'MUTELY, RICHARD, Archbishop of Dublin, was born in Cavendish square, Lon don', Feb. I. 1787, and was the fourth son of Dr. Joseph Whately of Nonsuch park, Surrey, prebendary of Bristol, vicar of Widford, and lecturer at Gresham college. He was sent in due time to a private school at Bristol, from which, in 1805, lie passed to Oriel college, Oxford. He took his bachelor's degree in 1808, taking a second class both in classics and in mathematics. He got the English-essay prize in 1810. In the follow ing year he was elected a fellow of Oriel college, which at that time ranked among its fellows not a few men destined to play a considerable part in the world, and already remarkable for their attainments and intellectual activity—e.g., Arnold, Keble, Pusey, and the elder Newman. In 1815 he became one of the tutors of his college; and about this time he wrote (originally for the Encydopcedia 3Ieiropolitana) what be afterward expauded into his popular treatises on logic and rhetoric. In 1821 he married a daughter of W. Pope, esq., of Hillingdon, Middlesex. In the same year he published two works; the one a volume of sermons on The Christian's Duty with respect to the Established Government and the Laws; the other a work which is among, the most celebrated and characteristic of his writings: this was Historic Doubts relative to _Napoleon Bonaparte. Its object was to throw ridicule upon the criticism to which the Gospel narratives were subjected by skeptical writers, by applying the same kind of criticism to events within the memory of all the world, and starting doubts as to whether these events had occurred. This jeu d'esprit with a purpose created a great sensation. It has been translated into several foreign languages. In 1822, Whately was presented to the living of Halesworth, in Suffolk. In the same year he delivered the Hampton lectures at Oxford, taking for his subject the " Use and Abuse of Party Feeling in religion." In 1825 he was oppointed by lord Grenville principal of St. Alban's hall, which, under his energetic rule, quickly lost the bad character it had long sustained in the university. In 1829 he was appointed professor of political economy; but he was destined not to hold this office long enough to do more than deliver an introductory course of lectures..
lu 1831 lord Grey's government, at the instance of lord Brougham, appointed him arch bishop of Dublin and bishop of Glendallach. Afterward, in 1846, his episcopal charge was enlarged by the addition of the bishopric of Kildare.
During the ten years preceding his appointment to the archbishopric, Whately had been incessantly writing and publishing, chiefly upon theological and ecclesiastical sub jects. He belonged to the liberal school in religion and in politics; he was opposed, that is, to high church or Catholic views in theolegy, and to toryism polities. He had taken a keen interest in the political questions of the time, and especially had made himself conspicuous in the university by his advocacy of Catholic emancipation, of which the party in the church which had most sympathy with the theology and ecclesi astical system of the Roman church were the most determined opponents. When sir R. Peel, after his change of views on the emancipation question, voluntarily submitted himself for re-election to the university, Whately, though a liberal, came forward to support him, and was one of the most active of those who endeavored to prevent his. rejection. His Essays on some of the Peculiarities of the Christian Religion appeared in 1825; his Elements of Logic, in 1826; the Elements of Illietork,in 1828; his Essays on some of the Difficulties in the Writings of St. Paul, etc. also in 1828; his Thoughts on the Sabbath, in 1830; and in the same year, the Errors of traced to their Origin in Human _Nature. His Introductory Lectures on Political Economy were published in 1831. By this time his writings, and the great activity and ability which he displayed in his various public functions, had placed him among the foremost men of the university, and had also got him rank among the most remarkable thinkers and writers of his time. Though many distrusted him as a liberal, questioned the soundness of some parts of his theology, or thought his manners too eccentric, and his habit of mind too peculiar, for one who was to rule over others, nobody questioned that his abilities and reputation were equal to the high position bestowed upon him by lord Grey.