William Forbes

“ Lord Forbes, who was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, was a representative peer for Scotland from 1874 to 1906. His brother, the Hon. Atholl Monson Forbes, who was born in 1841, succeeds to the title. He married in 1876 Margaret Alice, youngest daughter of Sir William Dick Cunyngham eighth baronet, and his eldest and only surviving son is Atholl Lex G. Forbes, who was born in 1882. ”

“ During his later years Forbes was so entirely absorbed in his literary and scientific pursuits that he neglected to take sufficient exercise; the death of his wife, to whom he was profoundly attached, caused him to suffer severe mental trouble; his constitution, already enfeebled by a recurrent fever caught in South America, gave way, and he died on 5 Dec. 1876. Many representative men of science attended his funeral at Kensal Green cemetery, London, on 12 Dec. 1876. Forbes joined the Geological Society in 1853, and had been one of the secretaries since 1871. ”

“ For four years Forbes continued to reside at Chichester, but in 1840 he removed to London, chiefly with the object of improving the ‘Review.’ This move no doubt entailed upon him a considerable pecuniary loss, for he could never expect at the age of fifty-three (even though, through the influence of his friend, Sir James Clark, he was appointed physician to the queen's household) to obtain a London practice equal to what he had enjoyed at Chichester. ”

“ Then turning to us again he said: "Ninety-Third, you have bravely done your share of this morning's work, and Cawnpore is avenged! There is more hard work to be done; but unless as a last resource, I will not call on you to storm more positions to-day. Your duty will be to cover the guns [Pg 72] after they are dragged into position. But, my boys, if need be, remember I depend on you to carry the next position in the same daring manner in which you carried the Secundrabâgh." With that some one from the ranks called out, "Will we get a medal for this, Sir Colin?" ”

“ Major Neill was a son of Brigadier-General Neill commanding at Cawnpore during the first relief of Lucknow. General Neill went to the front as colonel commanding the First Madras Fusiliers.
[54] Workman; in this case a blacksmith.
[55] "Some of the incidents related by Mr. Forbes-Mitchell, and now for the first time brought to light in his most interesting series of Reminiscences, are of so sensational an order that we are not surprised that many persons to whom the narrator is a stranger should regard them with a certain incredulity. ”

“ One man would be lying calmly sleeping and commence muttering something inaudible, and then break out into a fierce battle-cry of "Cawnpore, you bloody murderer!"; another would shout "Charge! give them the bayonet!"; and a third, "Keep together, boys, don't fire; forward, forward; if we are to die, let us die like men!" Then I would hear one muttering, "Oh, mother, forgive me, and I'll never leave you again!"; while his comrade would half rise up, wave his hand, and call, "There they are! Fire low, give them the bayonet! Remember Cawnpore!" ”

“ But to the Christian, in grand contrast to the vanity and changeableness of this life, stands out like a rock the promise of the Eternal, the Self-existing, and Unchangeable Jehovah. "The Eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms!" ”

“ There may be a tussle, but Forbes is bound to cave in the end. He is infatuated with his wife and she knows her power. She is as set on this match as you could be. She’s had the bee in her bonnet for a good many years, to cut as great a dash in London as she does in New York. Of course she’s in it in a way when she’s over there for a month or two during the season, but she wants a long sight more than that. Her ancestry does her no good because the English trunk of the family died out two hundred years ago. ”

“ But then so many men had held her in their arms when she danced. Even his daring had not impressed her memory. So many men must have pressed her too daringly. It was part of the routine of her life, to rebuff men who made advances to her.
Forbes left the bridge and left the park, humbled to nausea. His cheeks were so scarlet that the conductor on the Seventh Avenue car stared at him. He could not bear to walk back to his hotel. When he reached there he went to his room, dejected. There was nothing in the town to interest him. New York was as cold and heartless as report had made it. ”

