Chapter 7

Bibliography.—C. Imbault-Huart,L’Île Formose, histoire et description(Paris, 1893), 4o; J.D. Clark,Formosa(Shanghai, 1896); W.A. Pickering,Pioneering in Formosa(London, 1898); George Candidius,A Short Account of the Island of Formosa in the Indies..., vol. i.; Churchill’sCollection of Voyages(1744); Robert Swinhoe,Notes on the Island of Formosa, read before the British Association (1863); W. Campbell, “Aboriginal Savages of Formosa,”Ocean Highways(April 1873); H.J. Klaproth,Description de l’île de Formose, mém. rel. à l’Asie(1826); Mrs T.F. Hughes,Notes of a Six Years’ Residence in Formosa(London, 1881); Y. Takekoshi,Japanese Rule in Formosa(transl. by G. Braithwaite) (London, 1907).

FORMOSUS,pope from 891 to 896, the successor of Stephen V. (or VI.). He first appears in history when, as bishop of Porto, he was sent on an embassy to the Bulgarians. Having afterwards sided with a faction against John VIII., he was excommunicated, and compelled to take an oath never to return to Rome or again to assume his priestly functions. From this oath he was, however, absolved by Marinus, the successor of John VIII., and restored to his dignities; and on the death of Stephen V. in 891 he was chosen pope. At that time the Holy See was engaged in a struggle against the oppression of the princes of Spoleto, and a powerful party in Rome was eager to obtain the intervention of Arnulf, king of Germany, against these dangerous neighbours. Formosus himself shared this view; but he was forced to yield to circumstances and to consecrate as emperor Lambert, the young son of Guy of Spoleto. Guy had already been consecrated by Stephen V., and died in 894. In the following year Arnulf succeeded in seizing Rome, and Formosus crowned him emperor. But, as he was advancing on Spoleto against Lambert, Arnulf was seized with paralysis, and was forced to return to Germany. Overwhelmed with chagrin, Formosus died on the 4th of April 896. The discords in which he had been involved continued after his death. The validity of his acts was contested on the pretext that, having been originally bishop of Porto, he could not be a legitimate pope. The fundamental factor in these dissensions was the rivalry between the princes of Spoleto and the Carolingian house, represented by the king of Germany. The body of Formosus was disinterred in 897 by Stephen VI., and treated with contumely as that of a usurper of the papal throne; but Theodore II. restored it to Christian burial, and at a council presided over by John IX. the pontificate of Formosus was declared valid and all his acts confirmed.

(L. D.*)

FORMULA(Lat. diminutive offorma, shape, pattern, &c., especially used of rules of judicial procedure), in general, a stereotyped form of words to be used on stated occasions, for specific purposes, ceremonies, &c. In the sciences, the word usually denotes a symbolical statement of certain facts; for example, a chemical formula exhibits the composition of a substance (seeChemistry); a botanical formula gives the differentia of a plant; a dentition formula indicates the arrangement and number of the teeth of an animal.

FORNER, JUAN BAUTISTA PABLO(1756-1799), Spanish satirist and scholar, was born at Mérida (Badajoz) on the 23rd of February 1756, studied at the university of Salamanca, and was called to the bar at Madrid in 1783. During the next few years—under the pseudonyms of “Tomé Cecial,” “Pablo Segarra,” “Don Antonio Varas,” “Bartolo,” “Pablo Ignocausto,” “El Bachiller Regañadientes,” and “Silvio Liberio”—Forner was engaged in a series of polemics with García de la Huerta, Iriarte and other writers; the violence of his attacks was so extreme that he was finally forbidden to publish any controversial pamphlets, and was transferred to a legal post at Seville. In 1796 he became crown prosecutor at Madrid, where he died on the 17th of March 1799. Forner’s brutality is almost unexampled, and his satirical writings give a false impression of his powers. HisOración apologética por la España y su mérito literario(1787) is an excellent example of learned advocacy, far superior to similar efforts made by Denina and Antonio Cavanilles; and his posthumousExequias de la lengua castellana(printed in theBiblioteca de autores españoles, vol. lxiii.) testifies to his scholarship and taste.

