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profound impression on the tractarian party at Oxford.

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In 1855 Dr. Newman, then rector of the newly founded catholic university at Dublin, nominated Robertson to the chair of geography and modern history. To the professorship of history he subsequently united that of English literature. Subsequently Robertson published a series of works, which met with much success. The first was a course of Public Lectures delivered before the Catholic University of Ireland on some Subjects of Ancient and Modern History,' London, 1859, 8vo. This was followed by an epic poem in blank verse, interspersed with lyrics, entitled 'The Prophet Enoch; or the Sons of God and the Sons of Men,' London [1860], 12mo; Lectures on some Subjects of Modern History and Biography, delivered at the Catholic University of Ireland,' Dublin, 1864, 12mo; on the Writings of Chateaubriand, and on the Illuminati, Jacobins, and Socialists;''Lectures on the Life, Writings, and Times of Edmund Burke,' London [1869], 8vo; and a translation of Dr. Hergenrother's Anti-Janus,' London, 1870, 8vo, being a reply to The Pope and the Council, by Janus, with an introduction by the translator, giving the history of Gallicanism from the reign of Louis XIV. In 1869 the queen, on the recommendation of Mr. Gladstone, bestowed a pension of 907. a year on Robertson in recognition of his long services to English literature, and in 1873 Pius IX conferred upon him the title of Doctor in Philosophy. He died in Dublin on 14 Feb. 1877, and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery.

[Tablet, 24 Feb. 1877, pp. 240, 244; Men of the Time, 9th edit. p. 849; Dublin Freeman's Journal, 15 Feb. 1877, p. 5.]

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T. C. ROBERTSON, JAMES CRAIGIE (1813-1882), canon of Canterbury, and author of the History of the Christian Church, was born in 1813 at Aberdeen, where his father was a merchant. His mother's maiden name was Craigie. His early education was gained chiefly at the Udny academy, though, owing to his mother's frequent migrations, he is said to have been at twelve other schools. His father was a presbyterian, but his mother's family was episcopalian. He studied for a time for the Scottish bar, but having resolved upon ordination in the church of England, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1831, and graduated B.A. in 1834, and M.A. in 1838. He did not attempt to take honours, feeling that his early education was insufficient; but he spent his vacations in Ger

many, and became well acquainted with the German language and literature. He was ordained in 1836. While still a curate he wrote a book entitled 'How shall we conform to the Liturgy?' (1843, 3rd edit. 1869), which attracted considerable notice. It showed the impossibility of a literal compliance with all the rubrics, and the consequent need of tolerance and elasticity. After serving two curacies Robertson was instituted in 1846 to the vicarage of Bekesbourne, near Canterbury. There he largely devoted himself to literary work, concentrating his attention on historical research. In 1849 he edited Heylyn's History of the Reformation.' In 1850 he wrote on the Gorham case, translated 'Olshausen on the Romans,' and began his 'Church History,' his most important work; volume i. appeared in 1852, and volume iv., bringing the narrative to the Reformation, in 1873. A revised edition (in 8 vols.), entitled 'History of the Christian Church from the Apostolic Age to the Reformation,' was issued in 1874-5. Other works of value in a like direction included' Sketches of Church History,' for the Christian Knowledge Society (pt. i. 1855, pt. ii. 1878); 'Becket: a Biography' (1859); and Plain Lectures on the Growth of the Papal Power' (1876). He also edited 'Bargrave's Alexander VII and the College of Cardinals (Camden Soc. 1866), and for the Master of the Rolls Materials for the History of Archbishop Thomas Becket' (vol. i. 1875, vol. vi. 1882); the last volume was completed after Robertson's death by his coadjutor, Dr. J. Brigstocke Sheppard.

In 1859 Robertson was made canon of Canterbury, and from 1864 to 1874 was professor of ecclesiastical history at King's College, London. In 1864 he was elected a member of the Athenæum Club as 'a person eminent in literature.' Pressure of literary work, combined with the grief caused in 1877 by the death of a son, told upon him severely. He died at Canterbury on 9 July 1882, while anxiously endeavouring to complete and index the last volume of his 'Memorials of Becket.' He married in 1839 the sister of his college friend, Richard Stevenson, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and had a large family.

