A tour on the Continent in company with the Rev. William Sandys, the son of a former steward of the family, a gentleman who had been specially trained to perform the pleasant but arduous duties of cicerone, completed his education, and thus he started in life with every advantage that a youth of talents and position could desire; nor did he fail to employ them.
On his return home he at once threw himself into the arena of public life; and from time to time published sundry political and agricultural treatises. Amongst the former may be mentioned, 'Thoughts on Equal Representation' (1783), 'Observations on a Treaty of Commerce between England and France' (1787), 'The Theory and Practice of the French Constitution' (1794), 'The Crimes of Democracy' (1798), and a speech which he delivered at a county meeting at Bodmin in 1809.
That he considered the foregoing productions not unworthy of his genius may be judged from the fact that he had them handsomely bound together, and presented them to his 'dearest friend, Miss (Harriet) Lemon,' the daughter of Sir William Lemon, of Carclew, Bart., M.P., a lady who ultimately became his second wife: the volume is preserved in the Royal Institution of Cornwall. His agricultural tracts—'Experiments in Agriculture' (1794), 'A Fat Ox' (1799), 'Crops and Prices' (1800), 'Crops in Cornwall' (1801), 'Mildew' (1805)—mostly appeared in Young's 'Annals of Agriculture;' and, like his political treatises, evince much acumen and practical common sense.
He was chosen Recorder for Penryn, and represented that borough in Parliament in 1780. On his entrance into political life he joined Lord North's party, and was hurried into the fatal coalition; though the outbreak of the French Revolution considerably modified his political views, which ultimately became what we should now call Conservative.[60] As illustrative of his electioneering activity, the following will be interesting, at least to my Cornish readers:
Extracts from Letters from the Hon. Mrs. Boscawen to Mrs. Delany.
'June, 1784.
'... Your turbulent nephew Sir Francis Basset has failed in his first petition, and our friend Mr. Christopher Hawkins of Trewithan is declar'd duly elected for Mitchell, in preference to Mr. Roger Wilbraham, one of Sir Francis's moveable candidates, for he set him up at Truro too, and has presented a petition there too, and another at Tregony, where our friends had a majority of 21! I hope Sir Francis will continue to have the same success as he had in this first attempt, which was decided in Parliament last night....'
'18 Oct., 1784.
'... My son (George Evelyn, 3rd Viscount Falmouth) and his sposa are very cheerfull in Cornwall, giving balls to their neighbours; while your nephew Basset is waging most inveterate war and hostilities at Truro. My son has all the lore (they say), but then he (Sr F.) has all the money—la partie n'est pas égale!'