(John, M.D.), was born at Sheffield in Yorkshire in the year 1718. His father was a considerable manufacturer and exporter of Sheffield goods, who by his abilities and industry had acquired a competent fortune. John, his eldest son, the subject of this memoir, was intended by his father for carrying on his own lucrative business at Sheffield; but, was, from his early youth, irrevocably attached to other pursuits, more calculated to gratify his ambition, and give fuller play to his powers. Notwithstanding this disappointment in his favourite object, his father had liberality enough to encourage his rising genius, and to give him all the advantages of a regular education.

After he had gone through the usual course of the grammar school at Sheffield, both his father and mother being strict dissenters, they placed their son for some years under the tuition of the late Dr Doddridge, who was at that time master of an academy at Northampton, and had justly acquired high reputation among the dissenters, both as a divine and as an instructor of youth. Under the Doctor's care Mr Roebuck made great proficiency, and laid the foundation of that classical taste and knowledge for which he was afterwards eminently distinguished. It would appear that Dr Doddridge had been much pleased with the ardour and enthusiasm, in the pursuit of knowledge, discovered by his pupil; for Mr Roebuck, in an after period of his life, used frequently to mention the subjects of conversation and inquiries of various kinds, in which the Doctor had engaged him. It was during his residence at this academy that he contracted an intimate acquaintance with his fellow-students, Mr Jeremiah Dylon, afterwards much known in the political world, and Mr Mark Akenfield, afterwards Dr Akenfield, which terminated only with their lives.

From the academy at Northampton he was sent to the university of Edinburgh, where he applied to the study of medicine, and particularly to that of chemistry, which about that time began to attract some attention in Scotland. While he resided there, he distinguished himself much among his fellow-students in their literary societies and conversations, by great logical and metaphysical acuteness, and by great ingenuity and resource in argumentation. The late sagacious Dr Porterfield, to whom he had been introduced, observed and encouraged his rising genius, and was greatly instrumental in promoting his improvement. There, too, he formed an intimate acquaintance with Mr Hume, Mr Robertson, afterwards Dr Robertson, Mr Pringle, afterwards Lord Alemoor, and several other persons of literary eminence; a circumstance which produced in his mind a partiality ever afterwards in favour of Scotland, and contributed not a little to his making choice of it for the chief field of his future exertions and industry.

After Mr Roebuck had gone through a regular course of medical education at Edinburgh, being now determined to follow the practice of physic, he next spent some time at the university of Leyden, then in high reputation as the first school of medicine in Europe. There, after the usual residence and course of trials, he obtained a degree in medicine; and his diploma, dated 21st February 1743, has affixed to it the respectable names of Muffchenbroek, Osterlyk, Van Royen, Albinius, Gaubius, &c. He left Leyden, after having visited some part of the north of Germany, about the end of the year 1744.

Soon after his return from the continent, some circumstances induced Dr Roebuck to settle as a physician at Birmingham. Before that time, Birmingham had begun to make a rapid progress in arts, manufactures, and population; and by the death of an aged physician, an opening was presented to him, which afforded an immediate prospect of encouragement in that line. His education, talents, and interesting manners, were well calculated to promote his success as a physician. He accordingly met there, at a period more early than he expected, with great encouragement; and was soon distinguished, in that town and the country adjacent, for his skill, integrity, and charitable compassion, in the discharge of the duties of his profession.

It appeared, however, soon after his residence was fixed at Birmingham, that his studies and industry were turned to various objects besides those of his profession. Strongly attached to the rising science of chemistry, he conceived high views of extending its usefulness, and of rendering it subservient to the improvement of arts and manufactures. With this view, he fitted up a small laboratory in his own house, in which he spent every moment of his time which he could spare from the duties of his profession. There, in the true spirit of his great master Lord Bacon, of whose philosophy he was an ardent admirer, he carried on various chemical processes of great importance, and laid the foundation of his future projects on well-tried and well-digested experiments.

