Russia in disgust, and had proceeded to England, with very little money, but with strong recommendations. After his arrival in London, he received from the Russian government a present of a hundred guineas; and by translating Kalm's Travels and Osbeck's Voyage, he procured some additional funds towards the support of his family. He had an offer from lord Baltimore of being superintendant of his extensive property in America, but this he declined, and accepted the place of teacher of the French, German, and natural history, in the academy of Warrington. This place, however, he left soon after, and returned to London, where he resided in very confined circumstances till the year 1772, when he was engaged to go out as naturalist with captain Cook, who was then ready to proceed on his second voyage round the world. Forster at this time was forty-three years of age, and was accompanied by his son George, then seventeen. He returned to England in the year 1775, and soon after, the university of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of doctor of laws. After his return he published, conjointly with his son, a botanical work in Latin, containing the characters of a number of new genera of plants which had been discovered by them in the course of their circumnavigation. An account of the voyage having been published in English and German by young Forster, in which the father was supposed to have had a considerable share, though he had entered into an engagement not to publish any thing separately from the authorised narrative, they not only incurred the displeasure of government, but gave offence to the principal friends by whom they had been patronised. This work abounded with reflections injurious to the government in whose service they had been, and unfavourable to the navigators who had conducted the expedition. They were therefore treated with so much coolness that they both determined to quit England. Fortunately for Forster, after struggling some time with poverty and misfortunes in London, he was invited to Halle, in 1780, to be professor of natural history: he was also appointed inspector of the botanical garden; and as this office was connected with the faculty of medicine, he next year got the degree of M. D. The loss of his son George, who died at an early period of life, made a deep impression on Forster, whose health was already in a declining state; and in the spring of the year 1798, his case was so desperate, that he expressed himself as a dying man in a letter to his friend Karsten, dated Halle, April 14. He

did not long survive this letter, dying on the 9th of December, 1798, at the age of sixtynine years and some months. Forster is represented as a man of a highly irritable and quarrelsome disposition, of which he is said to have given several instances during his voyage round the world; and which, added to a total want of prudence in common affairs, involved him, notwithstanding his talents, in perpetual dithculties. The following character of him by his friend the celebrated Kurt Sprengel, of Halle, exhibits him in a more favourable point of view: "To a knowledge of books, in all branches of science, seldom to be met with, he joined an uncommon fund of practical observations, of which he well knew how to avail himself. In natural history, in geography, both physical and moral, and in universal history, he was acquainted with a vast number of facts, of which he who draws his information from works only has not even a distant idea. This as sertion is proved in the most striking manner by his 'Observations made in a Voyage round the World.' Of this book it may be said, that no traveller ever gathered so rich a treasure on his tour. What person of any education can read and study this work, which is unparalleled in its kind, without discovering in it that species of instructive and pleasing information which most interests man, as such? The uncommon pains which Forster took in his literary compositions, and his conscientious accuracy in historical disquisitions, are best evinced by his History of Voyages and Discoveries in the North,' and likewise by his excellent archæological dissertation On the Byssus of the Ancients.' Researches such as these were his favourite employment, in which he was greatly assisted by his intimate acquaintance with the classics. Forster had a predilection for the sublime in natural history, and aimed at general views rather than detail. His favourite author therefore was Buffon, whom he used to recommend as a pattern of style, especially in his Epoques de la Nature, his description of the horse, camel, &c. He had enjoyed the friendship of that distinguished naturalist, and he likewise kept up an uninterrupted epistolary intercourse with Linnæus till the death of the latter. Without being a stickler for the forms and ceremonies of any particular persuasion, he adored the eternal author of all who exists in the great temple of nature, and venerated his wisdom and goodness with an ardour and a heart-felt conviction, that in my opinion alone constitute the criterion of true religion. He held in utter contempt all those who, to gratify their pas

sions or imitate the prevailing fashion, made a jest of the most sacred and respectable feelings of mankind. His moral feelings were equally animated; he was attracted with irresistible force by whatever was true, good, or excellent. Great characters inspired him with an esteem which he sometimes expressed with incredible ardour."-His works, besides those above mentioned, are for the most part compilations and translations. He was the author also of several papers published in the Philosophical Transactions, the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, the Transactions of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Petersburgh, and those of other learned societies. Der Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin Neue Schriften; Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica; Monthly Magazine; Meusel's Gelehrte Teutschland.-J.

