with impeachment. With characteristic energy, he instantly ordered horses, and by travelling night and day, arrived at the House of Commons in time to equalise the division, so that the motion rested with the casting-vote of the Speaker. It is amusing to know that in those days the utmost speed of wheels had only been able to convey Sir John, in about fifty-six hours, a distance that is traversed with ease now in twelve. Lord Melville had one of those generous hearts that delighted to own an obligation, and neither he nor his son ever lost an opportunity of acknowledging Sir John's timely exertions in the cause of friendship and of justice.

While Sir John pursued with ceaseless perseverance every scheme of public usefulness, no man living acknowledged more generously the universal brotherhood of mankind. If he could serve a single human being, known or unknown, any trouble became a pleasure; and so effectually did he exert his interest with his friends Pitt, Melville, Wyndham, and Perceval, that above 200 young men, chiefly from Caithness, acknowledged him as the patron who laid the foundation-stone of their fortunes. The baronet used in subsequent years to tell with great good-humour of one not very grateful Caithness proprietor, who said, on receiving a good appointment for his son, through Sir John's interest: 'It cost Sir John nothing more than the mere writing of a letter!' 'Little did he think what it cost me,' added the baronet, laughing, 'to become the man whose letter could obtain so much attention.' On another occasion, his gardener, believing, as those who experienced his good offices soon learned to do, that there were no limits to his power and inclination to serve every Caithness-man, wrote to request that he would immediately obtain for his son' a genteel situation in the army or in the Excise;' Sir John replied, that if such an appointment were to be had for the asking, he would gladly obtain it for one of his own family. Nothing, however, pained the kind-hearted statesman so much as to refuse a request; and he much more frequently volunteered an offer of aid, where it could not have been anticipated, than disappointed any hope, however unreasonable, of assistance. The baronet's generous patriotism had become conspicuously known, when an English traveller, passing through Kenmore, related that he was surprised, in so remote a district, to observe a very thriving manufactory, which he stopped to inspect. The owner, Mr Macnaughten, led his visitor over the extensive building with great pride and pleasure, saying: 'I long wished to try the experiment of raising this factory here, but had no hope of obtaining the funds, when one day a stranger, driving along the road, stopped his carriage, and having got into conversation, pointed out the advantages of Kenmore for such an establishment. No sooner had I expressed my hopelessness of ever realising sufficient capital to attempt the plan, than he offered me a loan of the whole necessary funds, taking no other security than my own, and asking no share of the profits. I succeeded, as you see, and have now two additional mills in regular employment.'

'Ah!' replied the Englishman, at once guessing right, I know one man, and only one, who could be capable of volunteering such an offer. It must have been Sir John Sinclair!'

One day, Sir John, walking in Salisbury's Botanical Gardens with his old and intimate friend Sir James Norcliffe Innes, had a long conference respecting the dormant claim of the latter to be Duke of Roxburghe, and not only advised him earnestly to urge his rights before the courts of law, but offered him an immediate loan of L.14,000, with which to meet the expenses, only to be repaid in case of success. The litigation lasted many years, during which Sir James wrote several times, reproaching Sir John for having plunged him into this ruinous expenditure; but when, at last, the cause was triumphantly gained, his Grace's gratitude remained warm and steadfast to the latest hour of his very long life. Sir Walter Scott said, respecting his contemporary, Sir John, that he was of projects rife;' but they were all for the public good; and the importance of his inventive genius became so obvious to Mr Pitt, as well as the value of his persevering energy, that he was summoned one day to Downing Street, where the prime-minister emphatically said to him: 'There is no man to whom government is more indebted; and if you have any object in view, I shall attend to it with pleasure.'

