often scrupulously adhered to the constitution. Justice was always a predominant trait in his character. A committee was charged, in 1815, with the drawing up of a general code for the Netherlands. It ended its labors in 1819. June 21, 1816, William became a member of the holy alliance. (q. v.) In 1814, he founded the William order of military merit, and, in 1815, the order of the Belgic lion for civil merit. He resided, before the late revolution, alternately at the Hague and in Brussels; lives simply, is very industrious, and accessible to all; and, though the majority of the Dutch were anti-Orange, and, therefore, anti-monarchical, he is popular with them, particularly since 1830.-The article Belgium, in the Appendix to this volume, treats of the causes of the Belgic revolution, which is not to be ascribed to him.-It was, perhaps, impracticable to unite under one government two nations so different in language, religion, and ordinary occupations, to say nothing of the powerful influences from without which hastened the disruption. His endeavors to disseminate knowledge in Belgium were considered, by the Catholics, as acts of hostility towards their religion.

WILLIAM, Frederic George Louis of Nassau, prince of Orange, crown-prince of the kingdom of the Netherlands, born Dec. 6, 1792, was educated in Berlin and at Oxford. He made his first campaign in the English army, and, in 1811, entered the Spanish service as lieutenantcolonel. His courage and activity gained him the esteem of the duke of Wellington, whose aid-de-camp he was. At the siege of Ciudad-Rodrigo, he was one of the first in the assault. In the battle of Badajoz, he entered the city at the head of an English column, which he had stopped in its flight, and led back into the action. He displayed equal bravery at Salamanca, and every other affair in the campaign. He was then made aid-decamp to his Britannic majesty, and received a medal, inscribed Ciudad-Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca. His courage and conduct were conspicuous at QuatreBras (q. v.), on June 16, and at Waterloo, on June 18, 1815, where he charged the enemy at the head of his troops, and was wounded in the shoulder. After his recovery, he joined the allies in Paris, when it was proposed that he should marry the talent and constitutional principles, faithful to his oaths, who listens to all his subjects, and even to foreigners, who boast over Europe of the reception with which they are honored, &c."

princess Charlotte, daughter of the princeregent (see Charlotte); but he declined, considering it unbecoining the heir of a throne to be the first subject of a queen of England, and being unwilling to make the Netherlands a dependency of a foreign state. In 1816, he married Paulowna, sister to the emperor Alexander. It is not yet time to judge impartially of his conduct in the Belgic revolution of 1830. He was thought by some to have wished to become sovereign of Belgium, perhaps with the view of ruling over both kingdoms, though separated, on the demise of his father. He had the courage to enter Brussels when in a state of revolt, and when a plot to murder him is said to have existed. In July, 1831, he was made, by his father, generalissimo of all the forces of the Netherlands. Aug. 2, the army of the Netherlands entered Belgium. The Belgians retreated, and were entirely routed on several occasions, particularly at Hasselt; their conduct in the field forming a ludicrous contrast with their extravagant boasting before the war began. Within less than two weeks, the "Belgic armies" were routed; and the prince of Orange was marching upon Brussels, from which he was but a few miles distant, when he received orders from the king, his father, to desist from further hostilities, in consequence of a French army having come to support the Belgians. Many attempts were made upon the life of the prince of Orange. At Tirlemont, when he was riding out of the city with marshal Gerard (commanding the French army), a ball was fired at him, but only hit the coach. When he arrived at the gate of the city, a Belgian attacked him with a sword, but was cut down by the French. This war,. it must be understood, was not undertaken to reconquer Belgium, from which the Dutch always wished to be separated, but to force the Belgians to fulfil the conditions of the London conferences. The prince showed much skill in the plan of the campaign.

