Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 18, RHI-SCR

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Rohtnla, nor ramble fo much as to be with difficulty kept within
bounds. Its flowers are yellow, and the general colour
v of the plant a light pleaflng green. A figure of it is
given in the Flora RoJJicu by Dr Pallas, who found it
in the fouthern diftrifts, and lent the feeds to St Peterf-
burgh, where it has profpered in a iituation where few
plants can be made to live.
ROBINS, Benjamin, a molt ingenious mathema¬
tician, was born at Bath in 1707. His parents were
(Quakers of low condition, and conlequentiy were un¬
able to have him much inftrufted in human learning.
But his own propenfity to fcience having procured him
a recommendation to Dr Pemberton at London, by his
affiftance, while he attained the fublimer parts of ma¬
thematical knowledge, he commenced teacher of the
mathematics. But the bufinefs of teaching, which re¬
quired confinement, not lulling his active difpofition, he
gradually declined it, and engaged in bufinefs that re¬
quired more exercife. Hence he tried many laborious
experiments in gunnery, from the perfuafion that the re-
fiftance of the air has a much greater influence on fwift
projectiles than is generally imagined. Hence alfo he
was led to confider the mechanic arts that depend on
mathematical principles j as the conftruCtion of mills,
the building of bridges, the draining of fens, the ren¬
dering of rivers navigable, and the making of har¬
bours. Among other arts, fortification much engaged
his attention j and he met with opportunities of perfect¬
ing himfelf by viewing the principal ftrong places of
Flanders, in fume tours he made abroad with perfons of
diftinCtion.
Upon his return from one of thefe excurfions, he
found the learned amufed with Dr Berkeley’s work,
intitled The Analyft, in which an attempt was made to
explode the method of fluxions. Mr Robins was there¬
fore advifed to clear up this affair by giving a diftinCt
account of Sir Ifaac Newton’s doCtrines, in fuch a man¬
ner as to obviate all the objeClions that had been made
without naming them. Accordingly, he publifhed, in
1735, A Difcourfe concerning the Nature and Certain¬
ty of Sir Ifaac Newton’s Method of Fluxions: and
fome exceptions being made to his manner of defending
Sir Ifaac Newton, he afterwards wrote two or three ad¬
ditional difcourfes. In 1738, he defended the fame great
philofopber againft an objeftion contained in a note at
the end of a Latin piece, called Matho^Jive Cofmotheo-
ria puerilis; and the following year printed Remarks on
M. Euler’s Treatife of Motion, on Dr Smith’s Syftem
of Optics, and on Dr Jurin’s Difcourfe of diftinCl and
indiftinft Vifion annexed to Dr Smith’s work. In the
meanwhile, Mr Robins did not folely confine himfelf to
mathematical fubjeCts: for in 1739 he publiflied three
pamphlets on political affairs, without his name 5 when
two of them, relating to the convention and negocia-
tions with Spain, were fo univerfally efteemed, as to oc-
cafion his being employed in a very honourable poft •,
for on a committee being appointed to examine into the
part conduCl of Sir Robert Walpole, he was chofen
their fecretary*
In 1742, Mr Robins publifbed a fmall treatife, inti¬
tled New Principles of Gunnery, containing the refult
of many experiments j when a Difcourfe being publifli¬
ed in the Philofophical TranfaCtions, in order to inva¬
lidate fome of his opinions, he thought proper, in an
aftpQunt he gave of his book in the fame TranfaCtions,
4;
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to take notice of thofe experiments 5 in confequence of Robin?,
which, feveral of his Differtations on the Refiltance of Robaifon.^
the Air were read, and the experiments exhibited before ^
the Royal Society, for which he wras prefented by that
honourable body with a gold medal.
In 1748, appeared Lord Anion’s Voyage round the
World, which, though Mr Walter’s name is in the title,
has been generally thought to be the work of Mr Robins.
Mr Walter, chaplain on board the Centurion, had
brought it down to his departure from Macao for Eng¬
land, when he propofed to print the work by fubfeription.
It was, however, it is faid, thought proper, that an able
judge fliould review and correCt it, and Mr Robins was
appointed , when, upon examination, it was refolved that
the whole fhould be written by Mr Robins, and that
what Mr Walter had done Ihould only ferve as mate¬
rials. Hence the introduction entire, and many difler-
tations in the body of the work, it is faid, were compo-
fed by him, without receiving the leail affiftance from
Mx Walter’s manufeript, which chiefly related to the
wind and the weather, the currents, courfes, bearings,
diftances, the qualities of the ground on which they
anchored, and fuch particulars as generally fill up a
failor’s account. No production of this kind ever met
with a more favourable reception; four large impreffions
were fold within a twelvemonth ; and it has been tranf-
lated into molt of the languages of Europe. The fifth
edition, printed at London in 1749, was revifed and
correCied by Mr Robins bimfelf. It appears, however,
from the corrigenda and addenda to the lit volume of
the Biographia Britannica, printed in the beginning of
the fourth volume of that work, that Mr Robins was
only confulted with refpeCt to the difpofition of the
drawings, and that he had left England before the book
was printed. Whether this be the faCt, as it is aflerted
to be by the widow of Mr Walter, it is not for us to
determine.
It is certain, however, that Mr Robins acquired the
fame, and he was foon after defired to compofe an apo-
logy for the unfortunate affair at Preffonpans in Scot¬
land, which was prefixed as a preface to The Report
of the Proceedings of the Board of General Officers on
their Examination into the conduft of Lieutenant-
General Sir John Cope ; and this preface was efteemed
a maflerpiece in its kind. He afterwards, through the
intereft of Lord Anfon, contributed to the improvements
made in the Royal Obfervatory at Greenwich. Having
thus eftablilbed his reputation, he was offered the choice
of two confiderable employments} either to go to Paris
as one of the commiffaries for adjufting the limits of
Acadia, or to be engineer-general to the Eaft India
Cc,~ ny. He chofe the latter, and arrived in the Eail
Ind 175° j but the climate not agreeing with hia
eonih ution, he died there the year following.
ROBINSON, the most rev. Sir Richard,‘arch-
bilhop of Armagh and Lord Rokeby, was immediately
defeended from the Robinfons of Rokeby in the north
riding of the county of York, and wasn5orn in 1 709.
He was educated at Weftminfter fchool,'from whence
he was eleCted to Chrift-Churcb, Oxford,..in 1726.
After continuing his ftudies there the ufual time, Doc¬
tor Blackburne, archbifliop of York, appointed him his
chaplain, and collated him firft to the reCtory of Elton, ,
in the eaft riding of Yorklhire, and next to the pre¬
bend of Grindal, in the cathedral of York. In 1751*
he