Robertson was a man of great learning, and had a power of using it judiciously. His works are marked by solidity and trustworthiness rather than by the brightness of temperament and brilliance as a conversationalist which distinguished him in social life. He numbered among his intimate friends William MacPherson, editor of the Quarterly Review;' John Murray the pub

lisher (third of the name); Dean Stanley; Alexander Dyce, the Shakespearean scholar; and he was well and long acquainted with Tennyson. Besides his other work, he was a frequent contributor to the 'Quarterly Review,' and his articles there displayed the wide range of his knowledge. He took much interest in the cathedral library at Canterbury, prompted the erection of the building which now contains it, and rearranged the catalogue. He was ecclesiastically a moderate high churchman, but his historical knowledge made him condemn the pretensions of ultra-ritualism, and brought him, in such matters, into accord with Bishop Thirlwall and Dean Stanley.

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ROBERTSON, JOHN (1712-1776), mathematician, was born in 1712. Though apprenticed to a trade, he became a teacher in mathematics, and in 1748 was appointed master of the royal mathematical school in Christ's Hospital. In 1755 he became first master of the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth. Having lost this appointment in 1766 through petty cabals of the second master,' he returned to London, and was appointed clerk and librarian to the Royal Society on 7 Jan. 1768. This office he held till his death, on 11 Dec. 1776. He was respected by prominent members of the society, and his advice in the council was much regarded.

His chief publication was 'The Elements of Navigation,' which appeared in 1754, and went through seven editions in fifty years. His other works were: 1. 'A Compleat Treatise of Mensuration,' 1739; 2nd edit. 1748. 2. Mathematical Instruments,' 1747; 4th edit. 1778 (by W. Mountaine). 3. ‘A Translation of De La Caille's Elements of Astronomy,' 1750. He also published nine papers in the Philosophical Transactions,' 1750-72, 'On Logarithmic Tangents;' On Logarithmic Lines on Gunter's Scale' (cf. MASÈRES, Script. Log. vol. v. 1791); On Extraordinary Phenomena in Portsmouth Harbour; 'On the Specific Gravity of Living Men;' 'On the Fall of Water under Bridges;'On Circulating Decimals;' On the Motion of a Body deflected by Forces from Two Fixed Points; and On Twenty Cases of Compound Interest.' He is said to have been

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the first to discover the theorem that in

stereographic projection the angle between two circles on the sphere equals the angle between the two circles on projection (CHASLES, Aperçu Hist. pp. 516–17).

[Hutton's Mathematical Dict.; Allibone; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

W. F. S.

ROBERTSON, JOHN (1767-1810), minor poet, was born in Paisley on 30 Nov. 1767. His father, a prosperous grocer, gave him the best education Paisley could furnish. Business reverses, however, narrowed the father's means, and Robertson enlisted in the Fife militia in 1803, being speedily appointed to a regimental clerkship, and he is believed also to have acted as regimental schoolmaster (ROGERS, Modern Scottish Minstrel). He interested himself in literature, but he seems to have become dissipated and melancholy, and committed suicide at Kilsea, near Portsmouth, in April 1810. Robertson's lyrics were never collected, but his song' The Toom Meal Pock,' written during a dearth in 1800, has merit, and is in all adequate collections of Scottish poetry.

[Brown's Paisley Poets; Rogers's Modern Scottish Minstrel.] T. B. ROBERTSON, SIR JOHN (1816-1891), Australian statesman, third son of James Robertson, was born at Bow, London, on 15 Oct. 1816. The father was a friend of Governor Sir Thomas Makdougall-Brisbane [q. v.], by whom he was induced to settle in New South Wales in 1820. He received a grant of 2,500 acres of land, and settled as a squatter on the Upper Hunter River. Himself a Scots presbyterian, Robertson placed his son John under the care of John Dunmore Lang [q. v.] John was afterwards educated at private schools, and at sixteen, contrary to his parents' wishes, became a sailor. Having some knowledge of navigation and a reputation as a good boatman, he was in 1833 taken on as a paid hand on board the Sovereign, trading with London. Among the letters which the ship carried home was one to a tenant on Lord Palmerston's estate. Lord Palmerston in some way got to know of it, sent for Robertson, took a fancy to him, and wrote to the governor of the colony on his behalf. But Robertson, for the present bent on further travel, visited Scotland, Ireland, and France, and returned to Australia through South America. Arriving at Sydney in the course of 1835, he settled down at once to a squatter's life in the Liverpool plains, outside the area of police protection and government regulation. Realising the inconvenience and danger of the situation, he took a prominent part in a petition to the governor for better regulations (1836). The governor was opposed to the formation of fresh settlements at the time. Thereupon the squatters sent Robertson as their representative to the governor on the subject (1837). The success of his mission at once brought him into prominence as an advocate of squatters'

rights. He declined, however, to associate In January 1865 he was again elected for himself with the movement, started about West Sydney, and was minister of lands in the same time by the Pastoral Association, the fourth Cowper administration from for vesting the freehold of the land in the 3 Feb. 1865 to 21 Jan. 1866. squatters; and ultimately he split with his old friend Wentworth on the nomination of the latter to the legislative council for the purpose of furthering the aims of the freehold party.

