FORSYTH, William (1812-1899), of 61 Rutland Gate, London and The Firs, Mortimer, Berks.

Forsyth, a highly distinguished barrister and author of numerous works on legal, historical and literary matters, came in as a Conservative for Cambridge at the 1865 general election, but was subsequently unseated on technical grounds. Although he later represented Marylebone, he never fully met the high expectations that were formed of him when he first entered the Commons. It was later noted that he was ‘more of a student and man of letters than a politician’.1Liverpool Mercury, 28 Dec. 1899.

Born at Greenock, Forsyth was the eldest son of Thomas Forsyth, who hailed originally from Birkenhead. After attending the King’s school at Sherborne, Dorset, he excelled academically at Cambridge, where he was awarded the second chancellor’s medal when he took his BA in classics in 1834. In 1835 he became a fellow of Trinity College. Called to the bar in 1839, he practised on the Midland circuit, where he enjoyed great success as an advocate.2T. Seccombe, ‘Forsyth, William (1812-1899)’, rev. S. R. J. Baudry, Oxf. DNB, www.oxforddnb.com. His skills as a barrister were formally recognised in 1857 when he was made a queen’s counsel and a bencher of the Inner Temple. In 1859 he was appointed standing counsel to the secretary of state for India, a position he held until 1872, during which period he reportedly declined the appointment of chief justice of the supreme court in Bengal.3J. Foster, Men-at-the-bar: a biographical hand-list of the members of the various inns of court (1885), 163; Morning Post, 28 Dec. 1899.

Beginning in 1841 with his On the Law of Composition with Creditors, Forsyth produced several well-received treatises, including Hortensius, or duty and office of an advocate (1849) and History of trial by jury (1852). A keen student of the French revolutionary period, he also wrote the three-volume History of the captivity of Napoleon at St Helena (1853). His undoubted skills as a writer earned him the editorship of the Annual Register in 1842, a position he kept until 1868, while his Life of Marcus Tullius Cicero (1864) brought him widespread praise in the literary world.4Seccombe, ‘Forsyth, William’, Oxf. DNB; Telegraph, cited in Reynolds’s Newspaper, 23 July 1865.

At the 1865 general election Forsyth stood in the Conservative interest for Cambridge in place of the sitting Member Kenneth Macaulay, an eminent queen’s counsel, who had retired on the eve of the contest following a paralytic fit.5Daily News, 7 July 1865. At a raucous nomination, however, John Eaden, a solicitor and local elector, declared that Forsyth was ineligible to stand as his post of counsel to the secretary of state for India constituted an office of profit under the crown, a notice that was backed by one of his Liberal opponents, William Dougal Christie. Unperturbed, Forsyth brushed off the charge as a ‘ridiculous effusion’, quipping that although Christie ‘had been a lawyer, he had forgotten his law’. He went on to deliver a highly partisan speech, characterising the Liberal government as the ‘true enemies of progress’ and attacking their foreign policy failures. He was elected at the top of the poll.6Cambridge Independent Press, 15 July 1865; Bury and Norwich Post, 18 July 1865; Daily News, 12 July 1865. Following his return, a leading article in the national press, comparing him unfavourably to Macaulay, commented waspishly that ‘both as a speaker and in respect of his professional status’, he was ‘far below his predecessor’, a rather harsh verdict given what Forsyth had achieved in the legal profession over the preceding two decades.7Telegraph, cited in Reynolds’s Newspaper, 23 July 1865.

Unsurprisingly, Forsyth’s defeated opponents announced their intention of petitioning against his return, a move that ‘disturbed’ his confidante Lord Brougham, the former Whig lord chancellor, who warned him not to enter the Commons until the petition was disposed of, in case he incurred a financial penalty.8Brougham to Forsyth, 31 July 1865: Letters from Lord Brougham to William Forsyth, ed. W. Forsyth (1872), 124-5. Under 6 Anne, c. 7, those holding offices of profit under the crown were ineligible to sit in the Commons, and were liable to be sued for a penalty of £500 if they sat or voted in the House (clause XXXIX). Following the expected petition, 16 Feb. 1866, the election committee declared his return void on the grounds that he held an office of profit under the crown, 16 Apr. 1866.9CJ (1866), cxxi. 222. Although Forsyth appears to have heeded Brougham’s advice – he made no known speeches and is not recorded in the division lists for the 1866 session – Robert Lowe subsequently moved for a bill to be brought in to indemnify Forsyth from any ‘penal consequences’ of sitting in the House, 20 Apr. 1866. The bill passed swiftly through the Commons and received royal assent (29 Vict., c. 20).10Public General Acts (1866), 191-2.

After leaving his position as counsel to the secretary of state for India in 1872, Forsyth sought a return to the Commons. He was defeated at Bath in 1873 before being elected for Marylebone the following year, holding the seat until 1880. He spoke regularly in the House, mostly from a legal perspective, but, as was later noted, ‘men of less knowledge and experience, but with a greater command over the House, easily passed him by in the race’.11Liverpool Mercury, 28 Dec. 1899. More at ease in the literary world than at Westminster, he continued to author an eclectic range of works throughout the 1870s, from his dramatic essay ‘Hannibal in Italy’ in 1872 to his travel papers The Slavonic Provinces South of the Danube (1876). He also produced a meticulously-researched article for Good Words in 1873 on prison conditions in France, Italy, Russia and the United States.12Seccombe, ‘Forsyth, William’, Oxf. DNB.

Forsyth died at his London residence on Boxing Day 1899.13Morning Post, 28 Dec. 1899. He left effects valued at £18,677 0s. 8d., and was succeeded by his only surviving son from his first marriage, Harry Douglas Forsyth (1846-1902).14National Probate Calendar, 26 Jan. 1900. His correspondence with Brougham is held by University College, London.15UCL Special Collections, GB 0103 BROUGHAM WB/FORSYTH – FORSYTH, W.