FORRES(Gaelic,far uis, “near water”), a royal and police burgh of Elginshire, Scotland. Pop. (1891) 3971; (1901) 4317. It is situated on the Findhorn, which sweeps past the town and is crossed by a suspension bridge about a mile to the W., 11 m. W. of Elgin by the Highland railway, and 6 m. by road from Findhorn, its port, due north. It is one of the most ancient towns in the north of Scotland. King Donald (892-900), son of Constantine, died in Forres, not without suspicion of poisoning, and in it King Duff (961-967) was murdered. Macbeth is said to have slain Duncan in the first structure that gave its name to Castlehill, which was probably the building demolished in 1297 by the adherents of Wallace. The next castle was a royal residence from 1189 to 1371 and was occupied occasionally by William the Lion, Alexander II. and David II. It was burned down by the Wolf of Badenoch in 1390. The ruins on the hill, however, are those of a later edifice and are surmounted by a granite obelisk, 65 ft. high, raised to the memory of Surgeon James Thomson, a native of Cromarty, who at the cost of his life tended the Russian wounded on the field of the Alma. The public buildings include the town hall, a fine and commodious house on the site of the old tolbooth; the Falconer museum, containing among other exhibits several valuable fossils, and named after Dr Hugh Falconer (1808-1865), the distinguished palaeontologist and botanist, a native of the town; the mechanics’ institute; the agricultural and market hall; Leanchoil hospital and Anderson’s Institution for poor boys. The cross, in Decorated Gothic, stands beside the town hall. Adjoining the town on the south-east is the beautifully-wooded Cluny Hill, a favourite public resort, carrying on its summit the tower, 70 ft. high, which was erected in 1806 to the memory of Nelson, and on its southern slopes a well-known hydropathic. An excellent golf-course extends from Kinloss to Findhorn. The industries comprise the manufacture of chemicals and artificial manures, granite polishing, flour and sawmills, boot- and shoe-making, carriage-building and woollen manufactures. There is also considerable trade in cattle.

Sueno’s Stone, about 23 ft. high, probably the finest sculptured monolith in Scotland, stands in a field to the east of the town. Its origin and character have given rise to endless surmises. It is carved with figures of soldiers, priests, slaughtered men and captives on one side, and on the other with a cross and Runic ornamentation. One theory is that it is a relic of the early Christian church, symbolizing the battle of life and the triumph of good over evil. According to an older tradition it was named after Sueno, son of Harold, king of Denmark, who won a victory on the spot in 1008. A third conjecture is that it commemorates the expulsion of the Danes from Moray in 1014. Skene’s view is that it chronicles the struggle in 900 between Sigurd, earl of Orkney, and Maelbrigd, Maormor of Moray. Another storied stone is called the Witches’ Stone, because it marks the place near Forres where Macbeth is said to have encountered the weird sisters.

Forres is one of the Inverness district group of parliamentary burghs, the other members being Nairn, Fortrose and Inverness. The town is amongst the healthiest in Scotland and has the lowest rainfall in the county.

Within 2 m. of Forres, to the S.W., lie the beautiful woods of Altyre, the seat of the Gordon-Cummings. Three miles farther south is Relugas House, the favourite residence of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, romantically situated on a height near the confluence of the Divie and the Findhorn. Not far away stand the ruins of the old castle of Dunphail. On the left bank of the Findhorn, 3½ m. W. of Forres, is situated Brodie Castle, partly ancient and partly modern. The Brodies—the old name of their estate was Brothie, from the Irishbroth, a ditch, in allusion to the trench that ran from the village of Dyke to the north of the house—were a family of great consequence at the period of the Covenant. Alexander Brodie (1617-1680), the fourteenth laird, was one of the commissioners who went to the Hague to treat with Charles II., and afterwards became a Scottish lord of session and an English judge. He and his son were regarded as amongst the staunchest of the Presbyterians. Farther south is the forest of Darnaway, famous for its oaks, in which stands the earl of Moray’s mansion of Darnaway Castle. It occupies the site of the castle which was built by Thomas Randolph, the first earl. Attached to it is the great hall, capable of accommodating 1000 men, with an open roof of fine dark oak, the only remaining portion of the castle that was erected by Archibald Douglas, earl of Moray, in 1450. Queen Mary held a council in it in 1562. Earl Randolph’s chair, not unlike the coronation chair, has been preserved. Kinloss Abbey, now in ruins, stands some 2½ m. to the N.E. of Forres. It was founded in 1150 by David I., and remained in the hands of the Cistercians till its suppression at the Reformation. Robert Reid, who ruled from 1526 to 1540, was its greatest abbot. His hobby was gardening, and it is believed that many of the 123 varieties of pears and 146 varieties of apples for which the district is famous were due to his skill and enterprise. Edward I. stayed in the abbey for a short time in 1303 and Queen Mary spent two nights in it in 1562.

FORREST, EDWIN(1806-1872), American actor, was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of March 1806, of Scottish and German descent. He made his first stage appearance on the 27th of November 1820, at the Walnut Street theatre, in Home’sDouglas. In 1826 he had a great success in New York as Othello. He played at Drury Lane in theGladiatorin 1836, but his Macbeth in 1845 was hissed by the English audience, and his affront to Macready in Edinburgh shortly afterwards—when he stood up in a private box and hissed him,—was fatal to his popularity in Great Britain. His jealousy of Macready resulted in the Astor Place riot in 1849. In 1837 he had married Catherine, daughter of John Sinclair, an English singer, and his divorce suit in 1852 was acause célèbrewhich hurt his reputation and soured his temper. His last appearance was as Richelieu in Boston in 1871. He died on the 12th of December 1872. He had amassed a large fortune, much of which he left by will to found a home for aged actors.

See Lawrence Barrett’sEdwin Forrest(Boston, 1881).

