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YOR of two years' standing in the same college, and under the same tutor. Dr. Birch, by way of impressing his teaching upon the minds of the young men, suggested as an exercise the composition of an imaginary correspondence, which was carried on with great talent, and which was printed for private circulation in 1739, under the title of Athenian Letters, or the epistolary correspondence of an agent of the king of Persia residing at Athens during the Peloponnesian war. The work was not generally known until reprinted forty years afterwards. Barthélemi, the author of the Travels of Anacharsis, paid a high compliment to the Athenian Letters when he said that, had he known of its existence, he would not have begun his own book. Taking his M.A. degree in 1742, he was called to the bar in the following year, and immediately commenced a lucrative practice in his father's court. In 1744 he published an able treatise on "Forfeiture for Treason," supporting a bill introduced by his father into the house of lords. In 1747 he entered the house of commons as member for Reigate, but he did not distinguish himself in parliament. In 1752 he had a narrow escape from the fire which burnt down Stone Buildings, Lincoln's inn, where he had his chambers. His collection of Lord Somers' state papers was destroyed by that fire. In November, 1756, he became solicitor-general, his father having resigned the great seal. The finest speech he made in this official character was his reply on the trial of Lord Ferrers for murder. Not till January, 1762, did he attain the dignity of attorney-general, and he resigned the office in November of the following year. He continued practising at the bar till 1765, when he was again made attorney-general; he again resigned a year afterwards. On the change of ministry in January, 1770, he was offered the great seal, which he twice refused, and then accepted at the king's personal request. He was bitterly reproached by his friends, who intended to overthrow the ministry; and on going home from the council he was taken suddenly ill, and died on 20th January, 1770, three days after he had been sworn in as chancellor.—R. H.  YORKE. See.  YOUNG,, the agriculturist and agricultural writer, was a native of Suffolk, and born in 1741. He was a younger son of a prebendary of Canterbury, chaplain to Speaker Onslow, and after receiving a good school education was apprenticed at Lynn in Norfolk; some say to a wine merchant. He had little taste for business, but he read largely; he even wrote a political pamphlet, and his residence in a district recently improved by the introduction of turnip-husbandry, is supposed to have directed his attention to the development of agriculture. He deserted trade for agriculture, and experimented in it boldly and unsuccessfully, first in a farm leased by his mother, and then in one taken by himself at Samford Hall in Essex. After his failure in Essex, he is said to have resolved to travel over England in search of a suitable farm. Travel he did, and with some result. In 1768 appeared the earliest of his agricultural works, "A six weeks' tour through the southern counties of England and Wales," in which he noted what was good, bad, and peculiar in the agriculture of each district, and which, written with vivacity and enthusiasm, was successful itself, and the precursor of more books of home-tour from the pen of its author. For these and other works on agriculture, he is said to have received, by 1776, £3000. At last, it would seem, he settled for nine years in a farm at North Mimms in Hertfordshire, in an ungenial situation, and where, in spite of his theoretical skill, he lost all his money—a result not very surprising when it is considered that during the period he was engaged as a reporter in the Morning Post, walking to his farm every Saturday evening, and returning to town on Monday morning. The years 1776-79 he spent chiefly in Ireland—partly observing the country—partly superintending the estate of Lord Kingsbury in the county of Cork. The literary result of his Irish residence was his well-known "Tour in Ireland, with general observations on the state of that kingdom," published in 1790. Returning to England, he engaged anew in farming, and in 1786 commenced the publication of his "Annals of Agriculture," which he continued to publish until the year 1804. Young's reputation was now a European one, and King George III. himself contributed to the Annals under the pseudonym of "Ralph Robinson of Windsor." In 1787-89, he explored France and its agriculture, publishing in 1792 his "Travels" in that country, "undertaken more particularly with the view of ascertaining the cultivation, wealth, resources, and national prosperity of the kingdom of France." From the period at which Young performed his tour, his work has a historical, as well as an agricultural and economical value. On the formation, in 1793, of the board of agriculture. Young was appointed to the congenial office of secretary, the late Sir John Sinclair being its first president. For the board he drew up the published accounts of several of the English counties. His latest work appeared in 1809, about which time his eyesight, long failing, gave way completely. He died in 1820. Young's enthusiasm and writings are allowed on all hands to have given a great stimulus to agricultural improvement in England. There are lists of his numerous works in Donaldson's Agricultural Biographies, and M'Culloch's Literature of Political Economy.—F. E.  * YOUNG,, the president and prophet of the Mormons, was born at Whittingham, Vermont, U.S., in the year 1801. His father was an agriculturist and a revolutionary soldier. Brigham was bred to the trade of a carpenter, and was originally a Methodist. He was converted to the Mormon faith by Samuel, one of the brothers of Joseph Smith, and soon became one of the most influential members of the community. On the murder of Smith (June 27, 1844), Young was elected his successor as "prophet and revelator;" and by his sagacity and energy he gave consistency to the somewhat disjointed, turbulent, and blind fanaticism of his predecessor. His administration of the affairs of Nauvoo was singularly successful; the population of the city rapidly increased, and the temple and other public buildings were carried forward with vigour. But meanwhile the animosity of the enemies of the Mormons became much more intense. The legislature of Illinois deprived Nauvoo of its charter, and the people showed their determination to expel by force, if necessary, every Mormon from their territory. Young saw at once that a contest with the people and the state authorities of Illinois, connived at, if not supported by the federal government, was utterly hopeless; and he adopted the bold and judicious resolution of persuading the Mormonites to emigrate to an entirely new and unappropriated country, separated from the United States by a vast desert tract, and the almost impassable Rocky Mountains. A body of pioneers was sent forward by him in February, 1846, and was followed, a week afterwards, by another band consisting of sixteen hundred persons—men, women, and children. A few hundred families remained behind in Nauvoo, from want of means and inability to sell their effects, and about the end of April they completed and consecrated the sacred temple, which was considered the most beautiful church in North America. But this ceremony, and the continued presence there of this remnant of the Saints, rekindled the animosity of their enemies. An attack was made upon the city by an army of one thousand men, having six pieces of artillery. After four days' fighting hostilities were suspended, on the condition that the remnant of the Mormons should leave the state of Illinois in five days, and they accordingly crossed the Mississippi, and followed "the track of Israel towards the west." At the end of June the first column of emigrants arrived on the banks of the Missouri, a little above its junction with the Platte, and here they waited the arrival of the other detachments. The great mass of the emigrants passed the winter in the prairies—some in huts, others in tents, and in caves, which they dug in the earth. They underwent fearful sufferings from cold, want, and disease; and great numbers of them perished. In the spring of 1847 Brigham Young and a considerable escort started in search of the promised land in the far west. About the end of July they reached the Great Salt Lake; and the prophet declared, as he alleged by divine inspiration, that the chosen people were to take up their permanent residence on its borders. After carefully exploring the surrounding country, he fixed upon a site for the holy city, drew out its plan, and marked out the precise spot which the temple and other public buildings were to occupy. He then returned to the banks of the Missouri, and superintended the transit of the great body of the emigrants across that river, and their journey to the chosen Eden. After great sufferings they reached the Salt Lake in the course of the autumn of 1848, and immediately proceeded to erect their projected city and to organize a government, at the head of which Brigham Young was placed. The country made part of what was called Upper California, and nominally belonged to the Mexican republic; but in February, 1848, it was formally ceded to the United States. A few months after the cession was made the Mormons established a provisional government with legislative, executive, and judicial powers, elected Brigham Young as governor, and applied for admission into the Union, as the 