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FORSTER, WILLIAM EDWARD (1818-1886)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 677 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FORSTER, See also:WILLIAM See also:EDWARD (1818-1886) , See also:British states-See also:man, was See also:born of Quaker parents at Bradpole in See also:Dorsetshire on the 11th of See also:July 1818. He was educated at the See also:Friends' school at See also:Tottenham, where his See also:father's See also:family had See also:long been settled, and on leaving school he was put into business. He declined, however, on principle, to enter a brewery. Becoming in due See also:time a woollen manufacturer in a large way at See also:Bradford, See also:Yorkshire (from which after his See also:marriage he moved to Burley-i '-Wharfedale), he soon made himself known as a See also:practical philanthropist. In 1846-1847 he accompanied his father to See also:Ireland as distributor of the Friends' See also:relief fund for the See also:famine in See also:Connemara, and the See also:state of the See also:country made a deep impression on him. In 1849 he wrote a See also:preface to a new edition of See also:Clarkson's See also:Life of William See also:Penn, defending the Quaker statesman against See also:Macaulay's criticisms. In 1850 he married Jane Martha, eldest daughter of the famous Dr See also:Arnold of See also:Rugby. She was not a. Quaker, and her See also:husband was formally excommunicated for marrying her, but the Friends who were commissioned to announce the See also:sentence " shook hands and stayed to See also:luncheon,," Forster thereafter ranked himself as a member of the See also:Church )f See also:England, for which, indeed, he was in later life charged with having too See also:great a partiality. There were no See also:children of flue marriage, but when Mrs Forster's See also:brother, William Arnold, died in 1859, leaving four orphans, the Forsters adopted them as their own. One of these children was Mr H. O.

Arnold-Forster (185y-Iwo), the well-known Liberal-Unionist member of See also:

parliament, who eventually became a member of Mr See also:Balfour's See also:cabinet; he was secretary to the See also:admiralty (1900-1903), and then secretary of state for See also:war (1903-1905), and was the author of numerous educational books published by See also:Cassell & Co., of which See also:firm he was a director. W. E. Forster gradually began to take an active See also:part in public affairs by speaking and lecturing. In 1858 he gave a lecture before the See also:Leeds Philosophical Institution on " How we See also:Tar See also:India." See also:Ili 1859 he stood as Liberal See also:candidate for Leeds, but was beaten. But he was highly esteemed in the See also:West See also:Riding, and in 1861 he was returned unopposed for Bradford. In 1865 (unopposed) and in 1868 (at the See also:head of the See also:poll) he was again returned. He took a prominent part in parliament in the debates on the See also:American See also:Civil War, and in 1868 was made under-secretary for the colonies in See also:Earl See also:Russell's See also:ministry. It was then that he first became a prominent See also:advocate of imperial federation. In 1866 his attitude on See also:parliamentary reform attracted a See also:good See also:deal of See also:attention. His speeches were full of knowledge of the real See also:condition of the See also:people, and contained something like an See also:original See also:programme of See also:Radical legislation. " We have other things to do," he said, " besides extending the See also:franchise.

We want to make Ireland loyal and contented; we want to get rid of See also:

