g is driven out of all patience by the sight of
'fern, ling, and other trumpery' usurping the place of possible arable
fields.[68] He groans in spirit upon Salisbury Plain, which might be
made to produce all the corn we import.[69] Enfield Chase, he declares,
is a 'real nuisance to the public.'[70] We may be glad that the zeal for
enclosure was not successful in all its aims; but this view of
philanthropic and energetic improvers is characteristic.

It is said[71] that Young and Sinclair ruined the Board of Agriculture
by making it a kind of political debating club. It died in 1822.
Sinclair obtained an appointment in Scotland, and continued to labour
unremittingly. He carried on a correspondence with all manner of people,
including Washington, Eldon, Catholic bishops in Ireland, financiers and
agriculturists on the Continent, and the most active economists in
England. He suggested a subject for a poem to Scott.[72] He wrote
pamphlets about cash-payments, Catholic Emancipation, and the Reform
Bill, always disagreeing with all parties. He projected four codes which
were to summarise all human knowledge upon health, agriculture,
political economy, and religion. _The Code of Health_ (4 vols., 1807)
went through six editions; _The Code of Agriculture_ appeared in 1829;
but the world has not been enriched by the others. He died at Edinburgh
on the 21st September 1835.

I have dwelt so far upon Young because he is the best representative of
that 'glorious spirit of improvement' which was transforming the whole
social structure. Young's view of the French revolution indicates one
marked characteristic of that spirit. He denounces the French seigneur
because he is lethargic. He admires the English nobleman because he is
energetic. The French noble may even deserve confiscation; but he has
not the slightest intention of applying the same remedy in England,
where squires and noblemen are the very source of all improvement. He
holds that government is everything, and admires the great works of the
French despotism: and yet he is a thorough admirer of the liberties
enjoyed under the British Constitution, the essential nature of which
makes similar works impossible. I need not ask whether Young's logic
could be justified; though it would obviously require for justification
a thoroughly 'empirical' view, or, in other words, the admission that
different circumstances may require totally different institutions. The
view, however, whic