t Thurso Castle. Inheriting large
estates in the county of Caithness, he determined to enter political
life, and became member for Lostwithiel, in Cornwall. Differing sharply
from Pitt over the Warren Hastings affair, he adopted the independent
line of conduct natural to his tastes, and during the Regency dispute
joined the intermediate party known as the Armed Neutrality.

Above all he devoted himself to the development of Scottish agriculture,
and began in 1790 a work entitled "A Statistical Account of Scotland."
He also founded a society for improving the quality of British wool, and
in May 1793 he urged the Prime Minister to incorporate a Board of
Agriculture. Young bet that Pitt would refuse; for, while favouring
commerce and manufactures, he had hitherto done nothing for the plough.
He lost his bet. Pitt gave a conditional offer of support, provided that
the House of Commons approved. The proposal won general assent, despite
the insinuations of Fox and Sheridan that its purpose was merely to
increase the patronage at the disposal of the Cabinet. Sinclair became
president, with Young as secretary.[428] The Englishman complained that
Sinclair's habit of playing with large schemes wasted the scanty funds
at their disposal. But the Board did good work, for instance, in setting
on foot experiments as to the admixture of barley, beans, and rice in
the partly wheaten bread ordained by Parliament in 1795.

With the view of framing a General Enclosure Act, Sinclair sought to
extract from parochial Enclosure Acts a medicine suitable to the myriad
needs and ailments of English rural life. His survey of typical
enactments is of high interest. He summarizes the treatment accorded to
the lord of the manor, the rector or other tithe owner, and the
parishioners. Thus, in the case of three parishes near Hull, namely,
Hessle, Anlaby, and Tranley, the wastes and open fields, comprising
3,640 acres, were divided by an act of the year 1792 in a way which
seems to have given satisfaction. Commissioners appointed by the local
authorities divided the soil among the lords of the manors, the
tithe-owners, and the parishioners, the landlords retaining half of
their portions in trust for the poor. Other instances, however, reveal
the difficulty of the question of tithes. Young and Sinclair felt
bitterly on this subject, as their recent proposal to give a detailed
description of the lands of every parish in England was successfully
opposed b