tation of their fulfilment: "Though the Irish are certainly a generous people, and liberal sometimes almost to excess, yet I have to complain that not a ray of that spirit was by any public body shed on my labours-to Ireland I am NOT in debt." Yet at this time he was, and had for some years been, an honorary member of the Dublin society, who gave him a vote of thanks for his Tour, the recollection of which was soon erased from his mind by a misunderstanding between them, relative to the publication of some parts of that work in a cheap form for general circulation. On this point, and on others, his expectations were often very extravagant: through life he was by no means given to under-rate either his abilities or exertions, and he imprudently gave vent to his spleen when they seemed not to be so highly estimated by others. This is frequently, if not generally, the case with men of second-rate talents; and his, though highly respectable, were not of the very first order.

In 1784 this indefatigable writer commenced his Annals of Agriculture, a periodical publication, continued monthly until the close of his life, when it amounted to forty-five octavo volumes, forming a rich collection of facts, essays, and communications, on every question of agriculture and political economy. For a long time, however, this work was more laborious than successful, doing little, if any thing, beyond paying its expenses, and averaging, when the fifteenth volume was completed, a sale of only three hundred and fifty copies of each number. This want of patronagethe disadvantage of a provincial press-misunderstandings with one publisher-the failure of another, £350 in the editor's debt, and a variety of untoward accidents, not unfrequently falling to the lot of authors and editors,-considerably damped Mr. Young's expectations from a work, to which he, nevertheless, looked forward for the greatest share of any posthumous reputation which his writings might obtain. But that reputation was not so long delayed; and with it the sale of his work, and consequently its profits, gradually increased. For the information contained in this truly valuable miscellany, he had the honor of receiving the approbation and personal thanks of his late Majesty, when he one day met Mr. Young on the terrace at Windsor. So deep an interest, indeed, did our late venerable Sovereign take in the prosperity of a work, of whose merit no one was more competent to judge, that he shortly afterwards sent its editor some account of Mr. Duckett's farm at Esher, in seven letters, which were inserted in the Annals, under the

signature of "Ralph Robinson," and have since been copied into most of the published memoirs of the life of George the Third. For some time the editor of the Annals was utterly ignorant of the name and rank of his illustrious contributor, though there is reason to suppose that the literary connection, so singularly established, was afterwards of service to him in procuring the situation in the Agricultural Board, to which his political principles at that time would not have recommended him. In the year 1786, Mr. Young lost his elder brother, the Rev. John Young, D.D., a fellow of Eton College, and prebendary of Worcester (the Parson Young of Peter Pindar's licentious muse,) who was killed by a fall from his horse, whilst hunting with his late Majesty. By his sudden death our author lost a kind friend to his family, his eldest son having been principally supported by him at Eton, where he was at school when this unfortunate catastrophe happened, preparatory to going to one of the Universities, there to study for the Church, in which his uncle, had he lived, would have been able to make ample provision for him. But though his hopes were thus unexpectedly blighted, the destination of the young man was not altered; his father, ill (or, as he himself says, "miserably") as he could afford it, continuing him at Eton, and afterwards removing him to Cambridge, in hopes that, by his conduct and attainments, he would make him a due return for an expense so much beyond his ability; *a hope in which we have reason to believe that he was not disappointed. Early in the spring of the following year, Mr. Young received a letter from Mons. Lazowski, a gentleman holding a situation in the police of manufacturers at Paris, but who had resided for some time at Bury, with two sons of the Duke de Liancourt, placed under our agriculturist for instruction in his art,-inviting him to join the Count de Rochefoucald and himself in a tour to the Pyrenees. Having long been anxious to examine the state of agriculture in France, this offer was too tempting to be refused; and after taking due care to render his journey as economical as possible, Mr. Young entered with them upon his first tour on the continent, performing it by easy journeys of from twenty to twenty-five miles per day, upon his own horse, and receiving in his progress the most friendly attentions, not only from his compagnions du voyage, but in every place which he visited. His route lay through the west of the kingdom to the foot of the Pyrenees, whence crossing Spain, he re-entered

Annals of Agriculture, xv. 172.

