strongly siding with the missionaries. In consequence of these distractions he gave nothing to the press for about nine years, with the exception of ‘Introductory Observations to Dr. Marshman's Statement’ (London, 1828), a ninth edition of the ‘Essays,’ a paper entitled ‘Observations on Mr. Hall as a Preacher,’ prefixed to an edition of Hall's ‘Works’ (London, 1832), two letters on ‘The Church and the Voluntary Principle,’ which appeared in the ‘Morning Chronicle’ in 1834, and five letters on ‘The Ballot,’ which were published in the same journal in 1835. A number of letters to friends and half a dozen more articles for the ‘Eclectic’ sum up all that he wrote from this time till his death. In 1836 his usually fine health began to give way. For fifty years he had not lain a day in bed. Now his lungs became diseased. On 24 Sept. 1843 he took to his room, and on Sunday morning, 15 Oct., he was found dead in bed. He was buried in the burial-ground attached to the Downend baptist chapel.
Foster held not a few peculiar opinions. He believed that ‘churches are useless and mischievous institutions, and the sooner they are dissolved the better,’ his wish being that ‘religion might be set free as a grand spiritual and moral element, no longer clogged, perverted, and prostituted by corporation forms and principles’ (letter, 10 Sept. 1828). Ordination he regarded as a lingering superstition. Though a baptist minister, he never once administered baptism, and was believed to entertain doubts regarding its perpetuity. Politically, he was a republican in early life, but though he ‘never ceased to regard royalty and all its gaudy paraphernalia as a sad satire on human nature’ (letter, 22 Feb. 1842), his attachment to republicanism became less ardent in his later years.
[Foster's Life and Correspondence, edited by J. E. Ryland, 1846, London, 2 vols. 8vo.]
FOSTER, JOHN (1787?–1846), architect, son of a builder and surveyor to the corporation of Liverpool, was born at Liverpool about 1787. He received his early professional training in the office of his father, which was followed by some years' study in the office of the eminent London architect, Wyatt. He assisted Charles Robert Cockerell [q. v.] in his investigations into the remains of ancient architecture in Greece, and while in that country discovered the sculptures of the pediment of the temple of Athene at Ægina. In 1814 he returned to Liverpool, and for a short time carried on along with his brother their father's private practice in that city. He was soon, however, called to his father's post of architect and surveyor to the corporation, which he held until the passing of the Municipal Reform Act in 1832, when he retired into private life, and died on 21 Aug. 1846. He was the designer of many of the handsomest public buildings of his native city, particularly the custom house, which has been extolled, perhaps extravagantly, by the German traveller Kohl as ‘unquestionably one of the most magnificent pieces of architecture of our age;’ the school for the blind, the railway station in Lime Street, the St. John's market, and the churches of St. Michael and St. Luke.
[Imperial Dict. of Biography.]
FOSTER, JOHN LESLIE (d. 1842), Irish judge, was the eldest son of William Foster, bishop of Clogher, who died in 1797, by Catherine, daughter of Henry Leslie, D.D., and grandson of Anthony Foster, lord chief baron of Ireland. He was admitted to Trinity College, Dublin, 1 March 1797, and graduated B.A. in 1800, LL.B. in 1805, and LL.D. in 1810 (Cat. of Graduates in Univ. of Dublin, 1591–1868, p. 205). He was called to the bar in Ireland in Michaelmas term 1803, but was for some time a member of Lincoln's Inn. In 1804 he published an ‘Essay on the Principles of Commercial Exchanges, particularly between England and Ireland,’ 8vo, London. He was afterwards appointed a commissioner for improving the bogs of Ireland. In 1806 he unsuccessfully contested Dublin University as a tory against the Hon. George Knox, LL.D., also a tory, but was returned the following year, and retained his seat until the general election of 1812. In March 1816 he again entered parliament as member for Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, was chosen advocate-general in Ireland in June of that year, and counsel to the commissioners of revenue in Ireland in April 1818. At the general election of 1818 he was returned for both Armagh and Lisburn, when he elected to serve for Armagh, and continued member until 1820. He was returned for the county of Louth at a by-election on 21 Feb. 1824, and again at the general election in 1826 (Lists of Members of Parliament, Official Return, pt. ii. 255, 264, 282, 298, 314). His two speeches in the House of Commons of 24 April 1812 and 9 May 1817, on Grattan's motion respecting the penal laws against the Roman catholics of Ireland, were published separately. On 4 Feb. 1819 he was elected F.R.S., being then member of the Royal Irish Academy and vice-president of the Dublin Society for the Improvement of Useful Arts. He was also king's counsel, and commissioner of the board of education in Ireland, and of the Irish fisheries. In 1825 he gave evidence