The first efforts of his genius and industry, thus directed, led him to the discovery of certain improved methods of refining gold and silver, and particularly to an ingenious method of collecting the smaller particles of these precious metals, which had been formerly lost in the practical operations of many of the manufacturers. By other chemical processes, carried on about the same time in his little laboratory, he discovered also improved methods of making sublimate, hartshorn, and foundry... After having received full satisfaction from the experiments upon which such discoveries and improvements were founded, he next digested a plan for rendering them beneficial to himself, and useful to the public. A great part of his time being still employed in the duties of his profession, he found it necessary to connect himself with some person in whom he could repose confidence, and who might be, in other respects, qualified to give him support and assistance in carrying on his intended establishments. With this view, he chose as his associate Mr Samuel Garbet of Birmingham; a gentleman well qualified, by his abilities, activity, and enterprising spirit, for bearing his part in their future undertakings. Their first project was the establishment of an extensive laboratory at Birmingham, for the purposes above mentioned; which, conducted by Dr Roebuck's chemical knowledge, and Mr Garbet's able and judicious management, was productive of many advantages to the manufacturers of that place, and of such emolument to themselves, as contributed greatly to the boldness of their future projects. That laboratory has, ever since that time, continued at Birmingham, and is still conducted by Mr Garbet. Dr Roebuck, long before his death, had given up his interest in it.

About this time, in 1747, the Doctor married Miss Ann Roe of Sheffield, a lady of a great and generous spirit, whose temper and disposition equally fitted her for enjoying the prosperous circumstances of their early life, and for bearing her equal share of those anxieties and disappointments in business which faded, but did not obscure, the later period of their lives.

Dr Roebuck's unremitting perseverance in his chemical studies, together with the success that attended them, led him, step by step, to other researches of great public and private benefit.

The extensive use of the vitriolic (sulphuric) acid in chemistry, and the prospect of its application to some of the mechanic arts, had produced a great demand for that article, and turned the attention of chemists to various methods of obtaining it. The late Dr Ward had obtained a patent for making it; and though the substances from which it might be obtained, as well as certain methods of obtaining it, had been known to others, and particularly pointed out by Lemery the Elder, and by Glauber, yet Dr Ward was the first, it is believed, who established a profitable manufacture upon the discovery. Much, however, was wanting to render the acid of universal use in chemistry, and of extensive utility in the arts, where great quantities of it were required. The price of it was high, arising from the great expense of the glass vessels, which were made use of by Dr Ward in procuring it, and the frequent accidents to which they were liable in the process.

Dr Roebuck had been for some time engaged in making experiments with a view to reduce the price, and at length discovered a method of preparing it, by substituting, in place of the glass vessels formerly used, lead ones of a great size; which substitution, together with sundry other improvements in different parts of the process, completely effected his end.

After the necessary preparations had been made, Messrs Roebuck and Garbet established a manufacture of the oil of vitriol at Prestonpans, in Scotland, in the year 1749. This establishment not a little alarmed Dr Ward, who attempted to defeat their plan, by taking out a patent for Scotland, in addition to the one he had formerly obtained. In this attempt he failed. Dr Roebuck's discovery was found not to come within the specification of Dr Ward's patent.

The Prestonpans company, convinced that patents are of little avail in preserving the property of new inventions or discoveries, in conducting their vitriol works resolved to have recourse to the more effectual methods of concealment and secrecy. By that method they were enabled to preserve the advantages of their ingenuity and industry for a long period of years, and not only served the public at a much cheaper rate than had ever been done formerly, but, it is believed, they realized, in that manufacture, a greater annual profit from a smaller capital than had been done in any similar undertaking. The vitriol work is still carried on at Prestonpans; but long before Dr Roebuck's death, he was obliged to withdraw his capital from it.

About this time Dr Roebuck was urged, by some of his friends, to leave Birmingham, and to settle as a physician in London, where his abilities might have had a more extensive field of exertion. He had been early honoured with the acquaintance of the late Marquis of Rockingham, who, as a lover of arts, had frequently engaged him in chemical experiments at Rockinghamhouse. It was there, also, he became acquainted with the late Sir George Savile, and with several other persons of rank and influence. His old friend and school-fellow Mr Dyson, too, by this time, had acquired considerable name and influence, and pressed him much to take that step. Under such patronage, and with the energy of such talents as Dr Roebuck possessed, there could be little doubt of his soon arriving at an eminent rank as a physician in London. But the chemical concerns, with which he was at that time deeply occupied, holding out to him a prospect of a richer harvest, determined him to give up the practice of medicine altogether, and to fix his residence for the greatest part of the year in Scotland.

