Memoirs of the Life and Works of the Late

^ Sold 0^ M^ w -==::_ EJJI^-jRrjUfjH. MEMoms LIFE AND WORKS SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, BART. EDFNBORGH : PRINTED BY BAI.LA.VTVNS ANn CO.. i-AUI,'S WORK. MEMOIRS LIFE AND WORKS OF THE LATE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, BART. BY HIS SON, THE REV. JOHN SINCLAIR, M. A. PEMB. COLL. OXFORD, F. R. S. E. AUTHOR OF DISSERTATIONS VINDICATIKG THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND ; AN ESSAY ON CHURCH PATRONAGE, &C. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. L WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH, T. CADELL, STRAND, LONDON. MDCCCXXXVIL THE HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND THIS MEMOIR OF THE LIFE AND WORKS OF THE FOUNDER OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. — PREFACE. My father, previous to his last illness, frequently expressed a wish, that after his decease I should publish a Memoir of his life and literary undertakings. The task thus imposed upon me was laborious as well as delicate. Notwithstanding his habitual love of order and arrangement, his voluminous papers, the accumulation of above sixty years, amounting, as he sometimes calculated, to forty or fifty thousand, had, from various causes, fallen into confusion. The subjects to be treated of were miscellaneous, and most of them quite alien to my usual studies and professional engagements. In order to explain fully his connex- ion with different events and individuals, I found it necessary to go over the history and parliamentary proceedings of more than half a century, as well as to investigate the details of Agriculture and Finance the two leading subjects' to which his attention was directed. Nor was the delicacy inferior to the laboriousness of the work. My relation to the subject of the Me- moir necessarily furnished me with facts, to which a stranger could have no access, but did not permit the exercise of that freedom with which a neutral person is allowed to treat the sentiments and conduct of the dead. While, however, filial duty obliged me to commence the task, I was encouraged in the prose- cution of it, by reflecting that the biography of an individual, who had occupied so large a space for many years in the eye of the public, and who had been deeply engaged in so many departments of political and social usefulness, could only fail of interesting a large portion of readers from great deficiencies in the execution. Where such a multiplicity of disputed topics fell of necessity under discussion, entire coincidence of opi- nion could scarcely be anticipated between the person described and his biographer. My aim has been to keep myself as much as possible out of view, and to bring forward my father's own arguments and views. As my sentiments on various subjects are already before the public, and remain unchanged, I have been under less necessity of interposing explanations as to the degree in which, on particular questions, our opinions differed or concurred. In the most important parts of this work, my materials were ample, even to superfluity ; not so for other portions, and especially for the period of my father's early life. Few companions of his youth are now alive, and the reminiscences of these few are vague and scanty. Perhaps it is not always true of old men that they remember with the vividness ascribed to them the events of youth. A small number of par- ticulars, and those often the most trivial, generally include all the reminiscences of an aged mind. In the selection of my materials I encountered considerable diflBculty. Some of them referred to facts of no present importance — some to political events so obscurely hinted in the papers before me, or so entirely overlooked by contemporary historians and annalists, as to defy all explanation. Justice in many cases to the departed, and in many more to the living, forbade the publication of papers intrinsi- cally important, but guarded by the seal of confiden- tial secrecy. The question, how far an historian or biographer may avail himself of assistance from private letters and memoranda intrusted to him, is one to be approached with tenderness and caution. In communicating with their friends men think aloud. To decide, therefore, upon the publication of thoughts thus freely imparted, involves a serious, and often — painful responsibility. The subject has been judi- ciously discussed by Lord Hailes. Remarking on Mr Servan's able Thesis on the impropriety of pub- lishing Posthumous Pieces or Letters written in con- fidence, Lord Hailes writes thus to Dr Erskine : " If I received a letter from a person which con- tains things hurtful to the character of that person, or things which he would not wish to have made public, I should suppress them, unless obedience to the commands of the law, or a sense of duty to society obliged me to reveal them. But that the same rule is to take place for ever, and after I and my cor- respondents are in our graves, is, I think, to carry matters too far. Suppose that to be the rule, and apply it to past times, and see how history would be darkened. For example, without such letters, how little would be known of the history of the last century ? To give one instance out of a hundred, what would have been known of the character and conduct of M. de Maintenon without such publications ? And yet that is necessary for the knowledge of forty years of the reign of Louis XIV. Without such publications we cannot have a just notion of the virtues and vices of eminent persons ; but we must take them just as we find them, in panegyrics and satires published in their own time."