Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/402

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388 FORBES climate, he was obliged after two or three years to return to England. He then entered Brasenose College, Oxford, where in 1841 he obtained the Boden Sanskrit scholarship, and in 1841 took his degree of B.A. He was at Oxford during the early years of the great religious movement known for some time as Puseyism, and he was powerfully influenced by association with its leaders, Newman, Pusey, and Keble, and entered heartily into their views and aims. In 1844 he was ordained deacon and priest in the English Church, and held an English curacy; but being naturally attracted to the Episcopal Church of his native land, then recovering from long depression, he removed in 1846 to Stonehaven, the chief town of Kincarclineshire. The same year, however, he was appointed to the vicarage of St Siviour s, Leeds, and co-operated in a mission formed there, with strong Romanizing tendencies, which ere long collapsed. In 1847 Forbes was called to succeed Bishop Moir in the see of Brechin. He removed the episcopal residence to Dundee, where he resided till his death, com bining the pastoral charge of the congregation with the duties of the see. He laboured in season and out of season, never sparing himself when work was to be done, and won not only golden opinions but warm affections, especially among the working classes. Through his energy and devoted endeavours several new churches were built in Dundee, and among them the pro-cathedral of St Paul s. He was once prosecuted in the church courts for heresy; the accusation being founded on his primary charge, delivered and published in 1857, in which he set forth his views on the eucharist. He made a powerful defence of the charge, and was acquitted with " a censure and an admonition." Keble wrote in his defence, and was present at his trial at Edinburgh. Forbes was a good scholar, and above all a scientific theologian, and his social qualities were such as to endear him to all who knew him. He was author of treatises on the Nicene Creed and the Thirty-nine Articles, various commentaries and devotional works, discourses, and reviews. He died at Dundee, October 8, 1875. FORBES, DAVID (1828-1876), F.R.S., an accomplished traveller, mineralogist, metallurgist, chemist, and writer on chemical geology, brother of Professor Edward Forbes, was born at Douglas, Isle of Man, and received his early education there and at Brentwood in Essex. When a boy he manifested " an enthusiastic disposition as regards science," and at the age of fourteen had already acquired a remarkable knowledge of chemistry. This sub ject he studied at the university of Edinburgh, and he was still young when he was appointed superintendent of the mining and metallurgical works at Espedal in Norway. Subsequently he became a partner in the firm of Evans & Aiken, nickel-smelters, of Birmingham, and in that capacity visited Chili, Bolivia, and Peru. He died in London, December 5, 1876. Micro-petrology and chemical geology owe much to the researches of David Forbes. Besides reports for the Iron and Steel Institute, of which, during the last years of his life, he was foreign secretary, lie wrote upwards of 50 papers on scientific subjects, among which are the following : " The Action of Sulphurets on Metallic Silicates at High Temperatures," Eep. Brit. Assoc., 1855, pt. ii. p. 62; "The Relations of the Silurian and Metamorphic Rocks of the south of Norway," /&., p. 82; "The Caus3s producing Foliation in Rocks," Journ. Geol. 8oc., xi., 1855 ; " The Chemical Composition of the Silurian and Cambrian Limestones," Phil. Mag., xiii. pp. 365-373, 1857; "The Geology of Bolivia and Southern Peru," Journ. Geol. /Soc., xvii. pp. 7-62, 1861. FORBES, DUNCAN (1685-1747), of Culloden, was born at Bunchrew or at Culloden near Inverness on the 10th of November, 1685. After he had completed his studies at the universities of Edinburgh and Leyden, he was admitted advocate at the Scottish bar in 1709. His own talents and the influence of the Argyll family secured his rapid advancement, which was still further helped by his loyalty to the Hanoverian cause at the period of the rebellion in 1715. In 1722 Forbes was returned member for Inver ness, and in 1 725 he succeeded Dundas of Arniston as lord advocate. He inherited the patrimonial estates on the death of his brother in 1734, and in 1737 he attained to the highest legal honours in Scotland, being made lord president of the Court of Session. As lord advocate, he had laboured to improve the legislation and revenue of the country, to extend trade and encourage manufactures, and no less to render the Government popular and respected in Scotland. In the proceedings which followed the memorable Porteous mob, for example, when the Government brought in a bill for disgracing the lord provost of Edinburgh, for fining the corporation, and for abolishing the town-guard and city-gate, Forbes both spoke and voted against the measure as an unwarranted outrage on the national feeling. As lord president also he carried out some useful legal reforms ; and his term of office was characterized by quick and impartial administration of the law. The rebellion of 1745 found him at his post, and it tried all his patriotism. For some years before, he had repeatedly and earnestly urged upon the Government the expediency of embodying Highland regiments, putting them under the command of colonels whose loyalty could be relied upon, but officering them with the native chieftains and cadets of old families in the north. " If Government," said he, " pre-engages the Highlanders in the manner I propose, they will not only serve well against the enemy abroad, but will be hostages for the good behaviour of their relations at home ; and I am persuaded that it will be absolutely impossible to raise a rebellion in the Highlands." Such a plan was afterwards successfully pursued by Chatham ; but, though Walpole is said to have approved of the scheme, it was not adopted by the council. On the first rumour of the Jacobite rising Forbes hastened to Inverness, and through his personal influence with the chiefs of Macdonald and Macleod, those two powerful western clans were prevented from taking the field for Charles Edward ; the town itself also he kept loyal and well protected at the commencement of the struggle, and many of the neighbouring proprietors were won over by his persuasions. His correspondence with Lord Lovat, published in the Culloden papers, affords a fine illustration of his character, in which the firmness of loyal principle and duty is found blended with neighbourly kindness and consideration. But at this critical juncture of affairs, the apathy of the Government interfered con siderably with the success of his negotiations. Advances of arms and money arrived too late, and though Forbes employed all his own means and what money he could borrow on his personal security, his resources were quite inadequate to the emergency. It is doubtful whether these advances were ever fully repaid. Part was doled out to him, after repeated solicitations that his credit might be maintained in the country; but it is evident he had fallen into disgrace in consequence of his humane exertions to mitigate the impolitic severities inflicted upon his country men after their disastrous defeat at Culloden. The in gratitude of the Government, and the many distressing cir cumstances connected with the insurrection, sunk deep into the mind of Forbes. He never fairly rallied from the depression thus caused, and after a period of declining health he died on the 10th of December 1747, in the sixty- thiid year of his age. Forbes was a patriot without ostentation or pretence, a true Scotsman with no narrow prejudice, an accomplished and even erudite scholar without pedantry, a man of genuine piety without