The success of the establishment at Prestonpans, which had far exceeded their expectation, enabled the Doctor and his partner Mr Garbet to plan and execute other works of still greater benefit and public utility. In the prosecution of his chemical studies and experiments, Dr Roebuck had been led to bestow great attention on the processes of smelting iron-ore, and had made some discoveries, by which that operation might be greatly facilitated, particularly by using pit-coal in place of charcoal. Mr William Caddell of Cockenzie, in the neighbourhood of Prestonpans, a gentleman earnestly intent upon promoting manufactures in Scotland, had, for several years, laboured, without much success, in establishing a manufacture of iron; a circumstance which may have probably contributed to turn Dr Roebuck's attention more particularly to that subject. As the capital which he and his partner Mr Garbet could appropriate for carrying on the iron manufacture was not equal to such an undertaking, and chiefly depended upon the profits of their other works, their first intention was to attempt a small establishment of that kind in the vicinity of their vitriol works at Prestonpans. But the flattering prospects of success, arising from a course of experiments which Dr Roebuck had lately made, encouraged them to extend their plan, plan, and to project a very extensive manufactory of iron. A sufficient capital was soon procured, through the confidence which many of their friends reposed in their abilities and integrity. In fact, the establishment which they made, or rather the capital which gave it existence, was the united capital of a band of relations and friends, who trusted to Dr Roebuck and Mr Garbet the management of a great part of their fortune. When all previous matters had been concerted respecting their intended establishment, the chief exertions of chemical and mechanical skill, necessary in the execution, were expected from Dr Roebuck. It fell to his share also to fix upon the best and most favourite situation for erecting their intended works. With that view Dr Roebuck examined many different places in Scotland, particularly those on both sides of the Frith of Forth; and after a careful and minute comparison of their advantages and disadvantages, he at length made choice of a spot on the banks of the river Carron as the most advantageous situation for the establishment of the iron manufacture. There he found they could easily command abundance of water for the necessary machinery; and in the neighbourhood of it, as well as everywhere both along the north and south coasts of the Frith, were to be found inexhaustible quarries of ironstone, limestone, and coal. From Carron, also, they could easily transport their manufactures to different countries by sea. The communication with Glasgow at that time by land carriage, which opened up to them a ready way to the American market, was short and easy.

Many other things, that need not be here enumerated, fell to Dr Roebuck's share in preparing and providing for the introduction of this new manufacture into Scotland, particularly with respect to the planning and erection of the furnaces and machinery. To insure success in that department, nothing was omitted which ability, industry, and experience could suggest. With this view, he called to his assistance Mr Smeaton, then by far the first engineer in England. It was from him he received plans and drawings of the water-wheels and blowing apparatus, which, notwithstanding all the mechanical improvements which have been made since, remain unrivalled in any of the other iron-works erected in Britain. This was the first introduction of Mr Smeaton into Scotland, and was the occasion of various other displays of the skill and experience of that celebrated engineer in that part of the island. With the same view, and to the same effect, in a future period of his operations, he employed Mr James Watt, then of Glasgow, and had the merit of rendering that inventive genius, in the mechanical arts, better known both in this country and in England.

The necessary preparations for the establishment of the iron-works at Carron were finished in the end of the year 1759; and on the 1st January 1760 the first furnace was blown; and in a short time afterwards a second was erected.

No period of Dr Roebuck's life required from him more vigorous and laborious exertions than that of the establishment of the Carron works, and the first trials of the furnaces and machinery. His family and friends remember well the ardour and interest which he discovered; the incessant labour and watchfulness which he exerted on that occasion. Every thing was untried, the furnaces, the machinery, the materials, the workmen; the novelty of the undertaking in that country, its extent and difficulty, and the great stake at issue, were circumstances that must have occasioned much serious thought and anxiety to the partner, upon the credit of whose knowledge and experience the work had been undertaken. But the Doctor had great powers and great resources; and the first trial gave sufficient indications of future success.

For some time after the establishment of the Carron works, Dr Roebuck continued to give his attention and assistance in the general management and superintendence of them, and with him all measures of future operations were concerted. During this period, some alterations of great importance were suggested by him, and carried into effect. By carefully observing the progress of smelting in the furnaces, at first worked by bellows, besides their being subject to various accidents, the Doctor discovered the necessity of rendering the blast both stronger and more equable; and proposing, as a problem to Mr Smeaton, the best method of effecting that end, that celebrated engineer soon gave the plan of a blast by three or four cylinders, which was afterwards tried, and succeeded even beyond expectation.

