His father died when he was sixteen.When twenty years old he collected his tenants,and in one night made a road across a hill which had been pronounced impracticable.He was an enthusiastic admirer of Gaelic traditions;defended the authenticity of Ossian;supported Highland games,and brought Italian travellers to listen to the music of the bagpipes.When he presented himself to his tenants in the Highland costume,on the withdrawal of its prohibition,they expected him to lead them in a foray upon the lowlands in the name of Charles Edward.He afterwards raised a regiment of 'fencibles'which served in Ireland in 1798,and,when disbanded,sent a large contingent to the Egyptian expedition.But he rendered more peaceful services to his country.He formed new farms;he enclosed several thousand acres;as head of the 'British Wool Society,'he introduced the Cheviots or 'long sheep'to the North --an improvement which is said to have doubled the rents of many estates;he introduced agricultural shows;he persuaded government in 1801to devote the proceeds of the confiscated estates of Jacobites to the improvement of Scottish communications;he helped to introduce fisheries and even manufactures;and was a main agent in the change which made Caithness one of the most rapidly improving parts of the country.His son assures us that he took every means to obviate the incidental evils which have been the pretexts of denunciators of similar improvements.
Sinclair gained a certain reputation by a History of the Revenue (1785-90),and,like Malthus,travelled on the Continent to improve his knowledge.His first book finished,he began the great statistical work by which he is best remembered.He is said to have introduced into English the name of 'statistics,'for the researches of which all economical writers were beginning to feel the necessity.He certainly did much to introduce the reality.Sinclair circulated a number of queries (upon 'natural history,''population,''productions,'and 'miscellaneous'informations)to every parish minister in Scotland.He surmounted various jealousies naturally excited,and the ultimate result was the Statistical Account of Scotland which appeared in twenty-one volumes between 1791and 1799.(35)It gives an account of every parish in Scotland,and was of great value as supplying(36)basis for all social investigations.
Sinclair bore the expense,and gave the profits to the 'Sons of the Clergy.'
In 1793Sinclair,who had been in parliament since 1780,made himself useful to Pitt in connection with the issue of exchequer bills to meet the commercial crisis.He begged in return for the foundation of a Board of Agriculture.
He became the president and Arthur Young the secretary;(37)and the board represented their common aspirations.It was a rather anomalous body,something between a government office and such an institution as the Royal Society;and was supported by an annual grant of ￡3000.The first aim of the board was to produce a statistical account of England on the plan of the Scottish account.The English clergy,however,were suspicious;they thought,it seems,that the collection of statistics meant an attack upon tithes;and Young's frequent denunciation of tithes as discouraging agricultural improvement suggests some excuse for the belief.The plan had to be dropped;a less thorough-going deion of the counties was substituted;and a good many 'Views'of the agriculture of different counties were published in 1794and succeeding years.The board did its best to be active with narrow means.It circulated information,distributed medals,and brought agricultural improvers together.It encouraged the publication of Erasmus Darwin's Phytologia (1799),and procured a series of lectures from Humphry Davy,afterwards published as Elements of Agricultural Chemistry (1813).Sinclair also claims to have encouraged Macadam (1756-1836),the roadmaker,and Meikle,the inventor of the thrashing-machine.One great aim of the board was to promote enclosures.
Young observes in the introductory paper to the Annals that within forty years nine hundred bills had been passed affecting about a million acres.
This included wastes,but the greater part was already cultivated under the 'constraint and imperfection of the open field system,'a relic of the 'barbarity of our ancestors.'Enclosures involved procuring acts of parliament --a consequent expenditure,as Young estimates,of some ￡2000in each case;(38)and as they were generally obtained by the great landowners,there was a frequent neglect of the rights of the poor and of the smaller holders.The remedy proposed was a general enclosure act;and such an act passed the House of Commons in 1798,but was thrown out by the Lords.An act was not obtained till after the Reform Bill.Sinclair,however,obtained some modification of the procedure;which,it is said,facilitated the passage of private bills.
They became more numerous in later years,though other causes obviously co-operated.
Meanwhile,it is characteristic that Sinclair and Young regarded wastes as a backwoodsman regarded a forest.The incidental injury to poor commoners was not unnoticed,and became one of the topics of Cobbett's eloquence.But to the ardent agriculturist the existence of a bit of waste land was a simple proof of barbarism.Sinclair's favourite toast,we are told,was 'May commons become uncommon'--his one attempt at a joke.He prayed that Epping Forest and Finchley Common might pass under the yoke as well as our foreign enemies.
Young is driven out of all patience by the sight of 'fern,ling and other trumpery'in spirit upon Salisbury Plain,which produce all the corn we import.(39)Enfield declares,is a 'real nuisance to the public.'(40)We glad that the zeal for enclosure was not successful its aims;improvers is characteristic.