pauperism in this country; we want to fight against a class which is more to he dreaded than the holders of a 7 franchise—I mean the dangerous class in our large towns. We want to see whether we cannot make for the agricultural labourer some better See also:hope than the workhouse in his old See also:age. We want to have Old England as well taught as New England." In these words he heralded the See also:education See also:campaign which occupied the country for so many years afterwards. Directly the Reform See also:Bill had passed, the See also:necessity of " inducing our masters to learn their letters" (in See also:Robert See also:Lowe's phrase) became pressing. Mr Forster and Mr See also:Cardwell, as, private members in opposition, brought ire Education Bills in 2867 and 1868; and in 1868, when the Liberal party returned to See also:office, Mr Forster was appointed See also:vice-See also:president of the See also:council, with the See also:duty of preparing a See also:government measure for See also:national education. The Elementary Education Bill (see EDUCATION) was introduced on the 27th of See also:February 1870. The religious difficulty at once came to the front. The See also:Manchester Education See also:Union and the See also:Birmingham Education See also:League had already formulated in the provinces the two opposing theories, the former See also:standing for the preservation of denominational interests, the lktter advocating See also:secular See also:rate-aided education as the only means, of protecting See also:Nonconformity against the Church. The Dissenters were by no means satisfied with Forster's " See also:conscience clause" as contained in the bill, and they regarded him, the ex-Quaker, as a deserter from their own See also:side; while they resented the " 25th clause,", permitting school boards to pay the fees of needy children at denominational See also:schools out of the rates, as an insidious attack' upon themselves, By the x4th of See also:March, when the second See also:reading came on, the controversy had assumed threatening proportions; and Mr See also:Dixon, the Liberal member for Birmingham and chairman of the Education League, moved an See also:amendment, the effect of which was to prohibit all religious education in See also:board schools. The government made its rejection a question of confidence, and the amendment was withdrawn; but the result was the insertion of the See also:Cowper-See also:Temple clause as a See also:compromise before the bill passed. Extremists on both sides abused Forster, but the government had a difficult set of circumstances to deal with, and he acted like a prudent statesman in contenting himself with what he could get. An ideal bill was impracticable; it is to Forster's enduring See also:credit that the bill of 187o,. imperfect as it was, established at last some approach to a See also:system of national education in England without See also:running absolutely See also:counter to the most cherished See also:English ideas and without ignoring the See also:principal agencies already in existence.

Forster's next important See also:

work was in passing the See also:Ballot See also:Act of 1872, but for several years afterwards his life was uneventful. In 1874 he was again returned for Bradford, in spite of Dissenting attacks, and he took his full See also:share of the work of the Opposition Front See also:Bench. In 1875, when Mr See also:Gladstone " retired," he was strongly supported for the leadership of the Liberal party, but. declined to be nominated against See also:Lord Hartington. In the same See also:year he was elected F.R.S., and made lord See also:rector of See also:Aberdeen University. In 1876, when the Eastern question was looming large, he visited See also:Servia and See also:Turkey, and his subsequent speeches on the subject were marked by studious moderation, distasteful to extremists on both sides. On Mr Gladstone's return to office in 188o he was made See also:chief secretary for Ireland, with Lord Cowper as lord-See also:lieutenant. He carried the See also:Compensation for Disturbance Bill through the See also:Commons, only to see it thrown out in the Lords, and his task was made more difficult by the agitation which arose in consequence. During the gloomy autumn and See also:winter of 188o–1881 Forster's See also:energy and devotion in grappling with the situation in Ireland (see IRELAND) were indefatigable, his labour was enormous, and the See also:personal risks he ran were many; but he enjoyed the Irish See also:character in spite. of all obstacles, and inspired genuine admiration in all his coadjutors. On the 24th of See also:January 1881 he introduced a new See also:Coercion Bill in the See also:House of Commons, to deal with the growth of the See also:Land Icague, and in the course of his speech declared it to be " the most painful duty " he had ever had to perform, and one which would have prevented his accepting his office if he had known that it would fall upon. him. The bill passed, among its. provisions being one enabling the Irish government to See also:arrest without trial persons " reasonably suspected of See also:crime andconspiracy. The Irish party used every opportunity in and out .of parliament for resenting this act, and Forster was kept constantly on the move between See also:Dublin and See also:London, conducting his campaign against crime and anarchy and defending it in the House of Commons. His scrupulous conscientiousness and anxiety to meet every reasonable claim availed him nothing with such antagonists, and the See also:strain was intense and continuous.

He was nicknamed " Buckshot " by the Nationalist See also:

press, on the supposition that he had ordered its use by the See also:police when firing on a See also:crowd. On the 13th of See also:October Mr See also:Parnell was arrested, and on the loth the Land League was proclaimed. From that time Forster's life was in See also:constant danger, and he had to be escorted by mounted police when he drove in Dublin. See also:Early in March 1882 he visited some of the worst districts in Ireland, and addressed the crowd at See also:Tullamore on the subject of outrages, denouncing the people for their want of courage in not assisting the government, but adding, " whether you do or not, it is the duty of the government to stop the outrages, and stop them we will." Forster's See also:pluck in speaking out like this was fully appreciated in England, but it was not till after 'the revelations connected with the See also:Phoenix See also:Park murders that the dangers he had confronted were properly realized, and it became known that several plans to See also:murder him had only been frustrated by the merest accidents. On the and of May Mr Gladstone announced that the government intended to See also:release Mr Parnell and his See also:fellow-prisoners in Kilmainham, and that both Lord Cowper and Mr Forster had in consequence resigned; and the following Saturday Forster's successor, Lord See also:Frederick See also:Cavendish, was, with Mr See also:Burke, murdered in Phoenix Park. 'It was characteristic of the man that Forster at once offered to go back to Dublin temporarily as chief secretary, but the offer was declined. His position naturally attracted universal attention towards him, particularly during the debates which ensued in parliament on the " Kilmainham Treaty." But Mr Gladstone's See also:influence with the Liberal party was See also:paramount, in spite of the damaging See also:appearance of the compact made with Parnell, and Forster's pointed criticisms only caused thoroughgoing partisans to accuse him of a See also:desire to avenge himself. It was not till the next session that he delivered his fiercest attack on Parnell in the debate on the address, denouncing him for his connexion with the Land League, and quoting against him the violent speeches of his supporters and the articles of his newspaper See also:organs. It was on this occasion that Parnell, on Forster's charging him, not with directly planning or perpetrating outrages or murder, but with conniving at them, ejaculated " It's a See also:lie "; and, replying on the next See also:day, the Irish See also:leader, instead of disproving Forster's charges, bitterly denounced his methods of See also:administration. Though, during the few remaining years of his life, Forster's See also:political See also:record covered various interesting subjects, his connexion with these stormy times in Ireland throws them all into See also:shadow. He died on the 6th of See also:April 1886, on the See also:eve of the introduction of the See also:Home See also:Rule Bill, to which he was stoutly opposed. In the See also:interval there had been other questions on which he found himself at variance with Gladstonian Liberal-ism, for instance, as regards the See also:Sudan and the See also:Transvaal; nor was he inclined to See also:stomach the claims of the See also:Caucus or the Birmingham programme.

When the Redistribution Act divided Bradford into three constituencies, Forster was returned for the central See also:

division, but he never took his seat in the new parliament. Forster, like See also:John See also:Bright, was an excellent representative of the English See also:middle-class in public life. Patriotic, energetic, See also:independent, incorruptible, shrewd, See also:fair-minded, he was endowed not only with great sympathy with progress, but also with a full See also:faculty for resistance to See also:mere democraticism. He was tall (the Yorkshiremen called him " Long Forster ") and strongly though stiffly built, and, with his See also:simple tastes and straightforward See also:manners and methods, was a typical See also:North-country figure. His See also:oratory was rough and unpolished, but full of freshness and force and genuine feeling. It was Forster who, when appealing to the government at the time of See also:Gordon's danger at See also:Khartum, spoke of Mr Gladstone as able to persuade most people of most things, and himself of almost anything," and though the phrase was much resented by Mr Gladstone's entourage, the truth that underlay it may be taken as representing the very converse of his own character. His personal difficulties with some of his colleagues, both in regard to the Education Act of 1870 and his Irish administration, must be properly understood if a See also:complete comprehension of his political career is to be obtained. For an See also:account of them we need only refer to the Life of the Right Hon. W. E. Forster, by See also:Sir T. See also:Wemyss See also:Reid.

(H. Cli.) FORSYTH, See also:

PETER See also:TAYLOR (1848– ), British See also:Nonconformist divine, was born at Aberdeen in 1848. He took first-class honours in See also:classics at Aberdeen, subsequently studied at See also:Gottingen (under See also:Ritschl) and at New See also:College, See also:Hampstead, and entered the Congregational ministry. Having held pastorates at See also:Shipley, See also:Hackney, Manchester, See also:Leicester and See also:Cambridge, he became principal of Hackney Theological College, Hampstead, in 1901. In 1907 he delivered the Lyman See also:Beecher lectures on See also:preaching at Yale University, published as See also:Positive Preaching and See also:Modern Mind. Among his other publications may be mentioned See also:Religion in See also:Recent See also:Art, and articles in the Contemporary See also:Review, Hibbert See also:Journal, and London Quarterly. He was chairman of the Congregational Union of England and See also:Wales in 1905.

End of Article: FORSTER, WILLIAM EDWARD (1818-1886)

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