FORSTER, GEORGE, son of the preceding, was born at Dantzic in 1754, and came over with his father to England, when about twelve years of age. He studied some time in the academy of Warrington; and soon acquired a perfect use of the English tongue. He dis⚫tinguished himself greatly also by his attainments in science and literature in general, as he possessed an excellent memory with quick parts and a fertile imagination. He accompanied his father round the world with captain Cook; and on quitting England, as mentioned in the preceding article, was desirous of settling in France. He accordingly resided some time at Paris; but in the year 1779 he was appointed professor of natural history in the university of Cassel. The senate of Poland having afterwards offered him a chair in the university of Wilna, he accepted the invitation; but though this office was very lucrative, and though the enlightened patriots of that country did not neglect to procure him all the literary assistance he stood in need of, he could not be long happy in a semi-barbarous nation, in which liberty was suffered to expire under the intrigues of Russia and Prussia. He therefore entered into a treaty with Catherine II. who, emulous of every species of glory, wished to distinguish her reign by procuring to the Russian nation the honour of undertaking, after the example of England and France, a new voyage of discovery round the world; but unfortunately for the progress of science, the war with the Ottoman Porte disappointed Forster's hopes, and prevented the execution of this useful project. Forster, however, could not long remain in obscurity, as the different publications with which he had enriched natural history and lite

rature had increased his reputation. The elector of Mentz appointed him president of the university of the same name, and he was discharging the duties of his office when the French troops took possession of that city. This philosophical traveller, who had studied society under all the various aspects arising from different degrees of civilisation, beheld with enthusiasm the dawnings of the French revolution, and was the first, says M. Pougens, from whom this account is chiefly taken, to promulgate republicanism in Germany. The people of Mentz, who had formed themselves into a national convention, sent him to Paris to request that they might be united to the French republic; but while employed on this mission, the city of Mentz was besieged and retaken by the Prussian troops. This event occasioned the loss of all his property, and what was still more disastrous, of his numerous manuscripts, which fell into the hands of the prince of Prussia. Having afterwards experienced some domestic uneasiness of the conjugal kind, he resolved to undertake a journey to Tibet and Indostan, for which he made preparations by studying the oriental languages; but the chagrin occasioned by his misfortunes, added to a scorbutic affection to which he had been long subject, and which he had contracted at sea during his voyage round the world, put an end to his existence, before he could carry his plan into effect. He died at Paris at the age of thirty-nine, on the 13th of February, 1792. His works are: "A Voyage round the World in his Britannic Majesty's Sloop Resolution, commanded by Captain James Cook,' during the Years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775, London, 1777, two vols. 4to. In conjunction with his father, he made a German translation of this work, which was published at Berlin in two volumes quarto, 1778-1780. "Reply to Mr. Wales's Remarks on Mr. Forster's Account of Captain Cook's last Voyage," Lond. 1778, 4to.: "Letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Sandwich," 1779, 4to. He was concerned for some time with professor Lichtenberg of Gottingen in the publication of the Gottingen Magazine: he wrote also some papers in the Transactions of the Academy of Sciences at Upsal; had a share in the "Characteres generum Plantarum, &c." of his father; and was employed with professor Pallas and others in the continuation of Martini's Dictionary of Natural History. Account of his Life, by Pougens; Meusel's 'Gelehrte Teutschland.-J.

