wearing apparel and the matter in question in the cause, shall be exempt when plaintiffs, but not when defendants, from the payment of court-fees, and shall be entitled to have counsel and attorney assigned to them by the court without fee. They are further excused from costs when unsuccessful; a privilege which, according to Blackstone, amounted in former times only to the rather uncomfortable alternative of choosing between paying and being whipped. In the event of success, however, a person suing in this form is entitled to his costs, because his counsel and agent, and the officers of court, though they are bound to give their labour gratis to him, are not bound to give it on the same terms to his antagonist, unless he too be a pauper. To prevent the abuse of suing in the superior courts at Westminster in this form in matters of small amount, it is provided (19 and 20 Vict. c. 108, s. 30), subject to certain exceptions, that any plaintiff who resorts to one of these, in a case falling within the cognizance of a county court, and recovers no more than £20, or in some cases £5, shall have no costs, unless he satisfies the court or a judge that he had sufficient reason for taking that course. There are some other exceptions to the rule (see Stephen's Com. iii. p. 646).

In Scotland, this benevolent arrangement was introduced by statute more than half a century before the date of the English act we have mentioned. In 1424, the statute (c. 45), which we have already quoted under Advocate (q. v.), was passed for the purpose of securing professional assistance, gratis, to the poor, and for giving to them and those who assisted them their costs in the event of success. The more special arrangements applicable to litiga

tion in this form in Scotland will be detailed under Poor's Roll (q. v.).

FORMATION, in Geology, is applied to a group of strata united by some character which they have in common, whether of age, origin, or composition,

as the coal or chalk formation.

FORMEDON, an old form of action, in the Law of England, whereby an heir of entail or remainder man who had been ousted by a discontinuance, was entitled to vindicate his claim to the lands from which he had been ousted. By 21 James I. c. 16, it was enacted that writ of formedon should be brought within twenty years of the time when the cause of action arose. Writ of formedon is now abolished, together with other real actions.

FO'RMIC ACID (C2HO,,HO) derives its name from the circumstance of its having been first obtained from the Formica rufa, or red ant. In a concentrated state, it is a fuming liquor with an irritating odour, and occasions vesication if dropped upon the skin. It crystallises at a temperature below 32°, and boils at about 212°, yielding a vapour which burns with a blue flame. It is a strong reducing agent, at a boiling temperature reducing the salts of silver, mercury, platinum, and gold.

It may be obtained in various ways, as, for example: 1. By the distillation of red ants with water (a proceeding never adopted now). 2. By the distillation of a mixture of starch, binoxide of manganese, sulphuric acid, and water; this is the usual method, and various organic matters, as sugar, chaff, bran, saw-dust, &c., may be substituted for the starch. 3. By the distillation of oxalic acid mixed with sand, or far better (according to Berthelot), with glycerine; 1 equivalent of oxalic acid (C,O,2HO) yielding 1 equivalent of formic acid (C2HO ̧‚HO) + 2 equivalents of carbonic acid (2CO2).

2

Berthelot has recently obtained it synthetically by keeping carbonic oxide gas for a prolonged period in contact with hydrate of potash, at a temperature

of 212°. The gas becomes gradually absorbed, and formate of potash is the result, the reaction being exhibited by the formula, 1 equivalent of hydrate of potash (KO,HO) + 2 equivalents of carbonic oxide (2CO) 1 equivalent of formate of potash (KO,C,HO1).

Formic acid is a very common product of the oxidation of organic bodies; thus, for example, the albuminates, glycine, sugar, starch, &c., yield it in association with other products, when acted on by chromic acid; the fats and fatty acids yield it when acted on by nitric acid; and it is a product of the action of ozone on glycerine, fats, fatty salts, acetic acid, and sugar, provided a free alkali is present. Hence, we can readily explain its occurrence as a product of oxidation in the animal organism, in which it not unfrequently occurs, either free or in combination. Thus we find it not only in ants, but in the poison of the bee and wasp, and in the hairs of the procession caterpillar. It has been detected by various chemists in the sweat, in the expressed juice of the spleen, pancreas, thymus gland, and muscles, in the brain, the blood, and the urine.

