Account of George Forfter. 
many eleganthiftorians : and the above I 
have heard, with fome variations, from 
many perions, as wellas from Mr. James 
Anderfon, of Stockwell-ftreet fugar-houle 
in Glalgow, who was not in the leaft de, 
gree conneéted with any of my kindred. 
JOHN ANDERSON, 
Profeffor of Natural Philoiophy. 
Glafgow College, May 5, 1798. 
Ee 
Some Accounr af the late GEORGE 
FORSTER. 
By CHarres PouGeEns *, 
HIS celebrated writer was born at 
JL Dantzick. His father, a proteitant 
minifter, when he was only twelve years 
ot age, fent him to England, and he was 
fcarcely 19 when he embarked, in order 
to accompany Cook in his fecond voyage 
round the world, ‘The expedition conii- 
nued during tlie {pace of three years, and 
young Fortter, on his return, publifhed 
an excellent account of it, in Englifh and 
German. This work, however, expe- 
rienced but little fuccefs, beeaule it was 
the produétion of a foreigner, and gave 
umbrage to the eabinet of St. James’s; 
and becaufe the author, with the trankne/s 
of a philofopher, developed certain truths, 
which the government withed to have con- 
cealed. 
Befides this, the Englifh ariftocracy 
was rather diffatisfied with a former pub- 
lication, in which he examined, with all 
the feverity of a. free-thinker, {ome ot the 
numerous abufes of the Britith conititu- 
tion. This injurious partiality made 
him determine to leave London: he ac- 
cordingly repaired to Paris, where Buf- 
fon and d’Aubenton received him with 
that attention which philofophers always 
evince towards cofimopolites. 
The learned Forfter was defirous to 
fettle in France. Avaricicus cf giory, 
and an idolator of liberty, Paris was the 
city moft fuitable to his tae and cha- 
ra¢ter of any in Europe. Novtwithftand- 
ing this, he was {oon ¢conftrained to leave 
it; the intereft ef his family demanded 
this facrifice: for a learned man, who 
fails rourid the world, may enrich his 
memory, but he willnct better his for- 
tune. He was accordingly obliged to 
accept the place of proteilor of natural 
hiftory in the univeriity of Caflel. But 
could any perfon endued with fuch a 
mind, give fatisfattion, ih a country 

* Cuartes Poucens, the tranflator of 
Forfter’s works cut of German into French, 
has been bliad ever fince he was 27 years of 
age. 
361 
whofe princes are unceafingly occupied in 
rendering the traffic in their own fubjet&ts 
more profitable? {rritated at the fupor 
into which they had found means to 
plunge the Heilians, this man, whofe 
heart was alone replete with energy and 
fenfibility, did every thing in his power 
to withdraw himfelf from a fituation fo 
unfuitable to a thinking being, 
The fenate of Poland having offered 
him a chair inthe univerfity of Wilna, 
Foifter acéepted of the invitation. How- 
ever, although this office was very lucra- 
tive, and the enlightened patriots of that 
country did not négleét to procure him 
all the literary fuccours of which he ftood 
in tieed, he could not be long happy ina 
{emi-barbarous nation, in which liberty 
was fuffered to expire under the intrigues 
of Ruffia and Pruffia. iy 
On this, he accepted of the propofi- 
tions of Catharine, who, jealous of every 
{fpecies of glory, wifhed to behalze her 
reign, by procuring to the Ruflian nation, 
the honour of undertaking, after the ex- 
ample of France and England, a new 
voyage of difcovery round the world. 
Unfortunately for the progrefs of know- 
ledge, the war with the Ottoman Porte 
eccafioned the milcarriage of this ufeful 
project. 
But Forfter could not long remain in 
obfcurity. The different publications 
with which he occafionally enriched na-: 
tural hiftory, and literattre, encreafed 
his reputation. The eleétor of Mentz 
accordingly appointed him prefident of 
the univerfity of the fame name, and he 
was diichargitig the functions of his new 
office, when. the French troops took pof- 
feflion of the capital. This philofophi- 
cal traveller, who had ftudied fociety 
under all the varicts afpects arifing from 
Gifferent degrees of civilizdtion; whe 
had viewed man fimple and happy at 
Otaheite—an eater of human flefh in New 
Zealand—corrupted with avarice in Eng- 
land, where the word refocéfable + is fyno- 
nimous with »zch—depraved in France by 
luxury—in Poland by anatchy—and in 
Brabant by duperftition; muft, undoubt- 
edly, have beheld, with enthufiaim, the 
dawnings of 4 revolution that enfured to 
mankind, atone and the {ame time, their 
rights and their happineis. Accordingly, 
he was the firft to premulge republican 
principles in Germany. 
The Mayencois, who had formed thent- 
felves into a national convention, fent 

_t A rieky in London, is called a refpecto 
ate bonker.’’ 
5 La Zz 

him 
