Acadiensis/Volume 1/Number 3/Honorable Judge Robie
Honorable Judge Robie.
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
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HAT Mr. Robie evinced a deep interest in the subject of agriculture is well known. While he did not attempt to deprive " Agricola " of his justly earned laurels, by lecturing upon scientific agriculture in the rural districts, he did all in his power to turn to good account the general desire for greater improvement in this branch of industry, created by John Young's admirable "Letters," and on the 15th December, 1818, took an active part in the proceedings of the public meeting at Halifax that organized the "provincial agricultural society," of which Lord Dalhousie was president, the unknown "Agricola" secretary, when he declared himself, and Mr. Robie, one of the committee of management and directors for several years. With this knowledge of his agricultural proclivities it is not surprising to be informed that Mr. Robie was always taken with a good horse. On one occasion while attending the Truro circuit, which he went for nearly a quarter of a century, he was detained over Sabbath at Colonel Pearson's hotel, (the well known "Princes of Wales" of modern days), and desiring to hear Parson Waddell preach, the colonel brought out his best steed to drive him to church, then about three quarters of a mile distant, within the Truro cemetery enclosure. Before hearing the parson, Mr. Robie was so much pleased with the style and action of the horse, that he said to his owner, "Colonel, supposing this was Monday morning instead of Sunday, what would you take for that animal?" To which the colonel replied "£25." "Well then," said Mr. Robie, "when Monday morning comes, I will buy him," which he accordingly did.
Another Truro incident has come down through the generation and may here be given. The interest Mr. Robie ever took in that town, impelled him on one occasion to do an act that associated his name with the place for many years in connection with a large elm tree that stood until destroyed by the Saxby storm, near Elm Street, at the bend of the road leading from the court house to Lower Village. Early in the century, Mr. Robie being in Truro, and hearing that the owner of the elm was about cutting it down for firewood, went to him and asked its value for fuel. Ascertaining that one pound was the market price of the cord wood in the tree, Mr. Robie at once paid the amount and requested that the tree be protected as his property, and it ever afterwards went by the name of "Robie's tree," and added one to the list of remarkable trees, about which many noticeable things are recorded in sacred and profane history. It is matter of tradition that Mr. Robie's twenty shillings, instead of being converted into firewood, was immediately invested in two gallons of rum, and as many of the inhabitants as could be collected were assembled to drink long life to Mr. Robie's elm tree, and that Mr. Robie, in replying for the tree, offered the company a most fabulous sum if they would transplant it in all its dimensions and beauty to his own grounds in Halifax. The elm, while it stood, was a great ornament to Truro, being a tree of unusual size in height and circumference, and was greatly prized by the inhabitants on this account, as well as for the interesting circumstance connected with its history. Now, that the tree has disappeared, the road where it stood, running west to the confines of the town, has been called Robie Street, leaving Elm Street, called after the tree, to remain as at present known, running from the parade (now Victoria Square) north to the site of Robie's elm tree.
As an illustration of Mr. Robie's good judgment, or great common sense, for which all gave him much credit, it may be stated, that upon the Shubenacadie canal project being first mooted in the house in 1824, he declared: "It would cost from £200,000 to £300,000 and not produce revenue enough to keep it in repair," a prediction that has since been fulfilled to the satisfaction or regret of those who thought differently then, and who, against his strong protestations, invested thousands of pounds in an enterprise he asserted would be a failure. Mr. Robie also expressed a decided opinion about the financial merits of the Intercolonial Railway when the agitation for the road began, and assured his particular friends "that if the road was thoroughly built and well supplied with rolling stock, and he were offered the whole line as a present, with £100,000 to run it, he would not accept the gift."
As a lawyer, Mr. Robie stood in the front rank of the profession among such men as Richard John Uniacke, W. H. O. Haliburton, James Stewart, Thomas Ritchie, S. G. W. Archibald and Charles Rufus Fairbanks. While he plead at the bar he was retained in almost every important suit that occupied the attention of the courts. In stature he was the smallest man, while Uniacke was the largest. The one was at times irascible, petulant, and sometimes—peppery, but always contested his cases with a becoming respect for the court and the profession; while the other was somewhat pompous and domineering in his deportment and could not brook the interruptions of opposing advocates. On one occasion, Uniacke was warmly engaged addressing the jury in a case in which Robie was on the other side, and, mis-stating the law or evidence, Robie rose to ask leave of the court to set him right, when Uniacke turned towards him and said with great vehemence, "You small cur, if you do not sit down, I will put you in my pocket," to which Robie good-naturedly retorted, "Then, you big mastiff, if you do, you will have more law in your pocket than you ever had in your head." At another time a Baptist clergyman retained Mr. Robie in a case of some importance, and was so well pleased with the manner in which he conducted it, that after the trial was over and the desired verdict obtained, the minister handed him five or six sovereigns for his services, and asked if he was satisfied. Mr. Robie, then absorbed in another suit and hardly realizing the position, but waking up to a knowledge of the fact that a Baptist divine was showering gold upon him, replied, "Yes Mr. Dipper thank you, Mr. Dipper—I am much obliged, Mr. Dipper," a mode of baptism many lawyers of the present day consider quite orthodox.
