Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Roebuck, John Arthur

ROEBUCK, John Arthur, English politician, b. in Madras, India, 29 Dec., 1802; d. in England, 30 Nov., 1879. His grandfather, Dr. John Roebuck, wrote “An Inquiry on the War in America” (London, 1776). From 1815 till 1824 the son resided in Canada; then going to London, England, he studied law, and in 1831 he was admitted as a barrister. In 1832 he was elected to parliament, and became prominent as a radical reformer. In 1835 he was appointed agent for the Lower Canada assembly during the contest between that house and the executive. His advocacy of the Confederate states and his opposition to trades-unions led to his defeat in 1868. In 1877-'8 he vigorously supported the policy of Earl Beaconsfield, and was sworn a privy councillor in 1878. He was one of the stanchest supporters of the rights of Canada against what he regarded as the aggressions of the crown. Besides numerous articles in the “Westminster Review” and the “Edinburgh Review,” he wrote “Existing Difficulties in the Government of the Canadas” (London, 1836); “Plan for the Government of the English Colonies” (1849); and “History of the Whig Ministry of 1830” (1852).