FORREST, SIR JOHN(1847- ), West Australian statesman and explorer, son of William Forrest, of Bunbury, West Australia, was born near Bunbury, on the 22nd of August 1847, and educated at Perth, W.A. In 1865 he became connected with the Government Survey Department at Perth, and in 1869 led an exploring expedition into the interior in search of D. Leichardt, penetrating through bush and salt-marshes as far inland as123° E. In 1870 he again made an expedition from Perth to Adelaide, along the southern shores. In 1874, with his brother Alexander Forrest (born 1849), he explored eastwards from Champion Bay, following as far as possible the 26th parallel, and striking the telegraph line between Adelaide and Port Darwin; a distance of about 2000 m. was covered in about five months with horses and without carriers, a particularly fine achievement (seeAustralia:Exploration). John Forrest also surveyed in 1878 the north-western district between the rivers Ashburton and Lady Grey, and in 1882 the Fitzroy district. In 1876 he was made deputy surveyor-general, receiving the thanks of the colony for his services and a grant of 5000 acres of land; for a few months at the end of 1878 he acted as commissioner of crown lands and surveyor-general, being given the full appointment in 1883 and retaining it till 1890. When the colony obtained in 1890 its constitution of self-government, Sir John Forrest (who was made K.C.M.G. in 1891, and G.C.M.G. in 1901) became its first premier, and he held that position till in 1901 he joined the Commonwealth government, first as minister for defence, later as minister for home affairs and postmaster-general, resigning the office of federal treasurer in July 1907. His influence in West Australia was one of an almost autocratic character, owing to the robust vigour of his personality and his success in enforcing his views (seeWestern Australia:History). In 1897 he was made a member of the Privy Council. Sir John Forrest married in 1876 Margaret Hamersley. He publishedExplorations in Australia(1876) andNotes on Western Australia(1884-1887).

FORREST, NATHAN BEDFORD(1821-1877), Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War, was born near Chapel Hill, Tennessee, on the 13th of July 1821. Before his father’s death in 1837 the family had removed to Mississippi, and for some years thereafter it was supported principally by Nathan, who was the eldest son. Thus he never received any formal education (as witnessed by the uncouth phraseology and spelling of his war despatches), but he managed to teach himself with very fair success, and is said to have possessed considerable ability as a mathematician. He was in turn a horse and cattle trader in Mississippi, and a slave dealer and horse trader in Memphis, until 1859, when he took to cotton planting in north-western Mississippi, where he acquired considerable wealth. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he volunteered as a private, raised a cavalry battalion, of which he was lieut.-colonel, and in February 1862 took part in the defence of Fort Donelson, and refusing, like Generals Floyd and Pillow, to capitulate with the rest of the Confederate forces, made his way out, before the surrender, with all the mounted troops there. He was promptly made a colonel and regimental commander, and fought at Shiloh with distinction, receiving a severe wound. Shortly after this he was promoted brigadier-general (July 1862). At the head of a mounted brigade he took a brilliant part in General Bragg’s autumn campaign, and in the winter of 1862-1863 he was continually active in raiding the hostile lines of communication. These raids have been the theme of innumerable discussions, and on the whole their value seems to have been overrated. At the same time, and apart from the question of their utility, Forrest’s raids were uniformly bold and skilful, and are his chief title to fame in the history of the cavalry arm. Indeed, next to Stuart and Sheridan, he was the finest cavalry leader of the whole war. One of the most remarkable of his actions was his capture, near Rome, Georgia, after five days of marching and fighting, of an entire cavalry brigade under Colonel A.D. Streight (April 1863). He was present at the battle of Chickamauga in September, after which (largely on account of his criticism of General Bragg, the army commander) he was transferred to the Mississippi. Forrest was made a major-general in December 1863. In the winter of 1863-1864 he was as active as ever, and in the spring of 1864 he raided as far north as Paducah, Ky. On the 12th of April 1864 he assaulted and captured Fort Pillow, in Tennessee on the Mississippi; U.S. negro troops formed a large part of the garrison and according to survivors many were massacred after the fort had surrendered. The “Massacre of Fort Pillow” has been the subject of much controversy and there is much conflicting testimony regarding it, but it seems probable that Forrest himself had no part in it. On the 10th of June Forrest decisively defeated a superior Federal force at Brice’s Cross Roads, Miss., and throughout the year, though the greatest efforts were made by the Federals to crush him, he raided in Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama with almost unvarying success. He was once more with the main Confederate army of the West in the last disastrous campaign of Nashville, and fought stubborn rearguard actions to cover the retreat of the broken Confederates. In February 1865 he was made a lieut.-general, but the struggle was almost at an end and General James H. Wilson, one of the ablest of the Union cavalry generals, rapidly forced back the few Confederates, now under Forrest’s command, and stormed Selma, Alabama, on the 2nd of April. The surrender of General Forrest and his whole command, under the agreement between General Richard Taylor and General E.S. Canby, followed on the 9th of May. After the war he lived in Memphis. He sold his cotton plantation in 1867, and for some years was president of the Selma, Marion and Memphis Railroad. He died at Memphis, Tennessee, on the 29th of October 1877.

