ROB 
half a league long, and is 15 feet broad, and 
as many high. 
Road, in navigation, is a place of anchor-' 
age at some distance from shore, where ves- 
sels usually moor, to wait for a wind or tide 
proper to carry them into harbour, or to 
set sail. When the bottom is firm, clear of 
rocks, and sheltered from the wind, it is 
called a good road ; and when there is but 
little land on any side, it is termed an open 
road. 
The roads in his Majesty’s dominions are 
free to all merchant vessels belonging to his 
subjects and allies. Captains and masters 
of ships who are forced by storms, &c. to cut 
their cables, and leave their anchors in the 
roads, are obliged to fix marks, or buoys, 
on pain of forfeiting their anchors, &c. 
Masters of ships coming to moor in a road, 
must cast anchor at such a distance as that 
tlie cables, &c. do not mix, on pain of an- 
swering the damages ; and when there are 
several vessels in the same road, the outer- 
most to the sea ward is obliged to keep a 
light in his lanthorti in the night-time, to 
apprise vessels coming in from sea. 
ROASTING, in metallurgy, the separa- 
tion of volatile bodies from those which are 
more fixed, by the combined action of air 
and fire; 'and is generally the first process 
in the separation of metals from their ores : 
it dilFers from sublimation only in this, that 
in this operation the volatile parts are dissi- 
pated, when resolved into vapours : where- 
as in that, they are preserved. 
ROBBERY, is a felonious taking away 
of another man’s goods from his person, or 
presence, against his will, putting him in 
fear, on purpose to steal the same. The 
value is immaterial. 
If a man force another to part with hiS 
property, for tlie sake of preserving, his 
character from the imputation of having 
been guilty of an unnatural crime, it will 
amount to a’robbery, even though the party 
was under no apprehension of personal dan- 
ger. If any thing is snatched suddenly 
from the head, hand , or person of any one, 
without any struggle on the part of the 
owner, or without any evidence of force, or 
violence being exerted by the thief, it does 
not amount to robbery. Rut if any thing 
be broken or torn in consequence of the 
sudden seizure, it would be evidence of 
such force as would coiistitue a robbery : 
as where a part of a lady’s hair was torn 
away by snatching a diamond pin from her 
head, and an ear was torn by pulling off an 
ear-ring ; each of these cases was determin- 
ed to be a robbery. 
ROB 
By 7 George II. c. 21, if any person shall, 
with any offensive weapon, assault, or by 
menaces, or in any forcible or violent man- 
ner, demand any money or goods, with a 
felonious intent to rob another, he shall be 
guilty of felony, and be transported for 
seven years. 
If any person being out of prison, shall 
commit any robbery, and afterwards disco- 
ver two or more persons who shall commit 
any robbery, so as two or more be convict- 
ed, he shall have the King’s pardon for all 
robberies he shall have committed before 
such discovery. 
Highway-robbery differs from robbery 
only in this, that there is a reward of 401, 
for the apprehending of the offender, and 
the horse which the robber rides is for- 
feited. 
ROBERGIA, in botany, so named in 
honour of Laurentius Roberg, a genus of 
the Decandria Pentagynia class and order. 
Natural order of Terebintaceae, Jussieu; 
Essential character : calyx five-parted ; pe- 
tals five ; drupe with a one-seeded nut, and a 
two-valved shell. There is but one species, 
viz. R. frutescens, a native of the woods of 
Guiana. 
ROBINIA, in botany, a genus of the 
Diadelphia Decandria class and order. Na- 
tural order of Papilionace®, or Legumi- 
nos®. Essential character : calyx four- 
cleft; legume gibbous, elongated. There 
are seventeen species. 
ROBINS (Benjamin), in biography, an 
English mathematician and philosopher, of 
great genius and eminence, was born at 
Bath, in Somersetshire, 1707. His parents 
were of low condition, and qnakers ; and, 
consequently, neither able from their cir- 
cumstances, nor willing from their reli- 
gious profession, to have him much instruct- 
ed in that kind of learning which they are 
taught to despise as human. Nevertheless 
he made an early and surprising progress in 
various branches of science and literature, 
particularly in the mathematics; and his 
friends being desirous that he might conti- 
nue his pursuits, and that his merit might 
not be buried in obscurity, wished that he 
could be properly recommended to teach 
that science in London. Accordingly, a 
specimen of his abilities, in this way, was 
sent iip thither, and shown to Dr. Pember- 
ton, the author of the “ View of .Sir Isaac 
Newton’s Philosophy;” who thence, con- 
ceiving a good opinion of the writer, for a 
further trial of his skill, sent him some pro- 
blems, which Robins resolved very much 
to his satisfaction. He then came to Lon- 
