JAMES FORBES, the senior Presbyterian clergyman in Port Phillip, was born in 1813, and died on the 12th instant in the Free Church Manse in Melbourne, and was consequently 38 years of age. His parents occupied the farm of Hillibrae in the parish of Lochiel Cushlie, about 24 miles from Aberdeen, upon the estate of the late Sir John Forbes of Craginar. He studied at King's College, old Aberdeen, where he took his degree as A.M. He occupied the situation of assistant in a school in England for some years, and having studied for the Church was licensed to preach by the Established Church of Scotland.

In 1837 he came out to the Colony of New South Wales with Dr. John Dunmore Lang, Messrs. Fullerton, McFie, Gregor, and several other clergymen. A dispute distracted the Presbyterian Church upon their arrival; Dr. Lang having formed a separate Church Court denominated the Synod of New South Wales, and refused to recognise the existing Judicatory of the Church - then the Presbytery; without entering into those disputes, which for a long period distracted this church, it is only necessary to say that Mr. Forbes at once placed himself under the jurisdiction of the Presbytery, in accordance with his orders from the Colonial Committee of the Church of Scotland, and was in 1838, settled at Melbourne, being the first regularly paid pastor which the Presbyterians had in this colony, the Reverend Mr. James Clow having up to this time performed gratuitously the functions of their clergyman.

The school house now belonging to Rev Irving Hetherington's congregation was then being erected, and Mr. Forbes preached in it until the year 1841, when the church now used by Mr. Hetherington, was erected chiefly through the exertions of Mr. Forbes, in which he preached until October 1846. The disruption in the Church of Scotland took place in 1844, and Mr. Forbes who was an enthusiastic Free Churchman, sympathized warmly with the party, and gave expression to his sentiments upon the subject through the columns of the "Port Phillip Gazette," of the 16th September of that year. The usual cause of this however, is not generally known; he happened to be in the room of the Editor of that journal at the moment when the newspapers which had just arrived by the 'Wilson' were laid upon the table; these journals contained a full report of the proceedings of the two assemblies and Mr. Forbes was anxious to have them. The Editor was anxious to oblige, but unwilling to disappoint his readers, and he arranged with Mr. Forbes that he should give him the papers if he would write out the particulars of the disruption. Having agreed to this, the article was sent late to Press and when the Editor viewed it in proof he found instead of a mere detail of the circumstances of the disruption a vindication of the conduct of the Free Church, and a severe censure of the Residuary Church; upon this, he sent Mr. Forbes a note to state that he did not coincide with his views and would put his (Mr. Forbes) name to it. This article appearing created some sensation, and Dr. Lang took advantage of it to declare in the Legislative Council, that Mr. Forbes and the other Presbyterian clergymen in Port Phillip, had declared in favor of the Free Church and renounced their temporalities, and made no effort to have the temporalities Act repealed. But the truth having become known to the other members of the Legislature he was worsted and compelled to relinquish the effort.

The conduct of Mr. Forbes has been severely censured for not going out of the establishment at this period; but without just cause. In its constitution the Presbyterian Church of the colony was independent of the Church of Scotland, which had declined to exercise an appellate jurisdiction over it; and it need not have given in its adherence to the Churches in Scotland. It, however, entertained the subject and attempted to steer a medium course; but the General Assembly of the establishment repudiated this; and the New South Wales Presbyterian Temporalities Act containing the words "in connexion with the established Church of Scotland" threatened to have all those who did not adhere to the principles of the establishment deprived of their temporalities. Mr. Forbes was one of the few who sacrificed his worldly advantage to his principles, and in the year 1845 on the 25th of October he declared his intention of leaving the Church and Manse, and founding another Presbyterian Church upon the principles of the Free Church of Scotland. To have gone out thus would have been premature, and he would have been liable to the accusation of being a schismatic; he complained with some bitterness of many of his brethren who had gone with him in favour of the Free Church until they found they had perilled their temporalities and then stuck fast to the establishment, but the great error committed by the Church was that of discussing the question. The great divisions amongst Presbyterians in this colony is fraught with the worst consequences, and the act already quoted, could have been repealed without the members of the Synod of Australia declaring for either Church.

Having abandoned the Church Mr. Forbes preached for some time in the Mechanics' Hall, and opened a subscription for the erection of a Free Church, and refusing to be indebted to the Government even for the land, he purchased a half acre at the Government Sale in 1847, and erected the present Free Church with the Manse and School house. In this undertaking he was assisted by the Messrs. Bell who contributed liberally towards the support of the Free Church in Port Phillip.

Mr. Forbes never boasted of good health, being affected with inflammation of the bronchial membranes, and in the year 1844 he had to go to Sydney for the benefit of the change of air, where he resided about six months. Upon his return he appeared much better, but he never thoroughly recovered, and for the last two years he has been in delicate health, and for some time unable to discharge the duties of his ministerial office; he has been during the last six weeks gradually wasting under the consuming fever of consumption.

Possessed of most vigorous intellect and reasoning powers of the highest order, Mr. Forbes may be said to have possessed a masculine mind which stripped a subject of all decoration, defined it, and laid bare to himself and his readers, destitute however of the finish and style which can make it attractive; his education was such as the Scotch Universities afford; he was well versed in classics and mathematics, and deeply read in theology, and metaphysics; of the polite literature of the present or past century he knew little and never spoke; in theology he was prejudiced in favour of the system of the Free Church, and was on that point inexorable.

As a preacher, he was not remarkable; for although his subjects were excellent, his want of physical strength prevented him from preaching with that energy which the Scotch clergy generally use; he was so straight forward in his remonstrances with the members of his congregation who did not behave with sufficient propriety, that he had many and very relentless foes; he had a particular antipathy to any of his hearers embarking in the business of a publican, and refused to countenance them when they did so, declaring that the money so made brought a curse. Mr. Forbes seemed to heed no man, and gave his opinion regardless of the good or ill opinion of any man.

It was as a Christian man that his character shone forth; in the house of mourning, at the bedside of the dying, he appeared at home, for upon such occasions, the cold misanthropic air which usually distinguished him would vanish, and in discharging his duties, of soothing the sick and the bereaved, he exerted all his energies, and he succeeded most admirably. It might be, that the very apathy and coldness which usually marked his character, contrasted strangely with the warm glow of earnestness, which characterized him in such scenes; be that as it may, it was in private that Mr. Forbes made his friends, and that there are many sincerely attached to him the writer knows well.

The writings of Mr. Forbes are not numerous, being confined to those published in the "Christian Herald," a periodical he edited for several years, and a few contributions to the "Port Phillip Gazette;" he displayed, however, much ability in the articles which he occasionally put forth.

Throughout his life, and up to the very last hour, Mr. Forbes had an extraordinary perception of the great truths of christianity; the system presented itself clear and unclouded to his mental vision as a matter of every day life with which he was quite familiar.