The most marked feature is a strong tendency towards monosyllabism, which has been produced by phonetic decay, and which, as in the Indo-Chinese family, has given rise to the principle of intonation, required to distinguish words originally different but reduced by corruption to the condition of homophones. Besides the tones, of which there are three, high, low, and middle, Yoruba has also developed a degree of vocalic harmony, in which, as in Ural-Altaic, the vowels of the allixes are assimilated to that of the root. Inflexion, as in Bantu, is effected chiefly by prefixes; and there is a remarkable power of word-formation by the fusion of several relational elements in a single compound term. The Bible and several religious treatises have been translated into Yoruba, which as a medium of general intercourse in West Africa ranks in importance next to Haussa and Mandingan. (a. h. k.)
YOUGHAL, a seaport, borough, and market town in the county of Cork, Ireland, is situated on the west side of the estuary of the Blackwater, and on the Cork and Youghal branch of the Great Southern and Western Railway, 157 miles south-west of Dublin and 28 east of Cork. The fine collegiate church of St Mary, in the Later Decorated style, was originally erected in the 11th century, but rebuilt in the 13th, and since that time it has been frequently repaired. It contains a fine monument to the first earl of Cork. There are still a few fragments of the Dominican friary founded by Fitzgerald in 1269. Myrtle Grove, formerly the residence of Sir Water Raleigh, still remains. The harbour is safe and commodious, and there are several good quays. At the northern extremity of the harbour the river is crossed by a bridge resting on wooden piles. The principal exports are corn and other agricultural produce; the imports are coal, culm, timber, and slate. Coarse earthenware and bricks are manufactured. There is a salmon fishery in the Blackwater. Youghal is of some repute as a watering-place. The population of the town (area 345 acres) in 1871 was 6081, and in 1881 it was 5826.
Youghal is one of the most ancient towns in Ireland, and was incorporated by King John in 1209. The Franciscan monastery, founded at Youghal by Fitzgerald in 1224, was the earliest house of that order in Ireland. Sir Roger Mortimer landed at Youghal in 1317. The town was plundered by the earl of Desmond in 1579. In 1641 it was garrisoned and defended by the earl of Cork. In 1649 it declared for the Parliament. It sent two members to Parliament from 1374 till the union, after that only one down to 1885, when it was for parliamentary purposes merged in the East Division of the county.
YOUNG, ARTHUR (1741-1820), a writer on agriculture and social economy, the third son of Rev. Arthur Young, rector of Bedingfield, in Suffolk, was born on 7th September 1711. After having been for some time at a school at Lavenham, he was in 1758 placed in a mercantile house at Lynn, but showed no taste for commercial pursuits. He gave early evidence of literary inclinations by publishing, when only seventeen years old, a pamphlet On the War in North America arid by beginning a periodical work, entitled The Universal Museum, which, however, was soon dropped by the advice of Dr Samuel Johnson.
After his father's death in 1759, his mother gave him the direction of Bradfield Hall; and in 1767 he undertook on his own account the management of a farm in Essex. Possessing no practical acquaintance with agriculture, but being active-minded and of an inquiring turn, he engaged in experiments of various kinds, and embodied the results of them in A Course of Experimental Agriculture, which appeared in 1770. Though Young's experiments were, in general, unsuccessful, he acquired in the process of making them a solid knowledge of agriculture; and, writing in a lively style, he was able to make his disquisitions on the subject interesting to the public. He had already commenced a series of journeys through different parts of England and Wales, and gave an account of his observations in books which appeared from 1768 to 1770 A Six Weeks Tour through the Southern Counties of England and Wales, A Six Months Tour through the North of England, and the Farmers Tour through the East of England. He says that these books contained the only extant information relative to the rental, produce, and stock of England that was founded on actual examination. They were very favourably received at home and abroad, being translated into most Continental languages by 1792.
In 1768 he published the Farmer's Letters to the People of England, in 1771 the Farmer's Calendar, which has gone through a great number of editions, and in 1774 his Political Arithmetic, which was soon translated into several foreign languages. About this time Young acted as parliamentary reporter for the Morning Post. He made a tour in Ireland in 1776, and drew up the results, with copious observations on the state of that kingdom, in the years 1776-79, publishing a quarto volume on them in 1780. In 1784 he commenced the publication of the Annals of Agriculture, which was continued for 45 volumes; this work had contributions from many authors, among whom was George III., writing under the nom de plume of Ralph Robinson. Young's first visit to France was made in 1787. In May of that year he went to join Rochefoucauld-Liancourt at Paris, and accompanied by him and another gentleman travelled south to Bagneres de Luchon, making also an excursion into Spain. In November he was again in London; but in July 1788 he returned to France to study at leisure what he had before cursorily observed. He then saw the western part of the country, travelling alone on horseback, and came back a third time to see the east. The motive of these visits was "to make himself a master of their agriculture, that, if he found anything good and applicable to England, he might copy it." But he had an eye no less for political and social phenomena, and, traversing France in every direction just before and during the first movements of the Revolution, he has given us interesting and valuable notices of the condition of the people and the conduct of public affairs at that critical juncture. The Travels in France appeared in two vols. 4to in 1792. On his return home he was appointed secretary of the Board of Agriculture, then just formed under the presidency of Sir John Sinclair. In this capacity he gave the most valuable assistance in the collection and preparation of agricultural surveys of the English counties. In 1765 he had married a Miss Allen; but the union is said not to have been a very happy one, though he was of domestic habits and a most affectionate father. His sight failed, and he submitted to an operation for cataract, which proved unsuccessful. He suffered also in his last years from stone. He died in February 1820.
"To the works of Arthur Young," said Kirwan, "the world is more indebted for the diffusion of agricultural knowledge than to any writer who has yet appeared." To the same effect is the more recent testimony of Mr Hoskyns, who tells us that "the Farmer's Letters and Calendar, as well as the Tours, displayed the mind and pen of a master in his art, and went far towards laying the foundation of a practical agricultural literature." But it is as a social and political observer that Young is now best known to the reading public, and the books which have established his reputation in these departments—his Tour in Ireland and Travels in France—are still full of interest and instruction.
He found that Ireland had "flourished for the last thirty years to an uncommon degree, more," he believed, "than any country in Europe"; and he protested against the turbulence of the population and the outcries of the gentry at a time when Ireland had "experienced more favour from three sessions of a British parliament than from three centuries before." But he saw clearly and exposed unsparingly the causes which retarded the progress of the nation. He strongly urged the repeal of the penal laws which pressed upon the Catholics; lie thought, however, that their disabilities should be removed, not by a single measure, but gradually. He protested against the harshness with which the labouring classes were treated by their superiors, and denounced the middlemen as being, not merely a useless class, but by their oppression and insolent manners the chief causes of popular discontent. He condemned the restrictions imposed by Great Britain on the commerce of Ireland, and also the perpetual interference of the Irish parliament with industry
