957 



FORSTER, GEORGE. 



FORSTER, JOHN. 



and Birmingham railway, inclusive of the Kilsby Tunnel and the 

 Bliaworth Cutting, and somewhat later he was resident engineer 

 of the portion of the Chester and Holyhead railway, from near 

 Conway to Holyhead, including the masonry of the Britannia Bridge, 

 and difficult works in sea-walls and tunnels along the line. On 

 the formation of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers, Mr. 

 Forster was appointed chief engineer, and was instructed to furnish 

 a general scheme of London sewerage, for which many plans had 

 been sent in to an invitation some time previously. He very soon 

 suffered from the effects of the arduous duties thrown upon him, 

 and which were rendered more difficult by numerous contending 

 opinions and interests. He himself was freely animadverted upon 

 by the press, and he was at length compelled to resign his appoint- 

 ment, and died suddenly a few weeks afterwards, on the 13th April 

 1852, in his fifty-second year. His reports and plans with reference 

 to the drainage of the north of London remain, and are under- 

 stood to have formed the basis of the schemes now under con- 

 sideration, and in which a partial commencement of work has been 

 made. 



FORSTER, GEORGE, a civil officer in the service of the East 

 India Company, is chiefly known by his journey in 1782 over-land 

 from India to Russia. He set off from Lucknow in December 1782, 

 and directed his route to tlie north by Fcrahabad, Rampoor, and by 

 the pan of Lall Dong into the upper regions of the Punjab, avoiding 

 the country of Lahore, which was possessed by the Seiks or Sikhs. 

 He then proceeded by Bellaspoor and Jombo into the great alpine 

 valley of Cashmere, which had not been visited by any European 

 traveller before him, Bernier excepted. Forster's account however 

 proved much more full and satisfactory than that of Bernier. Quitting 

 Cashmere, Forster proceeded to Cabul, crossing the Indus about 

 twenty miles above Attock. From Cabul he followed the caravan 

 road to Candahar, and thence by Herat to the southern coast of the 

 Caspian Sea. From Oude to the Caspian he was nearly twelve months 

 on his journey, the distmco being 2700 miles, amidst all sorts of 

 dangers and privations, which were much greater at that time than 

 they would be at present. He embarked at last at Meshed Ser on the 

 Caspian, and sailed from thence to Baku and Astrakhan, from which 

 last place he travelled to Moscow and Petersburg, where he arrived 

 at the end of May 1781. On his arrival in England he published 

 some sketches of Hindoo mythology. He afterwards returned to 

 India, and published in 1790 at Calcutta the first volume of his nar- 

 rative 'Journey from Bengal to England through the most northern 

 parts of India, Kashmere, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia 

 by the Caspian Sea.' On the commencement of hostilities with 

 Tippoo Sultan, Forster was sent as envoy to the Mahratta court of 

 Nagpore in the Deccan, where he died in 1792. The manuscript of the 

 sequel of his journey was sent to England, where it was published in 

 a second volume, but was edited without much care. The whole 

 work was translated into French by Langlea : ' Voyage de Bengale a 

 Petersburg," 3 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1802. Forster added to his narrative 

 two interesting notices of the Seiks and the Rohilla?. 



FORSTER, JOHN REINHOLD, was born in 1729, at Dirschau in 

 Western Prussia, of which town his father was burgomaster. Having 

 studied at Halle, he was appointed in 1753 to the cure of Vassenhoff 

 near Danzig. In 1765 he accepted an offer to go to Russia to take the 

 direction of the new colony established by Catharine at Saratof ; but 

 he soon left it in disappointment, and proceeded to England in 1766, 

 where he became known to Mr. Banks and others for his acquirements 

 in natural history. During his residence in England he employed 

 himself for some years as teacher in the Dissenters' academy at War- 

 rington in Lancashire. Through Mr. Banks's interest he was appointed 

 naturalist to the second expedition under Captain Cook, and he 

 sailed, together with his son George, on board the Resolution, in July 

 1772. A sum of 4000?. was granted by parliament for his expenses, 

 besides which it was verbally understood between him and the 

 Honourable Daiues Barrington, in the name of Lord Sandwich, that 

 Forster should be employed on bis return to write the history of the 

 voyage, and receive the profits of the publication. lu the course of 

 the voyage repeated disagreements took place between Forster and 

 the officers of the expedition, and Captain Cook himself appears to 

 have censured Forster's indiscretion and want of temper. After the 

 return of the expedition in July 1774, a controversy arose between 

 Forster and Lord Sandwich about writing the narrative of the voyage. 

 It was at last settled that Forster should write the philosophical, and 

 Cook the nautical parts of the work. Forster's manuscripts were to 

 be subject to Barrington's correction ; but on presenting a specimen of 

 his intended work, he was told that he mu.st not write a connected 

 narrative but only detached observations, and ultimately even these 

 were rejected. The consequence was that Cook's journal appeared 

 alone. Meantime Forster, the son, published a separate account of the 

 voyage in 1777; a circumstance which indisposed the admiralty still 

 more towards his father, who w.is believed to have had the principal 

 hare in the work, and who thus lost all hope that he might have 

 entertained of remuneration. Forstcr's account of the transactions is 

 givon in the letters of bis son George to Lord Sandwich, and to Mr. 

 Wales, who had written strictures on Forster's narrative. In 1778 

 Forsttr returned to Germany, and was well received at Berlin by 

 Frederic the Great, and was soon afterwards made professor oi 



natural history and mineralogy at Halle, where he remained till his 

 death, in December 1798. 