The salts of formic acid, which are termed by some chemists formates, and by others formiates, require no special notice. They are all soluble, and yield a red colour with persalts of iron. FORMI'CA. See ANT.

FORMING'S ISLAND is a speck on the bosom of the Pacific, lying a little to the north of the Sandwich Group, or Hawaiian Archipelago, in lat. 30° 49′ N., and long. 159° 20′ W. It is one of the most recent additions to the British empire, having been formally occupied, mainly on account of its excellent harbour, towards the close of 1860.

FORMO'SA (Chinese name, Tai-wan), a large island on the south-east coast of China, opposite the province of Fu-keen, from which it is distant

about 90 miles. It lies between 21° 53'-25° 16'

N. lat., and 120° 15'-122° 4' E. long. ; and for administrative purposes, is included in the province before mentioned, of which (together with Pang-hoo group) it forms a department. The length of F., from north to south, is about 237 miles, and its average breadth, from east to west, is about 70 miles. A chain of mountains running north and south nearly bisects the island, and divides it into an eastern and western province. Chinese settlers occupy the latter, but the other section is held by the aborigines. Tai-wan (q.v.), the capital, in 23° N. lat., and on the western coast, was opened to foreign commerce by the treaty of Tien-tsin, June 26, 1858. F. has a fertile soil, and produces rice, maize, sugar, tobacco, cinnamon, pepper, &c.; oranges, pine-apples, guavas, cocoa-nuts, pomegranates, as well as grapes, peaches, and other European fruits, are abundant. The aboriginal inhabitants are still in a very rude state.

FORMS OF ADDRESS. Many persons are exposed to inconvenience from their ignorance of the formal modes of addressing letters to persons of title; we shall therefore, in the present article, give an enumeration, taken mainly from Mr Dod's Peerage and Baronage, of the usual ceremonious modes of written address. Previous to their employment, the writer must, of course, learn either from the peerage-writers, or from some other source, the precise rank of the person whom he wishes to address, as well as the hereditary, personal, or official distinctions by which that rank is often modified.

1. Archbishop-Letters are addressed: 'His Grace, the Lord Archbishop of,' and commence: 'My Lord Archbishop.' More formal documents are addressed The Most Reverend Father in God (John Bird), by Divine Providence, Lord Archbishop

Prince's Wife, though of inferior rank, like a Princess by birth.

Privy Councillor 'The Right Honourable John

Privy Councillor's Wife and Children have no title.

QUEEN-The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty.' 'Madam,' and 'Your Majesty;' or, The Lord John R- presents his duty to your Majesty.' Viscount The Right Honourable Lord Viscount or less formally, The Lord Viscount.' 'My Lord,' and 'Your Lordship.'

Viscountess The Right Honourable the Viscountess, or less formally, The Viscountess.' 'Madam,' and 'Your Ladyship.'

Viscount's Daughter, like Baron's Daughter (q. v.). Viscount's Son, like Baron's Son (q. v.). Viscount's Son's Wife, like Baron's Son's Wife (q. v.).

The formality of these modes of address experiences considerable modifications when employed by persons of equal rank. Between friends and relatives, they are either entirely dispensed with (except, of course, in addressing letters), or adapted to the feelings and caprices of the writers. In this, as in many other respects, we of the present generation are far less ceremonious than our fathers, and still more than our grandfathers were. In most old letters, it will be found that the titles of the writers are preserved even where there is the freest and most familiar interchange of thought and feeling. Wives address their husbands, and husbands their wives, children their parents, and occasionally even parents their children, as Sir or Madam,' 'My Lord,' or 'Your Royal Highness,' as the case may be.

