Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/374

 358 ROBESON ROBESPIERRE it. A method of determining the direction of a tangent at any point of a curve, which Torri- celli claimed to have made in 1644, Roberval, in a letter to Torricelli, declared was known to himself in 1636. Torricelli gave the name of Robervallian lines to curves with infinite branches which admit of an expression for the area between them. Roberval discovered rules for finding the volume of solids formed by the revolution of a cycloid about its base 1 and about its axis. His principal works were published after his death in the old Memoirea d6 V academic, vol. vi. (1693). ROBESON, a 8. county of North Carolina, bordering on South Carolina, watered by the Lumber and Little Pedee rivers; area, about 900 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 16,262, of whom 737 were colored. It- has a nearly level surface and a generally sandy soil. It is intersected by the Carolina Central railroad. The chief productions in 1870 were 5,838 bushels of rye, 138,545 of Indian corn, 21,261 of peas and beans, 84,784 of sweet potatoes, 69,486 Ibs. of rice, 14,081 of wool, 25,199 of honey, and 2,109 bales of cotton. There were 1,152 horses, 741 mules and asses, 2,915 milch cows, 6,469 other cattle, 8,396 sheep, and 18,751 swine ; 1 saw mill, and 15 establishments for the production of tar and turpentine. Capital, Lumberton. ROBESPIERRE, Maximilini Marie Isidore de, a French revolutionist, born in Arras, May 6, 1758, executed in Paris, July 28, 1794. He was supposed to be of remote Irish origin, and his ancestors had acquired patents of nobility in France. His mother died young, and his father deserted his family and ended his life in Germany. His grandfather placed him at the college of Arras, and M. de Conzie, the bish- op, sent him in 1770 to the college of Louis le Grand in Paris. Danton, Desraoulins, and Freron the younger were among his fellow pupils. He repeatedly gained honorable dis- tinction in his studies, and remained at this institution eight years. After completing his law studies he returned to Arras, where his first important cause was a defence of the in- troduction of Franklin's lightning rods against the charge of impiety (1783). He became a member of the criminal court of Arras, and in the discharge of his duties was called to con- demn a prisoner to death. This so affected him that he resigned his office and advocated the abolition of capital punishment. He was thoroughly imbued with the theories of Rous- seau, and gradually espoused the cause of the people in opposition to the clergy and nobility. On the convocation of the states general in 1789, he was elected deputy of the third estate. Lamartine describes his figure as slight ; limbs feeble and angular ; voice shrill and monoto- nous ; forehead small and projecting over the temples ; eyes blue and deeply set ; nose straight and small, and very wide at the nostrils ; mouth large and lips thin; chin small and pointed; complexion yellow and livid. There was a pro- digious and continual tension of all the muscles of his face. In the constituent assembly he strenuously opposed giving the king a suspen- sive veto power, resisted the decree of mar- tial law, pleaded for the remission of sundry disabilities against the Jews and comedians, and advocated abolition of the compulsory cel- ibacy of priests. After the adoption of the declaration of the rights of man he was con- tinually recalling the assembly to the princi- ples of that formula. On June 19, 1790, he was elected one of its secretaries. He had no means beyond his pay as deputy, 18 francs a day, of which he sent one fourth to his sister. He occupied a retired and ill furnished lodging, and Michelet describes him as entering the tri- bune dressed in a threadbare olive-green coat, his only one. After Mirabeau's death (April 2, 1791), Robespierre rose to a more command- ing position. He was studious and abstemi- ous, and constant in attendance at the Jacobin club and the assembly. He at length began to be feared. Duport and Bigot, who had been named president and vice president of the criminal tribunal, with Robespierre for public accuser, refused to serve on account of his ex- treme views. This office he held from June, 1791, till April, 1792. He thought that "in general there is nothing so just nor so good as the people, when not irritated by the excesses of despotism." He still advocated the aboli- tion of capital punishment, and the admission of all citizens into the national guards and upon juries. He claimed for the blacks in the col- onies a participation in political rights, and exclaimed : " Let the colonies perish rather than a principle." He was one of the leaders of the mob in the riot of July 14 and 17, 1791, intended to overawe the assembly and drive it into accepting the abdication of the king, and showed himself a coward on this occasion. At the close of the constituent assembly, Sept. 80, 1791, the people of Paris received him with rap- ture. By a decree of the assembly, proposed by Robespierre, no member was eligible to the next legislature which convened on the disso- lution of its predecessor. He took advantage of the occasion to revisit his native town, where he was welcomed with an ovation. After seven weeks' rest he returned to Paris, and during the sitting of the legislative assembly was in constant attendance upon the meetings of the Jacobin club. When the assembly voted a sum for martial preparations, he alone opposed the measure. He began in the spring of 1792 a journal entitled Le defenseur de la constitution, which closed with the 12th number. In the conspiracy which culminated in the bloody events of Aug. 10 he does not appear to have participated, though he afterward spoke of that day as one of the most glorious in the annals of the world. He was made one of the new municipality following this insurrection, and a day or two afterward appeared before the assembly as the spokesman of a deputation from the commune to demand the establish- ment of a new criminal court for the summary