R O B I S O N. 



toSi.on, that time to be in search of a person qualified to go to 

 John. 8ea w j t |, Kdward, Duke of York, and to assist his 

 " "Y"*' Jloyal Highness in the study of mathematics and navi- 

 gation. With tht- view of obtaining that appointment, 

 >r. Hobison went to London with recommendations 

 hum Professor Dick and Dr. Simson ; but he had no 

 sooner arrived in 1758, than he learned that the 

 projected voyage was not determined upon ; and af- 

 ter waiting for some time in anxious expectation, he 

 was mortified to find that the scheme was entirely 

 abandoned. Having been introduced to Admiral 

 Knowles, whose son was to have accompanied the 

 Duke of York, the Admiral engaged him to accom- 

 pany his own son to sea, and to take charge of his 

 education. 



Young Knowles went out in 1759 as a midshipman 

 on board of Admiral Saunders's ship, the Neptune of 

 90 guns, accompanied by Mr. Robison, but being pro- 

 moted in the course of the voyage to the rank of lieu- 

 tenant, on board the Royal William of 80 guns, Mr. 

 Robison attended him on board that ship, and was ra- 

 ted as a midshipman. 



This fleet, the object of which was to assist in redu- 

 cing Quebec, reached the American coast in April, and 

 in May it ascended the river St. Laurence. In this si- 

 tuation Mr. Robison had an opportunity of seeing a 

 great deal of active service, and he was occasionally 

 employed in making surveys of the river and the ad- 

 jacent grounds. 



" An anecdote which Mr. Robison used to tell," 

 says Mr. Playfair, " deserves well to be mentioned. 

 He happened to be on duty in the boat in which Ge- 

 neral Wolfe went to visit some of their posts the night 

 before the battle, which was expected to be decisive of 

 the fate of the campaign. The evening was fine, and 

 the scene, considering the work they were engaged in, 

 and the morning to which they were looking forward, 

 sufficiently impressive. As they rowed along, the Ge- 

 neral, with much feeling, repeated nearly the whole of 

 Grey's Elegy, (which had appeared not long before, 

 and was yet but little known,) to an officer who sat 

 -with him in the stern of the boat, adding, as he con- 

 cluded, that he would prefer being the author of that 

 poem to the glory of beating the French to-morrow." 

 To-morrow came, and the life of that illustrious soldier 

 was terminated amid the tears of his friends and the 

 shouts of his victorious army. The body of General 

 Wolfe was brought to England in the Royal William, 

 and was landed at Spithead on the ISth of November. 

 Mr. Robison had suffered severely from the sea-scur. 

 vy, which prevailed to an extraordinary degree on 

 board the Royal William. Out of 750 seamen, 286 

 were confined to their hammocks, and 140 scarcely 

 able to walk on deck. From that circumstance, and 

 many others, his dislike of the sea became very great, 

 and he resolved to return to Glasgow to prosecute his 

 theological studies, with the view of entering the 

 church. This resolution, however, was not carried 

 into effect. Mr. Robison received from Admiral 

 Knowles a kind invitation to live with him in the 

 country, and assist him in his experiments on ship- 

 building and seamanship. 



Mr. Robison did not scruple to accept an invitation 

 so congenial to his own studies ; and in February 17(>~, 

 when Lieutenant Knowles was appointed to the Ven- 

 geance of 20 guns, he accompanied his pupil, and was 

 extremely desirous of being appointed Purser to the 

 ship. After visiting Lisbon, and other parts of Portu- 

 gal and Spain, he returned to England in June, and 



quitted the naval icrvice. Before the end of the same 

 year, Admiral Knowles, with whom he still resided, 

 recommended him to Lord Anson, then the First Lord 

 of the Admiralty, as a proper person to take charge of 

 Harrison's Time- keeper, which, at the desire of the 

 Board of Longitude, was about to be sent to the West 

 Indies on a trial voyage. This eminent artist had com- 

 pleted his chronometer, ' after having struggled," as 

 .Mr. Play fair remarks, " for 35 years against the physi- 

 cal difficulties of his undertaking, and the still more 

 discouraging obstacles which the prejudice, the envy, 

 and the indifference of his cotemporaries, seldom fail 

 to plant in the way of an inventor." Mr. Robertson, 

 of the naval school of Portsmouth, determined its raU 

 and error on the 6'th of November, and on the 26th of 

 January Mr. Robison found it to indicate a difference 

 of longitude of 5 h 2' 47", which is only four seconds 

 less than it was found to be by other methods. Mr 

 Robison and Mr. Harrison embarked a few days af ; 

 wards on board the Merlin, which was sent to England 

 with dispatches for Government. After a voyage 

 marked by almost every species of naval distress short 

 of actual shipwreck, the ship took fire, and it was with 

 great difficulty that they reached Portsmouth on the 

 26th of March. On the 2d of April, the time of noon 

 was found to be ll h 58' 6"^, instead of 12 h , so that the 

 whole error from the 6th of November till the 2d of 

 April, was only 1' 53%', which corresponds to about 

 20 miles of longitude. 



Upon his return to England, Mr. Robison found 

 Lord Anson afflicted with the illness of which he died, 

 and his friend and patron Admiral Knowles disgusted 

 with the admiralty and the ministry. His hopes of 

 promotion depended only on his own personal services, 

 and these were readily set aside at a period when Eng- 

 land derived no lustre from the virtues of her states- 

 men. 



Under these circumstances, Mr. Robison resolved to 

 return to Glasgow, with the view of qualifying himself 

 for the church, and upon his arrival there, he devoted 

 his whole attention to the study of the sciences. The 

 example of his friend Dr. Black, who was about to 

 give to the world his great discovery of latent heat, 

 and of Mr. Watt, who was then bringing the steam- 

 engine to perfection, stimulated him in his scientific 

 career, and his constant intercourse with these great 

 men, fostered that love of experimental and practical 

 science which directed him in all his future researches. 

 In the year 1766, when Dr. Black was removed to 

 the chemical chair in Edinburgh, he recommended Mr. 

 Robison as his successor. He was accordingly elected 

 for one year, and commenced his first course of lectures 

 in October 1766. In this situation Mr. Robison con- 

 tinued four years, but a new object now presented it- 

 self to his ambition. At the request of the Empress of 

 Russia, Admiral Sir Charles Knowles was recommend- 

 ed to go to St. Petersburgh, for the purpose of reform- 

 ing and improving the Russian navy. He engaged Mr. 

 Robison to accompany him as his private secretary, 

 with a salary of ,250 per annum; and they set sud 

 from England in December 1770. 



In 1772, Mr. Robison was appointed Inspector-Ge- 

 neral of the corps of Marine Cadets at Cronstadt, with 

 a salary double that of his predecessor, and the rank 

 of Lieutenant-Colonel attached to it. This corps con- 

 sisted of about 400 Russian noblemen, who were edu- 

 cated by 40 masters and professors, and it was Mr. Ro- 

 bison's duty to receive the reports of the teachers, and 

 to class the cadets in the order of their merit 