Forster was a man of vast information both, in the natural sciences 

 and in philosophy and general literature. His principal works are : 

 1, ' De Bysso Antiquorum,' 1775 ; 2, Characteres Generum Plantarum 

 quas in insulis Maris Australis collegit J. R. Forster,' 4to, 1776 ; 3, 

 ' Observations faites dans un Voyage autour du Monde, sur la Geo- 

 graphic physique, 1'Histoire Naturelle, et la Philosophie Morale,' 4to, 

 1778. This work was translated into various languages, and forms a 

 good supplement to Cook's journal, although the tone of Forster's 

 observations is not always in accordance with sound criticism. 

 4, 'Zoologia Indica,' 1781; 5, 'Histoire des De'couvertes et Voyages 

 fails dans le Nord,' 1784; 6, ' Tableau de 1' Angle terre pour I'anne'e 

 1780,' a satirical work written under the influence of disappointment 

 and animosity, and consequently with little discrimination. 



FORSTER, JOHN GEORGE, born in 1754, son of John R. Forster, 

 accompanied his father in the voyage with Captain Cook, and published 

 an account of the same in 1777, which involved him and his father in 

 an unpleasant controversy. This narrative does not differ materially 

 in the facts from Cook's journal. Forster however has added to his 

 work various observations, which he considered as philosophical, but 

 which are often only declamatory. His book was translated iuto 

 German, French, Swedish, and other languages. Forster having 

 returned to the continent, was made professor of natural history at 

 Cassel, and afterwards at Wilna, from which, last place he returned to 

 Germany about 1788, and was appointed librarian to the elector of 

 Mayence. After the French took Mayence in 1792, Forster, who had 

 become enthusiastic in the cause of the revolution, was chosen by the 

 republicans of that city to proceed to Paris, as their representative, to 

 request the incorporation of Mayence with the French republic. 

 While he was at Paris on this mission, the Prussians re-took Mayence, 

 and Forster lost all his property, including his books and manuscripts. 

 This loss, and other domestic disappointments, made him resolve on 

 leaving Europe, and he planned a journey to India and Tibet, pre- 

 paratory to which he applied himself to the study of the Oriental 

 languages; but he fell ill soon after, and died in January 1794. He 

 left several works ; among others, 'Ansichten von Nieder Rheiu, von 

 Brabant, Flanders, Holland, England, und Frankreich in 1790,' in 

 three parts, of which the last was published after his death, Berlin, 

 1794. This work was translated into French under the title of 

 ' Voyage Philosophique et Pittoresquo sur les Rives du Rhin,' &c., 

 3 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1795-96. The last volume contains an essay ou the 

 history of the fine arts in Great Britain. Forster wrote also ' Her- 

 barium Anstrale,' several memoirs on natural history, and various 

 political and philosophical sketches and pamphlets. Hutuboklt, in 

 his ' Kosmos," describes George Forster as of " noble, sensitive, and 

 ever-hopeful spirit," and says that "his smaller worka contain the 

 germ of much which, at a later period, has been brought to maturity." 



FORSTER, JOHN, was born at Newcastle in 1812. The Univer- 

 sity of London, which was fouuded in 1826, has given to our country 

 many distinguished men whose early education has been built upon 

 broader foundations than that of the classical and mathematical 

 studies of the ancient universities. Mr. Forster was a student in that 

 institution, in association with several others who have since risen 

 to eminence. The first Law Class (of which Mr, Andrew Amoa was the 

 teacher) was attended by him, and by Napier and Whiteside, famous 

 at the Irish bar and in the House of Commons, Mr. Craig, Q.C., the 

 late Dr. W. Cooke Taylor, and others, who have distinguished them- 

 selves. The members of this class established a ' London University 

 Magazine,' to which all contributed, and a debating society in which all 

 spoke. Out of the ' London University Magazine ' grew the ' English- 

 man's Magazine,' to which, among other tilings, Mr. Forster contributed 

 a series of biographical papers on the ' Early Patriots of England,' 

 the foundation of his ' Lives of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth.' 

 A diligent law-student, and a pupil of Chitty, Mr. Forster, after 

 keeping the usual terms, was called to the bar. With au ardent 

 devotion to literature, and with habits of friendship with young 

 men then struggling into celebrity as writers, Mr. Forster became a 

 valuable contributor to periodical works ; and early in .1834 was con- 

 nected with the 'Examiner,' of which, from 1846 he has been the 

 sole editor. During all those two-and-twenty years he has, without 

 the intermission of a single week, largely contributed to its pages. 

 In addition, for a period of eleven months, after the retirement of 

 Mr. Dickens, he was editor of the ' Daily News.' Of the general 

 character of the 'Examiner' we have already spoken; and have men- 

 tioned Mr. Footer's participation in its management. [FONBLANQUE.] 

 It is difficult to overvalue the influence of a systematic writer and 

 conductor of an. important journal. Writing anonymously, but 

 perfectly identified with the character of such a paper, he has con- 

 stantly to maintain the real consistency of his opinions amidst every 

 change of circumstances ; and that he can only do by having broad 

 constitutional principles for his guidance, and a never-ceasing desire 

 for the just amelioration of the social condition of every member of 

 the community. In his vocation of journalist, Mr. Forster has long 

 worked in a wide field of usefulness. But he has done as high 

 service as a critic as in his political function. He has always exhibited 

 a generous appreciation of merit of every degree. Some who are 

 now amongst the most celebrated have received their first encourage- 



