Forum

(fõ'rum,) (Eng. pl. FORUMS; L. FORA.) [L., from for is, out - door.] (Rom. Hist.) In Roman cities, a public place where causes were judicially tried, and orations made to the people. It was a large open parallelogram, surrounded by porticos. There were 6 of these F., viz., the Romanum, Julianum, Augustum, Palladium, Trajanum, and Sallustii F. The chief was the Romanum, called,by way of eminence, the forum. In it was the rostrum, or pulpit, where the Roman orators pleaded before or harangued the people. These F. were styled fora civil ia, in distinction from another description of F. serving as markets, which were known as fora ven ali a. - (Law.) The term is popularly applied to a court of justice. Forward, WALTER, an American jurist and statesman, B. in Connecticut, 1786, settled in Pittsburg, Penn., at the age of 17, where he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1816. From 1822 to 1825 he represented the western district of Pennsylvania in Congre , and in 1837 was elected a member of the convention to reform the Constitution of Pennsylvania. In 1841 he was appointed first Comptroller of the Treasury of the U. States, and in Sept. of the same year, Secretary of the Treasury. In 1849 he was appointed U. States chargé d'affaires at Copenhagen. D. 1852. [s. 378]