diff options
| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-01-23 07:21:56 -0800 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-01-23 07:21:56 -0800 |
| commit | 2c06a9340ee1dcf8aaf77b6fd421987c732f6127 (patch) | |
| tree | c3d783a98c5ef22fcb254b0d9f0d58b067c1d796 | |
| parent | 05a544aa84b65e1c370601ea49f2bf62c893cbae (diff) | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64753-0.txt | 7243 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64753-0.zip | bin | 169336 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64753-h.zip | bin | 274876 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64753-h/64753-h.htm | 9130 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64753-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 68725 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64753-h/images/spine.jpg | bin | 24299 -> 0 bytes |
9 files changed, 17 insertions, 16373 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a87e77 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64753 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64753) diff --git a/old/64753-0.txt b/old/64753-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index cf959b7..0000000 --- a/old/64753-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7243 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Adam Smith, by Francis W. Hirst - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Adam Smith - English Men of Letters - -Author: Francis W. Hirst - -Release Date: March 08, 2021 [eBook #64753] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Stephen Hutcheson, Adrian Mastronardi and the Online - Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This - file was produced from images generously made available by The - Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADAM SMITH *** - - - - - _ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS_ - - - - - ADAM SMITH - - - BY - FRANCIS W. HIRST - - - LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED - NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FOUR - - - _Copyright in the United States of America, 1904_ - - - - - PREFATORY NOTE - - -Early in 1793 Dugald Stewart read at two meetings of the Royal Society -of Edinburgh his “Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith.” -Written with the sympathetic pen of a friend and disciple in the -Corinthian style that Stewart loved, the memoir was too good to be -superseded. A century passed, and in 1895 appeared Mr. John Rae’s -exhaustive _Life of Adam Smith_. Mr. Rae’s comprehensive researches -cropped the ground so close that little seemed to have been left for his -successors to glean. But the discovery of Smith’s _Lectures on Justice, -Police, Revenue, and Arms_, edited by Mr. Edwin Cannan and published in -1896, has furnished new and important materials. - -Of Smith’s innumerable critics and commentators, Bagehot, Oncken, -Ingram, and Hasbach seem to me to have understood him best. The -misdirected erudition of some others has only proved the importance of -allowing him to be his own interpreter. - -Dr. David Murray of Glasgow has very kindly read portions of my proofs, -and has contributed most generously from his wonderful store of -learning. - - F. W. H. - - - - - CONTENTS - - - PAGE - CHAPTER I - Early Years 1 - CHAPTER II - The Beginning of a Career 23 - CHAPTER III - Theology and Religious Establishments 36 - CHAPTER IV - “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” 46 - CHAPTER V - In the Glasgow Chair—The Lectures on Justice And Police 68 - CHAPTER VI - Glasgow and its University 94 - CHAPTER VII - The Tour in France, 1764-66 118 - CHAPTER VIII - Politics and Study, 1766-76 144 - CHAPTER IX - The “Wealth of Nations” and its Critics 164 - CHAPTER X - Free Trade 188 - CHAPTER XI - Last Years 205 - Index 237 - - - - - ADAM SMITH - - - - - CHAPTER I - EARLY YEARS - - -Adam Smith was born on June 5, 1723, in the “lang toun” of Kirkcaldy. It -was one of the “mony royal boroughs yoked on end to end like ropes of -ingans, with their hie-streets and their booths, and their kraemes and -houses of stane and lime and forestairs,” which led Andrew Fairservice -to contrast “the kingdom of Fife” with the inferior county of -Northumberland; nay, it furnished him with a special boast, “Kirkcaldy, -the sell o’t, is langer than ony toun in England.” It had been a royal -borough from the time of Charles I., and had declined, like many other -Scotch towns, in the religious wars of the seventeenth century. Many of -its citizens who had fought for the Covenant had fallen on the fatal -field of Tippermuir. But it still contained about 1500 inhabitants, who -were variously employed as colliers, fishermen, salters, nailmakers, and -smugglers. From the harbour you might walk a mile or more westward along -the High Street, enjoying from time to time a glimpse of the sea and -shelving beach, where the line of shops opened for a narrow “wynd,” or a -still narrower “close” threaded the high-walled gardens of a few -substantial houses. In one of these Adam Smith wrote the _Wealth of -Nations_, and probably in one of these he was born. The father, who died -a few weeks before the birth of his only child, had been a leading -townsman. Adam Smith the elder was a man of note in his own day. From -1707 to his death he was a Writer,[1] _i.e._ solicitor, and Judge -Advocate for Scotland. He had acted as private secretary to Lord Loudon, -then Minister for Scotland; and Loudon, on leaving office in 1713, -obtained for his secretary the Comptrollership of Customs at Kirkcaldy—a -post worth about £100 a year. - -His widow lived to a great age, and saw her boy rise step by step to the -fulness of fame. She is said to have been an over-indulgent mother; but -her devotion was repaid by the life-long love of a most tender son. Mrs. -Smith’s maiden name was Margaret Douglas, and she was the daughter of -the Laird of Strathendry, in the county of Fife. At Strathendry the -future economist had a narrow escape; for one day as he played at the -door he was picked up and carried off by a party of vagrant tinkers. -Luckily he was soon missed, pursued and overtaken in Leslie Wood; and -thus, in the grandiose dialect of Dugald Stewart, there was preserved to -the world “a genius, which was destined, not only to extend the -boundaries of science, but to enlighten and reform the commercial policy -of Europe.” - -The next landmark in the boy’s history is a copy of _Eutropius_, on the -fly-leaf of which is inscribed in a childish hand, “Adam Smith, his -book, May 4th, 1733.” Before his tenth birthday, therefore, he had -already made some progress in Latin. The Burgh School of Kirkcaldy, -which he attended, was a good grammar school of the kind that already -abounded in Scotland. It was patronised by the Oswalds of Dunnikier, the -principal people of the neighbourhood. James Oswald, who soon made a -mark in politics, was Smith’s senior by some years, but they became -life-long friends. Robert Adams, the architect who planned Edinburgh -University, was another friend and schoolfellow; and so was John -Drysdale, who twice held the helm of the Scotch Church as Moderator of -its General Assembly. In 1734 the schoolboys played a moral piece -written for the purpose by the head master, David Millar. As a teacher -he had a considerable reputation, but as a dramatist he will be judged -by the title of his play, “A Royal Counsel for Advice; or Regular -Education for Boys the Foundation of all other Improvements.” Adam Smith -soon attracted notice at school “by his passion for books and by the -extraordinary powers of his memory.” Too weak and delicate to join in -active games, he was yet popular with his schoolfellows; for his temper, -“though warm, was to an uncommon degree friendly and generous.” In -company his absentmindedness was often noticed, and this habit, with a -trick of talking to himself, clung to him to the end. - -In his fourteenth year Smith left the Grammar School of Kirkcaldy for -the University of Glasgow, where he was to remain until the spring of -1740. He entered, probably, in October 1737, at the beginning of the -session. As the full course extended over four sessions and Smith only -attended three, he did not take his degree; but he had the good fortune -to study Greek under Dunlop, mathematics under Simson, the editor of -Euclid, and morals under Hutcheson, perhaps the greatest philosopher of -his generation, and certainly the most eloquent. - -Glasgow, though still but a small place, was already the most prosperous -and progressive of Scotch towns. After a century of decay it had found -salvation in the Act of Union, which gave it free trade with England and -a share in the colonial monopoly. Readers of _Rob Roy_ will remember how -the inimitable Jarvie enlarged upon these advantages and on the -facilities Glasgow possessed “of making up sortable cargoes for the -American market.” It was very loyal, therefore, to the House of Hanover. -In the rising of 1745, Charles Edward got considerable support from -Edinburgh, and even from Manchester, but none from Glasgow, which, -indeed, soon afterwards obtained a parliamentary vote of £10,000 in -recognition of its exertions and as compensation for its losses. Glasgow -was the only town in Scotland, as a learned writer has observed, to -exhibit the same kind of visible progress in the first half of the -eighteenth century which the rest of the country developed in the -second. Its shipping, sadly cramped by the Navigation Act, began to -expand after the Union. In 1716 the “first honest vessel in the West -India trade” sailed from the Clyde, and in 1735, two years before -Smith’s arrival, Glasgow owned sixty-seven vessels with a total burden -of 5600 tons, nearly half of the total Scotch, though only one-eightieth -of the total English tonnage. - -In this rising mart Smith learned to value the English connection, and -as he trod its busy streets and watched the merchandise of the West -pouring into its warehouses, the boy saw that a new world had been -called in to enrich the old. With the new sights and sounds came new -ideas that had not yet penetrated the gloom of Holyrood or the rusty -pride of the Canongate. From the lips of his master, Hutcheson, he heard -that fruitful formula which his own philosophy was to interpret and -develop, “the greatest happiness of the greatest number.” His mind was -opened at once to the wisdom of the ancients and to the discoveries of -the moderns. He learned from Bacon, and Grotius, and Locke, and Newton -to discern through the obscuring mists of mediæval philosophy the -splendid dawn of science. To the end of his life he loved to recall “the -abilities and virtues of the never-to-be-forgotten Dr. Hutcheson.” -Unorthodox yet not irreligious, radical yet not revolutionary, receptive -yet inspiring, erudite yet original, Hutcheson was one of those rare -reformers whose zeal is fertilised by knowledge and enforced by -practical devotion. In early manhood he had refused to seek an easy -advancement by subscribing to the tenets of the Church of England in -Ireland, and while Smith was at Glasgow he braved the resentment of the -Presbytery by teaching moral principles which were supposed to -contravene the Westminster Confession. He was also the first in the -University to abandon the practice of lecturing in Latin; and Dugald -Stewart tells us that his old pupils were all agreed about his -extraordinary talent as a public speaker. His pen was so unequal to his -tongue that Stewart applies to Hutcheson what Quintilian said of -Hortensius: “apparet placuisse aliquid eo dicente quod legentes non -invenimus.”—“He gave a pleasure to his hearers which his readers miss.” - -Hutcheson’s work in Glasgow (1730-1746) was of the utmost importance to -Scotland. “I am called the New Light here,” he said. He stood for reform -of the universities, for the criticism of abuses and privileges, for -free thought, free speech, and the spirit of inquiry. He took a lively -interest in his pupils, and tried to keep them abreast of the times. He -set Adam Smith to write an analysis of Hume’s _Treatise of Human Nature_ -as soon as it appeared, and the lad of seventeen did his exercise so -well that Hume got it printed in London and had a copy of the _Treatise_ -sent him by way of reward. Hutcheson has been called an eclectic. -Certainly he had read widely and thought deeply upon the difficulties -and perplexities of a new age, an age of scientific discovery and -philosophic doubt, an age tired of the syllogism, disdainful of divine -right, eager to find natural principles of morality, law, and -government. From the _System of Moral Philosophy_, published after his -death, we get a clear notion of the range of his lectures. He considered -man as a social animal, and accordingly refused to divorce the science -of individual ethics from the science of politics. He followed Aristotle -in including chapters on jurisprudence and economics in his scheme of -moral philosophy. It has been well said that the same natural liberty -and optimism which served Smith as assumptions were the theses of -Hutcheson, who himself learned much from Shaftesbury. Hutcheson and -Smith were both reformers, and were more hopeful, if less cheerful, than -Hume. Hume was a genial cynic without any zeal for reform, who found -repose in Butler’s doctrine that things are what they are, and that -their consequences will be what they will be. - -But with Hutcheson and Smith it was a real religion to see that society -should be better governed; they made it the supreme object of their -lives to increase the happiness of mankind by diffusing useful truths -and exposing mischievous errors. In the scope of his philosophy, in -temper and practical aim, Smith may be called the spiritual descendant -of Hutcheson. There are also marked resemblances in their subject matter -and even in some minor points of doctrine, as a careful comparison -recently instituted by a very competent writer abundantly shows.[2] We -find Smith using the same authorities as his predecessor and quoting -them to much the same purpose. Even Hutcheson’s crude and fragmentary -economics offered many suggestions that were afterwards developed and -harmonised by Smith in his lectures. The Sunday lectures on Natural -Theology, by which Hutcheson sought to reduce the intolerance and soften -the harshness of Scottish orthodoxy, made a lasting impression upon the -mind of his great pupil. - -Besides his work with Hutcheson, Smith laid at Glasgow the foundation of -an early mastery of the classics, and prepared himself for a wide course -of reading in the literature and wisdom of the ancients. But mathematics -and natural philosophy are said to have been his favourite pursuits at -this time—indeed he seems to have attained in both a considerable -proficiency, which never escaped the tenacious grip of his memory. -Matthew Stewart, Dugald’s father, was one of his fellow-students. Long -afterwards, when Professor of Mathematics in Edinburgh, he was heard -discussing with Smith “a geometrical problem of considerable -difficulty,” which had been set them as an exercise by Simson. Matthew -Stewart, who died in 1785, is commemorated with Simson in the sixth -edition of Smith’s _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, published fifty years -after this time. After observing that “mathematicians who may have the -most perfect assurance of the truth and of the importance of their -discoveries, are frequently very indifferent about the reception which -they may meet with from the public,” Adam Smith cites Dr. Robert Simson -of Glasgow, and Dr. Matthew Stewart of Edinburgh, “the two greatest -mathematicians that I ever had the honour to be known to, and I believe, -the two greatest that have lived in my time,” as men who never seemed to -feel the slightest uneasiness from the neglect with which some of their -most valuable works were received. For several years, he adds, even Sir -Isaac Newton’s _Principia_ fell flat, but his tranquillity did not -suffer for a single quarter of an hour. Newton always stood at the very -top of Smith’s calendar. - -Smith left Glasgow at the early age of seventeen. His mother, acting on -the advice of her relatives, had destined the boy for the Church of -England, which then opened the door to so many lucrative positions. -Perhaps they hoped from his talents for a career like that of his famous -countryman, Bishop Burnet, who indeed had himself been a Professor of -Divinity at Glasgow. The intention went so far that in his third year -Smith sought and obtained one of those exhibitions which have taken so -many distinguished Scots from the University of Glasgow to Balliol -College, Oxford. The Snell Exhibitions, as they are called, were founded -by an old Glasgow student of that name in 1679, with a view to educating -Scots for the service of the Episcopalian Church. It chanced, however, -that during his residence at Oxford, an application made by the Oxford -authorities to compel the Snell Exhibitioners “to submit and conform to -the doctrines of the Church of England and to enter into holy orders” -was refused by the Court of Chancery; so that when the time came Smith -was able to choose his own career and to strike off from the easier road -which took his Fifeshire friend Douglas in due time to a bishopric. The -change from Glasgow to Oxford was immense. It was more than exile; it -was transmigration from a living to a dead society, from the thrill of a -rising and thriving community, where men lived and moved and thought, to -a city of dreaming spires and droning dons. In June 1740 he rode on -horseback to Oxford and matriculated on the 17th of July, entering -himself in a round schoolboy hand as “Adamus Smith, e Coll. Ball. Gen. -Fil. Jul. 7mo. 1740.” - -It will be remembered that when Captain Waverley crossed the border, -five years later, on his way to join the Young Pretender, the houses of -Tully Veolan seemed miserable in the extreme, “especially to an eye -accustomed to the smiling neatness of English cottages.” Smith rode -through Carlisle, and he told Samuel Rogers in 1789 that he recollected -being much struck as he approached that town by the richness of England -and by the superiority of English agriculture. England indeed was then -remarkably prosperous, thanks to a long peace, low taxes, and good -harvests. Food was generally cheap and plentiful. Trade was good; and -better means of transit by road and canal were being developed. But the -land of the Scots, “during fifty generations the rudest perhaps of all -European nations, the most necessitous, the most turbulent, and the most -unsettled,” was still unimproved. The roads were almost impassable for -wheeled vehicles. Coaches were unknown.[3] Many of the most fertile -tracts were waste, and there is respectable authority for the opinion -that some parts of the Lowlands were worse cultivated than in the -thirteenth century. Under such conditions, rude beyond conception, -poverty was universal. Even the gentry could seldom afford such bare -comforts as half a century later their own farmers possessed. As for the -common people, clothed in the coarsest garb and starving on the meanest -fare, they dwelt in despicable huts with their cattle. It is significant -that in those days Scotland had no fatted kine. There was no market for -good meat, and the taste only grew with the means for gratifying it. -Adam Smith was fond of telling at his own table in after years, how on -the first day he dined in the hall of Balliol, having fallen into one of -his fits of absent-mindedness, he was roused by the servitor who told -him to “fall to, for he had never seen such a piece of beef in -Scotland.” - -Of the hundred undergraduates then at Balliol about eight came from -Scotland, and four of these were Snell Exhibitioners. Their -peculiarities of manner and dialect marked them off from the rest of the -college, and they were treated as foreigners. Their relations with the -authorities were unpleasant. In 1744, Smith and the other Exhibitioners -stated their grievances to the Senate of Glasgow University, and -explained how their residence might be made “more easy and commodious.” -A few years afterwards, one of them told the Master that what the -Exhibitioners wanted was to be transferred to some other college on -account of their “total dislike of Balliol.” The friction between -Balliol and Glasgow lasted long, and it was no doubt his own -unsatisfactory experience that drew from Adam Smith thirty years -afterwards a strong condemnation of close scholarships.[4] - -The University of Oxford was at that time and for the rest of the -century sunk deep in intellectual apathy, a muddy reservoir of sloth, -ignorance, and luxury from which men sank as by a law of gravitation -into the still lower level of civil and ecclesiastical sinecures. In the -colleges there were only degrees of badness; but the charity of Snell -had been rather unkind to Smith, for Balliol being Jacobite was -particularly rowdy and intolerant. It has been mentioned that in his -last year at Glasgow, Smith wrote for Hutcheson an abstract of David -Hume’s _Treatise of Human Nature_ which brought him a presentation copy -from the author. This copy he seems to have carried south with him; for -the Balliol authorities, it is recorded, caught Smith in the act of -reading the godless work, censured him severely, and confiscated a book -which more than a century afterwards was to be sumptuously edited by two -honoured alumni of the same college. - -The narrow spirit which this incident illustrates seems to have made a -painful impression upon the student’s memory. In the _Wealth of Nations_ -he complains bitterly of the compulsory “sham-lecture,” and visits with -severe censure the casuistry and sophistry by which the ancient course -of philosophy had been corrupted. This completed course, he says, was -meant to train ecclesiastics, and “certainly did not render it more -proper for the education of gentlemen or men of the world, or more -likely either to improve the understanding or to mend the heart.” At -Oxford “the greater part of the public professors have for many years -given up altogether even the pretence of teaching.” College discipline -was in general contrived “not for the benefit of the students, but for -the interests, or more properly speaking, for the ease of the masters.” - -In England the public schools were “much less corrupted than the -universities; for in the schools a boy was taught, or at least might be -taught Greek and Latin,” whereas “in the universities the youth neither -are taught, nor always can find any proper means of being taught, the -sciences which it is the business of those incorporated bodies to -teach.” It is only fair to add that Gibbon’s experiences of Magdalen, -Bishop Butler’s of Christ Church, and Bentham’s of Queen’s, were equally -adverse. And Balliol could at least offer its undergraduates the -advantage of an excellent library. When such a cloud lay heavy upon that -ancient seat of learning, it is no wonder if Smith with his sedentary -disposition and frugal habits—he probably lived on his exhibition of -£40—should have spent his six years at Balliol in the society of its -books rather than of its tipsy undergraduates. Oxford, it has been -observed by the most diligent of his biographers, is the only place he -lived in which failed to furnish him with friends. But he never -displayed towards it the lively antipathy of Gibbon; far from regretting -his residence there, he mentioned it with gratitude many years -afterwards. In Oxford he certainly gained the liberal knowledge of -ancient and modern literature that enriches and adorns all his writings. -The bookshops must have introduced him to his favourite Pope, to Swift -and Addison, and the fashionable writers of the day. He employed himself -frequently, he used to say, in the practice of translations, especially -of French authors, in order to improve his style. - -“How intimately,” writes Dugald Stewart, “he had once been conversant -with more ornamental branches of learning, in particular with the works -of the Roman, Greek, French, and Italian poets, appeared sufficiently -from the hold they kept of his memory after all the different -occupations and inquiries in which his maturer faculties had been -employed.” He had an extraordinary knowledge of English poetry, and -could quote from memory with a correctness which, says the same grave -Scot, “appeared surprising even to those whose attention had never been -directed to more important acquisitions.” What little intellectual -activity outside politics still lingered on at Oxford was probably -connected with philological speculations such as those of James Harris, -the learned, if somewhat priggish, author of _Hermes_. At any rate, -Smith went deeply into every branch of grammar. Andrew Dalzel, who was -Professor of Greek at Edinburgh in Adam Smith’s old age, often remarked -on “the uncommon degree in which Mr. Smith retained possession even to -the close of his life of different branches of knowledge which he had -long ceased to cultivate,” and particularly mentioned to his colleague -Dugald Stewart, “the readiness and correctness” of his memory on -philological subjects and his acuteness in discussing the _minutiæ_ of -Greek grammar. - -Dugald Stewart failed to collect any information about Smith’s Oxford -days, but a few relics have been preserved by Lord Brougham in the -appendix to the discursive and rather disappointing essay upon Adam -Smith that appears in his _Lives of the Philosophers_. “I have now -before me,” says Brougham, “a number of Dr. Smith’s letters written when -at Oxford between the years 1740 and 1746 to his mother: they are almost -all upon mere family and personal matters; most of them indeed upon his -linen and other such necessaries, but all show his strong affection for -his parent.” The few quotations Brougham gives are barely worth -recording. On November 29, 1743, Adam Smith writes: “I am just recovered -of a violent fit of laziness, which has confined me to my elbow chair -these three months.” Again on July 2, 1744: “I am quite inexcusable for -not writing to you oftener. I think of you every day, but always defer -writing till the post is just going, and then sometimes business or -company, but oftener laziness, hinders me.” He speaks of “an inveterate -scurvy and shaking of the head” which have been perfectly cured by tar -water, “a remedy very much in vogue here for all diseases.” - -His college contemporaries, says Mr. Rae, “were a singularly -undistinguished body,” with the exception of a Fifeshire man, John -Douglas, who had gone direct to Oxford from the Grammar School at -Dunbar. Douglas at first had a small exhibition at St. Mary’s Hall, but -after fighting at Fontenoy, he obtained a Snell Exhibition. He -distinguished himself later as a pamphleteer and was rewarded with the -Bishopric of Salisbury. With this exception, Adam Smith seems to have -made no friends at Oxford. Besides his books he must have enjoyed from -time to time walks and excursions into the surrounding country. In the -_Wealth of Nations_ he was able to make close comparisons of the -condition of the labouring classes in England and Scotland, and there is -a passage, about the use of coal and wood by the common people in -Oxfordshire, to show that he had certainly acquired as an undergraduate -the faculty of minute and picturesque observation which he afterwards -turned to such account.[5] What Smith did in the vacations we do not -know. He could not have had much money to spare, and there is no -indication that he ever returned home or even visited London. - -At last, in August 1746, after taking his degree as a Bachelor of Arts, -he retraced his steps to Scotland, and gave up all thought of a clerical -career. In the words of his biographer, “he chose to consult in this -instance his own inclinations in preference to the wishes of his -friends; and abandoning at once all the schemes which their prudence had -formed for him, he resolved to return to his own country and to limit -his ambition to the uncertain prospect of obtaining, in time, some one -of those moderate preferments to which literary attainments lead in -Scotland.” He was now in 1746 again in his mother’s house at Kirkcaldy, -“engaged in study, but without any fixed plan for his future life.” So -far as I am aware, none of Adam Smith’s biographers has definitely -assigned to this period any of the writings which he either published or -left to his executors. In the latter class, however, there is a group of -fragments dealing with the history of Astronomy, of Ancient Physics, and -of Ancient Logic and Metaphysics, and an elaborate essay on _The -Imitative Arts_, which are collectively described by his executors in an -advertisement as “parts of a plan he once had formed for giving a -connected history of the liberal sciences and elegant arts.”[6] - -The essay on _The Imitative Arts_ belongs to a different design and to a -slightly later period. But it seems clear that the _History of -Astronomy_ was composed at this time.[7] There is no other period of his -life in which he would have been so well able to collect the materials -for an examination of the systems of the Greek, the Arabian, and the -mediæval astronomers as in the six years of Oxford study, or so likely -to shape them into a finished treatise as in the two quiet years spent -at Kirkcaldy immediately after his return, when, we are told, he was -“engaged in study, but without any fixed plan for his future life.” The -_History of Astronomy_, which takes us from the schools of Thales and -Pythagoras through the systems of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo, -Kepler, and Descartes to that of Sir Isaac Newton, is complete in -itself, though from certain notes and memoranda which accompanied it -Smith’s executors were led to believe that he contemplated some further -extension.[8] It ends very appropriately with an enthusiastic -description of Sir Isaac Newton’s discovery as the greatest ever made by -man. He had acquired “the most universal empire that was ever -established in philosophy,” and was the only natural philosopher whose -system, instead of being a mere invention of the imagination to connect -otherwise discordant phenomena, appeared to contain in itself “the real -chains which nature makes use of to bind together her several -operations.” In attributing the _History of Astronomy_ to Oxford and -Kirkcaldy I except the concluding pages, which must have been added in -the last years of his life; for in a letter to Hume (1773) he spoke of -it as a history of Astronomical Systems to the time (not of Newton but) -of Descartes. - -Although complete in itself, this masterly essay was plainly meant by -its author to form only one book in a great history of philosophy. It -begins with three short introductory sections, the first on surprise, -the second on wonder, and the third on the origin of philosophy. It is -the function of philosophy, he says, to discover the connecting -principles of nature, and to explain those portents which astonish or -affright mankind. He then shows that celestial appearances have always -excited the greatest curiosity, and describes with extraordinary -learning and vivacity the long series of attempts that had been made to -account for “the ways of the sky and the stars”— - - “How winter suns in ocean plunge so soon, - And what delays the timid nights of June.” - -_The History of Ancient Physics_, a much shorter fragment, is placed in -his collected works immediately after the _History of Astronomy_. It -evidently belongs to the same early period, but is of little interest. -Upon _The History of Ancient Logics and Metaphysics_ we shall have -something to say in our next chapter. - -After two years of waiting, Adam Smith got his opportunity. His -neighbour, James Oswald of Dunnikier, had become Kirkcaldy’s -representative in Parliament, and was now a Commissioner of the Navy. -Through Oswald Smith seems to have been introduced to Henry Home (Lord -Kames), a leader of the Edinburgh Bar, and arbiter of Scottish -elegancies. Home was a warm patron of English literature, and was busily -importing it along with English ploughs and other Southern improvements -into his native land. What a contrast between this typical Scotch -patriot of 1750 and grim old Fletcher of Saltoun, the corresponding type -of 1700, whose remedy for Scottish ills was to restore slavery, and -place all labourers in the situation of salters and colliers! Finding -that Smith had acquired the accent and was well read in the prose and -poetry of England, Home encouraged him to give what we should now call -extension lectures in Edinburgh. Accordingly the young Oxford graduate -delivered a course of lectures on English literature in the winter of -1748-9, adding in the following year a course on political economy in -which he preached the doctrines of natural liberty and free trade. The -English lectures were attended by Henry Home, Alexander Wedderburn, and -William Johnstone (Sir William Pulteney), and proved no mere success of -esteem; for they brought in a clear £100, and were so popular that they -were repeated in the two following winters. The manuscript of these -lectures was burnt shortly before his death, and the world is probably -not much the poorer. Smith shared the opinions of his age, and set up -Dryden, Pope, and Gray on pedestals from which they were soon to be -thrown down by the children of nature and romance. He gave these -lectures afterwards at Glasgow, and Boswell, who attended them in 1759, -told Johnson that Smith had condemned blank verse. Johnson was -delighted, and cried out: “Sir, I was once in company with Smith, and we -did not take to each other; but had I known that he loved rhyme as much -as you tell me he does, I should have hugged him.” One cannot help -wondering what would have been said if Boswell had repeated another of -our author’s critical opinions, that Johnson was “of all writers ancient -and modern the one who kept off the greatest distance from common -sense.” - -The most valuable part of Adam Smith’s critical lectures has been -preserved in an essay on the _Imitative Arts_, which I should judge from -internal evidence to have been drafted at this time, but to have been -revised and improved in later years. Considering that neither Burke’s -essay on the _Sublime and Beautiful_ nor Lessing’s _Laocoon_ had then -appeared, we cannot but admire the originality he displayed in analysing -the different effects produced by sculpture, painting, music, and -dancing, and in distinguishing the different pleasures that attend the -various kinds and degrees of imitation. He works out with much ingenuity -the theory of the _difficulté surmontée_ by which Voltaire accounted for -the effect of verse and rhyme. Smith extends this principle to other -arts, and seeks, always cleverly, often successfully, to show that much -of our delight in art arises from our admiration for the artist’s skill -in overcoming difficulties. He declares that a disparity between the -imitating and the imitated object is the foundation of the beauty of -imitation. The great masters of statuary and painting never produce -their effects by deception. To prove this, he refers to the rather -unpleasing effect produced by painted statues and by the reflections of -a mirror. Photography would have supplied him with another illustration. - -It may here be said that, though judged by modern standards of criticism -Smith’s taste was faulty, yet all his favourite authors are in the first -rank, and there is no instance recorded of his having bestowed praise on -anything bad either in prose or poetry. “You will learn more as to -poetry,” he once said, “by reading one good poem than by a thousand -volumes of criticism.” Wordsworth in one of his prefaces calls him most -unjustly “the worst critic, David Hume excepted, that Scotland, a soil -to which this sort of weed seems natural, has produced.” The Lake Poet, -who did not distinguish between the quality of the “Ode on the -Intimations” and “Peter Bell,” was probably thinking of some literary -anecdotes that appeared in _The Bee_ in 1791 after Smith’s death. The -writer, who may or may not be trustworthy, is only repeating table talk. -He mentions that Smith depreciated Percy’s _Reliques_ and some of -Milton’s minor poems. With regard to blank verse, Smith said: “they do -well to call it blank, for blank it is. I myself, even I, who never -could find a single rhyme in my life, could make blank verse as fast as -I could speak.” From this censure he always excepted Milton; but he -thought the English dramatists should have used rhyme like the French. -Racine’s _Phèdre_ appealed to him as the finest of all tragedies. -Voltaire was his literary pope. Oddly enough, his first publisher’s -commission was to collect and edit (anonymously, of course) for the -Foulis Press an edition of the poems of a well-known Jacobite, Hamilton -of Bangour. The book was published in 1748, and contained the “Braes of -Yarrow,” which Wordsworth called an exquisite ballad. Hamilton had -played poet laureate to the Young Pretender in 1745, and was still an -exile in France. In 1750, when the poet was pardoned, he struck up a -warm friendship with his anonymous editor, and (according to Sir John -Dalrymple) Smith spent with him “many happy and flattering hours.” - -It has been said that in addition to his lectures on English literature -Smith also delivered a course on Economics. This we know from a -manuscript by which Dugald Stewart vindicates Adam Smith’s claim to have -been the original discoverer of the leading principles of political -economy. This manuscript, a paper read by Smith to a learned society -some years later, proves that he wrote, or rather dictated, his economic -lectures in 1749, and delivered them in the following winter. - -At this time David Hume and James Oswald were corresponding on -commercial topics. In 1750 Hume, who was then abroad, sent Oswald his -famous essay on the _Balance of Trade_, and asked for criticism. Oswald -replied in a long letter which shows that he too held very enlightened -views on public finance, and we may be pretty certain that Smith as well -as Hume derived at this time much benefit from intercourse with Oswald. -In fact, in his preface to Oswald’s correspondence, Oswald’s grandson -boasts that he has heard Adam Smith, then the renowned author of the -_Wealth of Nations_, “dilate with a generous and enthusiastic pleasure -on the qualifications and merits of Mr. Oswald, candidly avowing at the -same time how much information he had received on many points from the -enlarged views and profound knowledge of that accomplished statesman.” -Some allowance should be made for the natural exaggeration of a Scotch -kinsman; but Smith certainly rated Oswald high, describing him in the -paper above mentioned as one who combined a taste for general principles -with the detailed information of a statesman. Stewart adds that “he was -one of Mr. Smith’s earliest and most confidential friends.” They must -have seen a great deal of one another both in Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh in -the five years between his return from Oxford and the appointment we -have now to record. - - - - - CHAPTER II - THE BEGINNING OF A CAREER - - -By his Edinburgh lectures Smith had proved that he could be at once -learned and popular, and the fact that he was probably the only Scottish -savant who had thoroughly acquired the English accent at a time when -English had suddenly become highly fashionable north of the Tweed, would -do him no harm in loyal Glasgow, where the English connection, with all -its solid advantages, was well esteemed. Accordingly in 1750, when a -vacancy occurred in the chair of Logic at Glasgow, Adam Smith’s -candidature proved very acceptable, and he was unanimously appointed by -the Senate. A week later he read a Latin dissertation on the Origin of -Ideas, signed the Westminster Confession of Faith before the Presbytery -of Glasgow, and took the usual oath of fidelity to the authorities. So -far as I am aware, it has not been noticed hitherto that the substance -of Smith’s inaugural dissertation, _De Origine Idearum_, has been -preserved in a fragment published by his literary executors after his -death. _The History of the Ancient Logics and Metaphysics_, as the piece -is called, deserves notice not only as one of the earliest specimens of -Smith’s extraordinary power of reasoning, but because it proves his -interest in some metaphysical questions which are suppressed or ignored -in his larger treatises, and at the same time exhibits the range and -accuracy of his classical scholarship. - -In describing the ancient dialectic Smith had to give an explanation of -what Plato meant by “ideas.” The later Platonists imagined their master -to mean no more than that “the Deity formed the world after what we -would now call an idea or plan conceived in his own mind, in the same -manner as any other artist.” Against them the young philosopher -proceeded to turn the formidable battery of ratiocination that was one -day to demolish a living and formidable foe. It is characteristic of -Adam Smith that whether he is attacking the harmless errors of an -extinct school of thought, or the noxious fallacies of an established -policy, he tries every mode of assault. He “swims, or sinks, or wades, -or creeps, or flies”:— - - “If Plato had meant to express no more than this most natural and - simple of all notions, he might surely have expressed it more plainly, - and would hardly, one would think, have talked of it with so much - emphasis, as of something which it required the utmost reach of - thought to comprehend. According to this representation, Plato’s - notion of species, or Universals, was the same with that of Aristotle. - Aristotle, however, does not seem to understand it as such; he bestows - a great part of his Metaphysics upon confuting it, and opposes it in - all his other works.” - -Again, this notion of the separate existence of Species is the very -basis of Plato’s philosophy; and there is not a single dialogue in all -his works which does not refer to it. Can Aristotle, “who appears to -have been so much superior to his master in everything but eloquence,” -wilfully have misinterpreted Plato’s fundamental principle when Plato’s -writings were in everybody’s hands and his disciples were spread all -over Greece; when Speusippus, the nephew and successor of Plato, as well -as Xenocrates, who continued the school in the Academy, at the same time -as Aristotle held his in the Lyceum, must have been ready at all times -to expose and affront him for such gross disingenuity? Aristotle’s -interpretation had been followed by Cicero, Seneca, and every classical -authority down to Plutarch, “an author who seems to have been as bad a -critic in philosophy as in history, and to have taken everything at -second-hand in both.” - -Whether Smith either then or at any time arrived at metaphysical -certainty is very doubtful. “To explain the nature, and to account for -the origin of general Ideas is,” he says, “even at this day, the -greatest difficulty in abstract philosophy.” - - “How the human mind when it reasons concerning the general nature of - triangles, should either conceive, as Mr. Locke imagines it does, the - idea of a triangle, which is neither obtusangular, nor rectangular, - nor acutangular; but which was at once both none and of all those - together; or should, as Malbranche thinks necessary for this purpose, - comprehend at once, within its finite capacity, all possible triangles - of all possible forms and dimensions, which are infinite in number, is - a question to which it is not easy to give a satisfactory answer.” - -He suggests that notions like those of Plato, or Cudworth, or -Malebranche, depend a good deal upon the vague and general language in -which they are expressed. So long as a philosophy is not very distinctly -explained, it “passes easily enough through the indolent imagination -accustomed to substitute words in the room of ideas.” Platonism vanishes -indeed, and is discovered to be altogether incomprehensible upon an -attentive consideration. It did, however, require attentive -consideration, and but for Aristotle “might without examination have -continued to be the current philosophy for a century or two.” This early -and unnoticed composition proves that Smith had thought deeply on -metaphysics though he deliberately avoided them in his masterpieces. - -He found time to translate and read part of the essay as a Latin -dissertation; but his engagements in Edinburgh prevented him from taking -up his new work before the autumn. When October came he found his task -doubled. Craigie, the Professor of Ethics, had fallen ill, and had been -ordered to Lisbon for his health. Smith was informed of this by Dr. -Cullen, one of his new colleagues, and was requested to undertake -Craigie’s duties. It was further suggested that he should pay particular -attention to jurisprudence and politics, which were held to fall within -the province of moral philosophy. Smith replies (3rd September 1751) -that he will gladly relieve Craigie of his class, and will willingly -undertake to lecture on natural jurisprudence and politics. - -The session began on the 10th of October, and soon afterwards came the -news of Craigie’s death. Smith detested the sophisms of what he called -“the cobweb science” of Ontology, and cared little for the Logic of the -schools. He was anxious, therefore, to be transferred to the chair of -Ethics, and at the same time formed a design with other friends to -procure the appointment of his friend David Hume to the chair of Logic. -But the prejudice against Hume proved too strong. “I should prefer David -Hume to any man for the college,” Smith wrote privately to Cullen, “but -I am afraid the public would not be of my opinion, and the interest of -the society will oblige us to have regard to the opinion of the public.” -This was from Edinburgh, whither Smith had made what was then -(incredible as it may seem) a two-days’ journey from Glasgow, in order -to wait upon Archibald, Duke of Argyll, nicknamed King of Scotland, -because he exercised a sort of royal influence over all Scottish -appointments. At the duke’s levee Smith was duly introduced, and his -application was successful. The transfer was effected, and in April -Smith was appointed to the chair which he was to adorn for twelve years. -It was perhaps the most important event of his life. For a temperament -like his, so prone to study and reflection, so averse to the toil of the -pen, required some constant external stimulus, some congenial inducement -to undertake the task of exposition. His gifts might have remained idle, -his talents buried, had not the warm and sympathetic atmosphere of a -full, eager, and admiring class-room set his tongue and his more -reluctant pen in motion. We need not brood over the -might-not-have-beens; but when we think of the power that fortune -exercises over men’s lives, we may thank her for assigning Adam Smith at -this critical moment to the town and University of Glasgow. By that -propitious act she lent powerful aid to the construction of a science -that must ever be associated with the prosperity and peaceful progress -of mankind. - -Smith himself has indicated in a general statement the advantages he -derived from this professorship:— - - “To impose upon any man the necessity of teaching, year after year, - any particular branch of science, seems, in reality, to be the most - effectual method for rendering him completely master of it himself. By - being obliged to go every year over the same ground, if he is good for - anything he necessarily becomes, in a few years, well acquainted with - every part of it: and if upon any particular point he should form too - hasty an opinion one year, when he comes in the course of his lectures - to reconsider the same subject the year thereafter, he is very likely - to correct it. As to be a teacher of science is certainly the natural - employment of a mere man of letters, so is it likewise perhaps the - education which is most likely to render him a man of solid learning - and knowledge.” - -He regarded the profession of teacher as an education, and for that very -reason he never ceased to be a learner and a discoverer. Instead of -sticking in the muddy ruts of dogma, he drove on gathering facts and -opinions till he reached the goal. To vary a well-known inscription, he -might have written over the door of his class-room, “Deverticulum -philosophi ad veritatem proficiscentis,”—the resting-place of a -philosopher on march to truth. Assuredly a happier appointment was never -made, whether we look at the true interests of the Professor himself or -at those of the University. Smith always thought the years at Glasgow -the happiest and most useful of his life. Besides his strong preference -for Morals over Logic, he had carnal reasons to rejoice in the -transference, for it gave a rather better income. Altogether the chair -of Morals at Glasgow seems to have yielded about £170 a year—a fine -income in Scotland at a time when, as Mr. Rae observes, the largest -stipend in the Presbyterian Church was £138. - -In addition to salary and fees, Smith was allotted a good house in the -Professors’ Court, which he shared with his mother and cousin (Miss Jane -Douglas), who came from Kirkcaldy to live with him. The manses in the -old Professors’ Court were held by the professors in order of seniority, -and Smith removed three times in order to take full advantage of his -privileges, obtaining the best in 1762, when Leechman, Hutcheson’s -biographer, was appointed Principal. In 1761, when a second edition of -the _Moral Sentiments_ appeared, with a newly inserted passage -describing the view from his study window, he was in the house -previously occupied by Dr. Dick, Professor of Natural Philosophy. To -this house nature seems to have been especially kind,—though in reading -Smith’s description of his view we must recollect that Glasgow, the -garden city, was then famous for the clearness of its atmosphere and the -beauty of its surroundings. “In my present situation,” that is to say, -looking from the window of his study, he sees “an immense landscape of -lawns and woods and distant mountains.” The landscape illustrates the -philosophy of the mind: it “seems to do no more than cover the little -window which I write by and to be out of all proportion less than the -chamber in which I am sitting.” He can form a just comparison between -the great objects of the remote scene and the little objects in the room -only by transporting himself to a different station from whence both -could be surveyed at nearly equal distances. The image, it will be seen, -is introduced by Adam Smith to illustrate his theory of “the impartial -spectator,” the judge within the breast, whom we must consult if we are -to see the things that concern ourselves and others in their true shape -and proportions. Just as a man must in some measure be acquainted with -the philosophy of vision before he can be thoroughly convinced how small -is his own room compared with the mountains he sees from his window, so -to the selfish and original passions of human nature, unschooled by -experience, unassisted by scale or measure, “the loss or gain of a very -small interest of our own appears to be of vastly more importance, -excites a much more passionate joy or sorrow than the greatest concern -of another with whom we have no particular connection.”[9] - -With the failure of Hume’s candidature for the Logic chair was lost a -golden opportunity of associating two of the first philosophers of that -age on the staff of a small provincial college in one of the poorest, -rudest, and least frequented kingdoms of Western Europe. The legend that -Burke (four years before he published his _Treatise on the Sublime and -Beautiful_) was another candidate has been adjudged apocryphal, though -it was formerly accepted by good authorities. Many of the Glasgow -students were Irish Presbyterians, and an Irishman might well have been -encouraged to seek a chair in the University of Hutcheson. - -George Jardine, a student in 1760 and Professor of Logic from 1774, -dated the first radical reform in the teaching of philosophy at Glasgow, -from a royal visitation of 1727, after which each professor was -restricted to a particular department instead of being required to -lecture for three successive years in logic, ethics, and physics. He -adds that the improvements thus introduced were greatly promoted by -fortunate appointments. First came Dr. Francis Hutcheson, whose “copious -and splendid eloquence” illustrated an amiable system of morality, and -at the same time popularised the use of English as the medium of -instruction. Hutcheson’s reforms were not suspended by his death. But -the Logic class continued to be conducted in Latin until Adam Smith, -being rather unexpectedly called to the office in 1750, “found it -necessary to read in the English language a course of lectures in -Rhetoric and Belles Lettres which he had formerly delivered in -Edinburgh.” The last department in the University to abandon Latin was -Law, and the innovator was Smith’s pupil and friend, John Millar. - -After Smith’s brief tenure of the chair, Logic fell back for a time to -its old subject-matter, but the Latin medium could not be revived. “From -the time that the lectures began to be delivered in English the eyes of -men were opened,” writes Jardine. It was felt that the old logic of the -schools, even when perfectly understood, had little or no connection -with modern thought, and none with the active business of life. The -local situation, too, of the University in a great commercial city, -where men had a quick perception of utility, and looked for a clear -adaptation of means to ends, helped to promote reform. But dislike of -Logic and Ontology was not peculiar to Smith or to Glasgow. They were -discountenanced by the most popular philosopher of that age. “Had the -craftiest men,” wrote Shaftesbury in his _Characteristics_, “for many -ages together been employed in finding out a method to confound reason -and to degrade the understandings of men, they could not perhaps have -succeeded better than by the establishing of this mock science.” -Hutcheson had ignored logic and avoided metaphysical problems. In his -_Theory of Moral Sentiments_, Smith renounced “the abstruse syllogisms -of a quibbling dialectic”; but he never made the mistake of confounding -Aristotle with the Aristotelians. - -There is in the _Wealth of Nations_ a highly interesting digression upon -the Universities, to explain how Greek conceptions of philosophy were -debased in the Middle Ages, and how its ancient division into three -parts was altered for another into five in most of the academies of -Europe. In the ancient philosophy, whatever was taught concerning the -nature either of the human mind or the deity made a part of the system -of physics. Whatever reason could conclude or conjecture upon the human -and the divine mind, made two chapters of “the science which pretended -to give an account of the origin and revolutions of the great system of -the universe.” But in the universities of Europe, “where philosophy was -taught only as subservient to theology,” it was natural to dwell upon -these two chapters and to make them distinct sciences. And so -Metaphysics or Pneumatics were set up in opposition to Physics. - -The result was, in Adam Smith’s view, disastrous. While on the one hand, -subjects requiring experiment and observation, and capable of yielding -many useful discoveries, were almost entirely neglected; on the other a -subject, in which “after a few very simple and obvious truths the most -careful attention can discover nothing but obscurity and uncertainty, -and can consequently produce nothing but subtleties and sophisms, was -greatly cultivated.” Metaphysics having thus been set up in opposition -to physics, the comparison between them naturally gave birth to a third, -called ontology, or the science which treated of the qualities and -attributes common to both. “But if subtleties and sophisms composed the -greater part of the Metaphysics or Pneumatics of the schools, they -composed the whole of this cobweb science of Ontology.” Holding these -views, it is not surprising that Smith welcomed an escape from this -chair to one which proposed as its object an inquiry of a very different -nature: wherein consists the happiness and perfection of a man, -considered not only as an individual, but as the member of a family, of -a state, and of the great society of mankind. Here was a stepping-stone -to the _Wealth of Nations_. Meanwhile he did what he could to unsettle -the cobweb sciences. - -Of Smith as a logician, John Millar, a member of his class in 1751-2, -wrote that he “saw the necessity of departing widely from the plan that -had been followed by his predecessors, and of directing the attention of -his pupils to studies of a more interesting and useful nature than the -logic and the metaphysics of the schools.” Accordingly, says Millar, -“after exhibiting a general view of the powers of the mind, and -explaining so much of the ancient logic as was requisite to gratify -curiosity with respect to an artificial method of reasoning which had -once occupied the universal attention of the learned, he dedicated all -the rest of his time to the delivery of a system of rhetoric and belles -lettres.” Another of those who attended his classes at Glasgow says that -even after he became Professor of Moral Philosophy he would from time to -time give lectures on taste and literature, and it must have been one of -these that Boswell heard in 1759. Art, the drama, and music were always -favourite objects of his speculations, and doubtless the substance of -his essay on the _Imitative Arts_ was delivered from time to time in the -University. Millar says Smith never appeared to greater advantage than -as a lecturer:— - - “His manner, though not graceful, was plain and unaffected, and as he - seemed to be always interested in the subject, he never failed to - interest his hearers. Each discourse consisted commonly of several - distinct propositions, which he successively endeavoured to prove and - illustrate. These propositions when announced in general terms had, - from their extent, not unfrequently something of the air of a paradox. - In his attempts to explain them, he often appeared at first not to be - sufficiently possessed of the subject, and spoke with some hesitation. - As he advanced, however, the matter seemed to crowd upon him, his - manner became warm and animated, and his expression easy and fluent. - In points susceptible of controversy you could easily discern that he - secretly conceived an opposition to his opinions, and that he was led - upon this account to support them with greater energy and vehemence. - By the fulness and variety of his illustrations the subject gradually - swelled in his hands and acquired a dimension which, without a tedious - repetition of the same views, was calculated to seize the attention of - his audience, and to afford them pleasure as well as instruction in - following the same subject through all the diversity of shades and - aspects in which it was presented, and afterwards in tracing it - backwards to that original proposition or general truth from which - this beautiful train of speculation had proceeded.” - -Another old pupil dwelt upon his “animated and extemporaneous -eloquence,” especially when he was drawn into digressions in the course -of question and answer. Smith himself attributed his success very -largely to the vigilant care with which he watched his audience; for he -depended very much upon their sympathy. “During one whole session,” he -is reported to have said, “a certain student with a plain but expressive -countenance was of great use to me in judging of my success. He sat -conspicuously in front of a pillar: I had him constantly under my eye. -If he leant forward to listen all was right, and I knew that I had the -ear of my class; but if he leant back in an attitude of listlessness I -felt at once that all was wrong, and that I must change either the -subject or the style of my address.” - - - - - CHAPTER III - THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS - - -The age into which Adam Smith was born was an age of religious doubt and -philosophic curiosity. During his lifetime the governing classes in -England, undisturbed by enthusiasms, were little disposed to entertain -revolutionary ideas in politics or religion. It seemed to be the -function of philosophic thinkers to leave the constitution of a -tolerably liberal State and a tolerably lax Church, and to advance in -other directions. The fierce storms that bent the course of Selden and -Milton and Hobbes had abated. Men tried to forget - - “The lifted axe, the agonising wheel, - Luke’s iron crown, and Damien’s bed of steel.” - -No one believed that the Deity created kings; many doubted whether there -was a Deity at all. Since the great days of Athens, philosophy had -seldom reaped a richer harvest than in Great Britain during the eighty -years that followed the Act of Union. Newton’s _Principia_, and the -philosophy of Shaftesbury, Clarke, Mandeville, Hutcheson, and Butler, as -well as of Hume and Adam Smith, all fall within this period. Speculative -discovery went hand in hand with mechanical invention. The poetry of -enthusiasm, religious and political fervour, persecution, martyrdom, -with all their heroic and squalid accompaniments, preceded and followed -this prosaic illumination. It was a chapter of dry light between two of -heat and fire and smoke. Reason reigned; and as reason seldom wears an -air of originality, we need not wonder if later ingenuity has discovered -that all these philosophers borrowed their doctrines either from the -ancients or from one another or from foreigners. - -But though there appears to be just now a tendency to carry the search -for the genealogy and pedigree of ideas rather too far, it is certainly -not our purpose to show that Adam Smith was a solitary conqueror who -founded a kingdom entirely for himself, and peopled it with the -creatures of his imagination. Every great thinker holds the past in fee, -as he levies a perpetual tribute on the future. We may see how in the -_Theory of Moral Sentiments_ and in his lectures on Justice and Police -Smith selected and used his materials; how, with the aid of Hutcheson -and Mandeville and Hume, he invented a new doctrine of sympathy, and how -he worked up the Platonic idea of the division of labour, and the -Aristotelian theory of money, into a true science of national wealth. -Nothing is left of the first part of the lectures, which dealt (briefly, -no doubt) with natural theology and, in the earliest years of his -professorship, very fully with moral philosophy. His pupil and friend -Millar says that under the head of Natural Theology, the first part of -his course, Smith considered the proofs of the being and attributes of -God, and those principles of the human mind upon which religion is -founded. - -In the _Moral Sentiments_ and his other writings there are plenty of -passages to indicate that he was a theist with a belief rather more -active and definite than that of his friend Hume or of his master -Aristotle, but few or none that he was a Christian. As professor he had -to sign the Westminster Confession of Faith, a perfunctory act which -even Hume would readily have performed without the scandal that -surrounded Jowett’s cynical subscription a century later. But it was -noticed by the orthodox that he was sadly wanting in zeal. Hutcheson, -doubtless with the purpose of naturalising theology, had conducted a -Sunday class on Christian evidences. Adam Smith discontinued this -practice, and it was even whispered that he had applied to the -authorities shortly after his appointment to be excused from opening his -class with prayer. The request was refused, but the results were not -satisfactory; for according to a contemporary, John Ramsay of -Ochtertyre, his opening prayers “savoured strongly of natural religion,” -while his theological lectures, though shorter, were no less flattering -to human pride than those of Hutcheson, and led “presumptuous -striplings” to draw the unwarranted conclusion “that the great truths of -theology, together with the duties which man owes to God and his -neighbours, may be discovered by the light of nature without any special -revelation.” He was also, they say, often seen to smile openly during -divine service in his place in the college chapel. When one remembers -what orthodox Scottish sermons at that time meant, it is safe to -conjecture that the smile was not always due (as Ramsay would have it) -to an absent thought. - -Although the lectures on Natural Theology have disappeared, the lectures -on Morals were elaborated and published in 1759 as _The Theory of Moral -Sentiments_. From this, his first important work, we may sufficiently -ascertain how far Smith’s philosophy of life was based upon religious -conceptions. Fortune governs the world. Nature intended the happiness -and perfection of the species. Every part of nature, when attentively -surveyed, equally demonstrates the providential care of its Author. -Smith’s own scepticism is so carefully phrased and so disguised in soft -language, that a stupid reader is never perplexed, a devout one never -offended. Take, for example, his reflections upon the doctrine of a -future life. That there is a world to come, he says in a passage of -striking eloquence, “is a doctrine in every respect so venerable, so -comfortable to the weakness, so flattering to the grandeur of human -nature, that the virtuous man, who has the misfortune to doubt of it, -cannot possibly avoid wishing most earnestly and anxiously to believe -it. It could never have been exposed to the derision of the scoffer, had -not the distribution of rewards and punishments, which some of its most -zealous assertors have taught us was to be made in that world to come, -been too frequently in direct opposition to all our moral sentiments.” -Smith had no great respect for the devout. To him the ritual and worship -of the Deity seemed like the service and courtship of kings. He refuses -to believe that an all-wise Deity would have a mind for adulation or -would offer heavenly rewards to those who consecrate their lives to His -worship:— - - “That the assiduous courtier is often more favoured than the faithful - and active servant; that attendance and adulation are often shorter - and surer roads to preferment than merit or service; and that a - campaign at Versailles or St. James’s is often worth two either in - Germany or Flanders, is a complaint which we have all heard from many - a venerable, but discontented, old officer. But what is considered as - the greatest reproach even to the weakness of earthly sovereigns, has - been ascribed, as an act of justice, to divine perfection; and the - duties of devotion, the public and private worship of the Deity, have - been represented even by men of virtue and abilities, as the sole - virtues which can either entitle to reward or exempt from punishment - in the life to come.” - -His indignation flames out against celebrated doctors, both civil and -ecclesiastical, who have questioned whether faith should be kept with -rebels and heretics (“those unlucky persons who, when things have come -to a certain degree of violence, have the misfortune to be of the weaker -party”). Of all the corrupters of moral sentiments, “faction and -fanaticism have always been by far the greatest.” - -Morality is natural, but its rules have been sanctioned by the rudest -forms of religion. Whether our moral faculties depend upon a -modification of reason, upon a moral sense, or upon some other principle -of our nature, they carry with them the most evident badges of -authority, and were plainly set up within us to superintend our passions -and appetites and to be the supreme arbiters of our actions. They are -described in religious language as the vice-regents of God within us; -they never fail to punish sin by the torments of inward shame and -self-condemnation; they reward obedience with tranquillity and -contentment. Oncken thinks that Smith’s eloquent vindication of -conscience helped to form Kant’s moral idealism; but it puts us more in -mind of the Roman satirist’s great line— - - “Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem.” - -Moral judgments likewise help to correct in some measure the course of -this world. “The industrious knave cultivates the soil; the indolent -good man leaves it uncultivated. Who ought to reap the harvest?” Here -the natural course of things decides against the natural sentiments of -mankind. Human laws therefore often punish the knave or traitor though -industrious, and reward the good citizen though improvident. Thus man is -by nature prompted to correct nature; but even so his endeavours are -often impotent; the current is too strong. Our natural sentiments are -often shocked. We see great combinations oppress small. We see the -innocent suffer. Despairing of earthly forces to check the triumph of -injustice, we naturally appeal to heaven, “and thus we are led to a -belief in the future state by the love of virtue,” and moral rules -acquire new sanctity by being regarded as the laws of an all-powerful -Deity. As religion in this way enforces an innate sense of duty, mankind -is generally disposed to place great confidence in the probity of those -who seem to be deeply religious. - -And where religion has not been corrupted, “wherever men are not taught -to regard frivolous observances, as more immediate duties of religion, -than acts of justice and beneficence; and to imagine, that by -sacrifices, and ceremonies, and vain supplications, they can bargain -with the Deity for fraud, and perfidy, and violence, the world -undoubtedly judges right in this respect, and justly places a double -confidence in the rectitude of the religious man’s behaviour.” - -Upon the dangerous question of religious establishments and dissenting -sects he wrote afterwards in the _Wealth of Nations_ (Book v. i.) with a -boldness and an air of detachment that might well startle even that age -of tolerant indifference. He contrasts the teachers of new religions -with the clergy of an ancient system, who are frequently possessed of -learning, eloquence, and all the gentlemanly virtues. “Such a clergy, -when attacked by a set of popular and bold though perhaps stupid and -ignorant enthusiasts, feel themselves as perfectly defenceless as the -indolent, effeminate, and full-fed nations of the southern parts of -Asia, when they were invaded by the active, hardy, and hungry Tartars of -the north.” Commonly, the only resource of such a clergy upon such an -emergency is to summon the government to persecute or expel their -adversaries. “It was thus that the Roman Catholic clergy called upon the -civil magistrate to persecute the Protestants, and the Church of England -to persecute the Dissenters.” - -An established church may have a superiority of learning, but in the art -of gaining popularity the advantage is always with its adversaries. He -finds that, as dissenting bodies grow richer, their zeal and activity -abate. The Independents, for instance, had many learned, ingenious, and -respectable men; but the Methodists, without half the learning of the -Dissenters, were more in vogue. The strength of the Church of Rome he -attributed to the fact that the industry of its inferior clergy was -better fostered by motives of self-interest than in the case of any -established Protestant church; for many of the parish priests subsisted -largely on voluntary gifts, “a source of revenue which confession gives -them many opportunities of improving.” He notes also Machiavelli’s -observation, that the establishment of the begging orders of St. Dominic -and St. Francis revived, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the -languishing faith and devotion of the Catholic Church. Upon the question -of the value of a State Church, Smith quotes from a certain passage of -Hume’s _History_, referring to his friend as “by far the most -illustrious philosopher and historian of the present age.” Hume had come -to the conclusion that the civil magistrate who neglects to establish a -religion will find he has dearly paid for his frugality, “and that in -reality the most decent and advantageous composition which he can make -with the spiritual guides, is to bribe their indolence by assigning -stated salaries to their profession,” so that ecclesiastical -establishments, “though commonly they arose at first from religious -views, prove in the end advantageous to the political interests of -society.” - -But Smith, with the same dislike for “zeal,” had too much respect for -liberty, too much love of honesty in politics, to adopt Hume’s cynical -solution. He would find security in numbers. A State should extend -toleration to all; society would naturally divide itself into hundreds -of small sects, none of which could be considerable enough to disturb -the public tranquillity. The teachers of each sect would be forced to -learn a candour and moderation which is seldom to be found among an -established clergy; and in this way, by mutual concessions, their -doctrine would probably be reduced in time “to that pure and rational -religion, free from every mixture of absurdity, imposture, or -fanaticism, such as wise men have in all ages of the world wished to see -established, but such as positive law has perhaps never yet established -in any country.” This plan of ecclesiastical government, he adds, or -more properly no ecclesiastical government, was what the Independents, -“a sect no doubt of very wild enthusiasts,” proposed to establish in -England towards the end of the Civil War. “If it had been established, -though of a very unphilosophical origin, it would probably by this time -have been productive of the most philosophical good temper and -moderation with regard to every sort of religious principle.” Such is -the plan favoured by Adam Smith, and he observes that in Pennsylvania, -where it had been adopted, experience justified his opinion. - -Smith was so popular with his orthodox contemporaries that they tried to -parry charges of infidelity by saying either that he had adopted Hume’s -opinions out of the intense affection he felt for him, or that he had -been perverted by French atheists. “In the course of his travels,” says -one of the most broad-minded of his Presbyterian contemporaries (John -Ramsay), “he became acquainted with Voltaire and the other French -philosophers who were then labouring with unhallowed industry in the -vineyard of infidelity.” What impression they made upon him, adds this -cautious man, “cannot be precisely known, because neither before nor -after this period was his religious creed ever properly ascertained.” - -Twenty years after Adam Smith’s death, Archbishop Magee, in a -controversy with Unitarian theologians, cited a passage from the _Moral -Sentiments_ on the doctrine of atonement, in which Smith had said that -the doctrines of revelation coincide in every respect with the original -anticipations of nature. “Such,” wrote the divine, “are the reflections -of a man whose powers of thinking and reasoning will surely not be -pronounced inferior to those of any even of the most distinguished -champions of the Unitarian school.” The rejoinder was at once made that -in the sixth edition, which Smith prepared for the press in 1790, the -passage was omitted; whereupon the prelate (forgetting that Hume died in -1776, after four editions had appeared with this presentation of the -reasonableness of an atonement) deftly turned a new moral: “It adds one -proof more to the many that already existed of the danger, even to the -most enlightened, from a familiar contact with infidelity.” - - - - - CHAPTER IV - _THE THEORY OF MORAL SENTIMENTS_ - - -In 1759, the seventh year of his professorship, Smith completed the -first of his two capital achievements. His scholiasts are still -curiously hazy about its early editions, partly perhaps because neither -the first, second, nor third is to be found in the library of the -British Museum. The first edition is a single octavo volume of 551 -pages, printed in good large type.