Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/341

Rh on lady Forbes's health, permitted him to feel the luxury of travelling in those delightful regions without any alloy. In going up the Rhine, he was arrested by a sentinel, while sketching the splendid castellated cliffs of Ehrenbreitzen; and only liberated on the commanding officer at the guard-house discovering that his drawings had nothing of a military character. The English society at Rome and Naples was very select that year, and he made many agreeable acquaintances, both in the Italian and British circles; to which he always afterwards looked back with the greatest interest During the whole tour he kept a regular journal, which he extended when he returned home, at considerable length.

He was frequently offered a seat in parliament, both for the city of Edinburgh, and the county of Aberdeen; but he uniformly declined the offer. In doing so, he made no small sacrifice of his inclinations to a sense of duty; for no man ever enjoyed the society of the metropolis more than he did; and none had greater facilities for obtaining access to its most estimable branches, through his acquaintance with Dr Johnson, the Literary Club, the archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishop of London. But he felt that the attractions of this refined and intellectual society might withdraw him too much from hispeculiar and allotted sphere of usefulness in life; and, therefore, he made a sacrifice of his private wishes in this particular to his conscientious feelings: a proceeding which, though strictly in unison with what his character would lead us to expect, is a greater instance of self-denial, than most men under similar temptations could have exerted.

His high character, extensive wealth, and old, and once ennobled family, naturally pointed him out as the person, in all Scotland, most worthy of being elevated to the peerage. In 1799, accordingly, his friend lord Melville wrote to him, that Mr Pitt proposed to recommend to his majesty to bestow an Irish peerage upon him. Though highly flattered by this unsolicited mark of regard in so high a quarter, his native good sense at once led him to see the disadvantages of the glittering offer. After mentioning it to lady Forbes, who entirely concurred with him, he resolved, however, to lay the matter before his eldest son, the late Sir William, whom he justly considered as more interested in the proposed honour, than he could be at his advanced years. He communicated the proposal, accordingly, to Mr Forbes, without any intimation of his opinion, and desired him to think it maturely over before giving his answer. Mr Forbes returned next day, and informed him, that personally he did not desire the honour; that he did not conceive his fortune was adequate to the support of the dignity; and that, although he certainly would feel himself bound to accept the family title of Pitsligo, if it was to be restored, yet, he deemed the acceptance of a new title too inconsistent with the mercantile establishment with which his fortunes were bound up, to render it an object of desire. Sir William informed him that these were precisely his own ideas on the subject; that he was extremely happy to find that they prevailed equally with one so much younger in years than himself; and that he had forborne to express his own ideas on the subject, lest his parental influence should in any degree interfere with the unbiassed determination of an individual more particularly concerned than himself. The honour, accordingly, was respectfully declined; and at the same time so much secrecy observed respecting a proposal, of which others would have been ready to boast, that it was long unknown to the members even of his own family, and only communicated shortly before his death, by the late Sir William, to his brothers, lord Medwyn, and George Forbes, Esq., on whose authority the occurrence is now given.

So scrupulous were his feelings of duty, that they influenced him in the