WILLIAMS, Roger, was born of repu table parents in Wales, in 1598. He was educated at the university of Oxford, was regularly admitted to orders in the church of England, and preached for some time as a minister of that church: but, on embracing the doctrines of the Puritans, he rendered himself obnoxious to the laws against non-conformists, and embarked for America, where he arrived, with his wife, in February, 1631. In Apri! following, he was called, by the church o: Salem, as teaching elder, under their ther

pastor, Mr. Skelton. This proceeding gave offence to the governor and assistants of the Massachusetts bay, and, in a short time, he removed to Plymouth, and was engaged as assistant to Mr. Ralph Smith, the pastor of the church at that place. Here he remained until he found that his views of religious toleration and strict non-conformity gave offence to some of his hearers, when he returned again to Salem, and was settled there after Mr. Skelton's death, in 1634. While here, and while at Plymouth, he maintained the character he had acquired in Englandthat of " a godly man and zealous preacher." He appears, however, to have been viewed by the government of that colony with jealousy, from his first entrance into it. He publicly preached against the patent from the king, under which they held their lands, on the ground that the king could not dispose of the lands of the natives without their consent. He reprobated the "calling of natural men to the exercise of those holy ordinances of prayers, oaths, &c."; but what rendered him most obnoxious, undoubtedly, was his insisting that the magistrate had no right to punish for breaches of the first table, or, in other words, “to deal in matters of conscience and religion." These causes, conspiring with others of less importance, finally occasioned a decree of banishment against him, in the autumn of 1635, and he was ordered to depart the jurisdiction in six weeks, but was subsequently permitted to remain until spring, on condition that he did not attempt to draw any other to his opinions; but "the people being much taken with the apprehension of his godliness," in January following, the governor and assistants sent an officer to apprehend him, and carry him on board a vessel then lying at Nantasket, bound to England; but before the officer arrived, he had removed, and gone to Rehoboth. Being informed by governor Winslow, of Plymouth, that he was then within the bounds of the Plymouth patent, in the spring he crossed the river, and commenced the settlement of Providence. He afterwards embraced some of the leading opinions of the Baptists, and, in March, 1639, was baptized by immersion, at Providence, by Ezekiel Holliman, whom he afterwards baptized. He formed a society of this order, and coutinued preaching to them for several months, and then separated from them, doubting, it is said, the validity of all bap tism, because a direct succession could not be traced from the apostles to the offici

ating ministers. In 1643, Williams went to England, as agent for the colonies at Providence, Rhode Island, and Warwick, to solicit a charter of incorporation, which he finally procured, and returned in September, 1644. In 1651, serious difficulties having been raised in the colony, by Coddington's procuring a charter, which gave him almost unlimited authority over the islands of Narragansett bay, Williams and Clarke were despatched agents of the colony to procure à revocation of it. This they effected in October, 1652. Williams returned in 1654; but Clarke remained in England, and procured a second charter in 1663. He was several times, both before and after this period, elected to the office of president or governor of this colony. He died in April, 1683, at Providence. Very few incidents in his life are to be collected from his writings; and the prejudices of contemporary, and even later historians, who have mentioned him, render it difficult to form a true estimate of his character. He appears to have been a man of unblemished moral character, and of ardent piety, unyielding in opinions which he conceived to be right, and not to be diverted from what he believed to be duty, either by threats or flattery. After he was banished, though he conceived himself to be an injured man, he gave his persecutors information of the Indian plot, which would have destroyed their whole settlement, and concluded treaties for them, which insured their peace. He is accused, and not unjustly, of frequent changes in his religious sentiments; but these changes should be ascribed to conviction, for they militated against his worldly interest. He was at all times the undaunted champion of religious freedom; and, strange as it may seem, this was probably the first thing that excited the prejudices of the Massachusetts and Plymouth rulers against him. He was accused of carrying this favorite doctrine so far as to exempt from punishment any criminal who pleaded conscience; but this he expressly denied. Of the publications of Williams that have reached us, the first, in order of time, is his Key into the Language of America, republished in 1827. This, it would seem, was composed during his voyage to England, in 1643, and was printed at London soon after his arrival. It preceded Eliot's works on the same subject. Very few copies of the original edition are now extant. The one belonging to the Massa chusetts historical society is the only one known to be in this country. His next

