ROEBUCK ROGERS. 



889 



No foreign foe remaining, he assiduously employed 

 himself to restore peace and order to Germany, and 

 wisely put down the private fortresses, which served 

 iis u retreat to banditti and to ferocious nobles. For 

 these and other eminent services in the same spirit, 

 he obtained the title of " a living law," and was 

 regarded as a second founder of the German empire. 

 Me subsequently engaged in war with the counts of 

 Savoy and of Burgundy, and delivered the young 

 king of Bohemia from the captivity to which he had 

 been subjected by the regent Otho, and married 

 him to one of his daughters. The final object of 

 tlie emperor was to secure the imperial succession 

 to his son Albert ; but the electors, jealous of the 

 rapid rise of the family, could not be made to con- 

 cur, and Rudolph felt the disappointment severely. 

 He had, however, laid a permanent foundation for 

 the prosperity of his race ; and, after a reign of 

 nineteen years, expired hi July, 1291, in the seventy 

 third year of his age. There is scarcely an ex- 

 cellency, either of body or mind, which the biogra- 

 phers of the house of Austria have not attributed to 

 its founder ; and he appears to have merited no 

 small portion of their panegyric. Few princes have 

 surpassed him in energy of character, and in civil 

 and military talents. He was personally brave, al- 

 most to rashness, indefatigable, simple and unaffec- 

 ted in his manners, affable, and magnanimous. In 

 the beginning of his career, he seems to have 

 shared in the usual license of the period, in pursuit 

 of aggrandizement ; but, as an emperor, he has been 

 considered, for the most part, as equitable and just 

 as he was brave and intelligent. 



ROEBUCK, DR JOHN, an English physician and 

 improver of chemical manufactures, was born at 

 Sheffield, in Yorkshire, in 1718. His father was a 

 respectable hardware manufacturer, and designed 

 this his eldest son as his successor in the trade ; 

 but finding his taste and genius led him to higher 

 pursuits, he consented to give him a liberal educa- 

 tion. From the grammar-school of Sheffield he 

 was placed at Northampton, under the tuition of 

 Dr Doddridge, with whom he made great proficiency 

 in classical knowledge and general literature. On 

 leaving Dr Doddridge's academy, he was sent to 

 Edinburgh, to study medicine, and there he directed 

 his particular attention to chemistry. From Edin- 

 burgh he repaired to Leyden, where he obtained 

 the degree of M. D. in 1743. Soon after he 

 quitted Leyden, or about 1744, he settled as a phy- 

 sician at Birmingham, and acquired much reputa- 

 tion as a skilful and humane practitioner ; but his 

 taste for chemical researches, inclined him to 

 occupy more time than could well be spared from 

 the duties of his profession, in the labours of the 

 laboratory, and he soon found it necessary to 

 engage, as his assistant, Mr Samuel Garbet, a 

 gentleman whose taste was congenial to his own. 

 This copartnery proved very profitable, both to the 

 chemists concerned and to the public. In 1749, 

 Dr Roebuck, who was then married, and Mr 

 Garbet, established a manufactory of oil of vitriol, 

 or sulphuric acid, at Prestonpans, in East Lothian. 

 The success of this speculation was for some years 

 very flattering, and soon induced Dr Roebuck, who 

 still continued to practice at Birmingham, and who 

 had received a pressing invitation to remove in the 

 same capacity to London, to relinquish medical 

 practice entirely, and devote himself exclusively to 

 iiis ch, mical pursuits. 



VVilliin a short time after he had quitted the 

 practice of medicine, and taken up his residence 

 chiefly in Scotland, he was led, from some success- 

 ful experiments on iron ore, to project an extensive 

 manufactory of cast-iron, and having contrived to 



interest several monied friends in the undertaking, 

 so as to raise a sufficient capital, he, with the assis- 

 tance of the eminent engineers, Smeaton and Watt, 

 established the celebrated iron works at Carron. 

 The first furnace of this great national manufactory, 

 which has since become so extensive and flourish- 

 ing, was set at work on the 1st January, 1700, and 

 the establishment continued to be carried on with 

 spirit and success for several years, under the 

 superintendence of Dr Roebuck. There is little 

 doubt, that, had he confined his attention to these 

 well concerted schemes, he might have realized a 

 handsome independency; but, unfortunately, his 

 restless and ardent spirit induced him to engage in 

 new, doubtful, and, as they turned out, ruinous 

 speculations. Finding, or fearing some scarcity of 

 coal for carrying on the processes at Carron, he 

 conceived the idea, that if he had the neighbouring 

 coal-works at Borrowstouness, belonging to the 

 duke of Hamilton, under his own management, he 

 could easily supply the deficiency, and add con- 

 siderably to his own income. He therefore became 

 lessee of those works, and the adjoining salt-works, 

 and, in this new undertaking, not only expended 

 his own and his wife's fortune, but involved himself 

 in many debts, which he was never afterwards able 

 to discharge. These embarrassments, and the 

 continual anxiety which they produced, added to a 

 dangerous complaint, gradually undermined his 

 naturally vigorous constitution, and he died in 

 1794. It has been well remarked by his biogra- 

 phers, that he left behind hirt many works, but 

 few writings. With the exception of two political 

 pamphlets, which were published separately, his 

 compositions consist only of three papers, pub- 

 lished in the Phil. Trans, of London, for 1775 and 

 1776, and in those of Edinburgh, for 1784. 



RCEMER ; the name of the town-house in Frank- 

 fort on the Maine, in which the deliberations on the 

 election of the German emperor were held. The 

 newly crowned emperor here received homage. In 

 one large room of the Roemer are the pictures of all 

 the emperors from Charlemagne to Francis II. ; and 

 it is a curious fact, that the wall had been so filled, 

 as to leave room but for one picture more, when the 

 portrait of Francis II., with whom the German em- 

 pire expired, was added to the series. The name 

 of the house comes from the family Roemer, which 

 sold it, in 1405, to the city. 



ROGER, OR ROGIERVAN DER VEYDE, one 

 of the most eminent painters of the Old Nether- 

 landish school, was born at Brussels, and died in 

 1529. In the hall of his native city are four alle- 

 gorical pictures by him. A celebrated Descent 

 from the Cross, executed by him, was sent to Spain; 

 another is in Aix-la-Chapelle. Roger was also dis- 

 tinguished as a painter on glass. 



ROGER DE HOVEDEN. See Hoveden, Ro- 

 ger de. 



ROGERS, WOODS, an English circumnavigator, 

 belonged to the royal navy in 1708, when he was 

 invited by the merchants of Bristol to take the 

 command of an expedition to the South Sea. He 

 set sail with two vessels, the Duke and the Duchess, 

 taking out Dampier as a pilot. Passing to the south 

 of Terra del Fuego, in January, 1709, they entered 

 the Pacific Ocean, and February 1, arrived at the 

 isle of Juan Fernandez, where they found Alexan- 

 der Selkirk, (see Robinson Crusoe,) and having vi- 

 sited the coast of California, crossed the Pacific, and 

 returned to England in Oct. 1711. Captain Rogers 

 was afterwards employed with a squadron to extirpate 

 the pirates who infested the West Indies. He died 

 in 1732. His Voyage Round the Word was pub- 

 lished in 1712. 