FORSTER, NATHANIEI, a learned divine

of the church of England in the eighteenth century, was born at Stadscombe, in the parish of Plimstock, Devonshire, of which his father was then minister, in the year 1717. Soon after his birth his father removed to Plymouth, where he initiated his son in the rudiments of a grammatical education, and afterwards sent him to the public grammar school in that town. Young Forster made a rapid progress both under the instructions of his father, and in the seminary into which he was transplanted, of which he became head scholar before he was thirteen years old. In 1731-2 he was removed to Eton, and at the same time entered at Pembroke college, Oxford, in order to entitle him to the benefit of an exhibition of forty pounds per annum. After passing about sixteen months at Eton, while Dr. George was head master, he went to college, and became a pupil of Dr. Radcliffe. In 1733 he was admitted scholar of Corpus Christi college, where Dr. Burton was tutor; and, after taking his degree of B. A in $735, and that of M. A. in 1738, was in 1739 elected a fellow of that institution. Afterwards he took the care of pupils, in the capacity of assistant to Mr. Paget, the college tutor; but was disappointed in the wishes which he enter tained of succeeding that gentleman in his office. He received deacon's orders in 17,8-9, and was ordained a priest in 1741-2. He was admitted to the degree of bachelor of divinity in 1746, as soon as his standing allowed, in order to preserve his seniority in college. His time was chiefly spent at college, in a close application to his studies; by which he deservedly acquired a high character for very considerable erudition, and great critical acumen; possessing a knowledge of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, equal to that of any man of his time. The productions which he sent into the world during these years of unremitting literary labour, will be enumerated at the end of this article. The first preferment which he obtained in the church was the small rectory of Hethe, in Oxfordshire, to which he was presented in 1749 by lord-chancellor Hardwicke, on the recommendation of his earliest friend, Dr. Secker, then bishop of Oxford. Dr. Secker also introduced him to the notice of his friend Dr. Butler, at that time bishop of Bristol, to whom he became domestic chaplain when in the year 1750 that prelate was translated to the see of Durham. In the year last mentioned, before he quitted the university, Mr. Forster was admitted to the degree of doctor of divinity. He He continued chaplain to bishop Butler till the death of that prelate, which unfortunately took

place before he had the opportunity of receiv ing from him any substantial mark of his affection and esteem." The bishop, however, gave evidence of the regard which he had for him, by bequeathing him a legacy of two hundred pounds, and appointed him executor to his will. After the disappointment which the death of the bishop occasioned, Dr. Forster returned to college, with a determination again to devote his time to literary exertions. But he was very soon called out of his retirement, and in the year 1752 was made one of the chaplains to Dr. Herring, archbishop of Canterbury. In the year 1754 he was promoted to a prebendal stall in the church of Bristol; and before the expiration of it was presented by the archbishop to the valuable vicarage of Rochdale, in Lancashire. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1755; made one of the chaplains to his majesty in 1756; and appointed preacher at the Rolls chapel in 1757. In the year last mentioned he married a lady of much merit, and possessed of a considerable fortune; on which occasion he fixed his residence in Craig'scourt, Westminster. He died in that situation,. after a short illness, before the end of 17757, in the forty-first year of his age. Among his connections and friends he had to rank many of the most learned and respectable characters of his age; and he is commended for the judicious temperate manner which he possessed of exposing absurdity or correcting vice, and for the discernment, mildness, and benevolence, which he displayed in private life. The following is a list of his works: "Reflections on the Natural Antiquity of Government, Arts, and Sciences, in Egypt," 1743; "Platonis Dialogi quinque: Recensuit, Notis illustravit, Nathaniel Forster, A. M. &c." 1745; "Appendix Liviana, continens, I. Selectus Codicum, MSS. & Editionum Antiquarum Lectiones, præcipuas variorum Emendationes, & Supplementa Lacunarum in iis T. Livii quæ supersunt Libris: II: J. Freinshemii Supplementorum Libros X in Locum Decadis secundæ Livianæ deperditæ," 1746; "Popery destructive of the Evidence of Christianity, a Sermon preached before the University of Oxford at St. Mary's, Nov. 5, 1746;" "A Dissertation upon the Account supposed to have been given of Jesus Christ by Josephus; being an Attempt to shew that this celebrated Passage, some slight Corrections only excepted, may reasonably be esteemed genuine," 1749; "Biblia Hebraica, sine Punctis, accurante Nath. Forster, &c." 1750; and "Remarks on the Rev. Dr. Hebbing's Dissertation on the Power of States to deny Čivil Protection

to the Marriages of Minors, &c." 1755. It should be observed, that the "Appendix LiAppendix Liviana," was a joint publication of Dr. Forster and another fellow of Corpus Christi college, and was published without a name. The author's dissertation on the account supposed to have been given by Josephus, is allowed to be ingenious by Mr. Bryant, who has undertaken to defend the passage as it stands; and by bishop Warburton it was pronounced the best piece of criticism which the age has produced. Dr. Lardner, with his usual candour, has made some observations on Dr. Forster's reasoning, the tendency of which is to controvert the authenticity of the passage. Kippis's Collections for the Biog. Brit.-M.

