Page:EB1911 - Volume 11.djvu/51

 FRASER, JAMES (1818–1885), English bishop, was born at Prestbury, in Gloucestershire, on the 18th of August 1818, and was educated at Bridgnorth, Shrewsbury, and Lincoln College, Oxford. In 1839 he was Ireland scholar, and took a first class. In 1840 he gained an Oriel fellowship, and was for some time tutor of the college, but did not take orders until 1846. He was successively vicar of Cholderton, in Wiltshire, and rector of Ufton Nervet, in Berkshire; but his subsequent importance was largely due to W. K. Hamilton, bishop of Salisbury, who recommended him as an assistant commissioner of education. His report on the educational condition of thirteen poor-law unions, made in May 1859, was described by Thomas Hughes as “a superb, almost a unique piece of work.” In 1865 he was commissioned to report on the state of education in the United States and Canada, and his able performance of this task brought him an offer of the bishopric of Calcutta, which he declined, but in January 1870 he accepted the see of Manchester. The task before him was an arduous one, for although his predecessor, James Prince Lee, had consecrated no fewer than 130 churches, the enormous population was still greatly in advance of the ecclesiastical machinery. Fraser worked with the utmost energy, and did even more for the church by the liberality and geniality which earned him the title of “the bishop of all denominations.” He was prominent in secular as well as religious works, interesting himself in every movement that promoted health, morality, or education; and especially serviceable as the friendly, unofficious counsellor of all classes. His theology was that of a liberal high-churchman, and his sympathies were broad. In convocation he seconded a motion for the disuse of the Athanasian Creed, and in the House of Lords he voted for the abolition of university tests. He died suddenly on the 22nd of October 1885.

A biography by Thomas Hughes was published in 1887, and an account of his Lancashire life by J. W. Diggle (1889), who also edited 2 vols. of University and Parochial Sermons (1887).

FRASER, JAMES BAILLIE (1783–1856), Scottish traveller and author, was born at Reelick in the county of Inverness on the 11th of June 1783. He was the eldest of the four sons of Edward Satchell Fraser of Reelick, all of whom found their way to the East, and gave proof of their ability. In early life he went to the West Indies and thence to India. In 1815 he made a tour of exploration in the Himalayas, accompanied by his brother William (d. 1835). When Reza Kuli Mirza and Nejeff Kuli Mirza, the exiled Persian princes, visited England, he was appointed to look after them during their stay, and on their return he accompanied them as far as Constantinople. He was afterwards sent to Persia on a diplomatic mission by Lord Glenelg, and effected a most remarkable journey on horseback through Asia Minor to Teheran. His health, however, was impaired by the exposure. In 1823 he married a daughter of Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, a sister of the historian Patrick Fraser Tytler. He died at Reelick in January 1856. Fraser is said to have displayed great skill in water-colours, and several of his drawings have been engraved; and the astronomical observations which he took during some of his journeys did considerable service to the cartography of Asia. The works by which he attained his literary reputation were accounts of his travels and fictitious tales illustrative of Eastern life. In both he employed a vigorous and impassioned style, which was on the whole wonderfully effective in spite of minor faults in taste and flaws in structure.

Fraser’s earliest writings are: Journal of a Tour through Part of the Himālā Mountains and to the Sources of the Jumna and the Ganges (1820); A Narrative of a Journey into Khorasan in the Years 1821 and 1822, including some Account of the Countries to the North-East of Persia (1825); and Travels and Adventures in the Persian Provinces on the Southern Banks of the Caspian Sea (1826). His romances include The Kuzzilbash, a Tale of Khorasan (1828), and its sequel, The Persian Adventurer (1830); Allee Neemroo (1842); and The Dark Falcon (1844). He also wrote An Historical and Descriptive Account of Persia (1834); A Winter’s Journey (Tâtar) from Constantinople to Teheran (1838); Travels in Koordistan, Mesopotamia, &c. (1840); Mesopotamia and Assyria (1842); and Military Memoirs of Col. James Skinner (1851).

