the classes, and graduated as master of arts in 1727. The serious impressions produced by the writings of Thomas a Kenipis and Jeremy Taylor were further deepened by those of William Law, es- pecially by his "Serious Call." lie became his father's curate at Wroote in August, 1727, was ordained priest in 1728, and returned to Ox- ford in November, 1729. Hero he found a few yonng men, including his brother Charles, Robert Kirkham, and William Morgan, who were earnestly seeking a deeper religious ex- perience. Of these and some 20 others, who were subsequently added, Wesley soon became the acknowledged leader. They spent much of their leisure time in religious exercises, in visiting almshouses and prisons, and in admin- istering to the relief of the suffering. As tutor in Lincoln college, and as moderator in the daily disputations, Wesley continued at Oxford till 1735, devoting his entire leisure to earnest Biblical study and active Christian labors. At the repeated solicitations of Dr. John Burton and Gen. Oglethorpe, in 1735
