DEATH OF MR ROEBUCK, M.P.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1842, 17 January 1880, Page 3

DEATH OF MR ROEBUCK, M.P.

Mr John Arthur Roebuck, the senior member for Sheffield, who had sat. in the House of Commons since February, 1833, died at his house in London on the last day of November. In 1854 he spoke in defence of the war with Russia, declaring its object to bo to “ stop the Emperor in his career of spoliation.” In the debate on that war Mr Roebuck had his greatest party triumph. At the time Parliament assembled the campaign bad been opened nine months, and the country had been horrified and enraged by news of the army before Sebastopol. It was everywhere admitted that the moment Parliament should meet the whole subject must he brought under its consideration. This wns done in the House of Commons by Mr Roebuck, who moved for a committee of inquiry into the condition of the army before Sebastopol, and into the conduct of those departments of the Government whose duty it had been to minister to the wants of that army. The speech of Mr Roebuck was exceedingly brief, owing to the physical weakness under which he was laboring. The question being put, the number of ayes was 305, and the noes 140 By this blow the coalition Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen fell. Mr Roebuck had no place in the now Cabinet, but became chairman of the Committee appointed as the result of the division. In 1657 came a sudden and peculiar election. Lord Palmerston having suffered a defeat by a coalition of the Tories and of the R idicals on what, wns called the Chinese L< rcha Question dissolved Parliament. His conduct was so popular in the country that in the elections his opponents were utterly routed. Daring the next few years Mr Roebuck showed a growing divergence from his chief Liberal supporters. In 1863 Mr Roebuck gave great offence to tho working classes by repeating at Salisbury a description ho had previously given of the working men of our northern towns. They earned grout wages, but they spent them all ; they beat their wives and caressed their bulldogs. He embarked with great impetuosity in the cause of the Southern States of America, then at war with the North. At the election of 1865, however, he was returned at the head of tho poll. The action taken by Mr Roebuck as a member of the Commission on Trade Unions, and the course taken by him in respect to the Irish Church question, further alienated many of his triends in Sheffield, and at tho general election in 1868 he lost his seat. From 1863 to

1871 Mr Roebuck was not in the House, but at the last general election he was returned at the head of tho poll. The state of his health after that time did not permit of his taking a very active part in politics, and only on very rare occasions was he present in the House. He attended during some of the debates on tho Eastern Question, and supported tho policy of tho Government.