When the business at Carron sunk by degrees into a matter of ordinary detail, and afforded less scope for the Doctor's peculiar talents, he was unfortunately tempted to engage in a new and different undertaking; from the failure of which he suffered a reverse of fortune, was deprived of the advantages resulting from his other works, and during the remainder of his life became subjected to much anxiety and disappointment.

The establishment of the Carron works, and the interest Dr Roebuck had in their success, had naturally turned his attention to the state of coal in the neighbourhood of that place, and to the means of procuring the extraordinary supplies of it which the iron-works might in future require. With the view, therefore, of increasing the quantity of coal worked in that neighbourhood, by an adventure which he thought would also turn out to his own emolument, he was induced to become lessee of the Duke of Hamilton's extensive coal and salt works at Borrowstounness. The coal there was represented to exist in great abundance, and underflow to be of superior quality; and as Dr Roebuck had made himself acquainted with the most improved methods of working coal in England, and then not practised in Scotland, he had little doubt of this adventure turning out a special and highly lucrative. In this, however, he was cruelly disappointed. The opening of the principal stratum of coal required much longer time, and much greater expense, than had been calculated; and, after it was opened, the perpetual succession of difficulties and obstructions which occurred in the working and raising of the coal, was such as has been seldom experienced in any work of that kind. The result was, that after many years of labour and industry, there were sunk in the coal and salt works at Borrowstounness, not only his own, and the considerable fortune brought him by his wife, but the regular profits of his more successful works; and along therewith, what distressed him above every thing, great sums of money borrowed from his relations and friends, which he was never able to repay; not to mention that, from the same cause, he was, during the last twenty years of his his life, subjected to a constant succession of hopes and disappointments, to a course of labour and drudgery ill suited to his taste and turn of mind; to the irksome and tiring business of managing and studying the humours of working colliers. But all these difficulties his unconquerable and persevering spirit would have overcome, if the never-ceasing demands of his coal-works, after having exhausted the profits, had not also compelled him to withdraw his capital from all his different works in succession; from the refining work at Birmingham, the vitriol work at Preetonpans, the iron-works at Carron, as well as to part with his interest in the project of improving the steam-engine, in which he had become a partner with Mr Watt, the original inventor, and from which he had reason to hope for future emolument.

It would be painful to mention the unhappy consequences of this ruinous adventure to his family and to himself. It cut off for ever the flattering prospect which they had of an independent fortune, suited to their education and rank in life. It made many cruel encroachments upon the time and occupations of a man whose mind was equally fitted to enjoy the high attainments of science, and the elegant amusements of taste. As the price of so many sacrifices, he was only enabled to draw from his colliery, and that by the indulgence of his creditors, a moderate annual maintenance for himself and family during his life. At his death, his widow was left without any provision whatever for her immediate or future support; and without the smallest advantage from the extraordinary exertions and meritorious industry of her husband.

Dr Roebuck had, some years before his death, been attacked by a complaint that required a dangerous chirurgical operation. That operation he supported with his usual spirit, and resolution. In a short time he was restored to a considerable share of his former health and activity; but the effects of it never entirely left him, and several slighter returns of the complaint gradually impaired his constitution. He fell, however, continued, till within a few weeks of his death, to visit his works, and to give direction to his clerks and overseers. He was confined to his bed only a few days; and died on the 17th July 1794, retaining to the last all his faculties, his spirit and good humour, as well as the great interest which he took, as a man of science and reflection, in the uncommon events which the present age has exhibited.

From a man so deeply and so constantly engaged in the detail of active business, many literary compositions were not to be expected. Dr Roebuck left behind him many works, but few writings. The great object which he kept invariably in view was to promote arts and manufactures, rather than to establish theories or hypotheses. The few essays which he left, enable us to judge of what might have been expected from his talents, knowledge, and boldness of invention, had not the active undertakings in which, from an early period of life, he was engaged, and the fatiguing details of business, occupied the time for study and investigation. A comparison of the heat of London and Edinburgh, read in the Royal Society of London June 29, 1775; experiments on ignited bodies, read there 16th Feb. 1776; observations on the ripening and filling of corn, read in the Royal Society of Edinburgh 5th June 1784—are all the writings of his, two political pamphlets excepted, Roebuck which have been published. The publication of the essay on ignited bodies was occasioned by a report of some experiments made by the Comte de Buffon, from which the Comte had inferred, that matter is heavier when hot than when cold. Dr Roebuck's experiments, made with great accuracy before a committee of the Royal Society at London, seem to refute that notion.