The military character of General Forrest, apart from questions of his technical skill, horsemastership and detail special to his arm of the service, was admittedly that of a great leader. He never commanded a large force of all arms. He was uneducated, and had neither experience of nor training for the strategical handling of great armies. Yet his personality and his natural soldierly gifts were such that General Sherman considered him “the most remarkable man the Civil War produced on either side.” Joseph Johnston, the Confederate general whose greatness lay above all in calm and critical judgment, said that Forrest, had he had the advantage of a thorough military training, “would have been the great central figure of the war.”

See the biographies by J.A. Wyeth (1899) and J.H. Mathes (1902).

FORSKÅL, PETER(1736-1763), Swedish traveller and naturalist, was born in Kalmar in 1736. He studied at Göttingen, where he published a dissertation entitledDubia de principiis philosophiae recentioris(1756). Thence he returned to his native country, which, however, he had to leave after the publication of a pamphlet entitledPensées sur la liberté civile(1759). By Linnaeus he was recommended to Frederick V. of Denmark, who appointed him to accompany Carsten Niebuhr in an expedition to Arabia and Egypt in 1761. He died of the plague at Jerim in Arabia on the 11th of July 1763.

His friend and companion, Niebuhr, was entrusted with the care of editing his MSS., and published in 1775Descriptiones animalium, avium, amphibiorum, piscium, insectorum, vermium, quae in itin. Orient. observavit Petrus Forskål. In the same year appeared also his account of the plants of Arabia Felix and of lower Egypt, under the title ofFlora Aegyptiaco-Arabica.

FORSSELL, HANS LUDVIG(1843-1901), Swedish historian and political writer, the son of Adolf Forssell, a distinguished mathematician, was born at Gefle, where his father was professor, on 14th January 1843. At the age of sixteen he became a student in Upsala University, where he distinguished himself, and where, in 1866, having taken the degree of doctor, he was appointed reader in history. At the age of thirty, however, Forssell, who had already shown remarkable business capacity, was called to Stockholm, where he filled one important post after another in the Swedish civil service. In 1875 he was appointed head of the treasury, and in 1880 was transferred to the department of inland revenue, of which he continued to be president until the time of his death. In addition to the responsibilities which these offices devolved upon him, Forssell was constantly called to serve on royal commissions, and his political influence was immense. In spite of all these public duties, which he carried through with the utmost diligence, Forssell also found leisure for an abundant literary activity. Of his historical writings the most important were:The Administrative and Economical History of Sweden after Gustavus I.(1869-1875) andSweden in 1571(1872). He was also for several years, in company with the poet Wirsén, editor of theSwedish Literary Review. He published two volumes ofStudies andCriticisms(1875, 1888). In the year 1881, at the death of the historian Anders Fryxell, Forssell was elected to the vacant seat on the Swedish Academy. The energy of Forssell was so great, and he understood so little the economy of strength, that he unquestionably overtaxed his vital force. His death, however, which occurred with great suddenness on the 2nd of August 1901 while he was staying at San Bernardino in Switzerland, was wholly unexpected. There was little of the typical Swedish urbanity in Forssell’s exterior manner, which was somewhat dry and abrupt. Like many able men who have from early life administered responsible public posts, there appeared a certain want of sympathy in his demands upon others. His views were distinct, and held with great firmness; for example, he was a free-trader, and his consistent opposition to what he called “the new system” had a considerable effect on Swedish policy. He was not exactly an attractive man, but he was a capable, upright and efficient public servant. In 1867 he married Miss Zulamith Eneroth, a daughter of the well-known pomologist of Upsala; she survived him, with two sons and two daughters.

(E. G.)

FORST(originallyForstaorForste), a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, on the Neisse, 44 m. S.E. of Frankfort-on-Oder. Pop. (1905) 33,757. It has two Evangelical, a Roman Catholic and an Old Lutheran church; there are two schools and two hospitals in the town. The chief industry of Forst is the manufacture of cloth, but spinning, dyeing and the making of artificial flowers are also carried on. Founded in the 13th century, Forst passed in 1667 to the duke of Saxe-Merseburg, becoming part of electoral Saxony in 1740. It was ceded to Prussia in 1815.

FORSTER, FRANÇOIS(1790-1872), French engraver, was born at Locle in Neufchâtel, on the 22nd of August 1790. In 1805 he was apprenticed to an engraver in Paris, and he also studied painting and engraving simultaneously in the École des Beaux-Arts. His preference was ultimately fixed on the latter art, and on his obtaining in 1814 the first “grand prix de gravure,” the king of Prussia, who was then with the allies in Paris, bestowed on him a gold medal, and a pension of 1500 francs for two years. With the aid of this sum he pursued his studies in Rome, where his attention was devoted chiefly to the works of Raphael. In 1844 he succeeded Tardieu in the Academy. He died at Paris on the 27th of June 1872. Forster occupied the first position among the French engravers of his time, and was equally successful in historical pieces and in portraits. Among his works may be mentioned—The Three Graces, andLa Vierge de la légende, after Raphael;La Vierge au bas-relief, after Leonardo da Vinci; Francis I. and Charles V., after Gros; St Cecilia, after Paul Delaroche; Albert Dürer and Henry IV., after Porbus; Wellington, after Gérard; and Queen Victoria, after Winterhalter.