[10] The title-page runs as follows:— - - THE - THEORY - OF - MORAL SENTIMENTS - - by Adam Smith - - Professor of Moral Philosophy in the - University of Glasgow. - - London: - Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand - and A. Kincaid and J. Bell in Edinburgh. - MDCCLIX. - -Andrew Millar was then at the head of the London publishers. He had -shown some time before, when Hume’s _History_ fell into his hands, that -he knew how to push a good book, and on this occasion too the firm lived -up to its reputation. - -Early in April, Hume, who was in London, received some copies, and wrote -to thank Smith “for the agreeable present.” Always zealous in the -service of friendship and Scottish literature, he employed all the wiles -of diplomacy to promote the success of the book. “Wedderburn and I,” he -writes, “made presents of our copies to such of our acquaintances as we -thought good judges and proper to spread the reputation of the book. I -sent one to the Duke of Argyle, and Lord Lyttelton, Horace Walpole, -Soame Jenyns, and Bourke, an English gentleman who wrote lately a very -pretty treatise on the Sublime. Millar (the publisher) desired my -permission to send one in your name to Dr. Warburton.” Hume had delayed -writing till he could tell how the book had been received and “could -prognosticate with some probability whether it should be finally damned -to oblivion, or should be registered in the Temple of Immortality.” -Though it has only been out for a few weeks, he thinks he can now -foretell its fate. But instead of gratifying an author’s impatience, -Hume pretends to have been interrupted by an impertinent visitor, and -digresses upon vacancies in the Scottish Universities, upon a new -edition of Ferguson’s _Treatise on Refinement_, on Wilkie’s _Epigoniad_, -and Lord Kames’s _Law Tracts_. At last he seems to be coming to the -point:— - -“But to return to your book and its success in this town. I must tell -you—— - -“A plague to interruptions!—I ordered myself to be denied, and yet here -is one that has broken in upon me again.” The second visitor was a man -of letters, and Hume goes off on a new scent. He advises Smith to read -Helvetius’s new book _De L’Esprit_, and adds, “Voltaire has lately -published a small work called _Candide ou L’Optimisme_. I shall give you -a detail of it.” - -At last the badinage comes to an end with a warning that popularity is -no test of merit. A wise man should rather be disquieted than elated by -the approbation of the multitude:— - - “Supposing, therefore, that you have duly prepared yourself for the - worst by all these reflections, I proceed to tell you the melancholy - news that your book has been very unfortunate, for the public seem - disposed to applaud it extremely. It was looked for by the foolish - people with some impatience; and the mob of literati are beginning - already to be very loud in its praises. Three bishops called yesterday - at Millar’s shop in order to buy copies, and to ask questions about - the author. The Bishop of Peterborough said he had passed the evening - in a company where he heard it extolled above all books in the world. - The Duke of Argyle is more decisive than he used to be in its favour. - I suppose he either considers it as an exotic, or thinks the author - will be very serviceable to him in the Glasgow elections. Lord - Lyttelton says that Robertson and Smith and Bower are the glories of - English literature. Oswald protests he does not know whether he has - reaped more instruction or entertainment from it, but you may easily - judge what reliance can be placed on his judgment. He has been engaged - all his life in public business, and he never sees any faults in his - friends. Millar exults and brags that two-thirds of the edition are - already sold, and that he is now sure of success. You see what a son - of the earth that is, to value books only by the profit they bring - him. In that view, I believe, it may prove a very good book. - - “Charles Townshend, who passes for the cleverest fellow in England, is - so much taken with the performance, that he said to Oswald he would - put the Duke of Buccleugh under the author’s care, and would make it - worth his while to accept of that charge. As soon as I heard this, I - called on him twice with a view of talking with him about the matter, - and of convincing him of the propriety of sending that young gentleman - to Glasgow, for I could not hope that he could offer you any terms - which would tempt you to renounce your professorship; but I missed - him. Mr. Townshend passes for being a little uncertain in his - resolutions, so perhaps you need not build much on his sally.” - -On this occasion, as will appear in a later chapter, Townshend proved -true to his resolve and false to his reputation. - -Burke, who afterwards became one of Smith’s most intimate friends, was -at this time known for his philosophical inquiry into the origin of our -ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757). He was also a principal -contributor to the _Annual Register_; and that publication, in its -admirable account of books published during the year 1759, quotes a long -passage from the _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, with a prefatory tribute -from Burke’s pen, which might quench the thirst of the thirstiest -author. Smith is praised for having struck out a new, and at the same -time a perfectly natural, road of ethical speculation. - - “The theory is in all its essential parts just, and founded on truth - and nature. The author seeks for the foundation of the just, the fit, - the proper, the decent, in our most common and most allowed passions; - and making approbation and disapprobation the tests of virtue and - vice, and shewing that those are founded on sympathy, he raises from - this simple truth, one of the most beautiful fabrics of moral theory, - that has perhaps ever appeared. The illustrations are numerous and - happy, and shew the author to be a man of uncommon observation. His - language is easy and spirited, and puts things before you in the - fullest light; it is rather painting than writing.” - -“Perhaps there is no ethical work since Cicero’s _Offices_,” wrote Sir -James Mackintosh, “of which an abridgment enables the reader so -inadequately to estimate the merit, as the _Theory of Moral Sentiments_. -This is not chiefly owing to the beauty of diction, as in the case of -Cicero, but to the variety of explanations of life and manners which -embellish the book often more than they illuminate the theory.” - -This criticism has been adopted by Mr. Farrer in his luminous account of -Smith’s moral philosophy, and its justice may be conceded. With all its -faults, the _Theory of Moral Sentiments_ is still one of the most -instructive and entertaining of all our English treatises on ethics. -There is plenty of warmth and colour. The argument is never bare; you -follow its thread through a wondrous maze, till your perplexities are -solved, and you finally congratulate yourself as well as the author on -having rejected all the errors and collected all the wisdom of the ages. -When the main theme threatens to be tedious he entertains you with an -imaginary portrait, or digresses into some subsidiary discussion upon -fortune, or fashion, or some other of the currents that turn men from -their purpose. It has been observed that the strongest antagonists of -Smith’s central doctrine are enthusiastic in praising his skill in the -analysis of human nature. The truth is, that the most absent-minded was -also the most observant of men. He seems to have watched the actions and -passions of his acquaintances with extraordinary precision. Motives -interested him at least as much as conduct; he rather blames -philosophers for having of late years given too much attention to the -tendency of affections, and too little to the relationship in which they -stand to their causes. - -His immediate predecessors and contemporaries in the field of ethics -were principally concerned with the origin and authority of right and -wrong. Why does mankind generally agree as to what is right and what is -wrong; whence are the notions of “ought” and “ought not” derived if not -from the church or the Bible? At the time Smith wrote, English moralists -were divided upon this point into two main schools. Of the first, who -derived all moral rules from self-interest, Hobbes, Mandeville, and Hume -were the principal exponents. The second school sought for a less -variable standard, and have been called Intuitionalists, because they -believed either with Clarke and Price that moral truths are perceived -like axioms of Euclid, by the intellect, or with Shaftesbury and -Hutcheson, that there is innate in us a moral sense or taste (developed -by Bishop Butler into conscience) which prompts us to do right and tells -us the difference between good and evil. - -Moralists were equally divided upon the question, “In what does virtue -consist?” His old teacher Hutcheson had answered that it consisted in -benevolence; others thought that prudence was the true mark of the good -man. In Adam Smith’s view, prudence and benevolence are equally -essential ingredients in the constitution of a perfectly virtuous -character. With virtue he associates happiness, and his individual view -of both is based partly upon the Greek philosophy of an independent -leisure, partly upon the Christian conception of doing good to others; -and we feel that he does not always succeed in reconciling the new ideal -with the old. “Happiness,” he says, “consists in tranquillity and -enjoyment. Without tranquillity there can be no enjoyment.” -Tranquillity, he thinks, is “the natural and usual state of a man’s -mind.” But the tranquillity to be desired was as far removed from -indolence or apathy as from avarice or ambition. It was the active -tranquillity of a well furnished mind and a benevolent heart. - -Peace of mind, family peace, a country free from civil, religious, and -foreign strife,—these he thought in their order the things most -momentous to happiness. Yet he would not allow the leisurely philosopher -to bask in the selfish sunshine of tranquillity. “The most sublime -contemplation of the philosopher will scarce compensate the neglect of -the smallest act of virtue.” The study of politics tends to promote -public spirit, and political disquisitions are therefore the most useful -of all speculations. The trade of the vulgar politician was often -ignoble and deceitful; but the best happiness attended the patriotism -and public spirit of those who sought to improve government and extend -trade. The leader of a successful party may do far more for his country -than the greatest general. He may re-establish and reform its -constitution, and from the doubtful and ambiguous character of a party -leader he may assume “the greatest and noblest of all characters, that -of the reformer and legislator of a great state,” who by the wisdom of -his institutions secures the international tranquillity and happiness of -his fellow-citizens for many succeeding generations. - -For the man of system in politics Smith has no liking. Wise in his own -conceit, such a man “seems to imagine that he can arrange the different -members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the -different pieces upon a chessboard.” He forgets that “in the great -chessboard of human society every single piece has a principle of motion -of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might -choose to impress upon it.” - -A true son of Oxford in his admiration for Aristotle, he was fond, as we -have seen, of appealing to common life and popular opinion. But another -of Aristotle’s methods, that of the eclectic who arrives at the truth by -choosing out and combining what is good in other philosophers, may -almost be said to be the foundation of _The Moral Sentiments_. When, -after explaining his system, he comes in his last (seventh) part to -describe and criticise his predecessors, it is apparent that he -considers his own theory to be an assemblage or reconciliation in one -harmonious whole of all the happiest efforts of ethical speculation:— - - “If we examine the most celebrated and remarkable of the different - theories which have been given concerning the nature and origin of our - moral sentiments, we shall find that almost all of them coincide with - some part or other of that which I have been endeavouring to give an - account of; and that if everything which has already been said be - fully considered, we shall be at no loss to explain what was the view - or aspect of nature which led each particular author to form his - particular system. From some one or other of those principles which I - have been endeavouring to unfold, every system of morality that ever - had any reputation in the world has, perhaps, ultimately been - derived.” - -A good example of this eclecticism is his treatment of Mandeville, an -author from whom Smith no less than Rousseau derived many fruitful -ideas. In the first edition of _The Moral Sentiments_ (p. 474) he -writes:— - - “There are, however, some other systems which seem to take away - altogether the distinction between vice and virtue, and of which the - tendency is upon that account wholly pernicious: I mean the systems of - the Duke of Rochefoucauld and Dr. Mandeville. Though the notions of - both these authors are in almost every respect erroneous, there are, - however, some appearances in human nature which, when viewed in a - certain manner, seem at first sight to favour them. These, first - slightly sketched out with the elegance and delicate precision of the - Duke of Rochefoucauld, and afterwards more fully represented with the - lively and humorous, though coarse and rustic, eloquence of Dr. - Mandeville, have thrown upon their doctrine an air of truth and - probability which is very apt to impose upon the unskilful.” - -Bishop Butler, more justly, classed Rochefoucauld with Hobbes. But in -Smith’s sixth edition (1790) the name of Rochefoucauld was omitted, at -the instance of the Duke’s grandson, who pointed out that the author of -the Maxims is not really in the same category with Mandeville. Coarse -and licentious, but entertaining and ingenious, the author of the _Fable -of the Bees_ hit human nature hard. He traced virtuous actions to -vanity, and whittled away the distinction between vice and virtue, until -he reached the paradox that private vices are public benefits. But this -profligate system could never have caused so much stir and alarm in the -world “had it not in some respects bordered upon the truth.” We are very -easily imposed upon by the most absurd travellers’ tales about distant -countries. But falsehoods about the parish we live in must, if they are -to deceive us, bear some resemblance to the truth, nay, “must even have -a considerable mixture of truth in them.” A natural philosopher has an -analogous advantage over the speculator in ethics. The vortices of -Descartes passed for nearly a century as a most satisfactory account of -the revolutions of heavenly bodies, though they neither existed nor -could possibly exist, and though if they did exist they could not -produce such effects as were ascribed to them. But the moral philosopher -is no better off than the parish liar. He is giving an account of things -that are constantly before us, around us, and within us. “Though here, -too, like indolent masters who put their trust in a steward that -deceives them, we are very liable to be imposed upon, yet we are -incapable of passing any account which does not preserve some little -regard to the truth.” - -In describing those systems which make virtue consist in propriety, -Smith displays a profound knowledge of Plato, Aristotle, and the later -schools of Greek philosophy. His admiration of Zeno and Epictetus is -almost unbounded, especially when he contemplates their confident -opinion that a man should always be able to support worldly misfortunes. -“They endeavour to point out the comforts which a man might still enjoy -when reduced to poverty, when driven into banishment, when exposed to -the injustice of popular clamour, when labouring under blindness, -deafness, in the extremity of old age, upon the approach of death.” He -holds that the few fragments which have been preserved of this -philosophy are among the most instructive remains of antiquity. “The -spirit and manhood of their doctrines make a wonderful contrast with the -desponding, plaintive, and whining tone of some modern systems.” -Chrysippus, on the other hand, did but reduce stoicism into a scholastic -or technical system of artificial definitions, divisions, and -subdivisions, “one of the most effectual expedients, perhaps, for -extinguishing whatever degree of good sense there may be in any moral or -metaphysical system.” - -Admirable as were the best stoics and epicureans and those Roman writers -who, like Cicero and Seneca, direct us to the imperfect but attainable -virtues, they quite misunderstood nature. “By nature, the events which -immediately affect that little department in which we ourselves have -some little management and direction, which immediately affect -ourselves, our friends, our country, are the events which interest us -the most and which chiefly excite our desires and aversions, our hopes -and fears, our joys and sorrows.” Here and in similar passages he -follows his favourite, Pope:— - - “God loves from whole to parts; but human soul - Must rise from individual to the whole. - Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, - As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake; - The centre mov’d, a circle straight succeeds, - Another still, and still another spreads; - Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace; - His country next; and next all human race.” - -Every moralist’s, even Epictetus’s, description of virtue is just as far -as it goes. But Smith claims to have been the first to give any precise -or distinct measure by which the fitness or propriety of affection can -be ascertained and judged. Such a measure he finds in the sympathetic -feelings of the impartial and well-informed spectator. Here, then, we -have the central and peculiar doctrine that stamps with originality Adam -Smith’s _Theory of Moral Sentiments_.[11] - -That sympathy or fellow-feeling is a primary instinct of man appears -from the commonest incidents of life. Do we not shrink when a blow is -aimed at another, do not the spectators wriggle as they follow a -rope-dancer’s contortions, are we not moved by tears, is not laughter -infectious? Sympathy is agreeable. We like to give it, and we long for -it. It is too instinctive to be explained (though some would do so) by a -refinement of self-love. Yet it is not a mere reflection or shadow. -Generally speaking, we only sympathise when our sentiments and feelings -correspond with those of another. Sympathy means approval. To give it is -to praise, to withhold it to blame. How, then, does Adam Smith account -for the growth of moral sentiments in the man, and for the progress of -morality in mankind? He holds that what we call conscience, or the sense -of duty, arises from a certain reflex action of sympathy. We apply to -ourselves the moral judgments we have learned to pass on others. We -imagine what they will say and think about our own thoughts and words -and actions. We try to look at ourselves with the impartial eyes of -other people, and seek to anticipate that judgment which they are likely -to pass upon us. This is the first stage. But men have very different -degrees of morality and wisdom. One man’s praise or blame carries -infinitely more weight than another’s. Thus what is called conscience, -that is our idea of the impartial spectator, insensibly develops. The -impartial spectator becomes more and more our ideal man, and we come to -pay more homage to his still small voice than to the judgment of the -world. The pangs of conscience are far more terrible than the -condemnation of the market-place. Praiseworthiness comes to be better -than praise; blameworthiness comes to be worse than blame. The true hell -is the hell within the breast; the worst tortures are those that follow -the sentence of the impartial spectator. One feature in the phenomena of -sympathy, which Smith points out, perhaps constitutes a weak point in -his theory. The spectator’s emotions are apt to fall short of the -sufferer’s. Compassion is never exactly the same as original sorrow. - -Smith, like Kant, has his own way, and a curious one it is, of putting -the rule of Christ. “As to love our neighbour as we love ourselves is -the great law of Christianity, so it is the great precept of nature to -love ourselves only as we love our neighbour, or what comes to the same -thing, as our neighbour is capable of loving us.” Our philosopher -readily admits that there are passions, like love, which, “though almost -unavoidable in some part of life,” are not at first sight very agreeable -to his theory. He says we cannot enter into the eagerness of a lover’s -emotions. They are always “in some measure ridiculous.” “The passion -appears to everybody but the man who feels it entirely disproportioned -to the value of the object.” Ovid’s gaiety and Horace’s gallantry are -pleasant enough, but you grow weary of the “grave, pedantic, and -long-sentenced love of Cowley and Petrarca.” - -Resentment provides him with a better illustration. The counterpart of -gratitude, it is a very difficult passion to realise in a proper degree. -“How many things,” he exclaims, “are requisite to render the -gratification of resentment completely agreeable and to make the -spectator thoroughly sympathise with our revenge?” First, the -provocation must be such that if unresented we should become -contemptible and be exposed to perpetual insults. Second, smaller -offences had better be neglected. Third, we should resent from a sense -of propriety and of what is expected of us. Above all, we should -diligently consider what would be the sentiments of the cool and -impartial spectator. - -Though the love of the lover has to be belittled for the purpose of this -theory, friendship and all the social and benevolent affections are dear -to sympathy and “please the indifferent spectator upon almost every -occasion.” True friendship is one of the virtues which prove the -limitations of the utilitarian theory: “There is a satisfaction in the -consciousness of being beloved which to a person of delicacy and -sensibility is of more importance to happiness than all the advantage -which he can expect to derive from it.” - -As Smith goes through the list of virtues and vices his “Impartial -Spectator” constantly reminds us of Aristotle’s theory that every virtue -is a mean between two extremes. The impartial spectator dislikes excess. -The rise of the upstart, for example, is too sudden an extreme, nor does -his behaviour often conciliate our affections:— - - “If the chief part of human happiness arises from the consciousness of - being beloved, as I believe it does, those sudden changes of fortune - seldom contribute much to happiness. He is happiest who advances more - gradually to greatness, whom the public destines to every step of his - preferment long before he arrives at it, in whom, upon that account, - when it comes, it can excite no extravagant joy, and with regard to - whom it cannot reasonably create either any jealousy in those he - overtakes or any envy in those he leaves behind.” - -The Impartial Spectator is rather a fickle and illogical person; he does -not like unexampled prosperity, but he is always ready to sympathise -with trivial joys. “It is quite otherwise with grief. Small vexations -excite no sympathy, but deep affliction calls forth the greatest.” It -takes a great grief to enlist our sympathy, for “it is painful to go -along with grief, and we always enter it with reluctance.” So when we -hear a tragedy we struggle against sympathetic sorrow as long as we can, -and when we finally give way, carefully conceal our tears! In a letter -of July the 28th, 1759, from which we have already quoted, Hume made -some objections to this part of Smith’s theory:— - - “I am told that you are preparing a new edition, and propose to make - some additions and alterations in order to obviate objections. I shall - use the freedom to propose one; which, if it appears to be of any - weight, you may have in your eye. I wish you had more particularly and - fully proved that all kinds of sympathy are agreeable. This is the - hinge of your system, and yet you only mention the matter cursorily on - p. 20. Now it would appear that there is a disagreeable sympathy as - well as an agreeable. And, indeed, as the sympathetic passion is a - reflex image of the principal, it must partake of its qualities, and - be painful when that is so.... - - “It is always thought a difficult problem to account for the pleasure - from the tears and grief and sympathy of tragedy, which would not be - the case if all sympathy was agreeable. An hospital would be a more - entertaining place than a ball. I am afraid that on p. 99 and 111 this - proposition has escaped you, or rather is interwoven with your - reasoning. In that place you say expressly, ‘It is painful to go along - with grief, and we always enter into it with reluctance.’ It will - probably be requisite for you to modify or explain this sentiment, and - reconcile it to your system.” - -In the following spring (April 4th) Smith wrote from Glasgow to Strahan, -Millar’s young and very able partner, about the second edition, for -which he had sent “a good many corrections and improvements.” He asks -Strahan to take care that the book is printed “pretty exactly according -to the copy I delivered to you.” Strahan, it seems, had offered his -services as a critic, and Smith was a little afraid that he might find -unauthorised alterations in the text. He will be much obliged to his -publisher for suggestions, but cannot consent to surrender “the precious -right of private judgment, for the sake of which your forefathers kicked -out the Pope and the Pretender. I believe you to be much more infallible -than the Pope, but as I am a Protestant, my conscience makes me scruple -to submit to any unscriptural authority.” - -The second edition was issued soon afterwards. It has been erroneously -described as a reprint of the first.[12] - -As a matter of fact, the corrections and alterations made in it were -very numerous and it was set up in much smaller type, so that the 551 -pages of the first edition are compressed, in spite of some enlargements -of the text, into 436 pages. What is particularly noteworthy is that the -author, without altering any of the passages criticised by Hume, does -make what we conceive to be a perfectly satisfactory answer in an -important footnote on page 76 of the second edition after the sentence, -“It is painful to go along with grief, and we always enter into it with -reluctance.” We give the note in full in order that the reader may judge -for himself:— - - “It has been objected to me that as I found the sentiment of - approbation, which is always agreeable, upon sympathy, it is - inconsistent with my system to admit any disagreeable sympathy. I - answer, that in the sentiment of approbation there are two things to - be taken notice of: first, the sympathetic passion of the spectator; - and secondly, the emotion which arises from his observing the perfect - coincidence between this sympathetic passion in himself, and the - original passion in the person principally concerned. This last - emotion, in which the sentiment of approbation properly consists, is - always agreeable and delightful. The other may either be agreeable or - disagreeable, according to the nature of the original passion, whose - features it must always, in some measure, retain. Two sounds, I - suppose, may each of them, taken singly, be austere, and yet, if they - are perfect concords, the perception of their harmony and coincidence - may be agreeable.” - -Of modern philosophers, those to whom Smith is most indebted are -certainly Mandeville, his old master Hutcheson, and his friend Hume, “an -ingenious and agreeable philosopher who joins the greatest depth of -thought to the greatest elegance of expression, and possesses the -singular and happy talent of treating the abstrusest subjects not only -with the most perfect perspicuity, but with the most lively eloquence.” -(Was it the religious prejudice against Hume that left his name -unmentioned in the _Theory_?) All four were in a greater or less degree -utilitarians. But Smith denies that the perception of a distinction -between virtue and vice originates in the utility of the one and the -disadvantageousness of the other. Hume would explain all virtues by -their usefulness to oneself or society. But Smith only regards utility -as a powerful additional reason for approving virtue and virtuous -actions. It influences our ideas of virtue, as custom and fashion -influence our ideas of beauty. Usefulness is seldom the first ground of -approval, and “it seems impossible that we should have no other reason -for praising a man than that for which we commend a chest of drawers.” -Even our approval of public spirit arises at first rather from a feeling -of its magnificence and splendour than of its utility to the nation, -though a sense of utility greatly strengthens our approval. Adam Smith -notes, by the way, what Hume had not observed, that the fitness of a -thing to produce its end is often more admired than the end itself. Most -people prefer order and tidiness to the utility which they are intended -to promote. - -Buckle has remarked on a contrast between Smith’s theory of morals and -his theory of economics. In the first, sympathy is the premise, and he -works out the principle of sympathy to its logical conclusions. In the -_Wealth of Nations_, on the contrary, the word sympathy scarcely occurs. -He assumes self-interest as the sole motive of the economic man, and -works out all the consequences without troubling about that -other-regarding principle which is the foundation and measure of -morality, though he shows, it is true, that the motive of self-interest, -if sufficiently enlightened, will result in the general good. Without -denying that Buckle’s contention is suggestive, we may observe that -Smith distinctly refuses to confine virtue to benevolence, and parts -company on this very point from “the amiable system” of Hutcheson. -“Regard to our own private happiness, and interest too, appear,” says -he, “upon many occasions very laudable principles of action. The habits -of economy, industry, discretion, attention, and application of thought -are generally supposed to be cultivated from self-interested motives, -and at the same time are apprehended to be very praiseworthy qualities, -which deserve the esteem and approbation of everybody.”[13] Benevolence -may perhaps be the sole principle of action in the Deity, but an -imperfect creature like man must and ought often to act from other -motives. - -To the third edition of the _Moral Sentiments_ (1767) was appended an -essay on the formation of Languages and the different genius of original -and compounded languages. It is the fruit of his philological studies, -and contains no doubt the substance of lectures that he had read in -Edinburgh and Glasgow. He starts with the proposition that names of -objects, that is to say, nouns substantive, must have been the first -steps toward the making of a language. Two savages who had never been -taught to speak would naturally begin to make their mutual wants -intelligible by uttering certain sounds, as cave, tree, fountain, -whenever they wanted to denote particular objects. What was at first a -proper name would thus be extended to similar objects, by the same law -which leads us to call a great philosopher a Newton. Similarly, “a child -that is just learning to speak calls every person who comes into the -house its papa or its mamma.” Smith could call to mind a clown “who did -not know the proper name of the river which ran by his own door.” It was -“_the_ river.” This process of generalisation explains the formation of -those classes and assortments called genera and species in the schools, -“of which the ingenious and eloquent M. Rousseau of Geneva finds himself -so much at a loss to account for the origin.”[14] In his account of the -dual number, which he finds in all primitive and uncompounded languages, -he says that in the rude beginnings of society, _one_, _two_, and -_more_, might possibly be all the numerical distinctions which mankind -would have any occasion to take notice of. But these words, though -custom has rendered them familiar to us, “express perhaps the most -subtle and refined abstractions which the mind of man is capable of -forming.” His purpose through all this ingenious train of reasoning was -to suggest a new mode of approaching a subject which, in itself so -fascinating, had been reduced to a dull routine. He is very severe on -the Minerva of Sanctius and on some other grammarians who, neglecting -the progress of nature, had expended all their industry in drawing up a -number of artificial rules so as to exclude exceptions. He sees that -languages are the products not of art but of nature or circumstance. He -explains how the modern dialects of Europe arose from conquest, -migration, and mixture—through Lombards trying to speak Latin, or -Normans trying to speak Saxon. In this way the older tongues were -decomposed and simplified in their rudiments while they grew more -complex in composition. The processes of linguistic development provoke -a comparison of philology with mechanics:— - - “All machines are generally, when first invented, extremely complex in - their principles, and there is often a particular principle of motion - for every particular movement which, it is intended, they should - perform. Succeeding improvers observe, that one principle may be so - applied as to produce several of those movements, and thus the machine - becomes gradually more and more simple, and produces its effects with - fewer wheels, and fewer principles of motion. In Language, in the same - manner, every case of every noun, and every tense of every verb, was - originally expressed by a particular distinct word, which served for - this purpose and for no other. But succeeding observation discovered - that one set of words was capable of supplying the place of all that - infinite number, and that four or five prepositions, and half a dozen - auxiliary verbs, were capable of answering the end of all the - declensions, and of all the conjugations in the antient Languages.” - -The comparison, however, suggests a contrast. The simplification of -machines renders them more perfect, but the simplification of languages -renders them more and more imperfect, and less proper (in his opinion) -for many of the purposes of expression. Thus in a decomposed and simple -language, he observes, we are often restrained from disposing words and -sounds in the most agreeable order. When Virgil writes - - “Tityre tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi,” - -we can easily see that _tu_ refers to _recubans_, and _patulae_ to -_fagi_, though the related words are separated from one another by the -intervention of several others. But if we translate the line literally -into English, _Tityrus, thou of spreading reclining under the shade -beech_, Œdipus himself could not make sense of it, because there is no -difference in termination to assist us in tracking out the meaning. In -the same way Milton’s exquisite translation of Horace, “Who now enjoys -thee, credulous all gold,” etc., can only be interpreted by aid of the -original. We may dissent when he goes on to denounce “the prolixness, -constraint, and monotony of modern languages.” Yet it would be as unfair -to estimate the scientific value of these speculations by the -accumulated achievements of modern philologists, as to sneer at his -essay on the _Imitative Arts_ or at Burke’s treatise on the _Sublime and -Beautiful_, because Lessing has helped inferior men to see so much -further. - - - - - CHAPTER V - IN THE GLASGOW CHAIR—THE LECTURES ON JUSTICE AND POLICE - - -The finding of Adam Smith’s lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue, and -Arms, 133 years at least after their last delivery and 105 years after -the author had had his own folio notes of them destroyed, is not only -one of the curiosities of literature, it is also the most important aid -that has been afforded to the study of Smith’s economic, social, and -juristic ideas since the appearance in 1793 of Dugald Stewart’s -biographical sketch. From 1793 to 1896, hundreds of German students big -with their epoch-making theses “über Smiths Entwicklung,” scores of -Frenchmen eager to prove the superiority of Quesnai and Turgot, and -perhaps half a dozen English critics had whetted their ingenuity on a -brief account of the Glasgow lectures which was supplied to Dugald -Stewart by Adam Smith’s old pupil and friend, John Millar. According to -Millar, Smith’s course, while he occupied the chair of Moral Philosophy -at Glasgow, fell into four parts, the first two of which consisted, as -we have seen, of Natural Theology and Ethics. In the third part he -treated at more length of that branch of morality which relates to -_justice_. Here he followed the plan suggested by Montesquieu, -“endeavouring to trace the gradual progress of jurisprudence, both -public and private, from the rudest to the most refined ages.” This -important branch of his labours he also intended to give to the public, -but he did not live to fulfil his intention. - -In the last part of his lectures he examined those political regulations -which are founded not upon _justice_, but _expediency_, and considered -the political institutions relating to commerce, to finance, to -ecclesiastical and military establishments. “What he delivered on these -subjects contained the substance of the work he afterwards published -under the title of _An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth -of Nations_.” - -This was all that the world knew of Adam Smith’s lectures on -jurisprudence and political economy, save that at the end of his _Theory -of Moral Sentiments_ he promised “another discourse” dealing with the -general principles of law and government, and with the different -revolutions they have undergone in the different ages and periods of -society, “not only in what concerns justice, but in what concerns -police, revenue, and arms, and whatever else in the subject of law.” On -the first section of his lectures Adam Smith never even promised a book. -He had no ambition to bring the kirk about his ears. The second section -took shape, as we have seen, in the _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, after -the publication of which in 1759 the plan of the lectures underwent a -change, the ethical part being compressed and the economical part -extended. The _Wealth of Nations_ covers the subject of police, revenue, -and arms, and so executes the promise in part. “What remains,” he wrote -in 1790, “the theory of Jurisprudence, which I have long projected, I -have hitherto been hindered from executing.” In the lectures now -discovered and published we have therefore a first draft of the _Wealth -of Nations_ and also a first draft of the projected work on Justice, or -Jurisprudence, “a sort of theory and history of law and government,” as -he called it in a letter of 1785. - -How, then, comes it to pass that we possess these legal and economic -lectures just as Smith delivered them to his class at Glasgow, in spite -of Dugald Stewart’s express statement that no part of them had been -preserved “excepting what he himself published in the _Theory of Moral -Sentiments_ and in _The Wealth of Nations_”? - -When Smith left Glasgow in 1764 his fame stood high, and probably there -were many note-books containing his lectures floating about in the -college. A good manuscript of useful lectures would pass from one -student to another and might from time to time be found on a bookstall. -In the session of 1762-3, or possibly of the previous year, an -intelligent and attentive student took down Smith’s lectures with -unusual accuracy. At least one copy was taken of it after Smith had left -the University; for the manuscript so happily preserved is dated 1766, -is clear, well written, and free from abbreviations, while some of the -mistakes are evidently misreadings and not mishearings. That this fair -copy was not made by the student who took the original notes is further -shown, says the editor, “by the fact that, though the original -note-taker must have been able and intelligent, the transcription is -evidently the work of a person who often did not understand what he was -writing.” - -The manuscript consists of 192 leaves octavo size, bound in calf, with -the signature of “J. A. Maconochie, 1811,” on the front cover. This -Maconochie, or perhaps his father Allan, the first Lord Meadowbank, who -was appointed professor of Public Law at Edinburgh in 1779, must have -picked up the book, and it has remained in the possession of the family -ever since. In 1876 Mr. Charles C. Maconochie rescued it from a -garret-room, and in 1895 happened to mention it to Mr. Edwin Cannan, who -thereupon undertook the task of editing it for the press—a task which he -has performed to perfection. One result of this lucky discovery is to -dispose of the legend that Adam Smith was little more than a borrower -from the French school, a mere reflector of the Reflexions of Turgot. By -examining the lectures we shall inform ourselves in the political wisdom -which Adam Smith used to teach his fortunate class at Glasgow long years -before he met Quesnai or Turgot, and longer still before the Reflexions -began to appear in the _Éphémérides du Citoyen_. - -“Jurisprudence” was the title Adam Smith gave to this course of -lectures, and he divided it under four heads: Justice, Police, Revenue, -and Arms, taken in the order named. Natural Jurisprudence, he begins, is -the science that inquires into the general principles which ought to be -the foundation of the laws of all nations. It is, he says elsewhere in -his _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, “of all sciences by far the most -important, but hitherto perhaps the least cultivated.” Grotius’s -treatise on the Laws of War and Peace—“a sort of casuistical book for -sovereigns and states”—was still, he thought, the most complete work on -this subject. After Grotius came Hobbes, who, from an utter abhorrence -of ecclesiasticism and bigotry, sought to establish a system of morals -by which men’s consciences might be subjected to the civil power. Then -after a few words on Puffendorf and Cocceii, Adam Smith explained his -own classification as follows:— - - “Jurisprudence is the theory of the general principles of law and - government. The four great objects of law are justice, police, - revenue, and arms. - - “The object of justice is the security from injury, and it is the - foundation of civil government. - - “The objects of police are the cheapness of commodities, public - security and cleanliness, if the two last were not too minute for a - lecture of this kind. Under this head we will consider the opulence of - a state. - - “For defraying the expenses of government, some fund must be raised. - Hence the origin of revenue.... In general, whatever revenue can be - raised most insensibly from the people ought to be preferred; and in - the sequel it is proposed to be shown, how far the laws of Britain and - of other European nations are calculated for this purpose. - - “As the best police cannot give security unless the government can - defend themselves from foreign attacks, the fourth thing appointed by - law is for this purpose; and under this head will be shown the - different species of arms, the constitution of standing armies, - militias, etc. - - “After these will be considered the laws of nations.” - -Having thus divided his whole course, Adam Smith proceeded further in an -introductory lecture to subdivide his first part, Justice. The end of -justice is to secure from injury; and a man may be injured as a member -of a state, as a private individual (in his body, reputation, or -property), or as a member of a family. Adam Smith therefore treats of -justice under the three heads of Public Jurisprudence, Domestic Law, and -Private Law. Many of his juristic ideas are evidently derived from -Grotius, Locke, Montesquieu, Hutcheson, and Hume; but the effect -produced is that of a powerful and original thinker in close touch with -the best minds of his day, who draws his illustrations freely and easily -alike from ancient and modern history. He finds that men were induced to -enter civil society by two principles, authority and utility, that is to -say, by the instinct of obedience and the instinct of self-preservation. - - “In a monarchy the principle of authority prevails, and in a democracy - that of utility. In Britain, which is a mixed government, the factions - formed some time ago, under the names of Whig and Tory, were - influenced by these principles; the former submitted to government on - account of its utility and the advantages they derived from it, while - the latter pretended that it was of divine institution, and to offend - against it was equally criminal, as for a child to rebel against its - parent. Men in general follow these principles according to their - natural dispositions. In a man of a bold, daring, and bustling turn - the principle of utility is predominant, and a peaceable, easy turn of - mind usually is pleased with a tame submission to superiority.” - -In the same chair Hutcheson had taught that society is founded on an -original contract. Adam Smith discards the theory for various reasons:— - - “In the first place, the doctrine of an original contract is peculiar - to Great Britain, yet government takes place where it was never - thought of, which is even the case with the greater part of people in - this country. Ask a common porter or day-labourer why he obeys the - civil magistrate, he will tell you that it is right to do so, that he - sees others do it, that he would be punished if he refused to do it, - or perhaps it is a sin against God not to do it. But you never hear - him mention a contract as the foundation of his obedience.” - -Smith was as fond as his master Aristotle of testing fine-spun theories -by the coarse wear of daily life. He loved to march an army of -common-folk through the cobwebs of political philosophy. A second -objection was that, although a government may be entrusted to certain -persons on certain conditions, the contract cannot bind their posterity. -“It may indeed be said that by remaining in the country you tacitly -consent to the contract, and are bound by it. But how can you avoid -staying in it? You were not consulted whether you should be born in it -or not. And how can you get out of it? Most people know no other -language nor country, are poor, and obliged to stay not far from the -place where they were born, to labour for a subsistence. They cannot -therefore be said to give any consent to a contract, though they may -have the strongest sense of obedience.” - -In a remarkable book on _English Government_ (1803), John Millar -expresses his indebtedness to the “ingenious and profound author of the -_Wealth of Nations_.” “I am happy,” he says, “to acknowledge the -obligations I feel myself under to this illustrious philosopher by -having at an early period of life had the benefit of hearing his -lectures on the History of Civil Society, and of enjoying his unreserved -conversation on the same subject.”[15] And this indeed was the spacious -topic which occupied most of the course on public jurisprudence. Nations -of hunters and fishers, he began, had properly no government at all. -They lived according to the laws of nature. Then he came to the -patriarchs of the Old Testament and of the Homeric age, and compared the -growth of republican government in Greece, Rome, and modern Italy. How -liberty was lost is the next theme. The students were reminded of Cæsar -and Cromwell, of the contrast between Western and Oriental despotisms, -of the improvements in law which have often been introduced by military -conquerors. They were then led to see by the history of the fall of the -Roman Empire how “military monarchy came to share that fated dissolution -that awaits every state and constitution.” After describing the fall of -the Roman Empire, Smith gave an account of the origin of the modern -governments of Europe. - -Smith had Burke’s “salutary prejudice.” Despite a private partiality for -republican institutions, he saw, like Montesquieu, in our constitution -“a happy mixture of all the different forms of government properly -restrained, and a perfect security to liberty and property.” The Commons -in a great measure manage all public affairs, as no money-bill can take -its rise except in that House. The judges are quite independent of the -king. The Habeas Corpus Act and the methods of election are further -securities of liberty. Lastly, “the law of England, always the friend of -liberty, deserves praise in no instance more than in the careful -provision of impartial juries.” - -The first division of Justice concludes with an excellent description of -the struggle between the English nation and King James II., who “on -account of his encroachments on the body politic was with all justice -and equity in the world opposed and rejected.” - -In the second division of Justice, called Domestic Law, he examined the -legal relations that had subsisted at different times and in different -countries between husband and wife, parent and child, master and -servant, guardian and ward. The treatment is concise without being dry. -Philosophy corrects curiosity; humanity peeps through law, and humour -spices humanity. We come upon his favourite proposition that “love, -which was formerly a ridiculous passion,” has become “grave and -respectable,” the proof being that love now influences all public -entertainments, whereas no ancient tragedy turned upon it. He counters -Montesquieu’s statement that at Bantam, in the East Indies, there are -ten women born for one man, by a broad doctrine: If the laws of nature -are the same everywhere, the laws of gravity and attraction the same; -why not the laws of generation? He reminds his class that slavery is -still “almost universal”; for a small part of Western Europe is “the -only portion of the globe that is free from it.” Upon the evils of -slavery he spoke as strongly as he wrote before in the _Theory of Moral -Sentiments_ or afterwards in the _Wealth of Nations_ (Book I. chap. -viii.). It is almost needless, he says, to prove that slavery is a bad -institution. “A free man keeps as his own whatever is above his rent, -and therefore has a motive to industry. Our colonies would be much -better cultivated by free men.” That slavery is a disadvantage appears, -he adds, from the state of colliers and salters in Scotland. These poor -wretches indeed, whom he must have seen daily in Kirkcaldy (where -Pennant noticed them with indignation thirty years afterwards), had some -privileges which slaves had not. Their property after maintenance was -their own, and they could only be sold with their work. They were -allowed to marry and to choose their religion, and their wages were half -a crown a day, as compared with the sixpence or eightpence earned by the -ordinary day-labourers in the neighbourhood. Nevertheless “colliers -often leave our coal-works” and run away to Newcastle, preferring -liberty on tenpence or a shilling a day to slavery on half a crown. - -The third division (nearly fifty pages in all), on Private Law, -summarises the Roman law of property, and compares the usages of -Scotland and England. Smith had evidently consulted many law reports and -statutes as well as some of the standard authorities in both kingdoms, -such as Lord Kames’s _Law Tracts_, Dalrymple’s _Feudal Property_, -Bacon’s _New Abridgment of the Law_, and Hawkins’s _Pleas of the Crown_. -Smith was wonderfully free from legal obsessions. He condemned the -excessive punishments of his time, and explained that they were founded -not upon regard to public utility, but upon the spectator’s resentment -against the offender and his sympathy with the injured party. The -English laws of real property he regarded as unnatural and mischievous. -He had mastered the theory of entail without being fascinated by it. -“Upon the whole, nothing can be more absurd than perpetual entails. -Piety to the dead can only take place when their memory is fresh in the -minds of men; a power to dispose of estates for ever is manifestly -absurd. The earth and the fulness of it belongs to every generation, and -the preceding one can have no right to bind it up from posterity; such -extension of property is quite unnatural.” - -A similar but less pithy condemnation appears in the _Wealth of -Nations_, and was one of the passages which led Cobden to declare -shortly before his death that if he were a young man he would take Adam -Smith in hand, and preach free trade in land as he had formerly preached -free trade in corn. - -Having considered “man as a member of a state, as a member of a family, -and as a man,” Smith turned to Police, which is “the second general -division of Jurisprudence.” At that time the word “police” was only -half-way on its voyage from Greece. It “properly signified the policy of -civil government, but now it only means the regulation of the inferior -parts of government, viz. cleanliness, security, and cheapness or -plenty.” “Cleanliness,” ninety years before the first Public Health Act, -was only “the proper method of carrying dirt from the street,” while the -term “security” exactly corresponded with police in the modern sense, -being defined by Adam Smith as “the execution of justice, so far as it -regards regulations for preventing crimes or the method of keeping a -city guard.” - -But cleanliness and security, “though useful,” were “too mean to be -considered in a general discourse” of the kind which Adam Smith was -delivering. Accordingly, after briefly comparing the amount of crime -then prevalent in Paris, London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow—a comparison -favourable to Glasgow and London—and inferring that the establishment of -commerce and manufactures is the best police for preventing crimes, he -passes to the consideration of cheapness or plenty—“or, which is the -same thing, the most proper way of procuring wealth and abundance.” Then -follows in a hundred pages what Mr. Cannan has well called a rough draft -of the _Wealth of Nations_, containing (with some noteworthy exceptions) -the main arguments and many of the illustrations which appeared a dozen -or more years later in the book. By the student who would trace the -growth of an idea and the history of a theory the value of the report -can hardly be exaggerated. In Mr. Cannan’s words, “it enables us to -follow the gradual construction of the work from its very foundation, -and to distinguish positively between what the original genius of its -author created out of British materials on the one hand, and French -materials on the other.” - -When we consider that this course of political economy was necessarily -brief, and could not possibly contain all the arguments and -illustrations he had already hammered out in the great workshop of his -mind, we are inclined to wonder not that the lectures, when compared -with the full body of doctrine, show many gaps, but rather that they -correspond so closely with the final treatise evolved after twelve or -fourteen years more of meditation, study, and travel. When we reach the -crowning year of Adam Smith’s life with its laureate wreath we shall -have something to say upon later accretions, such as his colonial -policy, his view of expenditure, and that intensely practical theory of -taxation which taught so many wholesome lessons to contemporary and -succeeding statesmen. Oddly enough, the lecturer began by supplying the -very thing his critics have missed in the _Wealth of Nations_—a theory -of consumption. He had therefore, if we combine the lectures with the -treatise, mapped out in his mind the entire scope of economic science in -its natural order. First there is the demand that leads to productive -labour, the desire which is satisfied by and therefore induces toil. -Then comes his central theme, the division of labour and the subsidiary -topic of its distribution (almost ignored in the lectures), with an -appendix on revenue or taxation. - -Looking now only at the lectures, we find that of the hundred pages into -which this first discourse on the _Wealth of Nations_ falls, eighty, or -four-fifths, are concerned with “cheapness or plenty,” in other words, -with “the most proper way of procuring wealth or abundance.” Cheapness -is synonymous with plenty, as dearness is synonymous with dearth. Water -is only cheap because it is plentiful, diamonds are costly only because -they are scarce. If we wish to find wherein opulence consists, we must -first consider what are the natural wants of mankind which are to be -supplied; “and if we differ from common opinions, we shall at least give -the reasons for our nonconformity.” So he sets about his task with a -theory of consumption simple, intelligible, and adequate. Food, clothes, -and lodgings are the threefold necessities of animal life. But most -animals find these wants sufficiently provided by nature. Man alone has -so delicate a constitution that no object is produced to his liking. So -he improves his food by cookery, and protects himself by fire, clothes, -and huts from the inclemency of the weather. - -But as man’s physical delicacy requires much more provision than that of -any other animal, so does the same, or rather the much greater, delicacy -of his mind. Such is the nicety of his taste, that the very colour of an -object hurts or pleases. He is tired by uniformity, and loves variety -and change. The Indians gladly barter gems for the cheap toys of Europe. -Thus besides the threefold necessities of life a multitude of wants and -demands spring up to which agriculture, manufactures, arts, commerce, -and navigation are subservient; while the establishment of law and -government, “the highest effort of human prudence and wisdom,” enables -the different arts to flourish in peace and security. - -Thus Smith arrives at the point from which the _Wealth of Nations_ was -to start. In an uncivilised nation, where labour is undivided, the -natural wants of mankind are provided for. But as civilisation advances -with the division of labour, the provision becomes more liberal, so that -“a common day-labourer in Britain has more luxury in his way of living -than an Indian sovereign.” The labourer’s comfort, indeed, is nothing to -that of the noble. Yet a European prince does not so far exceed a -commoner as the latter does the chief of a savage nation. “In a savage -nation,” he added, with a prophetic glance at Marx, “every one enjoys -the whole fruit of his own labour.” It is therefore the Division of -Labour that increases the opulence of a country. This is the kernel of -political economy, the inner keep round which this great architect of a -new science has built a fortress strong enough to protect society and to -preserve the fruit of men’s toil from the well-meaning unwisdom of their -governments. Not that Smith was insensible to the hardness of economic -laws, to the cruel inequalities of industry:— - - “In a civilised society,” he reminds his class, “though there is a - division of labour, there is no equal division, for there are a good - many who work none at all. The division of opulence is not according - to the work. The opulence of the merchant is greater than that of all - his clerks, though he works less; and they again have six times more - than an equal number of artisans who are more employed. The artisan - who works at his ease within-doors has far more than the poor labourer - who trudges up and down without intermission. Thus, he who, as it - were, bears the burden of society, has the fewest advantages.” - -Division of labour multiplies the product of labour and so creates -opulence. He takes a pin manufactory as an illustration. If one man made -all the parts of a pin it would take him a year, and the pin would cost -at least six pounds. By dividing the process of manufacture into -eighteen operations, each man employed can make 2000 pins a day. When -labour is thus divided, a much larger surplus is left over and above the -labourer’s maintenance, and of this surplus the labourer will get a -share. “The commodity becomes far cheaper and the labour dearer.” The -less the labour that can procure abundance, the greater the opulence of -society. But coin is not a safe criterion of wages. Twopence in China -will buy more than five shillings in the sugar colonies. By dividing -labour you increase dexterity. A boy nailmaker will easily make 2000 -good nails while a country smith unaccustomed to the job is making 400 -bad ones. You also save time; for time is always lost in going from one -kind of work to another. “When a person has been reading, he must rest a -little while before he begin to write”; and a country weaver with a -small farm will saunter as he goes from the loom to the plough. By -fixing each man to an operation the product is sure to be increased. -Again, the quantity of work done is much augmented by the invention of -machinery. Two men and three horses can do more with a plough than -twenty men with spades. The miller and his servant will do more with the -water-mill than a dozen men with the hand-mill. Horse-power and -water-power had been brought to the assistance of man by philosophic -invention; and even fire had been called in to aid him by the mechanical -and chemical discoverers. The lecturer was doubtless thinking of his -colleague Joseph Black, and of James Watt, who was at this time working -within the precincts of Glasgow College, and was just developing what -Smith calls “the philosopher’s invention of the fire machine.” - -Smith puts forward a queer idea—and he stood to it in the _Wealth of -Nations_—that what gives occasion to the division of labour is not a -perception of the advantage to be gained thereby, but a direct -propensity in human nature for one man to barter with another. This love -of barter is one of those natural instincts which distinguish us from -animals. The division of labour and the material wealth of society are -greatly perfected by improvements of communication which extend markets; -for division of labour must always be proportioned to extent of -commerce. “If ten people only want a certain commodity, the manufacture -of it will never be so divided as if a thousand wanted it.” But where -communications are bad the cost of transit hinders the distribution of -goods. If roads are “deep” or infested with robbers, the progress of -commerce is stopped. “Since the mending of roads in England forty or -fifty years ago, its opulence has increased extremely.” Water carriage -also effectively promotes public opulence; for five or six men will -convey three hundred tons by water more quickly than a hundred men with -a hundred wagons and six hundred horses can take the same weight by -land.[16] - -A distinction is drawn between the natural and market price of -commodities. A man has the natural price of his labour when he has -enough to maintain him during its continuance, to defray the cost of his -education, and to compensate the risk of failure or of premature death. -When a man can get this natural price he will have sufficient -encouragement and will produce in proportion to the demand. The market -is regulated by the momentary demand for a thing, by its abundance or -scarcity. When a thing is very scarce the price depends upon the fortune -of the bidders. “As in an auction, if two persons have an equal fondness -for a book, he whose fortune is the largest will carry it.” The -conclusion drawn from these and other arguments is that whatever -“police” (_i.e._ policy) tends to raise the market price above the -natural, tends also to diminish public opulence. The cheaper the -conveniences of life, the greater is the purchasing power of the poor -and the happier will a society be. Any policy which raises and keeps the -market price of goods above their natural price, and so raises the -national, as it were, above the international price, diminishes the -nation’s opulence. This impoverishing policy took various forms, which -admitted of a triple classification:— - - 1. Taxes on industry and necessities. - - 2. Monopolies. - - 3. Exclusive privileges of corporations, and combinations, like those - of bakers and brewers, which kept the price of bread and beer above - the natural level. - -Further, as taxes or regulations which raise the market price above the -natural price diminish public opulence, so do bounties like those upon -corn and coarse linen, which depress the market price below the natural -price. A bounty stimulates the production of a particular commodity, and -makes it cheaper for foreigners at the expense of the public at home. -Another serious objection to the system is that people are diverted from -other employments, and thus “what may be called the natural balance of -industry” is disturbed. “Upon the whole, therefore, it is by far the -best police to leave things to their natural course and allow no -bounties nor impose taxes on commodities.” - -In a subsequent lecture he arrived at the same conclusion by an analysis -of the true nature of money. At that time money was almost universally -identified with wealth. Though Hume had exposed the fallacy ten years -before, his essay had not affected national policy.[17] Treaties of -commerce were always based upon the theory of the balance of trade, -which again rested on the notion that if a country’s exports could be -made to exceed its imports, it would receive the balance in gold and so -become wealthy. By way of refuting this strange dogma of the -mercantilists, Smith used a very felicitous illustration. He compared -money to the highroads of a country “which bear neither corn nor grass -themselves but circulate all the corn and grass in the country.” If we -could save some of the ground taken up by highways without diminishing -the facilities of carriage and communication, we should add to the -wealth of the country; and the case would be the same if by such a -device as paper-money we could reduce the stock of coin required without -impairing its efficiency as a medium of exchange. For the ground saved -could be cultivated, and the money saved could be sent abroad in -exchange for useful commodities. Thus the nation would be enriched; for -its opulence “does not consist in the quantity of coin, but in the -abundance of commodities which are necessary for life.” - -In deference to the mercantilists the government had prohibited the -exportation of coin, “which prohibition has been extremely hurtful to -the commerce of the country,” for every unnecessary accumulation of -money is a dead stock. The same idea that wealth consists in money had -also led to fiscal discrimination against France and in favour of Spain -and Portugal. Why was this policy absurd? The reason, said Smith, will -appear on the least reflection, and he thereupon put to the students in -a few telling sentences those elementary truths about the nature of -foreign trade which seem too simple even to have been discovered, yet -are still sometimes but imperfectly applied by the most enlightened -statesmen, and have not always been apprehended by trained economists:— - - “All commerce that is carried on betwixt any two countries must - necessarily be advantageous to both. The very intention of commerce is - to exchange your own commodities for others which you think will be - more convenient for you. When two men trade between themselves it is - undoubtedly for the advantage of both. The one has perhaps more of one - species of commodities than he has occasion for, he therefore - exchanges a certain quantity of it with the other, for another - commodity that will be more useful to him. The other agrees to the - bargain on the same account, and in this manner the mutual commerce is - advantageous to both. The case is exactly the same betwixt any two - nations. The goods which the English merchants want to import from - France are certainly more valuable to them than what they give for - them. Our very desire to purchase them shows that we have more use for - them than either the money or the commodities which we give for them. - It may be said, indeed, that money lasts for ever, but that claret and - cambrics are soon consumed. This is true. But what is the intention of - industry if it be not to produce those things which are capable of - being used, and are conducive to the convenience and comfort of human - life?” - -In short, imports are just as advantageous as exports, and one is the -necessary complement of the other. All jealousies and wars between -nations are extremely bad for commerce. If preferential trade is to be -established at all, it should be with France, a much richer and more -populous country than Spain, and also our nearest neighbour. “It were -happy both for this country and France that all national prejudices were -rooted out and a free and uninterrupted commerce established.” Foreign -trade, if wisely and prudently carried on, can never impoverish a -country. - - “The poverty of a nation proceeds from much the same causes with those - which render an individual poor. When a man consumes more than he - gains by his industry, he must impoverish himself unless he has some - other way of subsistence. In the same manner, if a nation consume more - than it produces, poverty is inevitable; if its annual produce be - ninety millions and its annual consumption an hundred, then it spends, - eats and drinks, tears, wears, ten millions more than it produces, and - its stock of opulence must gradually go to nothing.” - -He proceeds to uproot that hardy perennial of fiscal culture—the opinion -that no expenditure at home can be injurious to public opulence. Let us -suppose, he says, that my father leaves me a thousand pounds’ worth of -the necessaries and conveniences of life. “I get a number of idle folks -around me, and eat, drink, tear and wear till the whole is consumed. By -this I not only reduce myself to want, but certainly rob the public -stock of a thousand pounds, as it is spent and nothing produced for it.” -In the same way money spent on war is wasted wherever the war is waged -and wherever the money employed in preparations is laid out. Finally, he -sums up for free imports in language that could not be strengthened:— - - “From the above considerations it appears that Britain should by all - means be made a free port, that there should be no interruptions of - any kind made to foreign trade, that if it were possible to defray the - expenses of government by any other method, all duties, customs, and - excise should be abolished, and that free commerce and liberty of - exchange should be allowed with all nations, and for all things.” - -Holding, then, that all taxes upon exports and imports, as well as all -excise duties,[18] hinder commerce, discourage manufactures, and hamper -the division of labour, Smith was inclined in his rather meagre -treatment of taxation to favour direct imposts. He was not one of those -who think that taxation is the royal road to prosperity, and insist that -the only way to save the nation is by picking its pocket. On the -contrary, believing that the best method of raising revenue is to save -it, he introduced taxation as one of the causes that retard the growth -of opulence. But as the thriftiest government has some expenses, and -therefore some taxes, an economist was bound to weigh the merits and -demerits of each. Though in comparison with the corresponding chapters -in the _Wealth of Nations_ his paragraphs on taxation seem raw, the -doctrine is already far in advance of Hume’s. He dwells on the immense -advantage of the land-tax, which only cost the government about eight or -ten thousand pounds to collect, over the customs and excise, which -produce such immense sums, but “are almost eaten up by the legions of -officers that are employed in collecting them.” Another advantage of the -land-tax over taxes on consumption was that it did not raise prices; and -it was better than a tax on capital or income (“stock or money”), in -that, land being visible property, the sum required could be assessed -without very arbitrary proceedings. “It is a hardship upon a man in -trade to oblige him to show his books, which is the only way we can know -how much he is worth. It is a breach of liberty, and may be productive -of very bad consequences by ruining his credit.” Yet Smith was far from -being a single taxer. “If on account of this difficulty you were to tax -land, and neither tax money nor stock, you would do a piece of very -great injustice.” - -The only advantage to taxpayers of taxes on commodities is that they are -paid in small sums at a time, whereas taxes on possessions are paid in -large lump sums. But to the government there is the all-important fact -that they are paid insensibly and are not so much murmured against. -“When we buy a pound of tea we do not reflect that the most part of the -price is a duty paid to the government, and therefore pay it -contentedly, as though it were only the natural price of the commodity. -In the same manner, when an additional tax is laid upon beer, the price -of it must be raised, but the mob do not directly vent their malice -against the government, who are the proper objects of it, but upon the -brewers, as they confound the tax price with the natural one.” - -In Holland the consumer first paid the price to the merchant and then -(separately) the tax to the excise officer. “We in reality do the very -same thing, but as we do not feel it immediately we imagine it all one -price, and never reflect that we might drink port wine below sixpence a -bottle were it not for the duty.” His general objection to duties on -imports is that they divert capital and industry into unnatural -channels, while the effects of export duties are still more pernicious -in confining consumption and diminishing industry. Uztariz, a well-known -Spanish writer of that day, had observed in his book on commerce:— - -“I have found ministers and others, both in their conversation and -writings, maintain the erroneous maxim that high duties are to be laid -upon commodities exported, because foreigners pay them; and, on the -contrary, very moderate ones on such as are imported, because his -majesty’s subjects are at the charge of them.”