Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/259

Rh the rank of baronet, to which he had a hereditary claim, as heir and representative of Sir George Sinclair, of Clyth. The application was made in 1784, and in 1786 it was gratified more largely than he had expected; for not only was the title of baronet conferred upon him, but a reservation made of it in favour of the heirs-male of the daughters of his first wife, in the event of his dying without a direct representative.

The inquiries of Sir John Sinclair upon the subject of political economy, which he had hitherto turned to such useful account, were still continued, and in 1785 he published an essay "On the Public Revenue of the British Empire." This was but the first and second parts of a series, of which a third appeared in 1790. But during the same year in which the first portion of the work was published, he sustained a heavy domestic affliction by the death of his wife, to whom he had been married eight years. So intense was his sorrow at this bereavement, that he had serious thoughts of resigning his seat in the House of Commons for Lostwithiel, and retiring into private life. Fortunately for his country he was persuaded to try the effects of travel, and, accordingly, he went over to Paris during the Christmas recess, where the society of this gay and intellectual capital not only tended to console his sorrow, but to animate him for fresh public exertion. It was no ordinary good fortune that led him to a city where a mind like his could associate in daily intercourse with such distinguished characters as Necker, Madame de Stael, and Madame de Genlis, of Joseph Montgolfier, Argand, and Reveillon. While he thus associated with the master-spirits of the practical and useful, he never lost sight of the welfare of his own country. In this way, having studied the machines for coinage invented by M. Droz, and used by the French government, he suggested their adoption to Mr. Bolton, of Birmingham, by whom they were introduced into the British mint. Having learned from M. Clouet, the superintendent of the gunpowder manufactory of France, the mode of distilling that article in cylinders, by which a superior commodity was produced at less expense than the gun-powder in common use, he communicated the improvement to our own government, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing it adopted by the Board of Ordnance.

From France Sir John continued his route through Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Austria, and Prussia, where he had personal interviews with the crowned heads of an age that has departed, but whose influence we still experience. Among these the most distinguished were the emperor Joseph, the most hasty of reformers; Catherine, the Semiramis of the north; Stanislaus, the unfortunate minion-king of Poland; and the chivalrous but evil-destined Gustavus III. of Sweden. But the men of those several dominions who most promoted the improvement of their respective countries were the chief objects of his solicitude; and with several of these he established a permanent correspondence, the chief subject of which was the improvement of European agriculture and commerce, and the extension of the comforts of life. In Germany his attention was especially directed to the manufactures of that country, and the causes of their success, by which he was enabled, at his return, to impart very valuable suggestions to the heads of our manufacturing departments. This long tour, comprising nearly 8000 miles, and accomplished without the aid of steam, was terminated in 1787. The fruits of his observations during these travels were afterwards fully communicated to the public in 1830, when, during his old days, he published, in two volumes, the interesting correspondence that had originated in his northern tour.