the Town Councils of many Scotch burghs supported that of Elgin, while the General Assembly of the Church took up the case of the Presbytery-the Court of Session found for the Presbytery in 1861. They, however, did not enjoy their triumph long, for, under the circumstances the judgment could not stand as a rule for the future, and Government took it up, and next session of Parliament an act was passed removing burgh schools from the authority of the Established Church. The incident, however, did much harm to the school which had suffered from other causes. The opening of the free school attached to General Anderson's institution in 1831 took away many scholars, and a few years afterwards a Trades School was established, giving a cheaper but inferior education, to which many of the smaller tradesmen sent their children. In 1859, when it became known that the decision would probably go against the Town Council and the Presbytery would probably dismiss Mr. Morrison, that gentleman set up a private school, and took all his boarders, some forty, away with him, and the Academy came to a low ebb. But of late years it has revived, and a new and more commodious building has been erected, and it is now a flourishing institution. Mr. Forsyth,

however, did not live to see that. He died while the struggle was still going on, and it was a subject which gave him great distress whenever it was alluded to in his presence. Had he lived to see the new academy and the restored peace, he would have indeed rejoiced exceedingly.

CHAPTER VIII.

PUBLIC CHARACTER.

MR. FORSYTH AS A LOCAL PUBLIC MAN HIS ENERGY AND
SYMPATHY WITH IMPROVEMENT HIS INFLUENCE AND
EXTENSIVE CORRESPONDENCE CASE OF THE LOSS OF
THE WHOLE MALE FISHER POPULATION OF STOTFIELD
MR. FORSYTH'S EXERTIONS TO PROVIDE FOR THEIR FAMI-
LIES—THE FLOODS IN MORAY 1829 — BECOMES SECRE-

TARY OF THE RELIEF FUND-TESTIMONY OF SIR THOMAS
DICK LAUDER TO HIS SERVICES GREAT INFLUENCE OF
MR. FORSYTH IN PROVIDING INTRODUCTIONS AND CAREERS
FOR DESERVING YOUNG MEN--PUBLIC ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
OF MR. FORSYTH'S PUBLIC SERVICES HIS HOSPITALITY.

MR. FORSYTH's character as a local public man is the property of the shire of Moray and the town of Elgin. At no period of his life did his means ever enable him to do a tithe of what he would have wished; but, so far as he could, his house and his head, his energy, and his hand were always at the service of others and of the public. In his station of life there was no man so well known between Aberdeen and Inverness; and, so far as Elgin is concerned, there is nothing of a public nature, no improvement that can be pointed out with which he was not more

H

or less intimately connected, and latterly, when his infirmities prevented him being in the foremost ranks as before, his warm interest and sympathy attended every measure of amelioration and advancement. Though he lived to the age of ninety, Mr. Forsyth may in one sense be said never to have been an old man. His temperament was eminently sanguine. He never evinced that disinclination for change which is the usual characteristic of advancing age. His ideas always expanded to the level of the day and frequently carried him far in advance of it, and any scheme, which had for its object the improvement of the human family or the development of latent resources of any kind, found in him an attentive listener, and generally a warm sympathiser and advocate.

In 1806 a dreadful calamity occurred at Stotfield near Lossiemouth. On the 25th December three boats, containing the whole of the seamen in the place—twenty-one in number—put to sea, and a sudden storm arising they all perished, no vestige of either men or boats being ever after seen. By this seventeen widows, forty-seven children, and eight aged parents were left destitute. Their case was however taken up by the minister of the parish-Drainie-the Rev. Lewis Gordon, and he appealed to the public, in which

he was ably aided by the help and advocacy of Mr. Forsyth. Their exertions were so successful, that no less a sum than £1152, 2s. 3d. was collected for the relief of the bereaved families. The mere collection of the fund however was only part of the work, and a tablet in the parish church of Drainie records that, with Mr. Gordon and his successor Dr. Rose, a committee of gentlemen were associated in its administration. These were Mr. Brander of Pitgaveny the proprietor, the minister of Elgin the Rev. Wm. Gordon, and Messrs. Brander, Macandrew, and Jack, all of Elgin. The real management of the fund fell to the lot of Mr. Jack, Mr. Forsyth's cousin and dearest friend, and the two between them so well administered it, that the widows and aged parents received annuities, and the children aliment until they reached the age of fourteen, being brought up to pursue the useful though hazardous occupation of their fathers. The fund lasted until 1842, when it was expended and the accounts were closed. The tablet in the church was then erected by a few subscribers, to record this signal calamity and the long continued benevolence and sustained regard for others shown, by which its consequences were mitigated and repaired.

In 1829 the province of Moray was devastated