“ I said. “When I can't help it I tell the truth. I'm never reckless or immoderate in the use of it, for there's no sense in giving it out in chunks so big that they excite suspicion. I'm kind o' careful with the truth when I tell ye that Richard Forbes is better than all the statues and paintings and domes and golden ceilings in Italy.” ”

“ Forbes sat in the dark room in an arm-chair and muffled his bathrobe about him, watching the electric signs working like solemn acrobats—the girl that skipped the rope, the baby that laughed and cried, the woman that danced on the wire, the skidless tire in the rain, the great sibyl face that winked and advised chewing-gum as a panacea, the kitten that tangled itself in thread, the siphons that filled the glasses—all the automatic electric voices shouting words of light. ”

“ When I came away that night after our conversation with her I had entirely forgotten her failure as an actress, and it is only later, since I have thought over the evening in detail, that I have returned to my first standpoint of wonder at the easy toleration of the English public. When you are actually with her, talking to her, looking at her, Forbes's attitude is the only possible and reasonable one. ”

“ A fellow-countryman of Forbes has built beside Forbes's Road (now Forbes Street) , in the city of Pittsburg, a magnificent library. What could be more fitting or beautiful than that this brave Scotchman's memory should be honored with a monumental pillar here on his road which "opened the Great West to English enterprise?" And let it bear the sweet human testimony of a British historian: "No general was ever more beloved by the men under his command." [7]
↑ Forbes to Bouquet, August 28, 1756. ”

“ The life of John Forbes was written in Latin by Father Faustinus Cranius of Diest, under the title of ‘Alter Alexius, natione Scotus, nobili familia oriundus, nuper in Belgium felici S. Spiritus afflatu delatus, et in familiam Seraphici Patris S. Francisci Cappucinorum adscriptus, sub nomine F. Archangeli,’ Cologne, 1620, 12mo. ”

“ Forbes stared aghast at a wholesale condemnation that must include Mrs. Neff, Persis, Winifred, Alice, and the respectable rest. He had not yet learned that certain journalists are mere newsboys always beating out of their dreadnaught typewriters cries of "Extra! Extra! All about the turrible moider!"
Forbes was dumfounded to learn that the modern Babylon plus Nineveh, New York, could be sent to bed at one o'clock and forbidden to dance by daylight. Ordinarily nothing on earth would have mattered less to Forbes than the fate of tea-dances. ”

“ The bitterness of his tone did not escape Forbes.
“Surely.” Forbes saw the fifteen thousand in bills at the girl's feet, her dull misery over the loss of the box. Had Crawford believed her jewels to be in it? Oh, it was damnable!
They arrived presently before an apartment-building.
“We get out here,” said Crawford, shutting off the power. “Mort, every man has a curtain which he does not lift even to his best friend. To-night I'm going to lift a corner for you. It is because I want some one with me. I am in no mood for sentiment. Come.”
Forbes followed him. ”

“ Colonel Forbes, a man of parts and spirit, had long lain under his displeasure, being suspected of having writ some severe pamphlets against him. They were, in truth, the compositions of one Douglas. Forbes, during the preceding summer, had ingratiated himself with the Duke of Bedford in the camp at Blandford, where his Grace had been reading Bladen’s Cæsar and Bland’s Military Discipline, and playing at being a General, for he was always eager about what he was least fit for. He immediately undertook to reconcile Forbes to the Duke, [86] who would not listen to him. ”

“ The minute somebody else that's prominent pops through we'll let you alone. But you're in for it, Captain—'way in. Better crawl under my umbrella and give me the story."
He meant it well, but it was impossible for Forbes to accept his philosophy or his counsel. To Forbes he was a slimy reptile with a hellish mission. Forbes told him so, denied all that he had said, defied him, and turned him out. And now he had leisure to understand the full meaning of it all. First, his grief for Persis broke his heart open. He mourned her as a sweetheart, a betrothed, a wife ”

