When, later in the year, the House of Lords, on Lyndhurst's advice and against Peel's, recast the bill, and so produced a conflict between the two houses, the high tories formed plans for dispensing with Peel and coming in with Lyndhurst as prime minister, and Follett and Praed to lead the commons. In 1837 he was re-elected at Exeter without a contest, and in 1841 headed the poll with 1,302 votes. In Peel's second administration in the same year he became again solicitor-general, and in April 1844, when Pollock became chief baron, Follett succeeded him as attorney-general, and, his re-election being opposed, again won with 1,293 votes. His health, however, failed, and symptoms of paralysis appeared in his lower limbs. When he addressed the House of Lords for the crown on O'Connell's appeal, he was obliged to do so sitting on a high chair. He spent some months on the continent, but returning home in March 1845, soon fell ill again, and for some months before his death had given up all hope of recovery. He died 28 June 1845 at Cumberland Terrace, Regent's Park, and was buried in the south-eastern vault of the Temple Church on 4 July. He was universally popular and universally regretted. ‘In every qualification of intellect and grace of manner,’ writes Lord Hatherley (Life, i. 270), ‘he was as nearly perfect as man can be.’ His best-known cases at the bar were his defence of Lord Cardigan for his duel with Captain Tuckett, in which he obtained an acquittal on technical grounds, and the action of Norton against Lord Melbourne, in which he appeared for the plaintiff. With little knowledge of classical and modern languages and literatures, with much general information, there was a complete absence of rhetoric or fire, but he was unrivalled for lucidity, dexterity, promptitude, and persuasiveness. He was unfortunately parsimonious and too eager to accumulate a fortune, and fell a victim to his application to professional work. In person he was tall and slim, with a fine brow, large mouth, and grey eyes. His voice was mellow and full, and his gestures, though limited, were very graceful. He has left behind him the reputation of having been the greatest advocate of the century. His personal property was sworn at 160,000l. There is a statue of him in Westminster Abbey, and a portrait by F. R. Say, which has been engraved by G. R. Ward. One speech of his on the second reading of the Dissenters' Chapels Bill, 6 June 1844, has been published.
[Times, 30 June 1845; Hansard's Parliamentary Debates; Croker Papers, ii. 367; Duke of Buckingham's Courts and Cabinets, ii. 199; McCullagh Torrens's Melbourne, ii. 191; Raikes's Journal, ii. 77; Ballantyne's Experiences, i. 125; Blackwood's Mag. lix. 1; Dublin Univ. Mag. xx. 117; Fraser's Mag. xxxii. 165; Gent. Mag. 1845.]
FOLLOWS, RUTH (1718–1809), quakeress, born in 1718 at Weston in Nottinghamshire, was the daughter of Richard and Ruth Alcock, who were poor quakers. When twenty-three years old she married George Follows, quaker, of Castle Donington in Leicestershire, with whom she lived sixty years, and by whom she had two children. When about thirty years of age she received a certificate enabling her to travel as a minister, and visited and preached at the majority of the quaker meetings in the United Kingdom. Her first sermon was preached in 1748 at Castle Donington, whence she proceeded to London, attending over eighty meetings on her way. She remained in London until the middle of 1749, from which time till 1758 she appears to have done little more than attend to meetings in the neighbourhood of her own residence, and those at Atherstone and Matlock. In 1758 she visited Yorkshire and Lancashire, and in 1760 made an extended tour, which embraced most of the meetings in the western and midland counties, as well as London and Norfolk. During the following year she visited Ireland, where she remained several months, working so arduously as to seriously injure her health. Quakerism was at this time at a low ebb in Ireland, and her letters show that she was greatly dispirited. In 1764 she laboured in Wales, and between that time and 1788 she visited nearly every part of England and Wales, and made several excursions into Scotland. In 1782–3 she spent several months in ministerial work in Ireland. From 1788 till her death she was almost incapacitated by the infirmities of age; but she was able to make occasional journeys, the last she undertook being in 1795, when seventy-seven years old. She died on 3 April 1809, and was buried seven days later in the quaker burial-ground at Castle Donington. She is not known to have been the author of any works. Her life was very self-denying and her piety intense, her ministry being highly valued for its simplicity and earnestness.
[Stansfield's Memoirs of Ruth Follows, 1829; Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books.]
FONBLANQUE, ALBANY (1793–1872), journalist, was born in London in 1793, and was the third son of John de Grenier Fonblanque [q. v.], jurist. He was intended for service in the royal engineers, but his education at Woolwich having been