* * Moncreiffs Life of Erskine, p. 358, &c. In the completion of this work, I found nothing more arduous than to reduce so many unconnected subjects to a clear and natural arrangement. Where an individual has been deeply immersed in political and literary pursuits of various kinds, and where his private history has but little bearing upon his public life, it must often be a perplexing consideration whe- ther unity of subject, or chronological order shall have the preference. I have endeavoured as much as possible to preserve both. In three cases, however, unity of subject appeared to me so important as to justify a departure from chronology : I allude to the chapters on the Statistical Account of Scotland ; on the Board of Agriculture ; and on the improvements in Caith- ness, my father's native county. Traits of generosity and public spirit, such as those recorded in this work, ought to call forth from any narrator expressions of approbation. But in the room of eulogies from myself, which my relation to the de- ceased would lead the reader to regard as words of course, I have substituted encomiums supplied by more disinterested as well as more competent judges. The praise so often and so liberally bestowed upon the public services of Sir John Sinclair was not dic- tated by party zeal : he belonged to no party ; and has therefore bequeathed his reputation, not to the jealous watchfulness of a few political associates, but to the unbiassed collective judgment of his country- men. Although, as I have said, the task of writing these pages devolved upon me by my father's own desire, I long hoped that he would fix upon a biographer pos- sessed of more leisure and of better information ; be- sides, that I felt invincible reluctance to anticipate, by formal or busy preparation for his Memoirs, an event so melancholy as the death of a venerated parent. Thus, I lost the benefit of his own explanations as to particular facts and opinions necessarily entering into the work. But if I have made this sacrifice to feelings in which my readers naturally will sympathize, I have endeavoured to atone for the omission, by the most careful research among his papers, and by the most ample enquiries among his literary and political friends. I shall only add, that I had great satisfaction in supplying some of the materials for a short account of my father's life, in a series of contributions to the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. The Memoir, in that valuable periodical, is from the pen of D. M. Moir, Esq. of Musselburgh ; and is written with his usual ability, good feeling, and research. ——— CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. CHAPTER I. Genealogy— Lady Janet Sinclair—Education at Edinburgh— At Glasgow— At Oxford— For the Scotch Bar —For the English Bar First Tour on the Continent— First Marriage—Thurso Castla Observations on the Sabbath— Dr Adam Smith—Observations on the Scottish Dialect—Dr Johnson, ..... CHAPTER II. Entrance on Public Life— State of Parties— Speech on the Dutch War— Naval Tracts— St Alban's Club—Mr President Laurens Change of Ministers— Lord North— Rockingham Administration — Scarcity in Scotland— Highland Dress—Reform in Parliament Shelburne Administration—Pamphlet on Gibraltar— Coalition Pamphlets on Finance— Pitt Administration— Westminster Scru- tiny— History of the Revenue—Death of Mrs Sinclair— Second Visit to the Continent—Bishop Watson— Baronetcy, . CHAPTER III. Remarks on Travelling — Denmark—Count BernstorflF— Professor Thorkelin—Sweden— Gustavus— Russia—Empress Catherine Princess Daschkow— Grand Duke Paul—Moscow—Count Ro- manzoff—Poland— Stanislaus—Tepper the Banker—Austria Emperor Joseph— Prussia— Frederic William—Prince Henry Mirabeau— Hanover—Duke of York—Holland—French Intrigues — Flanders—George lU. —Lord Chancellor Thurlow— Presidents Washington and Jefferson, ...... — 11 CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER IV. Second Marriage—Macdonald Family—Bosvilliana— Habits of Life — Useful Suggestions —Differences with Mr Pitt— Warren Has- tings— Neutral Party— African Association —Regency Question Slave Trade— British Wool Society— Cheviot Sheep, .

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