precision, and purity of expression. Forster was early naturalized in France, and he has received there most of the honours attainable in his profession. He received the decoration of the legion of honour in 1828; and in 1844 he was elected a member of the academie des beaux-arts. From the king of the Belgians Forster has received two medals, and he was, in 1845, created a knight of the order of Leopold.—J. T—e.
FORSTER, Frank, an able civil engineer, was born in 1800, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Having early learned the business of a mining engineer, he spent several years in the management of mining works of great extent and importance. About 1830 his great abilities became known to Robert Stephenson, by whom he was at once engaged as an assistant, and employed upon all his most important works, especially those requiring extensive tunnelling, and difficult earthwork. Amongst the best known of these may be cited the Kilsby tunnel and the Blisworth cutting on the London and Birmingham railway, and the division of the Chester and Holyhead railway nearest Holyhead, embracing tunnels, earthworks, and sea-walls of unusual difficulty, and the masonry of the Britannia bridge. He was afterwards selected as a mining engineer to examine an extensive coalfield in the state of Virginia. On the establishment of the metropolitan commissioners of sewers, he was unanimously appointed their engineer-in-chief. He resigned that office a short time before his death, which occurred suddenly on the 13th of April, 1852. In 1845 Forster was elected a member of the institution of civil engineers, in whose minutes of proceedings for 1852-53 a more detailed memoir of his life may be found. His personal character was honourable, generous, and amiable in the highest degree.—W. J. M. R.
* FÖRSTER, Friedrich, brother of Ernst Joachim, a prolific German historical and miscellaneous writer, was born at Münchengosserstedt on the Saale, Sept. 24, 1792. On leaving the university he joined the volunteer corps of Lützow, and on the restoration of peace was appointed to a professorship and afterwards to the second directorship in the museum at Berlin. Among the great number of his writings deserve to be mentioned his "Life of Wallenstein," whom he has successfully cleared from the charge of high treason; "Life of Frederick William I.;" "The Courts and Cabinets of Europe during the Eighteenth Century;" "Life of Frederick the Great," &c. He was besides one of the editors of the works of Hegel.—K. E.
FORSTER, George, a traveller, whose journey from India, through Persia and Russia, to England, attracted much notice in the close of the last century. He was in the civil service of the East India Company at Madras, and had distinguished himself by his acquaintance with the oriental languages and manners. Being thus enabled to personate a Mahommedan merchant, he set out from Lucknow in this character towards the close of 1782, and spent nearly a year on his route through the Punjaub, the valley of Cashmere, Cabul, Candahar, and Herat, to the Caspian sea. Thence he proceeded by Astrakan, Moscow, and St. Petersburg to England, which he reached about the middle of 1784. He afterwards returned to India, and died there in 1792. The first volume of his travels was published at Calcutta two years before his death, and contains, besides his account of the regions which he visited between Oude and the Caspian, a sketch of the Hindoo mythology, and historical notices of the Rohillas and the Sikhs. A second volume was published in England after his decease, detailing his journey from the Caspian to his native country. Though his historical disquisitions are not always accurate, the trustworthy and interesting character of his personal observations gave value to the work, and a French translation of it was published at Paris in 1802.—W. B.
FORSTER, Johann, a learned and zealous Lutheran of the Reformation era, was born at Augsburg in 1495. After embracing the doctrines of Luther, he became a teacher of Hebrew at Zwickau, and was one of Luther's coadjutors in the important work of translating the Holy Scriptures into the German tongue. By Luther's recommendation he obtained in 1535 the pastorate of St. Maurice in Augsburg, and he was afterwards promoted to a theological chair in Tübingen; but both at Augsburg and Tübingen his polemical violence in attacking the Zwinglians involved him in troubles. In 1541 he was dismissed from Tübingen. He afterwards preached in Nürnberg, Regensburg, and Schleusingen. In 1543 he succeeded, on the death of Cruciger, to a chair at Wittemberg, in which office he continued till his death. He took part in the controversies excited in the Lutheran church by the teaching of Osiander, and accompanied Melancthon to the conference which was held at Naumburg for the purpose of putting an end to the strife. His principal work was a Hebrew lexicon.—P. L.
