1801. | 
able attachment to bathing. He furprifed 
the medical men by the length of his ftay 
in the hot-bath, very often two hours or 
more at a time, and by going in and out 
without any of the precautions which were 
then ufual, and which future experience 
has proved to be unneceifary. On his re- 
turn to England nething particular hap- 
pened to him till his election to parliament 
by the city of Canterbury, which place he 
reprefented, and, we may add, really re- 
prefented,; for two fuccellive parliaments. 
His neighbourhood to Canterbury had na- 
turally introduced him to fome of the 
higher claffes of that city ; but he ‘had no 
idea of a flight acquaintance with a few 
only of his conftituents, he would know 
and be known to them all. His vifits to 
Canterbury gratified himfelf and them. 
They were vifits to his conftituents, whom 
he called on at their fhops and their looms, 
walked within their market-places, {pent 
the evening with at their’clubs. He could 
do this from one of his principles, which 
he had ftudied with the greateft attention, 
and maintained with the utmoft firmnefs, 
the natural equality of man. No one was 
more fenfible than himfelfof the advantages 
and difadvantages of birth, rank, and for- 
tune. He could live with the highett, 
and he could alfo live with the loweft in 
fociety ; with the forms neceffary for an 
intercourfe with the fermer clafs he was 
perfectly well acquainted, and he could 
put them in practice; to the abfence of 
thefe reftraints he could familiarize him- 
felf, and could enter into cafual con- 
verfation with the vulgar, as «hey are 
called,making them forget the difference of 
rank, as much ashe difregarded it. Hence 
perhaps, there neyer was a reprefentative 
more refpected and beloved by his confti- 
tuents, and his attention-to the duties of 
parliament entitled him to their venera- 
tion. Independent of all parties, he ut- 
tered the fentiments of his heart; he 
weighed the propriety of every meafure, 
and gave his vote according to the prepon- 
derance of argument, The natural con- 
fequence of i 
firft parliament, a difguft with the manners 
of the houfe; and he would have refigned 
his feat at the general election, if his fae 
ther had not particularly defired him to 
make one more trial, and prefented him at 
the fame time with a purfe, not fuch as has 
lately been thought neceflary for the party 
to pay his election expences. Mr. Ro- 
binfon was re-eleéted, and what will afto- 
nifh the generality of members, made no 
demand on his father for election bills ; 
for, after paying every expence with li- 
berality, he found himfelf a gainer in a 
confiderable fum, by the election. Cor- 
ruption had not then made fuch dreadful 
Memoirs of Lord Rokeby. 
uch a conduct was, in the 
527, 
havock in the mind as it has been our de- 
{tiny to lament ina fubfequent period, yet 
Mr. R. found himfelf uneafy in the per- 
formance of his duty. He conceived that 
a member of parliament fhould carry into 
the houfe a fincere love of his country, 
found knowledge, attention to bufinefs, 
and firm independence—That meafures 
were not to be planned and adopted ina 
minifter’s parlour, nor the Houfe of Come 
mons to be amere chamber of parliament 
to regifter his decrees—That in the 
Houfe of Commons every member was 
equal ; that it knew no diftinGion of mi- 
nifter, county-member, city-member, or 
borough-member. ‘That each individual 
member had a right to propofe, to affift in 
deliberation, aid by his vote in carrying 
or rejecting a meafure according to the 
dictates of his own mind; and that the 
greateft traitors, with which a country 
could be curft, were fuch perfons as would 
enter into parliament without any inten- 
tion of ftudying its duties, and examining 
meafures, but witha firm determination to 
fupport the minifter or his opponents ac- 
cording as the expectation or actual en- 
joyment of a place, penfion or emolument, 
derived from adminiftration, led them to 
enlift under the banners of one or the other 
party. Even in his time he thought he 
faw too great confidence placed inthe heads 
of party, too little reliance on private 
judgment, too little attention to parlia- 
mentary duties. ‘The uniform fucceis of 
every minifterial meafure did not accord 
with his ideas of a deliberative body, and 
he determined to quit a place in which he 
thought himfelf incapable of promoting 
the public good; and where he was de-~ 
termined not to be aiding or abetting in 
any cther meaiures. ‘lo the great regret 
of his conitituents he declined the offer 
of reprefenting them at the next election, 
and no future cntreaties could induce him 
to ref{ume an occupation in which, as he 
told them, better eyes were required than 
his to fee, better ears to hear, and better 
lungs to oppofe the tricks of future mini- 
flers. 
By the death of his father, in the fecond 
eriod of his parliamentary life, Mr. Ro- 
binfon came into polfeflion of the paternal 
eftate, and had now a full opportunity of 
realifing his own f{chemes of life. About 
twelve miles from Canterbury, on the an- 
tient Roman road leading to the Portus 
Lemanus, the prefent Lympne, by turn 
ing a few paces to the left, the walker, 
who has been fatigued as much by the 
uniformity as the roughnefs of the road, 
feels on a fudden his heart expanded by a 
moft extenfive prafpect, which he com- 
mands from a lofty eminence. Before 
him and under his feet, at a ane of 
vé 
