On his return home from one of these excursions, he found the learned here amused with Dr. Berkeley's treatise, printed in 1734, entitled '° The Analyst," in which an examination was made into the grounds of the Doctrine of Fluxions, and occasion thence taken to explode that method. Robins was, therefore, advised to clear up this affair, by giving a full and distinct account of Newton's doctrines, in such a manner as to obviate all the objec tions, without naming them, which had been advanced by Berkeley, and accord ingly he published, in 1735, a Discourse concerning the Nature and Certainty of Sir Isaac Newton's Method of Fluxions, and of Prime and Ultimate Ratios. This is a very clear, neat, and elegant perfor mance; nevertheless some persons, even among those who had written against the Analyst, taking exception at Robin's man ner of defending Newton's doctrine, he afterwards wrote two or three additional discourses.
In 1738, he defended Newton against an objection, contained in a note at the end of a Latin piece, called" Matho, sive Cos. motheoria puerilis," written by Baxter, author of the " Inquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul :" and the year after he printed Remarks on Euler's Treatise of Motion, on Smith's System of Optics, and on Jurin's Discourse of Distinct and Indistinct Vision, annexed to Dr. Smith's work.
In the mean time Robins's performan ces were not confined to mathematical subjects ; for, in 1739, there came out three pamphlets upon political affairs, which did him great honour. The first was entitled, " Observations on the pre sent Convention with Spain ;" the second, "A Narrative of what passed in the Com. mon-Hall of the Citizens of London, as. sembled for the Election of a Lord May or ;" the third, "An Address to the Elec tors and other Free Subjects of Great Britain, occasioned by the late Succes. sion ; in which is contained a particular account of all our negociations with Spain, and their treatment of us for above ten years past." These were all published without our author's name; and the first and last were so universally esteemed, that they were generally reputed to have been the production of the great man him self, who was at the head of tion to Sir Robert Walpole. They prow ed of such consequence to Mr. Robins, as to occasion his being employed in a very honourable post ; for the patriots at length gained ground against Sir Robert, and a Committee of the House of Com mons being appointed to examine into his past conduct, Robins was chosen their Secretary. But after the Committee had presented two reports of their proceed ings, a sudden stop was put to their fur. ther progress, by a compromise between the contending parties.
In 1742, being again at leisure, he pub. lished a small treatise, entitled " New Principles of Gunnery ;" containing the result of many experiments he had made, by which are discovered the force of gun powder, and the difference in the resist ing power of the air to swift and slow mo tions. To this treatise was prefixed a full and learned account of the progress which modern fortification had made from its first rise; as also of the invention of gunpowder, and of what bad already been performed in the theory of gunnery.
It seems that the occasion of this publica tion was the disappointment of a situation at the Royal Military Academy at Wool wich. On the new modelling and estab lishing of that Academy, in 1741, our au. thor and the late Mr. Muller, were com petitors for the place of Professor of For. tification and Gunnery. Mr. Muller held then some post in the Tower of London, under the Board of Ordnance, so that, notwithstanding the great knowledge and abilities of our author, the interest which Mr. Muller had with the Board of Ord nance, carried the election in bis favour. Upon this disappointment Mr. Robins, in. dignant at the affront, determined to show them, and the world, by his military pub lications, what sort of a man he was that they had rejected.
Upon a discourse containing certain ex periments being published in the Philos. Trans. with a view to invalidate some of Robin's opinions, he thought proper in an account he gave of his book in the same Transactions, to take notice of those ex periments : and in consequence of this, several dissertations of his, on the resist ance of the air, were read, and the expe riments exhibited before the Royal So ciety, in 1746 and 1747; for which he was presented with the annual gold medal by that society.
In 1748, came out " Anson's Voyage round the World;" which, though it bears Walter's name in the title page, was, in reality, written by Robins. Of this voyage the public had for some time been in expectation of seeing an account, com posed under that commander's own in spection :for which purpose the Reverend Richard Walter was employed, as having been Chaplain on board the Centurion the greatest part of the expedition. Wal ter had accordingly almost finished his task, having brought it down to his own departure from Macao for England ; when lie proposed to print his work by sub scription. It was thought proper, how ever, that an able judge should first re view and correct it, and Robins was . ap pointed ; when, upon examination, it was resolved that the whole should be writ ten entirely by Robins, and that what Walter had done being mostly taken, verbatim, from the journals, should serve as materials only. Hence it was that the whole of the introduction, and many dis sertations in the body of the work, were composed by Robins, without receiving the least hint from Walter's manuscripts, and what he had transcribed from it re garded chiefly the wind and weather, the currents, Courses, bearings, distances, offings, soundings, moorings, the quali ties of the ground they anchored on, and such partieulars as usually fill up a sea man's account. No production of this kind ever met With a more favourable recep tion, four large impressions having been sold off vithinra. year : it was also transla ted into most of the European languages ; and it still supports its reputation, having been repeatedly reprinted in various sizes. The fifth edition, at London, in 1749, was revised asd corrected by Robins himself; and the nnth edition was printed there in 1761.