work was his Bloody Tenent, written in answer to Cotton's treatise, which upheld the right and enforced the duty of the civil magistrate to regulate the doctrines of the church. This called forth a reply from Cotton, entitled the Bloody Tenent Washed and made White in the Blood of the Lambe; and this was followed by a rejoinder from Williams, entitled the Bloody Tenent yet more Bloody, by Mr. Cotton's Endeavor to Wash it White. In these works of Williams, the doctrine of religious liberty and unlimited toleration are illustrated in strong language, and supported by stronger arguments-arguments that preceded those of Locke, Bayle and Furneau. In 1672, Williams had a controversy with the Quakers. He maintained a public dispute with them at Newport and at Providence, in August, 1672, and afterwards published his George Foxe digged out of his Burrowes, in answer to a work of Fox. This is a rare book.

WILLIAMS, William, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born April 8, 1731, at Lebanon, in Connecticut, where his father was the minister of a parish. At the age of sixteen, he entered Harvard college, and graduated with honor in due time. After serving a long time in the legislature of his native state, he was, during the years 1776 and 1777, a member of the general congress. At one time, when the paper money was of so little value, that military services could not be procured for it, he exchanged for it more than two thousand dollars in specie for the benefit of the cause, which he never recovered. He contributed to arouse the spirit of freedom by several essays on political subjects, and once by an impressive speech. During the whole revolutionary war, he was very useful in obtaining private contributions of supplies for the army. He died Aug. 2, 1811, in the eighty-first year of his age.

WILLIAMS, Otho Holland, a brigadiergeneral in the American army, was born in Prince George's county, Maryland, in 1748. He was first placed in the clerk's office of his native county, and then removed to the clerk's office of the county of Baltimore, of which he had the principal direction. In the beginning of the revolutionary struggle, he was appointed lieutenant in the company of riflemen raised in the county of Frederick, and marched, in 1775, to the American camp near Boston. The following year, a rifle regiment was organized, in which he was anointed major. It formed part of the

garrison of fort Washington, in New York, when captured by the British, and gained great honor by the gallant manner in which it withstood the attack of the Hessian column to which it was opposed. Major Williams was taken prisoner with the rest of the defenders of the fort, but was soon exchanged. While in captivity, he became entitled to the command of a regiment, and, on recovering his liberty, was placed at the head of the sixth Maryland. The Maryland and Delaware lines having been detached to South Carolina, soon after the reduction of Charleston, he accompanied the baron de Kalb; and, when general Gates assumed the command of the southern army, he was named adjutant-general, in which station he remained until the close of the war. In the disastrous battle of Camden, he behaved with great distinction. At the crossing of the river Dan, he performed efficient service; and he was very useful in thwarting the various attempts of Cornwallis to strike a blow at Greene after the return of the latter into North Carolina. Previous to the disbandment of the army, congress made him brigadier-general. He died in July, 1794, of a pulmonary complaint.

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WILLIAMS, Helen Maria; a distinguished writer on history and general literature, born in the north of England, in 1762. She went to London at the age of eighteen, and was introduced to the literary world by doctor Andrew Kippis. The first production of her pen appears to have been a legendary tale, in verse, entitled Edwin and Eltruda (1782); and this was followed by an Ode on Peace (1783); Peru, a poem (1784), and a Collection of Miscellaneous Poems (1786, 2 vols., 8vo.). In 1788, she published a poem On the Slave-Trade; and, the same year, she visited France, where she formed many literary and political connexions. 1790, she went again to France, and settled at Paris; and soon after appeared her Letters written from France, in the Summer of 1790, of which she published a continuation in 1792. The object of these, and of some contemporary productions of this lady, was to recommend the doctrines of the Girondists (q. v.); and, consequently, on their fall, under the tyranny of Robespierre, she incurred great danger, and, being arrested, was for some time a prisoner in the Temple at Paris. On obtaining her freedom, she renewed her application to literary pursuits. Besides many works of minor importance, she engaged in an English translation of