FORMS OF PROCEDURE. See PROCESS. FORNICA'TION (fornicatio, from fornix, an arch-vault, and by metonymy, a brothel, because brothels at Rome were in cellars and vaults under ground). In most countries, this crime has been brought within the pale of positive law at some period of their history, and prohibited by the imposition of penalties more or less severe; but it has always been found ultimately to be more expedient to trust to the restraints which public opinion impose on it in every community which is guided by the principles of morality and religion. In England, in 1650, during the ascendency of the Puritan party, the repeated act of keeping a brothel or committing fornication was made felony without benefit of clergy on a second conviction. At the Restoration, when the crime of hypocrisy seemed for a time to be the only one which, under the influences of a very natural reaction, men were willing to recognise, this enactment was not renewed; and though notorious and open lewdness, when carried to the extent of exciting public scandal, continued, as it had been before, an indictable offence at common law, the mere act of fornication itself was abandoned to the feeble coercion of the spiritual court, according to the rules of the canon law, a law which has treated the offence of incontinence with a great deal of tenderness and lenity, owing perhaps to the constrained celibacy of its first compilers.'-Blackstone. The proceedings of the spiritual court were regulated by 27 Geo. III. c. 44, which enacts that the suit must be instituted within eight months, and that it cannot be maintained at all after the marriage of the parties offending. But proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts for this offence have now fallen into entire desuetude (Stephen's Com. iv. 347). In Scotland, shortly after the Reformation, fornication was prohibited by what Baron Hume calls an anxious statute of James VI' (1567 c. 13), entitled 'Anent the Filthie Vice of Fornication, and

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Punishment of the samin.' This act, which was passed in the same parliament by which incest and adultery are punished with death, provides that the offender, whether male or female, shall pay for the first offence a fine of £40 Scots, and shall stand bareheaded, and fastened at the market-place, for the space of two hours; for the second, shall pay a fine of 100 merks, have the head shaven, and shall be exposed in the same public manner; and for the third, pay a fine of £100, be thrice ducked in the foulest pool of the parish, and be banished the town or parish for ever. There is but one instance of this statute having been enforced by the Court of Justi ciary, which occurs, as might be supposed, during the government of the Protector in Scotland. The offence of keeping a house of notorious ill-fame and scandalising the neighbourhood, is punishable in Scotland as a police offence. See NUISANCE, Moral, and PROSTITUTION.

FORRES, a royal burgh in the county of Elgin or Moray, situated on a well-marked old sea-terrace and promontory, distant about two miles from the mouth of the river Findhorn (q. v.). Pop. (1861) David I. (1124–1153), and was subsequently the 3508. It was a royal burgh in the reign of King seat of the Archdeacon of Moray, who had as his prebend the church of Forres, dedicated to St Laurence the martyr, and the church of Logynfythenach (now Edinkillie), dedicated to St John the Baptist. the gridiron on which he is said to have been A painting of St Laurence holding in his hand The antiquities of the place are the remains of roasted, is preserved at Brodie House near Forres. its castle, at the west end of the town, now surmounted by a monument, erected to the memory of

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Dr Thomson (a native of Cromarty, distinguished by his eminent medical services in the Crimean war), and the remarkable sculptured pillar-25 feet high-sometimes called Sueno's Stone, but more commonly the Stan'in' Stane,' which stands about a mile to the eastward. A monastery of black occupied by Anderson's or the Forres Academical friars is said to have stood formerly on the site now Institution. F. lies at the foot of a curiously formed group of four gravelly hills, named the Čluny or of which, the site of an old encampment, an octagonal Cleeny Hills, evidently water-made, on the highest tower 66 feet high, was erected to the memory of Nelson in 1806. (1871-pop. 3959.)

FORSTER, JOHN, an English political and historical writer, was born at Newcastle in 1812. He was educated for the bar, but early, like so many other law-students, devoted himself to periodical writing. In this sphere of literature he displayed more than usual ability; and his political articles in the London Examiner, for which he commenced writing in 1834, attracted more attention than is usually bestowed on newspaper leaders. There was a vigour and point about them, coupled with a truth, consistency, and outspoken honesty (the three latter qualities being more rare in newspaper writers a quarter of a century ago than they are now), which obtained a wide renown for the paper. F. became editor of the Examiner in 1846, an office which he still discharges. He is the author of many admirable biographical and historical essays, and we are indebted to him for much new and valuable information tending to elucidate obscure points, and correct erroneous notions about the times and statesmen of the English Commonwealth. It is to this period of history that F. has chiefly directed his studies, and no person desirous of properly understanding it, should neglect his History of the Grand Remonstrance, Arrest of the Five Members, and Lives of the Statesmen of the

Commonwealth. His literary memoirs are also excellent, and his most elaborate effort in this way, The Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith, is a charming piece of biography. F.'s style is clear, forcible, and elegant. He was appointed Secretary to the Commissioners in Lunacy in 1856; and in 1861, a Commissioner in Lunacy.

