As arelibishop of Dublin,Whately was very active in all matters of importance, social and ecclesiastical, and showed a deep interest in every question affecting the welfare of Ireland. He was one of the original members of the board of national education, and con tinued a member till 1853, when lie retired, in consequence of a departure, as he thought, having been made from the principles on which, tip to that time, the national education had been carried on. He was perhaps the most active member of the hoard, and the success of the national system was in a great measure owing to him. He and members of his family were always foremost in supporting well-devised charitable schemes. liberality was, in fact, unbounded, though an opposite impression prevailed among those who did not known him, because he wrote and spoke strongly against casual benevo lence, and used to say he had never given a penny to a beggar. As archbishop, his rule was firm and judicious. A slight disregard of etiquette was about the worst thing ever alleged against him: lie was not disposed to make much difference between a rector and his curate. His activity as an author was not stifled by his energetic discharge of his public duties; indeed, he seems to have been always either writing a book, or literary help to others. Besides many charges, sermons, and a few pamphlets, his Kingdom of Christ, Delineated, one of the most remarkable of his works; his Introductory Lectures to the Study of St. Paul's Epistles; his English Synonyms; and his annotated edition of Bacon's Essays—perhaps the best example of good editing in the English language—belong to this period of his life. A work published anonymously in Scripture Revelations respecting Good and Bad Angels, has been generally ascribed to Whately.
He died on Oct. 8, 1863. The world's esteem and the regard of his friends for him had been growing to the last. In early life, there was much about him to shock the fastidious, and some things which might hurt the sensitive; but his peculiarities softened and wore off as he advanced in years. At Oxford lie was noted for his rough uncere monious manners, for which (together with his dress) he was nicknamed the white bear; and for the plain speaking and rough rididule with which he would overwhelm an oppo nent in an argument. He was remarkable, too, for his fondness for athletic sports, which he indulged with a perfect indifference to the minor proprieties. He used to say
that his abrupt and careless and seemingly unfeeling ways were a recoil from the painful shyness for which he • had been remarkable in his youth. Those who knew him, how ever, made light of his peculiarities; and few things about him are more pleasing than his firm belief in the merits of his friends, and the number, the warmth, and the perma nence of his friendships. He had great talents for conversation, and was famous for his bon-mots, happy repartees, and conversational pleasantries of every kind. His writings are not so much remarkable for subtlety of thought or novelty of view as for strong logic, acuteness, felicity of arrangement and exposition, and the frequency and homely force of his illustrations. He had the happy power of building up materials which might be old into a new, commodious, and almost a beautiful structure. He did nothing for mere ornament's sake: though his imagination was abundantly fertile, it was used only to illuminate his argument; his images are seldom impressive for their beauty, though admirably fitted for didactic purposes. His theological works have been chanced with a "cold rationalistic" tendency, and with being wanting in reverence; and it his been inferred, though perhaps too hastily, from some passages in his writings, that lie was heretical on the subject of the Trinity. The Historic Doubts, the Essays on. the Peculiarities of the Christian Religion. the Errors of Romanism, and the Kingdom of Christ, are perhaps the most valuable and characteristic of his writings.—The Life and Cor respondence of 1?.1Vhately, D.D., etc., by his daughter, E. Jane Whately, was published at London in 186G. It is an interesting, though in some respects a partial, and in sonic degree an inadequte, memorial of Dr. Whately. As might be expected, the " white bear" side of his character is kept in the shade: but few examples are given of the coarse but racy conversational wit which was one of the archbishop's claims to distinction among his contemporaries. And it is scarcely possible to gather from it what his exact position was in theology or in literature, though the letters, which form a great part, of it, give a very fine impression of the qualities which distinguish his works.