70 



factures of the natives. His activity and mechanical tastes did 

 not, however, probably find sufficient scope in this merely mercan- 

 tile position, which offered nothing i-esembling the superintendence 

 of the machinery to which he had been accustomed at Johnston and 

 Manchester ; and he managed, under favour of circumstances which 

 are unknown to me, so to improve his relations with the natives, and 

 with the native prince the Nizam, in whose territories he resided, 

 that he contracted for the establishment and maintenance of the 

 artillery corps in his Highness's service, including the furnishing of 

 guns and ammunition. Of this concern Mr Robison was not only 

 the upholder, but also the commanding officer ; the subordinate 

 officers were appointed by him, and every expense defrayed. In 

 security for the annual charge thus incurred, the taxes of a particu- 

 lar province or district were assigned over to him. Every branch of 

 artillery-engineering must therefore have become familiar to him, 

 and probably constituted one chief attraction of his situation. I un- 

 derstand that he obtained from England the very best implements 

 of manufacture, but we may easily conceive the scope given to his 

 remarkable ingenuity in conducting so extensive an undertaking in 

 so remote a place. He always spoke with admiration of the intelli- 

 gence and mechanical talents of the natives. 



" His contracts were fulfilled, as I understand, with satisfaction to 



his employer, and profit to himself. His mechanical skill, and his 



acquaintance with the advanced state of Art in Britain, were duly 



appreciated by the Nizam, who desired him to construct and lay out a 



house and grounds on the English model, and to procure for him many 



European conveniences. The best understanding existed between 



them, until having realized a competence and desiring to return 



once more to society and his home, he left India in 1815, being 



then thirty-seven years of age. His father having been long dead, 



he settled in the west of Scotland, and married, the following year. 



Miss G-rahame of Whitehill, who died in 1824. He, subsequently, 



married Miss Benson, who also predeceased him. Two daughters 



by his first marriage survive him. Mr Robison's first residence was 



at the Grove, near Hamilton ; but after some years became to reside 



in Edinburgh, of which the first account I have was, that he was 



elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 22d January 



1816, and took part, in 1821, in the formation of the Society of 



Arts. And here the third and best known part of his life commences, 



— ^that in which we are more particularly interested. 



" I shall first speak of his connection with the Royal Society. The 

 division of the Physical and Literary Classes of the Society was then 



