FORBES, DUNCAN, was the second son of Duncan Forbes of CnRoden, near Inverness, where, or at another seat of the family, welled Bunchrew, in the saute neighbourhood, ho was born 10th of November 1695. Alter studying law for some years at Leyden, he returned to Scotland in 1707, and was admitted an advocate 26th of July 1709. At tho bar he rapidly gained employment and distinction. For his first public appointment however, that of sheriff of Mid-Lothian, he was chiefly indebted to the friendship of the Argyll family. The rebellion of 1715 gave him an opportunity of diaplayiag his zeal and activity in support of government; and to his influence nod exertions, and those of his elder brother, who had now aucceeded to the family estate, the maintenance of the public] tranquillity throughout a great part of the uorth of Scotland at this crisis is considered to have been mainly owing. His services were rewarded the following year by his appointment to what was then called the office of deputy lord-advocate, which was similar to that of the present solicitor-generaL In this office ho did himself as much honour by the high-minded delicacy which he showed iu conducting the trials of tho persons charged with participation in the recent treason, as by the ability and courage be had displayed during the insurrection. Ile even set on foot a eub scription to supply his misguided countrymen, who now crowded the jails of England, with the means of making a legal defence. The cry indeed that ho was himself a disguised Jacobite was raised by the zealots of the government In 1722 ho was returned to parliament for the Inverness burghs, for which his elder brother had previously eat. In the House of Commons, of which ho continued a member for the next fifteen years, ho of course generally supported the minister, Sir Robert Walpole, as his official situation implied. Iu 1725 ho was appointed lord-advocate, the place of secretary of state for Scotland being at the same time abolished, and its duties devolved upon him. In 1737 he was elevated to the dignity of lord-president of the court of eession, or head of the civil judicature of his native country. A few years before this time the death of his brother bad made hint proprietor of tho family estate. For the last twenty years of his life, Forbes was regarded as a sort of lieutenant governor of Scotland ; but besides the power which ho exercised through his official connec tion, he secured to hirneelf a still wider influence by his public spirit, and his unwearied exertions in promoting the welfare of the country in its trade, its manufactures, its agriculture, its fisheries, its roads, and every other department in which any project of improvemeut suggested itself to his active and patriotic mind. Tho moat memor
able public exertions of President Forbes however, were called forth by the rebellion of 1745. In this emergency ho certainly contributed more than any other man to keep the rebels in check until the govern ment was enabled to meet them in the field with an adequate military force. Yet not only were his services never rewarded, but he was even refused any compensation for his actual losses and the expenditure of his private resources in the public, cause; and his earnest pleas for a compassionate treatment of the rebels after Culloden were, it is bald, met by Cumberland with brutal sneers. lie had been attacked in his castle of Colloden by the rebels, who probably would have taken his life if ho had fallen into their hands. The treatment ho met with from the government on this occasion is said to have shortened his days. His death took place on the 10th of December 1747. Ile left an only son, by a lady whom he married soon after his admission to tho bar, but whom ho lost after a few years. President Forbes was a man both of extensive scholarship and of elegant accomplishment... Among other branches of learning ho had cultivated an acquaiutanee with the Oriental tongues. lie is the author of the following pieces, which were published at Edinburgh In two volumes 8vo, soon after his death : —1, 'Thoughts on Religion, Natural and Revealed ; ' 2, ' Reflections on the Sources of Incredulity hs regard to Religion ;' 3, 'A Letter to a Bishop concerning some important discoveries in Philosophy and Religion.' To President Forbes are also attributed the well-known verses beginning " /th Marts, could I now but aft As unconcerned cog when Your Infant beauty could beget Nor happiness nor pain," &c.
His correspondence iu relntien to Scottish affairs, and especially to the rebellions of 1715 and 1745, was published in a quarto volume at London in 1915, under tho title of ' Culloden Papers, Ste., from tho originals in the possession of Duncan George Forbes of Culloden, Esq.' (See the Memoir prefixed to this publication; Introduction to Cul loden Papers; Quarterly Perim, No. xxviii. p. 320, etc. (by Scott); Mahon, Hut. bf Eng., chaps. xxviL and xxix.)