Arthur Young's Travels in France. 
203 
Her " Introduction," exhibiting, as it does, a picture of France as 
it is now in contrast with what it was 100 years ago, makes Young's 
descriptions, if possible, more startling ; while the present generation 
will acknowledge with gratitude the excellent memoir of a life and 
character of which little is generally known. There are in exist- 
ence, as Miss Betham-Edwards explains, ample materials at Brad- 
field Hall for the production of a fuller memoir, and her kind host 
and hostess thoroughly deserve the thanks she gives them for placing 
these at her disposal. Revealing, as they do, the habits of the man — 
his failings as well as his virtues following in their varying phases 
year after year, as he committed them to writing- and exposing his 
very conscience, Miss Betham-Edwards's use of them has been made 
with singular judgment and good taste. 
A comparison of the two title-pages - that of 1889 with that of 
1792 — shows at once the subjects omitted by Miss Betham-Edwards 
That of the quarto volume runs thus : " Travels during the years 
1787, 1788, and 1789, undertaken more particularly with a view 
of ascertaining the Cultivation, Wealth, Resources, and National 
Prosperity of the Kingdom of France." And it is these particular 
subjects, contained in part second of Young's Travels, in twenty-one 
chapters, which, as well as the maps, are not to be found in Miss 
Betham-Edwards's volume. They treat seriatim : — I. of the Extent ; 
II. the Soil and Face of the Country ; III. of the Climate ; IV. of 
the Produce of Corn, Rent, and the Price of Land ; V. of the 
French Courses of Crops ; VI. Irrigation ; VII. Meadows ; VIII. 
Lucerne ; IX. Sainfoin ; X. Vines ; XL Inclosures in France ; 
XII. of the Tenantry and Size of Farms in France ; XIII. of the 
Sheep of France ; XlV. of the Capital employed in Husbandry ; 
XV. of the Price of Provisions, Labour, <fcc. ; XVI. of the Produce 
of France ; XVII. of the Population ; XVIII. of the Police of 
Corn in France ; XIX. of the Commerce of France ; XX. of the 
Manufactures of France ; XXL of the Taxation of France ; and 
lastly, there is, in chapter XXII.— which Miss Betham-Edwards 
does reprint — " On the Revolution of France," a statement of " the 
cruel aggravation of the misery " of the mass of the people, which 
brought about the horrible, but not more cruel, obliteration of the 
monarchy, aristocracy, and grand seigneurs, to whose oppressions 
and atrocities these miseries were traceable. 
Of these twenty-one chapters, all but four — viz., XVII., XIX., 
XX., and XXL — are directly connected with, and illustrate, the 
agriculture of France. It is obvious, therefore, that the portion 
of the Travels relating especially to the cultivation of France, being 
omitted by Miss Edwards, cannot with propriety be here discussed 
in a notice of her book. The agricultural student loses by this curtail- 
ment ; but it should always be remembered, that while " the one 
leading and predominant object in view" with Arthur Young on 
these Travels "was agriculture, he conceived that he might throw 
each subject of it into distinct chapters, retaining all the advantages 
which arise from composing the J esuit only of his travels." At the same 
time, he afforded the reader whatever satisfaction Hows from the 