FÖRSTER, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH(1791-1868), German historian and poet, was the second son of Karl Christoph Förster (1751-1811), and consequently a brother of the painter, Ernest Joachim Förster (1800-1885). Born at Münchengosserstadt on the Saale on the 24th of September 1791, he received his early education at Altenburg, and after a course of theology at Jena, devoted some time to archaeology and the history of art. At the outbreak of the War of Liberation in 1813, he joined the army, quickly attaining the rank of captain; and by his war-songs added to the national enthusiasm. On the conclusion of the war he was appointed professor at the school of engineering and artillery in Berlin, but on account of some democratic writings he was dismissed from this office in 1817. He then became connected with various journals until about 1829, when he received an appointment at the royal museum in Berlin, with the title of court councillor (Hofrat). He was the founder and secretary of theWissenschaftlicher Kunstvereinin Berlin, and died in Berlin on the 8th of November 1868. Förster’s principal works are:Beiträge zur neueren Kriegsgeschichte(Berlin, 1816);Grundzüge der Geschichte des preussischen Staates(Berlin, 1818);Der Feldmarschall Blücher und seine Umgebungen(Leipzig, 1820);Friedrich der Grosse, Jugendjahre, Bildung und Geist(Berlin, 1822);Albrecht von Wallenstein(Potsdam, 1834);Friedrich Wilhelm I., König von Preussen(Potsdam, 1834-1835);Die Höfe und Kabinette Europas im 18. Jahrhundert(Potsdam, 1836-1839);Leben und Taten Friedrichs des Grossen(Meissen, 1840-1841);Wallensteins Prozess(Leipzig, 1844); andPreussens Helden in Krieg und Frieden, neuere und neueste preussische Geschichte, 7 volumes (Berlin, 1849-1860). The three concluding volumes of this work contain the history of the war of liberation of 1813-14-15. He brought out an edition of Hegel’s works, adapted several of Shakespeare’s plays for the theatre, wrote a number of poems and an historical drama,Gustav Adolf(Berlin, 1832).

Many of his lesser writings were collected and published asKriegslieder, Romanzen, Erzählungen und Legenden(Berlin, 1838). The beginning of an autobiography of Förster, edited by H. Kletke, has been published under the title,Kunst und Leben(Berlin, 1873).

FORSTER, JOHANN GEORG ADAM(1754-1794), German traveller and author, was born at Nassenhuben, a small village near Danzig, on the 27th of November 1754. His father, Johann Reinhold Forster, a man of great scientific attainments but an intractable temper, was at that time pastor of the place; the family are said to have been of Scottish extraction. In 1765 the elder Forster was commissioned by the empress Catherine to inspect the Russian colonies in the province of Saratov, which gave his son an opportunity of acquiring the Russian language and the elements of a scientific education. After a few years the father quarrelled with the Russian government, and went to England, where he obtained a professorship of natural history and the modern languages at the famous non-conformist academy at Warrington. His violent temper soon compelled him to resign this appointment, and for two years he and his son earned a precarious livelihood by translations in London—a practical education, however, exceedingly useful to the younger Forster, who became a thorough master of English, and acquired many of the ideas which chiefly influenced his subsequent life. At length the turning point in his career came in the shape of an invitation for him and his father to accompany Captain Cook in his third voyage round the world. Such an expedition was admirably calculated to call forth Forster’s peculiar powers. His account of Cook’s voyage (A Voyage round the World, London, 1777; in German, Berlin, 1778-1780), is almost the first example of the glowing yet faithful description of natural phenomena which has since made a knowledge of them the common property of the educated world. The publication of this work was, however, impeded for some time by differences with the admiralty, during which Forster proceeded to the continent to obtain an appointment for his father as professor at Cassel, and found to his surprise that it was conferred upon himself. The elder Forster, however, was soon provided for elsewhere, being appointed professor of natural history at Halle. At Cassel Forster formed an intimate friendship with the great anatomist Sömmerring, and about the same time made the acquaintance of Jacobi, who gave him a leaning towards mysticism from which hesubsequentlyemancipated himself. The want of books and scientific apparatus at Cassel induced him to resort frequently to Göttingen, where he became betrothed to Therese Heyne, the daughter of the illustrious philologist, a clever and cultivated woman, but ill-suited to be Forster’s wife. To be able to marry he accepted (1784) a professorship at the university of Wilna, which he did not find to his taste. The penury and barbarism of Polish circumstances are graphically described in his and his wife’s letters of this period. After a few years’ residence at Wilna he resigned his appointment to participate in a scientific expedition projected by the Russian government, and upon the relinquishment of this undertaking became librarian to the elector of Mainz. He actively promoted the incorporation of the left bank of the Rhine with France and in 1793 went to Paris to carry on the negotiations. Meanwhile, however, the Germans seized Mainz, and Forster—already disheartened by the turn of events in France—was cut off from all return. Domestic sorrows were added to his political troubles and he died suddenly at Paris on the 10th of January 1794.

