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A YOUNG

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 939 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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A See also:

YOUNG  . and Abroad in 1759 . After his See also:father's See also:death in 1759, his See also:mother had given him the direction of the See also:family See also:estate at Bradfield See also:Hall; but the See also:property was small and encumbered with See also:debt . From 1763 to 1766 he devoted himself to farming on his mother's property . In 1765 he married a See also:Miss See also:Allen; but the See also:union is said not to have been happy, though he was of domestic habits and an affectionate father . In 1767 he undertook on his own See also:account the management of a See also:farm in See also:Essex . He engaged in various experiments, and embodied the results of them in A Course of Experimental See also:Agriculture (1770) . Though See also:Young's experiments were, in See also:general, unsuccessful, he thus acquired a solid knowledge of agriculture . He had already begun a See also:series of journeys through See also:England and See also:Wales, and gave an account of his observations in books which appeared from 1768 to ,77o--A Six See also:Weeks' Tour through the See also:Southern Counties of England and Wales, A Six Months' Tour through the See also:North of England and the See also:Farmer's Tour through the See also:East of England . He says that these books contained the only extant See also:information relative to the rental, produce and stock of England that was founded on actual examination . They were very favourably received, being translated into most See also:European See also:languages by 1792 . In 1768 he published the Farmer's Letters to the See also:People of England, in 1771 the Farmer's See also:Calendar, which went through a See also:great number of See also:editions, and in 1774 his See also:Political See also:Arithmetic, which was widely translated .

About this See also:

time Young acted as See also:parliamentary reporter for the See also:Morning See also:Post . He made a tour in See also:Ireland in 1776, See also:publishing his Tour in Ireland in 1780 . In 1784 he began the publication of the See also:Annals of Agriculture, which was continued for 45 volumes: this See also:work had many contributors, among whom was See also:George III., See also:writing under the nom de plume of " See also:Ralph See also:Robinson." Young's first visit to See also:France was made in 1787 . Traversing that See also:country in every direction just before and during the first movements of the Revolution, he has given valuable notices of the See also:condition of the people and the conduct of public affairs at that See also:critical juncture . The Travels in France appeared in 2 vols. in 1792 . On his return See also:home he was appointed secretary of the See also:Board of Agriculture, then (1793) just formed under the See also:presidency of See also:Sir See also:John See also:Sinclair . In this capacity he gave most valuable assistance in the collection and preparation of agricultural surveys of the See also:English counties . His sight, however, failed, and in 1811 he had an operation for See also:cataract, which proved unsuccessful . He suffered also in his last years from See also:stone . He died on the loth of See also:April 1820 . He See also:left an autobiography in MS., which was edited (1898) by Miss M . Betham-See also:Edwards, and is the See also:main authority for his See also:life; and also the materials for a great work on the " Elements and practice of agriculture." See also:Arthur Young was the greatest of all English writers on agriculture; but it is as a social and political observer that he is best known, and his Tour in Ireland and Travels in France are still full of See also:interest and instruction .

He saw clearly and exposed unsparingly the causes which retarded the progress of Ireland . He strongly urged the See also:

repeal of the penal See also:laws which pressed upon the Catholics; he condemned the restrictions imposed by Great See also:Britain on the See also:commerce of Ireland, and also the perpetual interference of the Irish See also:parliament with See also:industry by prohibitions and bounties . He favoured a legislative union of Ireland with Great Britain, though he did not regard such a measure as absolutely necessary, many of its advantages being otherwise attainable . The See also:soil of France he found in general See also:superior to that of England, and its produce less.' Agriculture was neither as well understood nor as much esteemed as in England . He severely censured the higher classes for their neglect of it . " Banishment (from See also:court) alone will force the See also:French See also:nobility to execute what the English do for See also:pleasure—reside upon and adorn their estates." Young saw the commencement of violence in the rural districts, and his sympathies began to take the See also:side of the classes suffering from the excesses of the Revolution . This See also:change of attitude was shown by his publication in 1793 of a See also:tract entitled The Example of France a Warning to England . Of the profounder significance of the French outbreak he seems to have had little See also:idea, and thought the crisis would be met by a constitutional See also:adjustment in accordance with the English type . He strongly condemned the mitayer See also:system, then widely prevalent in France, as " perpetuating poverty and excluding instruction "—as, in fact, the ruin of the country . Some of his phrases have been often quoted by the See also:advocates of See also:peasant See also:YOUGHAL proprietorship as favouring their view . " The magic of property turns See also:sand to See also:gold . ' " Give a See also:man the secure See also:possession of a See also:bleak See also:rock, and he will turn it into a See also:garden; give him a nine years' See also:lease of a garden, and he will convert it into a See also:desert." But these sentences, in which the epigrammatic See also:form exaggerates a truth, and which might seem to represent the possession of See also:capital as of no importance in agriculture, must not be taken as conveying his approbation of the system of small properties in general .

He approved it only when the subdivision was strictly limited, and even then with great reserves; and he remained to the end what J . S . See also:

Mill calls him, " the apostle of la grande culture." The See also:Directory in i8oi ordered his writings on the See also:art to be translated and published at See also:Paris in 20 volumes under the See also:title of Le Cultivateur anglais . His Travels in France were translated in 1793—94 by Soules; a new version by M . Lesage, with an introduction by M. de Lavergne, appeared in 1856 . An interesting See also:review of the latter publication, under the title of Arthur Young et la France de 1789, will he found in M . See also:Baudrillart's Publicistes moderns (2nd ed., 1873) .

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