fic. When he wished
to make the great nobles 'skip' he does not generally mean confiscation.
He sees indeed one place where in 1790 the poor had seized a piece of
waste land, declaring that the poor were the nation, and that the waste
belonged to the nation. He declares[48] that he considers their action
'wise, rational, and philosophical,' and wishes that there were a law to
make such conduct legal in England. But his more general desire is that
the landowners should be compelled to do their duty. He complains that
the nobles live in 'wretched holes' in the country in order to save the
means of expenditure upon theatres, entertainments, and gambling in the
towns.[49] 'Banishment alone will force the French nobility to do what
the English do for pleasure--to reside upon and adorn their
estates.'[50] He explains to a French friend that English agriculture
has flourished 'in spite of the teeth of our ministers'; we have had
many Colberts, but not one Sully[51]; and we should have done much
better, he thinks, had agriculture received the same attention as
commerce. This is the reverse of Adam Smith's remark upon the superior
liberality of the English country-gentleman, who did not, like the
manufacturers, invoke protection and interference. In truth, Young
desired both advantages, the vigour of a centralised government and the
energy of an independent aristocracy. His absence of any general theory
enables him to do justice in detail at the cost of consistency in
general theory. In France, as he saw, the nobility had become in the
main an encumbrance, a mere dead weight upon the energies of the
agriculturist. But he did not infer that large properties in land were
bad in themselves; for in England he saw that the landowners were the
really energetic and improving class. He naturally looked at the problem
from the point of view of an intelligent land-agent. He is full of
benevolent wishes for the labourer, and sympathises with the attempt to
stimulate their industry and improve their dwellings, and denounces
oppression whether in France or Ireland with the heartiest goodwill. But
it is characteristic of the position that such a man--an enthusiastic
advocate of industrial progress--was a hearty admirer of the English
landowner. He sets out upon his first tour, announcing that he does not
write for farmers, of whom not one in five thousand reads anything, but
for the country-gentlemen, who are the great improvers. Tull, who
int