Arthur Young

Arthur Young was born in 1741 at Whitehall, London.  His father was a Reverend.  He was meant to have a life in commerce however he decided on a different course.  He published a pamphlet when he was seventeen on the war in America and then started a magazine.  He also wrote a series of novels.  After owning and working on a farm he started releasing works on agriculture throughout Britain and Ireland.

He travelled to France in 1787 and explored all of France just before the start of the Revolution.  His view of the country and its people would be released in his book Travels in France released in 1792.

He would die in 1820.

Arthur Young on the National Assembly.  Taken from Witnesses to the Revolution American and British Commentators in France 1788-1794, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London (1989) p50

The step the Commons have taken of declaring themselves the National Assembly… is in fact an assumption of all the authority in this kingdom.  They have at one stroke converted themselves into the Long Parliament of Charles I.  It needs not the assistance of much penetration to see that if such a pretension and declaration are done away, kings, lords and clergy are deprived of their shares in the legislature of France.  So bold, and apparently desperate a step, full in the teeth of every other interest in the realm, equally destructive of the royal authority, by parlements and the army, can never be allowed.  If it is not opposed, all other powers will lie in ruins around that of the Commons.  With what anxious expectations must one therefore wait to see if the crown will exert itself firmly on the occasion, with such an attention to an improved system of liberty, as is absolutely necessary to the moment!  All things considered, that is, the characters of those who are in possession of power, no well digested system and steady execution are to be looked for.

Arthur Young reports on a visit to the National Assembly. Witnesses to the Revolution American and British Commentators in France 1788-1794, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London (1989) p98

No other person spoke without notes…… It can hardly be conceived how flat this mode of debate renders the transactions of the Assembly.  Who would be in the gallery of the English House of Commons, if Mr Pitt were to bring a written speech, to be delivered on a subject on which Mr Fox was to speak before him? And in proportion to its being uninteresting to the hearer, is another evil, that of lengthening their sittings, since there are ten persons who will read their opinions, to one that is able to deliver an impromptu. The want of order, and every kind of confusion, prevails now almost as much as when the Assembly sat at Versailles.  The interruptions given are frequent and long: and speakers, who have no right by the rules to speak, will attempt it.

Arthur Young reports on debates on the ending of slavery in January 1790. Witnesses to the Revolution American and British Commentators in France 1788-1794, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London (1989) p102-103

The scheme of emancipating the negroes, or at least putting an end to importing them, which they borrowed from England, has thrown Nantes, Havre, Marseilles, Bordeaux, and all other places connected secondarily with that commerce, into the utmost agitation.  The Count de Mirabeau says publicly, that he is sure of carrying the vote to put an end to negro slavery.  It is very much the conversation at present, and principally amongst the leaders who say, that as the revolution was founded on philosophy, and supported by metaphysics, such a plan cannot be congenial.