Benjamin Robins - Politics

Politics

Besides his scientific labours, Robins took an active part in politics. He wrote pamphlets in support of the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole, and was secretary of a committee appointed by the House of Commons to enquire into the conduct of that minister. He also wrote a preface to the Report on the Proceedings of the Board of General Officers on their Examination into the Conduct of Lieutenant-General Sir John Cope, in which he gave an apology for the battle of Prestonpans.

In 1749, he was appointed engineer general to the East India Company, and went out to superintend the reconstruction of their forts. However, his health soon failed, and he died at Fort St David in India. His works were published in two volumes in 1761.

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