Several men, who attained eminence at the bar, studied law in Mr. Robie's office. Among others mention might be made of a native of Truro—Samuel George William Archibald, "long the 'observed of all observers' in Nova Scotia. He was no ordinary man in intellectual stature, proportions and accomplishments. He was indeed a tall figure among his provincial co-temporaries—how like 'Saul the son of Kish' who, when he stood up among the people, was higher than any of them from his shoulders and upward. At the bar, on the bench, in the legislature, and in the executive administration, his talents were not only apparent, but luminous. Strong in reasoning powers, in wit, in eloquence, and at times in severe sarcasm and over-powering invective, he had no rival in the forensic arena, and no superior in senatorial conflict, except, perhaps, the late John Young." Another somewhat distinguished name can also be referred to—the late Sir Robert Hodgson, Kt., late chief justice, and late governor of Prince Edward Island.
Mr. Robie's friendship with the late Hon. Charles R. Prescott, of Cornwallis, one of the excellent of the earth, as well as with the Hon. Andrew Belcher, another of Nova Scotia's best sons, is a pleasing feature of his life. Their correspondence shows great esteem for him on the part of those excellent men. Like Saul and Jonathan "they were lovely and pleasant in their lives," and in view of these degenerate times we might pause, and with David ask,
Upon the creation of the rolls court in 1824, Mr. Robie was honored with the position of judge, under the name of master of the rolls, being the first appointment of the kind, so far as we can learn, made in a British colony. Judge Robie usually held his court in the committee room of the council chamber. He was very affable and courteous to the members of the bar and demanded no ceremony. He sat at the head of the table without gown or bands, and the gentlemen of the bar addressed him from the sides of the table, without being in legal costume. He drafted his decrees very carefully. They are still extant, but never having been published, the profession have had no opportunity of judging their value, or of ascertaining whether they involved questions of importance. One feature of his judicial career, however, still fresh in the memory of the oldest men at the bar, is worth mentioning. There was a suit in chancery known as King vs Lawson et al. It was an action brought by the late Major King, of Windsor, against the trustees of his wife's fortune. It had been long protracted owing to the obstinancy with which it was contested, and King, (insane on the subject of getting hold of his wife's money), undertook to appeal to the public through the press, and to pester Judge Robie to such an extent, that it was generally believed to have been one of the chief motives for his retirement from the court of chancery in 1834, though those best capable to decide, considered that he did all in his power as judge to protect King's interests, and there was no disposition on the part of the government or the public to remove him from the post he had filled with such general acceptance for ten years. Three years afterwards, Mr. Robie was appointed to preside over the deliberations of the legislative council, of which he had been a member since 1824. At this time he was getting into the sere and yellow leaf of life, had become a strong conservative in his political views, and did not enter into the public discussions with the same spirit he had manifested while in the popular branch fighting the battles of the people—at times in opposition to the known wishes of the governor of the day. Doubtless the position of President of the Council, prevented him to a large extent from keeping his political armor burnished, and maintaining that hold upon the affections of the people which he enjoyed in the vigor of his manhood to a degree that rarely falls to the lot of old public servants—Palmerston and Gladstone being notable exceptions. In 1848, Mr. Robie having attained the age of 78 years, resigned his seat in the council, over which he had ably presided eleven years, and had been a member of for twenty-four, to enjoy the pleasures of private life the remainder of his days, a privilege he had honorably earned, and which a kind Providence permitted him to pass happily for ten years. During a portion of the summers of those years, as he had done many years previously, he drove to Truro with his carriage and pair of horses to visit the family of the late Duncan Black of Lower Village; and the people of that part of the province, then had frequent opportunities of seeing their old representative, whose name is still a household word in Nova Scotia. Mr. Black's wife and Mrs Robie were sisters—members of a Scotch family of the name of Creighton—and Mr. Robie thought very highly of Mr. Black's estimable qualities, and in several important respects, proved himself a good friend to his family. But a time came in Mr. Robie's career, as it will in the history of all men, when the wheels of life stand still, and 'man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.' This event can best be gathered from the well merited epitaph cut on the plain monumental freestone slab that marks the site of his grave in Camp Hill cemetery, Halifax:
Sacred
to the memory of
The Hon. Simon Bradstreet Robie,
who departed this life on the
3rd day of January,
A. D., 1858,
in the 88th year of his age.
Respected, Beloved, and Lamented by the
Community in which he had passed
a long and useful life.
He held the responsible offices of
Speaker of the House of Assembly,
Master of the Rolls,
and
President of the Legislative Council,
and faithfully performed the important
duties which devolved upon him with
dignity, independence and honor.
He was a lineal descendant of the
venerable Simon Bradstreet
the last charter governor of Massachusetts,
and has left a name worthy of his family.
Elizabeth Robie,
His Wife,
died on the 3rd day of January, 1872,
aged 86 years.
Should any persons consider that this sketch overestimates the greatness of the gifts, and the nobleness of the character of the distinguished British colonist whose good deeds it recounts, and whose fame it rehearses; to such let me express the regret, that I had neither the material at command nor the ability to do greater justice to the memory of one of the men whose name was a "tower of strength" in the province long before the days of steamboats and railroads, responsible government, free schools, and the union of the colonies into one great confederation; or, even before the press was such a power in the land as it is to-day; and to whose well-directed efforts throughout a long and consistent public career, the people of this enlightened age, are in no small measure indebted for many of the advantages they enjoy—vastly superior to what fell to the lot of their ancestors in bygone days. Rather let the good name which Simon Bradstreet Robie made for himself in the history of this province by his own endowments, superior talents, and upright manly deportment, be ever held in grateful remembrance by every Nova Scotian who rejoices in the prosperity of his country, and the greatness of her sons.