Roaring Forties—Robert I.
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formerly called Botetourt Springs (there is a sulphur spring), is Hollins Institute (1842) for girls; and in the city are the National Business College, the City Hospital (1899), private hospitals, and St Vincent’s Orphan Asylum (1893) for boys, under the Sisters of Charity. Stock-raising, tobacco-growing, and coal and iron-mining are the industries of the district. Roanoke’s factory product in 1905 was valued at $5,544,907 (2.7% more than in 1900). Its railway car repair and construction shops, belonging to the Norfolk & Western railway, employed in that year 66.9% of the total number of factory wage-earners; pig-iron, structural iron, canned goods, bottles, tobacco, planing-mill products and cotton are among the manufactures. The municipal water supply comes from a reservoir at Crystal Springs at the foot of Mill Mountain near the city limits. Roanoke was the town of Big Lick (founded about 1852; incorporated in 1874; pop. in 1880, 669) until 1882, when it received its present name; in 1884 it was chartered as a city.
Roaring Forties, the name given to the zone in the southern hemisphere, near the 40th parallel of latitude, in which the north-westerly “anti-trade” winds attain their greatest development. Since the belt lies in the Great Southern Ocean (q.v.), and is little interrupted by land, the “planetary circulation” undergoes little modification and barometric gradients are steep. The “brave west winds” are accordingly of great strength, and, as in the corresponding belt of the northern hemisphere, the movement is largely broken up into the low and high pressure vortices known as cyclones and anticyclones.
Robben Island, an island at the entrance of Table Bay, 7 m. N.N.W. of Cape Town. It is some 4 m. long by 2 broad. At its southern end is a lighthouse with a fixed light visible for 20 m. It got its name (robben, Dutch for seal) from the seals which formerly frequented it, now only occasional visitants. The island when discovered was uninhabited. It is first mentioned by an English seaman named Raymond, who states that in 1591 seals and penguins were there in large numbers. In 1614 ten criminals from London were landed on the island to form a settlement and supply fresh provisions to passing ships. The attempt, which ended in failure, is interesting as the first recorded settlement of English in South Africa. In the 18th century the slate quarries of Robben Island were extensively worked by the Dutch of Cape Town. The island is now noted for its leper asylum and its convict establishment. For many years an asylum for lunatics was also maintained, but in 1904 the lunatics were removed to the mainland. The common rabbit, brought from England, abounds, but its introduction to the mainland is prohibited. As early as 1657 criminals were banished to the island by the Dutch authorities at Cape Town; it has also served as the place of detention of several noted Kaffir chiefs.
See G. F. Gresley, “The Early History of Robben Island,” in The Cape Illustrated Magazine (Oct. 1895).
Robber Synod, the name given to an irregular ecclesiastical council held at Ephesus in A.D. 449. See Ephesus, Council of.
Robbery (from O. Fr. rober, to steal), the unlawful and forcible taking of goods or money from the person of another by violence or threatened violence. Robbery is larceny (q.v.) with violence. It is a specific offence under the Larceny Act 1861, and is punishable by penal servitude for any term not exceeding fourteen years and not less than three years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour. Under the Garrotters Act 1863, whipping may be added as part of the sentence for robbery. In Scots law robbery is termed stouthrief.
United States.—The nature of the offence is practically the same in America as in England, but what constitutes robbery is provided by statute in each state, as is also the punishment. The chief difference between English and American law is that the latter often divides the offences into grades and takes a liberal view of what constitutes force or fear. Train robbery is specially dealt with in some states owing to the prevalence of that species of crime.
Federal Statute.—Congress has made it piracy punishable with death to commit robbery on the high seas or on shore or in any harbour out of the jurisdiction of any state by landing from a piratical vessel (U.S. Rev. St. § 1047).
In Alabama it is train robbery to “enter upon or go near to any locomotive, engine, or car, on any railroad and by threats or exhibition of a deadly weapon or discharging a pistol or gun on or near such engine or car induce or compel any one to deliver up anything of value. It is punishable at the discretion of the jury by death or imprisonment for not less than ten years. Any one who stops, impedes or detains any locomotive or car with intent to commit train robbery must be punished by imprisonment for not less than ten nor more than thirty years. Conspiring to commit train robbery is, punishable to the same extent (Crim. Code, §§ 5430–5482)
In Arizona, California and Missouri the “fear” may be that of the person robbed or of any relative of his or member of his family or of any one in his company. The punishment is imprisonment for not less than five years.
In Arkansas and Missouri extorting money or property by blackmail is an “attempt to rob”; it is punishable by not less than one nor more than five years’ imprisonment. In Georgia larceny from the person is statutory robbery (Hickey v. Slate (1906), 125, Ga. 145).
Louisiana.—Train robbery is punishable by imprisonment for not less than live nor more than ten years.
Missouri.—Train robbery is punishable by death or imprisonment for not less than ten years. It may consist in placing an obstruction on the line with intent to rob.
Massachusetts.—Robbery, committed when armed with a dangerous weapon, is punishable by imprisonment for life (Rev. L., 1902, ch. 207, § 17).
Minnesota.—The extreme penalty for robbery is forty years’ imprisonment (L. 1905, ch. 114).
New Jersey.—The extreme penalty is $3000 fine or twelve years’ imprisonment.
Texas.—Falsely personating an officer and by means of arrest extorting money is robbery (Burnside v. State (1907), 102, S.W. Rep. 178).
Robert I., “The Bruce” (1274–1329), king of Scotland, was the son of the 7th Robert de Bruce, earl of Carrick by right of his wife Marjorie, daughter of Niel, or Nigel, earl of Carrick, and was the eighth in direct male descent from a Norman baron who came to England with William the Conqueror. After the death of Margaret, the “maid of Norway,” in 1290, Bruce’s grandfather, the 6th Robert de Bruce, lord of Annandale, claimed the crown of Scotland as the son of Isabella, the second daughter of David, earl of Huntingdon, and great granddaughter of King David I.; but John de Baliol, grandson of Margaret, the eldest daughter of Earl David, was preferred by the commissioners of Edward I.
The birthplace of Bruce is not certainly known, but was probably Turnberry, his mother’s castle on the coast of Ayr. The date is the 11th of July 1274. His youth is said by an English chronicler to have been passed at the court of Edward I. At an age when the mind is quick to receive the impressions which give the bent to life he must have watched the progress of the great suit for the crown of Scotland. Its issue in 1292 in favour of Baliol led his grandfather to resign Annandale to his son, the 7th Robert de Bruce, who either then or after the death of his father in 1295 assumed the title of lord of Annandale. Already on his wife’s death in 1292 he had resigned the earldom of Carrick to his son, the future king, who presented the deed of resignation to Baliol at Stirling in August 1293, and offered the homage which his father, like his grandfather, was unwilling to render. Feudal law required that the king should take seisin of the earldom before regranting it and receiving the homage, and the sheriff of Ayr was directed to take it on Baliol’s behalf. As the disputes between Edward I. of England and Baliol, which ended in Baliol losing his kingdom, commenced in this year, it is doubtful whether Bruce ever rendered homage; but he is henceforth known as earl of Carrick, though in at few instances this title is still given to his father. Both father and son sided with Edward against Baliol. In April 1294 the younger Bruce had permission to visit Ireland for a year and a half, and as a further mark of Edward’s favour a respite of all debts owing by him to the exchequer.
In August 1296 Bruce and his father swore fealty to Edward I. at Berwick, but in breach of this oath, which had been renewed