Forster’s masterpiece is hisAnsichten vom Niederrhein, von Brabant, Flandern, Holland, England und Frankreich(1791-1794), one of the ablest books of travel of the 18th century. His style is clear and vivid; his method of describing what he sees extraordinarily plastic; above all, he has the art of presenting objects to us from their most interesting and attractive side. The same qualities are also more or less conspicuous in his minor writings. By his translation (from the English) of theSakuntalaof Kalidasa (1791), he first awakened German interest in Indian literature.

Forster’sSämtliche Werkeappeared at Leipzig in 9 vols. in 1843. TheAnsichten vom Rhein, &c., has been frequently reprinted (best edition by A. Leitzmann, Halle, 1893); Leitzmann has also published (Stuttgart, 1894) a selection of Forster’sKleine Schriften, which originally appeared in 6 vols. (1789-1797). His correspondence was published by his wife (2 vols., Leipzig, 1829); hisBriefwechsel mit Sömmerringby H. Hettner (Brunswick, 1877). See J. Moleschott,G. Forster, der Naturforscher des Volks(1854; 3rd ed., 1874); K. Klein,G. Forster in Mainz(Gotha, 1863); A. Leitzmann,G. Forster(Vorlesung) (Halle, 1893).

FORSTER, JOHN(1812-1876), English biographer and critic, was born on the 2nd of April 1812 at Newcastle. His father, who was a Unitarian and belonged to the junior branch of a good Northumberland family, was a cattle-dealer. After being well grounded in classics and mathematics at the grammar school of his native town, John Forster was sent in 1828 to Cambridge, but after only a month’s residence he removed to London, where he attended classes at University College, and was entered at the Inner Temple. He devoted himself, however, chiefly to literary pursuits. He contributed toThe True Sun, The Morning Chronicleand toThe Examiner, for which he acted as literary and dramatic critic; and the influence of his powerful individuality soon made itself felt. HisLives of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth(1836-1839) appeared partly in Lardner’s Cyclopaedia. He published the work separately in 1840 with aTreatise on the Popular Progress in English History. Its merits obtained immediate recognition, and Forster became a prominent figure in that distinguished circle of literary men which included Bulwer, Talfourd, Albany, Fonblanque, Landor, Carlyle and Dickens. Forster is said to have been for some time engaged to Letitia Landon, but the engagement was broken off, and Miss Landon married George Maclean. In 1843 he was called to the bar but he never became a practising lawyer. For some years he edited theForeign Quarterly Review; in 1846, on the retirement of Charles Dickens, he took charge for some months of theDaily News; and from 1847 to 1856 he edited theExaminer. From 1836 onwards he contributed to theEdinburgh QuarterlyandForeign QuarterlyReviews a variety of articles, some of which were republished in two volumes ofBiographical and Historical Essays(1858). In 1848 appeared his admirableLife and Times of Oliver Goldsmith(revised in 1854). Continuing his researches into English history under the early Stuarts, he published in 1860 theArrest of the Five Members by Charles I.—A Chapter of English History rewritten, andThe Debates on the Grand Remonstrance, with an Introductory Essay on English Freedom. These were followed by hisSir John Eliot: a Biography(1864), elaborated from one of his earlier studies for theLives of Eminent British Statesmen. In 1868 appeared hisLife of Landor, and, on the death of his friend Alexander Dyce, Forster undertook the publication of his third edition of Shakespeare. For several years he had been collecting materials for a life of Swift, but he interrupted his studies in this direction to write his standardLife of Charles Dickens. He had long been intimate with the novelist, and it is by this work that John Forster is now chiefly remembered. The first volume appeared in 1872, and the biography was completed in 1874. Towards the close of 1875 the first volume of hisLife of Swiftwas published; and he had made some progress in the preparation of the second at the time of his death on the 2nd of February 1876. In 1855 Forster had been appointed secretary to the lunacy commission, and from 1861 to 1872 he held the office of a commissioner in lunacy. His valuable collection of manuscripts, including the original copies of Charles Dickens’s novels, together with his books and pictures, was bequeathed to South Kensington Museum.

An admirable account of him by Henry Morley is prefixed to the official handbook (1877) of the Dyce and Forster bequests.

FORSTER, JOHN COOPER(1823-1886), British surgeon, was born in 1823 in Lambeth, London, where his father and grandfather before him had been local medical practitioners. He entered Guy’s hospital in 1841, was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in 1850, assistant-surgeon, 1855, and surgeon, 1870. He became a member of the College of Surgeons in 1844, fellow in 1849 and president in 1884. He was a prompt and sometimes bold operator. In 1858 he performed practically the first gastrostomy in England for a case of cancer of the oesophagus. Among his best-known papers were discussions of acupressure, syphilis, hydrophobia, intestinal obstruction, modified obturator hernia, torsion, and colloid cancer of the large intestine; and he published a book onSurgical Diseases of Childrenin 1860, founded on his experience as surgeon to the hospital for children and women in Waterloo Road. He died suddenly in London on the 2nd of March 1886.