In 1855 Robertson was a witness before Sir Henry Parkes's committee on agriculture, and wrote an important paper on land reform at its request. At the first election under the constitution of 1856 he was returned in the liberal interest, although in precarious health, for the counties of Phillip, Brisbane, and Bligh. In his address he advocated manhood suffrage, vote by ballot, equal distribution of seats, and a national system of education, as well as free selection of the lands of the colony. Robertson's first active political work was his effort to amend the land bill of Sir Terence Aubrey Murray [q. v.] in 1857. At first he stood practically alone, but pursuing his object with great tenacity, and taking advantage of some difference of opinion among his opponents, he brought about a dissolution on the question. He joined the new Cowper government as secretary for lands and public works in January 1858. He immediately dealt provisionally with all outstanding applications for land, and introduced a land bill, the consideration of which was postponed by the dissolution of April 1859 on the electoral question. During the session of 1859 he carried through the Increased Rental Assessment Act, which led to much difference in the ministry, and eventually to its resignation. He took an active part in amending the Forster land bill early in 1860, and, on the retirement of the Forster administration, was ultimately sent for by the governor, and formed his first ministry on 9 March 1860. Later on he induced Charles Cowper, his colonial secretary, to become again the leader of the party, the ministry otherwise remaining unchanged. He now introduced his own land bill, which was defeated in the legislative council. In order to assure the passage of the bill he resigned his seat in the assembly, and was nominated to the reformed legislative council. He was thus enabled, in the teeth of fierce opposition, to carry the bill which was for many years the land law of New South Wales. He went out of office on 15 Oct. 1863.

Robertson's next great political fight was on the side of free trade. In 1864 he contested and won West Sydney for the freetraders, but shortly afterwards resigned the seat in order to attend to private business.

On 27 Oct. 1868 Robertson became premier again, and this time, though he induced his friend Cowper to take office, retained the premiership himself throughout the administration, which lasted till 15 Dec. 1870, and was marked by the passage of several measures which he had foreshadowed in his first electioneering speech. After joining the ministry of Sir James Martin [q. v.] (December 1870-May 1872) as colonial secretary-a step condemned by some of his friends-Robertson was on 9 Feb. 1875 again called upon to form a ministry himself. In this administration he acted as treasurer as well as colonial secretary, and remained in office till 21 March 1877, when he was defeated and resigned. The Parkes ministry which followed him was shortlived. Robertson came into power for a fourth time on 17 Aug. 1877, but kept his party together for five months only. This unsettled state of politics disgusted the public; Robertson lost his seat for Sydney, but was elected for Mudgee (December 1877); the trouble was ended by his coalition with Sir Henry Parkes. Robertson resigned his seat in the assembly, and went to the legislative council; he was first simply vice-president of the executive council, later on minister of public instruction (1 May 1880), and afterwards minister of lands (29 Dec. 1881). The chief measure of this government was the public instruction act. On a land act introduced by Robertson, which was considered inadequate by the new reformers, the ministry was defeated (November 1881).

In 1882 Robertson re-entered the assembly as member for Mudgee, and the next session was marked by his bitter opposition to the new land acts, which he never ceased to condemn. In other directions his activity diminished, and when summoned by Lord Carrington in 1885 to form a new ministry, he could not hold his followers together for more than a few months. His health was failing, and in 1886 he retired from public life, honoured by a gift of 10,000l. from the New South Wales parliament in recognition of his services. When, in 1888, the second great struggle between protection and free trade took place, he so far broke his retirement as to propose the freetrade candidate for Sydney, and he latterly took a prominent part in opposition to the federation movement. His later years were spent in retirement at Clovelly, Watson's Bay, where he died on 8 May 1891. His

body was brought to Sydney, and there accorded a public funeral, being buried at the South Head public cemetery, Watson's Bay. It was said of Robertson at his death that he was the last of the old leaders.' He was a remarkably handsome man, and his justice and fairness exacted tribute from his political opponents.

Robertson married, in 1837, Margaret Emma, daughter of J. J. Davies of Clovelly, Watson's Bay, and left two sons and four daughters; one of the latter married Sir George Macleay [see under MACLEAY, ALEXANDER].