“ The number of cases that recover and would have died had Art not interfered is extremely small."
These trenchant words from Sir John Forbes carry great weight as a commanding critic in his own profession. Had his strictures upon his brethren and their practices come from an alien pen, they would undoubtedly have been attributed by the allopathic school to malevolence and ignorance; and, doubtless, Sir John Forbes will not escape the same fate, because, if his statements are true, those of whom they are spoken are incapable of perceiving or admitting their truth. ”

“ After all, I have no right to make light of Forbes' predicament. It is not very agreeable to have Her burst in upon you when you look ready for the oven, like a Thanksgiving turkey. And Forbes, for all his amatory flights, was (and is) a clean, kindly, honorable young man, capable of rising to heights, as shall be seen. ”

“ And now as to Washington. His letters are typical of the young man to whom these western forests were not unfamiliar; they are patriotic and loyal. Though he was standing for election to the House of Burgesses in his home county, he had refused to accept a leave of absence to do his electioneering—which in no wise prevented his election. I cannot find any ill-boding prophecy in his letters, concerning the making of a new road westward from Raystown, which after events did not justify. He affirmed that Forbes could not reach Fort Duquesne by a new road before the winter set in ”

“ I was heavy at heart, but I felt that Forbes was right, and my own instinct told me that my ideas were better than my performance—and Forbes was right. Nothing was left of the tales; not a shred of paper, not a scrap of writing. They had all gone up the chimney in smoke. There was no self-pity. I had a grim kind of feeling regarding the thing, but I had no regrets, and I have never had any regrets since. I have forgotten most of the titles, and indeed all the stories except one. But Forbes and I were right ”

“ You were the sons of gentlemen, born many of you to rank and station; and such boys will never be educated well till they are educated by men themselves of rank and station I am sure you felt it—I am sure that the very presence of Lord Forbes among us, his voluntary devotion to his work, his quiet zeal, his unaffected, unconscious superiority, did you incalculable good You know that I never permitted a word, or thought, or look from anyone disrespectful top the brothers who worked with me. ”

“ FORBES, ALEXANDER, fourth and last Lord Forbes of Pitsligo (1678–1762) , Jacobite, only son of the third lord, by Lady Sophia Erskine, third daughter of John, ninth earl of Mar, was born 22 May 1678. He succeeded to the estates and title on the death of his father in 1691. In early manhood he travelled in France, and having made the acquaintance of Fénelon, was introduced by him to Madame Guyon and other ‘quietists.’ Their influence left a deep impression on his mind, and led him to devote much of his attention to the study of the mystical writers. ”

“ I seemed at such times to see Patience Forbes, standing on the other side of the Atlantic, like some allegorical figure of faith, a gaunt weather-beaten old woman, her strong feet planted firmly on the shore, the wind whipping her black clothes about her, her brave old eyes looking out at me, under shielding hands, across that immense distance. ”

“ Forbes reasoned at his scruples till they faced the other way. He argued till what he would have called vicious in other men became sincerely virtuous in his own special instance. So men and empires, republics and religions have always argued when they were about to try to take something away from somebody.
As Forbes folded his togs and wished them better and braver, he paused to laugh at what Persis had told him: Willie believed that Forbes was flirting with Mrs. Neff for herself or her daughter! What a blind little ape Enslee was! ”

“ It has been said that the Civil War took our best blood, and that that is the reason we have no great men now; all the most gallant and high-minded and ambitious were killed—although I don’t forget that Mr. Forbes could be anything that he chose. I suppose he thinks that American statesmanship has fallen so low that he scorns to come out avowedly as the head of his party, and merely amuses himself pulling the wires. But I feel positive that if a tremendous crisis ever arose, it would be Mr. Forbes who would unravel the snarl. [Pg 22] You can tell him that, Augusta, with my compliments. ”

“ Forbes joined the king at Hanover, and afterwards returned home. In 1724 he was appointed to command the Canterbury of 60 guns on the Mediterranean station, and was employed on shore at the defence of Gibraltar against the Spaniards in 1726–7. In September 1727 Forbes, who had previously sat in the English House of Commons for the borough of Queenborough, was called to the Irish house of peers under the title of Baron Forbes. ”