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Sir John Sinclair was the first president of the Board of Agricul- kture, and he was turned out of that office in a very unhandsome >manner. On some occasion or other he had opposed Mr. Pitt inthe House of Commons ; and that gentleman, on the day fixedfor the annual election of a president, suddenly excited a veryunexpected opposition; and by sending a great many officialmembers to vote, none of whom had ever attended a single,meeting of the Board, Lord Somerville was elected president. 11know not whose disgrace was the greatest,—that of the minister \who planned such a miserable manoeuvre, or that of the menwho degraded their high stations by assisting him in the execu-tion of it. A year or two after this, Lord Carrington was made |president; and I was asked by him, but declined, to become avice-president. In 1800, His Lordship sent me an account ofthe premiums which the Board offered for essays, On the bestmeans of converting certain portions of grass-land into tillagewithout exhausting the soil, and of returning the same to grass,after a certain period, in an improved state, or at least withoutinjury. This subject had been recommended to the considerationof the Board by a committee of the Plouse of Lords, who werethen employed in examining into the causes of the then scarcityof bread-corn. I sent the following answer to this communication,in hopes that His Lordship might suggest something really use-ful to Mr. Pitt, with whom he was very intimate : —

“ My Lord, Calgarth Park, 26th Dec. 1800.

“ I will not fail to circulate the advertisements which youhave sent me, though I have no expectation of there arising inthis district any candidate for the premium which the Board of