FORSTER, WILLIAM EDWARD(1818-1886), British statesman, was born of Quaker parents at Bradpole in Dorsetshire on the 11th of July 1818. He was educated at the Friends’ school at Tottenham, where his father’s family had long been settled, and on leaving school he was put into business. He declined, however, on principle, to enter a brewery. Becoming in due time a woollen manufacturer in a large way at Bradford, Yorkshire (from which after his marriage he moved to Burley-in-Wharfedale), he soon made himself known as a practical philanthropist. In 1846-1847 he accompanied his father to Ireland as distributor of the Friends’ relief fund for the famine in Connemara, and the state of the country made a deep impression on him. In 1849 he wrote a preface to a new edition of Clarkson’sLife of William Penn, defending the Quaker statesman against Macaulay’s criticisms. In 1850 he married Jane Martha, eldest daughter of the famous Dr Arnold of Rugby. She was not a Quaker, and her husband was formally excommunicated for marrying her, but the Friends who were commissioned to announce the sentence “shook hands and stayed to luncheon.” Forster thereafter ranked himself as a member of the Church of England, for which, indeed, he was in later life charged with having too great a partiality. There were no children of the marriage, but when Mrs Forster’s brother, William Arnold, died in 1859, leaving four orphans, the Forsters adopted them as their own.

One of these children was Mr H.O. Arnold-Forster (1855-1909), the well-known Liberal-Unionist member of parliament, who eventually became a member of Mr Balfour’s cabinet; he was secretary to the admiralty (1900-1903), and then secretary of state for war (1903-1905), and was the author of numerous educational books published by Cassell & Co., of which firm he was a director.

W.E. Forster gradually began to take an active part in public affairs by speaking and lecturing. In 1858 he gave a lecture before the Leeds Philosophical Institution on “How we Tax India.” In 1859 he stood as Liberal candidate for Leeds, but was beaten. But he was highly esteemed in the West Riding, and in 1861 he was returned unopposed for Bradford. In 1865 (unopposed) and in 1868 (at the head of the poll) he was again returned. He took a prominent part in parliament in the debates on the American Civil War, and in 1868 was made under-secretary for the colonies in Earl Russell’s ministry. It was then that he first became a prominent advocate of imperial federation. In 1866 his attitude on parliamentary reform attracted a good deal of attention. His speeches were full of knowledge of the real condition of the people, and contained something like an original programme of Radical legislation. “We have other things to do,” he said, “besides extending the franchise. We want to make Ireland loyal and contented; we want to get rid of pauperism in this country; we want to fight against a class which is more to be dreaded than the holders of a £7 franchise—I mean the dangerous class in our large towns. We want to seewhether we cannot make for the agricultural labourer some better hope than the workhouse in his old age. We want to have Old England as well taught as New England.” In these words he heralded the education campaign which occupied the country for so many years afterwards. Directly the Reform Bill had passed, the necessity of “inducing our masters to learn their letters” (in Robert Lowe’s phrase) became pressing. Mr Forster and Mr Cardwell, as private members in opposition, brought in Education Bills in 1867 and 1868; and in 1868, when the Liberal party returned to office, Mr Forster was appointed vice-president of the council, with the duty of preparing a government measure for national education. The Elementary Education Bill (seeEducation) was introduced on the 17th of February 1870. The religious difficulty at once came to the front. The Manchester Education Union and the Birmingham Education League had already formulated in the provinces the two opposing theories, the former standing for the preservation of denominational interests, the latter advocating secular rate-aided education as the only means of protecting Nonconformity against the Church. The Dissenters were by no means satisfied with Forster’s “conscience clause” as contained in the bill, and they regarded him, the ex-Quaker, as a deserter from their own side; while they resented the “25th clause,” permitting school boards to pay the fees of needy children at denominational schools out of the rates, as an insidious attack upon themselves. By the 14th of March, when the second reading came on, the controversy had assumed threatening proportions; and Mr Dixon, the Liberal member for Birmingham and chairman of the Education League, moved an amendment, the effect of which was to prohibit all religious education in board schools. The government made its rejection a question of confidence, and the amendment was withdrawn; but the result was the insertion of the Cowper-Temple clause as a compromise before the bill passed. Extremists on both sides abused Forster, but the government had a difficult set of circumstances to deal with, and he acted like a prudent statesman in contenting himself with what he could get. An ideal bill was impracticable; it is to Forster’s enduring credit that the bill of 1870, imperfect as it was, established at last some approach to a system of national education in England without running absolutely counter to the most cherished English ideas and without ignoring the principal agencies already in existence.

