ALFRED ROOKER. 
571 
teaching of the Rev. W. Evans, then minister of the Abbey 
Chapel, Tavistock, a scholar of no mean repute, and one of the 
foremost of the literary and scientific men of that town. 
Mr. Rooker became a solicitor, and settled in Plymouth, and at 
once took a leading position in the public affairs of the town of his 
adoption, whether municipal, political, religious, or philanthropic. 
He was made a member of the Corporation without passing through 
the ordeal of popular election, being chosen an alderman without 
previously being elected for any ward, and continuing an alderman 
until his death. He filled the civic chair more than once ; and 
it was his distinguished privilege as chief magistrate to receive 
the Prince of Wales on the occasion of the opening of the New 
Guildhall, discharging the onerous duties which then fell upon 
him with honour to himself and with credit to the town of 
which he was the representative. But indeed he was ever equal 
to the position in which he was placed. So high was the esteem 
in which he was held by the political party to which he was so 
ardently attached, that he was selected to contest the representation 
of the borough on the vacation of the seat previously held by Sir 
R. P. Collier. He was unsuccessful ; but want of success did not 
disturb his equanimity. 
Mr. Eooker became a member of the Plymouth Institution in 
July, 1837, and rarely failed from that time until his death to 
deliver one or two lectures a session. In 1852 he was elected 
president of the society, having ten years previously been vice- 
president ; and at the time of his death he was one of the trustees. 
His first lecture at the Athenaeum was delivered in December, 
1837, on " International Law ;" and the subjects of his subsequent 
lectures, which indicate a wide range of sound reading, and much 
original thought, are — 1839, " International Law,' ' second; 1840, 
" Ancient Forensic Oratory," two; 1842, "The Prose Writings of 
Milton," "Judicial Proceedings among the Anglo-Saxons;" 1843, 
"Milton's Minor Poetry," "The British Association at Cork;" 
1844, "Lunacy: its Legal Incidents," two; 1845, "Rise of the 
Italian Republics;" 1846, "The Decline of European Literature, 
and its Revival in the Middle Ages 1847, " On the Philosophical 
Fictions of Sir Thomas More, Bacon, and Swift;" 1848, " Civilisa- 
tion in the Reign of Elizabeth;" 1849, "Alfred and the Anglo- 
Saxons;" 1851, "The Koran and its Sequences;" 1852, "The 
Poetry of the Old Testament Scriptures;" 1854, "Magna Charta 
