ROBERTSON, FREDERICK WILLIAM, M.A., an English preacher, was the son of a. Scotch gentleman, capt. Frederick Robertson of the royal artillery, and was b. in Lon don Feb. 3, 1816, in the house of his grandfather, can. Robertson. At the age of 9 he was sent to the grammanschool of Beverley, in Yorkshire, where he remained fora few years, and then accompanied his parents to the continent, where he became aproficient in French. In 1832 he entered the rector's class at the Edinburgh academy, and there competed, we are told, "all but successfully," for the highest classical honors of the institution with James Moncreiff (now lord justice-clerk for Scotland). Next year Robertson proceeded to the Edinburgh university, and while there had for private tutor the rev. Charles Terrot, subsequently bishop of the Scottish Episcopal church in the same city, He was .originally designed for the bar, but the study of law did not prove interesting to him, and he would gladly have become a soldier, for he always felt. (as he afterward confessed) " an unutterable admiration of heroic daring;" but certain difficulties intervened in the way of obtaining a commission, and Robertson, in obedi ence to the wish of his father, entered Brasenose college, Oxford, to study for the church, in 1836. His life had all along been marked by its singular purity and depth of religious feeling; hence his new career inspired him with no regret, but rather with a high resolve to be worthy of his calling. Ills fikt appointment was to the curacy of St. Maurice and St. Mary Calendar, but his health broke down in the course of a year, and he was compelled to visit the continent. On his return to England he was for a time curate to the incumbent of Christ church, Cheltenham, whence, in the beginning of 1847, he removed to St. Ebbes, Oxford, and was just beginning to attract the notice.
of the undergraduates at Oxford when he was offered the incumbency of Trinity chapel, Brighton. His "career" in Brighton—though it is perhaps wrong to describe a life so pure, delicate, unselfish, devoted as his by a term expressive of vulgar ambition—was brief but glorious. For six years he continued to preach sermons, the like of which, for blending of delicacy and strength of thought, poetic beauty, and homely lucidity of speech, had perhaps never been heard before in England. Robertson was (for his comfort) not very " orthodox;" consequently he was long misunderstood, and vili fied by the " professedly religious portion of society ;" but so true, so beautiful, was his daily life and conversation, that he almost outlived those pious calumnies, and his death (from consumption, Aug. 15. 1853) threw the whole town into mourning. His sermons, (of which four series have been published) have attained great popularity and a large circulation. The first series was published in 1855 (11th edition, 1863). Robert son's Expository Lectures on St. Paul's Epistle to the. Corinthians appeared in 1859. His Lectures and Addresses on Literary and Social Topics contain passages of faultless and refinement; but as they were delivered to mixed audiences, and never intended for publication, they do not perhaps exhibit that rigorous intellectual grasp of a subject, or that strong and searching criticism of which their author was so capable. A good biog raphy, with letters, was published in 1865 by the rev. Stopford A. Brooke (5th ed_ 1868).