[19] This policy, says -Smith, is one great cause of the poverty of Spain. Yet the Spaniards -were wiser than some moderns who have sought to persuade the public that -both export and import duties are paid by the foreigner. - -Apart from their extraordinary power and originality as contributions to -a new science, we are struck in these lectures by two qualities, freedom -from prejudice, with the accompanying desire for reformation, and a -tolerance of things that are tolerable. Even when he is exposing the -absurdities of the Mercantile System, and the evils of the scheme of -taxation which it had produced in England, he readily concedes that -things might have been far worse, and is glad to confess that upon the -whole “the English are the best financiers in Europe, and their taxes -are levied with more propriety than those of any country whatever.” -Elsewhere, indeed, he shows that the fiscal system of Holland was in -some important respects superior; and in the _Wealth of Nations_ his -language cooled:—“Our state is not perfect, but it is as good or better -than that of most of our neighbours.” - -Yet neither tolerance, nor patriotic bias, nor the improbability of -reform prevented him from criticising bad institutions. He saw how evil -was the system of unpaid magistracies which Bentham burned and Gneist -adored. He saw how advantageous was the famous excise scheme which -ruined Walpole. He objected to large farms and entailed estates, and was -not afraid to declare that a thousand acres ought to be purchased as -easily as a thousand yards of cloth. He laughed at the notion, still -strangely prevalent, that agriculture is injured by manufactures. “It is -always a sign,” he says, “that the country is improving, when men go to -town. There are no parts of the country so well inhabited nor so well -cultivated as those which lie in the neighbourhood of populous cities.” -He described how Philip IV. went to the plough himself to set the -fashion, and did everything for the farmers except bringing them a good -market; how he conferred the titles of nobility upon several farmers, -and very absurdly endeavoured to oppress manufacturers with heavy taxes -in order to force them to the country. - -Smith concluded his discourse upon Cheapness or Plenty with a few -remarks on the influence of commerce on manners; and having thus laid -the foundations of a new science, a true system of political economy, he -went on to “Arms” (Part IV.), and treated of Militias, Discipline, and -Standing Armies. His course ended with a survey (Part V.) of the Laws of -Nations. The rules, he remarks, which nations ought to observe, or do -observe, with one another cannot be stated with precision. It is true -that the rules of property and of justice are pretty uniform in the -civilised world. But with regard to international law, what Grotius had -said was still true. It was hard to mention a single regulation that had -been established with the common consent of all nations and was observed -as such at all times. Smith, as usual, sought for the reason, and as -usual found it. “This must necessarily be the case; for where there is -no supreme legislative power nor judge to settle differences we may -always expect uncertainty and irregularity.” - -The pope, indeed, as the common father of Christendom, had introduced -more humanity into warfare; but except for this hint Smith seems to have -made no proposal for filling up the blank. We can only imagine how one -who so loved peace and hated war would have rejoiced to see nations -moving slowly but surely towards the idea of an international judge, and -learning that, as the Duel is not the last word of civilisation in -individual quarrels, so the Battle is not the last or the best trial of -disputes between nations. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - GLASGOW AND ITS UNIVERSITY - - -Mr. Rae’s diligent researches have disposed of the idea that Smith was -one of those profound philosophers who are helpless in the practical -affairs of life. It appears from the records of the Glasgow University, -that during his thirteen years’ residence he did more college business -than any other professor. He audited accounts, inspected drains and -hedges, examined encroachments on college land, and served as college -quæstor, or treasurer, with the management of the library funds, for the -last six years of his professorship. He was Dean of Faculty from 1760 to -1762, when he was appointed Vice-Rector. As such, in the frequent -absence of the Rector, he had to preside over all University meetings, -including the Rector’s Court, which had judicial as well as -administrative powers, and could even punish students by imprisonment in -the college steeple. He went frequently to Edinburgh, and at least once -to London, on college business; and altogether we may discredit the -remark made by one of Smith’s Edinburgh neighbours and reported by -Robert Chambers: “It is strange that a man who wrote so well on exchange -and barter had to get a friend to buy his horse-corn for him.” - -There is one picturesque incident in the history of Smith’s connection -with the college. The imposition of octroi duties on food coming into -the city was still the principal means of raising municipal revenue in -Glasgow as in most other towns of Scotland. But the students of the -University were so far exempt from the tribute that they were allowed at -the beginning of each session to bring in with them as much oatmeal as -would keep them till the end of it. In 1757 this ancient privilege was -contested, and the students were obliged by the “tackman” of the meal -market to pay duty on their meal. Smith and another professor were sent -to the Provost to protest against this infraction of University -privileges, and to demand repayment. At the next meeting of the Senate, -“Mr. Smith reported that he had spoken to the Provost of Glasgow about -the ladles, exacted by the town from students, for meal brought into the -town for their own use, and that the Provost promised to cause what had -been exacted to be returned, and that accordingly the money was offered -by the town’s ladler to the students.” - -The intellectual level of the professors and lecturers in the University -of Glasgow was already high when Smith joined them, and the place was -free from the monopolistic spirit which dulled and enervated the -universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In 1752, a year after his arrival, -Smith took part in founding what was called the Literary Society of -Glasgow. Besides the professors a number of outsiders were -admitted—David Hume, Sir John Dalrymple the historian, John Callander -the antiquary, Robert Foulis the famous printer, and others. In one of -the first papers read to this society (January 1753) Adam Smith reviewed -Hume’s _Essays on Commerce_. He had no doubt read the essays in proof, -as there is a letter from Hume in the previous September, asking him for -criticisms towards a new edition he was then preparing of his _Essays, -Moral and Political_, in which these new Commercial Essays were to be -incorporated. - -Another and more convivial club was presided over by Simson, the -professor of Mathematics, whose genius and amiability had impressed Adam -Smith from his student days. When Simson died in 1768 he had spent half -a century in the college. He divided each day with precision between -work, sleep, refection in the tavern at the gate, and a measured walk in -the gardens. Every Friday evening his club supped in the tavern, and -every Saturday the members walked out a mile to the neighbouring village -of Anderston, and there feasted on the customary one-course dinner of -chicken broth, with a tankard of claret followed by whist and punch. -Ramsay of Ochtertyre says that Smith was a bad partner. If an idea came -to him in the middle of the game he would renounce or neglect to call. -After cards they would talk, or Simson, who was the soul of gaiety, -would sing Greek odes to modern airs. A more distinguished circle than -this of plain livers and high thinkers could hardly have been found in -Europe. Besides the editor of Euclid it included the founders of -political economy and modern chemistry, and the inventor of the steam -engine. For Joseph Black and his young assistant, James Watt, sat round -the same fireside with Simson and Adam Smith. To the conversation of the -club, said Watt, “my mind owed its first bias towards such subjects -[literature, philosophy, etc.], in which they were all my superiors, I -never having attended college, and being then but a mechanic.” In 1756 -young Watt had come from London to Glasgow, and being refused permission -by the close corporation of hammermen to set up as a mechanic in the -town, he was welcomed by the professors, who appointed him maker of -mathematical instruments to the University, and gave him a workshop and -saleroom within its precincts. It is easy to imagine the delight with -which Smith joined in rescuing Watt from the tyranny of a close -corporation. The workshop was one of his favourite resorts, and the two -became fast friends. More than half a century afterwards, one of the -first works which the “young” artist of eighty-three executed with his -newly invented “sculpture machine” was a bust of Smith in ivory. - -In another part of the college space had been found for Robert Foulis’s -printing-office. Encouraged by Hutcheson, Foulis had begun his business -in Glasgow just before Smith left for Oxford. His “immaculate” Horace, -the famous duodecimo, appeared in 1744, the proof-sheets having been -hung up in the college and a reward offered for the detection of any -inaccuracy. Adam Smith was a subscriber for two sets of Hutcheson’s -_System of Moral Philosophy_, two beautifully printed quarto volumes -issued by the Foulis press in 1755. The type used by the press came from -Alexander Wilson’s typefoundry at Camlachie. But in 1760 the college -built an observatory, and with the aid of the Crown founded a new chair -of Astronomy. Thereupon Wilson, being appointed to the chair, asked to -be allowed to transfer his foundry to the college, and the authorities, -on the motion of Adam Smith, resolved to build a foundry in the grounds. -Thus during Smith’s residence there were set up within the precincts of -the University Watt’s workshop, Foulis’s printing-press, Wilson’s -observatory and foundry, and last but not least, Cullen’s laboratory, -where Black his assistant discovered the existence of latent heat. - -The professors even started a series of lectures on natural science to a -class of working men. In 1761 Smith and others sought to establish a -school for dancing, fencing, and riding. But this project failed; and in -the following year Smith is found as an active opponent of a proposal -started in the town for the erection of a permanent theatre. He presides -at a meeting which resolves that the University should join forces with -the magistracy against this innovation. Shortly after his departure the -opposition dropped and the theatre was built. But it was burned down by -a mob of zealots, and in the _Wealth of Nations_ Smith not only lashes -those “fanatical promoters of popular frenzies,” who have always made -the theatre an object of their peculiar abhorrence, but demands that the -State should give “entire liberty to all those who for their own -interest would attempt, without scandal or indecency, to amuse and -divert the people by painting, poetry, music, dancing, by all sorts of -dramatic representations and exhibitions.” Such public diversions would -easily dissipate “that melancholy and gloomy humour which is almost -always the nurse of popular superstition and enthusiasm,” and would, -with the aid of science and philosophy, correct whatever was unsocial or -disagreeably rigorous in the morals of the country. By then he had -learned to admire the French theatre as well as the French dramatists. A -true liberal, he was always open to new ideas, and this last stump of -Scottish prejudice was rooted out by his continental tour. - -In the fifties Smith and Black helped Foulis to start an institution -called the Academy of Design, said to have been the first of its kind in -Great Britain. The authorities of the University found rooms for the -purpose in the college, and they may therefore claim to have been the -fathers, not only of the University extension movement, but also of -technical instruction. Painting, sculpture, and engraving were the -principal arts taught in this Academy. Tassie and David Allan were among -the students; and Lord Buchan, who boasted of walking “after the manner -of the ancients in the porticoes of Glasgow with Smith and with Millar,” -learned to etch in Foulis’s studio. A shop was started in Edinburgh for -the sale of works of art produced in the Academy, and Sir John -Dalrymple, writing to Foulis in 1757, begs him to take the advice of Mr. -Smith and Dr. Black, who are the best judges of what will sell. He also -advises Foulis to have a circular drafted showing the advantages of the -Academy. “Mr. Smith is too busy or too indolent, but I flatter myself -Dr. Black will be happy to make out this memorial for you.” He invites -Foulis and Smith to visit him in the Christmas vacance. - -There is no doubt, from the amount of business they laid on his -shoulders, and their choice of him as “Præses” in 1762, that Smith’s -colleagues had a high opinion of his practical abilities. His public -spirit and loyalty to the University were unbounded. The warmest and -most generous of friends, he was also one of those rare spirits, -especially rare in the reign of George the Third, who never let private -interests turn the scale against the common good. He made three protests -against a professor exercising the legal right of voting for himself in -an election to an office of profit. When Rouet, the professor of -History, asked for leave of absence, so that he might travel abroad as -Lord Hope’s tutor without relinquishing his professorship, Smith voted -with a majority for refusing the leave, and on a later occasion for -depriving him of office. This led to a quarrel with the Lord Rector, but -the pressure of college opinion eventually forced Rouet to resign. We -shall see that Smith on a similar occasion was careful to practise as he -had preached. - -From this reformed and progressive University the economist often issued -forth to breathe the eager air of a thriving mart. The town was -remarkably free from poverty and crime. In his lectures he said that in -Glasgow there was less crime than in Edinburgh, because it had more -commerce and independence, fewer servants and retainers. When he first -went to Glasgow as a student it was still poor; when he returned as a -professor, its commercial prosperity had fairly begun. Its loyalty to -the Hanoverian dynasty had cost it heavily in 1745, but that loyalty is -intelligible enough; for the Act of Union which deprived Edinburgh of -its Parliament, and of much of its resident aristocracy, opened up the -colonial markets to Glasgow, and enabled its enterprising merchants to -participate in the profitable monopoly of the American trade. By the -middle of the century it was already the emporium for colonial tobacco. -A tannery employed several hundred men; linen, copper, tin, and pottery -became staple manufactures in the forties; carpets, crape, and silk in -the fifties. Gibson, in his history of the town, tells us that after -1750 (when the first Glasgow Bank was opened) “not a beggar was to be -seen in the streets.” When he adds that “the very children were busy,” -we think of the early history of factories and shudder. “I have heard it -asserted,” says Smith in the _Wealth of Nations_ (Book II. chap. ii.), -“that the trade of the city of Glasgow doubled in about fifteen years -after the first erection of the banks there, and that the trade of -Scotland has more than quadrupled since the first erection of the two -public banks at Edinburgh.” He will not vouch for the figures, and holds -such an effect “too great to be accounted for by the sole operation of -this cause,” but says it cannot be doubted that the trade of Scotland -did increase very considerably during the period, and that the banks -contributed a good deal to this increase. - -All these external marks of enterprise and progress indicated the truth -of another of Smith’s sayings, that a few spirited merchants are a much -better thing for a town than the residence of a court. According to Sir -John Dalrymple, the three leading merchants of that time were together -worth a quarter of a million of money. Measured by modern standards -these are petty figures; but Mr. Rae says that commercial men in Glasgow -still look back to John Glassford and Andrew Cochrane as perhaps the -greatest merchants the Clyde had ever seen. Cochrane, who was Provost -when the Young Pretender paid his unwelcome visit, founded a weekly -club, the express design of which, according to Dr. Carlyle, was to -inquire into the nature and principles of trade. Smith, who joined the -club, became intimate with Cochrane, and afterwards, in Dr. Carlyle’s -words, “acknowledged his obligations to this gentleman’s information -when he was collecting materials for his _Wealth of Nations_.” The -junior merchants, adds the Doctor, who flourished after Cochrane, -“confess with respectful remembrance that it was Andrew Cochrane who -first opened and enlarged their views.” In _Humphrey Clinker_ he is -described as “one of the first sages of the Scottish Kingdom.” - -Dugald Stewart, who drew his information from James Ritchie, an eminent -merchant of Glasgow, tells us that Smith’s intimacy with its most -respected inhabitants gave him the commercial information he needed; and -he adds: “It is a circumstance no less honourable to their liberality -than to his talents, that notwithstanding the reluctance so common among -men of business to listen to the conclusions of mere speculation and the -direct opposition of his leading principles to all the old maxims of -trade, he was able before he quitted his situation in the University to -rank some very eminent merchants in the number of his proselytes.” That -Provost Cochrane and his brethren were well inclined to these doctrines -is probable, as they suffered severely from the duties on American iron; -and that interest in economic subjects was strong is proved by the -printing of several important books at Glasgow about this time. - -The merchants were, however, much under the influence of an economist of -the old school, Sir James Steuart, who lived in the neighbourhood, and -the progress of Smith’s opinions was more rapid in the University. It -was the students, as Dugald Stewart tells us, “that first adopted his -system with eagerness and diffused a knowledge of its fundamental -principles over this part of the kingdom.” - -During these thirteen years at Glasgow Smith kept up his connection with -Edinburgh by pretty constant visits. Shorn of royalty by the union of -crowns, and of its parliament by the union of parliaments, Edinburgh was -slowly recovering in trade what it had lost in political significance. -It had kept its Courts of Justice, and its boards of customs and excise. -Above all, it was the centre of an intellectual activity which gave -Scotland for the first time a name and a fame in European philosophy and -letters. - -The social and intellectual leader of the new movement was Smith’s early -friend and benefactor, Henry Home, who was raised to the bench as Lord -Kames in 1752, a man of very liberal and progressive ideas, full of -patriotic schemes for the improvement of Scottish art, manufactures, and -agriculture. His writings, though highly praised for their learning, -have long been forgotten, for sufficient reason. “I am afraid of Kames’s -_Law Tracts_,” Hume once wrote to Smith. “The man might as well think of -making a fine sauce by a mixture of wormwood and aloes as an agreeable -combination by joining metaphysics and Scottish Law.” Robertson, already -a prominent preacher and ecclesiastical politician, was feeling his way -towards Edinburgh and literary fame. John Home, a brother minister, was -composing the _Tragedy of Douglas_, counted by Hume, so he told Smith in -1756, “the best, and by French critics the only tragedy in our -language.” Another member of this circle, quite a fashionable oddity, -who ploughed his own glebe like a peasant, and startled a passer-by with -apt quotations from Theocritus, was Wilkie, the author of the -_Epigoniad_, a particular friend and admirer of our philosopher. Then -there were the two Dalrymples, both historians, and the gossipy -autobiographer, Dr. Carlyle. Three politicians of distinction often -adorned Edinburgh society at this time: brilliant Charles Townshend, who -was to make a revolution in Smith’s life, James Oswald, his old friend -and neighbour, and William Johnstone (Sir William Pulteney). Among the -relics of Smith’s correspondence is an introductory letter, dated -January 19, 1752, to Oswald, then at the Board of Trade, which “will be -delivered to you by Mr. William Johnstone, son of Sir James Johnstone of -Westerhall, a young gentleman whom I have known intimately these four -years, and of whose discretion, good temper, sincerity, and honour, I -have had during all that time frequent proof.” The young gentleman was -to give a further signal proof of his discretion by bestowing his -affections on a Pulteney, whose vast fortune doubtless consoled him for -the surrender of his name. The letter continues:— - - “You will find in him too, if you come to know him better, some - qualities which from real and unaffected modesty he does not at first - discover; a refinement and depth of observation and an accuracy of - judgment, joined to a natural delicacy of sentiment, as much improved - as study and the narrow sphere of acquaintance this country affords - can improve it. He had, first when I knew him, a good deal of vivacity - and humour, but he has studied them away. He is an advocate; and - though I am sensible of the folly of prophesying with regard to the - future fortune of so young a man, yet I could almost venture to - foretell that if he lives he will be eminent in that profession. He - has, I think, every quality that ought to forward, and not one that - should obstruct his progress, modesty and sincerity excepted, and - these, it is to be hoped, experience and a better sense of things may - in part cure him of. I do not, I assure you, exaggerate knowingly, but - could pawn my honour upon the truth of every article.” - -A cluster of these and many other stars formed, in 1754, a constellation -known as the Select Society, an institution, as we learn from Dugald -Stewart’s life of Robertson, “intended partly for philosophical inquiry, -and partly for the improvement of the members in public speaking.” It -was projected, he says, by Mr. Allan Ramsay, the painter, and a few of -his friends—Dr. Robertson, Mr. David Hume, Mr. Adam Smith, Mr. -Wedderburn (afterwards Lord Chancellor), Lord Kames, Mr. John Home, Dr. -Carlyle, and Sir Gilbert Elliot. Hailes, Monboddo, and Dalrymple were -also members. In the Select Society, writes Stewart, “the most splendid -talents that have ever adorned this country were roused to their best -exertions by the liberal and ennobling discussions of literature and -philosophy.” - -When the projectors met in May 1754, Smith, who had come from Glasgow, -was required to explain the proposals. At the second meeting, as appears -from the minutes now preserved in the Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh, -he was “Præses,” and gave out as subjects for the next debate (1) -whether a general naturalisation of Foreign Protestantism would be -advantageous to Britain; and (2) whether bounties on the exportation of -corn would be advantageous to manufactures as well as to agriculture. - -Many economic questions such as pauperism, slavery, hiring, banking, -export bounties on linen, rent, leases, highways, the relative -advantages of large and small farms, were discussed by a society which, -in Stewart’s words, contributed so much to the fame and improvement of -Scotland. A year after its foundation Hume wrote to Allan Ramsay that it -had grown to be a national concern. “Young and old, noble and ignoble, -witty and dull, laity and clergy, all the world are ambitious of a place -amongst us, and on each occasion we are as much solicited by candidates -as if we were to choose a member of Parliament.” The society did more -than debate. Adam Smith and eight others were appointed managers to -carry out a scheme for the promotion of Scottish arts, sciences, -manufactures, and agriculture. Executive committees were formed. -Contributions poured in; and prizes and premiums large in those days -were offered and awarded for every subject under the sun. From the -researches of Mr. Rae we learn, for example, that twenty-six prizes were -offered in the first year (1755), including three gold medals for the -best discovery in science, the best essay on taste, and the best on -vegetation. Six silver medals were given, including one for the best and -most correctly printed book, another for the best imitation of English -blankets, and a third for the best hogshead of strong ale. Four years -later the number of prizes given had increased to 142, and they included -one for the person who cured most smoky chimneys. - -The society sank as suddenly as it rose. After only a decade of -brilliant usefulness, the meteor fell, and expired, it is said, in a -flash of Townshend’s wit. “Why,” he asked, after listening to a debate -rich in eloquence, but unintelligible to a southern ear, “why can you -not learn to speak the English language as you have already learned to -write it?” So the society died, and Thomas Sheridan, father of the -statesman, came to Edinburgh with a course of lectures on English -elocution, which he delivered to about three hundred eminent gentlemen -in Carrubber’s Close. - -Upon the ashes of this famous society arose an equally patriotic but -perhaps less beneficent organisation. The Poker Club, as its name -indicated, was intended to be an instrument for stirring opinion. The -cause to be agitated was the establishment of a Scotch Militia on -national lines, to be followed, as some of its radical members hoped, by -a parliamentary reform which would “let the industrious farmer and -manufacturer share at last in a privilege now engrossed by the great -lord, the drunken laird, and the drunkener bailie.” - -Adam Smith was one of the original members of the Poker Club, which -gathered in most of the Select Society; but before 1776 he had changed -his opinions, for, in the _Wealth of Nations_, he comes to the -conclusion that “it is only by means of a well regulated standing army -that a civilised country can be defended.” If it relied for its defence -on a militia, it would be exposed to conquest. The militia movement is -mentioned by Smith in a letter to Strahan (April 4, 1760), in the course -of some reflections suggested by the Memoirs of Colonel Hooke. The -passage is interesting as a Scotch Whig’s explanation and defence of the -disaffection which prevailed north of the Tweed in the early part of the -eighteenth century:— - - “_Apropos_ to the Pope and the Pretender, have you read Hook’s - Memoirs? I have been ill these ten days, otherwise I should have - written to you sooner, but I sat up the day before yesterday in my bed - and read them thro’ with infinite satisfaction, tho’ they are by no - means well written. The substance of what is in them I knew before, - tho’ not in such detail. I am afraid they are published at an unlucky - time, and may throw a damp upon our militia. Nothing, however, appears - to me more excusable than the disaffection of Scotland at that time. - The Union was a measure from which infinite good has been derived to - this country. The Prospect of that good, however, must then have - appeared very remote and very uncertain. The immediate effect of it - was to hurt the interest of every single order of men in the country. - The dignity of the nobility was undone by it. The greater part of the - gentry who had been accustomed to represent their own country in its - own Parliament were cut out for ever from all hopes of representing it - in a British Parliament. Even the merchants seemed to suffer at first. - The trade to the Plantations was, indeed, opened to them. But that was - a trade which they knew nothing about; the trade they were acquainted - with, that to France, Holland, and the Baltic, was laid under new - embar[r]assments, which almost totally annihilated the two first and - most important branches of it. The Clergy, too, who were then far from - insignificant, were alarmed about the Church. No wonder if at that - time all orders of men conspired in cursing a measure hurtful to their - immediate interest. The views of their Posterity are now very - different; but those views could be seen by but few of our - forefathers, by those few in but a confused and imperfect manner.” - -In the same letter he asks to be remembered to Benjamin Franklin (who -had lately visited Glasgow), and also to Griffiths, the editor of the -_Monthly Review_, which had just paid a handsome tribute to the -_Theory_. - -In the notes of lectures, given as we have seen about the time when the -Poker Club was established, Smith admitted the necessity of a standing -army, but seems to have thought that its abuse should be guarded against -by a militia. The Poker Club proved little more than a convivial -society, and felt the scarcity and dearness of claret more than the want -of a national army. Lord Campbell says that when the duty on French wine -was raised to pay for the American War, they “agreed to dissolve the -‘Poker,’ and to form another society which should exist without -consumption of any excisable commodity.” When the duties were again -reduced by Pitt’s French Treaty in 1786, a Younger Poker Club arose, but -Pitt’s master, who had contributed so substantially to this revival of -patriotism, was too old or too indifferent to become a member. - -In one other important Edinburgh project the Glasgow professor played a -prominent part. In 1755 an _Edinburgh Review_ was started to supply the -rising authors of North Britain with the stimulus of sympathetic -criticism. Wedderburn, then a young advocate, was chosen editor; -Robertson and Smith were contributors in chief. But only two numbers -appeared of this precursor in name and in intention of the most famous -and successful review ever launched in our islands. Smith’s two articles -are of considerable, although of unequal, interest. The first and less -important is a review of Dr. Johnson’s _Dictionary_. “When we compare -this book with other dictionaries,” writes the critic, “the merit of its -author appears very extraordinary.” In previous English dictionaries the -chief purpose had been to explain hard words and terms of art; “Mr. -Johnson has extended his views much further, and has made a very full -collection of all the different meanings of each English word, justified -by examples from authors of good reputation.” The defects of the work -consisted chiefly in the plan, which was not sufficiently grammatical. -To show what he meant he took Johnson’s articles on _but_ and _humour_, -appending more philosophical and lucid articles of his own. Johnson -seems to have taken no notice of these criticisms in later editions of -the dictionary. We may observe in passing that Smith’s _but_ is better -than his _humour_. He seems singularly mistaken when he observes that “a -man of wit is as much above a man of humour as a gentleman is above a -buffoon.” In Scotland, he thinks, the usefulness of the _Dictionary_ -will soon be felt, “as there is no standard of correct language in -conversation.” - -A far more remarkable contribution is a letter to the editors, which -appeared in the second number. It is a protest against the reviewers -confining themselves to accounts of books published in Scotland, a -country “which is but just beginning to attempt figuring in the learned -world.” He proposes therefore that they should enlarge their scope, and -observe with regard to Europe the same plan that was being followed with -regard to England, that is to say, examine all books of permanent value -while contriving to take notice “of every Scotch production that is -tolerably decent.” Smith illustrated his plea by a very luminous and -masterly survey of French literature, and a comparison of the French, -German, and Italian genius with the English. - -The review was intended to appear every six months, but it never reached -a third number, either because it was not well received by the public, -or because a formidable theologian spied heresy lurking in its pages. - -It was at this time that the General Assembly was proposing to pass a -censure on Hume’s _Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals_, and to -excommunicate the author. Hume wrote to Allan Ramsay in Rome: “You may -tell that reverend gentleman the Pope, that there are men here who rail -at him, and yet would be much greater persecutors had they equal power. -The last Assembly sat on me. They did not propose to burn me, because -they cannot, but they intended to give me over to Satan. My friends -prevailed, and my damnation has accordingly been postponed a -twelve-month, but next Assembly will surely be upon me.” Lord Kames was -also attacked; but Smith seems to have escaped, though his turn was to -come later. - -The pupil of Hutcheson was also in many ways the philosophical disciple -and ally of Hume. Their intercourse during all these years was close and -constant. They paid mutual visits, and interchanged many letters, too -few of which have been preserved. Hume had been abroad, or at Ninewells, -during most of Smith’s stay in Edinburgh, and had only just made -Edinburgh his home when Smith obtained the professorship at Glasgow; -but, as Mr. Rae notes, before a year was out, Smith’s “dear sir” had -ripened into “my dearest friend,” and on these terms the two -philosophers remained until death parted them. - -We have seen how in the spring of 1759 Charles Townshend was much taken -with the _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, and told Oswald he would put his -young ward the Duke of Buccleuch under the author’s care. Hume did not -at first believe that Townshend would persevere, or if he did, that he -would offer such terms as would tempt Smith from Glasgow. But on this -occasion he was in earnest and never relinquished the idea, anxious, it -is said, to connect the fleeting fame of a parliamentarian with the -lasting renown of a philosopher. Townshend had married the widowed -Countess of Dalkeith. Her eldest son, the Duke of Buccleuch, was then a -boy at Eton, under Hallam, father of the historian. The time when his -stepson would leave school was still distant, but Townshend had made up -his mind to send the boy abroad. In England it was becoming more and -more the fashion for the sons of the nobility to travel abroad when they -left school, instead of going to one of the universities. It was thought -that they returned home much improved by their travels, and with some -knowledge of one or two living languages, whereas if they went to Oxford -or Cambridge they would learn nothing but idleness and dissipation. Adam -Smith himself afterwards came to the conclusion that foreign travel was -no substitute for a sound university training. The schoolboy, he wrote -after his continental tour, “commonly returns home more conceited, more -unprincipled, more dissipated, and more incapable of any serious -application either to study or business, than he could well have become -in so short a time had he lived at home.... Nothing but the discredit -into which the universities had fallen could ever have brought into -repute so very absurd a practice.”[20] - -In the summer of 1759 Townshend went to see Smith at Glasgow, and -apparently prevailed, for in the following September Smith wrote to him -about some books which he had been getting for Buccleuch, as if he were -already in the position of an educational adviser to the boy. As might -have been expected of one whom Burke immortalised as “the delight and -ornament of the House, and the charm of every private society which he -honoured with his presence,” Townshend captivated Glasgow. “Everybody -here remembers you with the greatest admiration and affection.” - -Smith was doubtless informed from time to time of the boy’s progress, -but we hear no more of the subject for four years. In the early part of -1763 he invited Hume to pay a visit to Glasgow. Hume was then in -Edinburgh; he had just brought out two volumes of his _History_, and was -drinking the nectar of general applause. At the end of March he replied -with a bantering reference, perhaps, to his friend’s economic studies: -“I set up a chaise in May next, which will give me the liberty of -travelling about, and you may be sure a journey to Glasgow will be one -of the first I shall undertake. I intend to require with great -strictness an account how you have been employing your leisure, and I -desire you to be ready for that purpose. Woe be to you if the Balance be -against you. Your friends here will also expect that I should bring you -with me. It seems to me very long since I saw you.” But in the summer -Lord Hertford was appointed Ambassador to the Court of France, and Hume -accepted the post of Secretary to the British Embassy at Paris, “with -great prospects and expectations.” He told his friend not to expect him -back for some time; “but we may meet abroad.” And so they did; for, a -couple of months later, Smith received the following letter:— - - “Dear Sir,—The time now drawing near when the Duke of Buccleugh - intends to go abroad, I take the liberty of renewing the subject to - you: that if you should still have the same disposition to travel with - him I may have the satisfaction of informing Lady Dalkeith and his - Grace of it, and of congratulating them upon an event which I know - that they, as well as myself, have so much at heart. The Duke is now - at Eton; he will remain there till Christmas. He will then spend some - short time in London, that he may be presented at Court, and not pass - instantaneously from school to a foreign country, but it were to be - wished he should not be long in Town, exposed to the habits and - companions of London, before his mind has been more formed and better - guarded by education and experience. - - “I do not enter at this moment upon the subject of establishment, - because, if you have no objection to the situation, I know we cannot - differ about the terms. On the contrary, you will find me more - solicitous than yourself to make the connection with Buccleugh as - satisfactory and advantageous to you as I am persuaded it will be - essentially beneficial to him. - - “The Duke ... has sufficient talents; a very manly temper, and an - integrity of heart and reverence for truth, which in a person of his - rank and fortune are the firmest foundations of weight in life and - uniform greatness. If it should be agreeable to you to finish his - education and mould these excellent materials into a settled - character, I make no doubt that he will return to his family and - country the very man our fondest hopes have fancied him. - - “I go to Town next Friday, and should be obliged to you for your - answer to this letter.—I am, with sincere affection and esteem, dear - sir your most faithful and most obedient humble servant, - - C. Townshend. - - Adderbury, _25th October 1763_.” - -The offer was accepted, and an arrangement concluded, in a pecuniary -point of view certainly “satisfactory and advantageous.” Smith was to -have a salary of £300 a year with travelling expenses, and a pension of -£300 a year for life. He was thus to enjoy, as Mr. Rae says, twice his -Glasgow income, and to have it assured till death. Altogether, Smith -drew more than £8000 from his three years’ tutorship. On November 8th, -“Dr. Smith represented,” so runs the record of the Faculty, “that some -interesting business would probably require his leaving the College some -time this winter”, and he was thereupon granted leave of absence for -three months. - -For some time, however, Smith heard nothing more. In the middle of -December, when he wrote to tell Hume of Townshend’s letter, he was still -in uncertainty. But a few days afterwards it was arranged that they -should start early in the new year, and on January the 9th Smith told -the Faculty that he should make use of his leave of absence, that he -should pay his deputy his half-year’s salary commencing from October the -10th, and that he had returned all his students’ fees. This last act of -liberality he was only able to carry out by a display of violence at the -end of his last lecture. The scene has luckily been reproduced with -unusual animation by the pen of Tytler, Lord Kames’s pedestrian -biographer. After concluding his last lecture, and describing the -arrangements he had made for them, “he drew from his pocket the several -fees of the students, wrapped up in separate paper parcels, and -beginning to call up each man by his name, he delivered to the first who -was called the money into his hand. The young man peremptorily refused -to accept it, declaring that the instruction and pleasure he had already -received was much more than he either had repaid or ever could -compensate; and a general cry was heard from every one in the room to -the same effect. But Mr. Smith was not to be bent from his purpose. -After warmly expressing his feelings of gratitude and the strong sense -he had of the regard shown to him by his young friends, he told them -this was a matter betwixt him and his own mind, and that he could not -rest satisfied unless he performed what he deemed right and proper. ‘You -must not refuse me this satisfaction; nay, by heavens, gentlemen, you -shall not’; and seizing by the coat the young man who stood next to him, -he thrust the money into his pocket and then pushed him from him. The -rest saw it was in vain to contest the matter, and were obliged to let -him take his own way.”[21] - -Scotch professors at that time often continued to hold their chairs -during a temporary appointment like a travelling tutorship, and paid -their salaries to a substitute until they returned. But Smith was no -friend of absenteeism. The interest of the College was his chief -anxiety, and accordingly in the following month he sent his formal -letter of resignation to the Lord Rector, immediately on his arrival in -Paris. “I never was,” he writes, “more anxious for the good of the -College than at this moment; and I sincerely wish that whoever is my -successor may not only do credit to the office by his abilities, but be -a comfort to the very excellent men with whom he is likely to spend his -life, by the probity of his heart and the goodness of his temper.” -(February 14, 1764.) - -In accepting his resignation the Senate added a few words which may -fittingly conclude our account of what Smith always regarded as the most -fruitful and honourable period of his life:—“The University cannot help -at the same time expressing their sincere regret at the removal of Dr. -Smith, whose distinguished probity and amiable qualities procured him -the esteem and affection of his colleagues; whose uncommon genius, great -abilities, and extensive learning did so much honour to this society; -his elegant and ingenious _Theory of Moral Sentiments_ having -recommended him to the esteem of men of taste and literature throughout -Europe. His happy talents in illustrating abstracted subjects, and -faithful assiduity in communicating useful knowledge, distinguished him -as a professor, and at once afforded the greatest pleasure and the most -important instruction to the youth under his care.” - - - - - CHAPTER VII - THE TOUR IN FRANCE, 1764-66 - - -“Everything I see appears the throwing broadcast of the seed of a -revolution,” wrote Voltaire to Chauvelin, a few weeks after Smith landed -in France. While the poor grew poorer, administration worse, taxes more -oppressive, that thick cloud of conventional darkness which had so long -shrouded misgovernment was dispersing, irradiated by the fierce glare of -an intellectual illumination such as the world had never seen before. -Already the mind of France was undimmed. Voltaire’s search-light had -shown the nakedness of Church and State. Diderot’s great lamp was fixed; -Rousseau waved his fiery torch, beaconing oppressed civilisation back to -the freedom of its cradle. Quesnai was at his patient calculations in -the Royal Palace. The great _Encyclopædia_ itself was on the eve of -completion. - -This gigantic work—in thirty-five folio volumes, of which the first -appeared in 1751—was doubly English; for it was inspired by Lord Bacon’s -plan for a universal dictionary of sciences and arts, and it began as a -mere translation of the Cyclopædia which Ephraim Chambers had published -in 1727. - -One of the first of our writers to study, perhaps the first to weigh and -measure the importance of the _Encyclopædia_, was Adam Smith. He seems -to have read it from the outset. In his letter to the _Edinburgh Review_ -he called it the most complete work of the kind ever attempted in any -language. He there noticed that D’Alembert’s preliminary discourse upon -the genealogy and filiation of arts and sciences was nearly the same as -that of Lord Bacon, that the separate articles were not dry abstracts of -what is commonly known by a superficial student, but “a compleat, -reasoned, and even critical examination of each subject.” Its pages bore -testimony to the triumphant progress of English philosophy and science -in France. The ideas of Bacon, Boyle, and Newton were explained with -that order, perspicuity, and judgment which distinguished all the -eminent writers of France. “As since the Union we are apt to regard -ourselves in some measure as the countrymen of those great men, it -flattered my vanity as a Briton to observe the superiority of the -English philosophy thus acknowledged by their rival nation.” It seems, -Smith added, “to be the peculiar talent of the French nation to arrange -every subject in that natural and simple order which carries the -attention without any effort along with it.” - -Smith was himself by nature and habit an Encyclopædist, not inferior -even to Diderot in his grasp of the whole field of science. Wanting the -laborious industry of the compiler, he was the equal perhaps of his -French contemporaries in the power of correlating knowledge and -combining truth. But he yielded to none in admiration of the -_Encyclopædia_, and commended it to English readers by translating the -magnificent eulogy bestowed on it by Voltaire in the conclusion of his -account of the artists who lived in the time of Louis the Fourteenth:— - -“The last age has put the present in a condition to assemble into one -body and to transmit to posterity, to be by them delivered down to -remoter ages, the sacred repository of all the arts and all the -sciences, all of them pushed as far as human industry can go. This is -what a society of learned men, fraught with genius and knowledge, are -now labouring upon, an immense and immortal work which accuses the -shortness of human life.” - -The Encyclopædists’ doctrine of the perfectibility of man was the -rational basis of Smith’s incurable optimism, but he did not share the -opinion of the French School that an absolute monarchy is the most -hopeful if not the only vehicle of human progress. Quesnai and his -disciples never dreamed that people could govern themselves; they -conjured up an ideal monarch who would let his people live in a state of -natural liberty. Adam Smith had faith in men as well as in philosophy, -and therefore his politics were not for his own age only but for the -time to come. A Whig in practice and a Republican in theory, he was not -likely to sympathise with the idea that natural liberty is to be enjoyed -under a despot. - -One critic expresses surprise that so close an observer had not the -sagacity to anticipate the downfall of the French Monarchy. But Turgot’s -dismissal, which first made Voltaire despair of a peaceful reformation, -occurred two months after the publication of the _Wealth of Nations_, -and ten years after its author’s return to England. Nay, at the time -when the finishing touches were being given to that work, it might have -been a fair question whether Turgot’s reforms were less likely to save -France than Lord North’s policy to enslave England. In any case, it was -not for a foreigner to play Cassandra to the Bourbons. But it will be -shown that the author of the _Wealth of Nations_ was under no illusions -as to the wretched state of the French peasant, the misgovernment of the -kingdom, and its fiscal disorganisation. - -The tutor and his pupil arrived in Paris on February 13, 1764, and, -after ten days with Hume, they proceeded to Toulouse, which still -preserved the dignity of a provincial capital, with a parliament, a -university, and an archbishopric. The nobility and notables of Languedoc -spent the winter there, and it was also a favourite resort of English -visitors, probably because it combined a good climate with agreeable -society. Its advocates vied with those of Paris. As a social and -intellectual centre it might be denominated the Edinburgh of France. Its -political importance is marked in the _Wealth of Nations_, where Adam -Smith describes the parliament of Toulouse as being “in rank and dignity -the second parliament of the kingdom.” Fortunately for the two Scots, a -cousin of Hume, the Abbé Seignelay Colbert, was at that time -Vicar-General of the diocese. Colbert was of the same family as the -great minister, and doubtless owed his success in the Gallican Church to -that connection. Hume’s personal popularity in Paris was enormous, and -his letters of introduction, which he wrote or procured, were everywhere -of service to the travellers. The Abbé, immediately on their arrival, -promised Hume he would do all that he could to make their stay -agreeable. After a month he was full of enthusiasm for his new -friends:—“Mr. Smith is a sublime man. His heart and his mind are equally -admirable.... The Duke, his pupil, is a very amiable spirit, and does -his exercises well, and is making progress in French.” - -The Abbé was a man of liberal ideas. Promoted to the bishopric of Rodez, -he tried to assist the agriculture and manufactures of his diocese, and -even had a momentary popularity in Paris in the year of the Revolution -(1789), when as a member of the States-General he proposed the union of -the clergy with the Third Estate. The Archbishop of Toulouse at this -time was the famous Loménie de Brienne, an old friend of Turgot and -Morellet, and so far a disciple of their economic principles that he -persuaded the States of Languedoc to adopt free trade in corn. But, as -Mr. Rae observes, he could not have been very friendly to Smith; for -afterwards, when Cardinal and Minister of France, he refused Morellet a -hundred louis to defray the cost of printing his translation of the -_Wealth of Nations_. In spite of Colbert’s kindness, the early months at -Toulouse dragged heavily, and the Duke proved at first an exacting -companion. On July 5th, Smith sent a rather lugubrious and petulant -letter to Hume:— - - “I should be much obliged to you if you could send us recommendations - to the Duke of Richelieu, the Marquis de Lorges, and the Intendant of - the Province. Mr. Townshend assured me that the Duc de Choiseul was to - recommend us to all the people of fashion here and everywhere else in - France. We have heard nothing, however, of these recommendations, and - have had our way to make as well as we could by the help of the Abbé, - who is a stranger here almost as much as we. The progress indeed we - have made is not very great. The Duke is acquainted with no Frenchman - whatever. I cannot cultivate the acquaintance of the few with whom I - am acquainted, as I cannot bring them to our house, and am not always - at liberty to go to theirs. The life which I led at Glasgow was a - pleasurable dissipated life in comparison of that which I lead here at - Present. I have begun to write a book in order to pass away the time.” - -The world has no reason to regret this want of gaiety, for the book -which Smith had begun in order to “pass away the time” was no other than -the _Wealth of Nations_. At Bordeaux, Adam Smith, his pupil and the Abbé -met Colonel Barré who wrote from that town to Hume on September the -4th:— - - “I thank you for your last letter from Paris, which I received just as - Smith and his _élève_ and l’Abbé Colbert were sitting down to dine - with me at Bordeaux. The latter is a very honest fellow, and deserves - to be a bishop; make him one if you can.... Smith agrees with me in - thinking that you are turned soft by the _délices_ of the French - Court, and that you don’t write in that nervous manner you was - remarkable for in the more northern climates.” - -From this time all went smoothly. Hume got them introductions from his -chief, Lord Hertford, the British Ambassador, to the Duc de Richelieu -and others. - -On the 21st of October they were again in Toulouse, and Smith wrote in -good spirits to thank Hume for his kindness and the Ambassador “for the -very honourable manner in which he was so good as to mention me to the -Duke of Richelieu in the letter of recommendation which you sent us.” He -adds:— - - “There was, indeed, one small mistake in it. He called me Robinson - instead of Smith. I took upon me to correct this mistake myself before - the Duke delivered the letter. We were all treated by the Maréchal - with the utmost Politeness and attention, particularly the Duke, whom - he distinguished in a very proper manner.... Our expedition to - Bordeaux and another we have made since to Bagnères has made a great - change upon the Duke. He begins now to familiarise himself to French - company, and I flatter myself I shall spend the rest of the time we - are to live together not only in peace and contentment, but in gayetty - and amusement.” - -They went to Montpellier to see the meeting of the States of Languedoc, -the most important of the six local parliaments still remaining in -France. There they met Horne Tooke, who afterwards called the _Wealth of -Nations_ wicked and the _Moral Sentiments_ nonsense, and Cardinal -Dillon, the Archbishop of Narbonne, another of the band of Gallicised -Scots. - -In Montpellier and Toulouse they saw many members of the parliament, and -obtained an insight into the legal and administrative system of a -province which enlightened Frenchmen were fond of citing as a model for -the reformation of their country. Smith took rather a favourable view of -French justice. The parliaments, he said, “are perhaps, in many -respects, not very convenient courts of justice; but they have never -been accused, they seem never even to have been suspected, of -corruption.” - -But, though incorruptible, the Toulouse Court had been guilty of one -scandalous act of fanatical injustice. In 1762 it found the unfortunate -Jean Calas, a Protestant, guilty of the murder of his son, who had -abjured his faith in order to join the Toulouse Bar, and then in an -agony of remorse had committed suicide in his father’s house. -Characteristically Smith did not allow this foul episode to distort his -perspective. In his last edition of the _Moral Sentiments_ the story is -told as one of those fatal accidents which “happen sometimes in all -countries, even in those where justice is in general very well -administered”:— - - “The unfortunate Calas, a man of much more than ordinary constancy - (broke upon the wheel and burnt at Toulouse for the supposed murder of - his own son, of which he was perfectly innocent), seemed with his last - breath to deprecate, not so much the cruelty of the punishment, as the - disgrace which the imputation might bring upon his memory. After he - had been broke, and was just going to be thrown into the fire, the - monk, who attended the execution, exhorted him to confess the crime - for which he had been condemned. ‘My Father,’ said Calas, ‘can you - yourself bring yourself to believe that I am guilty?’” - -To such a man, he thinks, “humble philosophy, which confines its views -to this life, can afford but little consolation.” He must seek refuge in -religion, which alone can offer him a prospect of another world of more -candour, humanity, and justice. But justice was not allowed to sleep. -For three years Voltaire assailed the ears of France with impassioned -argument. Before Smith left Toulouse a new trial was ordered, and fifty -judges, among them Turgot, revised the sentence, pronounced Calas -innocent, relieved his family from infamy, and awarded them a large sum -of money. - -A long stay in Languedoc would necessarily give a foreigner more -favourable impressions of the social and economic state of France than -he would have gained, say, in the Limousin, where Turgot was doing -heroic battle against famine and maladministration. Languedoc, with its -two millions of inhabitants, is described by Tocqueville as the -best-ordered and most prosperous as well as the largest of all the _pays -d’états_. Its roads, made and repaired without a _corvée_, were among -the best in France. Smith was struck by the great canal of Burgundy, -constructed some seventy years before by Riquet and kept in good repair -by his family, and he saw the province incessantly spending money on -developing and improving its roads and rivers. The charitable workhouses -established at the royal expense in other parts of France had not been -required in this comparatively happy territory. In fiscal system and -credit Languedoc was incomparably superior to the rest of the kingdom. A -land-tax instead of a poll-tax, few exemptions for the nobles, no -farmers-general to collect taxes and fortunes. The contrast between the -good local administration of Languedoc, and the fatal results of -centralisation in other parts of France, was often in the mind of the -author of the _Wealth of Nations_; and all that he said is fully -confirmed by Tocqueville’s study of French society before the -Revolution. Here is a passage that sounds like an echo of Turgot: Smith -is speaking of the advantages of local administration from local funds. -Under such an administration, he says, “a magnificent highroad cannot be -made through a desart country where there is little or no commerce, or -merely because it happens to lead to the country villa of the intendant -of the province, or to that of some great lord to whom the intendant -finds it convenient to make his court. A great bridge cannot be thrown -over a river at a place where nobody passes, or merely to embellish the -view from the windows of a neighbouring palace: things which sometimes -happen in countries where works of this kind are carried on by any other -revenue than that which they themselves are capable of affording.” - -After eighteen months in Toulouse the party went, we are told, “by a -pretty extensive tour, through the south of France to Geneva.” There -Smith was able to gratify two of his strongest passions: his admiration -for the Republican form of government and for Voltaire. The little -Republic was then in a constitutional tumult, for the citizens were -pressing for a share in what had till then been a narrow aristocracy. In -this they had the support of Voltaire, who lived, the literary potentate -of Europe, at Ferney, just outside the city bounds, in the feudal -seigniory of Gex. To his château by the lake pilgrims resorted from all -parts of Europe to pay their court, and were hospitably received. Smith -seems to have visited Ferney five or six times during his short stay, -and conversation deepened the admiration which his favourite author had -inspired. - -Samuel Rogers, meeting Smith a year before his death, happened to remark -of some writer that he was rather superficial, a Voltaire. “Sir!” cried -Smith, incensed by this use of the indefinite article, striking the -table with his hand, “there has been but one Voltaire.” Voltaire, on his -side, probably thought well of the _Theory of Moral Sentiments_, for his -intimate friend, Dr. Tronchin, the famous physician of Geneva, had sent -his son to attend Smith’s classes at Glasgow. Rogers’s visit fell in the -year of the French Revolution, and the question of king against -parliaments was being debated. Smith mentioned that Voltaire had an -aversion to the States, and was attached to the royal authority. -Voltaire had talked about the Duke of Richelieu, whom the party had met -at Toulouse, as a singular character. The duke had slipped down at -Versailles, a few years before his death, “the first _faux pas_ he had -ever made at Court.” When Saint-Fond, who visited Edinburgh in 1784, -called on Adam Smith, he was shown a fine bust of Voltaire; and Smith -discoursed upon the incalculable obligations that Reason owed to the -Philosopher of Ferney. “The ridicule and sarcasms which he lavished upon -fanatics and hypocrites of all sects have enabled the understandings of -men to bear the light of truth,” and prepared them for research. “He has -done much more for the benefit of mankind than those grave philosophers -whose books are read by a few only. The writings of Voltaire are made -for all and read by all.” Smith said he could not pardon Joseph the -Second of Austria, “who pretended to travel as a philosopher,” for -passing Ferney without doing homage to the historian of Peter the Great. -He concluded from this circumstance that Joseph “was but a man of -inferior mind.”[22] - -Smith kept no journal during his French tour, and as usual wrote as few -letters as possible, though he must have made extensive notes. Most of -his letters were probably to report progress to Charles Townshend. I -have in my possession part of an abstract of one of these, which, though -of no importance in itself, serves to show that he took his tutorship -very seriously. From sidelights in the correspondence of Charles Bonnet -the naturalist, and Le Sage, and Adam Ferguson, we know that he enjoyed -the best company in Geneva, particularly at the house of the Duchesse -d’Enville, who was there under Dr. Tronchin’s treatment with her son, -the ill-fated Duc de la Rochefoucauld. In 1774 Adam Ferguson wrote to -Smith that his own bad French reminded the Duchesse d’Enville of her old -difficulties with Smith, “but she said that before you left Paris she -had the happiness to learn your language.” Two years later Bonnet wished -Hume to remember him to “the Sage of Glascow, ... whom we shall always -recollect with great pleasure.” - -The tutor with his two pupils, for the Duke had been joined at Bordeaux -by a younger brother, left Geneva for Paris early in December 1765, -promising, however, to return to republican soil before they left the -continent. Hume, now a rich man with a pension of £900 a year, was just -leaving the Embassy, and relinquishing his sovereignty of philosophy and -society; but the two friends had a few days together before he crossed -the Channel with poor, wayward, irresolute Rousseau, hunted or haunted -by the furies. Adam Smith was soon in a whirlpool of gaiety and -philosophy. Friendship with Hume was enough to ensure a friendly -reception from Parisian society, where science and letters were still -fashionable. But Smith was known and valued for his own sake; his -_Theory of Moral Sentiments_ was so much read, praised, and talked about -that several translators, among them the young Duc de Rochefoucauld, -were competing to repair the badness of the first attempt, published in -1764 by Dous at the instance of Holbach. That of the Abbé Blavet was, -Smith thought, but indifferently executed. The best translation, it is -said, was that published in 1798 by Condorcet’s widow. - -For ten months Smith suffered and enjoyed enough dissipation for a -lifetime, if we may judge from the Hume correspondence, which shows that -in one week of July 1766 he was at Baron Holbach’s conversing with -Turgot, at the Comtesse de Boufflers’, and in the salon of Mademoiselle -de l’Espinasse. In fact, as Mr. Rae says, he seems to have been a -regular guest in almost all the famous _salons_ of Paris. Thus we find -Hume writing in March to the Countess de Boufflers: “I am glad you have -taken my friend Smith under your protection. You will find him a man of -true merit, though perhaps his sedentary recluse life may have hurt his -air and appearance as a man of the world.” She replies in May that she -has made the acquaintance of Mr. Smith, and for love of Hume has given -him a very hearty welcome; that she is reading the _Theory of Moral -Sentiments_, and believes it will please her. Six years later she talked -of translating the book, and said that Smith’s doctrine of Sympathy was -supplanting Hume’s philosophy as the fashionable opinion, especially -with the ladies! Smith was a keen playgoer in Paris, and made the -acquaintance of Madame Riccoboni, who had been a great actress but had -abandoned the stage for the novel, and was almost as popular as -Richardson. When he left France she gave him a charming letter of -introduction to Garrick:— - - “Je suis bien vaine, my dear Mr. Garrick, de pouvoir vous donner ce - que je perds avec un regret très vif, le plaisir de voir Mr. Smith. Ce - charming philosopher vous dira combien il a d’esprit, car je le défie - de parler sans en montrer.... Oh ces Écossois! ces chiens d’Écossois! - ils viennent me plaire et m’affliger. Je suis comme ces folles jeunes - filles qui écoutent un amant sans penser au regret, toujours voisin du - plaisir. Grondez-moi, battez-moi, tuez-moi: mais j’aime Mr. Smith, je - l’aime beaucoup. Je voudrois que le diable emportât tous nos gens de - lettres, tous nos philosophes, et qu’il me rapportât Mr. Smith.” - -In a separate letter to Garrick the novelist again describes her friend: -“Mr. Smith, un Écossois, homme d’un très grand mérite, aussi distingué -par son bon naturel, par la douceur de son caractère que par son esprit -et son savoir, me demande une lettre pour vous. Vous verrez un -philosophe moral et pratique; gay, riant à cent lieus de la pédanterie -des nôtres.”