It is the works and establishments projected and executed by Dr Roebuck, with the immediate and more remote effects of them upon the industry, arts, and manufactures of Scotland, which urge a just claim to the respect and gratitude of his country. This tribute is more due from the discerning part of mankind, as this species of merit is apt to be overlooked by the busy or the superficial, and to fail in obtaining its due reward. The circumstances of Dr Roebuck were, in this respect, peculiarly hard: for though, most certainly, the projector and author of new establishments highly useful to his country, and every day becoming more so, he was, by a train of unfortunate events, obliged to break off his connection with them, at an unseasonable time, when much was yet wanting to their complete success; and thus he left others in the possession, not only of the lucrative advantages now derived from them, but even in some measure of the general merit of the undertaking, to a considerable part of which he had the most undoubted claim.

The establishment of the laboratory at Birmingham in the year 1747, the first public exhibition of Dr Roebuck's chemical talents, was, at that particular period, and in the state of the arts and manufactures at that time, highly beneficial, and subservient to their future progress; and the continuance and success of it, in that place, is a proof of the advantages which many of the manufacturers receive from it. Much had already been done, and many improvements made in arts and manufactures, chiefly by the suggestions of that ingenuity and experience which, in the detail of business, might be expected from the practical artist. Dr Roebuck was qualified to proceed a step farther; to direct experience by principles, and to regulate the mechanical operation of the artist by the lights of science. The effects of that establishment extended, in a particular manner, to all that variety of manufactures in which gold and silver were required, to the preparing of materials, the simplifying of the first steps, to the saving of expense and labour, and to the turning to some account what had been formerly lost to the manufacturer. It is well known that, while Dr Roebuck resided at Birmingham, such was the opinion formed of his chemical knowledge and experience by the principal manufacturers, that they usually consulted him on any new trial or effort to improve their several manufactures; and when he left that place, they sincerely regretted the loss of that easy and unrestrained communication they had with him on the subjects of their several departments.

On account of similar circumstances, the benefit to the public, from the establishment of the vitriol works at Preetonpans, in the extension and improvement of many of the arts, cannot now be exactly ascertained. The vitriolic acid is one of the most active agents in chemistry, and every discovery which renders it cheap and accessible to the chemist must be greatly subservient to the progress of that science. By the establishment at Prellonpan, the price of that valuable acid was reduced from fifteen to four pence per pound. It is to Dr Roebuck, therefore, that chemists are indebted for being in possession of a cheap acid, to which they can have recourse in so many processes.

But Dr Roebuck's object in the prosecution of that scheme, was not so much to facilitate the chemist's labour, as to render that acid, in a much higher degree than it had formerly been, subservient to many of the practical arts. By rendering the vitriolic acid cheap, great use came to be made of it in preparing the muriatic acid, and Glauber's salts from common salts. Its use has been farther extended to many metallic processes; and it has lately been employed in separating silver from the clippings of plated copper, the use of which is very extensive.