FORT, FRANCIS LE, a person to whom fortune gave a considerable share in the civilisation of a great empire, was descended from an ancient and noble family of Geneva, where he was born in 1656. An enterprising disposition caused him to quit his father's house at the age of fourteen, and enter as a cadet in the French service. I-e afterwards served in Holland as a volunteer, and was wounded at the siege of Grave. The hopes of preferment induced him to join a German colonel, who was enlisting a body of men for the czar Alexis. With him he arrived by sea at Archangel, where, on account of the unsettled st te of Russia subsequent to the death of that czar, they were exposed to want and neglect. Le Fort got to Le Fort got to Moscow, and became secretary to the Danish resident. He learned the Russian language; and being acquainted with three or four others, and possessed of a good appearance and confident manner, he attracted the notice of several persons of distinction, and finally of the young czar Peter. That prince found him such a person as he wanted to assist him in his efforts to raise himself and his subjects from barbarism. He immediately made him a captain of foot, and admitted him to his confidence. Le Fort himself was not a man of extensive knowledge, but he had the seeds of great talents, which developed themselves in proportion to his advancement; and he had seen enough of the arts and policy of civilised Europe to be able to suggest to the enquiring mind of his master those plans on which the improvement of his country depended. He was employed to raise a body of 12,000 men, chiefly intended to keep the Strehitzes in awe, and he was made their general. Soon after, though unacquainted with naval affairs, he was created an admiral; and his activity rendered him very useful in forming the commencement of that marine which was the

favourite object of the czar's life. The conduct of the siege of Asoph in 1696 was committed to him; and he acquitted himself in it so well, that the czar entrusted him with the chief command of all his troops both by land and sea. He was also appointed to the government of Novogorod, and to the first place in the ministry. When Peter took the resolution of travelling for his own improvement, he created Le Fort his embassador to the courts he intended to visit, and travelled as a private person in his train. Irom the influence he possessed over his master, Le Fort was enabled sometimes to control him in the fits of violence and intemperance to which he was too liable; yet at a carousal in Germany, the czar drew his sword upon his favourite, who narrowly escaped with his life. Peter, when sober, expressed great concern for this sally. Le Fort retained all his favour and consequence till his death, at Moscow, in 1699. The czar honoured him with a most magnificent funeral, and himself assisted at the procession as a military officer. Moreri. Mod. Univers. Hist.-A.

FOR TESCUE, sir JOHN, a learned English lawyer and judge in the fifteenth century, was (according to the best authority) third son of sir Henry Fortescue, lord chief-justice of Ireland. Of his birth-place and education we have no exact account; but it appears that he resided as a lawyer in Lincoln's-inn, and distinguished himself by his learned lectures. He attained the degree of a serjeant-at-law in 1430, and was made chief-justice of the King's Bench in 1442. He appears to have been a principal counsellor in the court of Henry VI., and he faithfully adhered to the interests of that unfortunate king. When the success of Edward IV. obliged Henry to take refuge in Scotland, Fortescue attended him; and it was probably there that Henry created him chancellor of England. In the mean time he was attainted of high-treason by Edward's parliament in 1461, and another person was appointed chief-justice in his stead. He was never acknowledged as chancellor by that party, nor ever exercised the office in England. In 1463 he accompanied queen Margaret, prince Edward, and the principal adherents of the house of Lancaster, in their flight to Flanders; and passed many years upon. the continent in a state of exile. In that condition he composed his celebrated work "De Laudibus Legum Angliæ," addressed to the prince Edward, son of Henry VI. with the patriotic purpose of giving him just notions of the laws and con titution of his country, and an attachment to them, should he ever arrive at

the crown.

