John Arthur Roebuck

For the English inventor, see John Roebuck

John Arthur Roebuck (28 December 1802 – 30 November 1879), British politician, was born at Madras, in India.

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 Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) 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 recalcitrancy, 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.

Works

• Remarks on the Proposed Union of the Canadas, 1822
• Debate in the House of Commons, on the 15th April, 1834, on Mr. Roebuck's Motion for "a Select Committee to inquire the means of remedying the evils which exist in the form of the governments now existing in Upper and Lower Canada.", 1834
• The Canadas and Their Grievances, 1835
• Existing Difficulties in the Government of the Canadas, 1836
• The Colonies of England : A Plan for the Government of Portion of Our Colonial Possessions, 1849
• History of the Whig Ministry of 1830, to the Passing of the Reform Bill , 1852

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Life and Letters of John Arthur Roebuck, P.C., Q.C., M.P.: With Chapters of Autobiography, London: E. Arnold, 1897, 392 p. (online)

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Arthur Roebuck
•  "Roebuck, John Arthur". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900.