ilfe/«o?> o/" Arthur Young, Esq. 297 



character, upon which their eminence depended. I do not 

 mean to discuss this question, but the present instance certainly 

 countenances such an opinion. Mr. Young owed much to his 

 mother ; her fondness and aflPection rescued him from that 

 barren routine for which he was destined, and directed his 

 mind to the pursuit of agriculture ; — ^her anxious solicitude 

 saved him from the vortex of military dissipation, into which 

 he would otherwise have fallen ; and her firm and steady advice 

 prevented his emigrating into a foreign land ; and thus she 

 preserved for her country, one whose writings will shed a 

 lustre on her name for future ages. In 1786 Mr. Young sus- 

 tained a severe family blow, in the sudden and untimely death 

 of his brother. Dr. John Young, who, having borrowed from 

 Lord Hinchinbroke a spirited hunter, in consequence of his 

 own being out of condition, broke his neck as he was hunting 

 with his late Majesty near Windsor : this event deprived his 

 son of his best friend and patron, and blasted all his future 

 hopes and prospects, for he had been placed by him at Eton, 

 and would have been amply provided for in the church, as soon 

 as he was of age to hold the preferment. Early in the spring 

 of 1787, he received from Mons. Lazouski at Paris, a gentleman 

 who had formerly accompanied the two sons of the Duke de 

 Liancourt to England, for the sake of Mr. Young's instructions, 

 a pressing invitation to accompany the Count de la Rochefou- 

 cauld in a tour to the Pyrenees ; this, says Mr. Young, was 

 touching a string tremulous to vibrate : he had long wished 

 for an opportunity of examining France — the effects of its 

 government — the condition of the farmers and of the poor — 

 the state and extent of the manufactures, with an hundred other 

 inquiries, certainly of political importance ; yet, strange as it 

 may seem, not to be found in any French work, written from 

 actual observation. Mr. Young therefore eagerly accepted the 

 proposal, and having completed the tour, returned to England 

 in the following winter ; and here a new scene of bustle pre- 

 sented itself; the wool bill arose, and he was deputed by the 

 wool-growers of Suffolk to support a petition against its passing 

 into a law ; a proof, says he, at least, that a prophet may 



