[ 36 J 
Sir John Sinclair, late prefident of the National 
Board of Agriculture, at the clofe of the firft feffion 
of the prefent Parliament, brought a bill into the 
Commons for the purpofe of giving a legal fanétion 
to every inclofure, which fhould hereafter be made 
by the univerfal confent of a parifh; and conferring 
upon truftees a power of anfwering for minors, &c, 
To this meafure, upon a conviction of its reafonable- 
nefs and utility, I gave my fupport. After having 
erafed one claufe, and modified another, with a view 
to remove the intended oppofition of feveral mem- 
bers, Sir John fo. far, fucceeded, that his bill paffed 
our Houfe without the leaft:difcuffion. He then 
imagined that he had furmounted all obftacles; for 
in his addrefs to the Board at that time, he congra- 
tulates the members of it upon the great national 
benefits foon to be: derived, from bringing fuch an 
immenfe number of uncultivated acres into a ftate of 
abundant produétivenefs. But the worthy baronet, 
was too fanguine; he was only permitted to enjoy 
the pleafures of delufive anticipation; the cup was 
dathed from his hand, juft as he had advanced it to 
his lips, When the bill was carried to the Houfe of 
Peers, the Lord Chancellor oppofed it by a fingle re- 
mark only: not a word was faid in reply; and a 
propofal, unriyalled in its magnitude and importance, 
fell to the ground, without the leaft defence, From 
this contemptuous treatment of Sir John’s bill, and 
the fubfequent lofs of his chair, as Prefident of the 
Beard “ 