The project and establishment, however, of the iron-works at Carron, the most extensive establishment of that kind hitherto in Britain, must be considered as Dr Roebuck's principal work. The great and increasing demand for iron in the progressive state of arts, manufactures, and commerce in Britain, and the great sums of money sent every year to the north of Europe for that article, turned the attention of chemists and artists to the means of promoting the manufacture of iron, with the view of reducing the importation of it. No person has a better founded claim to merit, in this particular, than Dr Roebuck. The smelting of iron by pitcoal, it is indeed believed, had been attempted in Britain in the beginning of the last century. In the reign of James I., several patents seem to have been granted for making hammered iron by pitcoal, particularly to the Hon. Dad Dudley and Simon Starlevant. It does not appear, however, that any progress had been made in the manufacture in consequence of these patents. In later times trials have been made by so many different persons, and in so many different places in England, nearly about the same time, that it may be difficult to say where and by whom the first attempt was made, particularly as the discoverers of such processes wished to conceal the knowledge they had gained as long as they could. But Dr Roebuck was certainly among the first who, by means of pitcoal, attempted to refine crude or pig iron, and to make bar iron of it, instead of doing it by charcoal, according to the former practice: And he was, without all question, the person who introduced that method into Scotland, and first established an extensive manufacture of it. It is not meant to ascribe to him the sole merit of the establishment at Carron. No man was ever more ready than he was to do justice to the abilities and spirit of his friends and partners Messrs Garbet, Caddell, &c. who first embarked with him in that great undertaking. But still it may be said with truth, that the original project of the iron-works at Carron, the chemical knowledge and experience on which they were founded, the complicated calculations which were previously required, the choice of the situation, the general conduct and direction of the buildings and machinery, the suggestion of many occasional improvements, together with the removal of many unforeseen obstructions and difficulties, which occurred in the infant state of that establishment, were, in a great measure, the work and labour of Dr Roebuck. Nor can it, with the least shadow of justice, detract from his merit, that a larger capital, and greater expense than was at first calculated, have been found necessary to bring the works at Carron to their present state of perfection; or, that great alterations and improvements have taken place, during the course of forty years, in a great and progressive establishment. In all works of that kind, the expense exceeds the calculation. The undertakers, even of the latest iron-works which have been erected, notwithstanding all the advantages obtained from recent experience, will be ready to acknowledge, that, in these respects, there is little room to blame the original projector of the first establishment of that kind in Scotland. But the best, and most infallible proof of Dr Roebuck's merit, and of the sound principles on which these works were established, is the present prosperous state of that establishment, the great perfection of many branches of their manufactures, and particularly the many extensive and flourishing iron-works which have since been erected upon the model of Carron in different parts of Scotland, at Cleugh, Clyde, Muirkirk, and Devon. It cannot be denied that all these works have sprung from the establishment at Carron, and are ultimately founded upon the knowledge and experience which have been obtained from them; for some of the partners, or overseers of these new works, and many of the workmen, have been, at one time or another, connected with that of Carron. Hence, then, it is owing to the projector and promoter of the establishment at Carron, that Scotland is, at this moment, benefited to the amount of many hundreds thousand pounds, in working up the raw materials of that manufacture found in the country itself, and which, previous to that establishment, was of no value whatever. Such are the present, but scarcely any idea can be formed of the future, advantages to this country, which may be derived from the extension of the iron manufacture. About 60,000 tons of iron have been annually imported into Great Britain for more than twenty years past; and though there has been for some time about 20,000 tons of bar iron made in Britain by pitcoal, yet the foreign imported iron has suffered little or no diminution in quantity. This great consumption of iron, no doubt, is owing to the various improvements of late years, and the general extension throughout all Europe of commerce and the arts. The manufacture of iron must therefore continue to increase; and Scotland, abounding everywhere in ironstone, pitcoal, and in command of water for machinery, has the prospect of obtaining the largest share of it.

To the establishment of the Carron works, and to the consequences of that establishment, may be ascribed also the existence of other public works in Scotland of great importance and utility. The opening of a communication by water betwixt the Forth and the Clyde had long been projected, and frequently the subject of conversation in Scotland, but nothing in fact had been attempted. The establishment of the iron-works at Carron soon called forth sufficient interest and enterprise to bring about the execution of this grand design. Some of the partners of the Carron company, foreseeing the advantages they would derive from such a communication, proposed, at their own expense, to execute a small canal; and, after taking the preparatory steps, actually applied to Parliament to obtain authority for that purpose. But the project of the small canal not... meeting with the approbation of some noblemen and gentlemen in that part of Scotland, they opposed the bill, and obliged themselves to execute a greater canal, which has now been many years finished, and is found to be of the greatest advantage to the trade and commerce of Scotland. The merit of this undertaking is not meant to be ascribed to Dr Roebuck, excepting in so far as it necessarily arose from the establishment of the Carron company, of which he was the original projector; and it may reasonably be doubted whether, without that establishment, it would have yet taken place. Several other canals have, since that time, been executed in different parts of Scotland, and other very important ones are at present projected.

The different establishments which Dr Roebuck made at Borrowtounness in carrying on the coal and salt works there, though ultimately of no advantage to himself, were attended, during the course of thirty years, with the most beneficial effects upon the trade, population, and industry of that part of Scotland. They were the means also of adding very considerably to the public revenue. Previous to the time these works fell under Dr Roebuck's management, they produced no advantage either to the proprietor, to the adventurers, or to the public. But by his mode of conducting them upon a more extensive plan, by opening up new veins of coal, and of better quality, he was enabled to export a very considerable quantity, to increase the quantity of salt, and of course the revenue arising from these articles. In these works, and in the management of a large farm, Dr Roebuck gave employment to near a thousand persons at Borrowtounness and in the neighbourhood.