FORSTER, JOHANN REINHOLD, a German traveller and naturalist, was born in Dirschau, in Prussia, in 1729, and died at Halle in 1798. He was educated at Halle and Danzig for the clerical profession, and in 1753 became pastor at Nassenhuben, near Danzig; but he seems to have devoted most of his time to the study of mathematics, natural philosophy, natural history, and geography. In 1765, he accepted an offer made to him by the Russian government, to inspect and report upon the new colonies founded on the banks of the Volga; and the matter of his report is said to have been so good as to have given to the Empress Catharine suggestions for her great code of laws. His irritable temper soon involved him in difficulties with the Russian government; and in the following year he repaired to England, where the exertions of some of his scientific friends in London soon procured for him the office of teacher of natural history, and of the French and German languages, at an educational institution for dissenting clergymen at Warrington, in Lancashire. He retained this post until 1772, when he received, through the influence of Mr Banks, the offer of naturalist to Captain Cook's second expedition to the South Seas. In the course of the voyage, his temper seems to have frequently brought him into unpleasant collision with the other officers; and after the return of Captain Cook's vessels in July 1774, a controversy arose between F. and Lord Sandwich on the question as to who should write the narrative of the voyage. It was finally settled that F. should write the philosophical, and Cook the nautical parts of the work; but further difficulties arose, and Cook's journal appeared alone. In 1776, in association with his son, he published a work (in Latin) on the botany of the expedition; and in 1778 his Observations faites dans un Voyage autour du Monde sur la Géographie Physique, l'Histoire Naturelle, et la Philosophie Morale appeared. In the latter year, he returned to Germany, and was soon afterwards made Professor of Natural History and Mineralogy at Halle, where he remained until his death. In addition to the works mentioned, he published De Bysso Antiquorum, 1775; Zoologia Indica, 1781; Geschichte der Entdeckungen und Schifffahrten im Norden, 1784 (translated into English and French), &c.

FORSTER, JOHANN GEORG ADAM, commonly known as George F., eldest son of Johann Reinhold Forster (q. v.), a German traveller and naturalist, was born at Nassenhuben, near Danzig, in 1754, and died at Paris in 1794. When only 17 years of age, he accompanied his father in Captain Cook's second voyage; and shortly after his return, he published, with the assistance of his father, an account of the expedition. His book, which does not differ materially in its facts from Cook's narrative, was well received by the public, and was translated into French, German, Swedish, and other languages. Humboldt speaks of this work and of its author, my celebrated teacher and friend, George Forster,' in the highest terms in the Cosmos (see vol. ii. p. 437, Bohn's ed.). F. having returned to the continent, was made Professor of Natural History at Cassel, and afterwards at Wilna. Having there no access to books, in 1788 he gladly accepted the office of librarian to the Elector of

Mayence. After Mayence was taken by the French in 1792, F., who had become an ardent republican, was sent as a deputy to Paris, to request the incorporation of Mayence with the French republic. While he was in Paris on this mission, the Prussians retook Mayence, and F. lost all his property, including his books and manuscripts. He then writes to a friend: 'If I could only scrape together £400, I would learn Persian and Arabic, and go about this time he seems to have been suffering overland to India to gather new experience;' but from rheumatic gout, which gradually increased in severity, and which terminated his life on the 12th and the account of Captain Cook's voyage, his of January 1794. Besides numerous translations, most important works are Kleine Schriften, ein Beitrag zur Ländes- und Völkerkunde, Naturge schichte und Philosophie des Leben (6 vols., Berlin, 1789-1797), and Ansichten vom Niederrhein, vom Brabant, Flandern, Holland, England, und Frankreich (3 vols., Berlin, 1791-1794). His widow, the daughter of Heine, but perhaps more widely known Letters, in 2 vols., in 1828-1829; and a complete as Therese Huber, published a collection of his edition of his works, in 9 vols., was published by his daughter and Gervinus, in 1843.

