y
thought, it seems, that the collection of statistics meant an attack
upon tithes; and Young's frequent denunciation of tithes as discouraging
agricultural improvement suggests some excuse for the belief. The plan
had to be dropped; a less thoroughgoing description of the counties was
substituted; and a good many 'Views' of the agriculture of different
counties were published in 1794 and succeeding years. The board did its
best to be active with narrow means. It circulated information,
distributed medals, and brought agricultural improvers together. It
encouraged the publication of Erasmus Darwin's _Phytologia_ (1799), and
procured a series of lectures from Humphry Davy, afterwards published as
_Elements of Agricultural Chemistry_ (1813). Sinclair also claims to
have encouraged Macadam (1756-1836), the road-maker, and Meikle, the
inventor of the thrashing-machine. One great aim of the board was to
promote enclosures. Young observes in the introductory paper to the
_Annals_ that within forty years nine hundred bills had been passed
affecting about a million acres. This included wastes, but the greater
part was already cultivated under the 'constraint and imperfection of
the open field system,' a relic of the 'barbarity of our ancestors.'
Enclosures involved procuring acts of parliament--a consequent
expenditure, as Young estimates, of some L2000 in each case;[67] and as
they were generally obtained by the great landowners, there was a
frequent neglect of the rights of the poor and of the smaller holders.
The remedy proposed was a general enclosure act; and such an act passed
the House of Commons in 1798, but was thrown out by the Lords. An act
was not obtained till after the Reform Bill. Sinclair, however, obtained
some modification of the procedure; which, it is said, facilitated the
passage of private bills. They became more numerous in later years,
though other causes obviously co-operated. Meanwhile, it is
characteristic that Sinclair and Young regarded wastes as a backwoodsman
regarded a forest. The incidental injury to poor commoners was not
unnoticed, and became one of the topics of Cobbett's eloquence. But to
the ardent agriculturist the existence of a bit of waste land was a
simple proof of barbarism. Sinclair's favourite toast, we are told, was
'May commons become uncommon'--his one attempt at a joke. He prayed that
Epping Forest and Finchley Common might pass under the yoke as well as
our foreign enemies. Youn