[23] Of the Rochefoucaulds we have already heard at Geneva. -They seem to have been at Paris during Smith’s stay there, for “from -Madame d’Enville,” writes Dugald Stewart, “the respectable mother of the -late excellent and much lamented Duke of Rochefoucauld, he received many -attentions which he always recollected with particular gratitude.” A -story is told of another lady, a marquise of talent and wit, who was so -overcome by his personal charms that she fell in love with him at -Abbeville, where Smith and the Duke of Buccleuch stopped on one of their -excursions from Paris. A Captain Lloyd, who was with the party, -doubtless on a patriotic visit to the field of Creçy, told the story to -Dr. Currie, the biographer of Burns. The philosopher could neither -endure these addresses nor conceal his embarrassment, for the reason, -said Lloyd, that he was deeply in love with an English lady who was also -at Abbeville. But Dugald Stewart only mentions an early attachment with -a lady who remained single, and at eighty years of age still retained -evident traces of her former beauty, and adds that “after this -disappointment he laid aside all thoughts of marriage.” - -Susan Curchod, that “inestimable treasure” for whom Gibbon sighed as a -lover, had married Necker, then only a successful banker, while Smith -and his party were at Toulouse. The mother of Madame de Stäel, as we -learn from her first admirer, united elegant manners and lively -conversation with wit, beauty, and erudition. No wonder then that her -new home was already a centre of Parisian life. The Neckers were very -hospitable, and were intimate with Morellet and others of the economic -sect. Adam Smith’s impressions of Necker are mentioned by Sir James -Mackintosh in the ever admirable though recanted _Defence of the French -Revolution_. He had, as we there read, no very high opinion of the -future minister, speaking of him as a man probably upright and not -illiberal, but narrow, pusillanimous, and entangled by the habit of -detail. He predicted that Necker’s fame would fall when his talents -should be brought to the test, and always said emphatically, “He is a -man of detail.” Mackintosh adds: “At a time when the commercial -abilities of Lord Auckland were the theme of profuse eulogy, Dr. Smith -characterised him in the same words.” - -Dugald Stewart mentions that Smith was also acquainted with D’Alembert, -Helvétius, and Marmontel. It was at the house of Helvétius that he first -met the great Turgot and the excellent Abbé Morellet. “He talked our -language very badly,” writes the Abbé in his memoirs; “but his _Theory -of Moral Sentiments_ had given me a great idea of his depth and -sagacity, and in fact I still look upon him as one who made most -comprehensive observations and analyses of all the questions that he -dealt with. M. Turgot, who was as fond of metaphysics as I was, held a -high opinion of his genius. We saw him often; he was presented at the -house of Helvétius: we discussed the theory of commerce, banking, loans, -and many points in the great book he was then composing. He gave me a -very pretty pocket-book which he used and which has served me for twenty -years.” - -Turgot’s _Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth_, -which were written about this time, remained unpublished till 1769, when -they began to appear in the _Éphémérides du Citoyen_. It is noteworthy -as bearing upon the question of mutual obligation between Smith and -Turgot that it was the _Wealth of Nations_, not the _Reflections_, which -gave topics for their economic discussions. It has been supposed, on the -authority of Condorcet, that a correspondence was subsequently carried -on between Smith and Turgot. But the publication quite recently of a -letter written by Smith to the young Duke of Rochefoucauld has removed -all doubt upon the subject. Rochefoucauld had written to inquire of -Smith if he possessed any letters from Turgot, and this is the answer:— - - “I should certainly have been very happy to have communicated to your - Grace any letters which the ever to be regretted Mr. Turgot had done - me the honour to write to me; and by that means to have the - distinguished honour of being recorded as one of his correspondents. - But tho’ I had the happiness of his acquaintance and, I flattered - myself, even of his friendship and esteem, I never had that of his - correspondence. He was so good as to send me a copy of the _Procès - Verbal_ of what passed at the bed of justice upon the registration of - his six edicts which did so much honour to their Author, and, had they - been executed without alteration, would have proved so beneficial to - his country. But the present (which I preserve as a most valuable - monument of a person whom I remember with so much veneration) was not - accompanied with any letter.” - -Twenty-three years afterwards there is an entry in the diary of Samuel -Rogers: “Adam Smith said Turgot was an honest, well-meaning man, but -unacquainted with the world and human nature; that it was his maxim (he -mentioned it to Hume, but never to Smith) that whatever is right may be -done.” This is certainly not Adam Smith’s whole mind about Turgot, for -whom he entertained a lively admiration. But undoubtedly he considered -that his own obligations to the French School of Political Economy began -and ended with Quesnai, and we know that he intended at one time to -dedicate his book to the author of the _Economic Table_. Turgot, -Morellet, Rivière, and the rest were interpreters of Quesnai—disciples, -not masters. - -Quesnai was the inventor of a new system, the founder of a sect, and the -wielder of whatever influence that sect exerted on the _Wealth of -Nations_. Smith’s intercourse with Quesnai and the physiocrats, as well -as a careful study of their writings, accounts for some important -developments of theory which distinguish his book from his lectures, and -particularly the attention he there pays to the problem of distribution, -as well as a distinct though moderated bias towards agriculture as the -most productive of pursuits. He was not a physiocrat. Indeed his -criticism of the distinctive doctrine of the school, that all wealth -comes from the soil, was felt to be convincing and final. But he went a -long way with them, and some of his most important practical conclusions -coincided with theirs. No reader of the ninth chapter of Smith’s fourth -book could doubt that Smith knew Quesnai as well as Quesnai’s _Table_, -which had been published in 1758 and was regarded with an almost -superstitious veneration by the whole sect. If the doubt existed, it -would be dispelled by a curious piece of evidence. Of the half-dozen -letters he wrote from France that have been preserved, the longest, -dated Compiègne, August 26, 1766, is to Charles Townshend, and describes -some anxious moments in which he had called in the aid of the king’s -physician. The Duke of Buccleuch had been to Compiègne to see the camp -and to hunt with the King and the Court, and after hunting had eaten too -heartily of a cold supper with a vast quantity of salad and some cold -punch. Sickness and fever followed. The faithful tutor begged him to -send for a doctor:— - - “He refused a long time, but at last, upon seeing me uneasy, - consented. I sent for Quenay, first ordinary physician to the King. He - sent me word he was ill. I then sent for Senac; he was ill likewise. I - went to Quenay myself to beg that, notwithstanding his illness, which - was not dangerous, he would come to see the Duke. He told me he was an - old infirm man, whose attendance could not be depended on, and advised - me as his friend to depend upon De la Saone, first physician to the - Queen. I went to De la Saone. He was gone out, and was not expected - home that night. I returned to Quenay, who followed me immediately to - the Duke. It was by this time seven at night. The Duke was in the same - profuse sweat which he had been in all day and all the preceding - night. In this situation Quenay declared that it was improper to do - anything till the sweat should be over. He only ordered him some - cooling ptisane drink. Quenay’s illness made it impossible for him to - return next day (Monday), and De la Saone has waited on the Duke ever - since, to my entire satisfaction.” - -In reading this we are reminded of a passage in the _Wealth of Nations_ -where Quesnai is described as “a physician, and a very speculative -physician,” who thought the health of the human body could be preserved -only by a certain precise regimen of diet and exercise, the slightest -violation of which necessarily occasioned some degree of disease or -disorder. The letter to Townshend continues:— - - “Depend upon hearing from me by every post till his perfect recovery; - if any threatening symptom should appear I shall immediately despatch - an express to you; so keep your mind as easy as possible. There is not - the least probability that any such symptom ever will appear. I never - stir from his room from eight in the morning till ten at night, and - watch for the smallest change that happens to him. I should sit by him - all night too if the ridiculous, impertinent jealousy of Cook, who - thinks my assiduity an encroachment upon his duty, would not be so - much alarmed, as it gave some disturbance even to his master in his - present illness.” - -The visit was now drawing to an end, but our account of it would be -incomplete if we omitted Smith’s part in one of the most furious -squabbles of the century. Rousseau had arrived in Paris almost -simultaneously with our travellers, tempted by Hume’s generous promise -to find him a refuge in England from his persecutors. The advent of the -author of the _Social Contract_ and _Émile_ threw Paris into a tumult of -excitement. “People may talk of ancient Greece as they please,” wrote -Hume, full of affection and enthusiasm for his _protégé_, “but no nation -was ever so proud of genius as this, and no person ever so much engaged -their attention as Rousseau. Voltaire and everybody else are quite -eclipsed by him.” The philosophers of Paris predicted a quarrel before -they got to Calais, but for some time Hume contrived to manage this -wayward, suspicious genius admirably well, procuring him a pension and a -comfortable establishment in Derbyshire. At last, in June, Rousseau -suddenly lost his head, mastered by the haunting fears of treachery, and -wrote to Hume that his horrible designs were at last found out. For once -in his life Hume lost his temper, and discretion departed from him. He -determined to punish Rousseau’s ingratitude and put himself right in the -eyes of the world. But before taking this step he wrote to consult his -friends in Paris, and Smith sent the following reply:— - - “Paris, _6th July 1766_. - - “My dear Friend,—I am thoroughly convinced that Rousseau is as great a - rascal as you and as every man here believes him to be. Yet let me beg - of you not to think of publishing anything to the world upon the very - great impertinence which he has been guilty of to you. By refusing the - pension which you had the goodness to solicit for him with his own - consent, he may have thrown, by the baseness of his proceedings, a - little ridicule upon you in the eyes of the court and the ministry. - Stand this ridicule; expose his brutal letter, but without giving it - out of your own hand, so that it may never be printed; and, if you - can, laugh at yourself; and I shall pawn my life that before three - weeks are at an end this little affair which at present gives you so - much uneasiness shall be understood to do you as much honour as - anything that has ever happened to you. By endeavouring to unmask - before the public this hypocritical pedant, you run the risk of - disturbing the tranquillity of your whole life. By letting him alone - he cannot give you a fortnight’s uneasiness. To write against him is, - you may depend upon it, the very thing he wishes you to do. He is in - danger of falling into obscurity in England, and he hopes to make - himself considerable by provoking an illustrious adversary. He will - have a great party, the Church, the Whigs, the Jacobites, the whole - wise English nation, who will love to mortify a Scotchman, and to - applaud a man who has refused a pension from the King. It is not - unlikely, too, that they may pay him very well for having refused it, - and that even he may have had in view this compensation. Your whole - friends here wish you not to write,—the Baron, D’Alembert, Madame - Riccoboni, Mademoiselle Riancourt, M. Turgot, etc. etc. M. Turgot, a - friend every way worthy of you, desired me to recommend this advice to - you in a particular manner as his most earnest entreaty and opinion. - He and I are both afraid that you are surrounded with evil - counsellors, and that the advice of your English _literati_, who are - themselves accustomed to publishing all their little gossiping stories - in newspapers, may have too much influence upon you. Remember me to - Mr. Walpole, and believe me to be with the most sincere affection, - ever yours, - - Adam Smith.” - -Within six months Hume was sorry that he had not taken this sage advice, -and blamed himself for the “Succinct Exposure,” which had been followed -of course by a cloud of pamphlets. We must be careful not to suppose -from this letter that Smith really had a mean opinion of Rousseau. He -had reviewed with warm but discerning praise the second discourse on the -_Origin and Foundation of Inequality among Mankind_; and in later days -he spoke with reverential emotion of the author of the _Social -Contract_. - -Smith was now anxious to return home. To Millar, his publisher, he wrote -early in the autumn:—“Though I am very happy here, I long passionately -to rejoin my old friends, and if I had once got fairly to your side of -the water, I think I should never cross it again. Recommend the same -sober way of thinking to Hume. He is light-hearted, tell him, when he -talks of coming to spend the remainder of his days here or in France.” - -Their return was precipitated by a tragedy. Hew Scott, the Duke’s -younger brother, a lad of nineteen, was assassinated in the streets of -Paris on October 19th. Smith and the Duke almost immediately left Paris, -and were in London at the beginning of November. “We returned,” wrote -the Duke to Dugald Stewart, “after having spent near three years -together without the slightest disagreement or coolness, and on my part -with every advantage that could be expected from the society of such a -man. We continued to live in friendship till the hour of his death.” -Besides the substantial advantages of independence, Smith, as we learn -from many of his contemporaries, had gained vastly in manner, address, -and knowledge of the world. Much of his awkwardness had disappeared. In -the bustle of travel and society, he almost forgot how to be -absent-minded. - -We have already mentioned a complaint that Smith failed to realise the -utter misery of France or to foresee the Revolution. The second half of -the complaint seems to be an impertinence. He was not called upon to -write out the past, or present, much less the future of France. The -first part of the complaint is more plausible. The _Wealth of Nations_ -abounds in illustrations drawn from the French tour, and from these we -certainly get a less melancholy picture than from the pages of Arthur -Young, or from the correspondence of Voltaire, D’Alembert, Turgot and -the rest. But then, Young’s tour was twenty years later, and the French -reformers were thinking exclusively of the stagnant condition of France -in a moving and progressive age. They felt bitterly the dreadful -difference between their France and the France that should have been but -for the impoverishing wars and oppressive misgovernment of Louis XIV. -and his successors. Smith took France as she was, and found her still -one of the richest and most powerful countries of the world. In the -ninth chapter of his first book he compares Holland, England, France, -and Scotland. The first, “in proportion to the extent of its territory -and the number of its people, is a richer country than England.” Its -government can borrow at two per cent.; wages of labour are said to be -higher than in England, and the Dutch trade upon lower profits than any -people in Europe. They have large investments in foreign countries, and -“during the late war the Dutch gained the whole carrying-trade of -France, of which they still retain a very large share.” England comes -next. “France is perhaps in the present times not so rich a country as -England.” Its market rate of interest is generally higher, and so are -the profits of trade; “and it is no doubt upon this account that many -British subjects chuse rather to employ their capitals in a country -where trade is in disgrace than in one where it is highly respected.” -Then he shows that, though France was still richer than Scotland, -Scotland was making far more rapid progress:— - - “The wages of labour are lower in France than in England. When you go - from Scotland to England, the difference which you may remark between - the dress and countenance of the common people in the one country and - in the other, sufficiently indicates the difference in their - condition. The contrast is still greater when you return from France. - France, though no doubt a richer country than Scotland, seems not to - be going forward so fast. It is a common and even a popular opinion in - the country, that it is going backwards; an opinion which, I - apprehend, is ill-founded even with regard to France, but which nobody - can possibly entertain with regard to Scotland, who sees the country - now, and who saw it twenty or thirty years ago.” - -Misgovernment, it is true, had done its worst in pre-revolutionary -France, but it could not ruin fertile territory and a thrifty -population. At that time the cities of Bordeaux, Lyons, and Marseilles -surpassed in wealth and in the number of their inhabitants Copenhagen, -Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and Berlin. Several of the provincial -parliaments offered as fair a field for legal talent as the Courts of -Dublin and Edinburgh. After the landed nobility, the Church, the King, -his ministers, intendants, and a host of minor officials had taken their -rents and revenues and stipends, fortunes were still left for rapacious -financiers and rascally farmers-general. Smith saw all this and -explained it with his usual lucidity. But he never mistook wealth for -welfare. He applied his favourite test of the condition of the labouring -poor. Though France was a much richer country, with a better soil and -climate than Scotland, and “better stocked with all those things which -it requires a long time to raise up and accumulate, such as great towns -and convenient and well-built houses, both in town and country,” yet the -poor were worse off. In England the common people all [_sic_] wore -leather shoes, in Scotland the men only; in France both men and women -went about sometimes in wooden shoes and sometimes barefooted. He finds -the reason for these things in unfair and ill-judged taxation, and he -devotes many pages to a severe scrutiny of the French system. - -Considering that France had some twenty-four millions of people, thrice -the number of Great Britain, that it was naturally richer and had been -“much longer in a state of improvement and cultivation,” it might have -been expected that the French Government could have raised a revenue of -thirty millions with as little inconvenience as a revenue of ten -millions was raised in Great Britain. In 1765 and 1766 the revenue -actually paid into the French Treasury did not amount to fifteen -millions sterling. Yet the taxes were so devised and collected that the -French people, it was generally acknowledged, were much more oppressed -by taxes than the people of Great Britain. “France, however, is -certainly the great Empire in Europe which, after that of Great Britain, -enjoys the mildest and most indulgent government!” Smith had not only -diagnosed the disease; his French studies and his friendship with -enlightened men like Turgot, Quesnai, and Morellet had enabled him to -propose remedies. “The finances of France,” he observes in the second -chapter of his fifth book, “seem in their present state to admit of -three very obvious reformations.” First, he would abolish the _taille_ -and the capitation, balancing the loss by increasing the number of -_vingtièmes_ or land-tax. Second, “by rendering the _gabelle_, the -_aides_, the _traites_, the taxes upon tobacco, and all the different -customs and excises, uniform in all the different parts of the kingdom, -those taxes might be levied at much less expense, and the interior -commerce of the kingdom might be rendered as free as that of England.” -Thirdly, by subjecting all taxes to the immediate inspection and -direction of government, the exorbitant profits of the farmers-general -might be added to the revenue of the State. But, he adds, with the same -scepticism that colours his view of the prospects of Free Trade in -England, the opposition arising from the private interests of -individuals would probably be effectual in preventing all three parts of -the scheme of reformation. Yet half a century after the appearance of -the _Wealth of Nations_ one of its annotators was able to write: “Taxes -in France are now placed almost on the footing suggested by Dr. Smith. -The _taille_ and _capitation_ have been abolished, and replaced by the -_contribution foncière_; the different taxes have been rendered equal in -all the provinces of the kingdom, and they are chiefly collected by -officers appointed by the Government.” Nor is the connection between the -book and the reforms either fanciful or remote. “It was, I avow—to the -shame of my first instructors,” wrote “le bon Mollien,” Napoleon’s -favourite minister of finance, “this book of Adam Smith, then so little -known, that taught me better to appreciate the multitude of points at -which public finance touches every family, and raises judges of it in -every household.” - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - POLITICS AND STUDY, 1766-76 - - -Adam Smith, as we have seen, had begun to write his immortal book at -Toulouse in the summer of 1764 “in order to pass away the time.” But -even after his return to London, in November 1766, more than nine years -were still to pass before the _Wealth of Nations_ could be placed in the -publisher’s hands. All this time the book was his chief occupation, and -but for the light which an occasional letter throws upon his studies, -the story of Smith’s life during these nine years might almost be -written in as many lines. For about six months he remained in London, -where he mingled with men, collected books and material for his -treatise, and saw the third edition of his _Theory of Moral Sentiments_ -through the press. - -In an undated letter to Strahan, who was now a partner in Millar’s -publishing firm, about the title-page to this volume, the author desired -to be called “simply Adam Smith, without any addition either before or -behind.” He had received the honorary degree of LL.D. before leaving -Glasgow, but he did not like to be called Dr. Smith, and seldom used the -title. But politics, which had just taken a strange turn, soon commanded -his attention; and a curious letter from Smith to Shelburne (February -12, 1767) raises for a moment the curtain that divides the spectator -from the actors, and allows us to survey the scene behind which the most -enlightened member of the Government was working to introduce common -sense into the colonial policy of Great Britain. It was a scene, too, in -the greatest political drama of Adam Smith’s lifetime, which left deep, -decipherable marks on the pages of the _Wealth of Nations_. - -While Smith was discussing the new principles with the philosophers of -Paris, an active spirit of dissatisfaction had been spreading in distant -communities of men. The spirit of liberty seemed to have walked forth -over the face of the earth and to threaten revolutions in every part. -The Georgians under the valiant Heraclius had revolted against their -ignominious tribute to the Turkish seraglios. The tyrannies of a French -governor had provoked insurrections in St. Domingo. The first tramp of a -revolutionary march was heard in the Spanish dominions of South America; -above all, the long and smouldering discontent in our own American -colonies had suddenly been fanned into a blaze. But Europe, whose policy -had been the source of all these woes, was for once in a peaceful mood. -The Empress of Russia was busy entertaining her savants. The Swede was -occupied at home, and the tall Pomeranian was content to drill. A -financial crisis in France and England made the two Governments -friendly; and though there were bloody feuds and insurrections in -Turkey, Poland, and Spain, the historian of Europe, surveying the year -1766 and comparing it with its predecessors, marked it with a white -chalk and fancied he could at last spell a drift towards peace in the -hollow states and bankrupt empires of the old world. Ambition indeed -seldom stoops to calculations, but the most acquisitive imperialist -seeing multitudes of unemployed, food at famine prices, and manufactures -at a standstill, began to wonder whether after all the conquests of the -war had been worth such a price. For once the governing classes were -sobered and were ready to make some grudging atonement for one of their -worst blunders. The same commercial stress which constrained the French -King to pacify his parliaments inclined the parliament of Great Britain -to appease the colonial assemblies. - -The session of 1766 was one of the longest, most momentous, and stirring -within living memory. It had begun, as we have said, with sharp distress -at home, and that distress had been aggravated by the disturbances in -America; for the colonists, incensed by the Stamp Act, refused to pay -for English goods (to the value of several millions) with which their -shops and warehouses were stocked. No wonder, then, that in all parts of -the realm traders and manufacturers did their best to persuade the -Rockingham ministry to adopt conciliatory measures. Parliament was -besieged by petitions from the merchants of London, Bristol, Lancaster, -Liverpool, Hull, Glasgow, and most of the trading and manufacturing -towns in the kingdom, setting forth the great damage done to their trade -by the new laws and regulations made for America. They pointed out that -the Stamp Act and other harassing legislation had not only sown a crop -of discontent in the colonies, but had already produced many -bankruptcies at home and were rapidly leading to widespread distress. - -A contemporary writer of great power tells us that no matter of debate -was ever more ably or learnedly handled in both Houses than the colonial -policy which Lord Rockingham and his colleagues laid before Parliament. -Those who denied the right of taxing the colonies cited Locke and -Selden, Harrington and Puffendorf, to show that the very foundation and -ultimate point in view of all government is the good of the society. -They inferred from the Magna Charta and Bill of Rights, and from the -whole history of our constitution, that no British subject can be taxed -save by himself or his own representative; and they further quoted in -support of their argument the constitutions of the Tyrian colonies in -Africa, and of the Greek colonies in Asia. On this last head the -supporters of the Stamp Act (Charles Townshend’s fatal measure) -observed, sensibly enough, that arguments about the British colonies -drawn from the colonies of antiquity were a mere useless display of -learning, for the Tyrian and Greek colonies were planned on a totally -different system. Besides, they said, the Romans were the first to form -a regular colonial system, and Rome’s jurisdiction over her colonies was -“boundless and uncontrollable.” As for Locke, Selden, and Puffendorf, -they were only _natural_ lawyers, and their refinements were little to -the purpose in arguing the law and practice of a particular -constitution. - -The Rockinghams carried the Repeal of the Stamp Act; but the effect of -this wise and generous policy was marred by a Declaratory Act for better -securing the dependence of His Majesty’s dominions in America, which set -forth the supremacy of Parliament over all the colonies and its right to -impose taxes. At the end of July, after the conclusion of a satisfactory -session, the Marquis of Rockingham was suddenly, to the surprise of the -nation, ejected from office by the king, and a new ministry of strangely -assorted talents, with Chatham at its head, in which Shelburne, Charles -Townshend, the Duke of Grafton, and Camden were the leading figures, was -pushed into office. Accordingly when Adam Smith returned to England he -found not only that those commercial, fiscal, and colonial questions in -which he was so deeply versed were the first questions in politics, but -also that the two statesmen with whom he was most intimate occupied two -of the most important posts—for Charles Townshend was Chancellor of the -Exchequer, and Shelburne was a Secretary of State. - -These events sufficiently explain why a real statesman like Shelburne, -one of the leading members of the ministry, was seeking information at -the beginning of the session of 1767 upon colonial topics. It seems -astonishing to us now that the Roman analogy should have so exercised -the minds of practical statesmen; but Greek and Latin were the only -subjects in those days with which educated members of the governing -classes were sure to be familiar, and it was to these men in Parliament -that political arguments were exclusively addressed. Probably Shelburne -wanted classical precedents to check his colleagues from reverting to a -coercive policy, and was anxious to meet the argument from Rome that had -been used in the debates of the previous year. At any rate, he had asked -help of Adam Smith, and received the following reply, which was more -helpful than it should have been: “Within these two days I have looked -over everything I can find relating to the Roman colonys. I have not yet -found anything of much consequence.... They seem to have been very -independent. Of thirty colonys of whom the Romans demanded troops in the -second Carthaginian War, twelve refused to obey. They frequently -rebelled and joined the enemies of the republic; being in some measure -little independent republics, they naturally followed the interests -which their peculiar situation pointed out to them.” His first studies -on Roman colonisation had a decidedly whiggish complexion. Further -reading led him to the juster view expressed in the _Wealth of Nations_, -that a Roman colony was quite different from the autonomous Greek -ἀποικία, “at best a sort of corporation, which, though it had the power -of enacting byelaws for its own government, was at all times subject to -the correction, jurisdiction, and legislative authority of the mother -country.” And this explains why the Greek colonies were so much more -prosperous: “As they were altogether independent of the mother city, -they were at liberty to manage their own affairs in the way they judged -was most suitable to their own interests.” But before the colonial -debates of 1767 came on Adam Smith had left London. - -On March 25th he wrote from Lower Grosvenor Street to Thomas Cadell, one -of the partners in Millar’s firm, which combined bookselling with -publishing, to ask him to insure four boxes of books for £200, and -despatch them to Kincaid, his publisher in Edinburgh.[24] He probably -stayed in London till the third of May, when the Duke of Buccleuch was -married. He would then pick up his valuable parcels in Edinburgh and go -on without delay to Kirkcaldy to rejoin his mother and his cousin, Miss -Jane Douglas, from whom he had been separated for more than two years. - -His first letter to Hume (Kirkcaldy, June 9th) describes his daily life. -“My business here is study, in which I have been very deeply engaged for -about a month past. My amusements are long solitary walks by the -seaside. You may judge how I spend my time. I feel myself, however, -extremely happy, comfortable, and contented. I never was perhaps more so -in all my life.” He goes on to ask about his friends in London, and -wishes to be remembered to all, particularly to Mr. Adams the architect, -and to Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu. He inquires about Rousseau: “Has he gone -abroad, because he cannot contrive to get himself sufficiently -persecuted in Great Britain?” He also wants to know the meaning of “the -bargain that your ministry have made with the India Company,” and -rejoices that they have refused to prolong its charter. At the end of -August Smith paid a visit to Dalkeith House to help the newly married -couple to entertain their tenants and friends on the occasion of the -Duke’s birthday. “The Duke and Dutchess of Buccleugh,” he wrote to Hume -on September 15th, “have been here now for almost a fortnight. They -begin to open their house on Monday next, and I flatter myself, will -both be very agreeable to the people of this country. I am not sure that -I have ever seen a more agreeable woman than the Dutchess. I am sorry -that you are not here, because I am sure you would be perfectly in love -with her. I shall probably be here some weeks.” - -Dr. Carlyle was among the guests at Dalkeith House, and in his -autobiography takes some credit to himself for the success of the -proceedings. “Adam Smith,” he says, “was but ill qualified to promote -the jollity of a birthday,” and but for Carlyle’s exertions the meeting -might have been dissolved without even drinking the proper toasts. His -conclusion is that the Duke and Duchess should have brought down a man -of “more address,” and he leaves little doubt as to who that man should -have been. Incidentally Dr. Carlyle has to admit that the new Duke -proved a great credit to his tutor. The Buccleuch family had always been -good landlords, but Duke Henry “surpassed them all as much in justice -and humanity as he did in superiority of understanding and good sense.” -Lord Brougham relates a story which illustrates what Carlyle meant by -“want of address.” On one occasion, during dinner at Dalkeith, our -philosopher broke out into a discourse on some political matters of the -day, and was bestowing a variety of severe epithets on a certain -statesman, when he suddenly perceived the statesman’s nearest relative -sitting opposite, and stopped; but he was heard to mutter, “Deil care, -deil care, it’s all true!” - -After two months at Dalkeith he returned to his mother and his studies, -and remained for the next six years, so far as we know, uninterruptedly -at Kirkcaldy, save for an occasional visit to Edinburgh, whither he was -constantly and with much importunity invited by his friend Hume. Dugald -Stewart remarks that this retirement “formed a striking contrast to the -unsettled mode of life he had been for some time accustomed to, but was -so congenial to his natural disposition, and to his first habits, that -it was with the utmost difficulty he was ever persuaded to leave it.” He -was never happier than now, living with his mother in Kirkcaldy; -“occupied habitually in intense study, but unbending his mind at times -in the company of some of his old school-fellows, whose sober wishes’ -had attached them to the place of their birth. In the society of such -men Mr. Smith delighted; and to them he was endeared, not only by his -simple and unassuming manners, but by the perfect knowledge they all -possessed of those domestic virtues which had distinguished him from his -infancy.”[25] - -The High Street of Kirkcaldy contained some excellent houses, and that -occupied by Smith was one of the best. It was large and substantially -built, four stories high, with twenty windows facing into the High -Street. It had a frontage of about fifty feet, and a garden of the same -width ran back a hundred yards or more eastwards down to the sands. On -either side of the garden was a high wall, and on the north side a -narrow public footpath divided Smith’s garden from his neighbour’s. This -quaint passage, enclosed by two high walls, is still called Adam Smith’s -Close. - -The house was pulled down in 1844. Robert Chambers, who saw it in the -twenties, noticed a mark on the wall of Smith’s study, and was told that -the philosopher used to compose standing. As he dictated to his clerk he -would rub his wig sideways against the wall, and so left a mark which, -says the antiquary regretfully, “remained till lately, when the room -being painted anew it was unfortunately destroyed.” Hume, who had just -removed to James’s Court, Edinburgh, wrote to his friend in August 1769 -to tempt him from his retreat:— - - “I am glad to have come within sight of you, and to have a view of - Kirkaldy from my windows: but as I wish also to be within speaking - terms of you, I wish we could concert measures for that purpose. I am - mortally sick at sea, and regard with horror and a kind of hydrophobia - the great gulf that lies between us. I am also tired of travelling, as - much as you ought naturally to be of staying at home. I therefore - propose to you to come hither and pass some days with me in this - solitude. I want to know what you have been doing, and propose to - exact a rigorous account of the method in which you have employed - yourself during your retreat. I am positive you are in the wrong in - many of your speculations, especially where you have the misfortune to - differ from me. All these are reasons for our meeting, and I wish you - would make me some reasonable proposal for that purpose. There is no - habitation on the island of Inchkeith, otherwise I should challenge - you to meet me on that spot, and neither of us ever to leave the place - till we were fully agreed on all points of controversy.” - -By the following February the book had made such progress that Hume was -expecting to see his friend in Edinburgh for a day or two on his way to -London, where Smith already talked of arranging for immediate -publication. He changed his mind, however, though he went to Edinburgh -in June, where with the Duke of Buccleuch and John Hallam he received -the freedom of the city. In January 1772 we find the friends -corresponding about Italian literature. Smith recommends Hume to read -Metastasio. Hume replies that he is reading Italian prose, again reminds -him of the promised visit, and refuses to take the excuse of ill-health, -which he calls a subterfuge invented by indolence and love of solitude. -“Indeed, my dear Smith, if you continue to hearken to complaints of this -nature, you will cut yourself out entirely from human society to the -great loss of both parties.” - -This year was marked by a severe commercial crisis; nearly all the banks -in Edinburgh came to grief, and the Duke of Buccleuch and other friends -of Smith were in the greatest difficulty. In a letter to Pulteney -(September 5, 1772), Smith says, though he has himself suffered no loss -in the public calamities, some of his friends have been deeply -concerned, and he has been much occupied about the best method of -extricating them. He continues:— - - “In the book which I am now preparing for the press, I have treated - fully and distinctly of every part of the subject which you have - recommended to me; and I intended to send you some extracts from it; - but upon looking them over I find that they are too much interwoven - with other parts of the work to be easily separated from it. I have - the same opinion of Sir James Steuart’s book[26] that you have. - Without once mentioning it, I flatter myself that any fallacious - principle in it will meet with a clear and distinct confutation in - mine.... My book would have been ready for the press by the beginning - of this winter, but interruptions occasioned partly by bad health, - arising from want of amusement and from thinking too much upon one - thing, and partly by the avocations above mentioned, will oblige me to - retard its publication for a few months longer.” - -It appears that Pulteney had recommended the Directors of the East India -Company to appoint Smith as a commissioner to examine their -administration and accounts. Smith says he is much honoured and obliged: -“You have acted in your old way, of doing your friends a good office -behind their backs, pretty much as other people do them a bad one. There -is no labour of any kind which you can impose upon me which I will not -readily undertake.” He believes he is in agreement with Pulteney as to -the proper remedy for the disorders of the coin in Bengal. The -commission, however, was not appointed. No reforms worth mentioning were -made, and the _Wealth of Nations_ teems with severe criticisms of the -Company.[27] - -A month after this letter to Pulteney, Hume drafts a little programme -for the completion and publication of the work, evidently in reply to -one of Smith’s dilatory notes: “I should agree to your reasoning if I -could trust your resolution. Come hither for some weeks about Christmas; -dissipate yourself a little; return to Kirkcaldy; finish your work -before autumn; go to London; print it; return and settle in this town, -which suits your studious, independent turn even better than London. -Execute this plan faithfully, and I forgive you.” - -Before following our hero to London with the fateful manuscript, we must -repeat a local tradition belonging to this period which is recorded in -Dr. Charles Rogers’s _Social Life in Scotland_. One Sunday morning -Smith, falling into an unusually profound reverie (brought on perhaps by -thought upon the disorders of the Bengal currency), walked into his -garden in an old dressing-gown. Instead of returning to the house, he -made his way by a small path into the turnpike road, and eventually -marched into the town of Dunfermline, fifteen miles from his home. The -people there were flocking to church, and the bustle restored the -philosopher to his wits. In April 1773, after six years of seclusion, he -at last left home with his manuscript, intending no doubt to have it -printed and published in the course of a few months. He broke his -journey at Edinburgh, and there wrote a formal letter constituting Hume -his executor:— - - “As I have left the care of all my literary papers to you, I must tell - you that except those which I carry along with me, there are none - worth the publishing but a fragment of a great work which contains a - history of the astronomical systems that were successively in fashion - down to the time of Descartes. Whether that might not be published as - a fragment of an intended juvenile work I leave entirely to your - judgment, tho’ I begin to suspect myself that there is more refinement - than solidity in some parts of it. This little work you will find in a - thin folio paper book in my writing-desk in my book-room. All the - other loose paper which you will find either in that desk or within - the glass folding-doors of a bureau which stands in my bedroom, - together with about eighteen thin paper folio books, which you will - likewise find within the same glass folding-doors, I desire may be - destroyed without any examination. Unless I die very suddenly, I shall - take care that the Papers I carry with me shall be carefully sent to - you.” - -He reached London in May, and seems to have remained there until after -the publication of the _Wealth of Nations_ in March 1776. But the -records of his stay are of the slightest. There is left but one -important letter, a long and earnest plea against the principle of -monopoly in medical education. It was to his friend Dr. Cullen. Some of -the Scottish universities had been conferring medical degrees without -examination on incompetent men. The Duke of Buccleuch was willing to -join in a petition to Parliament to stop the mischief. Smith’s views -upon the subject are highly characteristic. He considers that the Scotch -universities, though of course capable of amendment, are “without -exception the best seminaries of learning that are to be found anywhere -in Europe.” A visitation (that is, a Royal Commission) would be the only -proper means of reforming them:— - - “Before any wise man, however, would apply for the appointment of so - arbitrary a tribunal in order to improve what is already, upon the - whole, very well, he ought certainly to know with some degree of - certainty, first, who are likely to be appointed visitors, and - secondly, what plan of reformation those visitors are likely to - follow; but in the present multiplicity of pretenders to some share in - the prudential management of Scotch affairs, these are two points - which, I apprehend, neither you nor I, nor the Solicitor-General nor - the Duke of Buccleugh, can possibly know anything about.” - -Perhaps in the future a better opportunity might present itself. An -admonition, or other irregular means of interference, was out of the -question. Dr. Cullen had proposed that no person should be admitted to -examination for his degrees unless he brought a certificate of his -having studied at least two years in some university. Smith (who was -himself at this very time, with Gibbon, attending a course given by Dr. -William Hunter) objects: “would not such a regulation be oppressive upon -all private teachers, such as the Hunters, Hewson, Fordyce, etc.? The -scholars of such teachers surely merit whatever honour or advantage a -degree can confer much more than the greater part of those who have -spent many years in some universities.... When a man has learnt his -lesson very well, it surely can be of little importance where or from -whom he has learnt it.” - -The last sentence is one that men should lay to heart. It is one of -those obvious truths which few have the candour to assert and still -fewer the courage to act upon. A very clever person, on reading the -_Wealth of Nations_, complained that it seemed to be little more than a -well arranged succession of truisms. Yet for the want of those truths -mankind has stumbled along in the dark from the beginning. “The less you -restrain trade, the more you will have.” A truism, if you like, but its -denial has caused an infinitude of avoidable suffering. “If a man has -learnt his lesson well, never mind about his university or his degree.” -A truism, without doubt, but one that is constantly neglected and -despised to the grave detriment of justice and learning. - -Smith held that the effect of degrees injudiciously conferred was not -very considerable. “That doctors are sometimes fools as well as other -people is not in the present time one of those profound secrets which is -known only to the learned.” Apothecaries and old herb-women practised -physic without complaint, because they only poisoned the poor people. -“And if here and there a graduated doctor should be as ignorant as an -old woman, can great harm be done?” Smith rubbed in his moral about -university degrees with evident relish, comparing degrees which could -only be conferred on students of a certain standing to the statutes of -apprenticeship and other corporation laws, which had expelled arts and -manufactures from so many boroughs. - -In boroughs, monopoly had made work bad and dear; in universities, it -had led to quackery, imposture, and exorbitant fees. One remedy for the -inconveniences of town corporations had been found in the outgrowth of -manufacturing villages; and, in a similar way, the private interest of -some poor professors of physic had done something to check the -exorbitance of rich universities, which made a course of eleven or even -sixteen years necessary before a student could become a Doctor of Law, -Physic, or Divinity. The poor universities could not stipulate for -residence, and sold their degrees to any one who would buy them, often -without even a decent examination. “The less trouble they gave, the more -money they got, and I certainly do not pretend to vindicate so dirty a -practice.” Nevertheless these cheap degrees, though extremely -disagreeable to graduates whose degrees had cost much time and expense, -were of advantage to the public in that they multiplied doctors, and so -sunk fees. “Had the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge been able to -maintain themselves in the exclusive privilege of graduating all the -doctors who could practise in England, the price of feeling a pulse -might by this time have risen from two and three guineas, the price -which it has now happily arrived at, to double or triple that sum; and -English physicians might, and probably would, have been at the same time -the most ignorant and quackish in the world.”[28] - -This trenchant reasoning seems to have prevailed. At any rate, the idea -of obtaining governmental interference was dropped. Some time -afterwards, however, Dr. Cullen took an opportunity of pointing out that -there is a good deal more to be said for the corporate regulation of -medicine than for ordinary trade guilds. Adam Smith probably pushed his -argument for free trade in medical degrees to this extreme mainly from -anxiety to prevent the interference of an unwise Government in his -favourite universities, though partly no doubt because he thought -fraudulent competition better than none, partly again for love of -maintaining a paradox. A more spacious handling of this theme is found -in the _Wealth of Nations_, more especially in the famous tenth chapter -of the first book, with its account of “Inequalities occasioned by the -Policy of Europe,” and in a later criticism of universities. - -During his stay in London Smith was in close intercourse with the ruling -kings of art, science, and letters, as well as with some of the leading -statesmen. We hear of him in January 1775 with Johnson, Burke, and -Gibbon at a dinner given by Sir Joshua Reynolds. In December, Horace -Walpole met him at Beauclerk’s. With Gibbon, as we have seen, he -attended Dr. William Hunter’s lectures on Anatomy. Hume’s letters to him -were addressed to the British Coffee House in Cockspur Street, a club -kept by a clever sister of Bishop Douglas and much favoured by Scots in -London, though Goldsmith, Reynolds, Garrick, and Richard Cumberland were -also members. In 1775 he was elected a member of the famous Literary -Club which met at the Turk’s Head in Gerrard Street. The members present -on the night of his election were Gibbon, Reynolds, Beauclerk, and Sir -William Jones, three of whom appear in Dean Barnard’s lines:— - - “If I have thoughts and can’t express ’em, - Gibbon shall teach me how to dress ’em - In form select and terse; - Jones teach me modesty and Greek, - Smith how to think, Burke how to speak, - And Beauclerk to converse.” - -The still small voice of a detractor was heard: Boswell wrote to a -friend that with Smith’s accession the club had “lost its select merit.” - -All this time the fatal quarrel with America was drawing near. Upon -this, as upon all other economical questions, Smith was in full sympathy -with Burke, “the only man I ever knew who thinks on economic subjects -exactly as I do, without any previous communications having passed -between us.” This compliment, as we know, was highly valued by the -author of the speech on American Taxation. But Smith had another friend -and counsellor for his critical chapter on the colonies and their -administration. Dr. Franklin is reported to have said, that “the -celebrated Adam Smith when writing his _Wealth of Nations_ was in the -habit of bringing chapter after chapter as he composed it to himself, -Dr. Price, and others of the literati”; that he would then patiently -hear their observations, sometimes submitting to write whole chapters -anew, and even to reverse some of his propositions. Franklin’s remark -has probably been inaccurately reported. We know from one of Smith’s -letters that he had not a high opinion of Dr. Price as an economist; but -Parton, Franklin’s biographer, justly points to the countless colonial -illustrations with which the _Wealth of Nations_ abounds, and to that -intimate knowledge of American conditions which Franklin was of all men -the best fitted to impart. And there is internal evidence in the text -itself that the important chapter on the colonies in Book IV. was -written, or at least considerably enlarged, in the years 1773 and 1774. -Franklin’s papers contained problems which seemed to have been jotted -down at meetings of philosophers, and no doubt Price as well as Smith -would take a prominent part. At Glasgow Smith must have heard a good -deal about the colonial trade; but colonial policy did not become the -question of the day until after he left, and in the lectures there is -nothing about the colonies. We may conjecture that the idea of devoting -a large section of the book to the history and economics of colonial -dominions did not strike him until after his return from France. The -great debates of 1766 and of the early seventies, the intimate -acquaintance with British policy and finance in large outline and in -official detail, which his friendships with Burke and Franklin, with -Oswald, Pulteney, and Shelburne helped him to acquire, and his eagerness -to prevent war and to discredit expenditure on colonial establishments, -or indeed upon any provinces which could not support themselves, -conspired to make colonial policy and imperial expenditure large and -imposing themes in the _Wealth of Nations_. - - - - - CHAPTER IX - THE _WEALTH OF NATIONS_ AND ITS CRITICS - - -In February 1776 Hume wrote to Smith: “By all accounts your book has -been printed long ago, yet it has never been so much as advertised. What -is the reason? If you wait till the fate of America be decided, you may -wait long.” Declining health made him anxious to accelerate his friend’s -return. “Your chamber in my house is always unoccupied.” In the same -letter there are a few words about the war with the American colonies. -The two friends were at one in condemning the war and the colonial -policy which provoked it. But Smith was more deeply moved by the -impending disaster, and was eagerly endeavouring to induce the -Government to adopt means of conciliation before it was too late. He was -therefore—so the Duke of Buccleuch had informed Hume—“very zealous” in -American affairs. “My notion,” writes Hume, cool as ever where only -national interests were concerned, “is that this matter is not so -important as is commonly imagined. If I be mistaken, I shall probably -correct my error when I see you, or read you. Our navigation and general -commerce may suffer more than our manufactures. Should London fall as -much in size as I have done, it will be the better. It is nothing but a -hulk of bad and unclean humours.” - -At last, on the 9th of March, _An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of -the Wealth of Nations_ was published in two sumptuous quarto volumes. -The price was thirty-six shillings, and the first edition, probably of a -thousand copies, was sold out in six months; though the second, a -reprint with some few corrections and additions, was not issued till -1778. The publishers were Strahan and Cadell. Smith is said to have -received £500 for the first edition, the sum paid by the same firm to -Steuart for his _Principles of Political Economy_ (1767). The first -volume of Gibbon’s _History_ came out at the same time. Hume was -immensely taken with both performances. He told Gibbon that he should -never have expected such a work from the pen of an Englishman. To Smith -he wrote:— - - “Euge! Belle! Dear Mr. Smith,—I am much pleased with your performance; - and the perusal of it has taken me from a state of great anxiety. It - was a work of so much expectation, by yourself, by your friends, and - by the public, that I trembled for its appearance, but am now much - relieved. Not but that the reading of it necessarily requires so much - attention, and the public is disposed to give so little, that I shall - still doubt for some time of its being at first very popular. But it - has depth, and solidity, and acuteness, and is so much illustrated by - curious facts that it must at last take the public attention. It is - probably much improved by your last abode in London. If you were here - at my fireside, I should dispute some of your principles. I cannot - think that the rent of farms makes any part of the price of the - produce, but that the price is determined altogether by the quantity - and the demand.” - -On the publication of the book Sir John Pringle observed to Boswell that -Dr. Smith, who had never been in trade, could not be expected to write -well on that subject any more than a lawyer upon physic. Boswell passed -this on to Johnson, who replied: “He is mistaken, sir; a man who has -never been engaged in trade may undoubtedly write well upon trade, and -there is nothing which requires more to be illustrated by philosophy -than trade does.” Johnson added, as if he had already turned over with -profit the pages of the new book, that trade promises what is more -valuable than money, “the reciprocation of the peculiar advantages of -different countries.” Gibbon was no less delighted than Hume with the -new philosophy. “What an excellent work!” he exclaimed; “an extensive -science in a single book, and the most profound ideas expressed in the -most perspicuous language.” Gibbon’s judgment has been confirmed by the -tribunals of Time, and the world places the _Wealth of Nations_ in the -small library of masterpieces that receives, as the years roll by, so -surprisingly few accessions. - -In a science like political economy, every new teacher endeavours to -correct the mistakes of his predecessors, to supply their deficiencies, -and generally to teach the science in its last stage of perfection. Some -of Smith’s successors were themselves men of genius, and proved equal to -the task of displacing their master for a few years. But those who have -seen the rise and decline of Mill may well ask with Wakefield, who had -seen Smith superseded by Malthus and Ricardo and M’Culloch: How is it -that the _Wealth of Nations_, all these things notwithstanding, is still -read and studied and quoted as if it had been published yesterday? How -is it that British statesmen from Pitt to Gladstone should have sought -authority in the same pages? After all, the question we are asking is a -wider one. Why is this one of the great books of the world? We would -like to say simply: It is the world’s verdict; take it or not as you -like; but whether you like it or not, it stands. One cannot argue with -universal consent. Still something may be due in extenuation of fame. In -the first place, Adam Smith writes as one who has applied his mind to -definite problems without neglecting a wider field of letters and -learning. The store is rich and the steward is bounteous. So far from -being an isolated study of abstract doctrines, political economy is -treated from first to last as a branch of the study of mankind, a -criticism of their manners and customs, of national history, -administration, and law. Even when silencing a battery or throwing up a -counterwork he is very seldom disputatious or doctrinal. “He appears,” -says Wakefield, “to be engaged in composing not a theory, but a history -of national wealth. He dwells indeed on principles, but nearly always, -as it seems, for the purpose of explaining the facts which he narrates.” -There is no scarecrow of thin abstractions and deterrent terminology -flapping over the pages to warn men off a dismal science. The laws of -wealth unfold themselves like the incidents in a well-laid plot. It was -left for his successors to show how dull economics might be, and how -suitable for the empty class-room of an endowed chair. - -Hume, as we have seen, on reading the _Wealth of Nations_ foretold that -its curious facts would help to gain the public ear. Adam Smith was full -of out-of-the-way learning. He collected stories of all the adventures -in the New World, and loved to sift the wheat from the chaff of a -traveller’s tale. Consequently his book abounds in oddities about his -own and bygone ages, and a few of these with necessary abbreviations may -be retailed:— - - There is at this day a village in Scotland, where it is not uncommon, - I am told, for a workman to carry nails instead of money to the - baker’s shop or to the alehouse. - - In North America, provisions are much cheaper and wages much higher - than in England. In the province of New York, common labourers earn - three shillings and sixpence currency, equal to two shillings sterling - a day. - - Till after the middle of the fourteenth century, an English mason’s - wages were much higher than those of a parish priest. In spite of a - statute of Anne there are still [1776] many curacies under £20 a year. - - A middling farmer in France will sometimes have 400 fowls in his yard. - - Between 1339 and 1776 the price of the best English wool has fallen - from 30s. to 21s. the tod, after allowing for the changes in the - currency. The price of a yard of the finest cloth has fallen, after - making the same allowances, from £3, 3s. 6d. to £1, 1s. since 1487. - - The first person that wore stockings in England is said to have been - Queen Elizabeth. She received them as a present from the Spanish - Ambassador. - - What was formerly a seat of the family of Seymour, is now an inn upon - the Bath road. The marriage bed of James the First of Great Britain, - which his Queen brought with her from Denmark as a present fit for a - sovereign to make to a sovereign, was a few years ago the ornament of - an alehouse at Dunfermline. - - The wool of the southern counties of Scotland is, a great part of it, - after a long land carriage through very bad roads, manufactured in - Yorkshire, for want of a capital to manufacture it at home. In - England, owing to the laws of settlement, it is often more difficult - for a poor man to pass the artificial boundary of a parish than an arm - of the sea or a ridge of high mountains. - - There is no city in Europe in which house rent is dearer than in - London, and yet I know no capital in which a furnished apartment can - be hired so cheap. - - At Buenos Ayres forty years ago 1s. 9½d. was the ordinary price of an - ox. - - A piece of fine cloth which weighs only eighty pounds, contains in it - the price not only of eighty pounds weight of wool, but sometimes of - several thousand weight of corn, the maintenance of the different - working people, and of their immediate employers. - - In the white herring fishery it has been common for vessels to fit out - for the purpose of catching not the fish but the bounty. In 1759, when - the bounty was at fifty shillings the ton, each barrel of sea sticks - cost Government in bounties alone, £113, 15s.; each barrel of - merchantable herrings £159, 7s. 6d. - -The _Wealth of Nations_ is a book to be read as it was written. More -than half its nutriment and all its fascination is lost if you cut away -the theory from its historical setting.[29] Osteology is fatal to -economics. That is why the _Wealth of Nations_ is far better suited to -beginners than an ordinary child’s primer. But as the Lectures on Police -were the author’s own first draft, the reader of these pages is already -cognisant of a great part of the _Wealth of Nations_. - -It remains to indicate some of the principal accessions to Smith’s -scheme of political economy after he left Glasgow. The task has been -made easy by Mr. Cannan. In the first place, the chapters on Wages, -Profit, and Rent in the First Book, and on Taxation in the last, mark a -wonderful development and improvement of the imperfect and rudimentary -treatment accorded to these subjects in the Lectures. Then again, -chapter ix. of Book IV. on the French economists and their agricultural -system is entirely new. The system of the _économistes_ is described in -that chapter as one which, with all its imperfections, was perhaps the -nearest approximation to the truth that had yet been _published_ on the -subject of political economy. We are told that its adherents, a pretty -considerable sect, had done good service to their country by influencing -in some measure the public administration in favour of agriculture. They -all followed “implicitly and without any sensible variation the doctrine -of Mr. Quesnai,” whose _Economical Table_ they regarded with -extraordinary veneration, ranking it with writing and money as one of -the three great inventions made by mankind. - -Quesnai’s _Table_ showed three sorts of expenses: Productive expenses, -Expenses of revenue, and Sterile expenses, with “their source, their -distribution, their effects, their reproduction, their relation to each -other, to population, to agriculture, to manufactures, to commerce, and -to the general riches of the nation.” In the _Wealth of Nations_ this -idea is followed out and improved; for the author, having shown in his -First Book how the average produce of labour is regulated by the skilled -dexterity and judgment with which it is generally applied, shows in his -Second that it is further regulated “by the proportion between the -number of those who are employed in useful labour, and that of those who -are not so employed.” It would be absurd to call him a plagiarist; it -would be equally absurd to deny that the French School had opened his -eyes to the necessity for analysing the distribution of wealth no less -carefully than its production. As the division of labour came from the -Greek, so the distribution of the annual produce of wealth into wages, -profit, and rent, came from the French philosophers. And we cannot -forget that Quesnai’s death alone prevented Smith from dedicating his -book to the inventor of the Economic Table. - -Equally important from the standpoint of theory, and far more so from -that of the legislator and statesman, are the chapters upon taxation. -There the lectures, though they made a distinct advance upon Hume, were -rudimentary. But modern ingenuity cannot improve upon the four practical -maxims or canons of taxation:— - - 1. The subjects of every State should contribute in proportion to - their respective abilities. - - 2. A tax should be certain, and not arbitrary. - - 3. A tax should be levied at the time and in the way most convenient - to the taxpayer. - - 4. Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and to keep - out of the pockets of the people as little as possible over and above - what it brings into the public treasury. - -Axiomatic as these rules appear to us, in Adam Smith’s day they were new -and startling: they had never been formulated or practised in any -country. Smith was “the first that ever burst” upon the silent sea of -taxation. He put into the hands of statesmen, who had hitherto been -groping and blundering in the dark, a perfect touchstone by which to -test projects old and new of raising revenue. The idea of considering -the taxpayer was itself a novelty. It is true that the criterion of -ability had been adopted in the Elizabethan poor-rate, but there was no -other trace of it in the fiscal system of Great Britain, which was on -the whole, even at that time, the best in Europe. - -Smith treated taxation as one of the causes that impede the progress of -wealth. It is characteristic of the man that he does not regard any tax, -even the land-tax, as good in itself, but only praises it comparatively -as a lesser evil. Burke himself was not a more consistent or persistent -preacher of economy. Not that Smith was jealous of expenditure on roads -and communication, public instruction, and other services which were -plainly beneficial to the whole society, and could not be left to -private enterprise. He has no pedantic objection to the State managing a -business that it is capable of managing well. He mentions without -disapproval that the republic of Hamburg makes money out of a -lombard,[30] a wine cellar, and an apothecary’s shop. But the -post-office “is perhaps the only mercantile project which has been -successfully managed by every sort of Government.” - -Of all taxes he most dislikes taxes upon the necessaries of life. Yet he -does not deny that if, after all the proper sources of taxation have -been exhausted, revenue is still required, “improper” taxes must be -imposed. To preserve their land from the sea, and their republic from -its enemies, the Dutch had had recourse to very objectionable taxes, and -he does not blame them if they could in no other way maintain that -republican form of government, which he regards as “the principal -support of the present grandeur of Holland.” But he makes it very plain -indeed in his last, and perhaps his greatest, chapter “Of Public Debts,” -that the miseries and embarrassments of Europe are due in the main to -profligate expenditure of all kinds, and especially to the immense sums -wasted on wars that ought to have been avoided. - -Therefore a new commercial policy would not suffice. New principles of -foreign and colonial policy must be introduced, and we must sweep away -for ever the cobweb occasions and pretexts that had drawn us into so -many futile conflicts. But he was equally anxious to promote economy in -time of peace. He was alarmed at the progress of the enormous debts -“which at present oppress and will in the long-run probably ruin all the -great nations of Europe.” He saw that when war has once been begun, no -limit can be set to expenditure. But some limit, he thought, could and -should be set to debt; and therefore he pleaded for a policy of strict -economy in time of peace, and pleaded so effectively that it was adopted -by Pitt in the breathing-space between the American and the French wars. -But for that policy, which reduced armaments to a point considered by -some dangerously low, Great Britain could hardly have stood the stress -and strain of her long-drawn conflict with Napoleon. - -To thriftlessness in time of peace Smith attributes some of the peculiar -evils that attend modern warfare. His remarks sound strangely familiar -in our ears, as though they had been written by a philosopher of -yesterday about the events of the day before:— - - “The ordinary expense of the greater part of modern governments in - time of peace being equal or nearly equal to their ordinary revenue, - when war comes they are both unwilling and unable to increase their - revenue in proportion to the increase of their expense. They are - unwilling, for fear of offending the people, who by so great and so - sudden an increase of taxes, would soon be disgusted with the war; and - they are unable, from not well knowing what taxes would be sufficient - to produce the revenue wanted. The facility of borrowing delivers them - from the embarrassment which this fear and inability would otherwise - occasion.... In great empires, the people who live in the capital, and - in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them, - scarce any inconveniency from the war, but enjoy at their ease the - amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own - fleets and armies. To them this amusement compensates the small - difference between the taxes which they pay on account of the war, and - those which they had been accustomed to pay in time of peace. They are - commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to - their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of conquest and - national glory.” - -Indeed, he adds, the return of peace seldom relieves a nation from the -greater part of the taxes imposed during the war. They are still -required to pay the interest on the newly created debt. - -Of all Smith’s theories, or rather opinions—for after all, the question -is a mixed one of morals and expediency which cannot be answered by -abstract formulas of right or rules of logic—not the least important or -characteristic is his doctrine of empire and imperial expenditure. The -view now cherished and practised in the great bureaucracies of Europe, -and often advanced by socialists under the plausibly scientific -phraseology of a theory of consumption, that national profusion is a -good thing in itself, was not then propagated or defended by responsible -persons. But, though thrift was on their lips, their hands were often in -the public purse; and it could not be said that warnings against the -outlay of national resources upon useless or mischievous objects were -unneeded. Appropriately enough, the very first time, so far as we know, -that the _Wealth of Nations_ was cited in Parliament, it was cited as an -authority against the policy of accumulating armaments in time of peace. -In his speech on the address (November 11, 1783) Fox is reported to have -said: “There was a maxim laid down in an excellent book upon the Wealth -of Nations, which had been ridiculed for its simplicity, but which was -indisputable as to its truth. In that book it was stated that the only -way to become rich was to manage matters so as to make one’s income -exceed one’s expenses. The proper line of conduct, therefore, was by a -well-directed economy to retrench every current expense, and to make as -large a saving during the peace as possible.”[31] - -But Smith took no narrow or penurious view of national economy. He did -not prize thrift for its own sake. Such a charge might possibly be -brought by an unfriendly critic against Ricardo or Joseph Hume, but -assuredly not against Adam Smith. Like Burke and Cobden, he valued -frugality in nations as a safeguard against wrong-doing, a prime source -of security and independence, and a perpetual check upon the lust of -conquest and aggrandisement that so often lurks under the respectable -uniform of a missionary civilisation. As he describes the discoveries of -the New World and the beginnings of modern empire, a poignant epithet or -a burning phrase tells the lesson of many a romantic scramble for the -fleece that was so seldom golden, of many a credulous hunt for a -fugitive Eldorado. - -After showing that the gold and silver mines of their colonial empires -had neither augmented the capital nor promoted the industry of the two -“beggarly countries” of Spain and Portugal, he carefully distinguishes -between the natural advantages of a colonial trade and the artificial -disadvantages caused by the policy of monopoly, that is by the -endeavours of the mother country to restrict that trade to her own -merchants. If the governments of Europe had been content to found -colonies, and see that they were well and justly administered, the full -benefit of opening up new countries, and of interchanging their -products, would have been felt. But unhappily every country that had -acquired foreign possessions sought to engross their trade, thus -injuring its own people and the colonial or subject race by checking the -natural growth of commerce, and forcing it into unnatural channels. This -so-called mercantilist policy was therefore just as disastrous to -commerce as to morals. - - “To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people - of customers, may at first sight appear a project fit only for a - nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for - a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation whose - government is influenced by shopkeepers. Such statesmen, and such - statesmen only, are capable of fancying that they will find some - advantage in employing the blood and treasure of their - fellow-citizens, to found and maintain such an empire.” - -Far worse in their results than the regular conquests of government, -were the irregular acquisitions of companies formed for trading -purposes; and one of the masterly chapters added to the third edition of -his book (1784) traces the misery, injustice, and commercial failure -which had attended the rule of the East India Company. - - “It is a very singular government, in which every member of the - administration wishes to get out of the country, and consequently to - have done with the government, as soon as he can, and to whose - interest, the day after he has left it, and carried his whole fortune - with him, it is perfectly indifferent though the whole country was - swallowed up by an earthquake.” - -What, then, was the practical policy which Smith recommended to the -British Government? It had two main ends in view. First, to pay off the -debt; secondly, to lessen and gradually remove all taxes which raised -the prices of articles consumed by the labouring classes, or interfered -with the free course of trade. Writing as he did, in 1775, on the eve of -war, his thoughts naturally turned to the colonies, then so rich and -prosperous, which had contributed nothing to the income but so heavily -to the expenditure and debt of the British crown. - -Smith would have liked the British Government to renounce its authority -over the colonies, and so not only relieve the revenue from a serious -annual drain, but at the same time convert the Americans from turbulent -and fractious subjects to the most faithful, affectionate, and generous -allies. But seeing that neither people nor government would brook such a -mortification, he suggested that to save the situation they should try, -by a scheme of union, to break up the American confederacy and -reconstitute the empire on a fair basis. Let us give, he said, to each -colony which will detach itself from the general confederacy a number of -representatives in parliament proportionate to its contribution, and so -open up a new and dazzling object of ambition to the leading men of each -colony. If this or some other method were not fallen upon of -conciliating the Americans, it was not probable that they would -voluntarily submit, and “they are very weak who flatter themselves that, -in the state to which things have come, our colonies will be easily -conquered by force alone.” The leaders of the Congress had risen -suddenly from tradesmen and attorneys to be statesmen and legislators of -an extensive empire “which seems very likely to become one of the -greatest and most formidable that ever was in the world.” Nay, if the -union he suggested as an alternative to peaceful and friendly parting -were constituted, he predicted that in the course of little more than a -century the empire would draw more revenue from America than from the -mother country; and “the seat of the empire would then naturally remove -itself to that part of the empire which contributed most to the general -defence and support of the whole.” It was such a scheme as this that -Burke ridiculed when he pictured “a shipload of legislators” becalmed in -mid-Atlantic. - -As a politician Smith was doubtless attracted by the prospect of -introducing a strong democratic and republican strain into parliament, -though he pretends to think that the balance of the constitution would -not be affected. He points out also that the constitution would be -completed by such a union, and was imperfect without it, for “the -assembly which deliberates and decides concerning the affairs of every -part of the empire, in order to be properly informed, ought certainly to -have representatives from every part of it.”