OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (Pi Y MARGALL ROBINSON.) 



505 



tion in closed rooms and published tests for de- 

 termining the degree of foulness in the air. He 

 experimented with stone and other building mate- 

 rials and discovered that walls are pervious to 

 air if they are dry, but not if they are wet, and 

 to this he attributed partly the unhealthfulness 

 of damp dwellings. The influence on health of 

 the air exhaled from the soil engaged his atten- 

 tion, and he found that organic decay and the 

 generation of carbonic-acid gas occurs near the 

 surface of the ground and diminishes rapidly with 

 the depth. He studied the variations of damp- 

 ness in the soil and tried to connect them with 

 outbreaks of cholera. His title of nobility was 

 conferred on him in 1883 for his services in found- 

 ing the science of hygiene. 



Pi y Margall, Francisco, a Spanish politi- 

 cian, born in Darna in 1825; died in Madrid, 

 Nov. 28, 1901. He wrote art criticisms while 

 studying law in Madrid, became an ardent Repub- 

 lican politician, was elected Deputy for Darna in 

 1869, composed the proclamation establishing the 

 republic on Feb. 11, 1873, became Minister of the 

 Interior, and on June 8, 1873, President of the 

 republic. As President he signed decrees for the 

 separation of Church and state and the abolition 

 of slavery in Cuba. After he was succeeded on 

 July 18, 1873, by Nicolas Salmeron he was shot 

 at by the priest Pollete. -He held himself aloof 

 from politics in the reign of Alfonso XII until, 

 in 1880, he founded the Federalist party, of which 

 he was the parliamentary leader after his election 

 to the Chamber in 1886. 



Powlett (Stanhope) (Primrose), Catherine 

 Lucy Wilhelmina, Duchess of Cleveland, born 

 June 1, 1819; died in Wiesbaden, Germany, May 

 18, 1901. She was the only daughter of the fourth 

 Lord Stanhope, and in her youth was called one 

 of the most beautiful women in England. She 

 was one of the train-bearers at the coronation 

 of Queen Victoria in 1838, and one of the Queen's 

 bridesmaids in 1840. She married her first hus- 

 band, Lord Dalmeny, son of the fourth Earl of 

 Rosebery, in 1843, and was left a widow in 1851, 

 when her son, the present Lord Rosebery, was but 

 four years old. In 1854 she married Lord Harry 

 Vane, who succeeded to the dukedom of Cleve- 

 land and took the name of Powlett. At his death 

 in 1891, the dukedom became extinct, but Battle 

 Abbey, the family seat, remained in the possession 

 of the duchess during her life. The duchess was 

 an enthusiastic traveler, and took an active in- 

 terest in affairs. In 1889 she published The Bat- 

 tle Abbey Roll: With Some Account of the Nor- 

 man Lineages, in 3 volumes. In this work, the 

 result of much patient research, the author dis- 

 tinguishes between names properly belonging to 

 the roll of the knights of William the Conqueror 

 and those added subsequently. 



Pretorius, Marthinas Wessels, a South 

 African statesman, born in 1827 ; died in Potchef- 

 stroom, May 19, 1901. He was the son of Andries 

 Pretorius, one of the leaders of the great trek, 

 who in 1848, when the British seized Bloemfon- 

 tein and declared the annexation of the Orange 

 Free State, compelled the British garrison to sur- 

 render, but was driven across the Vaal when Sir 

 Harry Smith brought up a British force. He 

 died after signing of the Sand river convention 

 by which Great Britain recognized the independ- 

 ence of the Transvaal, and his son Marthinas 

 succeeded him as commandant-general and con- 

 tinued his policy, the aim of which was to unite 

 the Boer republics. He invaded the Free State 

 with the Potchefstroom commandos in 1857, but 

 was unsuccessful. In 1860 he was elected Presi- 

 dent of the Free State, and still could not carry 



of the 



South 



e Free 



I Jura, 



d b 



out his plans. When all the 1 '>)> ix.it 

 Vaal came together and establi-ln-d t|, 

 African Republic in 18(54, Pretoria l<-n. 

 State to become their first President. 1 

 long tribes in the west, incited ;md ai 

 British missionaries, declared the.ii indepeiidene': 

 and drove out the Boer settlers. After cha.-ti.sin- 

 them more than once, when the trouble LrnkT. 

 out again President Pretorius accepted the sirhi- 

 tration of the Governor of Natal. To the eon 

 sternation of the Boers, Gov. Keate decided 

 against their right to the territory, although they 

 had originally settled the Baralongs there on ;i. 

 tenure of service. He had been reelected in 1801), 

 but the Keate award ruined his chances for the 

 next term. His successor, President Burgers, by 

 undertaking improvements in education and pub- 

 lic works, leading to financial difficulties, and by 

 his advanced views brought on civil dissensions 

 which led in 1877 to the occupations of the towns 

 by the British and the proclamation by Sir The- 

 ophilus Shepstone of the annexation of the Trans- 

 vaal to the British Empire. Pretorius joined with 

 Kruger and Joubert in rousing the Boers to resist 

 annexation, but after they had regained inde- 

 pendence in 1880, Paul Kruger, who had been 

 their most efficient military chief as well as the 

 most active political leader, was elected Presi- 

 dent when a regular Government succeeded in 

 1881 to the triumvirate. 



Roberts, Alexander, a Scottish clergyman, 

 born in Kincardineshire, May 12, 1826; died 

 in March, 1901. He was educated at King's 

 College, Aberdeen, and, entering the Presby- 

 terian ministry, held pastorates in Scotland and 

 London in 1852-71. In the year last named 

 he succeeded Principal Shairp as Professor of 

 Humanity at St. Andrew's University, and he w r as 

 professor emeritus at the time of his death. He 

 was a member of the New Testament Revision 

 Company in 1870-'81. His great aim in life was 

 to convince the world that Christ in his public 

 teaching habitually used Greek. Prof. Roberts 

 published The Threefold Life (1858); Inquiry 

 into the Original Language of St. Matthew's 

 Gospel (1859) ; Discussions on the Gospels (1862) ; 

 Life and Works of St. Paul (1867); Writings of 

 Irenseus and Hippolytus, translation (1868); 

 The Bible of Christ and his Apostles (1879); 

 Companion to the Revised Version of the English 

 New Testament (1881) ; Old Testament Revision: 

 A Handbook for English Readers (1883); Greek 

 the Language of Christ and his Apostles (1888) ; 

 and A Short Proof that Greek was the Language 

 of Christ (1893). 



Robinson, Frederick, an English novelist, 

 born in London, Dec. 23, 1830; died there, Dec. 

 6, 1901. He was all his life a resident of London, 

 and besides being a prolific writer of novels \vas a 

 frequent contributor of special articles to period- 

 icals, and for five years dramatic critic on the 

 Daily News. He founded the Home Chimes, which 

 ran as a \veekly for two years, and was then 

 issued as a monthly. He was greatly beloved 

 among his fellow craftsmen in literature, being 

 wholly without envy and invariably generous in 

 his recognition of the merits of others. His plots 

 are skilfully constructed and his stories, which 

 are fluently told, are always entertaining. He 

 was the last of the more important " three-vol- 

 ume " novelists, and with the final extinction of 

 that form of issue he published at less frequent 

 intervals than before. A nearly complete list of 

 his works is believed to be as follows: The House 

 of Elmore (1855); Wildflower (1867) ; One-and- 

 Twenty (1858); Woodleigh (1859); High Church 

 (1859); Grandmother's Money (1860); Twelve 