Christi College, Cambridge, but in 1833 illhealth compelled him to retire to the Isle of Wight, where he attempted to arrange his business affairs. Obliged to earn a livelihood, he settled in London in 1834. He died at Calais on 1 Nov. 1843. Robertson published: 1. 'Solomon Seesaw

with Illustrations by Phiz,' 3 vols. London, 1839, 12mo; 3 vols. Philadelphia, 1839, 12mo. 2. In conjunction with his brother, William Parish Robertson, 'Letters on Paraguay; comprising an Account of a Four Years' Residence in that Republic, under the Government of the Dictator Francia,' 2 vols. London, 1838, 12mo; Philadelphia, 2 vols. 1838, 12mo (a sequel, entitled

[Sydney Morning Herald, 9 and 11 May 1891; Heaton's Australian Diet. of Dates; Parkes's Fifty Years in the Making of Australian His-Francia's Reign of Terror,' appeared in one tory.]

C. A. H.

ROBERTSON, JOHN PARISH (17921843), merchant and author, was born at Kelso or Edinburgh in 1792. His father, at one time assistant-secretary of the Bank of Scotland, was engaged in business at Glasgow. His mother, Juliet Parish, was the daughter of a Hamburg merchant of Scottish extraction. Educated at the grammar school at Dalkeith, Robertson accompanied his father to South America in 1806. He landed at Monte Video on the day after its occupation by the British forces under Sir Samuel Auchmuty [q. v.] On the cession of that city, he was sent home by his father, but in 1808 sailed on his own account for Rio de Janeiro, where he was employed as a clerk for three years.

Robertson now tried to open up trade with Paraguay. At the end of 1811 he went as a mercantile agent to Assumption, but in 1815 was compelled by the dictator Francia to leave the country, along with his younger brother, William Parish Robertson, who had joined him. He sailed for Buenos Ayres with much merchandise, but was stopped by an accident at Corrientes, on the banks of the Paraná. During the next year he and his brother, with the aid of Peter Campbell, achieved great success by trading in hides with Paraguay. He returned to England in 1817, and established connections with London, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Paisley. Sailing for Buenos Ayres in 1820, he commenced trading with Chili and Peru, and landed at Greenock in 1824 or 1825, with a fortune of 100,000l., as the representative of some of the South American republics. Ruined in 1826, he went to South America with the object of recovering part of his fortune, but, failing to do so, returned to England in 1830. Intending to devote himself to study, Robertson entered Corpus

volume, London, 1839, 12mo; 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1839, 12mo; 2nd edit. 3 vols. London, 1839, 12mo). 3. 'Letters on South America, comprising Travels on the Banks of the Paraná and Rio de la Plata,' 3 vols. London, 1843, 12mo.

ser.

[Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, new 1884, i. 10-13; Dublin University Magazine, xii. 474; Gent Mag 1843, ii. 671; Athenæum, 1838 pp. 645, 671, 1839 pp. 27, 483, 1843 pp. 254-7.] W. A. S. H.

ROBERTSON, JOSEPH (1726-1802), divine and writer, born at Knipe, Westmoreland, on 28 Aug. 1726, was the son of a maltster whose family was long established at Rutter in the parish of Appleby. His mother was the only daughter of Edward Stevenson of Knipe, a relative of Edmund Gibson [q. v.], bishop of London. Robertson was educated at the free school at Appleby, and on 17 March 1746 matriculated from Queen's College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. on 19 Oct. 1749, and took holy orders about 1752, being appointed curate to Dr. Sykes at Rayleigh, Essex. In 1758 he was presented to the living of Herriard in Hampshire, and married. He became rector of Sutton, Essex, in 1770, and in 1779 vicar of Horncastle, Lincolnshire, by the gift of his relative, Dr. Edmund Law, bishop of Carlisle.

Robertson devoted much time to literary work, and won reputation as a critic. In 1772 he revised for the press Dr. Gregory Sharpe's posthumous sermons, and in the same year edited Algernon Sidney's 'Discourses on Government,' at the request of Thomas Hollis, to whom the work has been wrongly ascribed see under HOLLIS, THOMAS, 1720-1774] (HOLLIS, Life, 1780, p. 448). He was a voluminous writer in the Critical Review,' to which he contributed more than two thousand six hundred articles between

1764 and 1785.

6

He also wrote in the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' and produced a learned work on the authenticity of the Parian Chronicle' (London, 1788, 8vo), which was answered by John Hewlett [q. v.]

Robertson died of apoplexy on 19 Jan. 1802, in his seventy-sixth year. His wife, a daughter of Timothy Raikes, chemist, of London, survived him, but his children all died in infancy. Robertson was tall, handsome, and urbane in manner.