[32] In the last chapter of -the _Wealth of Nations_ he describes the project as at worst “a new -Utopia, less amusing, certainly, but no more useless and chimerical than -the old one,” and shows how the British system of taxation might be -extended along with representation in parliament to the colonies in such -a way as to produce a great addition to the imperial revenue and a large -permanent surplus for the redemption of debt. In this way the debt could -be discharged in a comparatively short period, and as revenue would be -continually released, the most oppressive taxes could be gradually -reduced and remitted. By this prescription “the at present debilitated -and languishing vigour of the empire” might be completely restored. -Labourers would soon be enabled to live better, to work cheaper, and to -send their goods cheaper to market. Cheapness would increase demand, and -the increased demand for goods would mean an increased demand for the -labour of those who produced them. This again would tend both to raise -the numbers and improve the circumstances of the labouring poor. Lastly, -as the consuming power of the community grew, there would be a growth in -the revenue from all those articles of consumption which remained -subject to taxation. - -The plan of an imperial parliament and imperial taxation could not be -realised. Smith himself saw that the economic and constitutional -objections were great, though “not unsurmountable.” Upon one point, -however, he was clear. If it were impracticable to extend the area of -taxation, recourse must be had to a reduction of expenditure; and the -most proper means of retrenchment would be to put a stop to all military -outlay in and on the colonies. If no revenue could be drawn from the -colonies, the peace establishments “ought certainly to be saved -altogether.” Yet the peace establishments were insignificant compared -with what wars for the defence of the colonies had cost. But for -colonial wars the national debt would have been paid off. It was urged -that the colonies were provinces of the British Empire:— - - “But countries which contribute neither revenue nor military force - towards the support of the empire, cannot be considered as provinces. - They may perhaps be considered as appendages, as a sort of splendid - and showy equipage of the empire. But if the empire can no longer - support the expence of keeping up this equipage, it ought certainly to - lay it down; and if it cannot raise its revenue in proportion to its - expence, it ought, at least, to accommodate its expence to its - revenue. If the colonies, notwithstanding their refusal to submit to - British taxes, are still to be considered as provinces of the British - Empire, their defence in some future war may cost Great Britain as - great an expence as it ever has done in any former war. The rulers of - Great Britain have, for more than a century past, amused the people - with the imagination that they possessed a great empire on the west - side of the Atlantic. This empire, however, has hitherto existed in - imagination only. It has hitherto been, not an empire, but the project - of an empire; not a gold mine, but the project of a gold mine; a - project which has cost, which continues to cost, and which, if pursued - in the same way as it has been hitherto, is likely to cost, immense - expence, without being likely to bring any profit: for the effects of - the monopoly of the colony trade, it has been shewn, are, to the great - body of the people, mere loss instead of profit. It is surely now time - that our rulers should either realise this golden dream, in which they - have been indulging themselves, perhaps, as well as the people; or - that they should awake from it themselves, and endeavour to awaken the - people. If the project cannot be completed, it ought to be given up. - If any of the provinces of the British Empire cannot be made to - contribute towards the support of the whole empire, it is surely time - that Great Britain should free herself from the expence of defending - those provinces in time of war, and of supporting any part of their - civil or military establishments in time of peace, and endeavour to - accommodate her future views and designs to the real mediocrity of her - circumstances.” - -With these ever-memorable and resounding words he ends the great -_Inquiry_, not vaguely admonishing some shadowy cosmopolis of economic -men, but straightly beckoning his own countrymen and their rulers off -the broad way of wantonness and mischief to the harder paths of an -inglorious but fruitful economy. - - -The reader of this little volume will not expect or desire an excursus -upon the multitudinous treatises, critical and apologetical, that have -sprung out of the _Wealth of Nations_. The vitality of the book may be -measured by the numbers of its detractors and defenders. Among the -former the modern historical school of Germany claims notice; for has -not its distinguished and erudite leader, Professor Schmoller, placed -Adam Smith somewhere below Galiani, Necker, Hoffmann, Thünen, and -Rümelin? - -Perhaps the reason why economists of the modern historical school so -often fail as valuers of men and books, is that they are enjoined by the -very laws of their existence to be “learned”; and “learning” requires -that obscure and deservedly forgotten writers should be rediscovered and -magnified at the expense of surviving greatness. Too many modern critics -of “Smithianismus,” instead of attending to the author’s own works and -so penetrating his philosophy, seek him elsewhere, rummage in the -literature of the period, overhaul every book, good, bad, or -indifferent, characterise it in the text, and place its title-page and -date in a footnote. Such labour, however useful to others, is apt to -destroy the perspective and warp the judgment. - -A man who snares facts is of all men the most likely to be caught in a -theoretical trap. Here is an example. In 1759 Adam Smith wrote a book on -_moral_ sentiments which he founded on the natural instinct of sympathy. -In 1776 he wrote a book on _economic_ sentiments, which he derived from -self-love or the desire of man to improve his position. Upon these facts -the following theory is built up by the historical school of Germany:— - - “Smith was an Idealist as long as he lived in England under the - influence of Hutcheson and Hume. After living in France for three - years, and coming into close touch with the materialism that prevailed - there, he returned a Materialist. This is the simple explanation of - the contrast between his _Theory_ (1759), written before his journey - to France, and his _Wealth of Nations_ (1776), composed after his - return.”[33] - -Most of this nonsense has been blown to the four winds by Mr. Cannan’s -publication of the _Lectures_ delivered at Glasgow before Adam Smith -went to France; but a vast quantity of similar rubbish is embedded in -the economic literature of the last thirty or forty years, and a -difficulty which learned investigators have invented and solved has been -dignified in Germany by the name of “Das Adam Smith Problem.” - -The truth, as Smith conceived it, is that men are actuated at different -times by different motives, benevolent, selfish, or mixed. The moral -criterion of an action is: will it help society, will it benefit others, -will it be approved by the Impartial Spectator? The economic criterion -of an action is: will it benefit me, will it be profitable, will it -increase my income? Smith built his theory of industrial and commercial -life upon the assumption that wage-earners and profit-makers are -generally actuated by the desire to get as high wages and profits as -possible. If this is not the general and predominant motive in one great -sphere of activity, the production and distribution of wealth, the -_Wealth of Nations_ is a vain feat of the imagination, and political -economy is not a dismal science but a dismal fiction. But there is -nothing whatever either to excite surprise or to suggest inconsistency -in the circumstance that a philosopher, who (to adopt the modern jargon -of philosophy) distinguished between self-regarding and other-regarding -emotions, should have formed the first group into a system of economics -and the second into a system of ethics. - -If this comes of learning, an even more extravagant charge has been -preferred by an emotional school. A heated imagination, certainly not -encumbered with facts, and informed only that Adam Smith was the founder -of an odious science, denounced him as “the half-bred and half-witted -Scotchman” who taught “the deliberate blasphemy”—“Thou shalt hate the -Lord thy God, damn His Laws, and covet thy neighbour’s goods.” The same -authority declares that he “formally, in the name of the philosophers of -Scotland, set up this opposite God, on the hill of cursing against -blessing, Ebal against Gerizim”—a God who “allows usury, delights in -strife and contention, and is very particular about everybody’s going to -his synagogue on Sunday.”[34] These three characteristics of Adam -Smith’s deity were unfortunately chosen; for, as it happens, he disliked -usury so much that he defended the laws which had vainly sought to -prevent high rates of interest; disapproved vehemently of war, which he -regarded as one of the deadliest enemies of human progress, and -protested against the idea that a perfect Deity could possibly desire -His creatures to abase themselves before Him. It is sad to think that to -get his gold the Ruskinian must pass so much sand through his mind. The -_Fors Clavigera_, with all its passionate intensity and high-strung -emotion, is a standing warning to preachers not to abuse their masters, -and to learn a subject before they teach it. Let those who climb so -recklessly on Ebal deliver their curses from a safer foothold. - -Perhaps what most impresses one in reading the _Wealth of Nations_ is -its pre-vision. The author seems to have been able to project himself -into the centuries. He saw the blades of wheat as well as the tares that -were springing up; and it would be hard to mention a single one of his -forecasts and Utopias that has not been realised in some degree, or at -least taken shape as a political project during the last century. He -was, of course, above all, the precursor of Cobden and of the -philosophic Radicals, who drew from him not only their economics, but -their foreign and colonial policy. It is perhaps remarkable, after so -fair a beginning had been made in his own lifetime, that the triumph of -his doctrines was so long delayed. But most of what Shelburne, Pitt, and -Eden did for commercial emancipation in the eighties was swept away by -the French war. And when Napoleon fell, England was so weak, tyranny and -superstition were so ground into the principles of her governing -classes, that she seemed to be, in Milton’s phrase, beyond the manhood -of a Roman recovery. For many years Smith’s disciples, and even the -indefatigable Bentham, laboured almost in vain. Parliament was ignorant -and bigoted. Until a great agitator arose, very little could be done; -and the great agitator did not arrive quite soon enough to fulfil -Pulteney’s prediction that Smith would convert his own generation and -rule the next. - -In the early years of the nineteenth century the practical influence of -Smith’s teaching was felt principally in France and Germany. In France, -as we have seen, Count Mollien was a professed disciple of the new -economy. “It was then,” he said, in reviewing the events of his youth, -“that I read an English book which the disciples M. Turgot had left -eulogised in the highest terms—the work of Adam Smith. I had especially -remarked how warmly the venerable and judicious Malesherbes used to -speak of it—this book so disparaged by all the men of the old routine.” -It is perhaps the most dazzling of all Smith’s posthumous triumphs, that -he, through Mollien, should have been the philosophic guide of -Napoleonic finance. - -But his conquest of Germany was equally startling and momentous. The -movement in that country can be directly traced to the university of -Königsberg, where Kraus began to lecture on the _Wealth of Nations_ in -1781. He soon gained the ears of the official class. In East Prussia, -vexatious dues and taxes, with a multitude of feudal embarrassments, -were removed from internal commerce, and in spite of much opposition -Smith’s principles spread all over Germany. By the close of the -Napoleonic war the officials as well as the professional economists were -converts to the new ideas. Stein and Hardenberg, two truly great -reformers, led the way. Year by year commercial restrictions were -removed, and though jealousy of Prussia stood in the way of complete -commercial union, the North German Zollverein constituted a great -advance. It removed the barriers between Prussia and the adjoining -States, and reduced external duties to such an extent that in 1827 -Huskisson cited the example set by Germany to prove the wisdom of -abandoning a restrictive policy. Even Friedrich List, who sought for -political reasons to build up a counter theory of protection for infant -industries, asserted that free trade was the right policy for England -and for every adult nation. List, who often wrote with a bitterness and -malice that only readers of his unhappy life can excuse, admitted in his -principal work “the great services of Adam Smith”:— - - “He was the first to introduce successfully into political economy the - analytical method. By means of this method and of an unusual sharpness - of intellectual vision he illuminated the most important branches of a - science, which before his time had lain in almost utter darkness. - Before Adam Smith there was only a policy (Praxis); his labours first - made it possible to build up a science of political economy; and for - that achievement he has given the world a greater mass of materials - than all his predecessors and successors.” - -Mill’s _Political Economy_ is the only English treatise that can be -compared with the _Wealth of Nations_. Indeed in his preface Mill -challenges the comparison, but adds that “political economy, properly -so-called, has grown up almost from infancy since the time of Adam -Smith.” He finds the _Wealth of Nations_ “in many parts obsolete, and in -all imperfect,” and though he speaks generously enough of Adam Smith’s -“admirable success in reference to the philosophy of the [eighteenth] -century,” it is plain from this preface and from the autobiography that -the later economist felt he could look down upon the earlier from the -serene temples of increased knowledge and better social ideas. Mill’s -confidence was not only justified for the time being by unqualified -success in the sense that his own book at once became, and remained for -a generation, the principal text-book of English students, it was also -based upon what appear at first sight to be enormous advantages. A more -logical and systematic arrangement is adopted. Errors are corrected; -digressions are few; and in order to attain scientific exactitude, -historical illustrations from the conditions and experience of nations -are replaced by more precise instances of imaginary societies labelled -A, B, C. Technical terms and definitions make it easy for the student to -move lightly about in an artificial atmosphere. - -But in this realm of political economy, is it not well to keep a foot, -or at least an eye, on the ground? In Mill’s treatise there is a danger -of mistaking words for things. It is never so in Smith’s inquiry. He -gave twenty years to a task for which Mill could hardly spare as many -months. With a gift for exposition, certainly not inferior, he had what -Mill had not, a love of the concrete, a faculty for the picturesque, and -withal a nervous force and vigour in argument quite peculiar to himself. -It has been said that Smith hunted his subject with the inveteracy of a -sportsman. With a wonderful knowledge of history, law, philosophy, and -letters, he combined an intuitive insight into the motives of men and -the unseen mechanism of society. At the same time, by restricting his -horizon to wealth and its phenomena, he was able to see how men always -had acted and always would act under certain circumstances, and by what -rules public finance should be governed. This is the secret of his -success in making political economy queen of the useful arts, and in -raising her alone among political studies to the dignity of a science. -“I think,” said Robert Lowe, “that Adam Smith is entitled to the merit, -and the unique merit, among all men who ever lived in the world, of -having founded a deductive and demonstrative science of human actions -and conduct.” True, he is not a systematic writer. He does not shine, as -so many inferior geniuses have shone, in the art of comparing, -correlating, and harmonising the great truths which it is his glory to -have discovered and illustrated. He puts us, as Lowe remarked with his -usual felicity, in mind of the Sages of Ancient Greece, who, after lives -of labour and study, bequeathed half a dozen maxims for the guidance of -mankind. - - - - - CHAPTER X - FREE TRADE - - -One of the least edifying features of modern controversy, and -particularly of political and economic controversy, is the habit of -appealing to precedents and authorities which, if honestly cited, would -militate against the opinions of the controversialist. No great writer -has suffered more of late years from this species of misrepresentation -than Adam Smith; yet his contemporaries and immediate successors both in -England and abroad perfectly understood his drift. When Pitt and -Shelburne declared themselves disciples of Smith, they thereby declared -themselves free traders, and Pitt’s commercial policy from 1784 to 1794 -was simply an attempt to carry out Smith’s views. Resolute retrenchment, -customs’ reform, the commercial treaty with France, reduction of debt, -were all projected under the inspiration and countenance of Mr. -Commissioner Smith. - -Nor did the English economists, from Ricardo to Mill, ever suggest that -Adam Smith had doubts about the main doctrine of his book. In France and -Germany his opinions were eagerly embraced. To translate, interpret, and -systematise the _Wealth of Nations_ was the main function of continental -economists in the early years of the nineteenth century; and its -influence was seen in a rapid and radical modification of commercial -policy. Internal barriers were swept away, feudal restrictions -abolished, and tariffs reduced. When the waves of reaction—political -rather than economic—began to roll in, and “national” economists tried -to reconstruct the case for protection, they paid Smith the compliment -of a violent onslaught. “Smithianismus” then became a term of abuse in -protectionist circles, and so remained until it was superseded by the -equally cacophonous “Manchesterthum.” It was in England that the idea -was started of dressing up Adam Smith as a protectionist. While List was -inveighing against “cosmopolitical economy,” our own free traders in -their agitation against the corn laws found themselves confronted with a -new interpretation of their prophet. At one of the League meetings (July -3, 1844) Cobden gave a humorous description of the way in which some -protectionist pamphleteers tried to adapt Adam Smith’s opinions to their -own views. “They have done it in this manner: they took a passage, and -with the scissors snipped and cut away at it, until by paring off the -ends of sentences and leaving out all the rest of the passage, they -managed to make Adam Smith appear in some sense as a monopolist. When we -referred to the volume itself, we found out their tricks, and exposed -them. I tell you what their argument reminds me of. An anecdote is told -of an atheist who once asserted that there was no God, and said he would -prove it from Scripture. He selected that passage from the Psalms which -says, ‘The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.’ He then cut out -the whole passage, except the words, ‘there is no God,’ and brought it -forward as proof of his statement.” - -If these false notions about Adam Smith’s economic opinions had died -with the pamphlets of obscure protectionists sixty years ago, no more -need have been said. But as they have been revived again and again in -England, Germany, and the United States, and solemnly adopted with all -the plausibility of seemingly circumstantial moderation by persons of -European repute, we shall examine the passages in the original, in order -to settle the question whether Smith can be made to serve as “the -spiritual father” of a commercial policy not essentially different from -the one his criticism destroyed. - -By a policy of free trade, which Adam Smith said was the best means a -statesman could adopt of promoting national wealth and commerce, he -meant a policy that would relieve commerce and industry from all -internal dues and all external duties or prohibitions. Anything that -would bring other nations into line commanded his warm sympathy and -support. But what he desired as a patriot was a policy of free imports -irrespective of what other countries might do. The object of a national, -as of an individual policy in trade, should be to buy in the cheapest -and sell in the dearest market.[35] This will appear at once from the -so-called exceptions or limitations by which Smith is supposed to have -watered down what Cobden’s biographer has called “the pure milk of the -Cobdenic word.” - -The Act of Navigation is the first of “the two cases in which it will -generally be advantageous to lay some burden upon foreign for the -encouragement of domestic industry.”[36] But by “advantageous” Smith -does not mean “likely to enrich.” It is a measure of defence, and is -unfavourable to trade. - -“The defence of Great Britain,” he says, “depends very much upon the -number of its sailors and shipping. The Act of Navigation, therefore, -very properly endeavours to give the sailors and shipping of Great -Britain the monopoly of the trade of their own country.” The Act is -justified as a pure measure of defence, though it aims at monopoly, and -offends against the principles of free trade. Lest, however, there -should be any doubt upon the point, he goes on to make it quite clear -that, while he praises the Act, as he might praise the building of a -man-of-war, he condemns it as an economic measure. In the passage -immediately following there are two sentences which exactly give the -point of view, and should help to dissipate the false impression -(accepted and circulated by authorities like Hasbach, who ought to know -better) that Smith’s doctrines are very different from Cobden’s:— - - “The Act of Navigation is not favourable to foreign commerce, or to - the growth of that opulence which can arise from it.... As defence, - however, is of much more importance than opulence, the Act of - Navigation is, perhaps, the wisest of all the commercial regulations - of England.” - -How completely the Navigation Act failed as a commercial measure appears -from a number of passages in the _Wealth of Nations_ which together -completely refute the fallacy, so generally adopted by English -historians, that it ruined the Dutch, enriched England, and gave her a -commercial and naval supremacy which she could not otherwise have -achieved. Holland, he says, is richer than England; she gained the whole -carrying trade of France during the late war; she still remains “the -great emporium of European goods,” and so forth. All that Smith claims -for the Act is that it helped to secure the country a sufficient supply -of seamen for the navy in time of war. - -Further, as there are two cases (the necessity of defence and the -propriety of countervailing an excise duty) “in which it will -_generally_ be advantageous to lay some burden upon foreign for the -encouragement of domestic industry, so,” continues Smith, “there are two -others in which it may _sometimes_ be a matter of deliberation”: in the -one, how far it is proper to continue the free importation of goods from -a particular foreign country; in the other, how, and how far, free -importation, after it has been interrupted for some time, should be -restored. The first case of doubt is that of doing evil by retaliation -in order that good, in the shape of freer trade, may come. Occasionally, -he writes, it may be wise to retaliate, “when some nation restrains by -high duties or prohibitions” the importations of our manufactures. After -giving some examples of commercial retaliation, one of which ended in -war, Adam Smith lays down the cautious rule that there may be good -policy in retaliations of this kind, but only where there is a -probability that retaliatory duties will procure the repeal of the high -duties or prohibitions complained of. “The recovery of a great foreign -market will generally more than compensate the transitory inconvenience -of paying dearer during a short time for some sorts of things.” He leans -strongly against the policy, partly because he is unwilling to trust -“that insidious and crafty animal vulgarly called a statesman” to use -such a weapon wisely; partly because you rarely benefit the sufferers -and always injure other classes of your own citizens, than those whom -you are trying to assist. - -The second case of doubt was merely one of expediency—whether free trade -should be introduced quickly or slowly. “In what manner the natural -system of perfect liberty and justice ought gradually to be restored” -Smith left to the wisdom of future statesmen and legislators to -determine. But he maintained that the evils attending the remedy were -usually exaggerated, and this view proved to be correct when Sir Robert -Peel and Mr. Gladstone effected the transformation by five mighty -strokes of the fiscal axe. - -We have now examined all the passages which could give colour to the -impression that Smith was only a free trader—on conditions. That part of -the task is easy enough. The difficulty begins when we seek positive -arguments against protective or differential taxation. The woodman of -Mount Ida was not more embarrassed in choosing a tree to fell. The -_Wealth of Nations_ is a forest of full-grown arguments for free trade. -The more one reads it, the more irresistibly is one driven to the -conclusion that the science of political economy, as established in this -masterpiece, is inextricably bound up with the doctrine of free trade. -Every assumption and conclusion, his criticisms of previous and existing -theories, laws, customs, and opinions, his surveys of the commercial and -colonial policy of Europe, all bear us directly or indirectly to the -same goal. Yet there is one principle which seems to take precedence in -the argument. In the division of labour, Smith found a key to the growth -of wealth and to the enlargement of the material comforts that are -necessary to the progress of refinement and civilisation. The division -of labour is therefore his starting-point, and instead of leaving it -where Plato and Aristotle let it rest—a barren formula of economic -society—he sets it vigorously in motion, and converts it, as it were, -from a slumbering lake into a vast reservoir that irrigates and -fertilises the whole plain of inquiry. And had he been confined to one -argument for free trade, this is probably the one he would have adopted. - -If we were asked to select that passage in the _Wealth of Nations_ which -gives most succinctly the broad objections to a protective policy, we -should turn to the second chapter of the fourth book, “Of restraints -upon the importation from foreign countries of such goods as can be -produced at home.” He begins by admitting that high duties or -prohibitions can secure to home producers a monopoly of the home market. -At that time British graziers enjoyed the monopoly of providing the home -market with butcher-meat. The manufacturers of wool and silk were -equally favoured, and the duties on foreign linen, for which Hume had -pleaded in one of his commercial essays, had lately been raised. - -Smith thereupon asks whether these protective measures, by giving an -artificial direction to industry, are likely to be of general benefit to -society. The first answer is that in business every man seeks his own -advantage, that every man knows his own business best, and that “the -study of his own advantage naturally, or rather necessarily, leads him -to prefer that employment which is most advantageous to society.” Though -intending only his own gain, he is “led by an invisible hand to promote -an end which was no part of his intention.” Indeed the selfish -trader—the economic man, if you like—promotes the interest of society -far more effectually than those who affect to trade for the public good. -Is it not evident that the individual himself, though he may make -mistakes, can judge best how and where to employ his own labour or -capital? The statesman or lawgiver who attempted to direct private -people how to manage their business and spend their money would not only -be overloaded with work, but would be assuming an authority “which could -safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or -senate whatever.” From this consideration we pass almost insensibly into -the argument from the division of labour. - - “It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family never to attempt - to make at home what it will cost him more to make than to buy. The - taylor does not attempt to make his own shoes, but buys them of the - shoemaker. The shoemaker does not attempt to make his own clothes, but - employs a taylor. The farmer attempts to make neither the one nor the - other, but employs those different artificers. All of them find it for - their interest to employ their whole industry in a way in which they - have some advantage over their neighbours, and to purchase with a part - of its produce, or what is the same thing, with the price of a part of - it, whatever else they have occasion for. - - “What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce - be folly in that of a great kingdom. If a foreign country can supply - us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy - it of them with some part of the produce of our own industry, employed - in a way in which we have some advantage.” - -Capital and industry are certainly not employed to the greatest -advantage when they are directed to objects which under natural -conditions could be bought cheaper than they could be made. It is true, -he adds, anticipating the infant industry argument of Alexander -Hamilton, List, and Mill, that “by means of such regulations a -particular manufacture may sometimes be acquired sooner than it could -have been otherwise, and after a certain time may be made at home as -cheap or cheaper than in the foreign country.” But _cui bono_? Even in -this case “it will by no means follow that the sum total either of its -industry or of its revenue can ever be augmented by any such -regulation.” One immediate effect of such regulations must be to -diminish the revenue of the society, “and what diminishes its revenue is -certainly not very likely to augment its capital faster than it would -have augmented of its own accord had both capital and industry been left -to find out their natural employments.” - -But though reason led him by every road to a complete system of liberty -as the true end of commercial policy, he despaired of its adoption. “To -expect indeed that freedom of trade should ever be entirely restored in -Great Britain, is as absurd as to expect that an Oceana or Utopia should -ever be established in it.” Even if public prejudice were overcome, the -resistance of private interests would be unconquerable. The landlords -indeed had not yet acquired a strong interest in protection. At that -time the home supply of wheat and oats in ordinary years was sufficient, -or nearly so, for the requirements of the population, and prices were -much about the same in England as in other European countries. The -moving spirits of protection were master manufacturers, who, “like an -overgrown standing army,” had begun to intimidate the legislature. - - “The member of parliament who supports every proposal for - strengthening this monopoly, is sure to acquire not only the - reputation of understanding trade, but great popularity and influence - with an order of men whose numbers and wealth render them of great - importance. If he opposes them, on the contrary, and still more, if he - has authority enough to be able to thwart them, neither the most - acknowledged probity, nor the highest rank, nor the greatest public - services, can protect him from the most infamous abuse and detraction, - from personal insults, nor sometimes from real danger, arising from - the insolent outrage of furious and disappointed monopolists.” - -Under these circumstances it is very surprising that Adam Smith should -have chosen to submit the corn laws to so long and destructive an -analysis. He seems to have foreseen that the great battle for which he -was sounding the advance would ultimately rage round a question then -almost academic, and that cheap food would be the keystone of the free -trade argument. - -After several years’ experience as a customs official, Adam Smith took -the opportunity in his third edition (1784) of considerably enlarging -the _Wealth of Nations_; and, among other important additions, he -inserted at the end of Book IV. a new chapter, entitled “Conclusion of -the Mercantile System.” It is a deeply instructive recital of the -extremities of absurdity into which the British legislature had suffered -itself to be led blindfold by a false theory and powerful interests. The -encouragement of exportation, and the discouragement of importation, -were the two great engines by which the mercantile system proposed to -enrich every country; but with regard to some particular commodities, it -followed an opposite plan: discouraging exports, and encouraging -imports. Thus it penalised or prohibited the exportation of machinery, -wool, and coal; nor was the living instrument, the artificer, allowed to -go free. Two statutes had been passed in the reigns of George I. and II. -to prevent any British artificer going abroad under penalty of being -declared an alien, and forfeiting all his goods and chattels. “It is -unnecessary, I imagine, to observe how contrary such regulations are to -the boasted liberty of the subject, of which we affect to be so very -jealous; but which, in this case, is so plainly sacrificed to the futile -interests of our merchants and manufacturers.” Smith is very sarcastic -about regulations whose “laudable motive” was to extend British -manufactures, not by improving them, but by depressing those of our -neighbours, and by putting an end as much as possible to the troublesome -competition of such odious rivals. He then lays down a maxim “so -perfectly self-evident, that it would be absurd to attempt to prove -it”:— - - “Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the - interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it - may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.” - -This golden rule was everywhere violated by the mercantile system, which -seemed to consider production the ultimate object of all industry. But -the worst of all its inventions was the colonial monopoly. “In the -system of laws which has been established for the management of our -American and West Indian colonies, the interest of the home consumer has -been sacrificed to that of the producer with a more extravagant -profusion than in all our other commercial regulations.” If there was -anything more odious to Adam Smith than a protective duty, it was the -discriminating or preferential duty which had been invented for the -purpose of tying up the trade between Great Britain and her colonies. -Both his “Utopias” were projected for the express purpose of putting an -end to a colonial system which he regarded as a dead weight upon both -the mother country and her dependencies. - -The theory that Smith grew more protectionist as he grew older might be -dismissed now that we have considered the lectures, and compared the -first and third editions of the finished work. But it is possible that a -very desperate casuist might still find one more plea to urge. He might -say: granted that Smith remained to the last a theoretical free trader, -yet he frankly admitted it to be a Utopian project, and he would not, as -a responsible official, have advised its adoption. Did he not accept a -Crown appointment under Lord North’s protectionist administration, and -did he not spend the last years of his life as a principal instrument in -collecting the proceeds of a highly protectionist tariff? Nay, further, -did he not take a carnal satisfaction in the leaps and bounds by which -the revenue under his charge was at that time advancing? In December -1785 he wrote to William Eden:— - - “It may perhaps give that gentleman [Mr. Rose of the Treasury] - pleasure to be informed that the net revenue arising from the customs - in Scotland is at least four times greater than it was seven or eight - years ago. It has been increasing rapidly these four or five years - past, and the revenue of this year has over-leaped by at least one - half the revenue of the greatest former year. I flatter myself it is - likely to increase still further.” - -Whatever force the _argumentum ad officium_ might have in a country (if -such there be) where customs officials are sworn supporters of the -commercial policy of the Government, it has none in reference to Great -Britain, and less than none if regard be had to the circumstances of -Smith’s appointment. There is no reason for supposing that Lord North -had any particular liking for protection, though as the instrument of -the king’s war policy he had an insatiable craving for revenue, and in -pursuit thereof adopted, as we shall see, several taxes of a -non-protective character suggested by Smith in the first edition of his -treatise. Further, when the above letter was written Pitt was already, -under the inspiration of this very customs official, initiating a free -trade policy, and was actually preparing the great commercial treaty -with France which he was to carry into effect a few months later. A -patriotic Scotsman might well delight in his country’s rapid recovery -from the disastrous effects of the war, and the author of Pitt’s policy -would naturally anticipate an increase of prosperity with an expansion -of imports and a growth of the revenues under his charge. - -Moreover, there is happily extant a relic of the correspondence which -Smith carried on as financial adviser to ministers. In the year 1778 -Ireland was in a terrible plight. In addition to all the evils of a -minority rule, she suffered as a whole from a commercial persecution by -the predominant partner. Her trade had been deliberately and -malevolently throttled by the superior legislature of Great Britain. At -that time Irish wool could be exported to no country save Great Britain. -Irish woollens could only be exported from specified ports in Ireland to -specified ports in Great Britain. All export of Irish glass was -absolutely prohibited. Worst of all, she was not allowed to send her -staple article—cattle—or even salt provisions to the English market. And -she was excluded from the colonial trade. - -Even so cool a political hand as Henry Dundas (then Lord Advocate), -writing to Smith at the end of October 1779, confessed that he has been -shocked at the tone and temper of the House of Commons in its dealings -with Ireland’s prayers for elementary justice. But the Irish Parliament -was now demanding free trade in tones too peremptory to be ignored, for -they were backed by a threatening display of armed force. Dundas saw -little objection to acceding to some of the requisitions; but he had no -very clear grasp of the economics of the situation, and being in -correspondence with Eden, the Secretary of the Board of Trade, he wanted -an expert opinion from the Seer of Edinburgh. Smith replies that the -Irish demand should be satisfied, first, because it is just; second, -because it will be for the benefit of English consumers; and lastly, -because English manufacturers will suffer so much less than the nation, -and the national revenue, will gain. Dundas had seemed to be rather -afraid that with cheaper labour and lower taxes the Irish manufacturers -might be able to undersell their British competitors. Smith pointed out -that they had neither the skill nor the stock [capital] to enable them -to do so; “and though both may be acquired in time, to acquire them -completely will require more than a century.” Besides, Ireland had -neither coal nor wood; “and though her soil and climate are perfectly -suited for raising the latter, yet to raise it to the same degree as in -England will require more than a century.” - -Before he can say precisely what the Irish Parliament means by a free -trade, he must see the heads of the proposed bill. If it is only freedom -to export, nothing could be more just and reasonable. If it is freedom -to import, subject only to their own customs’ duties, that again is -perfectly reasonable, though it would “interfere a little with some of -our paltry monopolies.” If they wish to be allowed to trade freely with -the American and African plantations, that also should be conceded. It -would interfere with some monopolies, but would do no harm to Great -Britain. Lastly, they might mean to demand a free trade with Great -Britain. “Nothing, in my opinion, would be more highly advantageous to -both countries than this mutual freedom of trade. It would help to break -down that absurd monopoly which we have most absurdly established -against ourselves in favour of almost all the different classes of our -own manufacturers.” Dundas had hinted that the two Parliaments might be -reconciled by a proper distribution of loaves and fishes. Smith did not -shrink at all from promoting a good policy by what was then the ordinary -method of promoting a bad policy:— - - “Whatever the Irish mean to demand in this way, in the present - situation of our affairs I should think it madness not to grant it. - Whatever they may demand, our manufacturers, unless the leading and - principal men among them are properly dealt with beforehand, will - probably oppose it. That they may be so dealt with I know from - experience, and that it may be done at little expense and with no - great trouble. I could even point to some persons who, I think, are - fit and likely to deal with them successfully for this purpose. I - shall not say more upon this till I see you, which I shall do the - first moment I can get out of this Town.” - -A week later Smith repeated his argument with some additions and -modifications in a letter of November 8th to Lord Carlisle, who then -presided over the Board of Trade. He maintains that “a very slender -interest of our own manufacturers is the foundation of all these unjust -and oppressive restraints,” and ridicules “the watchful jealousy of the -monopolists, alarmed lest the Irish, who have never been able to supply -completely even their own market with glass or woollen manufactures, -should be able to rival them in foreign markets.” - -When he passes from commercial considerations to the larger aspects of -freedom and good government, his wisdom is no less manifest. What -Ireland most wants, he writes, are order, police, and a regular -administration of justice, both to protect and to restrain the inferior -ranks of people: “articles more essential to the progress of industry -than both coal and wood put together, and which Ireland must continue to -want as long as it continues to be divided between two hostile nations, -the oppressors and the oppressed, the Protestants and the Papists.” He -then points out that what the monopolists dread (the prosperity of -another country) is not an evil but a good:—“Should the industry of -Ireland, in consequence of freedom and good government, ever equal that -of England, so much the better would it be not only for the whole -British Empire, but for the particular province of England. As the -wealth and industry of Lancashire does not obstruct but promote that of -Yorkshire, so the wealth and industry of Ireland would not obstruct but -promote that of England.” For exactly the same reasons he wanted free -trade with France, and with the whole world. If it is good for one man -to trade freely with another, for a town with a town, and for a county -with a county, how can it be otherwise than good for countries to trade -freely together? An economist who strikes at the last proposition should -hail Smith’s humorous project of a tariff which would secure Scotland a -vintage as well as a harvest. - -Much more might be said upon a subject that enters into the politics of -every State, and vitally affects the welfare of every struggling toiler -in the universe. But the purpose of this chapter will be fulfilled if it -restores to Adam Smith his identity as the protagonist in a great -contest, as the champion of the right to trade with all the world, -against those who stand for privileges, monopolies, and tariffs. -According to Bagehot, Smith’s name can no more be dissociated from free -trade than Homer’s from the siege of Troy. “So long as the doctrines of -protection exist—and they seem likely to do so, as human interests are -what they are, and human nature is what it is—Adam Smith will always be -quoted as the great authority on Anti-Protectionism, as the man who -first told the world the truth, so that the world could learn and -believe it.” - - - - - CHAPTER XI - LAST YEARS - (1776-1790) - - -After seeing the _Wealth of Nations_ through the press, Smith lingered a -few weeks in London. He was anxious to persuade Hume to come up and -consult the London physicians, but Hume shrank from the journey, and -implored his friend to return to Edinburgh. So about the middle of -April, Smith and John Home[37] took the coach for Edinburgh. But at -Morpeth, where the coach stopped, they saw Hume’s servant at the door of -the inn. Hume had changed his mind, and was on his way to see Sir John -Pringle. Home returned with Hume to London, but Smith, hearing that his -aged mother was ill, went on to Kirkcaldy. Before parting, however, the -two friends carefully discussed the question of what should be done with -Hume’s papers in the event of his death. From a desire to avoid -religious controversy and public clamour, Hume had kept by him -unpublished his _Dialogues on Natural Religion_; and he now tried to -persuade his friend and literary executor to edit them after his death. - -But Smith resolutely declined the task. Although he had himself lectured -on Natural Religion, he had warily avoided the subject in his own -publications. Moreover, he was now hoping to be appointed to an office -under the Crown, and such a publication would certainly be prejudicial. -Hume argued that these objections were groundless: “Was Mallet anywise -hurt by his publication of Lord Bolingbroke? He received an office -afterwards from the present king, and Lord Bute, the most prudent man in -the world, and he always justified himself by his sacred regard to the -will of a dead friend.” And he reminded Smith of a saying of -Rochefoucauld, that “a wind, though it extinguishes a candle, blows up a -fire.” So he wrote from London at the beginning of May. However, he -agreed to leave the question of publication entirely to Smith’s -discretion. “By the little company I have seen,” he added, “I find the -town very full of your book, which meets with general approbation.” Soon -afterwards Hume changed his mind, and made Strahan his literary -executor, with instructions to publish the _Dialogues_ within two and a -half years. - -In July the two friends were again in Edinburgh, conversing together. -Smith was deeply impressed by the philosophic courage, and even gaiety, -with which the great sceptic faced the approach of death. In the -well-known letter to Strahan,[38] that is always printed with Hume’s -autobiography, he mentions among other touching incidents that a certain -Colonel Edmondstone paid a farewell visit to Hume, but afterwards could -not forbear writing a last letter “applying to him as to a dying man the -beautiful French verses in which the Abbé Chaulieu, in expectation of -his own death, laments his approaching separation from his friend the -Marquis de la Fare.” “Mr. Hume’s magnanimity and firmness were such,” -continued Smith, “that his most affectionate friends knew that they -hazarded nothing in talking or writing to him as a dying man, and that, -far from being hurt by this frankness, he was rather pleased and -flattered with it.” - -At the end of the first week of August, Hume had now become so very weak -that the company of his most intimate friends fatigued him:— - - “At his own desire, therefore, I agreed to leave Edinburgh, and - returned to my mother’s house here at Kirkcaldy, upon condition that - he would send for me whenever he wished to see me; the physician who - saw him most frequently, Dr. Black, undertaking in the meantime to - write me occasionally an account of the state of his health.” - -The correspondence which followed marks the close of a deep, unbroken, -and memorable attachment. On August 15th Hume’s anxiety for the -_Dialogues_ revived: “On revising them (which I have not done these five -years) I find that nothing can be more cautiously and more artfully -written. You had certainly forgotten them. Will you permit me to leave -you the property of the copy, in case they should not be published in -five years after my decease? Be so good as write me an answer soon.” On -the 22nd Smith replied:— - - “I have this moment received yr. letter of the 15th inst. You had, in - order to save me the sum of one penny sterling, sent it by the carrier - instead of the Post, and (if you have not mistaken the date) it has - lain at his quarters these eight days, and was, I presume, very likely - to lie there for ever.” - -Then, after reassuring Hume about the _Dialogues_, he continued:— - - “If you will give me leave I will add a few lines to yr. account of - your own life, giving some account in my own name of your behaviour in - this illness, if, contrary to my own hopes, it should prove your last. - Some conversations we had lately together, particularly that - concerning your want of an excuse to make to Charon, the excuse you at - last thought of, and the very bad reception wh. Charon was likely to - give it, would, I imagine, make no disagreeable part of the history. - You have in a declining state of health, under an exhausting disease, - for more than two years together now looked at the approach of death - with a steady cheerfulness such as very few men have been able to - maintain for a few hours, tho’ otherwise in the most perfect Health. I - shall likewise, if you give me leave, correct the sheets of the new - edition of your works, and shall take care that it shall be published - exactly according to your last corrections. As I shall be at London - this winter, it will cost me very little trouble.” - -But “the cool and steady Dr. Black” still gave him some hopes of his -friend’s recovery. On the following day Hume dictated a brief answer to -this letter, explaining that he had only taken an extra precaution in -case anything might happen to Strahan. “You are too good,” he added, “in -thinking any trifles that concern me are so much worthy of your -attention, but I give you entire liberty to make what additions you -please to the account of my life.” - -Two days afterwards Hume died, and was buried in Calton Cemetery. Smith -did not like the round tower erected under a provision of the will to -mark the grave—“it is the greatest piece of vanity I ever saw in my -friend Hume.” By the will a legacy of £200 and copies of all Hume’s -published works were left to him; but he stoutly refused to accept the -money, as he had ceased to be executor, although he had no thought of -relinquishing his promise to edit Hume’s life and works. “I have added,” -he wrote to Hume’s brother (Kirkcaldy, October 7th), “at the bottom of -my will the note discharging the legacy of £200 which your brother was -so kind as to leave me. Upon the most mature deliberation I am fully -satisfied that in justice it is not due to me. Tho’ it should be due to -me therefore in strict law, I cannot with honour accept of it.” - -A month earlier he had written to Strahan from Dalkeith, where he was -staying with the Duke of Buccleuch, a careful explanation of Hume’s will -and last wishes. “Both from his will and from his conversation I -understand that there are only two [manuscripts] which he meant should -be published—an account of his life, and _Dialogues concerning Natural -Religion_. The latter, tho’ finely written, I could have wished had -remained in manuscript to be communicated only to a few friends. I -propose to add to his Life a very well authenticated account of his -behaviour during his last illness.” - -Smith’s addition to Hume’s autobiography took the form of a letter to -Strahan giving an account of Hume’s last illness, concluding with the -words: “Upon the whole, I have always considered him both in his -lifetime and since his death as approaching as nearly to the idea of a -perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty -will permit.” This warm-hearted and eloquent, but surely extravagant -eulogy of the “virtuous heathen,” created precisely the kind of popular -clamour that Smith had been so anxious to avoid. Strahan liked the -addition exceedingly; but as this and the autobiography together were -too short to make even a tiny volume, he wrote back, good publisher that -he was:— - - “I have been advised by some very good judges to annex some of his - letters to me on political subjects. What think you of this? I will do - nothing without your advice and approbation, nor would I for the world - publish any letter of his but such as in your opinion would do him - honour. Mr. Gibbon thinks such as I have shown him would have that - tendency. Now if you approve of this in any manner, you may perhaps - add partly to the collection from your own cabinet and those of Mr. - John Home, Dr. Robertson, and others of your mutual friends which you - may pick up before you return hither. But if you wholly disapprove of - this scheme, say nothing of it, here let it drop, for without your - concurrence I will not publish a single word of it.” - -A decisive reply came at once from Kirkcaldy. It gives a peremptory -judgment—quite against the drift of modern opinion—upon what will always -be a case for the casuist:— - - “I am sensible that many of Mr. Hume’s letters would do him great - honour, and that you would publish none but such as would. But what in - this case ought principally to be considered is the will of the Dead. - Mr. Hume’s constant injunction was to burn all his Papers except the - _Dialogues_ and the account of his own life. This injunction was even - inserted in the body of his will. I know he always disliked the - thought of his letters ever being published. He had been in long and - intimate correspondence with a relation of his own who dyed a few - years ago. When that gentleman’s health began to decline he was - extremely anxious to get back his letters, least the heir should think - of publishing them. They were accordingly returned, and burnt as soon - as returned. If a collection of Mr. Hume’s letters besides was to - receive the public approbation, as yours certainly would, the Curls of - the times would immediately set about rummaging the cabinets of all - those who had ever received a scrap of paper from him. Many things - would be published not fit to see the light, to the great - mortification of all those who wish well to his memory. Nothing has - contributed so much to sink the value of Swift’s works as the - undistinguished publication of his letters; and be assured that your - publication, however select, would soon be followed by an - undistinguished one. I should therefore be sorry to see any beginning - given to the publication of his letters. His life will not make a - volume, but it will make a small pamphlet.” - -The nervous objection felt by Hume and Smith to the publication of -correspondence or of any manuscript not carefully considered by the -writer, and intended by him for publication, may be overstrained; but -perhaps this generation errs as much in its anxiety to penetrate the -privacy of the dead as they did in wishing to destroy everything that -was incomplete, or too easy, intimate, and negligent—as they thought—for -the eye of a critical posterity. - -Fortune now played our provident philosopher one of her most insolent -tricks. When the dreaded _Dialogues_ appeared, they fell perfectly flat; -but the letter to Strahan excited, as Mr. Rae says, “a long -reverberation of angry criticism.” His words, few and simple, but warm -with the glow of friendship, “rang like a challenge to religion itself.” -Pamphlets poured forth, the cleverest of which, “A Letter to Adam Smith, -LL.D., on the Life, Death, and Philosophy of David Hume, Esquire, by one -of the People called Christians,” was still being printed and circulated -for edification by the Religious Tract Society in the thirtieth year of -the nineteenth century. Its anonymous author, Dr. George Horne, -President of Magdalen College, Oxford, proclaimed that no unbeliever -could be virtuous or charitable, and charged Smith as well as Hume with -the atrocious wickedness of diffusing atheism through the land. “You -would persuade us,” he cried, “by the example of David Hume, Esq., that -atheism is the only cordial for low spirits and the proper antidote -against the fear of death; but surely he who can reflect with -complacency on a friend thus employing his talents in this life, and -thus amusing himself with Lucian, whist, and Charon at his death, can -smile over Babylon in ruins, esteem the earthquakes which destroyed -Lisbon as agreeable occurrences, and congratulate the hardened Pharaoh -on his overthrow in the Red Sea.” - -Smith made no answer to this attack, for which the author was afterwards -rewarded by a Bishopric. After Christmas, when his mother’s health -allowed him to leave her, he travelled to London, and early in January -1777 he had taken lodgings in Suffolk Street, near the British Coffee -House, and was busy preparing his second edition of the _Wealth of -Nations_, a reprint, with corrections and two additional pages. In March -he was at a dinner of the Literary Club with Gibbon, Garrick, Reynolds, -Johnson, Burke, and Fox. Mr. Rae thinks he remained most of the year in -London, and probably he had some intercourse with Lord North and other -members of the Government. At any rate Lord North, who had studied -Smith’s chapters on taxation to more purpose than his chapters on -expenditure and policy, borrowed two of his ideas in the Budget of -1777—for he laid taxes on men-servants and on property sold by -auction.[39] Smith was back in Edinburgh by the end of this year, and -there heard from Strahan that he had been appointed by Lord North one of -the Commissioners of the Customs in Scotland. In the middle of January -he writes from Kirkcaldy to Strahan, requesting him to send two copies -of the second edition of the _Wealth of Nations_, “handsomely bound and -gilt, one to Lord North, the other to Sir Gray Cooper,” and adds, “I -believe that I have been very highly obliged to him [Cooper] in this -business.”[40] The Commissionership was worth £600 a year, and Smith at -once proposed to relinquish his pension; but the Duke of Buccleuch would -not hear of it. - -Early in 1778 Smith removed to Edinburgh. He was now in the enjoyment of -a certain income of £900 a year apart from the considerable sums which -he derived from the sale of his books. He took Panmure House in the -Canongate, not far from the deserted palace of Holyrood—a fashionable -quarter where some of the Scottish nobility, forsaken by King and Court, -still kept their town houses. Panmure House is now a dismantled store; -and it needs some imagination to realise how Windham, accustomed to -London palaces, should have called it “magnificent,” as he looked from -its newly painted windows and plastered walls “over the long strip of -terraced garden on to the soft green slopes of the Calton.”[41] - -The rent was probably very nearly £20 a year. But Smith was one of the -richest men in Edinburgh, and felt, no doubt, that he could well afford -to take one of the best houses in the city. To share and crown his -happiness he brought his mother, his cousin Miss Douglas, and her -nephew, a schoolboy David Douglas (afterwards Lord Strathendry), whom he -made his heir. From Panmure House “Mr. Commissioner Smith” walked every -day to his official duties in Exchange Square, attired in a -light-coloured coat, white silk stockings, and a broad-brimmed hat, -holding a cane at his shoulder as a soldier carries a musket. He used to -turn his head gently from side to side as he walked, and swayed his body -“vermicularly,” as if at every other step he meant to alter his -direction or even to turn back.[42] His lips often moved, and he would -smile like one conversing with an invisible companion. He was not always -unaware of his surroundings, and was fond of relating how a market woman -in the High Street took him for a well-to-do lunatic. “Hech, sirs!” she -cried, “to let the like of him be about! And yet he’s weel enough put -on!” - -His letters show that he was very regular in attending to his duties at -the Customs, which indeed were important in themselves, and not -unattractive to one who took so deep an interest in the art of revenue -and the growth of wealth. The duties of the Commissioners were -administrative and judicial. Sometimes they had to despatch soldiers to -guard part of the coast against smugglers, or to put down an illegal -still. They heard merchants’ appeals from assessments; they appointed -and controlled the local officers, and every year they prepared returns -of customs’ revenue and expenditure. There is good reason to think that -he found his work congenial, though Dugald Stewart, who always grows -morbid at the thought of any check to the output of philosophic -literature, laments that these duties, “though they required little -exertion of thought, were yet sufficient to waste his spirits and -dissipate his attention,” and that the time they consumed was not -employed in labours more profitable to the world and more equal to his -mind. During the first years of his residence in Edinburgh “his studies -seemed to be entirely suspended, and his passion for letters served only -to amuse his leisure and to animate his conversation.” This young mentor -often caught our misguided veteran wasting precious time in his library -with Sophocles or Euripides, and would be told that re-acquaintance with -the favourites of one’s youth is the most grateful and soothing -diversion of old age. Let us forgive, and more than forgive, the tired -economist, who disapproved that care, though wise in show, - - “That with superfluous burden loads the day, - And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.” - -It is indeed to be wished that the notes on Jurisprudence could have -been worked up into an ample study after the manner of Montesquieu’s -_Spirit of the Laws_; but probably all that would have been gained by -retirement would have been the publication of his lectures on _belles -lettres_; and it is certain that some of the most instructive additions -to the _Wealth of Nations_ could never have been written, had Smith -declined the office of Commissioner. - -At any rate, a problematical loss to the world was a great gain to -Edinburgh. Smith, though personally the most frugal, was also the most -hospitable, genial, and charitable of men. Hume’s death, indeed, left a -gap that could not be filled. But every city in Europe might still envy -Edinburgh her Republic of Letters. Robertson the historian, who formed -with Hume and Gibbon what Gibbon proudly called the Triumvirate, and -Adam Ferguson, a little jealous at this time of his greater rival, lived -outside the town. Black, too, who had taken Hume’s place as Smith’s -dearest living friend, had what was in those days a country house, now -the Royal Blind Asylum in Nicolson Street. Kames, Hailes, and Monboddo, -Sir John Dalrymple and Dugald Stewart, and many other minor celebrities, -lived close at hand. Smith seems to have kept something like open house. -His Sunday suppers were remembered long after his death, and many -distinguished visitors to Edinburgh enjoyed the hospitality of Panmure -House. - -He loved good conversation. In Glasgow and in London he had belonged to -several dining-clubs, and he now helped to found another. Swediaur, a -Parisian doctor, wrote from Edinburgh in 1784 to Jeremy Bentham: “we -have a club here which consists of nothing but philosophers.” They met -every Friday at two o’clock in a Grassmarket tavern, and the Frenchman -found it “a most enlightened, agreeable, cheerful, and social company.” -Smith, Black, and Hutton, the fathers of the three modern sciences of -political economy, modern chemistry, and modern geology, were the -illustrious founders of this society. All three, wrote another member, -Professor John Playfair, had enlarged views and wide information, -“without any of the stateliness which men of letters think it sometimes -necessary to affect; ... and as the sincerity of their friendship had -never been darkened by the least shade of envy, it would be hard to find -an example where everything favourable to good society was more -perfectly united, and everything adverse more entirely excluded.” Henry -Mackenzie, who wrote the _Man of Feeling_, and Dugald Stewart were also -members. - -The club was called the Oyster Club, though Hutton was an abstainer, -Black a vegetarian, and Smith’s only extravagant taste was for lump -sugar. - -“We shall never,” wrote Sir Walter Scott in some recollections of these -“old Northern Lights,” which appeared in an early number of the -_Quarterly Review_, “forget one particular evening when he [Smith] put -an elderly maiden lady who presided at the tea-table to sore confusion -by neglecting utterly her invitation to be seated, and walking round and -round the circle, stopping ever and anon to steal a lump from the sugar -basin, which the venerable spinster was at length constrained to place -on her own knee, as the only method of securing it from his uneconomical -depredations. His appearance mumping the eternal sugar was something -indescribable.” Sir Walter was a schoolfellow of young David Douglas; -and the incident no doubt took place in Panmure House, where Miss -Douglas would naturally preside at the tea-table. - -Scott had a vivid recollection of Black and Hutton. The former used the -English pronunciation, and spoke with punctilious accuracy of -expression. He wore the formal full-dress habit then imposed on members -of the medical faculty. Dr. Hutton’s dress had the simplicity of a -Quaker’s, and he used a broad Scotch accent which often heightened his -humour. Sir Walter told an amusing anecdote which may, perhaps, explain -why the dining society, founded by the three philosophers, was called -the Oyster Club. It so chanced that Black and Hutton had held some -discourse together upon the folly of abstaining from feeding on the -crustaceous creatures of the land, when those of the sea were considered -as delicacies. Snails were known to be nutritious and wholesome, even -“sanative” in some cases. The epicures of ancient Rome enumerated the -snails of Lucca among the richest and rarest delicacies, and the modern -Italians still held them in esteem. So a gastronomic experiment was -resolved on. The snails were procured, dieted for a time, then stewed. - - “A huge dish of snails was placed before them; but philosophers are - but men after all; and the stomachs of both doctors began to revolt - against the proposed experiment. Nevertheless if they looked with - disgust on the snails, they retained their awe for each other; so that - each, conceiving the symptoms of internal revolt peculiar to himself, - began with infinite exertion to swallow, in very small quantities, the - mess which he loathed. Dr. Black at length ‘showed the white feather,’ - but in a very delicate manner, as if to sound the opinion of his - messmate. ‘Doctor,’ he said in his precise and quiet style, ‘Doctor, - do you not think that they taste a little—a very little green?’ ‘D——d - green, d——d green indeed!—tak’ them awa’, tak’ them awa’!’ vociferated - Dr. Hutton, starting up from table and giving full vent to his - feelings.” - -One of Smith’s younger friends was John Sinclair, a Scotch laird of much -ability and immense industry, whose _History of the Public Revenue_ is -still a standard work. It owed much to the _Wealth of Nations_; for when -Smith saw how competent Sinclair was, he helped him in every possible -way. In 1777 he dissuaded the young man from printing a pamphlet against -the Puritanical observance of the Sabbath, saying, “Your work is very -ably written, but I advise you not to publish it; for rest assured that -the Sabbath as a political institution is of inestimable value -independently of its claim to divine authority.” Late in the following -year, when Sinclair brought him the news of Saratoga, and declared that -the nation must be ruined, Smith answered coolly, “Be assured, my young -friend, that there is a great deal of ruin in a nation.” About the same -time he let Sinclair have the use (so long as he did not take it out of -Edinburgh) of his own much-prized copy of the _Mémoires concernant les -Impositions_, a contemporary survey of European systems of taxation, -which he had obtained “by the particular favour of Mr. Turgot, the late -Comptroller-General of the Finances.” In one of his letters to Sinclair -he expressed his dislike of “all taxes that may affect the necessary -expenses of the poor.” - - “They, according to different circumstances, either oppress the people - immediately subject to them, or are repaid with great interest by the - rich, _i.e._ by their employers in the advanced wages of their labour. - Taxes on the _luxuries_ of the poor, upon their beer and other - spirituous liquors, for example, as long as they are so moderate as - not to give much temptation to smuggling, I am so far from - disapproving, that I look upon them as the best of sumptuary - laws.”[43] - -Sinclair, who had entered Parliament in 1780, discussed foreign policy -with Smith in the autumn of 1782, soon after the surrender at Yorktown, -when the fortunes of Great Britain had sunk to their lowest ebb. The -American colonies were lost; Ireland was almost in revolt; Gibraltar was -besieged by the Spanish and French fleets; and the Northern powers were -arrayed in an unfriendly armed neutrality. Sinclair had drafted a tract -suggesting that we should seek to draw the Northern powers into an -alliance against the House of Bourbon by offering them a share in our -colonial monopoly. Again Smith advised his young friend not to go into -print. The proposal, he thought, would not find favour with the -neutrals, and there seemed to be a moral inconsistency in the argument. -“If it be just to emancipate the continent of America from the dominion -of every European power, how can it be just to subject the islands to -such dominion; and if the monopoly of the trade of the continent be -contrary to the rights of mankind, how can that of the islands be -agreeable to those rights?” - -In the following year peace was concluded with America and France; and -the Prime Minister boasted to Morellet that all the treaties of that -year were inspired by “the great principle of free trade.” - -The necessity for resuming commercial intercourse with the United States -raised in an acute form the problem of the colonial monopoly. Should the -States be allowed to trade with Canada on the same terms as with Great -Britain? William Eden (afterwards Lord Auckland) was afraid of -abandoning the differential principle, and in his perplexity wrote to -Smith, who replied that if the Americans really meant to subject the -goods of all nations to the same import duties, they would “set an -example of good sense which all other nations ought to imitate.” He had -little anxiety—and his confidence was completely justified by the -event—about the loss of the American monopoly. “By an equality of -treatment of all nations, we might soon open a commerce with the -neighbouring nations of Europe infinitely more advantageous than that of -so distant a country as America.” As he hopes to see Eden in a few -weeks’ time, he will not write a tedious dissertation, but contents -himself with saying that “every extraordinary, either encouragement or -discouragement, that is given to the trade of any country, more than to -that of another, may, I think, be demonstrated to be in every case a -complete piece of dupery, by which the interest of the State and the -nation is constantly sacrificed to that of some particular class of -traders.” He ends with warm praise of the East India Bill, and of the -decisive judgment and resolution with which it had been introduced and -triumphantly carried through the House of Commons by Fox.[44] - -It is worth while here to note Smith’s steady devotion to Fox and Burke, -who represented the Rockingham branch of the Whig party. He was faithful -found among innumerable false, for he approved alike of Fox’s -resignation in 1782 rather than serve under Shelburne, and of his fatal -coalition with Lord North in the following year.