FORSTER, THOMAS IGNATIUS MARIA, an English meteorologist and physicist, born in London in 1789, and died in 1850. In 1812, he entered the university of Cambridge; in the following year, he produced an annotated edition of Aratus, and in 1816 he edited an edition of Catullus. In 1817, he published Observations on the Influence of Particular States of the Atmosphere on Human Health and Diseases; in 1824, The Perennial Calendar; in 1827, The Pocket Encyclopædia of Natural Phenomena, a work which has elicited the commendation of Quetelet and Humboldt; in 1836, Observations sur Influence des Comètes; and in 1850, Annales d'un Physicien Voyageur. Á work entitled Epistolarium Forsterianum, consisting of a collection of original letters from eminent men, preserved in the Forster family, was published after his death, at Brussels, in 1852.

FORT, a term of peculiar meaning in British North America, applied to a trading-post in the wilderness with reference to its indispensable defences, however slight, against the surrounding barbarism. It has thus been often employed to designate merely a palisaded log-hut, the central oasis of civilisation in a desert farger, it may be, than Scotland.

FORT, FORTRESS (from Lat. fortis, strong), a stronghold, made secure by walls, and generally further protected by a ditch and parapet. For the construction of forts, see FORTIFICATION.

FORT ADJUTANT, an officer holding an appointment in a fortress-where the garrison is often composed of drafts from different corpsanalogous to that of adjutant in a regiment. He is responsible to the commandant for the internal discipline, and the appropriation of the necessary duties to particular corps. Fort adjutants, of whom there are at present (1862) ten, are staff-officers, and receive 48. 9d. a day in addition to their regimental pay.

FORT AUGUSTUS, a village at the south end of Loch Ness, 29 miles south-west of Inverness. A fort, intended to overawe the Highlands, was built here soon after the rebellion of 1715, on a small eminence on the loch. It can accommodate 300 men, but is commanded by neighbouring heights. It was taken by the rebels in 1745, and became the head-quarters of the Duke of Cumberland after the battle of Culloden. It is a quadrangle, with

a bastion at each of the four corners. The twelve six-pounders formerly mounted here have been removed, but a few soldiers are generally stationed at the fort.

FORT GEORGE, a fortification in the north-east of Inverness-shire, on a low sandy projection into the Moray Firth, here only one mile broad, opposite Fortrose, and nine miles north-east of Inverness. It is the most complete fort in the kingdom, and was built, at a cost of £160,000, soon after the rebellion of 1745, to keep the Highlanders in subjection. It covers twelve acres, and can accommodate 2000 men. It is an irregular polygon, with six bastions, and upwards of 70 guns. It is defended by a ditch, covert-way, a glacis, two lunettes, and a ravelin. It has casemated curtains, 27 bomb-proof rooms, bombproof magazines, and is supplied with water from eight pump-wells. It is, however, only secure from attack by sea.

FORT GEORGE (INDIA). See MADRAS. FORT MAJOR, the next officer to the governor or commandant in a fortress. He is expected to understand the theory of its defences and works, and is responsible that the walls are at all times duly protected. He is on the staff, and receives 98. 6d. a day in addition to his half-pay.

FORT ROYAL, a fortified seaport of the French island of Martinique, in the West Indies, is the capital of the colony. It stands on the west coast, in a bay of its own name, in lat. 14° 35′ N., and long. 61° 4' W. It has a population of about 12,000, and contains offices for the local government, barracks, arsenal, and hospital.

FORT ST DAVID, on the Coromandel or east coast of Hindustan, belongs to the district of South Arcot and presidency of Madras. It is three miles to the north of Cuddalore, and 100 to the south of Madras, in lat. 11° 45' N., and long. 79° 50′ E. The place became British in 1691. It occupied a prominent position in the great struggle for supremacy between England and France. From 1746 to 1758, it was the capital of the settlements of the former power on the Carnatic; but soon afterwards, its fortifications having been demolished, it sank into comparative insignificance.

FORT WILLIAM, a village in Inverness-shire, near the west base of Ben Nevis, 63 miles southwest of Inverness, and at the south end of the Caledonian Canal. A fort was originally built here by General Monk, and afterwards rebuilt on a smaller scale by William III. It is an irregular work, with ditch, glacis, ravelin, bomb-proof magazine, and barracks for 100 men. It resisted sieges by the Highlanders in 1715 and 1745. It was one of the old keys to the West Highlands, and is now only inferior to Oban as a centre for tourists to explore these romantic regions.

