ROBINSON, William Erigena, journalist, born near Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland, 6 May, 1814. He attended Cookstown classical school, and entered the Royal academical institution at Belfast, but was compelled by sickness to leave. He emigrated to the United States in 1836, was graduated at Yale in 1841, and studied in the law-school there. While a member of the college he founded the "Yale Banner," and wrote editorial articles for the daily press. He was engaged as editor of the New Haven "Daily Courier," but left it on account of its Know-Nothing sentiments, and became a journalist in New York city. His articles, signed "Richelieu," in the" Tribune," established his reputation. He was editor for a time of the Buffalo "Express," and subsequently of the ' Irish World." He organized the movement for the relief of Ireland in 1847, and procured the authorization by congress of the sending of the frigate "Macedonian" with provisions to Ireland. In 1848-'9 he edited a weekly paper called "The People." An address on "The Celt and the Saxon" that he delivered before a college society in 1851 at Clinton, New York, was published, and provoked animadversions in English newspapers and reviews and in the debates of parliament. In 1854 he entered on the practice of law in New York city. He was appointed United States assessor of internal revenue for Brooklyn in 1862, and held that office for five years. He was elected to congress as a Democrat in 1866, and was again elected in 1880, and continued in his seat by re-election in 1882. His management and persistent advocacy secured the passage in 1868 of a bill asserting the rights of expatriation and naturalization, which resulted in the abandonment of the doctrine of perpetual allegiance by Great Britain and Germany. Besides his political writings in the daily press, he has produced popular poems and delivered lectures and addresses on literary subjects. He is preparing for publication a book on Irish-American genealogies.