[45] It may seem strange -to those who think of Adam Smith only as the founder of free trade that -he should have been a Foxite, and especially that he should have -remained one in the last decade of his life, when commercial questions -were uppermost, and when Shelburne first, and then Pitt, set themselves -to translate the _Wealth of Nations_ into laws and treaties. But, as we -have tried to show, he never allowed economical considerations to weigh -in the scale with political liberty; and the clue to his distrust of -Shelburne and Pitt is his dislike of the King as a corrupter of -politics, and of the Court as a corrupter of morals. Shelburne and Pitt -exalting the King and the executive would have depressed the House of -Commons. Rockingham, Fox, and Burke sought manfully, and not -unsuccessfully, so to maintain and glorify constitutional usages as to -check and limit the power of the King. This single consideration was -enough to determine the allegiance of a truly republican heart. - -Burke, moreover, was in every way a sympathetic figure. His measure of -economical reform had docked the resources of patronage, and sensibly -relieved the burdens of the taxpayer. And his views about commercial -liberty coincided with Smith’s own. About this time a happy chance -brought the two friends together. In the autumn of 1783 Burke was -elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, and early in the -following April, during the general election which overwhelmed the -Whigs, Burke, having saved his own seat at Malton, paid a visit to -Scotland. He stayed a few days in Edinburgh, and then, accompanied by -Adam Smith, Lord Maitland,[46] and others, went on to Glasgow to be -installed in his new office. On the day of their arrival (Friday, April -9) they supped with that stalwart Whig, John Millar, the Professor of -Law. On Sunday, Smith and Maitland took Burke to see Loch Lomond, and -made their way back by Carron to Edinburgh, which they reached on the -following Wednesday. Next day Burke, with a company of Smith’s Edinburgh -friends, dined at Panmure House. On Friday the great orator returned to -England extremely pleased by his reception in Scotland, and leaving -behind him many friends and admirers. One of these has preserved some -particulars of the visit. “Smith, Dugald, and I,” wrote Dalzel, “had -more of his company than anybody in this country, and we got a vast deal -of political anecdote from him and fine pictures of political characters -both dead and living.” Burke advised Lord Maitland, if he had ambition -and wanted office, to abandon the Whig party. “Shake us off: give us -up.” Smith said cheerfully that “in two years things would come about -again.” “Why,” cried Burke, “I have already been in a minority nineteen -years, and your two years, Mr. Smith, will make me twenty-one years, and -it will surely be high time for me then to be in my majority!” - -Before the end of May a dark cloud came over Smith’s life, for his -mother passed away in her ninetieth year. Four years later her death was -followed by that of his cousin, Miss Douglas. Their loss was -irreparable. “They had been the objects of his affection for more than -sixty years, and in their society he had enjoyed from his infancy all -that he ever knew of the endearments of a family.”[47] - -Late in the autumn of 1784 Faujas de Saint-Fond, the geologist, visited -Edinburgh after some adventurous discoveries in the Hebrides. During his -fortnight’s stay “that venerable philosopher Adam Smith” was one of -those whom he visited most frequently. “He received me on every occasion -in the kindest manner, and studied to procure for me every kind of -information and amusement that the town afforded.” Smith’s library, he -says, bore evidence of his tour in France and his stay in Paris. “All -our best French authors occupied prominent places on his shelves. He was -very fond of our language.” - -On one occasion when Saint-Fond was at tea in Panmure House, Smith spoke -of Rousseau “with a kind of religious respect,” and compared him with -Voltaire. “The latter,” he said, “sought to correct the vices and -follies of mankind by laughing at them, and sometimes by treating them -with severity; but Rousseau catches his reader in the net of reason by -the attraction of sentiment and the force of conviction. His _Social -Contract_ may well avenge him one day for all his persecutions.” Smith’s -features became very animated when he spoke of Voltaire, “whom he had -known and greatly loved.” - -One day Adam Smith asked his visitor if he liked music, and said, on -hearing that he did: “I am very glad of it; I shall put you to a proof -which will be very interesting for me, for I shall take you to hear a -sort of music of which it is impossible you can have formed any idea, -and I shall be delighted to find how it strikes you.” The annual bagpipe -competition was to take place next day, and Smith came to Saint-Fond’s -lodgings next morning at nine o’clock, and conducted him to a spacious -concert-room full of people; but neither musicians, nor orchestra, nor -instruments were to be seen. A large space was reserved in the middle of -the room and occupied by gentlemen only, who, said his guide, were -Highlanders come to judge of the performances. The prize was for the -best executed piece of Highland music, and the same air was to be played -successively by all the competitors. After some delay a door opened and -a kilted Highlander advanced into the hall:— - - “He walked up and down the vacant space with rapid steps and a martial - air, blowing his bagpipes. The tune was a kind of sonata divided into - three parts. Smith requested me to pay my whole attention to the - music, and to explain to him afterwards the impression it made upon - me. But I confess that at first I could not distinguish either air or - design in the music. I was only struck with a piper marching backward - and forward with great rapidity, and still presenting the same warlike - countenance. He made incredible efforts with his body and his fingers - to bring into play the different reeds of his instrument, which - emitted sounds that were to me almost insupportable. He received much - applause from all parts of the hall.” - -Then came a second piper, who seemed to excel the first, judging from -the clapping and cheers. Having heard eight in succession, the Professor -began to discover that the first part represented a warlike march, the -second a battle, and the last part the wailing over the slain—which drew -tears from the eyes of many fair ladies in the audience. The _séance_ -ended with a “lively and animated dance, accompanied by suitable airs, -though the union of so many bagpipes produced a most hideous noise.” The -Frenchman’s verdict was highly unfavourable. He concluded that the -pleasure given by the music was due to historical associations. Though -he admired the impartiality of the audience and judges, who showed no -special favour even to a laird’s son unless he played well, he could not -himself admire the artists. “To me they were all equally disagreeable. -The music and the instrument alike reminded me of a bear’s dance.”[48] - -Burke revisited Glasgow in August 1785. Windham was with him. They -stopped on their way in Edinburgh and dined with Smith—Robertson, Henry -Erskine, and Dr. Cullen being among the guests. On September 13th, when -they returned to Edinburgh, Windham makes this entry in his diary: -“After dinner walked to Adam Smith’s. Felt strongly the impression of a -family completely Scotch. House magnificent and place fine.” They stayed -one more day in Edinburgh, and dined at Panmure House. Burke found time -to visit John Logan, the author of the lovely _Ode to the Cuckoo_. Dr. -Carlyle says that Smith was “a great patron” of this persecuted poet; -and when Logan was hounded out of the ministry, and went to London to -seek a living by his pen, he took a letter of introduction from Smith to -Andrew Strahan the publisher, who was about to issue a fourth edition of -the _Wealth of Nations_.[49] - -In the following year (1786) Smith was suffering much from ill-health, -but his mind and pen were busy. T. Christie, Nichols’s Edinburgh -correspondent, informed his friend in August that Dr. Smith was writing -“the history of Moral Philosophy.” This may only mean that he was -engaged in preparing the enlarged (6th edition) of the _Moral -Sentiments_; for in a letter to the Duke of Rochefoucauld that recently -came to light, dated November 1, 1785, he speaks of an edition of the -_Theory_ “which I hope to execute before the end of the ensuing winter.” -But it may refer to one of two much larger and more ambitious schemes -which he goes on to mention in the same letter: “I have likewise two -other great works upon the anvil; the one is a sort of philosophical -history of all the different branches of literature, of philosophy, -poetry, and eloquence; the other is a sort of theory and history of law -and government. The materials of both are in a great measure collected, -and some part of both is put into tolerable good order. But the -indolence of old age, though I struggle violently against it, I feel -coming fast upon me, and whether I shall ever be able to finish either -is extremely uncertain.” At the same time he was in correspondence with -William Eden, whom he was helping to refute Dr. Price’s alarmist -theories about the decrease of the population. - -In the spring of 1787 he went to London, partly to consult John Hunter, -Sir William’s younger brother, partly perhaps from curiosity to see the -boy Premier, who was so rapidly and skilfully carrying out his fiscal -policy. Pitt had just carried Smith’s favourite project of a commercial -treaty with France, and was now engaged in the far more laborious task -of simplifying the chaos of customs and excise rates in a gigantic -Consolidation Bill. The economist had many conferences with the -statesman. It is said that he was much with the ministry; and that the -clerks of the public offices had orders to furnish him with all papers, -and to employ if necessary additional hands to copy for him. One -incident has been preserved that is worth recording. At a dinner given -by Dundas, Smith came in late, and the company rose to receive him. He -begged them to be seated. “No,” said Pitt, “we will stand till you are -seated, for we are all your scholars.” On another occasion, finding -himself next to Addington, he exclaimed: “What an extraordinary man Pitt -is; he understands my ideas better than I do myself!” He stayed several -months in London, and though his disorders did not admit of cure, the -physicians operated with success, and pronounced in July that he “might -do some time longer.” - -At the end of this month Thomas Raikes had a talk with him about the -Sunday-school movement, and was much delighted by the old man’s -enthusiastic approval: “No plan has promised to effect a change of -manners with equal ease and simplicity since the days of the Apostles.” -But towards another philanthropic scheme, for planting fishing-villages -along the Highland coast, he displayed, wrote Wilberforce, “a certain -characteristic coolness,” observing that “he looked for no other -consequence from the scheme than the entire loss of every shilling that -should be expended on it, granting, however, with uncommon candour, that -the public would be no great sufferer, because he believed the -individuals meant to put their hands only in their own pockets.” Mr. -Rae, who has traced the scheme down to 1893 when it was finally wound -up, shows that the shareholders lost half their original capital of -£35,000, and wasted besides £100,000 of taxpayers’ money, which a -foolish Government improvidently provided for one of their ill-conceived -projects. After all, philanthropy cannot afford to neglect the cool -precepts of political economy, nor is moral fervour the worse for a -pinch of common sense. In November, having returned to Edinburgh, he -heard with “heartfelt joy” the news that he had been elected Rector of -his old University, and he was installed in the following month. “No -preferment,” he wrote in a graceful letter of thanks, “could have given -me so much real satisfaction.” - - “No man can own greater obligations to a Society than I do to the - University of Glasgow. They educated me, they sent me to Oxford, soon - after my return to Scotland they elected me one of their own members, - and afterwards preferred me to another office to which the abilities - and virtues of the never-to-be-forgotten Dr. Hutcheson had given a - superior degree of illustration. The period of thirteen years which I - spent as a member of that Society, I remember as by far the most - useful and therefore as by far the happiest and most honourable period - of my life; and now, after three-and-twenty years’ absence, to be - remembered in so very agreeable a manner by my old friends and - protectors gives me a heartfelt joy which I cannot easily express to - you.” - -A year later, the death of his cousin, Miss Jane Douglas, left him, says -Stewart, “alone and helpless,” and though he bore his loss bravely, and -regained apparently his former cheerfulness, yet his health and strength -gradually declined, until in the summer of 1790 he passed away. A few -particulars have been preserved of these last two years by those who -enjoyed his friendship and hospitality; but of his correspondence there -is only a short letter thanking Gibbon, with whom he had long been on -very affectionate terms, for the last three volumes of the _Decline and -Fall_. “I cannot,” he writes, “express to you the pleasure it gives me -to find that by the universal consent of every man of taste and learning -whom I either know or correspond with, it sets you at the very head of -the whole literary tribe at present existing in Europe.”[50] In July -1789, Samuel Rogers, then a young man of twenty-three, came to Edinburgh -with an introduction to Adam Smith from Price. On the morning after the -storming of the Bastille he called on the economist, and found him -breakfasting, with a dish of strawberries before him. Smith said they -were a northern fruit, at their best in Orkney and Sweden. The -conversation passed to Edinburgh, its high houses, dirt, and -overcrowding. Smith spoke slightingly of the old town, and said he would -like to remove to George Square. Then he talked of the scenery, soil, -and climate of Scotland, and of the corn trade, which led him to -denounce Pitt’s Government for refusing to supply France with a quantity -of corn so small that it would not have fed Edinburgh for one day. - -He invited Rogers to dine with him next day at the Oyster Club; but a -tedious laird (brother of the Thibetan traveller) monopolised the -conversation. “_That_ Bogle,” said Smith afterwards, apologetically, “I -was sorry he talked so much. He spoiled our evening.” Next Sunday Smith -took an airing in his sedan chair, while his young friend went to hear -Robertson and Blair preach. At nine o’clock, Blair having concluded, -Rogers supped at Panmure House, and found the Oyster Club _minus_ Bogle -and _plus_ a gentleman from Göttingen. The conversation was personal, -and perhaps the only item now worth recalling is Smith’s reason for -identifying Junius with “Single Speech Hamilton.” Hamilton once told the -Duke of Richmond at Goodwood—the story came to Smith from Gibbon—of “a -devilish keen letter” from Junius in that day’s _Public Advertiser_. But -when the Duke got the paper he found not the letter, but an apology for -its non-appearance; after this Hamilton was suspected of the authorship, -and no more Junius was published. The inference Smith drew was that so -long as suspicion pointed to the wrong man the letters continued to -appear, and only stopped when the true author was named. Next day Rogers -again dined with Smith, and Henry Mackenzie told them stories of -second-sight. Hutton came in to tea, and then they went on to a meeting -of the Royal Society to hear a paper by Dr. James Anderson on “Debtors -and the Revision of the Laws that respect them.” Rogers says it was -portentously long and dull. “Mr. Commissioner Smith fell asleep, and -Mackenzie touched my elbow and smiled.” Altogether Rogers gives us a -very pleasing picture of a serene and bright old age. “He is a very -friendly, agreeable man, and I should have dined and supped with him -every day if I had accepted all his invitations.” He did not notice any -trace of absentmindedness, but thought that, compared with Robertson, -Smith was a man of the world. - -In the same summer William Adam, a nephew of the architect, conversed -with Smith upon Bentham’s letters on usury. The economist is reported to -have said that “the _Defence of Usury_ was the work of a very superior -man, and that though he had given him some hard knocks, it was done in -so handsome a way that he could not complain.”[51] It is quite possible -that had Smith lived to see another edition of the _Wealth of Nations_ -through the press, he would have responded to Bentham’s invitation by -admitting the futility of fixing interest by law. But at this time he -was still busy with the sixth edition of the _Moral Sentiments_, which -at last appeared early in the following year. In the preface he referred -to the promise he had made in 1759 of a treatise on Jurisprudence. That -promise had been partially fulfilled in the _Wealth of Nations_; but -what remained, the theory of Jurisprudence, he had hitherto failed to -execute. “Though my very advanced age leaves me,” he acknowledged, “very -little expectation of ever being able to execute this great work to my -own satisfaction, yet, as I have not altogether abandoned the design, -and as I wish still to continue under the obligation of doing what I -can, I have allowed the paragraph to remain as it was published more -than thirty years ago, when I entertained no doubt of being able to -execute everything which it announced.” - -These words were probably written late in the year 1789. In February -1790 he told Lord Buchan, “You will never see your old friend any more. -I find that the machine is breaking down.” From this time he rapidly -wasted away, and in June his friends knew, as well as he did, that there -was no hope of recovery. His intellect remained perfectly clear, and he -bore his sufferings with the utmost fortitude and resignation. - -But he could not be easy about his papers. In 1773, when he consigned -their care to Hume, he had instructed him to destroy without examination -all his loose manuscript, together with about eighteen thin paper folio -books containing his lectures. When he went to London in 1787 he had -given similar instructions to Black and Hutton. Now that he had become -very weak, and felt that his days were numbered, he spoke again to them -on the same subject. They entreated him to make his mind easy, as he -might depend upon their fulfilling his desire. He was satisfied for a -time. But some days afterwards—this is Hutton’s account—finding his -anxiety not entirely removed, he begged one of them to destroy the -volumes immediately. This accordingly was done; and his mind was so much -relieved that he was able to receive his friends in the evening with his -usual cheerfulness. They had been used to sup with him every Sunday, and -that evening there was a pretty numerous company of them. The old man -not finding himself able to sit up with them as usual, retired to bed -before supper; and as he went away took leave of his friends by saying, -“I believe we must adjourn this meeting to some other place.” He died a -very few days afterwards, on July the 17th, 1790, and was buried in the -Canongate Churchyard, in an obscure spot which must have been overlooked -by some of the windows of Panmure House. - -In his will he had made his cousin, David Douglas (the youngest son of -Colonel Douglas of Strathendry), his heir, with instructions to dispose -of his manuscripts in accordance with the advice of Black and Hutton. - -A small but choice library of four or five thousand volumes, and a -simple table, to which his friends were always welcome without the -formality of an invitation, were, says Dugald Stewart, “the only -expenses that could be considered his own.” His acts of private -generosity, though sedulously concealed, were on a scale “much beyond -what might have been expected from his fortune,” and those who knew only -of his frugality were surprised to find how small, in comparison with -the income he had long enjoyed, was the property he left behind him. - -His friends were indignant that the death of so great a thinker made but -little stir. They might have been consoled had they been able to look -forward twenty years, and read a letter which a German student, -Alexander von der Marwitz, wrote to a friend on reading the _Wealth of -Nations_. It was on the eve of Jena, and the form of Napoleon stood out -a gigantic menace to all that the young patriot held dear. Yet he did -not hesitate to compare the victorious author with the conqueror of -Europe. “Next to Napoleon he is now the mightiest monarch in Europe.” - - -In the emancipation of thought and dispersion of knowledge which mark -the century that divides the English from the French Revolution, Adam -Smith takes his place in the order of time after Locke, Montesquieu, -Newton, and Voltaire, with Hume, Rousseau, Diderot, Turgot, and Burke. -With all of them he agreed in abhorring religious intolerance; with each -of them he had some special affinity. Like the first and the last, he -had a truly English reverence for law and order. A Newtonian in his -patient and tranquil research for the hidden secrets of Nature, he had -Voltaire’s love of Justice, while he resembled Rousseau, the only -democrat of the French school, in a new sentiment for popular -government, and in what may be called either the Social or Republican -instinct. He vied with Diderot in an universal curiosity and an -encyclopædic grasp of all the sciences, but surpassed him in originality -and creative power. He combined in an extraordinary degree the faculties -of observation, meditation, and abstraction. His achievements are not -accidents. If the architect’s plans are compared with history, they will -be found to have been executed in large part by the builders of the -nineteenth century. Of the great Frenchmen who synchronised with him and -moved along parallel lines of thought, it cannot be said that any one, -or that all together, destroyed the Church or the government, or even -the social system of France. It may even be questioned whether they -swayed the fortunes of France with an influence so potent as Smith’s -sceptre has wielded over the destinies of Europe. The criticisms of -Voltaire had mighty consequences, no doubt, but those consequences were -not deliberately planned, or even descried. Hume’s scepticism went far -deeper than Voltaire’s, tore up by the roots whole systems of debased -philosophy, and roused Kant from his dogmatic slumbers. But Hume and -Voltaire had little to sow on the land they ploughed and harrowed. In -all their anxiety to humble and ridicule religion, they would retain the -Church as a useful instrument of the State. In all their appeals to -public opinion, they never thought of resting government on a broad -basis of popular right. Their view of society was conventional; they -were rather satirists than reformers. It has been a commonplace of -criticism to compare Adam Smith with Locke. He is supposed to have done -for a particular branch of politics what Locke did for the whole -science. But Locke’s main achievement, after all, was to find -philosophic sanction for a revolution accomplished by others, and to -establish in the minds of the Whig aristocracy an unlimited respect for -a limited constitution. Smith was the single-handed contriver and sole -author of a revolution in thought which has modified the governing -policy and prodigiously increased the welfare of the whole civilised -world. - -Of his contemporaries, the nearest perhaps in spirit are Turgot and the -younger Burke, the Burke of the American Revolution and of Free Trade -and Economical Reform. But Burke and even Turgot were in a certain sense -men of the past. Though their radiance can never fade, their influence -wanes. But Smith has issued from the seclusion of a professorship of -morals, from the drudgery of a commissionership of customs, to sit in -the council-chamber of princes. His word has rung through the study to -the platform. It has been proclaimed by the agitator, conned by the -statesman, and printed in a thousand statutes. - - - - - FOOTNOTES - - -[1]Dugald Stewart wrongly describes him as a Writer to the Signet, - confusing him with a contemporary of the same name. - -[2]See W. R. Scott’s _Hutcheson_ (1900). - -[3]Even in 1763 there was but one stage-coach in Scotland “which set out - [from Edinburgh] once a month for London, and was from twelve to - fourteen days on the journey.”—George Robertson’s _Rural - Recollections_, p. 4. - -[4]See the _Wealth of Nations_, Book V. ch. i. art. 2. - -[5]See the _Wealth of Nations_, Book I. chap. ii. - -[6]The advertisement goes on to say: “It is long since he found it - necessary to abandon that plan as far too extensive; and these parts - of it lay beside him neglected till he was dead.” - -[7]First, Dugald Stewart declares that the _History of Astronomy_ “was - one of Mr. Smith’s earliest compositions.” Second, in a letter - constituting Hume his literary executor, Smith describes it as a - fragment of an intended juvenile work. Thirdly, Stewart heard him - say more than once “that he had projected in the earlier part of his - life a history of the other sciences on the same plan.” Fourthly, - the work exactly fits in with all that we hear of his youthful bent - for the Greek geometry and natural philosophy. Fifthly, it must have - been written long before 1758, for he mentions a prediction that a - certain comet will appear in that year. - -[8]“The author at the end of his essay,” says the advertisement, “left - some notes and memorandums from which it appears he considered this - last part of his _History of Astronomy_ as imperfect and needing - several additions.” It consists of 135 pages, and the imperfections - are not obvious to the reader. - -[9]_Moral Sentiments_, Part III. chap. ii. p. 210 of the second, third, - and fourth editions; chap. iii. of the sixth edition. - -[10]Mr. Rae, usually the most accurate of authorities, states that the - first edition appeared “in two volumes 8vo.” - -[11]The crude theory that sympathy is the foundation of altruism was - noticed by Hutcheson. In his _System of Moral Philosophy_ (B. I. ch. - iii.) he writes: “Others say that we regard the good of others, or - of societies ... as the means of some subtiler pleasures of our own - by sympathy with others in their happiness.” But this sympathy, he - adds, “can never account for all kind affections, tho’ it is no - doubt a natural principle and a beautiful part of our constitution.” - -[12]Mr. Rae’s _Life of Adam Smith_, pp. 148-9. Mr. Rae also says that it - contained none of the alterations or additions that Hume expected, - and expresses surprise that the additions, etc., which had been - placed in the printer’s hands in 1760 were not incorporated in the - text until the publication of the sixth edition thirty years - afterwards. On the other hand, he says that the _Dissertation on the - Origin of Languages_ was added. But the _Dissertation_ was first - appended in the third edition (1767). - -[13]See _Moral Sentiments_, 1st edition, p. 464. - -[14]_Origine de l’inégalité. Partie première_, pp. 376, 377. _Édition - d’Amsterdam des œuvres diverses de J. J. Rousseau._ The reference is - from _Moral Sentiments_, 3rd ed. p. 440. - -[15]Millar adds: “The great Montesquieu pointed out the road. He was the - Lord Bacon in this branch of philosophy. Dr. Smith is the Newton.” - -[16]Cp. _Wealth of Nations_, Book I. chap. iii. - -[17]And even Hume, as Smith warned his class, had not quite emancipated - himself from mercantilist misconceptions. - -[18]_Lectures_, p. 241: “Excise raises the price of commodities and - makes fewer people able to carry on business. If a man purchase - £1000 worth of tobacco he has a hundred pounds of tax to pay, and - therefore cannot deal to such an extent as he would otherwise do. - Thus, as it requires greater stock to carry on trade, the dealers - must be fewer, and the rich have, as it were, a monopoly against the - poor.” - -[19]Uztariz, _Theory and Practice of Commerce and Maritime Affairs_, - translated by John Kippax, 1751, vol. ii. p. 52. The allusion has - been discovered by Mr. Edwin Cannan. See _Lectures_, p. 246. - -[20]_Wealth of Nations_ (1776), Book V. chap. i. art. 2. - -[21]Tytler’s _Kames_, i. p. 278. - -[22]See Faujas Saint-Fond, _Travels in England and Scotland_, vol. ii. - p. 241. - -[23]See _Garrick Correspondence_, vol. ii. pp. 549, 550. - -[24]See letter from Adam Smith to T. Cadell printed in the _Economic - Journal_ for September 1898. It appears that the last two books he - had ordered were Postlethwait’s _Dictionary of Trade_ and Anderson’s - _Deduction of the Origin of Commerce_. Neither appears in Mr. - Bonar’s catalogue of his library. - -[25]At Kirkcaldy George Drysdale, for some time Provost of the town and - afterwards Collector of Customs, was a “steady and much esteemed - friend.” His more distinguished brother, Dr. John Drysdale the - minister, had been at school with Smith, and “among all his numerous - friends and acquaintances,” says Dalzel, there was none “whom he - loved with greater affection or spoke of with greater tenderness.” - They often met in Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh. The death of James - Oswald, who represented Kirkcaldy, early in 1769, was a serious loss - to the little society, and particularly to Smith. - -[26]Steuart’s _Political Economy_, 1767. - -[27]The most important of these (in Book IV. chap, vii.) appear for the - first time in the third edition (1784). - -[28]Letter to Cullen, London, 20th September 1774. - -[29]Mr. Macpherson’s recent abridgment is the only tolerable one I know - of, and that solely because it carefully retains many of the finest - chapters, and leaves the flesh on the bones. - -[30]A public pawnshop. - -[31]Charles Butler, the learned Catholic lawyer, once mentioned to Fox - that he had never read the _Wealth of Nations_. “To tell you the - truth,” said Fox, “nor I either. There is something in all these - subjects which passes my comprehension; something so wide that I - could never embrace them myself or find any one who did.” - -[32]See Book IV. chap. vii. - -[33]See Skarzinski’s _Adam Smith_ (1878), quoted by Oncken, _Economic - Journal_, vol. vii. p. 445. - -[34]See Ruskin’s _Fors Clavigera_, letters 62 and 72. - -[35]Smith avoids the error so commonly committed in modern doctrines of - international trade, of regarding a nation as a trading unit. - -[36]The second case is simple and uncontroversial. If there is an excise - duty upon a home product, it seems reasonable, says Smith, that an - equal tax should be imposed in the shape of an import duty upon the - same product imported from abroad. - -[37]The author of _Douglas_. - -[38]Written from Kirkcaldy, November 9, 1776. - -[39]In the Budget of 1778 North adopted two more important - recommendations: the inhabited house duty, which is still with us, - and the malt tax, which was commuted for the beer duty by Mr. - Gladstone in 1880. The house tax proved very productive, as taxes - went in those days, its yield rising from £26,000 in 1779 to - £108,000 in 1782. - -[40]Sir Gray Cooper was Secretary to the Treasury. - -[41]Rae’s _Life of Adam Smith_, p. 326. - -[42]See the _Life of Smith_ by William Smellie, a contemporary. - -[43]See Sinclair’s _Life of Sir John Sinclair_, vol. i. p. 39. - -[44]Edinburgh, 15th December 1783. The letter is printed in the - _Journals and Correspondence of Lord Auckland_, vol. i. p. 64. - -[45]Sir Gilbert Elliot wrote from Edinburgh, July 25, 1782, to his - wife:—“I have found one just man in Gomorrah, Adam Smith, author of - the _Wealth of Nations_. He was the Duke of Buccleuch’s tutor, is a - wise and deep philosopher, and although made Commissioner of the - Customs here by the Duke and Lord Advocate, is what I call an - _honest fellow_. He wrote a most kind as well as elegant letter to - Burke on his resignation, as I believe I told you before, and on my - mentioning it to him he told me he was the only man here who spoke - out for the Rockinghams.”—_Life of Lord Minto_, vol. i. p. 84. - -[46]Afterwards Lord Lauderdale, a finished economist, who passed some - ingenious criticisms on the _Wealth of Nations_. - -[47]See Dugald Stewart’s _Memoir_, section V. - -[48]Mr. Rae, the only one of Smith’s biographers, I think, who has - noticed Saint-Fond’s visit, dates it wrongly (in 1782), and says the - account was published in 1783. The journey took place in 1784, and - the account was published in 1797. An English translation appeared - two years later. - -[49]This appeared in 1786 with a prefatory note expressing the author’s - grateful obligations to Mr. Henry Hope of Amsterdam, for his - information concerning the great Dutch Bank. - -[50]In his first will Gibbon left a legacy of £100 to Adam Smith. - -[51]In his _Defence of Usury_, “Letter XIII. to Dr. Smith,” Bentham had - written: “Instead therefore of pretending to owe you nothing, I - shall begin with acknowledging that, as far as your trade coincides - with mine, I should come much nearer the truth were I to say I owed - you everything.” Mr. Rae (_Life of Adam Smith_, p. 424) quotes a - letter from George Wilson to Bentham, in the Bentham MSS., British - Museum. I may add to this the following note which I find in - Bentham’s _Rationale of Reward_ (1825), p. 332, in chapter xvi. of - Book IV., on Rates of Interest. “Adam Smith, after having read the - letter upon _Projects_, which was addressed to him, and printed at - the end of the first edition of the _Defence of Usury_, declared to - a gentleman, the common friend of the two authors, that he had been - deceived. With the tidings of his death Mr. Bentham received a copy - of his works, which had been sent to him as a token of esteem.” - - - - - INDEX - - - A - Alembert, 132, 139. - American colonies, 163, 176-9. - Aristotle, 6, 24-6, 37, 53, 74, 194. - Armaments, 172-4. - _Astronomy, History of_, 16-18. - - - B - Bacon, 5, 74 _n._, 118-19. - Bagehot (quoted), 204. - Balliol College, 9-12. - Banks (in Scotland), 101. - Beauclerk, 160-1. - _Bee, The_, 21. - Bentham, Jeremy, 12, 184, 216; - his _Defence of Usury_, 231-2. - Black, Joseph, 83, 96-7, 99, 208, 231, 233. - Bordeaux, 123, 141. - Boswell, James, 19, 161, 164. - Brougham, Lord, 14. - Buccleuch, Duke of, 111-14, 131, 135, 150, 153, 157, 163, 213. - Buchan, Lord, 21, 99. - Buckle, Henry Thomas, 63, 64. - Burke, Edmund, 20, 30, 47, 49, 67, 75, 112, 160-2, 171, 174, - 221-3, 226, 235-6. - Butler, Bishop, 12, 51, 54. - - - C - Calas, Jean, the case of, 124-5. - Cannan, Edwin, 71, 78-9, 90 _n._, 169; - the _Lectures_, 182. - Carlyle, Dr. Alexander, 101, 104, 105, 151, 226. - Clubs—the Poker, 107-9; - the Literary, 160, 161, 212, 216; - the Oyster, 216-18, 230. - Cobden, Richard, 78, 175, 184, 189-91. - Cochrane, Andrew, 101-2. - Colbert, Abbé, 121-3. - Colliers, 76-7. - Colonies, 145-9, 175-80. - Condorcet, 133. - Cullen, Dr., 26-7, 157, 226. - Customs, 88 _sqq._, 196 _sqq._, 213-15. - - - D - Dalkeith House, 150-1. - Dalrymple, Sir John, 21, 95, 99, 101, 104-5, 216. - Degrees, medical, 157-60. - Descartes, 17, 55. - Douglas, David, 213, 234. - —— Jane, 213, 223, 229. - —— John, Bishop of Salisbury, 9, 160. - Drysdale, John, 3. - Dundas, Henry, 201, 228. - Dunlop, Alexander, 4. - - - E - Eden, William, 199, 201-20, 227, 237 - Edinburgh, 4, 78, 100, 103, 105 _sqq._, 153, 206, 213 _sqq._ - _Encyclopædia_, the, 118-20. - England, wealth of, 139-42. - Enville, Duchess of, 128, 131. - Epictetus, 55, 56. - Excise, 88-91, 191 _n._ - Exports, theory of, 86 _sqq._, 190 _sqq._ - - - F - Ferguson, Adam, 128, 216. - Ferney, 127-8. - Foulis, Robert, printer, 21, 95, 97-9. - Fox, Charles James, 174, 212, 221-2. - France, 86-7, 118 _sqq._, 188, 235. - Franklin, Benjamin, 108, 161-2. - Free Trade, 88, 142, 176, 188 _sqq._; (chapter x.), 220. - - - G - Garrick, David, 130, 160, 212. - Geneva, 126-8. - Gibbon, 12, 13, 131, 157, 160, 164, 212, 216, 229-31. - Gladstone, W. E., 165, 193. - Glasgow, 4-9, 11, 23, 27, 78, 95 _sqq._, 100-3, 222. - —— University of, 3-9, 94 _sqq._, 229. - Glassford, John, 101. - Grotius, 5, 71, 73, 92. - - - H - Hamilton of Bangour, 21. - Helvétius, 132. - Hobbes, Thomas, 36, 51, 71. - Holland, 90, 139, 172, 192. - Home, Henry (see Kames). - —— John, 103, 105. - Hume, David, 6, 11, 17, 20, 22, 26, 30, 36, 38, 43, 46 _sqq._, 51, - 60 _sqq._, 73, 95, 96, 103, 106, 110-11, 113, 129, 130, - 136-8, 150 _sqq._, 163-4, 181, 194, 205-11, 233, 235. - Hunter, Sir William, 157. - —— John, 227. - Hutcheson, Francis, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 30, 31, 36-8, 51, 57 _n._, 62, - 64, 73, 97, 181, 229. - Hutton, Dr., 216, 217, 233. - - - I - _Imitative Arts_, 16, 17, 19-20, 33, 67. - Imports, theory of, 86 _sqq._, 192 _sqq._, 220. - Ireland, 200-3. - - - J - Jardine, George, 30-31. - Johnson, Samuel, 19, 109-10, 165. - Johnstone, William (see Pulteney). - Jurisprudence, 69-72, 78. - Justice, 68 _sqq._ - - - K - Kames, Lord, 18, 19, 77, 103. - Kant, 40, 58. - Kirkcaldy, 1-3, 16, 76, 150-6, 205 _sqq._ - Kraus, Christian Jakob, 185. - - - L - Labour, division of, 81, 194-5. - Languedoc, 124-6. - Law, international, 71, 92-3. - List, Friedrich, 185-6, 189, 196. - Locke, John, 5, 25, 73, 235-6. - Logan, John, 226. - Logic, chair of, 23, 30-3. - _Logic and Metaphysics, History of_, 18, 23-8, 31-3. - London, 78, 156 _sqq._, 227-8. - Lowe, Robert, 187. - - - M - Mackintosh, Sir James, 50, 132. - Malebranche, 25. - Malesherbes, 184. - Manchester School, 189-91. - Mandeville, 36-7, 53-4, 62. - Mathematics, 7, 8. - _Maxims_ of Rochefoucauld, 54. - Mercantile system, 85-8, 197-8. - Metaphysics, 26, 32-3; see Logic. - Mill, John Stuart, 165, 186-7, 196. - Millar, Andrew (the publisher), 46-8, 138, 144. - —— John, 31, 33, 37, 68, 74, 99, 222. - Milton, 21, 36, 67, 184. - Mollien, Count, 143, 184-5. - Monopoly, 159, 220. - Montesquieu, 68, 73, 76, 215, 235. - Morals, Chair of, 26 _sqq._, 116-17. - _Moral Sentiments, Theory of_, 31, 37-9, 46 _sqq._, 232. - Morellet, 132, 142, 220. - - - N - Navigation Act, 4, 190-1. - Necker, 131-2. - Newton, Sir Isaac, 8, 17, 36, 235. - North, Lord, 199, 200, 212, 213. - - - O - Oswald, James, of Dunnikier, 3, 18, 22, 104. - Oxford, 9. - —— University of, 11-15. - - - P - Panmure House, 213-14. - Paris, 129 _sqq._, 136-9. - Peel, Sir Robert, 193. - _Physics, History of Ancient_, 18. - Pitt, the younger, 184, 188, 200, 222, 227. - Plato, 24-5, 37, 194. - Police, lectures on, 68-72, 78. - Pope, 13, 19, 56. - Population, 76. - Price, Dr. Richard, 161, 230. - Protection (see Free Trade). - Pulteney, Sir William, 19, 104, 154-5. - - - Q - Quesnai, 68, 71, 134-5, 142, 169. - - - R - Rae, John (quoted), 14, 28, 94, 101, 106, 111, 114, 129, 211, 212, - 226 _n._, 228. - Raikes, Thomas, 228. - Ramsay, Allan, 105, 110. - —— John, of Ochtertyre, 38, 44, 96. - Religion, 183. - _Review, Edinburgh_, 109. - Revenue of France, 141-2. - Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 160. - Riccoboni, Madame, 130. - Richelieu, Duke of, 123, 127. - Rochefoucauld, 129, 131, 133. - Rockingham Ministry, 146-7. - Rogers, Dr. Charles (quoted), 155. - —— Samuel, 9, 127, 133, 230-1. - Rousseau, J. J., 65, 136-8, 150, 224, 235. - Ruskin, 183. - - - S - Saint-Fond, Faujas de, 127, 223-6. - Schmoller, Professor, 180. - Schools (public) in England, 12. - Scotland, 9-10, 139-41. - Scott, Sir Walter (quoted), 217. - Shaftesbury, 31, 36, 51. - Shelburne, Lord, 144, 148, 184, 188. - Simson, Robert, 4, 8, 96. - Smith, Adam (the elder), 2. - —— Margaret, 2, 8. - Snell Exhibition, 9, 10, 15. - Society, the Select, 105-7. - Spectator, Impartial, 56-60, 182. - Spain, 86, 87, 145, 175. - Stamp Act, 146, 147. - Stewart, Dugald (quoted), 2, 5, 13, 14, 21, 68, 102, 105, 131, - 132, 139, 151, 214, 234. - —— Matthew, 7, 8. - Strahan, William, 61, 144, 164, 206 _sqq._, 226. - Strathendry, 2. - Sympathy, doctrine of, 57 _sqq._ - - - T - _Taille_, 142. - Tax, Land, 89, 142; - the French, 142. - Taxation, 88 _sqq._, 170-2, 176 _sqq._ - Theology, Natural, 7, 37. - Tocqueville, 125. - Tooke, Horne, 124. - Toulouse, 124-5, 144. - Townshend, Charles, 48-9, 104, 111-15, 135, 147-8. - Treaties, Commercial (with France), 200, 220, 227. - Turgot, 68, 71, 125, 126, 129, 132-4, 142, 184, 219, 235-6. - - - U - Union, Act of, 4, 36. - Uztariz (quoted), 90. - - - V - _Vingtième_, 142. - Voltaire, 20, 44, 48, 120, 125, 127, 128, 139, 224, 235. - - - W - Wages, 140. - Wakefield, E. G., 165-6. - Walpole, Sir Robert, 91. - War, 172-4. - Watt, James, 83, 96-7. - _Wealth of Nations_, 2, 12, 15, 22, 32, 33, 63, 69, 81 _sqq._, - 139, 144, 156, 158, 161-2; (chapter ix.), 163 _sqq._, 213. - Wedderburn, Alexander, 19, 47, 109. - Wilberforce, William, 228-9. - Windham, William, 226. - Wordsworth, 20, 21. - - - Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty - at the Edinburgh University Press - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - -—Silently corrected a few typos. - -—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook - is public-domain in the country of publication. - -—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by - _underscores_. - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADAM SMITH *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for -copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very -easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation -of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project -Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may -do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected -by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark -license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country other than the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where - you are located before using this eBook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that: - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of -the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set -forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, -Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up -to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website -and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without -widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our website which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/64753-0.zip b/old/64753-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index da60ad1..0000000 --- a/old/64753-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/64753-h.zip b/old/64753-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 6153574..0000000 --- a/old/64753-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/64753-h/64753-h.htm b/old/64753-h/64753-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index bd862ad..0000000 --- a/old/64753-h/64753-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9130 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<head> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> -<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> -<title>Adam Smith, by Francis W. Hirst—a Project Gutenberg eBook</title> -<meta name="author" content="Francis W. Hirst" /> -<meta name="pss.pubdate" content="1904" /> -<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> -<link rel="spine" href="images/spine.jpg" /> -<link rel="schema.DC" href="http://dublincore.org/documents/1998/09/dces/" /> -<meta name="DC.Title" content="Adam Smith" /> -<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" /> -<meta name="DC.Format" content="text/html" /> -<meta name="DC.Created" content="1904" /> -<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Francis W. Hirst" /> -<style type="text/css"> -/* == GLOBAL MARKUP == */ -body, table.twocol tr td { margin-left:2em; margin-right:2em; } /* BODY */ -.box { border-style:double; margin-bottom:2em; max-width:30em; margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-top:2em; clear:both; } -.box div.box { border-style:solid; margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto; max-width:26em; } -.box p { margin-right:1em; margin-left:1em; } -.box dl { margin-right:1em; margin-left:1em; } -h1, h2, h5, h6, .titlepg p { text-align:center; clear:both; text-indent:0; } /* HEADINGS */ -h2 { margin-top:1.5em; margin-bottom:1em; font-size:110%; text-align:center; } -h2 .small { font-size:100%; } -h1 { margin-top:3em; } -h1 .likep { font-weight:normal; font-size:50%; } -div.box h1 { margin-top:1em; margin-left:.5em; margin-right:.5em; } -h3 { margin-top:2.5em; text-align:center; font-size: 80%; clear:both; } -h4, h5 { font-size:100%; text-align:right; clear:right; } -h6 { font-size:100%; } -h6.var { font-size:80%; font-style:normal; } -.titlepg { margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; border-style:double; clear:both; } -span.chaptertitle { font-style:normal; display:block; text-align:center; font-size:150%; text-indent:0; } -.tblttl { text-align:center; text-indent:0;} -.tblsttl { text-align:center; font-variant:small-caps; text-indent:0; } - -pre sub.ms { width:4em; letter-spacing:1em; } -pre { margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; } -table.fmla { text-align:center; margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:0em; margin-left:0em; margin-right:0em; } -table.inline, table.symbol { display: inline-table; vertical-align: middle; } -td.cola { text-align:left; vertical-align:100%; } -td.colb { text-align:justify; } - -p, blockquote, div.p, div.bq { text-align:justify; } /* PARAGRAPHS */ -div.p, div.bq { margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; } -blockquote, .bq { margin-left:1em; margin-right:0em; } -.verse { font-size:100%; } -p.indent {text-indent:2em; text-align:left; } -p.tb, p.tbcenter, verse.tb, blockquote.tb { margin-top:2em; } - -span.pb, div.pb, dt.pb, p.pb /* PAGE BREAKS */ -{ text-align:right; float:right; margin-right:0em; clear:right; } -div.pb { display:inline; } -.pb, dt.pb, dl.toc dt.pb, dl.tocl dt.pb, dl.undent dt.pb, dl.index dt.pb { text-align:right; float:right; margin-left: 1.5em; - margin-top:.5em; margin-bottom:.5em; display:inline; text-indent:0; - font-size:80%; font-style:normal; font-weight:bold; - color:gray; border:1px solid gray;padding:1px 3px; } -div.index .pb { display:block; } -.bq div.pb, .bq span.pb { font-size:90%; margin-right:2em; } - -div.img, body a img {text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em; clear:right; } -img { max-width:100%; height:auto; } - -sup, a.fn { font-size:75%; vertical-align:100%; line-height:50%; font-weight:normal; } -h3 a.fn { font-size:65%; } -a.fn { font-style:normal; } -sub { font-size:75%; } -.center, .tbcenter { text-align:center; clear:both; text-indent:0; } /* TEXTUAL MARKUP */ -span.center { display:block; } -table.center { clear:both; margin-right:auto; margin-left:auto; } -table.center tr td.l, table.center tr th.l {text-align:left; margin-left:0em; } -table.center tr td.j {text-align:justify; } -table.center tr td.ltab { text-align:left; width:1.5em; } -table.center tr td.t {text-align:left; text-indent:1em; } -table.center tr td.t2 {text-align:left; text-indent:2em; } -table.center tr td.r, table.center tr th.r {text-align:right; } -table.center tr th.rx { width:4.5em; text-align:right; } -table.center tr th {vertical-align:bottom; } -table.center tr td {vertical-align:top; } -table.inline, table.symbol { display: inline-table; vertical-align: middle; } - -p { clear:left; } -.small, .lsmall { font-size:90%; } -.smaller { font-size:80%; } -.smallest { font-size:67%; } -.larger { font-size:150%; } -.large { font-size:125%; } -.xlarge { font-size:150%; } -.xxlarge { font-size:200%; } -.gs { letter-spacing:1em; } -.gs3 { letter-spacing:2em; } -.gslarge { letter-spacing:.3em; font-size:110%; } -.sc { font-variant:small-caps; font-style:normal; } -.cur { font-family:cursive; } -.unbold { font-weight:normal; } -.xo { position:relative; left:-.3em; } -.over { text-decoration: overline; display:inline; } -hr { width:20%; margin-left:40%; } -hr.dwide { margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; width:90%; margin-left:5%; clear:right; } -hr.double { margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; width:100%; margin-left:0; margin-right:0; } -hr.f { margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; width:100%; margin-left:0; } -.jl { text-align:left; } -.jr, .jri { text-align:right; min-width:2em; display:inline-block; float:right; } -.pcap .jri { font-size:80%; } -.jr1 { text-align:right; margin-right:2em; } -h1 .jr { margin-right:.5em; } -.ind1 { text-align:left; margin-left:2em; } -.u { text-decoration:underline; } -.hst { margin-left:2em; } -.hst2 { margin-left:4em; } -.rubric { color:red; } -.blue { color:blue; background-color:white; } -.green { color:green; background-color:white; } -.yellow { color:yellow; background-color:white; } -.orange { color:#ffa500; background-color:white; } -.white { color:white; background-color:black; margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em; max-width:28em; } -.cnwhite { color:white; background-color:black; min-width:2em; display:inline-block; - text-align:center; font-weight:bold; font-family:sans-serif; } -.cwhite { color:white; background-color:black; text-align:center; font-weight:bold; - font-family:sans-serif; } -ul li { text-align:justify; } -u.dbl { text-decoration:underline; } -.ss { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:bold; } -.ssn { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } -p.revint { margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; } -.box p.revint { margin-left:3em; } -p.revint2 { margin-left:5em; text-indent:-3em; } -p.revint2 .cn { min-width:2.5em; text-indent:0; text-align:left; display:inline-block; margin-right:.5em; } -i .f { font-style:normal; } -.b { font-weight:bold; } -.i { font-style:italic; } -.f { font-style:italic; font-weight:bold; } - -dd.t { text-align:left; margin-left: 5.5em; } -dl.toc { clear:both; margin-top:1em; } /* CONTENTS (.TOC) */ -dl.toc dt.center { text-align:center; clear:both; margin-top:3em; margin-bottom:1em; text-indent:0;} -.toc dt { text-align:right; clear:both; } -dl.toc dt.c { text-align:center; } -.toc dt.just { text-align:justify; margin-left:2em; margin-right:2em; } -.toc dd { text-align:right; clear:both; } -.toc dd.ddt { text-align:right; clear:both; margin-left:4em; } -.toc dd.ddt2 { text-align:right; clear:both; margin-left:5em; } -.toc dd.ddt3 { text-align:right; clear:both; margin-left:6em; } -.toc dd.ddt4 { text-align:right; clear:both; margin-left:7em; } -.toc dd.ddt5 { text-align:right; clear:both; margin-left:8em; } -.toc dd.note { text-align:justify; clear:both; margin-left:5em; text-indent:-1em; margin-right:3em; } -.toc dt .xxxtest {width:17em; display:block; position:relative; left:4em; } -.toc dt a, -.toc dd a, -.toc dt span.left, -.toc dt span.lsmall, -.toc dd span.left { text-align:left; clear:right; float:left; } -.toc dt a span.cn { width:4em; text-align:right; margin-right:.7em; float:left; } -.toc dt.sc { text-align:right; clear:both; } -.toc dt.scl { text-align:left; clear:both; font-variant:small-caps; } -.toc dt.sct { text-align:right; clear:both; font-variant:small-caps; margin-left:1em; } -.toc dt.jl, .toc dd.jl { text-align:left; clear:both; font-variant:normal; } -.toc dt.scc { text-align:center; clear:both; font-variant:small-caps; text-indent:0; } -.toc dt span.lj, span.lj { text-align:left; display:block; float:left; } -.toc dd.center { text-align:center; text-indent:0; } -dd.tocsummary {text-align:justify; margin-right:2em; margin-left:2em; } -dd.center .sc {display:block; text-align:center; text-indent:0; } -/* BOX CELL */ -td.top { border-top:1px solid; width:.5em; height:.8em; } -td.bot { border-bottom:1px solid; width:.5em; height:.8em; } -td.rb { border:1px solid; border-left:none; width:.5em; height:.8em; } -td.lb { border:1px solid; border-right:none; width:.5em; height:.8em; } -td span.cellt { text-indent:1em; } -td span.cellt2 { text-indent:2em; } -td span.cellt3 { text-indent:3em; } -td span.cellt4 { text-indent:4em; } - -/* INDEX (.INDEX) */ -dl.index { clear:both; } -.index dt { margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left; } -.index dd { margin-left:4em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left; } -.index dd.t { margin-left:6em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left; } -.index dt.center {text-align:center; text-indent:0; } - dl.indexlr { clear:both; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; max-width:20em; } - dl.indexlr dt { clear:both; text-align:right; } - dl.indexlr dt span { text-align:left; display:block; float:left; } - dl.indexlr dt.center {text-align:center; text-indent:0; } -.ab, .ab1, .ab2 { -font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; -border-style:solid; border-color:gray; border-width:1px; -margin-right:0px; margin-top:5px; display:inline-block; text-align:center; text-indent:0; } -.ab { width:1em; } -.ab2 { width:1.5em; } -a.gloss { background-color:#f2f2f2; border-bottom-style:dotted; text-decoration:none; border-color:#c0c0c0; color:inherit; } - /* FOOTNOTE BLOCKS */ -div.notes p { margin-left:1em; text-indent:-1em; text-align:justify; } - -dl.undent dd { margin-left:3em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:justify; } -dl.undent dt { margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:justify; clear:both; } -dl.undent dd.t { margin-left:4em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:justify; } - /* POETRY LINE NUMBER */ -.lnum { text-align:right; float:right; margin-left:.5em; display:inline; } - -.hymn { text-align:left; } /* HYMN AND VERSE: HTML */ -.verse { text-align:left; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:0em; } -.versetb { text-align:left; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:0em; } -.originc { text-align:center; text-indent:0; } -.subttl { text-align:center; font-size:80%; text-indent:0; } -.srcttl { text-align:center; font-size:80%; text-indent:0; font-weight:bold; } -p.lc { text-indent:0; text-align:center; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; } -p.t0, p.l { margin-left:4em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.lb { margin-left:4em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.tw, div.tw, .tw { margin-left:1em; text-indent:-1em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t, div.t, .t { margin-left:5em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t2, div.t2, .t2 { margin-left:6em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t3, div.t3, .t3 { margin-left:7em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t4, div.t4, .t4 { margin-left:8em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t5, div.t5, .t5 { margin-left:9em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t6, div.t6, .t6 { margin-left:10em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t7, div.t7, .t7 { margin-left:11em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t8, div.t8, .t8 { margin-left:12em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t9, div.t9, .t9 { margin-left:13em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t10, div.t10,.t10 { margin-left:14em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t11, div.t11,.t11 { margin-left:15em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t12, div.t12,.t12 { margin-left:16em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t13, div.t13,.t13 { margin-left:17em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t14, div.t14,.t14 { margin-left:18em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.t15, div.t15,.t15 { margin-left:19em; text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:left; } -p.lr, div.lr, span.lr { display:block; margin-left:0em; margin-right:1em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:right; } -dt.lr { width:100%; margin-left:0em; margin-right:0em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:1em; text-align:right; } -dl dt.lr a { text-align:left; clear:left; float:left; } - -.fnblock { margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em; } -.fndef, p.fn { text-align:justify; margin-top:1.5em; margin-left:1.5em; text-indent:-1.5em; } -.fndef p.fncont, .fndef dl { margin-left:0em; text-indent:0em; } -.fnblock div.fncont { margin-left:1.5em; text-indent:0em; margin-top:1em; text-align:justify; } -.fnblock dl { margin-top:0; margin-left:4em; text-indent:-2em; } -.fnblock dt { text-align:justify; } -dl.catalog dd { font-style:italic; } -dl.catalog dt { margin-top:1em; } -.author { text-align:right; margin-top:0em; margin-bottom:0em; display:block; } - -dl.biblio dt { margin-top:.6em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:justify; clear:both; } -dl.biblio dt div { display:block; float:left; margin-left:-6em; width:6em; clear:both; } -dl.biblio dt.center { margin-left:0em; text-align:center; text-indent:0; } -dl.biblio dd { margin-top:.3em; margin-left:3em; text-align:justify; font-size:90%; } -p.biblio { margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; } -.clear { clear:both; } -p.book { margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; } -p.review { margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; font-size:80%; } -p.pcap { margin-left:0em; text-indent:0; text-align:center; margin-top:0; } -p.pcapc { margin-left:4.7em; text-indent:0em; text-align:justify; } -span.attr { font-size:80%; font-family:sans-serif; } -span.pn { display:inline-block; width:4.7em; text-align:left; margin-left:0; text-indent:0; } -</style> -</head> -<body> - -<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Adam Smith, by Francis W. Hirst</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<table style='min-width:0; padding:0; margin-left:0; border-collapse:collapse'> - <tr><td>Title:</td><td>Adam Smith</td></tr> - <tr><td></td><td>English Men of Letters</td></tr> -</table> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Francis W. Hirst</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: March 08, 2021 [eBook #64753]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Stephen Hutcheson, Adrian Mastronardi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADAM SMITH ***</div> -<div id="cover" class="img"> -<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Adam Smith" width="500" height="723" /> -</div> -<div class="box"> -<p class="center"><i>ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS</i></p> -<h1>ADAM SMITH</h1> -<p class="center"><span class="smallest">BY</span> -<br />FRANCIS W. HIRST</p> -<p class="tbcenter smaller">LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED -<br />NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FOUR</p> -</div> -<p class="tbcenter"><i>Copyright in the United States of America, 1904</i></p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_v">v</div> -<h2>PREFATORY NOTE</h2> -<p>Early in 1793 Dugald Stewart read at two meetings -of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his “Account -of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith.” Written -with the sympathetic pen of a friend and disciple in the -Corinthian style that Stewart loved, the memoir was -too good to be superseded. A century passed, and -in 1895 appeared Mr. John Rae’s exhaustive <i>Life of -Adam Smith</i>. Mr. Rae’s comprehensive researches -cropped the ground so close that little seemed to -have been left for his successors to glean. But the -discovery of Smith’s <i>Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue, -and Arms</i>, edited by Mr. Edwin Cannan and published -in 1896, has furnished new and important materials.</p> -<p>Of Smith’s innumerable critics and commentators, -Bagehot, Oncken, Ingram, and Hasbach seem to me to -have understood him best. The misdirected erudition -of some others has only proved the importance of -allowing him to be his own interpreter.</p> -<p>Dr. David Murray of Glasgow has very kindly read -portions of my proofs, and has contributed most -generously from his wonderful store of learning.</p> -<p><span class="lr">F. W. H.</span></p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_vii">vii</div> -<h2 id="toc" class="center">CONTENTS</h2> -<dl class="toc"> -<dt class="jr"><span class="smaller">PAGE</span></dt> -<dt class="c">CHAPTER I</dt> -<dt><a href="#c1"><span class="sc">Early Years</span></a> 1</dt> -<dt class="c">CHAPTER II</dt> -<dt><a href="#c2"><span class="sc">The Beginning of a Career</span></a> 23</dt> -<dt class="c">CHAPTER III</dt> -<dt><a href="#c3"><span class="sc">Theology and Religious Establishments</span></a> 36</dt> -<dt class="c">CHAPTER IV</dt> -<dt><a href="#c4">“<span class="sc">The Theory of Moral Sentiments</span>”</a> 46</dt> -<dt class="c">CHAPTER V</dt> -<dt><a href="#c5"><span class="sc">In the Glasgow Chair—The Lectures on Justice And Police</span></a> 68</dt> -<dt class="c">CHAPTER VI</dt> -<dt><a href="#c6"><span class="sc">Glasgow and its University</span></a> 94</dt> -<dt class="c">CHAPTER VII</dt> -<dt><a href="#c7"><span class="sc">The Tour in France, 1764-66</span></a> 118</dt> -<dt class="c">CHAPTER VIII</dt> -<dt><a href="#c8"><span class="sc">Politics and Study, 1766-76</span></a> 144</dt> -<dt class="c">CHAPTER IX</dt> -<dt><a href="#c9"><span class="sc">The “Wealth of Nations” and its Critics</span></a> 164</dt> -<dt class="c">CHAPTER X</dt> -<dt><a href="#c10"><span class="sc">Free Trade</span></a> 188</dt> -<dt class="c">CHAPTER XI</dt> -<dt><a href="#c11"><span class="sc">Last Years</span></a> 205</dt> -<dt><a href="#c12"><span class="sc">Index</span></a> 237</dt> -</dl> -<div class="pb" id="Page_1">1</div> -<h1 title="">ADAM SMITH</h1> -<h2 id="c1">CHAPTER I -<br /><span class="smaller">EARLY YEARS</span></h2> -<p>Adam Smith was born on June 5, 1723, in the “lang -toun” of Kirkcaldy. It was one of the “mony royal -boroughs yoked on end to end like ropes of ingans, -with their hie-streets and their booths, and their -kraemes and houses of stane and lime and forestairs,” -which led Andrew Fairservice to contrast “the kingdom -of Fife” with the inferior county of Northumberland; -nay, it furnished him with a special boast, -“Kirkcaldy, the sell o’t, is langer than ony toun in -England.” It had been a royal borough from the -time of Charles I., and had declined, like many other -Scotch towns, in the religious wars of the seventeenth -century. Many of its citizens who had fought for the -Covenant had fallen on the fatal field of Tippermuir. -But it still contained about 1500 inhabitants, who -were variously employed as colliers, fishermen, salters, -nailmakers, and smugglers. From the harbour you -might walk a mile or more westward along the High -Street, enjoying from time to time a glimpse of the -sea and shelving beach, where the line of shops opened -for a narrow “wynd,” or a still narrower “close” -<span class="pb" id="Page_2">2</span> -threaded the high-walled gardens of a few substantial -houses. In one of these Adam Smith wrote the -<i>Wealth of Nations</i>, and probably in one of these he -was born. The father, who died a few weeks before -the birth of his only child, had been a leading townsman. -Adam Smith the elder was a man of note in his -own day. From 1707 to his death he was a Writer,<a class="fn" id="fr_1" href="#fn_1">[1]</a> -<i>i.e.</i> solicitor, and Judge Advocate for Scotland. He -had acted as private secretary to Lord Loudon, then -Minister for Scotland; and Loudon, on leaving office -in 1713, obtained for his secretary the Comptrollership -of Customs at Kirkcaldy—a post worth about -£100 a year.</p> -<p>His widow lived to a great age, and saw her -boy rise step by step to the fulness of fame. She -is said to have been an over-indulgent mother; but -her devotion was repaid by the life-long love of a most -tender son. Mrs. Smith’s maiden name was Margaret -Douglas, and she was the daughter of the Laird of -Strathendry, in the county of Fife. At Strathendry -the future economist had a narrow escape; for one -day as he played at the door he was picked up and -carried off by a party of vagrant tinkers. Luckily he -was soon missed, pursued and overtaken in Leslie -Wood; and thus, in the grandiose dialect of Dugald -Stewart, there was preserved to the world “a genius, -which was destined, not only to extend the boundaries -of science, but to enlighten and reform the commercial -policy of Europe.”</p> -<p>The next landmark in the boy’s history is a copy -of <i>Eutropius</i>, on the fly-leaf of which is inscribed -<span class="pb" id="Page_3">3</span> -in a childish hand, “Adam Smith, his book, May -4th, 1733.” Before his tenth birthday, therefore, -he had already made some progress in Latin. The -Burgh School of Kirkcaldy, which he attended, was a -good grammar school of the kind that already -abounded in Scotland. It was patronised by the -Oswalds of Dunnikier, the principal people of the -neighbourhood. James Oswald, who soon made a -mark in politics, was Smith’s senior by some years, -but they became life-long friends. Robert Adams, -the architect who planned Edinburgh University, was -another friend and schoolfellow; and so was John -Drysdale, who twice held the helm of the Scotch -Church as Moderator of its General Assembly. In -1734 the schoolboys played a moral piece written for -the purpose by the head master, David Millar. As a -teacher he had a considerable reputation, but as a -dramatist he will be judged by the title of his play, -“A Royal Counsel for Advice; or Regular Education -for Boys the Foundation of all other Improvements.” -Adam Smith soon attracted notice at school “by his -passion for books and by the extraordinary powers of -his memory.” Too weak and delicate to join in active -games, he was yet popular with his schoolfellows; for -his temper, “though warm, was to an uncommon -degree friendly and generous.” In company his absentmindedness -was often noticed, and this habit, with a -trick of talking to himself, clung to him to the end.</p> -<p>In his fourteenth year Smith left the Grammar -School of Kirkcaldy for the University of Glasgow, -where he was to remain until the spring of 1740. He -entered, probably, in October 1737, at the beginning -of the session. As the full course extended over four -<span class="pb" id="Page_4">4</span> -sessions and Smith only attended three, he did not -take his degree; but he had the good fortune to study -Greek under Dunlop, mathematics under Simson, the -editor of Euclid, and morals under Hutcheson, perhaps -the greatest philosopher of his generation, and -certainly the most eloquent.</p> -<p>Glasgow, though still but a small place, was already -the most prosperous and progressive of Scotch towns. -After a century of decay it had found salvation in the -Act of Union, which gave it free trade with England and -a share in the colonial monopoly. Readers of <i>Rob Roy</i> -will remember how the inimitable Jarvie enlarged -upon these advantages and on the facilities Glasgow possessed -“of making up sortable cargoes for the American -market.” It was very loyal, therefore, to the House -of Hanover. In the rising of 1745, Charles Edward -got considerable support from Edinburgh, and even -from Manchester, but none from Glasgow, which, indeed, -soon afterwards obtained a parliamentary vote of -£10,000 in recognition of its exertions and as compensation -for its losses. Glasgow was the only town -in Scotland, as a learned writer has observed, to exhibit -the same kind of visible progress in the first half of -the eighteenth century which the rest of the country -developed in the second. Its shipping, sadly cramped -by the Navigation Act, began to expand after the -Union. In 1716 the “first honest vessel in the West -India trade” sailed from the Clyde, and in 1735, -two years before Smith’s arrival, Glasgow owned sixty-seven -vessels with a total burden of 5600 tons, nearly -half of the total Scotch, though only one-eightieth of -the total English tonnage.</p> -<p>In this rising mart Smith learned to value the -<span class="pb" id="Page_5">5</span> -English connection, and as he trod its busy streets -and watched the merchandise of the West pouring -into its warehouses, the boy saw that a new world -had been called in to enrich the old. With the new -sights and sounds came new ideas that had not yet -penetrated the gloom of Holyrood or the rusty pride -of the Canongate. From the lips of his master, -Hutcheson, he heard that fruitful formula which his -own philosophy was to interpret and develop, “the -greatest happiness of the greatest number.” His mind -was opened at once to the wisdom of the ancients and -to the discoveries of the moderns. He learned from -Bacon, and Grotius, and Locke, and Newton to discern -through the obscuring mists of mediæval philosophy the -splendid dawn of science. To the end of his life he -loved to recall “the abilities and virtues of the never-to-be-forgotten -Dr. Hutcheson.” Unorthodox yet not -irreligious, radical yet not revolutionary, receptive -yet inspiring, erudite yet original, Hutcheson was one -of those rare reformers whose zeal is fertilised by -knowledge and enforced by practical devotion. In -early manhood he had refused to seek an easy advancement -by subscribing to the tenets of the Church of -England in Ireland, and while Smith was at Glasgow -he braved the resentment of the Presbytery by -teaching moral principles which were supposed to contravene -the Westminster Confession. He was also the -first in the University to abandon the practice of -lecturing in Latin; and Dugald Stewart tells us that -his old pupils were all agreed about his extraordinary -talent as a public speaker. His pen was so unequal -to his tongue that Stewart applies to Hutcheson what -Quintilian said of Hortensius: “apparet placuisse -<span class="pb" id="Page_6">6</span> -aliquid eo dicente quod legentes non invenimus.”—“He -gave a pleasure to his hearers which his readers -miss.”</p> -<p>Hutcheson’s work in Glasgow (1730-1746) was of -the utmost importance to Scotland. “I am called -the New Light here,” he said. He stood for reform -of the universities, for the criticism of abuses and -privileges, for free thought, free speech, and the -spirit of inquiry. He took a lively interest in his -pupils, and tried to keep them abreast of the times. -He set Adam Smith to write an analysis of Hume’s -<i>Treatise of Human Nature</i> as soon as it appeared, and -the lad of seventeen did his exercise so well that -Hume got it printed in London and had a copy of the -<i>Treatise</i> sent him by way of reward. Hutcheson has -been called an eclectic. Certainly he had read widely -and thought deeply upon the difficulties and perplexities -of a new age, an age of scientific discovery and -philosophic doubt, an age tired of the syllogism, disdainful -of divine right, eager to find natural principles -of morality, law, and government. From the <i>System of -Moral Philosophy</i>, published after his death, we get a -clear notion of the range of his lectures. He considered -man as a social animal, and accordingly refused -to divorce the science of individual ethics from the -science of politics. He followed Aristotle in including -chapters on jurisprudence and economics in his scheme -of moral philosophy. It has been well said that the -same natural liberty and optimism which served Smith -as assumptions were the theses of Hutcheson, who himself -learned much from Shaftesbury. Hutcheson and -Smith were both reformers, and were more hopeful, if -less cheerful, than Hume. Hume was a genial cynic -<span class="pb" id="Page_7">7</span> -without any zeal for reform, who found repose in -Butler’s doctrine that things are what they are, and -that their consequences will be what they will be.</p> -<p>But with Hutcheson and Smith it was a real religion -to see that society should be better governed; they -made it the supreme object of their lives to increase -the happiness of mankind by diffusing useful truths -and exposing mischievous errors. In the scope -of his philosophy, in temper and practical aim, Smith -may be called the spiritual descendant of Hutcheson. -There are also marked resemblances in their subject -matter and even in some minor points of doctrine, as -a careful comparison recently instituted by a very competent -writer abundantly shows.<a class="fn" id="fr_2" href="#fn_2">[2]</a> We find Smith -using the same authorities as his predecessor and -quoting them to much the same purpose. Even -Hutcheson’s crude and fragmentary economics offered -many suggestions that were afterwards developed -and harmonised by Smith in his lectures. The Sunday -lectures on Natural Theology, by which Hutcheson -sought to reduce the intolerance and soften the harshness -of Scottish orthodoxy, made a lasting impression -upon the mind of his great pupil.</p> -<p>Besides his work with Hutcheson, Smith laid at -Glasgow the foundation of an early mastery of the -classics, and prepared himself for a wide course of -reading in the literature and wisdom of the ancients. -But mathematics and natural philosophy are said to -have been his favourite pursuits at this time—indeed -he seems to have attained in both a considerable proficiency, -which never escaped the tenacious grip of his -memory. Matthew Stewart, Dugald’s father, was one -<span class="pb" id="Page_8">8</span> -of his fellow-students. Long afterwards, when Professor -of Mathematics in Edinburgh, he was heard -discussing with Smith “a geometrical problem of -considerable difficulty,” which had been set them as -an exercise by Simson. Matthew Stewart, who died -in 1785, is commemorated with Simson in the sixth -edition of Smith’s <i>Theory of Moral Sentiments</i>, published -fifty years after this time. After observing that -“mathematicians who may have the most perfect assurance -of the truth and of the importance of their -discoveries, are frequently very indifferent about the -reception which they may meet with from the public,” -Adam Smith cites Dr. Robert Simson of Glasgow, and -Dr. Matthew Stewart of Edinburgh, “the two greatest -mathematicians that I ever had the honour to be known -to, and I believe, the two greatest that have lived in -my time,” as men who never seemed to feel the slightest -uneasiness from the neglect with which some of their -most valuable works were received. For several years, -he adds, even Sir Isaac Newton’s <i>Principia</i> fell flat, -but his tranquillity did not suffer for a single quarter -of an hour. Newton always stood at the very top of -Smith’s calendar.