Nor was it solely by the different establishments which he projected and executed, but by many other things necessarily connected with them, that Dr Roebuck's labours were beneficial to Scotland. Along with them he may be said to have introduced a spirit of enterprise and industry, before that time little known in Scotland, which soon pervaded many other departments of labour, and gave birth to many other useful projects. He brought from England, then much farther advanced in arts and industry, many ingenious and industrious workmen, at great expense, who, by their instructions and example, communicated and diffused skill and knowledge to others. At all times Dr Roebuck held out liberal encouragement to rising genius and industrious merit; and spared no expense in making trials of improvements and discoveries which were connected with the different projects and works which he was carrying on.

Such was the active and useful life of Dr Roebuck, a man of no common call, who united, in a very high degree, a great number of solid and brilliant talents, which, even separately, fall to the lot of but few individuals. Distinguished by an ardent and inventive mind, delighting in pursuit and investigation, always aspiring at something beyond the present state of science and art, and eagerly pressing forward to something better or more perfect, he thus united energies the most powerful with the most unrestrained and persevering industry. To that peculiarity of imagination, so fitted for scientific pursuit, which readily combines and unites, which steadily preserves its combinations before the eye of the mind, and quickly discovers relations, results, and consequences, was added, in his character, great promptitude and firmness in decision. Strongly and early impressed with the great importance of applying chemical and physical knowledge to the useful arts, to the melioration of civil life, he never lost sight of that favourite view, and discovered great boldness and resource in the means and expedients which he adopted to promote it. He was certainly master of the best philosophy of chemistry known in the earlier parts of his life; and though in every stage of that science he marked and understood the progress of the discoveries, yet his numerous avocations did not permit him to follow them out by experimental processes of his own. Upon that, and indeed almost upon every subject, his mind readily grasped the most useful and substantial points, and enabled him to throw out such hints and hypotheses as marked him the man of genius.

During the course of a regular education, both at Edinburgh and at Leyden, Dr Roebuck studied the classic authors with great attention, particularly the historical and political parts of their works. Upon these subjects he had read much, selected with judgment, and was well acquainted with the facts and philosophy of ancient governments. This taste he carried with him, and improved in every period of his life, and in every situation. It abundantly rewarded him for the carelessness and diligence with which it had been acquired. It became his favourite resource, and indeed one of the chief enjoyments of his life. Possessing the happy talent of turning his mind from serious and fatiguing, to elegant and recreating pursuits, it was no uncommon thing with him to return from the laboratory or the coalpit, and draw relaxation or relief from some one or other of the various stores of classical learning.

No man was better acquainted with the history of his country than Dr Roebuck, or more admired and revered the constitution of its government. By temper and education he was a Whig, and at all times entered with great warmth into the political disputes and controversies which agitated parties in the different periods of his life. If the natural warmth of his temper, and his enthusiasm on these subjects, led him, on some occasions, beyond the bounds of candid argumentation, his quick sense of decorum, and his perfect habits of good manners, produced an immediate atonement, and restored the rights of elegant and polished conversation.

The general acquaintance which Dr Roebuck had acquired with natural and experimental philosophy, together with his classical and political knowledge, rendered him an agreeable companion to the learned almost of every department, and procured him the attachment and friendship of many of the first literary characters in Britain. With his friend Dr Black he lived till his death in close habits of intimacy; and he often acknowledged, with much frankness, the advantages which he derived, in his various pursuits, from a free and unrestrained communication with that eminent chemist.

The amiable dispositions of sensibility, humanity, and generosity, which strongly marked his character, in the general intercourse of society, were peculiarly preserved and exercised in the bosom of his family, and in the circle of his friends. In the various relations of husband, father, friend, or master, and in the discharge of the respective duties arising from them, it would not be easy to do justice to his character, or to determine in which of them he most excelled; nor must it be forget, for it reflected much honour on his benevolent heart, that his workmen not only found him at all times a kind and indulgent master, but many of them, when their circumstances required it, a skilful and compassionate physician, who cheerfully visited the humblest recesses of poverty, and who attached them to his service by multiplied acts of generosity and kindness.