Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/39

 and both for style and matter it is still one of the best books on Italy in our language.

 FORSYTH, ROBERT (1766–1846), miscellaneous writer, son of Robert Forsyth and Marion Pairman of Biggar, Lanarkshire, was born in 1766. His parents were poor, but gave him a good education, with a view to ‘making him a minister.’ When only fourteen he entered Glasgow College. He says of himself that he ‘had slow talents, but great fits of application.’ After the usual course of study he obtained license as a probationer of the church of Scotland. As he spoke without notes (‘the paper’), and was somewhat vehement and rhetorical in his style, he gained considerable popularity. But having no influence he grew tired of waiting for a parish. He then turned his attention to the law, but the fact that he was a licentiate of the church was held as an objection to his being admitted to the bar. Refused by the Faculty of Advocates, he petitioned the court of session for redress. The court ruled that he must resign his office of licentiate. This he did. Still the faculty resisted. There were vexatious delays, but at last, in consequence of a judgment of Lord-president Campbell, the faculty gave way, and in 1792 Forsyth was admitted an advocate. Disappointment again awaited him. He had fraternised with the ‘friends of the people,’ and was looked on with suspicion as a ‘revolutionist,’ and this marred his prospects. He turned to literature, and managed to make a living by writing for the booksellers. He contributed to the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ ‘Agriculture,’ ‘Asia,’ ‘Britain,’ and other articles (1802–3). He also tried poetry, politics, and philosophy, but with little success. Eventually he obtained a fair practice at the bar, where he was noted for his dogged industry, blunt honesty, and pawky humour. His chief works are ‘Principles and Practice of Agriculture’ (2 vols. 1804), ‘The Principles of Moral Science’ (vol. i. 1805), ‘Political Fragments’ (1830), ‘Observations on the Book of Genesis’ (1846). But the work by which he is best known is ‘The Beauties of Scotland’ (5 vols. 1805–8), which is still held in some repute, not only for its valuable information, but for the many engravings which it contains of towns and places of interest. Forsyth, who had always adhered loyally to his church, published in 1843, when seventy-six years old, ‘Remarks on the Church of Scotland,’ &c. This brought him under the lash of Hugh Miller, then editor of the ‘Witness,’ who not only reviewed the pamphlet (14 Jan. 1843) with merciless severity, but also recalled some of Forsyth's speculations in philosophy, which he covered with ridicule and scorn. It is curious that in two of these speculations he seems to have had an inkling of opinions largely current in the present time. ‘Whatever has no tendency to improvement will gradually pass away and disappear for ever.’ This hints at the ‘survival of the fittest.’ ‘Let it never be forgotten then for whom immortality is reserved. It is appointed as the portion of those who are worthy of it, and they shall enjoy it as a natural consequence of their worth.’ This seems the doctrine of ‘conditional immortality’ now held by many Christians. Hugh Miller says ironically of these views: ‘It was reserved for this man of high philosophic intellect to discover, early in the present century, that, though there are some souls that live for ever, the great bulk of souls are as mortal as the bodies to which they are united, and perish immediately after, like the souls of brutes.’ He died in 1846.

 FORSYTH, THOMAS DOUGLAS (1827–1886), Anglo-Indian, born at Birkenhead on 7 Oct. 1827, was the tenth child of Thomas Forsyth, a Liverpool merchant. He was educated at Sherborne and Rugby, and under private tuition until he entered the East India Company's College at Haileybury, where he remained until December 1847. After a distinguished course he embarked for India in January 1848, and arrived at Calcutta in the following March. Here he gained honours in Persian, Hindustani, and Hindi at the company's college, and in September of the same year was appointed to a post under Edward Thornton at Saharunpore. On the annexation of the Punjaub after the second Sikh war in March 1849, he was appointed to take part in the administration of the new province, and was sent by Sir Henry Lawrence, together with Colonel Marsden, as deputy-commissioner over him, to Pakputtun. He was shortly afterwards appointed by Lord Dalhousie to the post of assistant-commissioner at Simla. While holding this post he married in 1850 Alice Mary, daughter of Thomas Plumer, esq., of Canons Park, Edgware. He was next stationed at Kangra, where he remained till 1854, when an attack of brain fever obliged him to return for a time to England. On going back to India he spent a short time as deputy-commissioner, first at Gurdaspur and subsequently at Rawal Pindee, whence he was transferred in 1855