</p> -<p>Smith left Glasgow at the early age of seventeen. -His mother, acting on the advice of her relatives, -had destined the boy for the Church of England, -which then opened the door to so many lucrative -positions. Perhaps they hoped from his talents for a -career like that of his famous countryman, Bishop -Burnet, who indeed had himself been a Professor of -Divinity at Glasgow. The intention went so far that -in his third year Smith sought and obtained one of -those exhibitions which have taken so many distinguished -<span class="pb" id="Page_9">9</span> -Scots from the University of Glasgow to -Balliol College, Oxford. The Snell Exhibitions, as they -are called, were founded by an old Glasgow student of -that name in 1679, with a view to educating Scots for -the service of the Episcopalian Church. It chanced, -however, that during his residence at Oxford, an -application made by the Oxford authorities to compel -the Snell Exhibitioners “to submit and conform to the -doctrines of the Church of England and to enter into -holy orders” was refused by the Court of Chancery; -so that when the time came Smith was able to choose -his own career and to strike off from the easier road -which took his Fifeshire friend Douglas in due time to -a bishopric. The change from Glasgow to Oxford was -immense. It was more than exile; it was transmigration -from a living to a dead society, from the thrill of -a rising and thriving community, where men lived and -moved and thought, to a city of dreaming spires and -droning dons. In June 1740 he rode on horseback to -Oxford and matriculated on the 17th of July, entering -himself in a round schoolboy hand as “Adamus Smith, -e Coll. Ball. Gen. Fil. Jul. 7mo. 1740.”</p> -<p>It will be remembered that when Captain Waverley -crossed the border, five years later, on his way to join -the Young Pretender, the houses of Tully Veolan -seemed miserable in the extreme, “especially to an eye -accustomed to the smiling neatness of English cottages.” -Smith rode through Carlisle, and he told Samuel -Rogers in 1789 that he recollected being much struck -as he approached that town by the richness of England -and by the superiority of English agriculture. England -indeed was then remarkably prosperous, thanks to a -long peace, low taxes, and good harvests. Food was -<span class="pb" id="Page_10">10</span> -generally cheap and plentiful. Trade was good; and -better means of transit by road and canal were being -developed. But the land of the Scots, “during fifty -generations the rudest perhaps of all European nations, -the most necessitous, the most turbulent, and the most -unsettled,” was still unimproved. The roads were -almost impassable for wheeled vehicles. Coaches -were unknown.<a class="fn" id="fr_3" href="#fn_3">[3]</a> Many of the most fertile tracts -were waste, and there is respectable authority for -the opinion that some parts of the Lowlands were -worse cultivated than in the thirteenth century. -Under such conditions, rude beyond conception, -poverty was universal. Even the gentry could seldom -afford such bare comforts as half a century later their -own farmers possessed. As for the common people, -clothed in the coarsest garb and starving on the -meanest fare, they dwelt in despicable huts with their -cattle. It is significant that in those days Scotland -had no fatted kine. There was no market for good -meat, and the taste only grew with the means for -gratifying it. Adam Smith was fond of telling at his -own table in after years, how on the first day he dined -in the hall of Balliol, having fallen into one of his fits -of absent-mindedness, he was roused by the servitor -who told him to “fall to, for he had never seen such a -piece of beef in Scotland.”</p> -<p>Of the hundred undergraduates then at Balliol about -eight came from Scotland, and four of these were Snell -Exhibitioners. Their peculiarities of manner and -<span class="pb" id="Page_11">11</span> -dialect marked them off from the rest of the college, -and they were treated as foreigners. Their relations -with the authorities were unpleasant. In 1744, Smith -and the other Exhibitioners stated their grievances to -the Senate of Glasgow University, and explained how -their residence might be made “more easy and commodious.” -A few years afterwards, one of them told -the Master that what the Exhibitioners wanted was to -be transferred to some other college on account of -their “total dislike of Balliol.” The friction between -Balliol and Glasgow lasted long, and it was no doubt -his own unsatisfactory experience that drew from -Adam Smith thirty years afterwards a strong condemnation -of close scholarships.<a class="fn" id="fr_4" href="#fn_4">[4]</a></p> -<p>The University of Oxford was at that time and for -the rest of the century sunk deep in intellectual apathy, -a muddy reservoir of sloth, ignorance, and luxury from -which men sank as by a law of gravitation into the -still lower level of civil and ecclesiastical sinecures. -In the colleges there were only degrees of badness; -but the charity of Snell had been rather unkind to -Smith, for Balliol being Jacobite was particularly -rowdy and intolerant. It has been mentioned that in -his last year at Glasgow, Smith wrote for Hutcheson -an abstract of David Hume’s <i>Treatise of Human Nature</i> -which brought him a presentation copy from the -author. This copy he seems to have carried south -with him; for the Balliol authorities, it is recorded, -caught Smith in the act of reading the godless work, -censured him severely, and confiscated a book which -more than a century afterwards was to be sumptuously -edited by two honoured alumni of the same college.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_12">12</div> -<p>The narrow spirit which this incident illustrates -seems to have made a painful impression upon the -student’s memory. In the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> he complains -bitterly of the compulsory “sham-lecture,” and -visits with severe censure the casuistry and sophistry -by which the ancient course of philosophy had been -corrupted. This completed course, he says, was meant -to train ecclesiastics, and “certainly did not render it -more proper for the education of gentlemen or men of -the world, or more likely either to improve the understanding -or to mend the heart.” At Oxford “the -greater part of the public professors have for many years -given up altogether even the pretence of teaching.” -College discipline was in general contrived “not for the -benefit of the students, but for the interests, or more -properly speaking, for the ease of the masters.”</p> -<p>In England the public schools were “much less -corrupted than the universities; for in the schools a -boy was taught, or at least might be taught Greek -and Latin,” whereas “in the universities the youth -neither are taught, nor always can find any proper -means of being taught, the sciences which it is -the business of those incorporated bodies to teach.” -It is only fair to add that Gibbon’s experiences of -Magdalen, Bishop Butler’s of Christ Church, and -Bentham’s of Queen’s, were equally adverse. And -Balliol could at least offer its undergraduates the -advantage of an excellent library. When such a cloud -lay heavy upon that ancient seat of learning, it is no -wonder if Smith with his sedentary disposition and -frugal habits—he probably lived on his exhibition of -£40—should have spent his six years at Balliol in the -society of its books rather than of its tipsy undergraduates. -<span class="pb" id="Page_13">13</span> -Oxford, it has been observed by the most -diligent of his biographers, is the only place he lived -in which failed to furnish him with friends. But he -never displayed towards it the lively antipathy of -Gibbon; far from regretting his residence there, he -mentioned it with gratitude many years afterwards. -In Oxford he certainly gained the liberal knowledge -of ancient and modern literature that enriches and -adorns all his writings. The bookshops must have -introduced him to his favourite Pope, to Swift and -Addison, and the fashionable writers of the day. He -employed himself frequently, he used to say, in the -practice of translations, especially of French authors, -in order to improve his style.</p> -<p>“How intimately,” writes Dugald Stewart, “he -had once been conversant with more ornamental -branches of learning, in particular with the works of -the Roman, Greek, French, and Italian poets, appeared -sufficiently from the hold they kept of his memory -after all the different occupations and inquiries in -which his maturer faculties had been employed.” He -had an extraordinary knowledge of English poetry, -and could quote from memory with a correctness -which, says the same grave Scot, “appeared surprising -even to those whose attention had never been directed -to more important acquisitions.” What little intellectual -activity outside politics still lingered on at -Oxford was probably connected with philological -speculations such as those of James Harris, the learned, -if somewhat priggish, author of <i>Hermes</i>. At any rate, -Smith went deeply into every branch of grammar. -Andrew Dalzel, who was Professor of Greek at Edinburgh -in Adam Smith’s old age, often remarked on -<span class="pb" id="Page_14">14</span> -“the uncommon degree in which Mr. Smith retained -possession even to the close of his life of different -branches of knowledge which he had long ceased to -cultivate,” and particularly mentioned to his colleague -Dugald Stewart, “the readiness and correctness” of -his memory on philological subjects and his acuteness -in discussing the <i>minutiæ</i> of Greek grammar.</p> -<p>Dugald Stewart failed to collect any information -about Smith’s Oxford days, but a few relics have been -preserved by Lord Brougham in the appendix to the -discursive and rather disappointing essay upon Adam -Smith that appears in his <i>Lives of the Philosophers</i>. -“I have now before me,” says Brougham, “a number -of Dr. Smith’s letters written when at Oxford between -the years 1740 and 1746 to his mother: they are -almost all upon mere family and personal matters; -most of them indeed upon his linen and other such -necessaries, but all show his strong affection for his -parent.” The few quotations Brougham gives are -barely worth recording. On November 29, 1743, -Adam Smith writes: “I am just recovered of a violent -fit of laziness, which has confined me to my elbow -chair these three months.” Again on July 2, 1744: -“I am quite inexcusable for not writing to you oftener. -I think of you every day, but always defer writing -till the post is just going, and then sometimes business -or company, but oftener laziness, hinders me.” He -speaks of “an inveterate scurvy and shaking of the -head” which have been perfectly cured by tar -water, “a remedy very much in vogue here for all -diseases.”</p> -<p>His college contemporaries, says Mr. Rae, “were a -singularly undistinguished body,” with the exception -<span class="pb" id="Page_15">15</span> -of a Fifeshire man, John Douglas, who had gone -direct to Oxford from the Grammar School at Dunbar. -Douglas at first had a small exhibition at St. Mary’s -Hall, but after fighting at Fontenoy, he obtained a -Snell Exhibition. He distinguished himself later as a -pamphleteer and was rewarded with the Bishopric of -Salisbury. With this exception, Adam Smith seems -to have made no friends at Oxford. Besides his books -he must have enjoyed from time to time walks and -excursions into the surrounding country. In the <i>Wealth -of Nations</i> he was able to make close comparisons of -the condition of the labouring classes in England -and Scotland, and there is a passage, about the use of -coal and wood by the common people in Oxfordshire, -to show that he had certainly acquired as an undergraduate -the faculty of minute and picturesque observation -which he afterwards turned to such account.<a class="fn" id="fr_5" href="#fn_5">[5]</a> -What Smith did in the vacations we do not know. -He could not have had much money to spare, and -there is no indication that he ever returned home or -even visited London.</p> -<p>At last, in August 1746, after taking his degree as -a Bachelor of Arts, he retraced his steps to Scotland, -and gave up all thought of a clerical career. In the -words of his biographer, “he chose to consult in this -instance his own inclinations in preference to the -wishes of his friends; and abandoning at once all the -schemes which their prudence had formed for him, he -resolved to return to his own country and to limit his -ambition to the uncertain prospect of obtaining, in -time, some one of those moderate preferments to -which literary attainments lead in Scotland.” -<span class="pb" id="Page_16">16</span> -He was now in 1746 again in his mother’s house at -Kirkcaldy, “engaged in study, but without any fixed -plan for his future life.” So far as I am aware, none -of Adam Smith’s biographers has definitely assigned -to this period any of the writings which he either -published or left to his executors. In the latter class, -however, there is a group of fragments dealing with -the history of Astronomy, of Ancient Physics, and of -Ancient Logic and Metaphysics, and an elaborate essay -on <i>The Imitative Arts</i>, which are collectively described -by his executors in an advertisement as “parts of a -plan he once had formed for giving a connected history -of the liberal sciences and elegant arts.”<a class="fn" id="fr_6" href="#fn_6">[6]</a></p> -<p>The essay on <i>The Imitative Arts</i> belongs to a different -design and to a slightly later period. But it seems -clear that the <i>History of Astronomy</i> was composed at -this time.<a class="fn" id="fr_7" href="#fn_7">[7]</a> There is no other period of his life in -which he would have been so well able to collect the -materials for an examination of the systems of the -Greek, the Arabian, and the mediæval astronomers as -in the six years of Oxford study, or so likely to shape -<span class="pb" id="Page_17">17</span> -them into a finished treatise as in the two quiet years -spent at Kirkcaldy immediately after his return, when, -we are told, he was “engaged in study, but without -any fixed plan for his future life.” The <i>History of -Astronomy</i>, which takes us from the schools of Thales -and Pythagoras through the systems of Copernicus, -Tycho Brahe, Galileo, Kepler, and Descartes to that of -Sir Isaac Newton, is complete in itself, though from -certain notes and memoranda which accompanied it -Smith’s executors were led to believe that he contemplated -some further extension.<a class="fn" id="fr_8" href="#fn_8">[8]</a> -It ends very appropriately -with an enthusiastic description of Sir Isaac -Newton’s discovery as the greatest ever made by -man. He had acquired “the most universal empire -that was ever established in philosophy,” and was the -only natural philosopher whose system, instead of being -a mere invention of the imagination to connect otherwise -discordant phenomena, appeared to contain in itself -“the real chains which nature makes use of to bind -together her several operations.” In attributing the -<i>History of Astronomy</i> to Oxford and Kirkcaldy I except -the concluding pages, which must have been added in -the last years of his life; for in a letter to Hume (1773) -he spoke of it as a history of Astronomical Systems to -the time (not of Newton but) of Descartes.</p> -<p>Although complete in itself, this masterly essay -was plainly meant by its author to form only one -book in a great history of philosophy. It begins -<span class="pb" id="Page_18">18</span> -with three short introductory sections, the first on -surprise, the second on wonder, and the third on the -origin of philosophy. It is the function of philosophy, -he says, to discover the connecting principles of -nature, and to explain those portents which astonish -or affright mankind. He then shows that celestial -appearances have always excited the greatest curiosity, -and describes with extraordinary learning and vivacity -the long series of attempts that had been made to -account for “the ways of the sky and the stars”—</p> -<div class="verse"> -<p class="t0">“How winter suns in ocean plunge so soon,</p> -<p class="t0">And what delays the timid nights of June.”</p> -</div> -<p><i>The History of Ancient Physics</i>, a much shorter fragment, -is placed in his collected works immediately after the -<i>History of Astronomy</i>. It evidently belongs to the -same early period, but is of little interest. Upon <i>The -History of Ancient Logics and Metaphysics</i> we shall have -something to say in our next chapter.</p> -<p>After two years of waiting, Adam Smith got his -opportunity. His neighbour, James Oswald of Dunnikier, -had become Kirkcaldy’s representative in -Parliament, and was now a Commissioner of the Navy. -Through Oswald Smith seems to have been introduced -to Henry Home (Lord Kames), a leader of the Edinburgh -Bar, and arbiter of Scottish elegancies. Home was a -warm patron of English literature, and was busily -importing it along with English ploughs and other -Southern improvements into his native land. What -a contrast between this typical Scotch patriot of 1750 -and grim old Fletcher of Saltoun, the corresponding -type of 1700, whose remedy for Scottish ills was to restore -slavery, and place all labourers in the situation of -<span class="pb" id="Page_19">19</span> -salters and colliers! Finding that Smith had acquired -the accent and was well read in the prose and poetry -of England, Home encouraged him to give what we -should now call extension lectures in Edinburgh. -Accordingly the young Oxford graduate delivered a -course of lectures on English literature in the winter -of 1748-9, adding in the following year a course on -political economy in which he preached the doctrines -of natural liberty and free trade. The English lectures -were attended by Henry Home, Alexander Wedderburn, -and William Johnstone (Sir William Pulteney), -and proved no mere success of esteem; for they brought -in a clear £100, and were so popular that they were -repeated in the two following winters. The manuscript -of these lectures was burnt shortly before his -death, and the world is probably not much the poorer. -Smith shared the opinions of his age, and set up Dryden, -Pope, and Gray on pedestals from which they were -soon to be thrown down by the children of nature and -romance. He gave these lectures afterwards at -Glasgow, and Boswell, who attended them in 1759, told -Johnson that Smith had condemned blank verse. -Johnson was delighted, and cried out: “Sir, I was once -in company with Smith, and we did not take to each -other; but had I known that he loved rhyme as much -as you tell me he does, I should have hugged him.” -One cannot help wondering what would have been -said if Boswell had repeated another of our author’s -critical opinions, that Johnson was “of all writers -ancient and modern the one who kept off the greatest -distance from common sense.”</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_20">20</div> -<p>The most valuable part of Adam Smith’s critical -lectures has been preserved in an essay on the <i>Imitative -Arts</i>, which I should judge from internal evidence -to have been drafted at this time, but to have been -revised and improved in later years. Considering -that neither Burke’s essay on the <i>Sublime and Beautiful</i> -nor Lessing’s <i>Laocoon</i> had then appeared, we cannot -but admire the originality he displayed in analysing -the different effects produced by sculpture, painting, -music, and dancing, and in distinguishing the different -pleasures that attend the various kinds and degrees of -imitation. He works out with much ingenuity the -theory of the <i>difficulté surmontée</i> by which Voltaire -accounted for the effect of verse and rhyme. Smith -extends this principle to other arts, and seeks, always -cleverly, often successfully, to show that much of our -delight in art arises from our admiration for the -artist’s skill in overcoming difficulties. He declares that -a disparity between the imitating and the imitated -object is the foundation of the beauty of imitation. -The great masters of statuary and painting never -produce their effects by deception. To prove this, he -refers to the rather unpleasing effect produced by -painted statues and by the reflections of a mirror. -Photography would have supplied him with another -illustration.</p> -<p>It may here be said that, though judged by modern -standards of criticism Smith’s taste was faulty, yet all -his favourite authors are in the first rank, and there is -no instance recorded of his having bestowed praise on -anything bad either in prose or poetry. “You will -learn more as to poetry,” he once said, “by reading -one good poem than by a thousand volumes of -criticism.” Wordsworth in one of his prefaces calls -him most unjustly “the worst critic, David Hume -<span class="pb" id="Page_21">21</span> -excepted, that Scotland, a soil to which this sort of -weed seems natural, has produced.” The Lake Poet, -who did not distinguish between the quality of the -“Ode on the Intimations” and “Peter Bell,” was probably -thinking of some literary anecdotes that appeared -in <i>The Bee</i> in 1791 after Smith’s death. The writer, -who may or may not be trustworthy, is only repeating -table talk. He mentions that Smith depreciated -Percy’s <i>Reliques</i> and some of Milton’s minor poems. -With regard to blank verse, Smith said: “they do -well to call it blank, for blank it is. I myself, even I, -who never could find a single rhyme in my life, could -make blank verse as fast as I could speak.” From -this censure he always excepted Milton; but he -thought the English dramatists should have used -rhyme like the French. Racine’s <i>Phèdre</i> appealed to -him as the finest of all tragedies. Voltaire was his -literary pope. Oddly enough, his first publisher’s commission -was to collect and edit (anonymously, of course) -for the Foulis Press an edition of the poems of a well-known -Jacobite, Hamilton of Bangour. The book -was published in 1748, and contained the “Braes -of Yarrow,” which Wordsworth called an exquisite -ballad. Hamilton had played poet laureate to the -Young Pretender in 1745, and was still an exile in -France. In 1750, when the poet was pardoned, he -struck up a warm friendship with his anonymous -editor, and (according to Sir John Dalrymple) Smith -spent with him “many happy and flattering hours.”</p> -<p>It has been said that in addition to his lectures -on English literature Smith also delivered a course on -Economics. This we know from a manuscript by -which Dugald Stewart vindicates Adam Smith’s claim -<span class="pb" id="Page_22">22</span> -to have been the original discoverer of the leading -principles of political economy. This manuscript, a -paper read by Smith to a learned society some years -later, proves that he wrote, or rather dictated, his -economic lectures in 1749, and delivered them in the -following winter.</p> -<p>At this time David Hume and James Oswald were -corresponding on commercial topics. In 1750 Hume, -who was then abroad, sent Oswald his famous essay on -the <i>Balance of Trade</i>, and asked for criticism. Oswald -replied in a long letter which shows that he too held -very enlightened views on public finance, and we may -be pretty certain that Smith as well as Hume derived -at this time much benefit from intercourse with Oswald. -In fact, in his preface to Oswald’s correspondence, -Oswald’s grandson boasts that he has heard Adam -Smith, then the renowned author of the <i>Wealth of -Nations</i>, “dilate with a generous and enthusiastic -pleasure on the qualifications and merits of Mr. Oswald, -candidly avowing at the same time how much information -he had received on many points from the enlarged -views and profound knowledge of that accomplished -statesman.” Some allowance should be made for the -natural exaggeration of a Scotch kinsman; but Smith -certainly rated Oswald high, describing him in the -paper above mentioned as one who combined a taste -for general principles with the detailed information of -a statesman. Stewart adds that “he was one of Mr. -Smith’s earliest and most confidential friends.” They -must have seen a great deal of one another both in -Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh in the five years between his -return from Oxford and the appointment we have -now to record.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_23">23</div> -<h2 id="c2">CHAPTER II -<br /><span class="smaller">THE BEGINNING OF A CAREER</span></h2> -<p>By his Edinburgh lectures Smith had proved that he -could be at once learned and popular, and the fact that -he was probably the only Scottish savant who had -thoroughly acquired the English accent at a time when -English had suddenly become highly fashionable north -of the Tweed, would do him no harm in loyal Glasgow, -where the English connection, with all its solid advantages, -was well esteemed. Accordingly in 1750, when -a vacancy occurred in the chair of Logic at Glasgow, -Adam Smith’s candidature proved very acceptable, and -he was unanimously appointed by the Senate. A -week later he read a Latin dissertation on the Origin -of Ideas, signed the Westminster Confession of Faith -before the Presbytery of Glasgow, and took the usual -oath of fidelity to the authorities. So far as I am -aware, it has not been noticed hitherto that the -substance of Smith’s inaugural dissertation, <i>De Origine -Idearum</i>, has been preserved in a fragment published -by his literary executors after his death. <i>The History -of the Ancient Logics and Metaphysics</i>, as the piece is -called, deserves notice not only as one of the earliest -specimens of Smith’s extraordinary power of reasoning, -but because it proves his interest in some metaphysical -questions which are suppressed or ignored in -<span class="pb" id="Page_24">24</span> -his larger treatises, and at the same time exhibits the -range and accuracy of his classical scholarship.</p> -<p>In describing the ancient dialectic Smith had to give -an explanation of what Plato meant by “ideas.” The -later Platonists imagined their master to mean no -more than that “the Deity formed the world after what -we would now call an idea or plan conceived in his -own mind, in the same manner as any other artist.” -Against them the young philosopher proceeded to -turn the formidable battery of ratiocination that was -one day to demolish a living and formidable foe. -It is characteristic of Adam Smith that whether he is -attacking the harmless errors of an extinct school of -thought, or the noxious fallacies of an established -policy, he tries every mode of assault. He “swims, or -sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies”:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“If Plato had meant to express no more than this most -natural and simple of all notions, he might surely have -expressed it more plainly, and would hardly, one would think, -have talked of it with so much emphasis, as of something -which it required the utmost reach of thought to comprehend. -According to this representation, Plato’s notion of species, or -Universals, was the same with that of Aristotle. Aristotle, -however, does not seem to understand it as such; he bestows -a great part of his Metaphysics upon confuting it, and opposes -it in all his other works.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Again, this notion of the separate existence of -Species is the very basis of Plato’s philosophy; -and there is not a single dialogue in all his works -which does not refer to it. Can Aristotle, “who -appears to have been so much superior to his master -in everything but eloquence,” wilfully have misinterpreted -Plato’s fundamental principle when Plato’s -<span class="pb" id="Page_25">25</span> -writings were in everybody’s hands and his disciples -were spread all over Greece; when Speusippus, the -nephew and successor of Plato, as well as Xenocrates, -who continued the school in the Academy, at the same -time as Aristotle held his in the Lyceum, must have -been ready at all times to expose and affront him for -such gross disingenuity? Aristotle’s interpretation had -been followed by Cicero, Seneca, and every classical -authority down to Plutarch, “an author who seems to -have been as bad a critic in philosophy as in history, -and to have taken everything at second-hand in both.”</p> -<p>Whether Smith either then or at any time arrived at -metaphysical certainty is very doubtful. “To explain -the nature, and to account for the origin of general -Ideas is,” he says, “even at this day, the greatest -difficulty in abstract philosophy.”</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“How the human mind when it reasons concerning the -general nature of triangles, should either conceive, as Mr. -Locke imagines it does, the idea of a triangle, which is neither -obtusangular, nor rectangular, nor acutangular; but which was -at once both none and of all those together; or should, as -Malbranche thinks necessary for this purpose, comprehend at -once, within its finite capacity, all possible triangles of all -possible forms and dimensions, which are infinite in number, is -a question to which it is not easy to give a satisfactory answer.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>He suggests that notions like those of Plato, or -Cudworth, or Malebranche, depend a good deal upon -the vague and general language in which they are -expressed. So long as a philosophy is not very distinctly -explained, it “passes easily enough through the -indolent imagination accustomed to substitute words -in the room of ideas.” Platonism vanishes indeed, and -is discovered to be altogether incomprehensible upon -<span class="pb" id="Page_26">26</span> -an attentive consideration. It did, however, require -attentive consideration, and but for Aristotle “might -without examination have continued to be the current -philosophy for a century or two.” This early and -unnoticed composition proves that Smith had thought -deeply on metaphysics though he deliberately avoided -them in his masterpieces.</p> -<p>He found time to translate and read part of the -essay as a Latin dissertation; but his engagements in -Edinburgh prevented him from taking up his new work -before the autumn. When October came he found -his task doubled. Craigie, the Professor of Ethics, -had fallen ill, and had been ordered to Lisbon for -his health. Smith was informed of this by Dr. Cullen, -one of his new colleagues, and was requested to -undertake Craigie’s duties. It was further suggested -that he should pay particular attention to jurisprudence -and politics, which were held to fall within -the province of moral philosophy. Smith replies -(3rd September 1751) that he will gladly relieve Craigie -of his class, and will willingly undertake to lecture on -natural jurisprudence and politics.</p> -<p>The session began on the 10th of October, and -soon afterwards came the news of Craigie’s death. -Smith detested the sophisms of what he called “the -cobweb science” of Ontology, and cared little for -the Logic of the schools. He was anxious, therefore, -to be transferred to the chair of Ethics, and at the -same time formed a design with other friends to procure -the appointment of his friend David Hume to the -chair of Logic. But the prejudice against Hume -proved too strong. “I should prefer David Hume to -any man for the college,” Smith wrote privately to -<span class="pb" id="Page_27">27</span> -Cullen, “but I am afraid the public would not be of -my opinion, and the interest of the society will oblige -us to have regard to the opinion of the public.” This -was from Edinburgh, whither Smith had made what -was then (incredible as it may seem) a two-days’ -journey from Glasgow, in order to wait upon Archibald, -Duke of Argyll, nicknamed King of Scotland, because -he exercised a sort of royal influence over all Scottish -appointments. At the duke’s levee Smith was duly -introduced, and his application was successful. The -transfer was effected, and in April Smith was appointed -to the chair which he was to adorn for twelve years. -It was perhaps the most important event of his life. -For a temperament like his, so prone to study and -reflection, so averse to the toil of the pen, required -some constant external stimulus, some congenial inducement -to undertake the task of exposition. His gifts -might have remained idle, his talents buried, had not -the warm and sympathetic atmosphere of a full, eager, -and admiring class-room set his tongue and his more -reluctant pen in motion. We need not brood over -the might-not-have-beens; but when we think of the -power that fortune exercises over men’s lives, we may -thank her for assigning Adam Smith at this critical -moment to the town and University of Glasgow. -By that propitious act she lent powerful aid to the -construction of a science that must ever be associated -with the prosperity and peaceful progress of mankind.</p> -<p>Smith himself has indicated in a general statement -the advantages he derived from this professorship:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“To impose upon any man the necessity of teaching, year -after year, any particular branch of science, seems, in reality, -to be the most effectual method for rendering him completely -<span class="pb" id="Page_28">28</span> -master of it himself. By being obliged to go every year over -the same ground, if he is good for anything he necessarily -becomes, in a few years, well acquainted with every part of -it: and if upon any particular point he should form too hasty -an opinion one year, when he comes in the course of his -lectures to reconsider the same subject the year thereafter, he -is very likely to correct it. As to be a teacher of science is -certainly the natural employment of a mere man of letters, so -is it likewise perhaps the education which is most likely to -render him a man of solid learning and knowledge.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>He regarded the profession of teacher as an education, -and for that very reason he never ceased to be -a learner and a discoverer. Instead of sticking in the -muddy ruts of dogma, he drove on gathering facts -and opinions till he reached the goal. To vary a -well-known inscription, he might have written over -the door of his class-room, “Deverticulum philosophi -ad veritatem proficiscentis,”—the resting-place of a -philosopher on march to truth. Assuredly a happier -appointment was never made, whether we look at the -true interests of the Professor himself or at those -of the University. Smith always thought the years -at Glasgow the happiest and most useful of his life. -Besides his strong preference for Morals over Logic, -he had carnal reasons to rejoice in the transference, -for it gave a rather better income. Altogether the -chair of Morals at Glasgow seems to have yielded -about £170 a year—a fine income in Scotland at a -time when, as Mr. Rae observes, the largest stipend -in the Presbyterian Church was £138.</p> -<p>In addition to salary and fees, Smith was allotted -a good house in the Professors’ Court, which he -shared with his mother and cousin (Miss Jane -Douglas), who came from Kirkcaldy to live with -<span class="pb" id="Page_29">29</span> -him. The manses in the old Professors’ Court were -held by the professors in order of seniority, and Smith -removed three times in order to take full advantage -of his privileges, obtaining the best in 1762, when -Leechman, Hutcheson’s biographer, was appointed -Principal. In 1761, when a second edition of the -<i>Moral Sentiments</i> appeared, with a newly inserted -passage describing the view from his study window, -he was in the house previously occupied by Dr. Dick, -Professor of Natural Philosophy. To this house nature -seems to have been especially kind,—though in reading -Smith’s description of his view we must recollect that -Glasgow, the garden city, was then famous for the -clearness of its atmosphere and the beauty of its -surroundings. “In my present situation,” that is to -say, looking from the window of his study, he sees -“an immense landscape of lawns and woods and distant -mountains.” The landscape illustrates the philosophy -of the mind: it “seems to do no more than cover the -little window which I write by and to be out of all -proportion less than the chamber in which I am sitting.” -He can form a just comparison between the great -objects of the remote scene and the little objects in -the room only by transporting himself to a different -station from whence both could be surveyed at nearly -equal distances. The image, it will be seen, is introduced -by Adam Smith to illustrate his theory of “the -impartial spectator,” the judge within the breast, whom -we must consult if we are to see the things that concern -ourselves and others in their true shape and proportions. -Just as a man must in some measure be -acquainted with the philosophy of vision before he can -be thoroughly convinced how small is his own room -<span class="pb" id="Page_30">30</span> -compared with the mountains he sees from his window, -so to the selfish and original passions of human nature, -unschooled by experience, unassisted by scale or -measure, “the loss or gain of a very small interest -of our own appears to be of vastly more importance, -excites a much more passionate joy or sorrow than the -greatest concern of another with whom we have no -particular connection.”<a class="fn" id="fr_9" href="#fn_9">[9]</a></p> -<p>With the failure of Hume’s candidature for the -Logic chair was lost a golden opportunity of associating -two of the first philosophers of that age on the -staff of a small provincial college in one of the -poorest, rudest, and least frequented kingdoms of -Western Europe. The legend that Burke (four years -before he published his <i>Treatise on the Sublime and -Beautiful</i>) was another candidate has been adjudged -apocryphal, though it was formerly accepted by good -authorities. Many of the Glasgow students were -Irish Presbyterians, and an Irishman might well have -been encouraged to seek a chair in the University of -Hutcheson.</p> -<p>George Jardine, a student in 1760 and Professor -of Logic from 1774, dated the first radical reform in -the teaching of philosophy at Glasgow, from a royal -visitation of 1727, after which each professor was restricted -to a particular department instead of being -required to lecture for three successive years in logic, -ethics, and physics. He adds that the improvements -thus introduced were greatly promoted by fortunate appointments. -First came Dr. Francis Hutcheson, whose -“copious and splendid eloquence” illustrated an amiable -<span class="pb" id="Page_31">31</span> -system of morality, and at the same time popularised -the use of English as the medium of instruction. -Hutcheson’s reforms were not suspended by his death. -But the Logic class continued to be conducted in Latin -until Adam Smith, being rather unexpectedly called to -the office in 1750, “found it necessary to read in the -English language a course of lectures in Rhetoric and -Belles Lettres which he had formerly delivered in -Edinburgh.” The last department in the University to -abandon Latin was Law, and the innovator was Smith’s -pupil and friend, John Millar.</p> -<p>After Smith’s brief tenure of the chair, Logic fell -back for a time to its old subject-matter, but the -Latin medium could not be revived. “From the time -that the lectures began to be delivered in English the -eyes of men were opened,” writes Jardine. It was -felt that the old logic of the schools, even when perfectly -understood, had little or no connection with -modern thought, and none with the active business of -life. The local situation, too, of the University in a -great commercial city, where men had a quick perception -of utility, and looked for a clear adaptation -of means to ends, helped to promote reform. But -dislike of Logic and Ontology was not peculiar to -Smith or to Glasgow. They were discountenanced by -the most popular philosopher of that age. “Had the -craftiest men,” wrote Shaftesbury in his <i>Characteristics</i>, -“for many ages together been employed in finding -out a method to confound reason and to degrade the -understandings of men, they could not perhaps have -succeeded better than by the establishing of this -mock science.” Hutcheson had ignored logic and -avoided metaphysical problems. In his <i>Theory of Moral -<span class="pb" id="Page_32">32</span> -Sentiments</i>, Smith renounced “the abstruse syllogisms -of a quibbling dialectic”; but he never made the mistake -of confounding Aristotle with the Aristotelians.</p> -<p>There is in the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> a highly interesting -digression upon the Universities, to explain how -Greek conceptions of philosophy were debased in the -Middle Ages, and how its ancient division into three -parts was altered for another into five in most of -the academies of Europe. In the ancient philosophy, -whatever was taught concerning the nature either of -the human mind or the deity made a part of the system -of physics. Whatever reason could conclude or conjecture -upon the human and the divine mind, made -two chapters of “the science which pretended to give -an account of the origin and revolutions of the great -system of the universe.” But in the universities of -Europe, “where philosophy was taught only as subservient -to theology,” it was natural to dwell upon -these two chapters and to make them distinct sciences. -And so Metaphysics or Pneumatics were set up in -opposition to Physics.</p> -<p>The result was, in Adam Smith’s view, disastrous. -While on the one hand, subjects requiring experiment -and observation, and capable of yielding many useful discoveries, -were almost entirely neglected; on the other a -subject, in which “after a few very simple and obvious -truths the most careful attention can discover nothing -but obscurity and uncertainty, and can consequently -produce nothing but subtleties and sophisms, was -greatly cultivated.” Metaphysics having thus been set -up in opposition to physics, the comparison between -them naturally gave birth to a third, called ontology, -or the science which treated of the qualities and attributes -<span class="pb" id="Page_33">33</span> -common to both. “But if subtleties and sophisms -composed the greater part of the Metaphysics or Pneumatics -of the schools, they composed the whole of this -cobweb science of Ontology.” Holding these views, it -is not surprising that Smith welcomed an escape from -this chair to one which proposed as its object an inquiry -of a very different nature: wherein consists the happiness -and perfection of a man, considered not only as -an individual, but as the member of a family, of a state, -and of the great society of mankind. Here was a -stepping-stone to the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>. Meanwhile -he did what he could to unsettle the cobweb sciences.</p> -<p>Of Smith as a logician, John Millar, a member of -his class in 1751-2, wrote that he “saw the necessity -of departing widely from the plan that had been -followed by his predecessors, and of directing the -attention of his pupils to studies of a more interesting -and useful nature than the logic and the metaphysics -of the schools.” Accordingly, says Millar, “after exhibiting -a general view of the powers of the mind, and -explaining so much of the ancient logic as was requisite -to gratify curiosity with respect to an artificial method -of reasoning which had once occupied the universal -attention of the learned, he dedicated all the rest of -his time to the delivery of a system of rhetoric and -belles lettres.” Another of those who attended his -classes at Glasgow says that even after he became -Professor of Moral Philosophy he would from time to -time give lectures on taste and literature, and it must -have been one of these that Boswell heard in 1759. -Art, the drama, and music were always favourite objects -of his speculations, and doubtless the substance of his -essay on the <i>Imitative Arts</i> was delivered from time -<span class="pb" id="Page_34">34</span> -to time in the University. Millar says Smith never -appeared to greater advantage than as a lecturer:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“His manner, though not graceful, was plain and unaffected, -and as he seemed to be always interested in the subject, he -never failed to interest his hearers. Each discourse consisted -commonly of several distinct propositions, which he successively -endeavoured to prove and illustrate. These propositions -when announced in general terms had, from their extent, -not unfrequently something of the air of a paradox. In his -attempts to explain them, he often appeared at first not to be -sufficiently possessed of the subject, and spoke with some -hesitation. As he advanced, however, the matter seemed to -crowd upon him, his manner became warm and animated, -and his expression easy and fluent. In points susceptible of -controversy you could easily discern that he secretly conceived -an opposition to his opinions, and that he was led upon this -account to support them with greater energy and vehemence. -By the fulness and variety of his illustrations the subject -gradually swelled in his hands and acquired a dimension -which, without a tedious repetition of the same views, was -calculated to seize the attention of his audience, and to afford -them pleasure as well as instruction in following the same -subject through all the diversity of shades and aspects in -which it was presented, and afterwards in tracing it backwards -to that original proposition or general truth from which this -beautiful train of speculation had proceeded.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Another old pupil dwelt upon his “animated and -extemporaneous eloquence,” especially when he was -drawn into digressions in the course of question and -answer. Smith himself attributed his success very -largely to the vigilant care with which he watched his -audience; for he depended very much upon their -sympathy. “During one whole session,” he is reported -to have said, “a certain student with a plain but expressive -countenance was of great use to me in judging of -<span class="pb" id="Page_35">35</span> -my success. He sat conspicuously in front of a pillar: I -had him constantly under my eye. If he leant forward -to listen all was right, and I knew that I had the ear -of my class; but if he leant back in an attitude of listlessness -I felt at once that all was wrong, and that I -must change either the subject or the style of my -address.”</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_36">36</div> -<h2 id="c3">CHAPTER III -<br /><span class="smaller">THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS</span></h2> -<p>The age into which Adam Smith was born was an age -of religious doubt and philosophic curiosity. During -his lifetime the governing classes in England, undisturbed -by enthusiasms, were little disposed to entertain -revolutionary ideas in politics or religion. It seemed -to be the function of philosophic thinkers to leave the -constitution of a tolerably liberal State and a tolerably -lax Church, and to advance in other directions. The -fierce storms that bent the course of Selden and -Milton and Hobbes had abated. Men tried to forget</p> -<div class="verse"> -<p class="t0">“The lifted axe, the agonising wheel,</p> -<p class="t0">Luke’s iron crown, and Damien’s bed of steel.”</p> -</div> -<p>No one believed that the Deity created kings; many -doubted whether there was a Deity at all. Since the -great days of Athens, philosophy had seldom reaped a -richer harvest than in Great Britain during the eighty -years that followed the Act of Union. Newton’s -<i>Principia</i>, and the philosophy of Shaftesbury, Clarke, -Mandeville, Hutcheson, and Butler, as well as of Hume -and Adam Smith, all fall within this period. Speculative -discovery went hand in hand with mechanical -invention. The poetry of enthusiasm, religious and -political fervour, persecution, martyrdom, with all their -<span class="pb" id="Page_37">37</span> -heroic and squalid accompaniments, preceded and -followed this prosaic illumination. It was a chapter of -dry light between two of heat and fire and smoke. -Reason reigned; and as reason seldom wears an air of -originality, we need not wonder if later ingenuity has -discovered that all these philosophers borrowed their -doctrines either from the ancients or from one another -or from foreigners.</p> -<p>But though there appears to be just now a tendency -to carry the search for the genealogy and pedigree of -ideas rather too far, it is certainly not our purpose to -show that Adam Smith was a solitary conqueror who -founded a kingdom entirely for himself, and peopled it -with the creatures of his imagination. Every great -thinker holds the past in fee, as he levies a perpetual -tribute on the future. We may see how in the <i>Theory -of Moral Sentiments</i> and in his lectures on Justice and -Police Smith selected and used his materials; how, -with the aid of Hutcheson and Mandeville and -Hume, he invented a new doctrine of sympathy, and -how he worked up the Platonic idea of the division -of labour, and the Aristotelian theory of money, -into a true science of national wealth. Nothing -is left of the first part of the lectures, which dealt -(briefly, no doubt) with natural theology and, in -the earliest years of his professorship, very fully with -moral philosophy. His pupil and friend Millar says -that under the head of Natural Theology, the first part -of his course, Smith considered the proofs of the being -and attributes of God, and those principles of the -human mind upon which religion is founded.</p> -<p>In the <i>Moral Sentiments</i> and his other writings there -are plenty of passages to indicate that he was a theist -<span class="pb" id="Page_38">38</span> -with a belief rather more active and definite than -that of his friend Hume or of his master Aristotle, but -few or none that he was a Christian. As professor he -had to sign the Westminster Confession of Faith, a -perfunctory act which even Hume would readily have -performed without the scandal that surrounded Jowett’s -cynical subscription a century later. But it was -noticed by the orthodox that he was sadly wanting in -zeal. Hutcheson, doubtless with the purpose of -naturalising theology, had conducted a Sunday class -on Christian evidences. Adam Smith discontinued -this practice, and it was even whispered that he had -applied to the authorities shortly after his appointment -to be excused from opening his class with prayer. -The request was refused, but the results were not satisfactory; -for according to a contemporary, John -Ramsay of Ochtertyre, his opening prayers “savoured -strongly of natural religion,” while his theological -lectures, though shorter, were no less flattering to -human pride than those of Hutcheson, and led “presumptuous -striplings” to draw the unwarranted conclusion -“that the great truths of theology, together with -the duties which man owes to God and his neighbours, -may be discovered by the light of nature without any -special revelation.” He was also, they say, often seen -to smile openly during divine service in his place in the -college chapel. When one remembers what orthodox -Scottish sermons at that time meant, it is safe to conjecture -that the smile was not always due (as Ramsay -would have it) to an absent thought.</p> -<p>Although the lectures on Natural Theology have -disappeared, the lectures on Morals were elaborated -and published in 1759 as <i>The Theory of Moral Sentiments</i>. -<span class="pb" id="Page_39">39</span> -From this, his first important work, we may -sufficiently ascertain how far Smith’s philosophy of -life was based upon religious conceptions. Fortune -governs the world. Nature intended the happiness -and perfection of the species. Every part of nature, -when attentively surveyed, equally demonstrates the -providential care of its Author. Smith’s own scepticism -is so carefully phrased and so disguised in soft -language, that a stupid reader is never perplexed, a -devout one never offended. Take, for example, his -reflections upon the doctrine of a future life. That -there is a world to come, he says in a passage of striking -eloquence, “is a doctrine in every respect so venerable, -so comfortable to the weakness, so flattering to the -grandeur of human nature, that the virtuous man, who -has the misfortune to doubt of it, cannot possibly -avoid wishing most earnestly and anxiously to believe -it. It could never have been exposed to the derision -of the scoffer, had not the distribution of rewards and -punishments, which some of its most zealous assertors -have taught us was to be made in that world to come, -been too frequently in direct opposition to all our -moral sentiments.” Smith had no great respect for the -devout. To him the ritual and worship of the Deity -seemed like the service and courtship of kings. He -refuses to believe that an all-wise Deity would have a -mind for adulation or would offer heavenly rewards to -those who consecrate their lives to His worship:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“That the assiduous courtier is often more favoured than -the faithful and active servant; that attendance and adulation -are often shorter and surer roads to preferment than merit -or service; and that a campaign at Versailles or St. James’s is -often worth two either in Germany or Flanders, is a complaint -<span class="pb" id="Page_40">40</span> -which we have all heard from many a venerable, but discontented, -old officer. But what is considered as the greatest -reproach even to the weakness of earthly sovereigns, has been -ascribed, as an act of justice, to divine perfection; and the -duties of devotion, the public and private worship of the Deity, -have been represented even by men of virtue and abilities, as -the sole virtues which can either entitle to reward or exempt -from punishment in the life to come.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>His indignation flames out against celebrated -doctors, both civil and ecclesiastical, who have questioned -whether faith should be kept with rebels and -heretics (“those unlucky persons who, when things -have come to a certain degree of violence, have the -misfortune to be of the weaker party”). Of all the -corrupters of moral sentiments, “faction and fanaticism -have always been by far the greatest.”</p> -<p>Morality is natural, but its rules have been sanctioned -by the rudest forms of religion. Whether our moral -faculties depend upon a modification of reason, upon -a moral sense, or upon some other principle of our -nature, they carry with them the most evident badges -of authority, and were plainly set up within us to -superintend our passions and appetites and to be the -supreme arbiters of our actions. They are described -in religious language as the vice-regents of God within -us; they never fail to punish sin by the torments of -inward shame and self-condemnation; they reward -obedience with tranquillity and contentment. Oncken -thinks that Smith’s eloquent vindication of conscience -helped to form Kant’s moral idealism; but it puts us -more in mind of the Roman satirist’s great line—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Moral judgments likewise help to correct in some -<span class="pb" id="Page_41">41</span> -measure the course of this world. “The industrious -knave cultivates the soil; the indolent good man -leaves it uncultivated. Who ought to reap the -harvest?” Here the natural course of things decides -against the natural sentiments of mankind. Human -laws therefore often punish the knave or traitor though -industrious, and reward the good citizen though improvident. -Thus man is by nature prompted to correct -nature; but even so his endeavours are often impotent; -the current is too strong. Our natural sentiments are -often shocked. We see great combinations oppress -small. We see the innocent suffer. Despairing of -earthly forces to check the triumph of injustice, we -naturally appeal to heaven, “and thus we are led to a -belief in the future state by the love of virtue,” and -moral rules acquire new sanctity by being regarded as -the laws of an all-powerful Deity. As religion in this -way enforces an innate sense of duty, mankind is -generally disposed to place great confidence in the -probity of those who seem to be deeply religious.</p> -<p>And where religion has not been corrupted, -“wherever men are not taught to regard frivolous -observances, as more immediate duties of religion, -than acts of justice and beneficence; and to imagine, -that by sacrifices, and ceremonies, and vain supplications, -they can bargain with the Deity for fraud, and -perfidy, and violence, the world undoubtedly judges -right in this respect, and justly places a double -confidence in the rectitude of the religious man’s -behaviour.”</p> -<p>Upon the dangerous question of religious establishments -and dissenting sects he wrote afterwards in -the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> (Book v. i.) with a boldness -<span class="pb" id="Page_42">42</span> -and an air of detachment that might well startle even -that age of tolerant indifference. He contrasts the -teachers of new religions with the clergy of an ancient -system, who are frequently possessed of learning, -eloquence, and all the gentlemanly virtues. “Such -a clergy, when attacked by a set of popular and bold -though perhaps stupid and ignorant enthusiasts, feel -themselves as perfectly defenceless as the indolent, -effeminate, and full-fed nations of the southern parts of -Asia, when they were invaded by the active, hardy, -and hungry Tartars of the north.” Commonly, the -only resource of such a clergy upon such an emergency -is to summon the government to persecute or expel -their adversaries. “It was thus that the Roman -Catholic clergy called upon the civil magistrate to -persecute the Protestants, and the Church of England -to persecute the Dissenters.”</p> -<p>An established church may have a superiority of -learning, but in the art of gaining popularity the -advantage is always with its adversaries. He finds -that, as dissenting bodies grow richer, their zeal and -activity abate. The Independents, for instance, had -many learned, ingenious, and respectable men; but the -Methodists, without half the learning of the Dissenters, -were more in vogue. The strength of the Church of -Rome he attributed to the fact that the industry of its -inferior clergy was better fostered by motives of self-interest -than in the case of any established Protestant -church; for many of the parish priests subsisted largely -on voluntary gifts, “a source of revenue which confession -gives them many opportunities of improving.” -He notes also Machiavelli’s observation, that the -establishment of the begging orders of St. Dominic and -<span class="pb" id="Page_43">43</span> -St. Francis revived, in the thirteenth and fourteenth -centuries, the languishing faith and devotion of the -Catholic Church. Upon the question of the value of -a State Church, Smith quotes from a certain passage of -Hume’s <i>History</i>, referring to his friend as “by far the -most illustrious philosopher and historian of the present -age.” Hume had come to the conclusion that the civil -magistrate who neglects to establish a religion will find -he has dearly paid for his frugality, “and that in -reality the most decent and advantageous composition -which he can make with the spiritual guides, is to -bribe their indolence by assigning stated salaries to -their profession,” so that ecclesiastical establishments, -“though commonly they arose at first from religious -views, prove in the end advantageous to the political -interests of society.”</p> -<p>But Smith, with the same dislike for “zeal,” had -too much respect for liberty, too much love of honesty -in politics, to adopt Hume’s cynical solution. He -would find security in numbers. A State should -extend toleration to all; society would naturally -divide itself into hundreds of small sects, none of -which could be considerable enough to disturb the -public tranquillity. The teachers of each sect would -be forced to learn a candour and moderation which is -seldom to be found among an established clergy; and -in this way, by mutual concessions, their doctrine -would probably be reduced in time “to that pure and -rational religion, free from every mixture of absurdity, -imposture, or fanaticism, such as wise men have in all -ages of the world wished to see established, but such -as positive law has perhaps never yet established in -any country.” This plan of ecclesiastical government, -<span class="pb" id="Page_44">44</span> -he adds, or more properly no ecclesiastical government, -was what the Independents, “a sect no doubt of very -wild enthusiasts,” proposed to establish in England -towards the end of the Civil War. “If it had been -established, though of a very unphilosophical origin, it -would probably by this time have been productive of -the most philosophical good temper and moderation -with regard to every sort of religious principle.” Such -is the plan favoured by Adam Smith, and he observes -that in Pennsylvania, where it had been adopted, -experience justified his opinion.</p> -<p>Smith was so popular with his orthodox contemporaries -that they tried to parry charges of infidelity by -saying either that he had adopted Hume’s opinions -out of the intense affection he felt for him, or that he -had been perverted by French atheists. “In the course -of his travels,” says one of the most broad-minded of -his Presbyterian contemporaries (John Ramsay), “he -became acquainted with Voltaire and the other French -philosophers who were then labouring with unhallowed -industry in the vineyard of infidelity.” What impression -they made upon him, adds this cautious man, -“cannot be precisely known, because neither before -nor after this period was his religious creed ever -properly ascertained.”</p> -<p>Twenty years after Adam Smith’s death, Archbishop -Magee, in a controversy with Unitarian theologians, -cited a passage from the <i>Moral Sentiments</i> on the -doctrine of atonement, in which Smith had said that -the doctrines of revelation coincide in every respect -with the original anticipations of nature. “Such,” -wrote the divine, “are the reflections of a man whose -powers of thinking and reasoning will surely not be -<span class="pb" id="Page_45">45</span> -pronounced inferior to those of any even of the most -distinguished champions of the Unitarian school.” -The rejoinder was at once made that in the sixth -edition, which Smith prepared for the press in 1790, -the passage was omitted; whereupon the prelate (forgetting -that Hume died in 1776, after four editions -had appeared with this presentation of the reasonableness -of an atonement) deftly turned a new moral: “It -adds one proof more to the many that already existed -of the danger, even to the most enlightened, from a -familiar contact with infidelity.”</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_46">46</div> -<h2 id="c4">CHAPTER IV -<br /><span class="smaller"><i>THE THEORY OF MORAL SENTIMENTS</i></span></h2> -<p>In 1759, the seventh year of his professorship, Smith -completed the first of his two capital achievements. -His scholiasts are still curiously hazy about its early -editions, partly perhaps because neither the first, -second, nor third is to be found in the library of the -British Museum. The first edition is a single octavo -volume of 551 pages, printed in good large type.<a class="fn" id="fr_10" href="#fn_10">[10]</a> The -title-page runs as follows:—</p> -<p class="center"><span class="smaller">THE</span> -<br />THEORY -<br /><span class="smaller">OF</span> -<br />MORAL SENTIMENTS</p> -<p class="center"><span class="sc">by Adam Smith</span></p> -<p class="center">Professor of Moral Philosophy in the -<br />University of Glasgow.</p> -<p class="center"><span class="sc">London</span>: -<br />Printed for <span class="sc">A. Millar</span>, in the Strand -<br />and <span class="sc">A. Kincaid</span> and <span class="sc">J. Bell</span> in Edinburgh. -<br /><span class="smaller">MDCCLIX.</span></p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_47">47</div> -<p>Andrew Millar was then at the head of the London -publishers. He had shown some time before, when -Hume’s <i>History</i> fell into his hands, that he knew how -to push a good book, and on this occasion too the firm -lived up to its reputation.</p> -<p>Early in April, Hume, who was in London, received -some copies, and wrote to thank Smith “for the -agreeable present.” Always zealous in the service of -friendship and Scottish literature, he employed all the -wiles of diplomacy to promote the success of the book. -“Wedderburn and I,” he writes, “made presents of -our copies to such of our acquaintances as we thought -good judges and proper to spread the reputation of -the book. I sent one to the Duke of Argyle, and -Lord Lyttelton, Horace Walpole, Soame Jenyns, and -Bourke, an English gentleman who wrote lately a very -pretty treatise on the Sublime. Millar (the publisher) -desired my permission to send one in your name -to Dr. Warburton.” Hume had delayed writing till -he could tell how the book had been received and -“could prognosticate with some probability whether it -should be finally damned to oblivion, or should be -registered in the Temple of Immortality.” Though it -has only been out for a few weeks, he thinks he can -now foretell its fate. But instead of gratifying an -author’s impatience, Hume pretends to have been -interrupted by an impertinent visitor, and digresses -upon vacancies in the Scottish Universities, upon a -new edition of Ferguson’s <i>Treatise on Refinement</i>, on -Wilkie’s <i>Epigoniad</i>, and Lord Kames’s <i>Law Tracts</i>. At -last he seems to be coming to the point:—</p> -<p>“But to return to your book and its success in this -town. I must tell you——</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_48">48</div> -<p>“A plague to interruptions!—I ordered myself to -be denied, and yet here is one that has broken in upon -me again.” The second visitor was a man of letters, -and Hume goes off on a new scent. He advises Smith -to read Helvetius’s new book <i>De L’Esprit</i>, and adds, -“Voltaire has lately published a small work called -<i>Candide ou L’Optimisme</i>. I shall give you a detail of it.”</p> -<p>At last the badinage comes to an end with a warning -that popularity is no test of merit. A wise man -should rather be disquieted than elated by the approbation -of the multitude:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“Supposing, therefore, that you have duly prepared yourself -for the worst by all these reflections, I proceed to tell you the -melancholy news that your book has been very unfortunate, -for the public seem disposed to applaud it extremely. It was -looked for by the foolish people with some impatience; and -the mob of literati are beginning already to be very loud in -its praises. Three bishops called yesterday at Millar’s shop -in order to buy copies, and to ask questions about the author. -The Bishop of Peterborough said he had passed the evening -in a company where he heard it extolled above all books in the -world. The Duke of Argyle is more decisive than he used to -be in its favour. I suppose he either considers it as an exotic, -or thinks the author will be very serviceable to him in the -Glasgow elections. Lord Lyttelton says that Robertson and -Smith and Bower are the glories of English literature. -Oswald protests he does not know whether he has reaped -more instruction or entertainment from it, but you may easily -judge what reliance can be placed on his judgment. He has -been engaged all his life in public business, and he never sees -any faults in his friends. Millar exults and brags that two-thirds -of the edition are already sold, and that he is now sure -of success. You see what a son of the earth that is, to value -books only by the profit they bring him. In that view, I -believe, it may prove a very good book.</p> -<p>“Charles Townshend, who passes for the cleverest fellow in -<span class="pb" id="Page_49">49</span> -England, is so much taken with the performance, that he said -to Oswald he would put the Duke of Buccleugh under the -author’s care, and would make it worth his while to accept of -that charge. As soon as I heard this, I called on him twice -with a view of talking with him about the matter, and of convincing -him of the propriety of sending that young gentleman -to Glasgow, for I could not hope that he could offer you any -terms which would tempt you to renounce your professorship; -but I missed him. Mr. Townshend passes for being a little -uncertain in his resolutions, so perhaps you need not build -much on his sally.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>On this occasion, as will appear in a later chapter, -Townshend proved true to his resolve and false to his -reputation.</p> -<p>Burke, who afterwards became one of Smith’s most -intimate friends, was at this time known for his philosophical -inquiry into the origin of our ideas of the -Sublime and Beautiful (1757). He was also a principal -contributor to the <i>Annual Register</i>; and that -publication, in its admirable account of books published -during the year 1759, quotes a long passage -from the <i>Theory of Moral Sentiments</i>, with a prefatory -tribute from Burke’s pen, which might quench the -thirst of the thirstiest author. Smith is praised for -having struck out a new, and at the same time a -perfectly natural, road of ethical speculation.</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“The theory is in all its essential parts just, and founded -on truth and nature. The author seeks for the foundation -of the just, the fit, the proper, the decent, in our most -common and most allowed passions; and making approbation -and disapprobation the tests of virtue and vice, and -shewing that those are founded on sympathy, he raises from -this simple truth, one of the most beautiful fabrics of moral -theory, that has perhaps ever appeared. The illustrations are -numerous and happy, and shew the author to be a man of -<span class="pb" id="Page_50">50</span> -uncommon observation. His language is easy and spirited, -and puts things before you in the fullest light; it is rather -painting than writing.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>“Perhaps there is no ethical work since Cicero’s -<i>Offices</i>,” wrote Sir James Mackintosh, “of which an -abridgment enables the reader so inadequately to -estimate the merit, as the <i>Theory of Moral Sentiments</i>. -This is not chiefly owing to the beauty of diction, as -in the case of Cicero, but to the variety of explanations -of life and manners which embellish the book often -more than they illuminate the theory.”</p> -<p>This criticism has been adopted by Mr. Farrer in his -luminous account of Smith’s moral philosophy, and its -justice may be conceded. With all its faults, the -<i>Theory of Moral Sentiments</i> is still one of the most -instructive and entertaining of all our English treatises -on ethics. There is plenty of warmth and colour. The -argument is never bare; you follow its thread through -a wondrous maze, till your perplexities are solved, -and you finally congratulate yourself as well as the -author on having rejected all the errors and collected -all the wisdom of the ages. When the main theme -threatens to be tedious he entertains you with an -imaginary portrait, or digresses into some subsidiary -discussion upon fortune, or fashion, or some other of -the currents that turn men from their purpose. It -has been observed that the strongest antagonists of -Smith’s central doctrine are enthusiastic in praising -his skill in the analysis of human nature. The truth -is, that the most absent-minded was also the most -observant of men. He seems to have watched the -actions and passions of his acquaintances with extraordinary -precision. Motives interested him at least -<span class="pb" id="Page_51">51</span> -as much as conduct; he rather blames philosophers for -having of late years given too much attention to the -tendency of affections, and too little to the relationship -in which they stand to their causes.</p> -<p>His immediate predecessors and contemporaries -in the field of ethics were principally concerned with -the origin and authority of right and wrong. Why -does mankind generally agree as to what is right and -what is wrong; whence are the notions of “ought” -and “ought not” derived if not from the church or -the Bible? At the time Smith wrote, English moralists -were divided upon this point into two main schools. -Of the first, who derived all moral rules from self-interest, -Hobbes, Mandeville, and Hume were the -principal exponents. The second school sought for a -less variable standard, and have been called Intuitionalists, -because they believed either with Clarke and -Price that moral truths are perceived like axioms of -Euclid, by the intellect, or with Shaftesbury and -Hutcheson, that there is innate in us a moral sense or -taste (developed by Bishop Butler into conscience) -which prompts us to do right and tells us the difference -between good and evil.