This offer of Mr Pitt's might have opened an opportunity for personal advancement; but the characteristic of Sir John was a disinterested devotion to the public good, and he replied, that, desiring no favour on his own behalf, the reward most gratifying to his feelings would be the institution by parliament of a great national corporation, to be called 'The Board of Agriculture.' Sir John then convinced Mr Pitt how small a quantity of additional cultivation at home would have provided the whole amount of corn imported from foreign countries during the eighteen preceding years; and so great was Sir John's enthusiasm on that important subject, that his friend, the Duke of Roxburghe, gave him the sobriquet, by which some of his old friends afterwards distinguished him, of Sir John Agriculture.' His ordinary visitingcard, which is still preserved in many an album, carried the print of a large plough, with his name engraved on the ploughshare; and while through life he had to fight the battles of agriculture with very damp powder, it was with him a favourite saying, that 'he who makes a blade of corn grow where none grew before, is an undoubted benefactor of his country.'

There had long existed a Board of Trade; but Mr Pitt was startled at the probable expense of establishing another Board for the encouragement of agriculture. Almost any other branch of industry had hitherto received more support than tillage; and the celebrated Arthur Young felt so little hope of the baronet's plan being acceded to, that he betted a copy of his Annals of Agriculture, splendidly bound, in nineteen volumes, against twenty-one volumes of Sir John's works, that the scheme would never be

adopted, adding; Your Board of Agriculture will be in the moon ! If on earth, remember I am to be secretary!'

Sir John immediately printed a sketch of his plan, to be distributed among members of parliament; and a keen discussion followed in the House, when Mr Sheridan, after indulging in some characteristic jocularities, proposed that the Board should be established, provided that no expense whatever attending the same should ever fall on the public." Sir John's speech, however, carried the motion by a majority of eighty-five; and a grant was voted of L.3000 per annum for supporting the enormous outlay. In after-years, Mr Sheridan and many of the minority candidly acknowledged the immense benefit derived to Great Britain from the active efficiency of this Board, over which Sir John was elected president.

Thousands of acres were now redeemed from barrenness by the encouragement afforded to individual enterprise through the Board of Agriculture. A correspondence was immediately opened. by Sir John with all the most distinguished cultivators on the continent, to whom he proposed an exchange of information and of good offices; and soon the whole stock of Great Britain became immensely increased in value by Sir John's judicious experiments in importing new species of grain and of cattle. The Board of Agriculture grew at once into a general magazine of information; and the president immediately published his Agricultural Report of Scotland, in five closely-printed volumes, collected at an immense expense of time and income. Thus, in the course of little more than a year, Dr Anderson writes, that the Board has printed already a number of authentic facts respecting the agricultural and internal economy of the country, greater than was ever before obtained in any other nation since the beginning of time.'

On one subject, among very many others, Sir John offered a reward of several hundred pounds. It was for the best essay to describe the surest means of converting grass-land into tillage, without exhausting the soil, and of returning the same to grass in an improved state.' The number of competitors who sent in essays amounted to 350! About the same time, Sir John, always anxious to give a full scope to genius, engaged Sir Humphry Davy, at a considerable expense, to deliver a course of lectures before the Board, on agricultural chemistry.

Sir John at all times felt a generous delight in advancing the talents or in rewarding the discoveries of others. The moment he heard, by mere accident, of any new invention, he became like a good hound on the scent, till he had ferreted out the author, and given him all the assistance in his power. Colonel Shrapnell, who invented Shrapnell's shells, and the machinist who invented Morton's slips, now so universally used in docks, both acknowledged by letter that, but for Sir John Sinclair's zealous assistance, their discoveries must have fallen unheard-of into oblivion. kind-hearted baronet, by great exertion, obtained for Elkington, to

The

reward his valuable improvements in draining land, a grant of L.1000 from parliament; and hearing that Mr Meikle, the inventor of the thrashing-machine, was living at the age of ninety-two in miserable poverty, he wrote to the lord-lieutenant of East-Lothian -in which county Meikle was born-as well as to all the principal farmers, and by dint of extreme exertion raised a subscription of L.1500, with which he placed the aged mechanic and his family in comfort. Sir John also raised from indigence the family of James Small, who had greatly improved the plough,

Mr Macadam, commonly called the Colossus of Roads,' frankly declared to his dying day, that it was owing to Sir John's energetic encouragement that his improvements on highways were ever effected. Going into the Albyn Club one day, the baronet observed a venerable old gentleman sitting alone, with a newspaper in his hand. As soon as he perceived Sir John, he came forward, and expressed in strong terms his satisfaction at having now for the first time met with an individual to whose assistance he owed all his success. To the baronet's surprised inquiry with whom he had the honour of conversing, Mr Macadam announced himself; and he sometime afterwards sent Sir John a written testimonial of how much he had benefited by the rule on which Sir John invariably acted-to give every project of usefulness a fair trial.'