Forster’s next important work was in passing the Ballot Act of 1872, but for several years afterwards his life was uneventful. In 1874 he was again returned for Bradford, in spite of Dissenting attacks, and he took his full share of the work of the Opposition Front Bench. In 1875, when Mr Gladstone “retired,” he was strongly supported for the leadership of the Liberal party, but declined to be nominated against Lord Harrington. In the same year he was elected F.R.S., and made lord rector of Aberdeen University. In 1876, when the Eastern question was looming large, he visited Servia and Turkey, and his subsequent speeches on the subject were marked by studious moderation, distasteful to extremists on both sides. On Mr Gladstone’s return to office in 1880 he was made chief secretary for Ireland, with Lord Cowper as lord-lieutenant. He carried the Compensation for Disturbance Bill through the Commons, only to see it thrown out in the Lords, and his task was made more difficult by the agitation which arose in consequence. During the gloomy autumn and winter of 1880-1881 Forster’s energy and devotion in grappling with the situation in Ireland (seeIreland) were indefatigable, his labour was enormous, and the personal risks he ran were many; but he enjoyed the Irish character in spite of all obstacles, and inspired genuine admiration in all his coadjutors. On the 24th of January 1881 he introduced a new Coercion Bill in the House of Commons, to deal with the growth of the Land League, and in the course of his speech declared it to be “the most painful duty” he had ever had to perform, and one which would have prevented his accepting his office if he had known that it would fall upon him. The bill passed, among its provisions being one enabling the Irish government to arrest without trial persons “reasonably suspected” of crime and conspiracy. The Irish party used every opportunity in and out of parliament for resenting this act, and Forster was kept constantly on the move between Dublin and London, conducting his campaign against crime and anarchy and defending it in the House of Commons. His scrupulous conscientiousness and anxiety to meet every reasonable claim availed him nothing with such antagonists, and the strain was intense and continuous. He was nicknamed “Buckshot” by the Nationalist press, on the supposition that he had ordered its use by the police when firing on a crowd. On the 13th of October Mr Parnell was arrested, and on the 20th the Land League was proclaimed. From that time Forster’s life was in constant danger, and he had to be escorted by mounted police when he drove in Dublin. Early in March 1882 he visited some of the worst districts in Ireland, and addressed the crowd at Tullamore on the subject of outrages, denouncing the people for their want of courage in not assisting the government, but adding, “whether you do or not, it is the duty of the government to stop the outrages, and stop them we will.” Forster’s pluck in speaking out like this was fully appreciated in England, but it was not till after the revelations connected with the Phoenix Park murders that the dangers he had confronted were properly realized, and it became known that several plans to murder him had only been frustrated by the merest accidents. On the 2nd of May Mr Gladstone announced that the government intended to release Mr Parnell and his fellow-prisoners in Kilmainham, and that both Lord Cowper and Mr Forster had in consequence resigned; and the following Saturday Forster’s successor, Lord Frederick Cavendish, was, with Mr Burke, murdered in Phoenix Park. It was characteristic of the man that Forster at once offered to go back to Dublin temporarily as chief secretary, but the offer was declined. His position naturally attracted universal attention towards him, particularly during the debates which ensued in parliament on the “Kilmainham Treaty.” But Mr Gladstone’s influence with the Liberal party was paramount, in spite of the damaging appearance of the compact made with Parnell, and Forster’s pointed criticisms only caused thoroughgoing partisans to accuse him of a desire to avenge himself. It was not till the next session that he delivered his fiercest attack on Parnell in the debate on the address, denouncing him for his connexion with the Land League, and quoting against him the violent speeches of his supporters and the articles of his newspaper organs. It was on this occasion that Parnell, on Forster’s charging him, not with directly planning or perpetrating outrages or murder, but with conniving at them, ejaculated “It’s a lie”; and, replying on the next day, the Irish leader, instead of disproving Forster’s charges, bitterly denounced his methods of administration. Though, during the few remaining years of his life, Forster’s political record covered various interesting subjects, his connexion with these stormy times in Ireland throws them all into shadow. He died on the 6th of April 1886, on the eve of the introduction of the Home Rule Bill, to which he was stoutly opposed. In the interval there had been other questions on which he found himself at variance with Gladstonian Liberalism, for instance, as regards the Sudan and the Transvaal, nor was he inclined to stomach the claims of the Caucus or the Birmingham programme. When the Redistribution Act divided Bradford into three constituencies, Forster was returned for the central division, but he never took his seat in the new parliament.

Forster, like John Bright, was an excellent representative of the English middle-class in public life. Patriotic, energetic, independent, incorruptible, shrewd, fair-minded, he was endowed not only with great sympathy with progress, but also with a full faculty for resistance to mere democraticism. He was tall (the Yorkshiremen called him “Long Forster”) and strongly though stiffly built, and, with his simple tastes and straightforward manners and methods, was a typical North-country figure. His oratory was rough and unpolished, but full of freshness and force and genuine feeling. It was Forster who, when appealing to the government at the time of Gordon’s danger at Khartum, spoke of Mr Gladstone as able “to persuade most people of most things, and himself of almost anything,” and though the phrasewas much resented by Mr Gladstone’sentourage, the truth that underlay it may be taken as representing the very converse of his own character. His personal difficulties with some of his colleagues, both in regard to the Education Act of 1870 and his Irish administration, must be properly understood if a complete comprehension of his political career is to be obtained. For an account of them we need only refer to theLife of the Right Hon. W.E. Forster, by Sir T. Wemyss Reid.

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