KEW GARDENS GEORGE 'III/;. \ 



and their application to the duties appertaining to 

 Property. Consequently other interests were improved : 

 fisheries, house-building, clothing, sanitation, etc. were 

 benefited by this awakening. Thus the two last decades 

 of the eighteenth century saw the resources of the country 

 immensely improved. Sinclair was a most laborious 

 statistician ; without this aptitude, indeed, his plans and 

 ideas could not have been so convincing. Because of all 

 this, men like Sir Joseph Banks, whose own doings 

 were not clouded in verbosity and pretence, recognized 

 in Sir John Sinclair a true helper and reformer. 



Sir John has left on record an appreciation of Banks, 

 with especial reference to the fact that he did not meddle 

 with politics. The latter wished to keep Agriculture out 

 of that sphere, content that the Royal Society should 

 continue to regard it as a scientific matter rather than an 

 economic one. For this reason, Banks was at first opposed 

 to the establishment of a Board of Agriculture. After, 

 however, Sinclair had caused the President of the Royal 

 Society to have a seat on the Board ex officio, and he had 

 been induced to take some active part in its proceedings, 

 Banks came to see the Board in a more favourable light, 

 and eventually turned out a very useful member. 



The King was heart and soul in these things. And from 

 this period till the day when he was finally incapacitated 

 by illness, his farms were matter of constant attention. 

 We have no space to go very fully into the subject, 

 but the fact of Sir Joseph Banks being concerned will be 

 some excuse for giving the reader a peep into an almost 

 unknown side of the King's personal career. When the 

 authoritative life of George III comes to be written, 

 there will be surprising revelations in every direction. 

 For the present, the incidents now to be mentioned will 

 go far to show what a very lively share he had in the 

 activities pertaining to the life of the humblest yeoman. 