Hardly had the Board of Agriculture been established, before a deficiency in the wheat-crop caused an alarming rise in the price of bread; and Sir John immediately desired experiments to be tried in the manufacture of bread from every species of grain. No less than eighty different kinds of bread were soon exhibited by Sir John to an astonished public. On a subsequent occasion of anticipated scarcity, the baronet wrote a circular-letter to the clergy of every parish, in which he recommended that 50,000 additional acres of potatoes should be planted-by which means he produced a supply of food sufficient for the support, during six months, of nearly a million persons. He drew up and printed a report, containing all that could be suggested to improve the cultivation of that vegetable; and Sir William Pulteney wrote from Wolverhampton to Sir John, that the people there had been without bread during four days, but had not actually starved, owing to the astonishing quantity of potatoes planted in that neighbourhood, in consequence of being recommended to do so by the president of the Board of Agriculture.' Experiments were then tried, for the first time, by Sir John, of cutting potatoes into thin slices, and drying these in a hop-kiln-specimens of which, and also of potato-flour, were exhibited by the president forty years afterwards, as fit for use then as on the day they were first preserved.

The national defences became, in 1794, a subject of as anxious thought to government, as they are at present; and on that occasion Sir John offered to Mr Pitt to set the example of raising a regiment on his own estate, and to take the command of it

himself. The baronet observed, that he never had thought of becoming a soldier; but since the public service demanded his exertions in that capacity, he would not hesitate. If a manof-war had been necessary, he would probably have at least tried to build one with Caithness timber, and to find a main-mast in his own stunted forests. Mr Pitt gladly issued letters of service for this volunteer corps; and such was Sir John's diligence in enlisting and training the men, that, only seven months from the date of their colonel's commission, his regiment-which he named after the two counties that alternated their member to parliament, The Rothesay and Caithness Regiment '-passed a favourable inspection at Inverness before Lieutenant-general Sir Hector Monro. The battalion was at first 600 strong; but Sir John subsequently increased the number of his men to 1000. They were dressed in a handsome Highland uniform; and it was noted that nineteen of the officers averaged above six feet high. During eight years afterwards, Sir John continued on service in Ireland and Scotland. If every living landed proprietor would thus make himself a Martello tower of defence to the shores of Great Britain, there would be no danger from any invasion in our own day.

Sir John's regiment was first encamped for six months at Aberdeen, under orders of the commander-in-chief to defend that city against an apprehended attack from the French armies in Holland; and afterwards he served in Ireland during the rebellion, when he received at Armagh the thanks of Viscount Gosford, in the name of the magistrates, for the invariable steadiness and efficiency of his men. To improve the discipline of his corps, the colonel invented a plan well suited to the character of Highlanders, as appealing to their high sense of honour and self-respect. He ordered each of his captains to produce, on the first Monday in every month, a muster-roll of his company, specifying the name, the birthplace, date of enlistment, discipline, and behaviour, of each soldier under his command. This paper, familiarly termed by the soldiers 'Sir John's roll,' was read aloud on parade before the whole corps, on which monthly occasion the colonel called up each man in turn before him, stated publicly the report given of his conduct, and in some rare instances, where the account had been singularly favourable, the soldier received promotion on the spot. 'I still remember,' said 'an aged veteran long afterwards, when Corporals Sutherland and Fisher were made sergeants by our colonel on the paradeground, and Sir John said: "My lads, we shall soon probably have to defend ourselves from the invaders. Preferment is open to you all without partiality. Nothing shall have weight with me but good behaviour." An old sergeant in subsequent years remarked: Many a culprit would have chosen the black-hole, before a lecture from Sir John.'

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The allowance made by government being barely sufficient for the clothing and subsistence of his men, Sir John, who attached great importance to their soldier - like appearance, permitted no