Wordsworth
WILLIAM, an English poet; born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, April 7, 1770. He was the son of an attorney and in 1787 was sent to St. John's College, Cambridge. He left the university after taking his degree, but without having otherwise distinguished himself, and lived aimlessly in London and elsewhere. He crossed to France in November, 1791, and exhibited vehement sympathy with the revolution, remaining in France for nearly a year.
After his return, disregarding all entreaties to enter on a professional career, he published his "Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches" (1793). Two years afterward he received a legacy of $4,500 from Raisley Calvert, a friend whom he had nursed in his last illness.
With this sum and the consecrated helpfulness of his sister Dorothy he contrived to keep house for eight years, while he gave himself to poetic effort as his high "office on earth." For the first two years they lived at Racedown in Dorset where the poet among other experiments began his tragedy of "The visited (1797) by by Coleridge, who had already recognized an original poetic genius in the author of "Descriptive Sketches." Coleridge was at this time living at Nether Stowey, in Somerset, and during this visit he induced the Wordsworths to go into residence at Alfoxden, in his immediate neighborhood. Here the two poets held daily intercourse, and after a year they published "Lyrical Ballads" (1798) in literary copartnership.
Though this volume was received with almost complete public indifference, yet Wordsworth felt that he had found his mission, and after a winter spent in Germ Grasmere (1799), where he proposed to write a great philosophical poem on man, nature, and society. Thenceforth his life Germany, he and his sister settled at was marked by a few incidents. Those worth noting are his marriage in 1802 with his cousin Mary Hutchison; a removal from Grasmere to Allan Bank in 1808; his appointment in 1818 to an inspectorship of stamps, and his removal to Rydal Mount; several journeys into Scotland and to the Continent; his acceptance of a D. C. L. degree conferred on him in 1839 by the University of Oxford; and his accession in 1843 to the laureateship on the death of Southey.
Wordsworth's Wordsworth's Wordsworth's great philosophic poem, which, in his own phrase, was to be the Gothic cathedral of his labor, received only a fragmentary accomplishment in "The Prelude," "The Excursion," and "The Recluse." Yet enough was achieved in his smaller poems to justify his own conception of himself as a "dedicated spirit," and to set him apart among the greatest of England's poets. A complete edition of his poetical works has been published by Professor Knight, his prose writings have been collected and published by Dr. Grossart, his "Memoirs" were published in 1851 by his nephew, and an interesting account of the poet and his sister Dorothy is found in her "Diary of a Tour of the Highlands." He died in Rydal Mount, April 23, 1850.
WORKINGMEN'S COMPENSATION, a system of compensation for accidents in the course of employment doing away with the delays, costs, and obstacles which brought hardship to the injured workers. Under the employers' liability laws a workingman who had suffered an accident was required to bring suit at law and break down the objections put forward by his employer before he could secure damage for his injury. These laws surrounded the employer with defenses so that the injured worker had WORKINGTON to make it clear that he was not him- self responsible for the injury sustained, that no fellow worker had been at fault, acter which put it outside the normal risks connected with the industry. It thus came about that a small proportion only of the injuries suffered were ever compensated, and the injuries had to be borne with as best they could be. Legislation in the direction of securing compensation for the injured worker had long been the subject of consideration and discussion in European countries, and legislation having that purpose in view was introduced in Germany in 1884. The new laws, which were made the model of laws having a similar purpose in other European countries, also attracted attention in the United States, where a number of States passed legislation on similar lines. This legislation had the effect in most cases of doing away with the necessity of a lawsuit, and of providing scales of compensation connected with the work regardless as be to the direction in which responsibility lay. These laws in most cases required that accidents of every kind should be reported to a public board having the duty of determining the amounts of compensation. The injured worker or his family are thus enabled to receive their due without expense or delay. and seaport of Cumberland, England, at of Whitehaven. Its harbor, furnished with a breakwater (1873) and several quays, is safe and commodious. To the coal mines in the vicinity the town chiefly owes its prosperity; and there are large iron works and other industrial establishments here. The salmon fishery near is important. Mary, Queen of Scots, establishments here. The salmon fishery side, May 16, 1568, and was entertained at Worthington Hall (the seat of the day). Pop. about 25,000.