The Late RIGHT HON. SIR J. SINCLAIR, Bart

   This eminent statist and agriculturist was born at the castle of Thurso, in the county of Caithness, May 16, 1754, and was unanimously elected Member for that shire in 1784, which he represented for many years. He also sat some time for the boroughs of Lostwithiel, in Cornwall, and Petersfield, in Hampshire. He married in 1776 the daughter and heiress of Alexander Maitland, Esq., of Stoke Newington, on whose death he was again united to the daughter of Alexander Lord Macdonald, by whom he has left a numerous family, the eldest of whom, the Member for Caithness, now succeeds to the title and estates. In 1786 he was created a Baronet of the United Kingdom, and soon after was honoured with a seat in the Privy Council. Many other titles of distinction were conferred on him both at home and abroad. Scotland has much reason to be proud of Sir John Sinclair. He was a patriot in the fullest sense of the term, and his inquiring mind embraced every object that an active and vigorous intellect could suggest as tending to promote the well-being of the human race. The advancement of his native country was, however, the ruling passion, and its prosperity was engraven on his heart's core. His public spirit and great influence enabled him to raise, in 1794, two battalions of 1,000 men each. The Ross and Caithness Fencibles were among the best appointed and highest disciplined of these corps, and it is to be observed that they were the first whose services were extended beyond Scotland. One of those serving in Ireland supplied 220 men for the expedition to Egypt, a larger force than was procured from any other similar regiment. Sir John Sinclair's literary labours since the age of sixteen, when he first wrote anonymously in a provincial paper, are almost innumerable. Besides regular volumes, which he himself estimated at 100, he promulgated "Hints," "Plans," and "Proposals," without ceasing.His work on the British Finances, first published in 1783, several editions of which have been sold, has been held in great estimation, and his various publications on agriculture, the Board of which he founded and presided over, and his indefatigable exertions in its cause, have rendered his name familiar in all parts of the globe. The completion of the statistical account of Scotland, which brought him into extended correspondence with more than 1,000 individuals, was an undertaking to immortalize any individual. The various objects to which this estimable man bent his attention are not to be enumerated; great and small matters came equally under his notice. He recommended to Mr. Pitt a plan for the issue of Exchequer bills, which relieved the country at that time from the pressure of its difficulties, and one of the latest objects which this extraordinary person had at heart was a plan  which he believed would most materially benefit the country. After repeated communications and interviews with the Ministry he thus wrote to Mr. Secretary S. Rice:—"At my advanced age I feel no longer able to contend with you on this subject; I therefore drop it, most sincerely hoping that your views may be found right and mine wrong." His public services and private worth entitle Sir John Sinclair to the grateful recollection of posterity and to a national monument suitable to one whose life has been that of a public benefactor and philanthropist. No individual ever exerted himself more strenuously and unceasingly for what he deemed conducive to the public welfare and owing to merit, and no one ever carried into effect so many important objects. If the numerous honours and well-earned eulogiums which were conferred on him induced a degree of vanity and an egotism which would at first be repulsive it might well be excused in the latter years of so extended and eminently useful a life.