the Personal Narrative of the Travels of Humboldt and Bonpland in America (1814-1821, 6 vols., 8vo.). Miss Williams died at Paris, in December, 1827. In addition to the works already mentioned, she wrote Julia, a novel (2 vols.); a Narrative of Events in France in 1815; Letters on the Events which passed in France since the Restoration in 1815; and other pieces; and she was at one time a contributor to the New Annual Register. WILLIAMSBURG; the seat of justice for James City county, Virginia, twelve miles west of Yorktown; population about 1500. It was formerly the metropolis of the state, but has greatly declined. The college of William and Mary was founded here in 1693, in the time of king William, who gave it an endowment of £2000 and 20,000 acres of land, together with a revenue of a penny a pound on tobacco exported to the plantations from Virginia and Maryland. To these, other endowments were added; and the whole annual income of the college was formerly estimated at £3000. The income has greatly diminished, and its accommodations are poor. It has seven instructers, and sixty students, and a library of 3600 volumes. The commencement is on the 4th of July. WILLIAMSON, Hugh, was born Dec. 5, 1735, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, and graduated at the college of Philadelphia, May 17, 1757. He early showed much fondness for mathematics. He studied theology, and was licensed to preach; but the infirm state of his health induced him to relinquish the pulpit, and to turn his attention to the study of medicine. From 1760 to 1763, he was professor of mathematics in the college of Philadelphia. In 1764, he went to Edinburgh to pursue his medical studies. He next proceeded to London, where he studied twelve months, and then repaired to the university of Utrecht. After his return to Philadelphia, he practised for some years with much success, but, at length, gave up the profession on account of the weak state of his health, and remained a number of years devoted to literary and philosophical pursuits. In 1769, he was appointed by the American philosophical society a member of the committee to observe the transit of Venus and Mercury over the sun's disk, which occurred in that year. The results of the observations made by him are contained in the first volume of the Transactions of the society. In this year, moreover, he presented to the American philosophical society a theory respecting a remarkable

comet that had appeared in the month of September. The tail, he contended, was only the atmosphere of the comet thrown behind the nucleus as it approached the sun, and illuminated by the refracted rays of the sun's light. The body of the comet, he conceived, might be habitable. In 1770, doctor Williamson published, in the Transactions of the above-mentioned society, some remarks upon the amelioration of climate which had taken place more especially in the middle colonies of North America, which obtained considerable attention in Europe. In 1773, he was appointed, in conjunction with doctor Ewing, to make a tour through England, Scotland and Ireland, to solicit benefactions for the academy of Newark, in Delaware; but, owing to the irritation subsisting at the time against the colonies, they were not very successful. They sailed from Boston just after the destruction of the tea; and doctor Williamson was examined upon the subject before his majesty's privy council. He gave the first correct information to the ministry respecting the state of public feeling; and lord North declared that he was the first person whom he had ever heard intimate the probability of a war. Some time afterwards, he obtained possession of the celebrated letters of Hutchinson and Oliver, and gave them to doctor Franklin, who transmitted them to Boston, by which the machinations of those persons were discovered. The letters were obtained in a singular manner: Having heard that they were deposited in an office (appertaining, it is believed, to the treasury department) different from that in which they ought regularly to have been placed, and having understood that there was little exactness in the transaction of the business of that office, doctor Williamson repaired to it, and stated that he had come for the last letters that had been received from governor Hutchinson and Mr. Oliver, mentioning, at the same time, the office in which they should have been placed. The letters were delivered to him, and, after carrying them to doctor Franklin, he left London the next day for Holland. He returned to America in 1777. The ship in which he sailed was captured off the capes of Delaware; but he, with another passenger, escaped in an open boat, with some very important public despatches, of which he was the bearer. Soon afterwards, he went tc Charleston on a mercantile speculation, and thence to Edenton, in North Caroli na, where he settled, and traded to neu

