286 Memoir of Arthur Young;, Esq. 



Arthur Young- produced more individual harm, and greater 

 public good, than those of any person who had ever written — 

 but the former inconvenience must always attend the introduc- 

 tion of any new system, of general application, that requires 

 prudence and skill for its successful direction. It is difficult 

 to say upon what points his English tours best deserve our 

 commendation ; whether for the store of practical agriculture 

 which they present, or for the vast and important information 

 they afFord on subjects of political economy. But in forming a 

 just estimate of their intrinsic worth, and in understanding the 

 full nature and extent of the public obligation to their author, 

 it must be remembered, that their objects were no less novel 

 than their execution was unexampled. No work, in any way 

 approaching them in resemblance, had appeared in any country ; 

 true it is, that numerous journeys had been performed through 

 Great Britain, and various tours had been written, but they 

 were all deficient in the grand and striking excellence, which 

 gives such pre-eminence to those of Mr. Young. All former 

 tourists confined their descriptions to towns and seats, as if 

 they had actually floated in the air, without paying any regard 

 to the aspect of the country through which they passed to 

 arrive at them, or the state of agriculture, as it existed between 

 the isolated objects of their admiration ; and as they had no 

 inducement to quit the high roads, and deviate from the beaten 

 line of country, their descriptions were necessarily characterized 

 by tedious repetition and monotonous dullness. A detailed 

 relation of the practical husbandry which he witnessed, and of 

 the experimental observations of the numerous gentlemen whom 

 he visited, during a tour of 4,000 miles, through a country so 

 limited in extent as that of England, could not fail to bring 

 together a mass of knowledge of the most interesting descrip- 

 tion ; and the able and candid manner in Avhich the defects of 

 each practice and system are portrayed, laid the first solid 

 foundation for the permanent improvement of the soil, while 

 the comparative view which he offers of the effects of the differ- 

 ent modes of cultivation, as practised in different districts, 

 conveys instruction to the farmer, without the trouble of ex- 



