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 discipline of the quaker body, and being the only child of parents who had passed their first youth, he early showed signs of a serious habit of mind. 'The simplicity of the quaker style of living,' says his biographer, 'was at all times characteristic of the ways of the little household,' and the boy acquired a 'certain quaint formalism of manner and speech,' and talked politics with his parents before he had learnt to play with children of his own age. His father's long absences on missionary expeditions threw him very much into the society of his mother, whose 'bright and vivacious temperament' acted as some corrective to the severity of a quaker education. In August 1831 he was sent to school at Fishponds House, Bristol, and after a year to Mr. Binns's school, at Grove House, Tottenham, both kept by Friends. Here he remained until the close of 1835, receiving what must be considered a very fair education, and not only studying English and other history independently, but 'setting himself for his leisure time in the evening, two evenings for themes, two for mathematics, one for Latin verse, and one for Greek Testament and sundries' (letter to his father dated 8th month, 31 day, 1834). Other letters written about the same time show his interest in political movements, especially those with which his uncle Buxton was associated.

While capable of quick and firm resolution in matters of religious duty, the elder William Forster was curiously unsettled about his son's career. He was oppressed by 'a leaden-weighted lethargy.' Moreover, when the decision had been given in favour of a business career, as that which would most certainly tend to worldly prosperity, he discouraged by every means in his power his son's attempts to change this for an opening offered into public life. Finally, through his Norfolk connections, a place was found for Forster in the manufactory of Mr. Robberds at Norwich, where handloom camlets were made for export to China. Here he remained for two years, and in July 1838 he left Norwich for Darlington to learn other branches of the wool business with the Peases of that town. He worked for twelve hours a day in the woollen mill, and for several hours in the evening he studied mathematics and politics. At the same time he began to take some part in public life. His uncle offered to take him as private secretary, and after his father had put a veto on this plan, he himself offered to join the Niger expedition. But neither project came to anything, and in 1841 he entered the woollen business at Bradford. In 1842 he became the partner of Mr. William Fison, woollen manufacturer, and this partnership continued to the end of Forster's life. They began on borrowed capital, and had to meet, during many years, innumerable difficulties, but in due time took a place among the most prosperous houses of the district. Forster joined various committees, took a share in the battle of free trade, and formed a number of acquaintances of all sorts, not excluding such extreme men as Robert Owen, the socialist, and Thomas Cooper, the chartist. He also became acquainted with Frederick Denison Maurice, John Sterling, and, above all, with the Carlyles, with whom for several years he kept up an intimate acquaintance.

Forster paid two visits to the famine-stricken districts of Connemara in 1846 and 1847. He, with his father, was distributor of the relief fund collected by the Friends, and of the second of these visits he wrote an account, which was printed at the time. His descriptions, besides being vivid and truthful pictures of terrible scenes, show that extra-ordinary kindliness which in him always underlay the somewhat rough exterior. He was much occupied by the revolutions of 1848, especially that in France, with its echoes among the chartists of this country. A strong liberal, he was for meeting the chartists halfway, and his efforts in Bradford are believed to have had no little effect in preventing the extreme men among the chartists of that town from resorting to violence. He even attended a great meeting of chartists at Bradford, and, in his own words, 'roared from the top of a wagon to six or eight thousand people for nearly three quarters of an hour, and pushed a strong moral force resolution down their throats, at the cost of much physical force exertion' on his own part. In May 1848 he visited Paris. In the autumn of the same year he made a great impression in Bradford by a course of lectures on 'Pauperism and its proposed Remedies.' Next year his quakerism was roused by Macaulay's attacks on the character of William Penn, and he published a new edition of Clarkson's 'Life of Penn,' prefacing it by a long and able defence against the historian's charges. In the next year (1850) he left the Society of Friends, on his marriage with Jane Martha, eldest daughter of Dr. Arnold. For eighteen months they lived at Rawdon, and after that time moved to Burley-in-Wharfedale, where he and his partner had bought an old cotton mill, which they intended to convert into a worsted manufactory. Here, overlooking the beautiful river, he built a house, Wharfeside, which he always regarded as his home till the end of his life. In the ten following years Forster frequently appeared on platforms at Leeds and Bradford,