142 ROB 
of a conspiracy, and fell under the guillotine. In'the midst 
of all these honors he thought fit to exhibit at Paris a festival, 
in which the existence of a supreme being was solemnly re¬ 
cognised ; and as the restorer of national religion, he appointed 
decades and other days for public worship. 
But the reign of terror was now become too intolerable to 
.be endured, and the principle of fear which had supported 
it brought it to an end. No man was longer safe from a 
tyrant whose bloody disposition seemed to grow with the 
acts of cruelty, which it generated, and who had establish- 
. ed such a system of domestic treachery, as destroyed all the 
.confidence of society, and. subjected every individual to ac¬ 
cusation. He lost his popularity; he met with opposers in 
the. Convention itself: and in fine, by a sort of acclamation, 
a decree against him and his principal associates was passed, 
and he was arrested. Attempts were made by the Jacobin 
’club to raise the populace of Paris in his favour, and he was 
Tor a time rescued and carried to the Hotel de Ville, but his 
. enemies had gone too far to recede. A decree of outlawry 
was issued against him in the Convention, provided with 
which, a member at the head of an armed force burst into 
the Hotel de Ville. Robespierre, who had manifested his 
constitutional cowardice on this emergency, was found sitting 
• squat against a wall with a knife in his hand. Two pistols 
were fired at him, one of which wounded him in the head, 
and the other broke his under jaw. He endured in silence 
the pain of his wounds and the taunts of his foes, and was 
carried to prison. On the next day, after being taken, with 
,his accomplices, before the revolutionary tribunal, he was 
led, July 28, 1794, to instant execution, amidst the acclama¬ 
tions and curses of numerous spectators. 
Robespierre perished in the 36th year of his age. Although 
circumstances enabled him to act so considerable a part in 
the shifting scenes of 'the revolutionary period, he was by no 
means one of the superior figures in point of abilities or force 
of character. Natural reserve, cunning, habitual dissimu¬ 
lation, and a total want of feeling, carried him through 
.difficulties which might have overwhelmed a greater man ; 
but as he never made a friend, and was unsupported by 
.native courage, he sunk under the first bold opposition. 
.Nevertheless he was incorruptible by pecuniary offers, and 
never accumulated money, though he permitted peculation 
in. Iris creatures. He was little addicted to sensuality 5 and 
was insensible to the pleasures of love. Yet, with a dis¬ 
gusting person, he had the weakness of wishing to be 
admired ; and he was foppishly attentive to his dress. 
ROBIESSOU, a town of Austrian Poland; 22 miles south 
of Cheltn. 
ROBILLANTE, a small town in the north-west of Italy, 
in Piedmont; 8 miles south of Coni. 
RO'BIN, or R.obin-red-breast, s. \_rubecula, Lat.] 
A bird so named from his red breast; a ruddock. 
H'ct&robin-red-breast, till of late had rest. 
And children sacred held a martin’s nest. Pope. 
ROBINAL, a settlement of Mexico, in the province of 
Vera Paz, which contains 800 inhabitants; 40 miles south- 
south-west of Vera Paz. 
ROBIN-GOODFELLOW, s. One of our old domestic 
goblins. See Hobgoblin.— A bigger kind there is of 
them [fairies] called with us hobgoblins, and Robin good- 
folloxos, that would, in those superstitious times, grind corn 
for a mess of milk. Burt an. 
ROBINHOOD’S BAY, a large and populous village of 
England, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, situated on a bay 
of the same name, between Scarborough and Whitby. It is 
about a mile in length, and is inhabited chiefly by fishermen, 
who supply the city of York and all the adjacent country 
with herrings, and all sorts of fish in their season. For this 
purpose they have commodious boats, wherein are kept large 
quantities of crabs, lobsters, &c. South-west of the town are 
two hills, called Robin Hood’s Butts; 6 miles south-east of 
Whitby. 
ROBIN HOOD’S BAY, a bay on the east coast of New¬ 
foundland, frequented by small vessels. 