FORSTER, Johann Georg Adam, son of Johann Reinhold, was born at Nassenhuben, November 26, 1754. He was almost exclusively educated by his father, whom he not only accompanied to Saratow (he was at that time eleven years of age), but also to England and round the globe, and whom he assisted in all his studies and literary labours. On his return he was appointed professor of natural history at Cassel, and some years later at Wilna, whence he was called to Mayence as librarian to the elector. On the outbreak of the French revolution he gave vent to his ardent revolutionary sympathies, and in 1792 was sent to Paris by the revolutionists of Mayence, in order to effect the annexation of this town to the French republic. When the Prussians took Mayence he lost all his property, and unable to keep his family, divorced his wife (a daughter of the celebrated philologist Heyne), who with his consent married his friend Huber. He resolved as a last resort to go to India, but broken and exhausted died at Paris, January 11, 1794. Forster must be ranked with the best prose writers of Germany. Besides his "Voyage round the World," he published "Views of the Lower Rhine," &c. in 3 vols., and "Miscellaneous Writings" in 6 vols. He first translated the Sacontala of Kalidasa into German. His life has been made the subject of an excellent novel by H. Koenig, under the title Die Klubisten von Mainz. See also Franc. Moleschott, G. Forster der Naturforscher des Volks, 1859.—K. E.
FORSTER, Johann Reinhold, an eminent German naturalist, was born at Dirschau, Oct. 22, 1729, of a family said to be of Scotch origin. Against his inclination he was educated for the church, and even appointed minister of a village called Nassenhuben, near Dantsic. As ethnology and natural history had always been his favourite studies, he gladly accepted an offer of the Russian government to inspect the German colonies in the neighbourhood of Saratow in 1765. Being, however, left without remuneration for his services, and superseded in his cure at Nassenhuben, he proceeded to London, where he earned a scanty livelihood by selling his collections and translating for the booksellers—a task for which he was eminently fitted, as in the course of his life he acquired a competent knowledge of no less than seventeen languages, ancient and modern. He declined a protestant cure in America which was offered him, but became professor of natural history and modern languages in an academy at Warrington. In 1772 he was commissioned to accompany Captain Cook in his circumnavigation of the globe. Contrary to the injunction of government he published on his return his "Observations made during a Voyage round the World," which were translated into German by his son George. Forster received no other reward than the diploma of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford, and was again left unprovided for. He therefore became involved in debt, but was released by the duke of Brunswick, and called to Halle, where till his death, on the 9th December, 1798, he filled the chair of natural history. He was a man of shrewd sense, high mental powers, and most extensive learning, but of a violent and somewhat reckless temper, and always careless of his private affairs. When introduced to Frederick II., Forster thus addressed him—"I have seen seven kings, four wild ones and three tame ones; but none of them equals your majesty." Though he has left comparatively few works—"Zoologia Indica;" "Descriptio Characterum et Plantarum," &c. &c.—yet he will always be considered as one of the greatest promoters of natural history.—K. E.
* FORSTER, John, an eminent author and journalist, was born at Newcastle in 1812, and educated with a view to the bar at London university. Mr. Forster is a barrister of the Inner Temple, but has never, we believe, followed his profession very actively. A fellow-student in the first law class of the university with Napier, Whiteside, and the late Dr Cooke Taylor, Mr. Forster was a prominent member of a debating society formed by the class, and out of it arose a London University Magazine, afterwards the Englishman's Magazine, to the latter of which he contributed a series of papers on the "Early Patriots of England," the germ of his "Statesmen of the Commonwealth." At the early age of twenty-two he became associated with his friend Mr. Fonblanque in the conduct of the Examiner, as its literary and theatrical editor. In his hands newspaper criticism assumed a new importance, and for many
