10 
Arthur Young. 
that he was burnt in effigy at Norwich, and for this honour 
was congratulated by Sir Joseph Banks. In the following July 
he made his second journey, with no companion, through France. 
It was on horseback, and though his mare fell blind he perse- 
vered, travelled with her 1,700 miles, and brought her back to 
end her days at Bradfield. The third tour in France was carried 
out in 1789 in a horse chaise. 
Between the commencement of the first and the completion 
of the third tour, events having the most momentous conse- 
quences, some fulfilled, some to come, startled Europe and the 
world. In Arthur Young’s first acquaintance with the circum- 
stances of the French peasantry, and the relations between them 
and the seigneurs, he found ample justification for the revolt of 
dependence ; but the completeness of the Kevolution, the unre- 
lenting severity of the revenge, turned the apologiser into the 
denouncer, and carried him over to the other side. And so we 
find him in 1793 bringing out The Example of France a Warning 
to Britain. Votes of thanks such as never had greeted his 
agricultural books poured in from all parts of the kingdom. 
Accusations of inconsistency, however, accompanied these com- 
pliments, the hot compliments of political impulse. We have his 
defence in his own words: — “ The Revolution before August 10 
was as different from the Revolution after that day as light from 
darkness ; as clearly distinct on principle and practice as 
liberty and slavery. For the same man, therefore, to approve 
of both, he must either be uncandid or changeable ; uncandid 
in his approbation before that period, changeable in his 
approbation after it.” It was in this political pamphlet that 
he advocated the establishment of a horse militia (a force aftei’- 
wards called the Yeomanry Cavalry), “ a militia rank and file 
of property.” He speaks of “ the necessity of property securing 
itself by being armed in a militia,” “a regiment of a thousand 
cavalry in every county of moderate extent, just disciplined 
enough to obey orders and keep their ranks.” Effect having 
been given to these recommendations, he enrolled himself without 
delay as a private in a corps established near Bury St. Edmunds, 
under Lord Broome, afterwards Marquis Cornwallis. 
Shortly after this he bought 4,400 acres of waste in York- 
shire, to give practical illustration, it may be presumed, of his 
views and opinions on the advantage of such an enterprise in 
the reclamation of waste. 
In 1793, however, Sir John Sinclair’s exertions were 
rewarded by the establishment of the Board of Agriculture. 
Young was so convinced of the fruitlessness of these efforts that 
he backed his opinion with a bet — The Annals of Agriculture 