ROB 
. ROBINIA, [from Jean Robin, author of “ Histoire des 
Plantes,” &c. Par. 1620.] in botany, a genus of the class 
diadelphia, order decandria, natural order of papilionaceae 
or leguminosae. Generic Character.—Calyx : perianth one- 
leafed, small, bell-shaped, four-cleft; the three lower tooth- 
lets more slender; the upper fourth toothlefs wider, scarcely 
.emarginate to the naked eye, all equal in length. Corolla: 
papilionaceous ; standard roundish, larger, spreading, blunt; 
.wings oblong, ovate, free, with a very short blunt appendix; 
keel almost semiorbicular, compressed, blunt, the length of 
the wings. Stamina: filaments diadelphous (simple and 
nine-clelt), ascending at top. Anthers roundish. Pistil: 
germ cylindrical, oblong. Style filiform, bent upwards. 
Stigma villose in front at the top of the style. Pericarp : 
legume large, compressed,' gibbous, long. Seeds few, kid¬ 
ney-form. Essential Character. —Calyx, four-cleft. Le¬ 
gume gibbous, elongated. , . 
1. Robinia pseud-acacia, false or common acacia.—The 
common false or bastard acacia, called in America locust 
tree, grows very fast whilst young, so that in a few years 
from .seed, the plants rise to eight or ten feet high, and'it is 
not uncommon to see shoots of this tree six or eight feet long 
in one summer. The branches are armed with strong 
crooked thorns. Leaflets eight or ten pairs, ovate, bright 
green. The flowers come out from the side of the branches 
in pretty long bunches, hanging down like those of labur¬ 
num : each flower on a slender pedicel, white, and smelling 
very sweet: they appear in June, and when the trees are full 
of flower, they make a fine appearance and perfume the air 
round them; but they seldom continue more than one week. 
—Native of North America, where it grows to a very large 
size, and the wood is much valued for its duration. Most 
of the houses which were built at Boston, in New England, 
on the first settling of the English, were constructed of this 
timber. 
2. Robinia sepium, or hedge robinia.—This is a thornless 
tree, growing to the height of thirty feet, very much resemb¬ 
ling the preceding in habit, and dividing into round, almost 
upright, very long branches. Leaves ten inches long. Ra¬ 
cemes axillary. Flowers without scent, rose-coloured. Le¬ 
gumes smooth, brownish.—Native of Carthagena, in New 
Spain, where they use it much for hedges. 
3. Robinia violacea, or ash-leaved robinia.—This is an 
upright tree without thorns, growing to the height of twelve 
feet. Leaves alternate, numerous, shining; having three 
leaflets on each side, sometimes two, very seldom five; these 
are ovate, blunt, emarginate, entire, petioled, opposite, two 
inches long. Racemes axillary, half a foot in length. Dr. 
Houston found it growing naturally at Campeachy; Jacquin, 
about Carthagena. 
4. Robinia hispida, rose acacia or robinia_This rises 
in Carolina, where it grows naturally, sometimes to theheighf 
of twenty feet, but in England it seems to be of low growth ; 
the branches spread out near the ground, and produce their 
flowers very young. The young branches, and also the 
peduncles and calyxes are closely armed with small , brown 
prickles, or rather stiff bristly hairs, like raspberries. The 
flowers are larger, and of a deep rose-colour; but they have 
no scent: they come up early in June, and make a fine ap¬ 
pearance. Legumes flat oblong. 
5. Robinia mitis.—Stem shrubby, three feet high, upright, 
branched. Leaflets ovate-lanceolate, smooth, bright green. 
Corolla yellow. Legume oblong.—Native of the East Indies, 
China, and Cochinchina. 
6 . Robinia Caragana.—Trunks arboreous, commonly 
branched from the bottom, slender, with a smooth, ash- 
coloured skin. Calyx drooping a little, bell-shaped, smooth, 
permanent, five-toothed, but not deeply, the upper tooth 
wider and more distant. Corolla larger than the calyx, 
yellow', having wings as long as. the standard, and a keel 
scarcely shorter. Legumes cylindrical, rigid, mucronate. 
Seeds five to eight, oblong, yellowish-gray powdered with 
brown, rather large. The germination is made by the first 
leaves being ternate, and the last of the first year two or 
three-paired. Leaves five or six-’paired.—Native of Siberia. 
7. Robinia 