France at Perpignan, skirted its southern coasts, passed through the interior of Gascony and Guyenne to Bourdeaux, whence he returned by Poictiers and Orleans to Paris. Here he was sumptuously entertained by the Duchess d'Estissac, mother of the Duke de Liancourt, in the hotel de la Rochefoucald, having previously passed three weeks with this noble and most hospitable family at their chateau of Liancourt, much to his satisfaction. Returning home in the beginning of November, after having been absent from England for nearly six months, he found the agricultural and commercial interests of the country in a ferment, actively supporting their conflicting interests in Parliament, in a bill introduced into the lower house to prevent the clandestine exportation of wool. On this occasion he was a principal witness in behalf of the farmers, who unsuccessfully opposed the bill, and exerted himself so zealously in their cause, that he remained in London for several weeks, watching the progress of the measure, though very little satisfied with his detention in a place which he publicly warned his country friends from visiting if they could avoid it, or at any rate from staying there a moment longer than was necessary, unless they had more money in their pockets, than they knew how to spend at home. He also published, under the title of "The question of Wool stated," an able, though a somewhat partial, pamphlet on the subject. The gratification which Mr. Young derived from his first French tour, tempted him to take a second; and leaving England on the 30th of July 1788, he rode along the coasts of the English channel to Brest, thence still keeping along the shore to Nantes, through a part of Maine to Rouen, and from that city by way of Dieppe home, where he arrived in the middle of October. He performed this journey alone, on the back of a mare walleyed and well-nigh blind, without surtout or saddle-bags, and met, as might be expected from such an equipment for a three months' trip, with several adventures not unworthy the knight-errantry of Hudibras, or Don Quixote, to perform, or the genius of Cervantes, or Butler, to celebrate. He was received, however, with great kindness throughout his journey by the persons of rank and science to whom he was liberally furnished with introductions, and collected much useful information on the objects of his research. In the summer of the following year he undertook a third journey, having for its object an inspection of the eastern part of France, the western having been traversed in his former tours. Leaving England in the beginning of June, he tra

velled, for the convenience of collecting specimens of produce, &c. in a French cabriolet with one horse, after the fashion, but with little of the comfort, of an English gig, through Meaux, Rheims, Nancy, Luneville, Strasbourg, Besançon, Moulins, Avignon, and Marseilles, to Toulon; whence he passed into Italy, visited Venice, Florence, and several parts of Lombardy, and the Milanese, where he was more at home in examining their agriculture than criticising their works of art. From Turin he crossed the Alps by Mount Cenis, and proceeded by way of Lyons to Paris, where, as in his visit at the outset of his journey, every body was occupied with politics, and the revolutionary movements of that important period of the French history. He was introduced to the sittings of the famous Jacobin club, as the author of the "Political Arithmetic," and elected one of those honorary members, who, as foreigners, were permitted to attend its meetings; of whose proceedings he was, at this period, but too warm an admirer. He was then the guest of the noble family of Liancourt, by whom, and by his other friends, he had been furnished with introductions, which every where secured him the most polite attention, on a tour, in the course of which he passed several pleasant hours with De Morveaux, De Fond, and some of the first scientific characters of the day. He reached England on the 25th of January, 1790, and settled again at Bradfield, not, however, without a wish, that the uncertainty of the revolutionary movements in France would have permitted his establishing himself as a farmer in the Bourbonnois, where he had been strongly tempted to remain. The result of his observations, in the course of his three tours, was submitted to the public in 1792 and 3, in two quarto volumes, under the title of "Travels during the years 1787, 1788, and 1789, undertaken more particularly with a view of ascertaining the cultivation, wealth, resources, and national prosperity, of the kingdom of France;" and though necessarily giving great offence to many by their political sentiments, they were on the whole so favourably received, as to reach, in about a twelvemonth, a second edition. They bore, however, pretty convincing marks of his having imbibed much of that enthusiastic attachment to the principles of the French revolution, with which older and wiser heads were temporarily affected, though like him, they lived to see their error, and not only to repent, but to do all in their power to repair it. He soon saw more clearly than he had done, the ruinous tendency of that revolutionary spirit to which we have referred, and he has

the merit of being one of the first who made his recantation. The agitated state of the public mind in this country, impressed him with a deep sense of our danger, and in 1793 he printed a very spirited pamphlet, entitled, "The example of France a warning to Great Britain," and from that period continued to publish occasional political pamphlets, too numerous to be specified, on the more interesting topics of the day, his works never failing to engage a considerable degree of public attention, both at home and abroad. So much, indeed, was this the case, that a French translation of all the productions of his pen which had then appeared, was published in Paris, in twenty octavo volumes, by order of the French Directory, chiefly, it is said, by the advice of Carnot, who presented the author with a copy of the translation.

On the first projection of the Agricultural Board by Sir John Sinclair, he communicated with Mr. Young, who was one of his chief advisers, in maturing the plan submitted to Mr. Pitt, ere he consented to its establishment. He was rewarded for his assistance with the place of secretary to the new national establishment, to which office was attached a salary of five, and afterwards of six hundred pounds a year, and an official residence in the house of the institution. Such, however, was his modesty, that when the president elect of the new board first intimated the probability of his appointment to this post, he offered, in the true spirit of authorship, to wager a set of the Annals of Agriculture against Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, that his recommendation would not be attended; to yet no man could certainly be better qualified for it; and whatever may be the general opinion of the utility of this institution, it is but justice to Mr. Young to say, that he performed the duties of its most efficient officer, to his death, with great zeal and fidelity, shewing himself, on all occasions, indefatigable in his exertions to farther the views of the Board. He continued, from time to time, to survey and publish agricultural reports of several of the counties of England, of which they very laudably undertook to give a correct account. Suffolk, Lincoln, Norfolk, Hertford, and Oxford, fell to his lot, and were ably described by his pen. To his very last days his attachment to his early pursuits continued; and at the time of his death he was preparing for the press, the result of his agricultural experiments and observations during a period of fifty years.

Mr. Young was a man of strong understanding, of a vigor