 FRASER, SIR WILLIAM AUGUSTUS, Bart. (1826–1898), English politician, author and collector, was born on the 10th of February 1826, the son of Sir James John Fraser, 3rd baronet, a colonel of the 7th Hussars, who had served on Wellington’s staff at Waterloo. He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, entered the 1st Life Guards in 1847, but retired with a captain’s rank in 1852. He then set about entering parliament, and the ups and downs of his political career were rather remarkable. He was returned for Barnstaple in 1852, but the election was declared void on account of bribery, and the constituency was disfranchised for two years. At the election of 1857 Sir William, who had meantime been defeated at Harwich, was again returned at Barnstaple. He was, however, defeated in 1859, but was elected in 1863 at Ludlow. This seat he held for only two years, when he was again defeated and did not re-enter parliament until 1874, when he was returned for Kidderminster, a constituency he represented for six years, when he retired. He was a familiar figure at the Carlton Club, always ready with a copious collection of anecdotes of Wellington, Disraeli and Napoleon III. He died on the 17th of August 1898. He was an assiduous collector of relics; and his library was sold for some £20,000. His own books comprise Words on Wellington (1889), Disraeli and his Day (1891), Hic et Ubique (1893), Napoleon III. (1896) and the Waterloo Ball (1897).

FRASER, the chief river of British Columbia, Canada, rising in two branches among the Rocky Mountains near 52° 45′ N., 118° 30′ W. Length 740 m. It first flows N.W. for about 160 m., then rounds the head of the Cariboo Mountains, and flows directly S. for over 400 m. to Hope, where it again turns abruptly and flows W. for 80 m., falling into the Gulf of Georgia at New Westminster. After the junction of the two forks near its northern extremity, the first important tributary on its southern course is the Stuart, draining Lakes Stuart, Fraser and François. One hundred miles lower down the Quesnel, draining a large lake of the same name, flows in from the east at a town also so named. Farther on the Fraser receives from the west the Chilcotin, and at Lytton, about 180 m. from the sea, the Thompson, its largest tributary, flows in from the east, draining a series of mountain lakes, and receiving at Kamloops the North Thompson, which flows through deep and impassable canyons. Below Hope the Lillooet flows in from the north. The Fraser is a typical mountain stream, rapid and impetuous through all its length, and like most of its tributaries is in many parts not navigable even by canoes. On its southern course between Lytton and Yale, while bursting its way through the Coast Range, it flows through majestic canyons, which, like those of the Thompson, were the scene of many tragedies during the days of the gold-rush to the Cariboo district. At Yale, about 80 m. from its mouth, it becomes navigable, though its course is still very rapid. In the Cariboo district, comprised within the great bend of the river, near Tête Jaune Cache, are many valuable gold deposits. With its tributaries the Fraser drains the whole province from 54° to 49° N., except the extreme south-eastern corner, which is within the basin of the Columbia and its tributary the Kootenay.

FRASERBURGH, a police burgh and seaport, on the N. coast of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Pop. (1891), 7466; (1901), 9105. It is situated 47 m. by rail N. of Aberdeen, from which there is a branch line, of which it is the terminus, of the Great North of Scotland railway. It takes its name from Sir Alexander Fraser, the ancestor of Lord Saltoun, whose seat, Philorth House, lies 2 m. to the south. Sir Alexander obtained for it in 1613 a charter as a burgh of royalty, and also in 1592 a charter for the founding of a university. This latter project, however, was not carried out, and all that remains of the building intended for the college is a three-storeyed tower. The old castle of the Frasers on Kinnaird Head now contains a lighthouse, and close by is the Wine Tower, with a cave below. The town cross is a fine structure standing upon a huge hexagon, surmounted by a stone pillar 12 ft. high, ornamented by the royal and Fraser arms. The port is one of the leading stations of the herring fishery in the north of Scotland and the head