We deeply regret to record the death of Mr. W.
E. Forster, which occurred at his house on Monday, the 5th inst., after an illness which had lasted eight months. The actual cause of death is said to have been a result of blood-poisoning, but there is no doubt that Mr. Forster's constitution was shattered by his career in Ireland, by political anxiety, and by the exces- sive exertions which he imposed upon himself- We have spoken of his public career elsewhere, and need only add here that perhaps he was, of all public men in England, the one most unlike his superficial self. His family and friends knew him to be one of the tenderest and most sympathetic of men, never really rough except when excited by the spectacle of wrong to others, and especially the weak. His workmen, when he was a manufacturer, were devoted to him ; he was unwearied in schemes for their benefit, and won their confidence in such a degree that, as he himself often said, "they did not mind his knowing how much money they saved." Manufacturers will- appreciate that evidence of perfect reliance on the justice of a man whom it suited Irish malignity to denounce persistently as a shedder of innocent blood. His nickname of " Buckshot "- arose, we believe, from a rumour of a scheme—not his—for sparing life by arming the police with buckshot instead of ball- cartridge.
Previous page
