The Pontypridd District Herald and Rhondda Valley, Llantrisant, Caerphilly, and Mountain Ash News. — 1879-12-13 (Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

LONDON LETTER.  Tin Rouse of Commons has !cat one of HI 0104 ementrio members in John Arthur Roebuck, who died full of years if not of honour after a very remarkable career. As he was nearly blind, his „jos always thin and shrill, reduced to • whisper. and altogether exceedingly feeble, he could not have been expected to sit in another Parliament. Be was returned foe Bath at the first election after the Reform Bill on the most advanced Radical principles. He was an exceedingly small man, but full of pluck, and being treated with pointed insolence on the hustings, he jumped up (it WIN said at tlie time) and shipped the, face of his tall Tory opponent. The result was a duel, but with no damage to either party. He afterwards fought a duel with the learned Dr. Black, editor of the Morning Chronioe, whom he had abused in his characteristic truculent style in his" Pamphlets for the People." Almost everyone with pretensions to be a gentleman was ready to fight in those days. Even Macaulay on one omission named his seconds on the challenge of a Mr. Wallace. RONBUCK entered the House of Commons with great disadvantages—no social connections; extreme opinions, Republican in fact; an insigDiacant person; • shrill voice; and a consequential or cantankerous manner. Yet in • law years he always commanded a hearing. The !louse filled when he rose—sure to have a treat in invective against someone. He never attached himself to any party, and never was spoken of as a possible member of any Ministry, and was only consistent, from the beginning to the end of his career, in his hatred of the Wings. This, no doubt, led to his close intimacy with Lord Brougham after his exclueion from office, under whose influence (if not dictation) he wrote a not very trustworthy "History of the Whig Ministry of 1830." Mr. Roebuck's greatest triumph was during the Crimean war, when he defeated the Aberdeen Coalition Cabinet of "All the Talents," and obtained the appointment of the Sebastopol Committee, by which the worn-out character of our military system was first exposed, and the foundation of army reform laid. In his early career hfr. Roebuck was much mixed up with the Benthamites, and was one of the contributors to the first series of the Westminster Review; but it cannot be said that he was associated with them or with the philosophical Radicals, because his temperament prevented him harmoniaing with any one. In the House of Commons his value was as a courageous and plain-speaking critic of both Duties. In foreign polities he was very like M. lidera His sympathies were entirely British. In the great American rebellion he was on the side of the Confederate slave owners against the North, because, as he plainly said, he wished the power of the United States to be diminished. He was against the Italians in their struggles to make a united Italy, and expressed his contempt for the race in a very offensive speech. In 18;18 he was turned out of Sheffield, which he had represented from 1849, because he had taken an active part in investigating the murderous outrages of the trades unions. \Veen again returned, in 1874, his change of politics was complete; from an advanced Radical he had become a Conservative and Jingo, and the ardent admirer of the Premier, with whom in times past he had many savage duels of debate. . . _  Ma.