He returned to England, with the queen and the prince, on the news of the defection of the earl of Warwick from king Edward, and was taken prisoner after the battle of Tewksbury in 1471, which totally ruined the hopes of the house of Lancaster. Edward gave him his release and pardon, which he merited by composing a retractation of a paper he had written against the title of the house of York. Candour may suppose that reasoning, and not the success of arms, had effected this change in his opinion. What was of more importance, he retained his former sentiments concerning the constitution, and drew up a work in English on "The Difference between an Absolute and Limited Monarchy, as it more particularly regards the English Constitution." He wrote some other treatises which have remained in MS. He did not again enter into public life, but passed the residue of his days in retirement. He is said to have attained nearly his ninetieth year, but the time of his death is not ascertained. He was interred in the parish church of Ebburton or Ebrighton in Gloucestershire, of which place he possessed the manor. The work of sir John Fortescue "De Laudibus Legum Anglia" is written in Latin, in the dialogue form, and is accounted a very curious and valuable record of the grounds and principles of the law of England as understood at that time, and of various circumstances relative to the mode of education in the inns of court. It is rather an express panegyric of the common law, than a fair comparison of it with the civil or other foreign systems, though some of the points of preference on which it dwells are very justly stated. One of the most valuable parts of it is that which treats of the difference between the two forms of government which he calls regal and political, meaning by the first absolute monarchy, and by the second, one limited by laws; and as he explicitly includes the government of England among the latter, he has been quoted in opposition to the opinion of Hume, the spirit of whose history is to shew that our parliaments had no proper legislative power. Several editions have been made of this work both in Latin and English. The last and best, enriched with a historical preface and notes, was published by Mr. Gregor in 1775, octavo. His work "On the Difference between an Absolute and Limited Monarchy," published first by lord Fortescue in 1714, appears to be chiefly a repetition in English of what is said in the preceding piece concerning the constitution of England, with the addition of a number of observations meant for the

service of king Edward. Thus, in considering the best mode of increasing the king's revenues, he proposes augmenting the crown lands by means of resumptions; and to prevent the distress which would fall upon those from whom the royal grants should be resumed, he recom mends that a large subsidy should be granted to the king, in order to enable him to make good their losses. If he did not perceive that this advice tended to make the king absolutely independent of his people, his penetration must have been small; if he was aware of this consequence, he can scarcely be thought a consistent friend to a limited government. Biog. Britan.— A.

FORTIGUERRA, NICHOLAS, an Italian poet and ecclesiastic, born in 1674, was descended from an ancient family of that name at Pistoia. He arrived at the prelacy under Clement XI. and his house at Rome was the resort of all the distinguished men of letters in that capital. He had great expectations of a cardinal's hat from Clement XII.; but the pontiff delayed his promotion so long, that Fortiguerra fell into a lingering disease through vexation, which carried him off in 1735, at the age of sixty-one. He is principally known by his burlesque poem entitled "Ricciardetto,' which was written on the following occasion: Being present at a debate concerning the rela tive superiority of Ariosto and Tasso, Forti-, guerra supported that of the latter poet; and as a proof of the ease with which a person of moderate imagination might imitate the manner of Ariosto, he undertook to compose the piece in question, which he finished in a short time. The "Ricciardetto," to which the author's Grecised name of Carteromaco is usually annexed, is a poem of thirty cantos in ottava rima, full of the extravagance and disorder natural to one. who sits down with the purpose of saying all that comes into his head, but pleasant and fanciful, and written in easy verse. It was first published in 1738, quarto, and since at Paris, 1768, three volumes twelves. Fortiguerra also wrote a translation in verse of the comedies of Terence, printed at Urbino in 1736 with the Latin text. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-A.

FORTIUS, JOACHIM. See RINGELBERGIUS. FOSCARINI, MICHAEL, a Venetian senator, born in 1628, was employed by the republic to continue the history of Venice, by Nani. His work was published in 1696, and forms the tenth volume of the "Collection of Historians of Venice," 1718, quarto. He is not reckoned equal to his predecessor as a writer, yet his documents are of good authority. Two novels of