Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/268

532 in British vessels free of duty. This last appeared but a paltry permission at the time, the articles in question being little known in our husbandry; but a far different opinion now prevails, from their extensive use in British agriculture.

After this period we find Sir John fully occupied with the commercial, financial, and agricultural interests of the country, and always upon the alert for their improvement. One of his proposals was such as no mere hunter after political popularity would have ventured. From the surveys of the Board of Agriculture, he had found that nearly 7,000,000 of acres lay as yet uncultivated in England; and he brought before parliament a "General Bill of Inclosure," by which these lands, held in common, should be inclosed for cultivation. But against this measure there was such an opposition among all classes, from the tourist to the tinker, that although the bill passed through the House of Commons, it was thrown out by the Lords. Still, the discussion had awakened general attention, and prepared the way for private enterprise. Another subject that again occupied his attention was our national finance, upon which he had already written a work in two separate parts, to which a third was added in 1790. The whole, with many additions and improvements, was finally published in three octavo volumes, under the title of a "History of the Public Itevenue of the British Empire, containing an account of the Public Income and Expenditure, from the remotest periods recorded in history, to Michaelmas 1802." In two years this work passed through three editions, and was regarded as an authority and text-book in both houses of parliament. The income tax, and the redemption of the land tax, two questions at this period under discussion, also occupied Sir John's attention; and in parliament he strongly ad- vocated the necessity of a paper instead of a metal currency. He was also opposed to free trade, already a great popular question; and he held as many still do with all the advantages of practical experience that "no country can be happy at home, or powerful abroad, unless it be independent of other countries for circulation and sustenance."

After so much labour, it is not to be wondered at that, toward the close of the century, Sir John's health began to decay. Already he had only reached the prime of manhood, and was distinguished by temperate and active habits; but he felt as if the shadows of a premature old age were coming upon him while his sun had scarcely passed the hour of noon. Most people in such cases resign themselves as to a dire necessity, and forsake the bustle of public life for the charms of an easy chair and home enjoyment. But Sir John had no idea of such selfish resignation; and though he knew as well as any man that he " owed heaven a death," still, he also felt that "it was not due yet," and that he was bound to work on until his Master called him home. The subject therefore of health, in relation to longevity, occupied his researches; and the result, in the first instance, was a pamphlet, which he published in 1803, entitled "Hints on Longevity." His strict attention to the rules which he recommended in this production, seems to have renewed his lease of life, so that he started upon a fresh occupancy of more than thirty years. At the close of this century, also, his reputation was so completely European, that the fellowships of societies and diplomas of universities had been sent to him from almost every country, while the general sense entertained of him abroad was thus aptly stated by Bottinger, in the Jena Universal Literary Gazette of June, 1801: "To whom is Scotland indebted for the attempt to purify her language? Who has exhibited the English finances in the clearest manner and on the