tral islands in the West Indies. He also resumed there the practice of medicine, and, in the beginning of 1780, was placed at the head of the medical department of the militia of North Carolina, despatched to the relief of South Carolina after the occupation of Charleston by the enemy. In the autumn of the same year, he was invested with a similar trust. In the spring of 1782, he was chosen a representative of Edenton in the house of commons of North Carolina, and was afterwards elected to congress. In 1787, he was one of the delegates from North Carolina to the convention at Philadelphia that framed the federal constitution, of which he was a decided advocate. In December of the same year, he was again honored with a seat in congress, but declined a reelection. The last act of his public career was attending the second convention of North Carolina, in 1789, to consider the adoption of the federal constitution, the first having rejected it. It was carried by a majority of two to one. He then retired to private life, the tranquillity of which was interrupted by domestic losses, the deaths of his wife and his two sons. He persevered, however, in his literary and philosophical pursuits. In 1811, he published, in one volume, 8vo., his Observations on the Climate in different Parts of America, compared with the Climate in corresponding Parts of the other Continent, and exposed the futility of the assertion that America is a country in which the frigid temperature and vice of the climate prevent the growth and expansion of animal and vegetable nature, and cause the degeneration of man and beast. In 1812, appeared his History of North Carolina (2 vols., 8vo.)-a valuable addition to the annals of the American continent. His death occurred suddenly, May 22, 1819, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.

WILLIAMSTOWN; a post-town of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, at the northwest corner of the state, 28 miles north of Lenox, 135 west by north from Boston; population in 1830, 2137. It has two Congregational churches and a college. Williams college was incorporated in 1793. The buildings are two brick edifices of four stories, and a laboratory. In 1831, there were seven instructers, 115 students, 2550 volumes in the library, and 2000 in the students' libraries. The whole number of graduates was then 721. Commencement is on the first Wednesday in September. There is a :nedical school connected with this col

lege, but it is situated at Pittsfield. In 1831, it had 85 students.

WILLOW (salix). The species of willow are very numerous, and most of them are confined to the more northern parts of the globe. They are trees or shrubs, with alternate and usually lanceolate leaves, and inconspicuous flowers, which are diœcious, and disposed in aments. Most of them grow in moist situations, and are constant attendants along the margins of streams and water-courses. This genus is considered the most difficult to understand of.the whole vegetable world, as the male and female flowers are situated upon different plants, appear before the expansion of the leaves, and soil, situation and climate produce a very considerable change in their appearance. The bark of some willows is employed for tanning, and sometimes, from its bitter and astringent properties, is given, in intermittent fevers, as a substitute for cinchona. The long pliant branches of the osiers are used for the fabrication of baskets, and other agricultural implements; and they are cultivated pretty extensively for these purposes.-The weeping willow (S. Babylonica), so generally admired for its long, pendent branches, grows wild in Persia, and, besides, has long been a favorite ornamental tree in China. Almost all the willows are of the easiest propagation and culture. Care should be taken, however, with most of them, that the soil is not absolutely bog or marsh.

WILMINGTON; a borough and port of entry in Newcastle county, Delaware, between the Brandywine and Christiana creeks, one mile above their confluence, and two iniles west of the Delaware; lat. 39° 43′ N.; lon. 77° 34′ W. It is twentyeight miles south-west of Philadelphia. The town is built on a gently-rising ground, the most elevated part of which is one hundred and twelve feet above tide-water; and its situation is pleasant and healthy. It is regularly laid out, and most of the buildings are of brick. It has considerable trade, and is the largest town in the state. Population in 1820, 5268; in 1830, 6628. The Christiana is navigable as far as Wilmington, for vessels drawing fourteen feet of water. On the Brandywine, at a little distance from the town, there is a considerable village, about one half of which belongs to this borough. Here is the finest collection of flour-mills in the U. States, known as the Brandywine mills. They are situated at different places within ten miles of Wil