of 1787 and by a subsequent decision of the United States Circuit Court, unfavourable to the Yankees, in the case of Van Horn versus Dorrance. All of the claims were finally confirmed, by a series of statutes passed in 1799, 1802 and 1807. Since 1808, mainly through the development of its coal mines (see Pittston, Pa.), the valley has made remarkable progress both in wealth and in population.
For a thorough study of the early history of Wyoming Valley see O. J. Harvey, A History of Wilkes-Barré (3 vols., Wilkes-Barré, 1909-1910); see also H. M. Hoyt, Brief of a Title in the Seventeen Townships in the County of Luzerne (Harrisburg, 1879).
WYON, THOMAS (1792-1817), English medallist, was born at Birmingham. He was apprenticed to his father, the chief engraver of the king's seals, and studied in the schools of the Royal Academy, London, where he gained silver medals in both the. antique and the life class; he also obtained a gold medal from the Society of Arts. He was appointed probationary engraver to the mint in 1811, and soon after engraved his medal commemorative of the peace, and his Manchester Pitt medal. In 1815 he was appointed chief engraver to the mint. His younger brother, Benjamin Wyon (1802-1858), his nephews, Joseph Shepherd Wyon (1836-1873) and Alfred Benjamin Wyon (1837-1884), and his cousin, William Wyon (1795-1851), were also distinguished medallists.
WYSE, SIR THOMAS (1791-1862), Irish politician, belonged to a family claiming descent from a Devon man, Andrew Wyse, who is said to have crossed over to Ireland during the reign of Henry II. and obtained lands near Waterford, of which city thirty-three members of the family are said to have been mayors or other municipal officers. From the Reformation the family had been consistently attached to the Roman Catholic Church. Thomas Wyse was educated at Stonyhurst College and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he distinguished himself as a scholar. After 1815 he passed some years in travel, visiting Italy, Greece, Egypt and Palestine. In 1821 he married Laetitia (d. 1872), daughter of Lucien Buonaparte, and after residing for a time at Viterbo he returned to Ireland in 1825, having by this time inherited the family estates. He now devoted his great oratorical and other talents to forwarding the cause of Roman Catholic emancipation, and his influence was specially marked in his own county of Waterford, while his standing among his associates was shown by his being chosen to write the address to the people of England. In 1830, after the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act, he was returned to parliament for county Tipperary, and he attached himself to the Liberal party and voted for the great measures of the reform era. But he was specially anxious to secure some improvement in the education of the Irish people, and some of his proposals were accepted by Mr E. G. Stanley, afterwards 14th earl of Derby, and the government. He was chairman of a committee which inquired into the condition of education in Ireland, and it was partly owing to his efforts that provincial colleges were established at Cork, Galway and Belfast. His work as an educational pioneer also bore fruit in England, v/here the principles of state control and inspection, for which he had fought, were adopted, and where a training college for teachers at Battersea was established on lines suggested by him. From 1835 to 1847 he was M.P. for the city of Waterford and from 1839 to 1841 he was a lord of the treasury; from 1846 to 1849 he was secretary to the board of control, and in 1849 he was sent as British minister to Greece. He was very successful in his diplomacy, and he showed a great interest in the educational and other internal affairs of Greece. In 1857 he was made a K.C .B., and he died at Athens on the 16th of April 1862. Wyse wrote Historical Sketch of the late Catholic Association of Ireland {1829); An Excursion in the Peloponnesus (1858, new ed. 1865); and Impressions of Greece (1871). His two sons shared his literary tastes. They were Napoleon Alfred Bonaparte Wyse (1822-1895); and William Charles Bonaparte Wyse (1826-1892), a student of the dialect of Provence.
WYTTENBACH, DANIEL ALBERT (1746-1820), German-Swiss classical scholar, was born at Bern, of a family whose nobility and distinction he loved to recall. In particular, he was proud of his descent from Thomas Wyttenbach, professor of theology in Basel at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century, who numbered the Reformer Zwingli and other distinguished men among his pupils. Wyttenbach's own father was also a theological professor of considerable note, first at Bern, and then at Marburg. His removal to Marburg, which took place in 1756, was partly due to old associations, for he had studied there under the famous Christian Wolff, and embodied the philosophical principles of his master in his own theological teaching. Young Wyttenbach entered at the age of fourteen the university of Marburg, and passed through a four years' course there. His parents intended that he should become a Lutheran pastor. The first two years were given up to general education, principally to mathematics, “philology,” philosophy and history. The professor of mathematics, Spangenberg, acquired great influence over young Wyttenbach. He is said to have taught his subject with great clearness, and with equal seriousness and piety, often referring to God as the supreme mathematician, who had constructed all things by number, measure and weight. “Philology” in the German universities of that age meant Hebrew and Greek. These two languages were generally handled by the same professor, and were taught almost solely to theological students. Wyttenbach's university course at Marburg was troubled about the middle of the time by mental unrest, due to the fascination exercised over him by Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The disorder was cured by Spangenberg. The principal study of the third year was metaphysics, which took Wyttenbach entirely captive. The fourth and last year was to be devoted to theology and Christian dogma. Wyttenbach had hitherto submitted passively to his father's wishes concerning his career, in the hope that some unexpected occurrence might set him free. But he now turned away from theological lectures, and privately devoted his time to the task of deepening and extending his knowledge of Greek literature. He possessed at the time, as he tells us, no more acquaintance with Greek than his own pupils at a later time could acquire from him during four months' study. He was almost entirely without equipment beyond the bare texts of the authors. But Wyttenbach was undaunted, and four years' persistent study gave him a knowledge of Greek such as few Germans of that time possessed. His love for philosophy carried him towards the Greek philosophers, especially Plato. During this period Ruhnken's notes on the Platonic lexicon of Timaeus fell into his hands. Ruhnken was for him almost a superhuman being, whom he worshipped day and night, and with whom he imagined himself as holding converse in the spirit. When Wyttenbach was twenty-two he determined to seek elsewhere the aids to study which Marburg could not afford. His father, fully realizing the strength of his son's pure passion for scholarship, permitted and even advised him to seek Heyne at Göttingen. From this teacher he received the utmost kindness and encouragement, and he was urged by him to dedicate to Ruhnken the first-fruits of his scholarships. Wyttenbach therefore set to work on some notes to Julian, Eunapius and Aristaenetus, and Heyne wrote to Ruhnken to bespeak his favourable consideration for the work. Before it reached him Ruhnken wrote a kind letter to Wyttenbach, which the recipient “read, re-read and kissed,” and another on receipt of the tract, in which the great scholar declared that he had not looked to find in Germany such knowledge of Greek, such power of criticism, and such mature judgment, especially in one so young. By Heyne's advice, he worked hard at Latin, which he knew far less thoroughly than Greek, and we soon find Heyne praising his progress in Latin style to both Ruhnken and Valckenaer. He now wrote to ask their advice about his scheme of coming to the Netherlands to follow the profession of a scholar. Ruhnken strongly exhorted Wyttenbach to follow his own example, for he too had been designed by his parents for the Christian ministry in Germany, but had settled at Leiden on the invitation of Hemsterhuis. Valckenaer's answer was to the same effect, but he added that Wyttenbach's letter would have been pleasanter to him had it been free from excessive compliments. These letters were