FORT WILLIAM (INDIA). See CALCUTTA. FORTÉ, in Music, the Italian term for loud; fortissimo, as loud as possible.

FORTESCUE, SIR JOHN, an eminent judge and writer on English law, descended from a Devonshire family, was the son of Sir Henry Fortescue, Lord Chief-justice of Ireland, and was born some time in the reign of Henry IV. Educated at Exeter College, Oxford, he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, and in 1441 was made serjeant-at-law. The following year, he was appointed Lord Chief-justice of the Court of King's Bench. In the struggle for the crown between the Houses of York and Lancaster, he steadily adhered to the latter, and is supposed to have been for a time Lord High Chancellor of England. Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Lord Chancellors (vol. i. p. 367), under date February 17, 1461, says:

'If Sir John Fortescue ever was de facto chancellor, and in the exercise of the duties of the office, it must have been now, after the second battle of St Albans, and at the very conclusion of the reign of Henry VI.' In March of that year, he fought at the battle of Towton for that monarch, and was attainted by the parliament under Edward IV. He accompanied the queen, Margaret of Anjou, and her young son, Prince Edward, on their flight into Scotland, and while there wrote a treatise in support of the claim of the House of Lancaster to the English crown. In 1463, he embarked with the queen and her son for Holland, where he remained for several years, intrusted with the education of the young prince. During his exile, he wrote his celebrated work, De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, for the instruction of his royal pupil. In the introduction, and throughout the dialogue, he designates himself 'Cancellarius.' It was when he was in Scotland that the title of Chancellor of England is said by some to have been conferred upon him by office of chancellor in partibus during his exile, but the dethroned monarch. He probably had the titular he returned with Queen Margaret and her son; but never exercised the functions in England. In 1471, on the final defeat of the Lancastrian party at the battle of Tewkesbury, where he is said to have been taken prisoner, finding that parliament and the nation had recognised the title of Edward IV., he submitted to that monarch, and, as a condition of his pardon, wrote a treatise in favour of the claim of the House of York. He was allowed to retire to his seat of Ebrington, in Gloucestershire, where he died in his 90th year. His male representative was, in 1789, created Earl Fortescue and Viscount Ebrington in the peerage of Great Britain.

FORTH, a river of Scotland, rises in the northwest of Stirlingshire, in the mountains between Loch Katrine and Loch Lomond, from two main branches, the Duchray, 16 miles long, from the east side of Ben Lomond, and the Avendhu, 12 miles long, flowing through Lochs Chon, Dhu, and Ard. These streams unite at Aberfoyle, and issue from the mountains. The F. then runs east and south-east along the borders of Perth and Stirling shires, with numerous windings, in a wide valley abounding in picturesque scenery. It passes Stirling, and a little above Alloa it widens out into the Firth of Forth. The F. is only 30 miles long in a straight line from its source to the mouth of the Devon; but, owing to its sinuosities, its real course is more than twice that length. It is navigable for vessels of 100 tons to Stirling. Its chief tributaries are the Teith, the Allan, and the Devon. The upper parts of the F. and Teith traverse some of the most romantic lake and mountain scenery in Scotland.

FORTH, FIRTH OF, an arm of the sea, or the estuary of the river Forth, lies between the counties of Clackmannan, Perth, and Fife on the north, and those of Stirling, Linlithgow, Edinburgh, and Haddington on the south. It first extends 6 miles south-east from where the Devon joins the Forth; then, with an average breadth of 24 miles, it runs 10 miles to Queensferry; and finally, it extends 36 miles north-east, gradually expanding in width to 15 miles between Fife-ness and Tantallon Castle on the coast of Haddingtonshire. Its waters are from 7 to 30 fathoms deep, and encircle the Isle of May, Bass Rock, Inchkeith, Inchcolm, Cramond Isle, &c. On the coast, are many fine harbours. St Margaret's Hope, above Queensferry, is one of the safest roadsteads in the kingdom. The chief rivers which fall into the firth are the Forth, Carron, Avon, Almond, Esk, and Leven. The counties along its shore are the most fertile and best cultivated in Scotland, and include the maritime towns of North Berwick,