An inquiring American mind, seeking the solution of this momentous
question, would naturally turn to Appleton's "New Cyclopædia," Vol.
XIV., page 131. The inquiring mind would be enlightened in a somewhat
bewildering manner by the description there laid down of a little
animal, some of whose qualities are thus set forth in the first article
on the page indicated above:--
"ROEBUCK. A small European deer of the genus _Capreolus_.... The skull
has a very small, shallow suborbital pit, ... tear-bag indistinct, hoofs
narrow and triangular.... The color in summer is reddish brown, in
winter olive, with paler shades; inside of the ears fulvous, and a black
spot at the angles of the mouth.... It is about four feet long.... The
horns are used for knife-handles.... They congregate in small families,
but not in herds.... From their strong scent they are easily hunted;
though they frequently escape by their speed, doublings, springing to
cover, and other artifices.... The roebucks are represented in North
America by the Virginia deer."
Inquiring mind, not wishing for researches in the direction of Natural
History, albeit the subject of parallelisms is a somewhat curious study
and in special cases infinitely amusing, passes on to the next article
in the Cyclopædia.
* * * * *
It is sufficiently obvious that it requires neither fame nor greatness
to excite public curiosity. A notorious criminal or an unusually
eccentric lunatic frequently gives rise to a larger share of
newspaper-comment and general discussion than the wisest and most
virtuous of mankind. It must be well remembered by those who have read
Tom Taylor's Life of Haydon that a dwarf was attracting thousands to the
Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London, while the historical painter, stung
to madness by the neglect of the frivolous crowd, committed the hideous
and ghastly suicide which threw a tragic darkness over the close of his
strange and troubled existence. The desperate and dangerous frequently
succeed in placing themselves on a bad eminence, from which they are
conspicuous enough; and if to be talked of and pointed at be the sole
object of their ambition, they can, of course, be congratulated on their
success. Virtue may sit in humble and obscure usefulness at a thousand
quiet firesides, while the work of the incendiary may be seen to spread
widely, and the tumult of his mischief be heard from afar. And so any
public man or politician, whose taste is so morbidly depraved and whose
aim in life is so debased as to prefer notoriety to honest, useful
service, may revel in the questionable enjoyment of being the especial
theme of public debate and private conversation. Hence it happens that
so many of our fellow-countrymen are at this moment asking the question
with which we head these pages,--"Who is Roebuck?"
An unhappy culprit, who combined with an innocent taste for green peas a
thievish method of acquiring their usual savory accompaniment, is
reported to have been addressed by an English judge in the following
felicitous terms:--"Prisoner at the bar, Providence has endowed you with
health and strength, _instead of which_ you go about the country
stealing ducks." Providence has endowed John Arthur Roebuck, member of
the Parliament of Great Britain, with fair talents and some power of
speech, _instead of which_ (to use the accurate judicial ellipsis) he
goes about using violent and vulgar words of menace against those who
have never offended him, and scattering firebrands as if there were no
gun-powder anywhere to ignite and explode. This would be a mean and
mischievous occupation for the dullest man; but for one who has proved
by his very failures that he is not devoid of intellect or energy, it
is a monstrous perversion of mental gifts, even if they are small.
A portion of the fiery heat of his nature may be traced, perhaps, to the
fact that he was born at Madras; but as on the mother's side he is
descended from the poet Tickell, the friend of Addison, it would not be
altogether unreasonable to have expected in him some few of the
amenities of the _literæ humaniores_. He soon, however, exchanged the
torrid scenes of Oriental life for the snows of Canada, where he
received his education; and when we remember what the bizarre oddities
of his subsequent career have been, it might be interesting, if we had
the materials for the purpose, to inquire what that education was. The
British Provinces, however, were not deemed a sufficiently ample theatre
of action for the energy of the capacious soul that dwelt in that not
over-capacious body; and so, at the age of twenty-three, he repaired to
England and commenced his studies for the profession of the law.
He was called to the bar in 1832. He had, however, by no means paid an
exclusive attention to the study of the law, or his success in his
profession might have been greater, and the world might have had a good
lawyer instead of a bad politician. The period of his Inner-Temple
student-life was a very stirring time in England. Old principles were
dying out, and wrestling in death-struggle with newer and wider theories
of human liberty and human progress. The young East-Indian Canadian
rushed with natural impetuosity into the arena, and was one of the most
reckless and noisy debating-club spouters of the day. In speaking of the
Reform Bill at a meeting at a tavern in London, he said, that, if the
bill did not pass, he for one should like to "wade the streets of the
capital knee-deep in blood." It was consoling to reflect, even at the
time, that the atrocious aspiration was mitigated by the reflection that
it would not require a deluge of gore to reach the knees of such a
Zacchæus as Roebuck. "Pretty wicious that for a child of six!" said the
amiable Mr. Squeers on one occasion; and pretty sanguinary that, say we,
for a rising little demagogue of thirty.
As England was at that time in a seething ferment of excitement, men who
were unscrupulous in their language were at a premium in the political
market, and the respectable constituency of the pleasant watering-place
of Bath, in Somersetshire, elected the fierce little man as their
representative in the Imperial Parliament. This was a great start in
life for the new-fledged barrister, and, had he moderated his
overweening vanity, and studied wisely, and with some self-abnegation
and honest adherence to party, he might have risen to some useful
position, and been saved, at least, from the indignity of fetching and
carrying for the Emperor of Austria, and from the impertinence of
intruding himself into the august presence of Mr. Kinglake's amiable and
virtuous friend, the Emperor of France. The English nation might then
possibly have pointed to his portrait in their historical gallery as
that of an efficient public servant who had deserved well of his
country, and he might have escaped a ludicrous immortality as the Dog
Tear-'em, in the recent admirable sketch in "Punch."