314 



FORREST, EDWIN. 



FRANCE. 



sentment against him in consequence. A few 

 weeks later, he was in Edinburgh, where Mr. 

 Macready was acting, and, going to the theatre 

 to see the English tragedian as Hamlet, Mr. 

 Forrest stood up conspicuously, in a private 

 box, and hissed him. As this gratuitous insult 

 naturally brought down a shower of contemp- 

 tuous reproaches upon the American tragedian, 

 he strove to justify himself in a letter to the 

 London Times, which, however, only aggra- 

 vated his first offence. About two years later, 

 Mr. Macready was acting Macbeth, at the As- 

 tor Place Opera-House, New York, when a 

 riot and assault upon the English actor ensued, 

 which resulted in the killing of 22 men, and 

 the wounding of 36 others. This was in May. 

 1849. In the succeeding year, Mrs. Forrest 

 commenced a suit for divorce against him, 

 which, after nearly two years' delay, was de- 

 cided in her favor, on all points, and an ali- 

 money of $3,000 per annum was decreed to 

 her by the courts, the payment of which, how- 

 ever, he resisted for twenty years. On the 9th 

 of January, 1852, before the divorce suit was 

 concluded, he appeared at the old Broadway 

 Theatre, New York, and acted for sixty-nine 

 successive nights, drawing crowded houses 

 during the whole time. He continued his ca- 

 reer as an actor until 1858, though, the latter 

 part of the time, he absented himself from 

 New York. For the labors of this portion of 

 his public life, he received immense sums, 

 which were judiciously invested, and resulted 

 in his amassing a vast fortune. He had pur- 

 chased, about 1850, an estate on the banks of 

 the Hudson, where he had erected a sort of 

 castle, which he named Fonthill ; this he sub- 

 sequently sold, for a convent, at a large ad- 

 vance, and, in 1855, purchased a beautiful resi- 

 dence in Philadelphia, to which, on abandon- 

 ing the stage in 1858, he retired, and began to 

 gather that magnificent library which, for 

 years past, has been reputed the most com- 

 plete in the United States in its collection of 

 every thing appertaining to the drama. But 

 he could not be contented away from the 

 stage, and, in 1860, he returned to it, with 

 even more than his old enthusiasm. It was 

 in his engagement of that year, at San Fran- 

 cisco, that he first gave to the public his ma- 

 jestic creation of Richelieu, which, in its subse- 

 quent renderings, has been variously criticised, 

 but is now generally admitted to be one of the 

 best, if not the very best, of American crea- 

 tions of dramatic genius. He remained upon 

 the stage, though with longer intervals of rest, 

 every year till the winter of 1871, when he 

 was compelled by illness to desist from his la- 

 bors. He appeared in public, in New York, 

 at Stein way Hall, November 19 and 22, 1872, 

 only three weeks before his death, not as an ac- 

 tor, but a reader of " Hamlet," and " Othello," 

 but his step was feeble, his action had lost its 

 old intensity, and there only remained his 

 magnificent voice, and even in the cadences of 

 this there was much that was sad and mourn- 



ful. He died of apoplexy, surviving the attack 

 only a half-hour. 



As an actor, Mr. Forrest belonged wholly to 

 the school of physical and sensuous art. He 

 was industrious and painstaking in his endeav- 

 ors to give to this school all the development 

 of which it was capable, but he never went 

 beyond it, never suspected himself capable of 

 committing an error, never sought to improve, 

 even in those particulars in which he was most 

 constantly criticised. 



FOWLER, Rev. HENET, a Presbyterian 

 clergyman, journalist, professor, and author, 

 born in Stockbridge, Mass., in 1824; died at 

 Vineyard Haven, Mass., August 4, 1872. He 

 received his early education in Stockbridge, 

 which has always been celebrated for the ex- 

 cellence of its schools, and graduated with 

 high honors from Williams College in 1847. 

 A year or two after his graduation Mr. Fowler 

 came to New York and entered upon a lit- 

 erary career. He was editor of Holders Mag- 

 azine, and a large contributor to other jour- 

 nals and periodicals. In 1852 or 1853 he re- 

 moved to Chicago, and was editor and part 

 proprietor of the Chicago Tribune for a year 

 or more. From this position he was called to 

 the professorship of Political Economy in the 

 University of Rochester, which he filled most 

 acceptably for nearly five years, studying 

 theology meanwhile in the Rochester Theolo- 

 gical Seminary. In 1858 he was licensed and 

 almost immediately called to the pastorate of 

 the Second Presbyterian Church in Auburn, 

 over which he was ordained the same year. 

 He married in 1858 the daughter of Rev. 

 Chester Dewey, D. D., at that time a professor 

 in Rochester University. His pastorate in 

 Auburn continued till 1871, when he resigned 

 in consequence of ill-health, but had remained 

 in Auburn till two or three weeks before his 

 death, when he visited Vineyard Haven in the 

 hope of restoring his eyesight and improving 

 his general health by sea-bathing, but soon 

 after his arrival was seized with apoplexy. 

 Mr. Fowler was the author of "The American 

 Pulpit," a volume of biographical and de- 

 scriptive sketches of living pulpit celebrities, 

 published in 1852, which had a large sale. 



FRANCE, a republic of Europe. Presi- 

 dent, Adolphe Thiers, elected August 31, 1871. 

 General Secretary, Barthelemy St. Hilaire. 

 The ministry, at the close of the year 1872, 

 was composed as follows : Minister of Justice, 

 Dufaure; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Charles 

 de Remusat; Minister of the Interior, De 

 Goulard ; Minister of Finances, Leon de Say ; 

 Minister of the Navy, Vice-Admiral Pothuau; 

 Minister of Public Instruction, Worship, and 

 Arts, Jules Simon ; Minister of Agriculture 

 and Commerce, Teisserene de Bort ; Minister 

 of War, General de Cissey. 



The National Assembly consists of 738 mem- 

 bers, elected on February 8 and on July 2, 

 1871. President, Jules Grevy; Vice-Presi- 

 deiits, Vitet, Benoist d'Azy, M. S. M. Girardin ; 



