them at the proper time, he was unable to restrain others from making use of them. Engaging next in the manufacture of iron, he in 1760 established the ironworks which still exist at Carron, in Stirlingshire. There he introduced various improvements in the methods of production, including the conversion (patented in 1762) of cast iron into malleable iron “by the action of a hollow pit-coal fire” urged by a powerful artificial blast. His next enterprise was less successful. He leased a colliery at Bo'ness to supply coal to the Carron works, but in sinking for new seams encountered such quantities of water that the Newcomen engine which he used was unable to keep the pit clear. In this difficulty he heard of James Watt's engine and entered into communication with its inventor. This engine, then at an early stage of its development, also proved inadequate, but Roebuck became a strong believer in its future and in return for a two-thirds share in the invention assisted Watt in perfecting its details. His troubles at the colliery, however, aggravated by the failure of an attempt to manufacture alkali, brought him into pecuniary straits, and he parted with his share in Watt's engine to Matthew Boulton in return for the cancellation of a debt of £1200 which he owed the latter. Subsequently, though he had to give up his interest in the Bo'ness works, he continued to manage them and to reside at the neighbouring Kinneil House, where he occupied himself with farming on a considerable scale. He died on the 17th of July 1794.
ROEBUCK, JOHN ARTHUR (1801-1879), British politician, was born at Madras on the 28th of December 1801. After the death of his father, a civil servant, his mother's second marriage transferred him to Canada, where he was chiefly brought up. He came to England in 1824, was called to the bar (Q.C. 1843), became intimate with the leading radical and utilitarian reformers, was elected M.P. for Bath in 1832, and took up that general attitude of hostility to the government of the day, be it what it might, which he retained throughout his life. At all times conspicuous for his eloquence, honesty and recalcitrance, he twice came with especial prominence before the public—in 1838, when, although at the time without a seat in parliament, he appeared at the bar of the Commons to protest, in the name of the Canadian Assembly, against the suspension of the Canadian constitution; and in 1855, when, having overthrown Lord Aberdeen's ministry by carrying a resolution for the appointment of a committee of inquiry into the mismanagement in the Crimean War, he presided over its proceedings. In his latter years his political opinions became greatly modified, but with one interruption he retained his seat for Sheffield, which he had won in 1849, until his death in London on the 30th of November 1879.
ROE-BUCK, the smallest of the British deer (a full-grown buck standing not more than 27 in. high at the shoulder), the typical representative of a genus (Capreolus) in which the antlers lack a brow-tine and belong to what is characterized as the forked type, while the tail is rudimentary (see Deer). The antlers are short, upright and deeply furrowed, the beam forking at about two-thirds of its length, and the upper prong again dividing, thus making three points. The coat in summer is foxy red above and white below; in winter this changes to a greyish fawn, with a white rump-patch. The roe-buck or roe-deer (Capreolus caprea, or C. capreolus) inhabits southern and temperate Europe as far east as the Caucasus, where, as in Syria, it is probably represented by another race or species. It frequents woods, preferring such as have a large growth of underwood and are in the neighbourhood of cultivated ground. The latter it visits in the evening in search of food; and where roe are numerous the damage done to growing crops is considerable. Pairing takes place in August, but the fawns are not born till the following May. According to one theory, the germ lies dormant until December, when it begins to develop; but it is now believed that this long gestation is due to slow rather than arrested development. Roe were formerly abundant in all the wooded parts of Great Britain, but were gradually exterminated, till a century and a half ago they were unknown south of Perthshire. Since then the increase of plantations has led to the partial restoration of the species in the south of Scotland and the north of England; and it was reintroduced into Dorset early in the 19th century. These deer take readily to the water, and they have been known to swim across lochs more than half a mile in breadth. The Siberian roe (C. pygargus), which is common in the Altai, is larger and paler than the type species, with shorter and more hairy ears, a larger white rump-patch, and small irregular snags on the inner border of the antlers. The Manchurian roe (Capreolus manchuricus) is about the size of the European species, with antlers of the type of those of the Siberian roe, but more slender, and the coat shorter. Although described in 1889 as a local variety of the Siberian species, the Manchurian roe really appears, both as regards stature, hairiness and the black and white markings on the muzzle, much more nearly related to the European animal. This is the more remarkable seeing that the habitats of the two are separated by such an enormous tract of country. (R. L.*)
ROEDERER, PIERRE LOUIS, Comte (1754-1835), French politician and economist, was born at Metz on the 15th of February 1754, the son of a magistrate. At the age of twenty-five he became councillor at the parlement of Metz, and was commissioned in 1787 to draw up a list of remonstrances. His work advocating the suppression of internal customs houses (Suppression des douanes intérieures), published the same year, is an elaborate treatise on the laws of commerce and on the theory of customs imposts. In 1788 he published Députation aux États généraux, a pamphlet remarkable for its bold exposition of liberal principles, and partly on the strength of this he was elected deputy to the states-general by the Third Estate of the bailliage of Metz. In the Constituent Assembly he was a member of the committee of taxes (comité des contributions), prepared a scheme for a new system of taxation, drew up a law on patents, occupied himself with the laws relating to stamps and assignats, and was successful in opposing the introduction of an income tax. After the close of the Constituent Assembly he was elected, on the 11th of November 1791, procurer général syndic of the department of Paris. The directory of the department, of which the duc de la Rochefoucauld was president, was at this time in pronounced opposition to the advanced views that dominated the Legislative Assembly and the Jacobin Club, and Roederer was not altogether in touch with his colleagues. Thus he took no share in signing their protest against the law against the non-juring clergy, as a violation of religious liberty. But the directory did not long survive. With the growing anarchy of the capital many of its members resigned and fled, and their places could not be filled up. Roederer himself has left in his Chronique des cinquante jours (1832) an account of the pitiable part played by the directory of the department in the critical period between the 20th of June and the 10th of August 1792. Seeing the perilous drift of things, he had tried to get into touch with the king; and it was on his advice that Louis, on the fatal 10th, took refuge in the Assembly. His conduct arousing suspicion, he went into hiding, and did not emerge again until after the fall of Robespierre. In 1796 he was made a member of the Institute, was appointed to a professorship of political economy, and founded the Journal d'économie publique, de morale et de législation. Having escaped deportation at the time of the coup d'état of 18 Fructidor, he took part in the revolution of 18 Brumaire, and was appointed by Napoleon member of the council of state and senator. Under the Empire, Roederer, whose public influence was very considerable, was Joseph Bonaparte's minister of finance at Naples (1806), administrator of the grand duchy of Berg (1810), and imperial commissary in the south of France. During the Hundred Days he was created a peer of France. The Restoration government stripped him of his offices and dignities, but he recovered the title of peer of France in 1832. He died on the 17th of December 1835. His son, Baron Antoine Marie Roederer