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Besides separate sermons, a translation of Fénelon's Telemachus' (1795), and the works already mentioned, Robertson's chief publications were: 1. A Letter to Sauxay on the Case of Miss Butterfield, a Young Woman charged with Murder,' London, 1775, 8vo, with 'Observations on the same,' 1776, 8vo. 2. Essay on Culinary Poisons,' London, 1781, 8vo. 3. Introduction to the Study of Polite Literature,' London, 1782, 12mo; other edits. 1785, 1799, and 1808. 4.An Essay on Punctuation,' London, 1785, 8vo; 5th edit. London, 1808, 8vo; answered by David Steel in Remarks on an Essay,' &c., London, 1786, 12mo. 5. 'Observations on the Act for augmenting the Salaries of Curates,' published under the name of Eusebius, Vicar of Lilliput, London, 1797, 8vo. 6. 'An Essay on the Education of Young Ladies,' 1798, 12mo. 7. Essay on the Nature of English Verse,' London, 1799, 8vo; 5th edit., 1808, 12mo.

[Reuss's Register of Living Authors; Rose's Biogr. Dict.; Gent. Mag. February 1802, p. 108; Monthly Mag., March 1802, p. 133; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; European Mag. July 1788 p. 24, and April 1797 p. 260; English Review, April 1788, p. 275; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 557, iii. 392, 251-5, 298, 299, 500–6, iv. 540, viii. 157, 483-4.] C. F. S.

ROBERTSON, JOSEPH (1810-1866), Scottish historian and record scholar, was born in Aberdeen on 17 May 1810. His father, having tried his fortune in England, had returned to his native county, where he was first a small farmer, and afterwards a small shopkeeper, at Wolmanhill, Aberdeen. His mother was left a widow when Joseph was only seven, and he was educated at Udny parish school under Mr. Bisset, where James Outram [q. v.] was one of his comrades, and afterwards at the grammar school and Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he acquired a sound knowledge of Latin, but was more distinguished for physical than mental ability. John Hill Burton [q.v.], the historian of Scotland, was his contemporary at school and university, and his lifelong friend. On leaving Marischal College he was apprenticed to an advocate, as solicitors are called in Aberdeen,

but soon showed a taste for literature, writ-
ing in the Aberdeen Magazine' in 1831,
and publishing under the name of John
Brown, a Deeside coachman, in 1835, a
'Guide to Deeside,' and in 1838 a guide to
Aberdeen, called 'The Book of Bon Accord.'
In this book, though never completed, he
first proved his exact knowledge of anti-
quities, and there is no better account of his
native city. His 'Delicia Literariæ,' pub-
lished in the following year, showed a culti-
vated taste in literature, and the collection of
the masterpieces in it helped to form his own
style. The foundation in 1839 of the Spald-
ing Club, which was due to Robertson and
his friend Dr. John Stuart, for the publication
of historical records and rare memoirs of the
north of Scotland, gave Robertson his op-
portunity; and although the club had many
learned editors, none surpassed him in ful-
ness and accuracy. His chief contribution
was the Collections for a History of the
Shires of Aberdeen and Banff,' 1842, which
formed the preface to 'Illustrations of the
Topography and Antiquities of Aberdeen
and Banff' (vol. ii. 1847, vol. iii. 1858, vol. iv.
1869). This is the most complete series of
records, public and private, which any county
in Scotland has yet published. He also
edited, for the same club, the 'Diary of
General Patrick Gordon, A.D. 1635-1699,' in
1862, and in 1841, along with Dr. Grub,
'Gordon of Rothiemay, History of Scots
Affairs from 1637 to 1641.' He paid a short
visit to Edinburgh in 1833 and engaged in
historical work, but found it so unremunera-
tive that he returned to Aberdeen, and sup-
ported himself chiefly by writing for the

Aberdeen Courier,' afterwards the Aberdeen Constitutional,' which he edited for four years. In 1843 he went to Glasgow, where he edited the 'Glasgow Constitutional' down to 1849, when he moved to Edinburgh as editor of the 'Courant' (1849-53).

The political principles of Robertson, and of all the papers he edited, were conservative; but he had many friends of other views, and received from the whig Lordadvocate Moncreiff-it is said, at the instance of Lord Aberdeen-the appointment of historical curator of the records in the Edinburgh Register House in 1853. The Ultima Thule of my desires would be a situation in the Register House,' he wrote to his friend Hill Burton in 1833. He had to wait twenty years, to the great loss of Scottish history. Although the office received a new name, Robertson's work was practically a continuation of that begun by William Robertson (1740-1799) [q. v.] and Thomas Thomson [q. v.] as deputy clerk-register. In his new

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