</p> -<p>Moralists were equally divided upon the question, -“In what does virtue consist?” His old teacher -Hutcheson had answered that it consisted in benevolence; -others thought that prudence was the true mark -of the good man. In Adam Smith’s view, prudence -and benevolence are equally essential ingredients in -the constitution of a perfectly virtuous character. -With virtue he associates happiness, and his individual -view of both is based partly upon the Greek philosophy -of an independent leisure, partly upon the Christian -<span class="pb" id="Page_52">52</span> -conception of doing good to others; and we feel that -he does not always succeed in reconciling the new ideal -with the old. “Happiness,” he says, “consists in -tranquillity and enjoyment. Without tranquillity -there can be no enjoyment.” Tranquillity, he thinks, -is “the natural and usual state of a man’s mind.” But -the tranquillity to be desired was as far removed from -indolence or apathy as from avarice or ambition. It -was the active tranquillity of a well furnished mind -and a benevolent heart.</p> -<p>Peace of mind, family peace, a country free from -civil, religious, and foreign strife,—these he thought in -their order the things most momentous to happiness. -Yet he would not allow the leisurely philosopher to -bask in the selfish sunshine of tranquillity. “The -most sublime contemplation of the philosopher will -scarce compensate the neglect of the smallest act of -virtue.” The study of politics tends to promote public -spirit, and political disquisitions are therefore the most -useful of all speculations. The trade of the vulgar -politician was often ignoble and deceitful; but the -best happiness attended the patriotism and public -spirit of those who sought to improve government and -extend trade. The leader of a successful party may -do far more for his country than the greatest general. -He may re-establish and reform its constitution, and -from the doubtful and ambiguous character of a party -leader he may assume “the greatest and noblest of all -characters, that of the reformer and legislator of a -great state,” who by the wisdom of his institutions -secures the international tranquillity and happiness of -his fellow-citizens for many succeeding generations.</p> -<p>For the man of system in politics Smith has no -<span class="pb" id="Page_53">53</span> -liking. Wise in his own conceit, such a man “seems -to imagine that he can arrange the different members -of a great society with as much ease as the hand -arranges the different pieces upon a chessboard.” He -forgets that “in the great chessboard of human -society every single piece has a principle of motion of -its own, altogether different from that which the legislature -might choose to impress upon it.”</p> -<p>A true son of Oxford in his admiration for Aristotle, -he was fond, as we have seen, of appealing to -common life and popular opinion. But another of -Aristotle’s methods, that of the eclectic who arrives at -the truth by choosing out and combining what is good -in other philosophers, may almost be said to be the -foundation of <i>The Moral Sentiments</i>. When, after -explaining his system, he comes in his last (seventh) -part to describe and criticise his predecessors, it is -apparent that he considers his own theory to be an -assemblage or reconciliation in one harmonious whole -of all the happiest efforts of ethical speculation:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“If we examine the most celebrated and remarkable of the -different theories which have been given concerning the nature -and origin of our moral sentiments, we shall find that almost -all of them coincide with some part or other of that which I -have been endeavouring to give an account of; and that if -everything which has already been said be fully considered, -we shall be at no loss to explain what was the view or aspect -of nature which led each particular author to form his -particular system. From some one or other of those principles -which I have been endeavouring to unfold, every system of -morality that ever had any reputation in the world has, -perhaps, ultimately been derived.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>A good example of this eclecticism is his treatment -of Mandeville, an author from whom Smith no less -<span class="pb" id="Page_54">54</span> -than Rousseau derived many fruitful ideas. In -the first edition of <i>The Moral Sentiments</i> (p. 474) he -writes:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“There are, however, some other systems which seem to -take away altogether the distinction between vice and virtue, -and of which the tendency is upon that account wholly -pernicious: I mean the systems of the Duke of Rochefoucauld -and Dr. Mandeville. Though the notions of both these -authors are in almost every respect erroneous, there are, however, -some appearances in human nature which, when viewed -in a certain manner, seem at first sight to favour them. -These, first slightly sketched out with the elegance and delicate -precision of the Duke of Rochefoucauld, and afterwards more -fully represented with the lively and humorous, though -coarse and rustic, eloquence of Dr. Mandeville, have thrown -upon their doctrine an air of truth and probability which is -very apt to impose upon the unskilful.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Bishop Butler, more justly, classed Rochefoucauld -with Hobbes. But in Smith’s sixth edition (1790) the -name of Rochefoucauld was omitted, at the instance of -the Duke’s grandson, who pointed out that the author -of the Maxims is not really in the same category with -Mandeville. Coarse and licentious, but entertaining -and ingenious, the author of the <i>Fable of the Bees</i> hit -human nature hard. He traced virtuous actions to -vanity, and whittled away the distinction between vice -and virtue, until he reached the paradox that private -vices are public benefits. But this profligate system -could never have caused so much stir and alarm in -the world “had it not in some respects bordered upon -the truth.” We are very easily imposed upon by the -most absurd travellers’ tales about distant countries. -But falsehoods about the parish we live in must, if -they are to deceive us, bear some resemblance to the -<span class="pb" id="Page_55">55</span> -truth, nay, “must even have a considerable mixture -of truth in them.” A natural philosopher has an -analogous advantage over the speculator in ethics. -The vortices of Descartes passed for nearly a century -as a most satisfactory account of the revolutions of -heavenly bodies, though they neither existed nor -could possibly exist, and though if they did exist -they could not produce such effects as were ascribed -to them. But the moral philosopher is no better off -than the parish liar. He is giving an account of -things that are constantly before us, around us, and -within us. “Though here, too, like indolent masters -who put their trust in a steward that deceives them, -we are very liable to be imposed upon, yet we are -incapable of passing any account which does not -preserve some little regard to the truth.”</p> -<p>In describing those systems which make virtue consist -in propriety, Smith displays a profound knowledge of -Plato, Aristotle, and the later schools of Greek -philosophy. His admiration of Zeno and Epictetus is -almost unbounded, especially when he contemplates -their confident opinion that a man should always be -able to support worldly misfortunes. “They endeavour -to point out the comforts which a man might still -enjoy when reduced to poverty, when driven into -banishment, when exposed to the injustice of popular -clamour, when labouring under blindness, deafness, in -the extremity of old age, upon the approach of death.” -He holds that the few fragments which have been -preserved of this philosophy are among the most -instructive remains of antiquity. “The spirit and -manhood of their doctrines make a wonderful contrast -with the desponding, plaintive, and whining tone of -<span class="pb" id="Page_56">56</span> -some modern systems.” Chrysippus, on the other -hand, did but reduce stoicism into a scholastic or -technical system of artificial definitions, divisions, -and subdivisions, “one of the most effectual expedients, -perhaps, for extinguishing whatever degree of good -sense there may be in any moral or metaphysical -system.”</p> -<p>Admirable as were the best stoics and epicureans -and those Roman writers who, like Cicero and Seneca, -direct us to the imperfect but attainable virtues, they -quite misunderstood nature. “By nature, the events -which immediately affect that little department in -which we ourselves have some little management and -direction, which immediately affect ourselves, our -friends, our country, are the events which interest us -the most and which chiefly excite our desires and -aversions, our hopes and fears, our joys and sorrows.” -Here and in similar passages he follows his favourite, -Pope:—</p> -<div class="verse"> -<p class="t0">“God loves from whole to parts; but human soul</p> -<p class="t0">Must rise from individual to the whole.</p> -<p class="t0">Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake,</p> -<p class="t0">As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake;</p> -<p class="t0">The centre mov’d, a circle straight succeeds,</p> -<p class="t0">Another still, and still another spreads;</p> -<p class="t0">Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace;</p> -<p class="t0">His country next; and next all human race.”</p> -</div> -<p>Every moralist’s, even Epictetus’s, description of virtue -is just as far as it goes. But Smith claims to have been -the first to give any precise or distinct measure by -which the fitness or propriety of affection can be ascertained -and judged. Such a measure he finds in the -sympathetic feelings of the impartial and well-informed -<span class="pb" id="Page_57">57</span> -spectator. Here, then, we have the central and peculiar -doctrine that stamps with originality Adam Smith’s -<i>Theory of Moral Sentiments</i>.<a class="fn" id="fr_11" href="#fn_11">[11]</a></p> -<p>That sympathy or fellow-feeling is a primary instinct -of man appears from the commonest incidents of life. -Do we not shrink when a blow is aimed at another, do -not the spectators wriggle as they follow a rope-dancer’s -contortions, are we not moved by tears, is not laughter -infectious? Sympathy is agreeable. We like to give -it, and we long for it. It is too instinctive to be -explained (though some would do so) by a refinement of -self-love. Yet it is not a mere reflection or shadow. -Generally speaking, we only sympathise when our sentiments -and feelings correspond with those of another. -Sympathy means approval. To give it is to praise, to -withhold it to blame. How, then, does Adam Smith -account for the growth of moral sentiments in the man, -and for the progress of morality in mankind? He -holds that what we call conscience, or the sense of duty, -arises from a certain reflex action of sympathy. We -apply to ourselves the moral judgments we have -learned to pass on others. We imagine what they will -say and think about our own thoughts and words and -actions. We try to look at ourselves with the impartial -eyes of other people, and seek to anticipate that judgment -which they are likely to pass upon us. This is -<span class="pb" id="Page_58">58</span> -the first stage. But men have very different degrees -of morality and wisdom. One man’s praise or blame -carries infinitely more weight than another’s. Thus -what is called conscience, that is our idea of the impartial -spectator, insensibly develops. The impartial -spectator becomes more and more our ideal man, and -we come to pay more homage to his still small voice -than to the judgment of the world. The pangs of conscience -are far more terrible than the condemnation of -the market-place. Praiseworthiness comes to be better -than praise; blameworthiness comes to be worse than -blame. The true hell is the hell within the breast; -the worst tortures are those that follow the sentence -of the impartial spectator. One feature in the phenomena -of sympathy, which Smith points out, perhaps -constitutes a weak point in his theory. The spectator’s -emotions are apt to fall short of the sufferer’s. Compassion -is never exactly the same as original sorrow.</p> -<p>Smith, like Kant, has his own way, and a curious one -it is, of putting the rule of Christ. “As to love our -neighbour as we love ourselves is the great law of -Christianity, so it is the great precept of nature to love -ourselves only as we love our neighbour, or what comes -to the same thing, as our neighbour is capable of loving -us.” Our philosopher readily admits that there are -passions, like love, which, “though almost unavoidable -in some part of life,” are not at first sight very agreeable -to his theory. He says we cannot enter into the -eagerness of a lover’s emotions. They are always “in -some measure ridiculous.” “The passion appears to -everybody but the man who feels it entirely disproportioned -to the value of the object.” Ovid’s gaiety and -Horace’s gallantry are pleasant enough, but you grow -<span class="pb" id="Page_59">59</span> -weary of the “grave, pedantic, and long-sentenced love -of Cowley and Petrarca.”</p> -<p>Resentment provides him with a better illustration. -The counterpart of gratitude, it is a very -difficult passion to realise in a proper degree. “How -many things,” he exclaims, “are requisite to render -the gratification of resentment completely agreeable -and to make the spectator thoroughly sympathise -with our revenge?” First, the provocation must be -such that if unresented we should become contemptible -and be exposed to perpetual insults. Second, smaller -offences had better be neglected. Third, we should -resent from a sense of propriety and of what is expected -of us. Above all, we should diligently consider what -would be the sentiments of the cool and impartial -spectator.</p> -<p>Though the love of the lover has to be belittled for -the purpose of this theory, friendship and all the social -and benevolent affections are dear to sympathy and -“please the indifferent spectator upon almost every -occasion.” True friendship is one of the virtues which -prove the limitations of the utilitarian theory: “There -is a satisfaction in the consciousness of being beloved -which to a person of delicacy and sensibility is of more -importance to happiness than all the advantage which -he can expect to derive from it.”</p> -<p>As Smith goes through the list of virtues and vices -his “Impartial Spectator” constantly reminds us of -Aristotle’s theory that every virtue is a mean between -two extremes. The impartial spectator dislikes excess. -The rise of the upstart, for example, is too sudden an -extreme, nor does his behaviour often conciliate our -affections:—</p> -<blockquote> -<div class="pb" id="Page_60">60</div> -<p>“If the chief part of human happiness arises from the consciousness -of being beloved, as I believe it does, those sudden -changes of fortune seldom contribute much to happiness. He -is happiest who advances more gradually to greatness, whom -the public destines to every step of his preferment long before -he arrives at it, in whom, upon that account, when it comes, it -can excite no extravagant joy, and with regard to whom it -cannot reasonably create either any jealousy in those he overtakes -or any envy in those he leaves behind.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>The Impartial Spectator is rather a fickle and illogical -person; he does not like unexampled prosperity, but he -is always ready to sympathise with trivial joys. “It is -quite otherwise with grief. Small vexations excite no -sympathy, but deep affliction calls forth the greatest.” -It takes a great grief to enlist our sympathy, for “it is -painful to go along with grief, and we always enter it -with reluctance.” So when we hear a tragedy we -struggle against sympathetic sorrow as long as we can, -and when we finally give way, carefully conceal our -tears! In a letter of July the 28th, 1759, from which -we have already quoted, Hume made some objections -to this part of Smith’s theory:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“I am told that you are preparing a new edition, and propose -to make some additions and alterations in order to -obviate objections. I shall use the freedom to propose one; -which, if it appears to be of any weight, you may have in your -eye. I wish you had more particularly and fully proved that -all kinds of sympathy are agreeable. This is the hinge of -your system, and yet you only mention the matter cursorily -on p. 20. Now it would appear that there is a disagreeable -sympathy as well as an agreeable. And, indeed, as the -sympathetic passion is a reflex image of the principal, it must -partake of its qualities, and be painful when that is so....</p> -<p>“It is always thought a difficult problem to account for the -pleasure from the tears and grief and sympathy of tragedy, -<span class="pb" id="Page_61">61</span> -which would not be the case if all sympathy was agreeable. -An hospital would be a more entertaining place than a ball. -I am afraid that on p. 99 and 111 this proposition has escaped -you, or rather is interwoven with your reasoning. In that -place you say expressly, ‘It is painful to go along with grief, -and we always enter into it with reluctance.’ It will probably -be requisite for you to modify or explain this sentiment, and -reconcile it to your system.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>In the following spring (April 4th) Smith wrote -from Glasgow to Strahan, Millar’s young and very -able partner, about the second edition, for which he -had sent “a good many corrections and improvements.” -He asks Strahan to take care that the book is printed -“pretty exactly according to the copy I delivered to -you.” Strahan, it seems, had offered his services as -a critic, and Smith was a little afraid that he might -find unauthorised alterations in the text. He will be -much obliged to his publisher for suggestions, but -cannot consent to surrender “the precious right of -private judgment, for the sake of which your forefathers -kicked out the Pope and the Pretender. I -believe you to be much more infallible than the Pope, -but as I am a Protestant, my conscience makes me -scruple to submit to any unscriptural authority.”</p> -<p>The second edition was issued soon afterwards. It -has been erroneously described as a reprint of the first.<a class="fn" id="fr_12" href="#fn_12">[12]</a></p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_62">62</div> -<p>As a matter of fact, the corrections and alterations -made in it were very numerous and it was set up in -much smaller type, so that the 551 pages of the first -edition are compressed, in spite of some enlargements -of the text, into 436 pages. What is particularly noteworthy -is that the author, without altering any of -the passages criticised by Hume, does make what we -conceive to be a perfectly satisfactory answer in an -important footnote on page 76 of the second edition -after the sentence, “It is painful to go along with -grief, and we always enter into it with reluctance.” -We give the note in full in order that the reader may -judge for himself:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“It has been objected to me that as I found the sentiment -of approbation, which is always agreeable, upon sympathy, it -is inconsistent with my system to admit any disagreeable -sympathy. I answer, that in the sentiment of approbation -there are two things to be taken notice of: first, the sympathetic -passion of the spectator; and secondly, the emotion -which arises from his observing the perfect coincidence between -this sympathetic passion in himself, and the original passion -in the person principally concerned. This last emotion, in -which the sentiment of approbation properly consists, is -always agreeable and delightful. The other may either be -agreeable or disagreeable, according to the nature of the -original passion, whose features it must always, in some -measure, retain. Two sounds, I suppose, may each of them, -taken singly, be austere, and yet, if they are perfect concords, -the perception of their harmony and coincidence may be -agreeable.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Of modern philosophers, those to whom Smith is -most indebted are certainly Mandeville, his old master -Hutcheson, and his friend Hume, “an ingenious and -agreeable philosopher who joins the greatest depth of -<span class="pb" id="Page_63">63</span> -thought to the greatest elegance of expression, and -possesses the singular and happy talent of treating the -abstrusest subjects not only with the most perfect perspicuity, -but with the most lively eloquence.” (Was -it the religious prejudice against Hume that left his -name unmentioned in the <i>Theory</i>?) All four were in a -greater or less degree utilitarians. But Smith denies -that the perception of a distinction between virtue and -vice originates in the utility of the one and the disadvantageousness -of the other. Hume would explain -all virtues by their usefulness to oneself or society. -But Smith only regards utility as a powerful additional -reason for approving virtue and virtuous actions. It -influences our ideas of virtue, as custom and fashion -influence our ideas of beauty. Usefulness is seldom -the first ground of approval, and “it seems impossible -that we should have no other reason for praising a man -than that for which we commend a chest of drawers.” -Even our approval of public spirit arises at first rather -from a feeling of its magnificence and splendour than -of its utility to the nation, though a sense of utility -greatly strengthens our approval. Adam Smith notes, -by the way, what Hume had not observed, that the fitness -of a thing to produce its end is often more admired -than the end itself. Most people prefer order and -tidiness to the utility which they are intended to -promote.</p> -<p>Buckle has remarked on a contrast between Smith’s -theory of morals and his theory of economics. In -the first, sympathy is the premise, and he works out the -principle of sympathy to its logical conclusions. In the -<i>Wealth of Nations</i>, on the contrary, the word sympathy -scarcely occurs. He assumes self-interest as the sole -<span class="pb" id="Page_64">64</span> -motive of the economic man, and works out all the consequences -without troubling about that other-regarding -principle which is the foundation and measure of -morality, though he shows, it is true, that the motive -of self-interest, if sufficiently enlightened, will result -in the general good. Without denying that Buckle’s -contention is suggestive, we may observe that Smith -distinctly refuses to confine virtue to benevolence, -and parts company on this very point from “the -amiable system” of Hutcheson. “Regard to our own -private happiness, and interest too, appear,” says he, -“upon many occasions very laudable principles of -action. The habits of economy, industry, discretion, -attention, and application of thought are generally -supposed to be cultivated from self-interested motives, -and at the same time are apprehended to be very -praiseworthy qualities, which deserve the esteem and -approbation of everybody.”<a class="fn" id="fr_13" href="#fn_13">[13]</a> Benevolence may perhaps -be the sole principle of action in the Deity, but an -imperfect creature like man must and ought often to -act from other motives.</p> -<p>To the third edition of the <i>Moral Sentiments</i> (1767) -was appended an essay on the formation of Languages -and the different genius of original and compounded -languages. It is the fruit of his philological studies, -and contains no doubt the substance of lectures that -he had read in Edinburgh and Glasgow. He starts -with the proposition that names of objects, that is to -say, nouns substantive, must have been the first steps -toward the making of a language. Two savages who -had never been taught to speak would naturally begin -to make their mutual wants intelligible by uttering -<span class="pb" id="Page_65">65</span> -certain sounds, as cave, tree, fountain, whenever they -wanted to denote particular objects. What was at -first a proper name would thus be extended to similar -objects, by the same law which leads us to call a great -philosopher a Newton. Similarly, “a child that is just -learning to speak calls every person who comes into -the house its papa or its mamma.” Smith could call -to mind a clown “who did not know the proper -name of the river which ran by his own door.” -It was “<i>the</i> river.” This process of generalisation -explains the formation of those classes and assortments -called genera and species in the schools, “of -which the ingenious and eloquent M. Rousseau of -Geneva finds himself so much at a loss to account for -the origin.”<a class="fn" id="fr_14" href="#fn_14">[14]</a> -In his account of the dual number, -which he finds in all primitive and uncompounded -languages, he says that in the rude beginnings of -society, <i>one</i>, <i>two</i>, and <i>more</i>, might possibly be all the -numerical distinctions which mankind would have any -occasion to take notice of. But these words, though -custom has rendered them familiar to us, “express -perhaps the most subtle and refined abstractions -which the mind of man is capable of forming.” His -purpose through all this ingenious train of reasoning -was to suggest a new mode of approaching a subject -which, in itself so fascinating, had been reduced to a -dull routine. He is very severe on the Minerva of -Sanctius and on some other grammarians who, neglecting -the progress of nature, had expended all their -industry in drawing up a number of artificial rules so as -<span class="pb" id="Page_66">66</span> -to exclude exceptions. He sees that languages are the -products not of art but of nature or circumstance. He -explains how the modern dialects of Europe arose from -conquest, migration, and mixture—through Lombards -trying to speak Latin, or Normans trying to speak -Saxon. In this way the older tongues were decomposed -and simplified in their rudiments while they -grew more complex in composition. The processes -of linguistic development provoke a comparison of -philology with mechanics:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“All machines are generally, when first invented, extremely -complex in their principles, and there is often a particular -principle of motion for every particular movement which, it is -intended, they should perform. Succeeding improvers observe, -that one principle may be so applied as to produce several of -those movements, and thus the machine becomes gradually -more and more simple, and produces its effects with fewer -wheels, and fewer principles of motion. In Language, in the -same manner, every case of every noun, and every tense of -every verb, was originally expressed by a particular distinct -word, which served for this purpose and for no other. But -succeeding observation discovered that one set of words was -capable of supplying the place of all that infinite number, and -that four or five prepositions, and half a dozen auxiliary verbs, -were capable of answering the end of all the declensions, and -of all the conjugations in the antient Languages.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>The comparison, however, suggests a contrast. The -simplification of machines renders them more perfect, -but the simplification of languages renders them more -and more imperfect, and less proper (in his opinion) -for many of the purposes of expression. Thus in a -decomposed and simple language, he observes, we are -often restrained from disposing words and sounds in -the most agreeable order. When Virgil writes</p> -<div class="verse"> -<p class="t0">“Tityre tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi,”</p> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_67">67</div> -<p>we can easily see that <i>tu</i> refers to <i>recubans</i>, and -<i>patulae</i> to <i>fagi</i>, though the related words are separated -from one another by the intervention of several others. -But if we translate the line literally into English, -<i>Tityrus, thou of spreading reclining under the shade beech</i>, -Œdipus himself could not make sense of it, because -there is no difference in termination to assist us in -tracking out the meaning. In the same way Milton’s -exquisite translation of Horace, “Who now enjoys thee, -credulous all gold,” etc., can only be interpreted by -aid of the original. We may dissent when he goes on -to denounce “the prolixness, constraint, and monotony -of modern languages.” Yet it would be as unfair to -estimate the scientific value of these speculations by -the accumulated achievements of modern philologists, -as to sneer at his essay on the <i>Imitative Arts</i> or at -Burke’s treatise on the <i>Sublime and Beautiful</i>, because -Lessing has helped inferior men to see so much -further.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_68">68</div> -<h2 id="c5">CHAPTER V -<br /><span class="smaller">IN THE GLASGOW CHAIR—THE LECTURES ON JUSTICE AND POLICE</span></h2> -<p>The finding of Adam Smith’s lectures on Justice, -Police, Revenue, and Arms, 133 years at least after -their last delivery and 105 years after the author -had had his own folio notes of them destroyed, is -not only one of the curiosities of literature, it is also -the most important aid that has been afforded to the -study of Smith’s economic, social, and juristic ideas -since the appearance in 1793 of Dugald Stewart’s -biographical sketch. From 1793 to 1896, hundreds -of German students big with their epoch-making theses -“über Smiths Entwicklung,” scores of Frenchmen eager -to prove the superiority of Quesnai and Turgot, and -perhaps half a dozen English critics had whetted their -ingenuity on a brief account of the Glasgow lectures -which was supplied to Dugald Stewart by Adam -Smith’s old pupil and friend, John Millar. According -to Millar, Smith’s course, while he occupied the -chair of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow, fell into four -parts, the first two of which consisted, as we have -seen, of Natural Theology and Ethics. In the -third part he treated at more length of that branch -of morality which relates to <i>justice</i>. Here he followed -the plan suggested by Montesquieu, “endeavouring -<span class="pb" id="Page_69">69</span> -to trace the gradual progress of jurisprudence, both -public and private, from the rudest to the most refined -ages.” This important branch of his labours he also -intended to give to the public, but he did not live to -fulfil his intention.</p> -<p>In the last part of his lectures he examined those -political regulations which are founded not upon <i>justice</i>, -but <i>expediency</i>, and considered the political institutions -relating to commerce, to finance, to ecclesiastical and -military establishments. “What he delivered on these -subjects contained the substance of the work he afterwards -published under the title of <i>An Inquiry into the -Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations</i>.”</p> -<p>This was all that the world knew of Adam Smith’s -lectures on jurisprudence and political economy, save -that at the end of his <i>Theory of Moral Sentiments</i> he -promised “another discourse” dealing with the general -principles of law and government, and with the different -revolutions they have undergone in the different ages -and periods of society, “not only in what concerns -justice, but in what concerns police, revenue, and arms, -and whatever else in the subject of law.” On the first -section of his lectures Adam Smith never even promised -a book. He had no ambition to bring the kirk about -his ears. The second section took shape, as we have -seen, in the <i>Theory of Moral Sentiments</i>, after the publication -of which in 1759 the plan of the lectures underwent -a change, the ethical part being compressed and -the economical part extended. The <i>Wealth of Nations</i> -covers the subject of police, revenue, and arms, and so -executes the promise in part. “What remains,” he -wrote in 1790, “the theory of Jurisprudence, which I -have long projected, I have hitherto been hindered -<span class="pb" id="Page_70">70</span> -from executing.” In the lectures now discovered and -published we have therefore a first draft of the <i>Wealth -of Nations</i> and also a first draft of the projected work -on Justice, or Jurisprudence, “a sort of theory and -history of law and government,” as he called it in a -letter of 1785.</p> -<p>How, then, comes it to pass that we possess these -legal and economic lectures just as Smith delivered -them to his class at Glasgow, in spite of Dugald -Stewart’s express statement that no part of them had -been preserved “excepting what he himself published -in the <i>Theory of Moral Sentiments</i> and in <i>The Wealth of -Nations</i>”?</p> -<p>When Smith left Glasgow in 1764 his fame stood -high, and probably there were many note-books -containing his lectures floating about in the college. -A good manuscript of useful lectures would pass from -one student to another and might from time to time -be found on a bookstall. In the session of 1762-3, or -possibly of the previous year, an intelligent and attentive -student took down Smith’s lectures with unusual -accuracy. At least one copy was taken of it after -Smith had left the University; for the manuscript so -happily preserved is dated 1766, is clear, well written, -and free from abbreviations, while some of the mistakes -are evidently misreadings and not mishearings. That -this fair copy was not made by the student who took -the original notes is further shown, says the editor, -“by the fact that, though the original note-taker -must have been able and intelligent, the transcription -is evidently the work of a person who often did not -understand what he was writing.”</p> -<p>The manuscript consists of 192 leaves octavo size, -<span class="pb" id="Page_71">71</span> -bound in calf, with the signature of “J. A. Maconochie, -1811,” on the front cover. This Maconochie, or perhaps -his father Allan, the first Lord Meadowbank, -who was appointed professor of Public Law at Edinburgh -in 1779, must have picked up the book, and it -has remained in the possession of the family ever -since. In 1876 Mr. Charles C. Maconochie rescued -it from a garret-room, and in 1895 happened to -mention it to Mr. Edwin Cannan, who thereupon -undertook the task of editing it for the press—a task -which he has performed to perfection. One result of -this lucky discovery is to dispose of the legend that -Adam Smith was little more than a borrower from the -French school, a mere reflector of the Reflexions of -Turgot. By examining the lectures we shall inform -ourselves in the political wisdom which Adam Smith -used to teach his fortunate class at Glasgow long years -before he met Quesnai or Turgot, and longer still -before the Reflexions began to appear in the <i>Éphémérides -du Citoyen</i>.</p> -<p>“Jurisprudence” was the title Adam Smith gave to -this course of lectures, and he divided it under four -heads: Justice, Police, Revenue, and Arms, taken in -the order named. Natural Jurisprudence, he begins, -is the science that inquires into the general principles -which ought to be the foundation of the laws of all -nations. It is, he says elsewhere in his <i>Theory of Moral -Sentiments</i>, “of all sciences by far the most important, -but hitherto perhaps the least cultivated.” Grotius’s -treatise on the Laws of War and Peace—“a sort of -casuistical book for sovereigns and states”—was still, -he thought, the most complete work on this subject. -After Grotius came Hobbes, who, from an utter abhorrence -<span class="pb" id="Page_72">72</span> -of ecclesiasticism and bigotry, sought to establish -a system of morals by which men’s consciences might -be subjected to the civil power. Then after a few -words on Puffendorf and Cocceii, Adam Smith explained -his own classification as follows:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“Jurisprudence is the theory of the general principles of -law and government. The four great objects of law are -justice, police, revenue, and arms.</p> -<p>“The object of justice is the security from injury, and it is -the foundation of civil government.</p> -<p>“The objects of police are the cheapness of commodities, -public security and cleanliness, if the two last were not too -minute for a lecture of this kind. Under this head we will -consider the opulence of a state.</p> -<p>“For defraying the expenses of government, some fund -must be raised. Hence the origin of revenue.... In general, -whatever revenue can be raised most insensibly from the -people ought to be preferred; and in the sequel it is proposed -to be shown, how far the laws of Britain and of other -European nations are calculated for this purpose.</p> -<p>“As the best police cannot give security unless the government -can defend themselves from foreign attacks, the fourth -thing appointed by law is for this purpose; and under this -head will be shown the different species of arms, the constitution -of standing armies, militias, etc.</p> -<p>“After these will be considered the laws of nations.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Having thus divided his whole course, Adam Smith -proceeded further in an introductory lecture to subdivide -his first part, Justice. The end of justice is to -secure from injury; and a man may be injured as a -member of a state, as a private individual (in his -body, reputation, or property), or as a member of a -family. Adam Smith therefore treats of justice under -the three heads of Public Jurisprudence, Domestic -Law, and Private Law. Many of his juristic ideas -<span class="pb" id="Page_73">73</span> -are evidently derived from Grotius, Locke, Montesquieu, -Hutcheson, and Hume; but the effect produced -is that of a powerful and original thinker in close touch -with the best minds of his day, who draws his illustrations -freely and easily alike from ancient and modern -history. He finds that men were induced to enter -civil society by two principles, authority and utility, -that is to say, by the instinct of obedience and the -instinct of self-preservation.</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“In a monarchy the principle of authority prevails, and -in a democracy that of utility. In Britain, which is a -mixed government, the factions formed some time ago, under -the names of Whig and Tory, were influenced by these -principles; the former submitted to government on account -of its utility and the advantages they derived from it, while -the latter pretended that it was of divine institution, and to -offend against it was equally criminal, as for a child to rebel -against its parent. Men in general follow these principles -according to their natural dispositions. In a man of a bold, -daring, and bustling turn the principle of utility is predominant, -and a peaceable, easy turn of mind usually is pleased -with a tame submission to superiority.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>In the same chair Hutcheson had taught that society -is founded on an original contract. Adam Smith -discards the theory for various reasons:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“In the first place, the doctrine of an original contract is -peculiar to Great Britain, yet government takes place where -it was never thought of, which is even the case with the -greater part of people in this country. Ask a common porter -or day-labourer why he obeys the civil magistrate, he will tell -you that it is right to do so, that he sees others do it, that he -would be punished if he refused to do it, or perhaps it is a sin -against God not to do it. But you never hear him mention -a contract as the foundation of his obedience.”</p> -</blockquote> -<div class="pb" id="Page_74">74</div> -<p>Smith was as fond as his master Aristotle of testing -fine-spun theories by the coarse wear of daily -life. He loved to march an army of common-folk -through the cobwebs of political philosophy. A second -objection was that, although a government may be -entrusted to certain persons on certain conditions, the -contract cannot bind their posterity. “It may indeed -be said that by remaining in the country you tacitly -consent to the contract, and are bound by it. But how -can you avoid staying in it? You were not consulted -whether you should be born in it or not. And how -can you get out of it? Most people know no other -language nor country, are poor, and obliged to stay -not far from the place where they were born, to labour -for a subsistence. They cannot therefore be said to -give any consent to a contract, though they may have -the strongest sense of obedience.”</p> -<p>In a remarkable book on <i>English Government</i> (1803), -John Millar expresses his indebtedness to the “ingenious -and profound author of the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>.” -“I am happy,” he says, “to acknowledge the obligations -I feel myself under to this illustrious philosopher -by having at an early period of life had the benefit of -hearing his lectures on the History of Civil Society, -and of enjoying his unreserved conversation on the -same subject.”<a class="fn" id="fr_15" href="#fn_15">[15]</a> And this indeed was the spacious topic -which occupied most of the course on public jurisprudence. -Nations of hunters and fishers, he began, -had properly no government at all. They lived -according to the laws of nature. Then he came to -<span class="pb" id="Page_75">75</span> -the patriarchs of the Old Testament and of the -Homeric age, and compared the growth of republican -government in Greece, Rome, and modern Italy. How -liberty was lost is the next theme. The students were -reminded of Cæsar and Cromwell, of the contrast -between Western and Oriental despotisms, of the improvements -in law which have often been introduced -by military conquerors. They were then led to see -by the history of the fall of the Roman Empire how -“military monarchy came to share that fated dissolution -that awaits every state and constitution.” After -describing the fall of the Roman Empire, Smith gave -an account of the origin of the modern governments -of Europe.</p> -<p>Smith had Burke’s “salutary prejudice.” Despite a -private partiality for republican institutions, he saw, -like Montesquieu, in our constitution “a happy mixture -of all the different forms of government properly -restrained, and a perfect security to liberty and property.” -The Commons in a great measure manage all -public affairs, as no money-bill can take its rise except -in that House. The judges are quite independent of -the king. The Habeas Corpus Act and the methods of -election are further securities of liberty. Lastly, “the -law of England, always the friend of liberty, deserves -praise in no instance more than in the careful provision -of impartial juries.”</p> -<p>The first division of Justice concludes with an -excellent description of the struggle between the English -nation and King James <span class="smaller">II.</span>, who “on account of his -encroachments on the body politic was with all justice -and equity in the world opposed and rejected.”</p> -<p>In the second division of Justice, called Domestic -<span class="pb" id="Page_76">76</span> -Law, he examined the legal relations that had subsisted -at different times and in different countries -between husband and wife, parent and child, master -and servant, guardian and ward. The treatment is concise -without being dry. Philosophy corrects curiosity; -humanity peeps through law, and humour spices -humanity. We come upon his favourite proposition -that “love, which was formerly a ridiculous passion,” -has become “grave and respectable,” the proof being -that love now influences all public entertainments, -whereas no ancient tragedy turned upon it. He -counters Montesquieu’s statement that at Bantam, in -the East Indies, there are ten women born for one -man, by a broad doctrine: If the laws of nature are -the same everywhere, the laws of gravity and attraction -the same; why not the laws of generation? -He reminds his class that slavery is still “almost -universal”; for a small part of Western Europe is -“the only portion of the globe that is free from it.” -Upon the evils of slavery he spoke as strongly as he -wrote before in the <i>Theory of Moral Sentiments</i> or afterwards -in the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> (Book I. chap. viii.). -It is almost needless, he says, to prove that slavery is -a bad institution. “A free man keeps as his own -whatever is above his rent, and therefore has a motive -to industry. Our colonies would be much better -cultivated by free men.” That slavery is a disadvantage -appears, he adds, from the state of colliers and -salters in Scotland. These poor wretches indeed, -whom he must have seen daily in Kirkcaldy (where -Pennant noticed them with indignation thirty years -afterwards), had some privileges which slaves had not. -Their property after maintenance was their own, and -<span class="pb" id="Page_77">77</span> -they could only be sold with their work. They were -allowed to marry and to choose their religion, and -their wages were half a crown a day, as compared with -the sixpence or eightpence earned by the ordinary day-labourers -in the neighbourhood. Nevertheless “colliers -often leave our coal-works” and run away to Newcastle, -preferring liberty on tenpence or a shilling a -day to slavery on half a crown.</p> -<p>The third division (nearly fifty pages in all), on -Private Law, summarises the Roman law of property, -and compares the usages of Scotland and England. -Smith had evidently consulted many law reports and -statutes as well as some of the standard authorities -in both kingdoms, such as Lord Kames’s <i>Law Tracts</i>, -Dalrymple’s <i>Feudal Property</i>, Bacon’s <i>New Abridgment -of the Law</i>, and Hawkins’s <i>Pleas of the Crown</i>. Smith -was wonderfully free from legal obsessions. He condemned -the excessive punishments of his time, and -explained that they were founded not upon regard to -public utility, but upon the spectator’s resentment -against the offender and his sympathy with the injured -party. The English laws of real property he regarded -as unnatural and mischievous. He had mastered the -theory of entail without being fascinated by it. “Upon -the whole, nothing can be more absurd than perpetual -entails. Piety to the dead can only take place -when their memory is fresh in the minds of men; -a power to dispose of estates for ever is manifestly -absurd. The earth and the fulness of it belongs to -every generation, and the preceding one can have no -right to bind it up from posterity; such extension of -property is quite unnatural.”</p> -<p>A similar but less pithy condemnation appears in -<span class="pb" id="Page_78">78</span> -the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, and was one of the passages -which led Cobden to declare shortly before his death -that if he were a young man he would take Adam -Smith in hand, and preach free trade in land as he -had formerly preached free trade in corn.</p> -<p>Having considered “man as a member of a state, -as a member of a family, and as a man,” Smith -turned to Police, which is “the second general division -of Jurisprudence.” At that time the word “police” -was only half-way on its voyage from Greece. It -“properly signified the policy of civil government, -but now it only means the regulation of the inferior -parts of government, viz. cleanliness, security, and -cheapness or plenty.” “Cleanliness,” ninety years -before the first Public Health Act, was only “the -proper method of carrying dirt from the street,” -while the term “security” exactly corresponded with -police in the modern sense, being defined by Adam -Smith as “the execution of justice, so far as it regards -regulations for preventing crimes or the method of -keeping a city guard.”</p> -<p>But cleanliness and security, “though useful,” were -“too mean to be considered in a general discourse” of -the kind which Adam Smith was delivering. Accordingly, -after briefly comparing the amount of crime -then prevalent in Paris, London, Edinburgh, and -Glasgow—a comparison favourable to Glasgow and -London—and inferring that the establishment of -commerce and manufactures is the best police for -preventing crimes, he passes to the consideration of -cheapness or plenty—“or, which is the same thing, the -most proper way of procuring wealth and abundance.” -Then follows in a hundred pages what Mr. Cannan has -<span class="pb" id="Page_79">79</span> -well called a rough draft of the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, -containing (with some noteworthy exceptions) the -main arguments and many of the illustrations which -appeared a dozen or more years later in the book. -By the student who would trace the growth of an -idea and the history of a theory the value of the -report can hardly be exaggerated. In Mr. Cannan’s -words, “it enables us to follow the gradual construction -of the work from its very foundation, and to distinguish -positively between what the original genius of its -author created out of British materials on the one hand, -and French materials on the other.”</p> -<p>When we consider that this course of political -economy was necessarily brief, and could not possibly -contain all the arguments and illustrations he had -already hammered out in the great workshop of his -mind, we are inclined to wonder not that the lectures, -when compared with the full body of doctrine, show -many gaps, but rather that they correspond so -closely with the final treatise evolved after twelve or -fourteen years more of meditation, study, and travel. -When we reach the crowning year of Adam Smith’s -life with its laureate wreath we shall have something -to say upon later accretions, such as his colonial -policy, his view of expenditure, and that intensely -practical theory of taxation which taught so many -wholesome lessons to contemporary and succeeding -statesmen. Oddly enough, the lecturer began by -supplying the very thing his critics have missed in the -<i>Wealth of Nations</i>—a theory of consumption. He -had therefore, if we combine the lectures with the -treatise, mapped out in his mind the entire scope of -economic science in its natural order. First there is -<span class="pb" id="Page_80">80</span> -the demand that leads to productive labour, the desire -which is satisfied by and therefore induces toil. -Then comes his central theme, the division of labour -and the subsidiary topic of its distribution (almost -ignored in the lectures), with an appendix on revenue -or taxation.</p> -<p>Looking now only at the lectures, we find that of -the hundred pages into which this first discourse on -the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> falls, eighty, or four-fifths, are -concerned with “cheapness or plenty,” in other words, -with “the most proper way of procuring wealth or -abundance.” Cheapness is synonymous with plenty, -as dearness is synonymous with dearth. Water is -only cheap because it is plentiful, diamonds are costly -only because they are scarce. If we wish to find -wherein opulence consists, we must first consider what -are the natural wants of mankind which are to be -supplied; “and if we differ from common opinions, we -shall at least give the reasons for our nonconformity.” -So he sets about his task with a theory of consumption -simple, intelligible, and adequate. Food, clothes, -and lodgings are the threefold necessities of animal -life. But most animals find these wants sufficiently -provided by nature. Man alone has so delicate a constitution -that no object is produced to his liking. So -he improves his food by cookery, and protects himself -by fire, clothes, and huts from the inclemency of the -weather.</p> -<p>But as man’s physical delicacy requires much more -provision than that of any other animal, so does the -same, or rather the much greater, delicacy of his mind. -Such is the nicety of his taste, that the very colour of -an object hurts or pleases. He is tired by uniformity, -<span class="pb" id="Page_81">81</span> -and loves variety and change. The Indians gladly -barter gems for the cheap toys of Europe. Thus -besides the threefold necessities of life a multitude -of wants and demands spring up to which agriculture, -manufactures, arts, commerce, and navigation are subservient; -while the establishment of law and government, -“the highest effort of human prudence and -wisdom,” enables the different arts to flourish in peace -and security.</p> -<p>Thus Smith arrives at the point from which the -<i>Wealth of Nations</i> was to start. In an uncivilised nation, -where labour is undivided, the natural wants of mankind -are provided for. But as civilisation advances with -the division of labour, the provision becomes more -liberal, so that “a common day-labourer in Britain has -more luxury in his way of living than an Indian -sovereign.” The labourer’s comfort, indeed, is nothing -to that of the noble. Yet a European prince does not -so far exceed a commoner as the latter does the chief of -a savage nation. “In a savage nation,” he added, with -a prophetic glance at Marx, “every one enjoys the -whole fruit of his own labour.” It is therefore the -Division of Labour that increases the opulence of a -country. This is the kernel of political economy, the -inner keep round which this great architect of a new -science has built a fortress strong enough to protect -society and to preserve the fruit of men’s toil from the -well-meaning unwisdom of their governments. Not -that Smith was insensible to the hardness of economic -laws, to the cruel inequalities of industry:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“In a civilised society,” he reminds his class, “though -there is a division of labour, there is no equal division, -for there are a good many who work none at all. The -<span class="pb" id="Page_82">82</span> -division of opulence is not according to the work. The opulence -of the merchant is greater than that of all his clerks, -though he works less; and they again have six times more -than an equal number of artisans who are more employed. -The artisan who works at his ease within-doors has far more -than the poor labourer who trudges up and down without -intermission. Thus, he who, as it were, bears the burden of -society, has the fewest advantages.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Division of labour multiplies the product of labour -and so creates opulence. He takes a pin manufactory -as an illustration. If one man made all the parts -of a pin it would take him a year, and the pin -would cost at least six pounds. By dividing the process -of manufacture into eighteen operations, each man -employed can make 2000 pins a day. When labour is -thus divided, a much larger surplus is left over and -above the labourer’s maintenance, and of this surplus -the labourer will get a share. “The commodity -becomes far cheaper and the labour dearer.” The less -the labour that can procure abundance, the greater the -opulence of society. But coin is not a safe criterion -of wages. Twopence in China will buy more than five -shillings in the sugar colonies. By dividing labour you -increase dexterity. A boy nailmaker will easily make -2000 good nails while a country smith unaccustomed -to the job is making 400 bad ones. You also save -time; for time is always lost in going from one kind -of work to another. “When a person has been reading, -he must rest a little while before he begin to -write”; and a country weaver with a small farm will -saunter as he goes from the loom to the plough. By -fixing each man to an operation the product is sure to -be increased. Again, the quantity of work done is -<span class="pb" id="Page_83">83</span> -much augmented by the invention of machinery. Two -men and three horses can do more with a plough than -twenty men with spades. The miller and his servant -will do more with the water-mill than a dozen men -with the hand-mill. Horse-power and water-power had -been brought to the assistance of man by philosophic -invention; and even fire had been called in to aid him -by the mechanical and chemical discoverers. The -lecturer was doubtless thinking of his colleague Joseph -Black, and of James Watt, who was at this time -working within the precincts of Glasgow College, and -was just developing what Smith calls “the philosopher’s -invention of the fire machine.”</p> -<p>Smith puts forward a queer idea—and he stood to it -in the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>—that what gives occasion to -the division of labour is not a perception of the -advantage to be gained thereby, but a direct propensity -in human nature for one man to barter with -another. This love of barter is one of those natural -instincts which distinguish us from animals. The -division of labour and the material wealth of society are -greatly perfected by improvements of communication -which extend markets; for division of labour must -always be proportioned to extent of commerce. “If ten -people only want a certain commodity, the manufacture -of it will never be so divided as if a thousand wanted -it.” But where communications are bad the cost of -transit hinders the distribution of goods. If roads -are “deep” or infested with robbers, the progress of -commerce is stopped. “Since the mending of roads -in England forty or fifty years ago, its opulence has -increased extremely.” Water carriage also effectively -promotes public opulence; for five or six men will convey -<span class="pb" id="Page_84">84</span> -three hundred tons by water more quickly than a -hundred men with a hundred wagons and six hundred -horses can take the same weight by land.<a class="fn" id="fr_16" href="#fn_16">[16]</a></p> -<p>A distinction is drawn between the natural and -market price of commodities. A man has the natural -price of his labour when he has enough to maintain him -during its continuance, to defray the cost of his education, -and to compensate the risk of failure or of premature -death. When a man can get this natural price he -will have sufficient encouragement and will produce in -proportion to the demand. The market is regulated by -the momentary demand for a thing, by its abundance -or scarcity. When a thing is very scarce the price -depends upon the fortune of the bidders. “As in an -auction, if two persons have an equal fondness for a -book, he whose fortune is the largest will carry it.” -The conclusion drawn from these and other arguments -is that whatever “police” (<i>i.e.</i> policy) tends to raise the -market price above the natural, tends also to diminish -public opulence. The cheaper the conveniences of -life, the greater is the purchasing power of the poor -and the happier will a society be. Any policy which -raises and keeps the market price of goods above their -natural price, and so raises the national, as it were, -above the international price, diminishes the nation’s -opulence. This impoverishing policy took various -forms, which admitted of a triple classification:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>1. Taxes on industry and necessities.</p> -<p>2. Monopolies.</p> -<p>3. Exclusive privileges of corporations, and combinations, -like those of bakers and brewers, -<span class="pb" id="Page_85">85</span> -which kept the price of bread and beer above -the natural level.</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Further, as taxes or regulations which raise the -market price above the natural price diminish public -opulence, so do bounties like those upon corn and -coarse linen, which depress the market price below the -natural price. A bounty stimulates the production -of a particular commodity, and makes it cheaper for -foreigners at the expense of the public at home. -Another serious objection to the system is that people -are diverted from other employments, and thus “what -may be called the natural balance of industry” is -disturbed. “Upon the whole, therefore, it is by far -the best police to leave things to their natural course -and allow no bounties nor impose taxes on commodities.”</p> -<p>In a subsequent lecture he arrived at the same conclusion -by an analysis of the true nature of money. -At that time money was almost universally identified -with wealth. Though Hume had exposed the fallacy ten -years before, his essay had not affected national policy.<a class="fn" id="fr_17" href="#fn_17">[17]</a> -Treaties of commerce were always based upon the -theory of the balance of trade, which again rested on -the notion that if a country’s exports could be made -to exceed its imports, it would receive the balance in -gold and so become wealthy. By way of refuting this -strange dogma of the mercantilists, Smith used a very -felicitous illustration. He compared money to the -highroads of a country “which bear neither corn nor -grass themselves but circulate all the corn and grass -<span class="pb" id="Page_86">86</span> -in the country.” If we could save some of the ground -taken up by highways without diminishing the facilities -of carriage and communication, we should add to the -wealth of the country; and the case would be the same -if by such a device as paper-money we could reduce -the stock of coin required without impairing its efficiency -as a medium of exchange. For the ground saved -could be cultivated, and the money saved could be sent -abroad in exchange for useful commodities. Thus the -nation would be enriched; for its opulence “does not -consist in the quantity of coin, but in the abundance -of commodities which are necessary for life.”</p> -<p>In deference to the mercantilists the government -had prohibited the exportation of coin, “which prohibition -has been extremely hurtful to the commerce -of the country,” for every unnecessary accumulation -of money is a dead stock. The same idea that wealth -consists in money had also led to fiscal discrimination -against France and in favour of Spain and Portugal. -Why was this policy absurd? The reason, said Smith, -will appear on the least reflection, and he thereupon -put to the students in a few telling sentences those -elementary truths about the nature of foreign trade -which seem too simple even to have been discovered, -yet are still sometimes but imperfectly applied by the -most enlightened statesmen, and have not always been -apprehended by trained economists:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“All commerce that is carried on betwixt any two countries -must necessarily be advantageous to both. The very intention -of commerce is to exchange your own commodities for -others which you think will be more convenient for you. -When two men trade between themselves it is undoubtedly -for the advantage of both. The one has perhaps more of one -<span class="pb" id="Page_87">87</span> -species of commodities than he has occasion for, he therefore -exchanges a certain quantity of it with the other, for another -commodity that will be more useful to him. The other agrees -to the bargain on the same account, and in this manner the -mutual commerce is advantageous to both. The case is exactly -the same betwixt any two nations. The goods which the -English merchants want to import from France are certainly -more valuable to them than what they give for them. Our -very desire to purchase them shows that we have more use for -them than either the money or the commodities which we give -for them. It may be said, indeed, that money lasts for ever, -but that claret and cambrics are soon consumed. This is true. -But what is the intention of industry if it be not to produce -those things which are capable of being used, and are conducive -to the convenience and comfort of human life?”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>In short, imports are just as advantageous as exports, -and one is the necessary complement of the other. All -jealousies and wars between nations are extremely bad -for commerce. If preferential trade is to be established -at all, it should be with France, a much richer and more -populous country than Spain, and also our nearest -neighbour. “It were happy both for this country and -France that all national prejudices were rooted out -and a free and uninterrupted commerce established.” -Foreign trade, if wisely and prudently carried on, can -never impoverish a country.</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“The poverty of a nation proceeds from much the same -causes with those which render an individual poor. When a -man consumes more than he gains by his industry, he must -impoverish himself unless he has some other way of subsistence. -In the same manner, if a nation consume more than it -produces, poverty is inevitable; if its annual produce be -ninety millions and its annual consumption an hundred, then -it spends, eats and drinks, tears, wears, ten millions more than -it produces, and its stock of opulence must gradually go to -nothing.”</p> -</blockquote> -<div class="pb" id="Page_88">88</div> -<p>He proceeds to uproot that hardy perennial of fiscal -culture—the opinion that no expenditure at home can -be injurious to public opulence. Let us suppose, he -says, that my father leaves me a thousand pounds’ worth -of the necessaries and conveniences of life. “I get a -number of idle folks around me, and eat, drink, tear and -wear till the whole is consumed. By this I not only -reduce myself to want, but certainly rob the public -stock of a thousand pounds, as it is spent and nothing -produced for it.” In the same way money spent on -war is wasted wherever the war is waged and wherever -the money employed in preparations is laid out. -Finally, he sums up for free imports in language that -could not be strengthened:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“From the above considerations it appears that Britain -should by all means be made a free port, that there should be -no interruptions of any kind made to foreign trade, that if -it were possible to defray the expenses of government by -any other method, all duties, customs, and excise should be -abolished, and that free commerce and liberty of exchange -should be allowed with all nations, and for all things.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Holding, then, that all taxes upon exports and imports, -as well as all excise duties,<a class="fn" id="fr_18" href="#fn_18">[18]</a> hinder commerce, -discourage manufactures, and hamper the division of -labour, Smith was inclined in his rather meagre treatment -of taxation to favour direct imposts. He was -not one of those who think that taxation is the royal -road to prosperity, and insist that the only way to save -<span class="pb" id="Page_89">89</span> -the nation is by picking its pocket. On the contrary, -believing that the best method of raising revenue is to -save it, he introduced taxation as one of the causes that -retard the growth of opulence. But as the thriftiest -government has some expenses, and therefore some -taxes, an economist was bound to weigh the merits and -demerits of each. Though in comparison with the -corresponding chapters in the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> his -paragraphs on taxation seem raw, the doctrine is -already far in advance of Hume’s. He dwells on -the immense advantage of the land-tax, which only -cost the government about eight or ten thousand -pounds to collect, over the customs and excise, which -produce such immense sums, but “are almost eaten -up by the legions of officers that are employed in -collecting them.” Another advantage of the land-tax -over taxes on consumption was that it did not raise -prices; and it was better than a tax on capital or income -(“stock or money”), in that, land being visible property, -the sum required could be assessed without very -arbitrary proceedings. “It is a hardship upon a man -in trade to oblige him to show his books, which is the -only way we can know how much he is worth. It is -a breach of liberty, and may be productive of very bad -consequences by ruining his credit.” Yet Smith was -far from being a single taxer. “If on account of this -difficulty you were to tax land, and neither tax money -nor stock, you would do a piece of very great injustice.”</p> -<p>The only advantage to taxpayers of taxes on commodities -is that they are paid in small sums at a -time, whereas taxes on possessions are paid in large -lump sums. But to the government there is the all-important -fact that they are paid insensibly and are -<span class="pb" id="Page_90">90</span> -not so much murmured against. “When we buy a -pound of tea we do not reflect that the most part of -the price is a duty paid to the government, and therefore -pay it contentedly, as though it were only the -natural price of the commodity. In the same manner, -when an additional tax is laid upon beer, the price of -it must be raised, but the mob do not directly vent -their malice against the government, who are the -proper objects of it, but upon the brewers, as they -confound the tax price with the natural one.”</p> -<p>In Holland the consumer first paid the price to the -merchant and then (separately) the tax to the excise -officer. “We in reality do the very same thing, but -as we do not feel it immediately we imagine it all one -price, and never reflect that we might drink port wine -below sixpence a bottle were it not for the duty.” -His general objection to duties on imports is that -they divert capital and industry into unnatural -channels, while the effects of export duties are still more -pernicious in confining consumption and diminishing -industry. Uztariz, a well-known Spanish writer of -that day, had observed in his book on commerce:—</p> -<p>“I have found ministers and others, both in their -conversation and writings, maintain the erroneous -maxim that high duties are to be laid upon commodities -exported, because foreigners pay them; and, -on the contrary, very moderate ones on such as are -imported, because his majesty’s subjects are at the -charge of them.”<a class="fn" id="fr_19" href="#fn_19">[19]</a> This policy, says Smith, is one -<span class="pb" id="Page_91">91</span> -great cause of the poverty of Spain. Yet the Spaniards -were wiser than some moderns who have sought -to persuade the public that both export and import -duties are paid by the foreigner.</p> -<p>Apart from their extraordinary power and originality -as contributions to a new science, we are struck in -these lectures by two qualities, freedom from prejudice, -with the accompanying desire for reformation, and a -tolerance of things that are tolerable. Even when he -is exposing the absurdities of the Mercantile System, -and the evils of the scheme of taxation which it had -produced in England, he readily concedes that things -might have been far worse, and is glad to confess that -upon the whole “the English are the best financiers in -Europe, and their taxes are levied with more propriety -than those of any country whatever.” Elsewhere, -indeed, he shows that the fiscal system of Holland was -in some important respects superior; and in the <i>Wealth -of Nations</i> his language cooled:—“Our state is not -perfect, but it is as good or better than that of most of -our neighbours.”</p> -<p>Yet neither tolerance, nor patriotic bias, nor the improbability -of reform prevented him from criticising -bad institutions. He saw how evil was the system of -unpaid magistracies which Bentham burned and Gneist -adored. He saw how advantageous was the famous -excise scheme which ruined Walpole. He objected to -large farms and entailed estates, and was not afraid to -declare that a thousand acres ought to be purchased as -easily as a thousand yards of cloth. He laughed at -the notion, still strangely prevalent, that agriculture -is injured by manufactures. “It is always a sign,” he -says, “that the country is improving, when men go to -<span class="pb" id="Page_92">92</span> -town. There are no parts of the country so well inhabited -nor so well cultivated as those which lie in the -neighbourhood of populous cities.” He described how -Philip IV. went to the plough himself to set the -fashion, and did everything for the farmers except -bringing them a good market; how he conferred the -titles of nobility upon several farmers, and very -absurdly endeavoured to oppress manufacturers with -heavy taxes in order to force them to the country.</p> -<p>Smith concluded his discourse upon Cheapness or -Plenty with a few remarks on the influence of commerce -on manners; and having thus laid the foundations -of a new science, a true system of political -economy, he went on to “Arms” (Part IV.), and -treated of Militias, Discipline, and Standing Armies. -His course ended with a survey (Part V.) of the Laws -of Nations. The rules, he remarks, which nations -ought to observe, or do observe, with one another -cannot be stated with precision. It is true that the -rules of property and of justice are pretty uniform in -the civilised world. But with regard to international -law, what Grotius had said was still true. It was hard -to mention a single regulation that had been established -with the common consent of all nations and was observed -as such at all times. Smith, as usual, sought -for the reason, and as usual found it. “This must -necessarily be the case; for where there is no supreme -legislative power nor judge to settle differences we may -always expect uncertainty and irregularity.”</p> -<p>The pope, indeed, as the common father of Christendom, -had introduced more humanity into warfare; but -except for this hint Smith seems to have made no -proposal for filling up the blank. We can only imagine -<span class="pb" id="Page_93">93</span> -how one who so loved peace and hated war would have -rejoiced to see nations moving slowly but surely -towards the idea of an international judge, and learning -that, as the Duel is not the last word of civilisation -in individual quarrels, so the Battle is not the last or -the best trial of disputes between nations.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_94">94</div> -<h2 id="c6">CHAPTER VI -<br /><span class="smaller">GLASGOW AND ITS UNIVERSITY</span></h2> -<p>Mr. Rae’s diligent researches have disposed of the -idea that Smith was one of those profound philosophers -who are helpless in the practical affairs of -life. It appears from the records of the Glasgow -University, that during his thirteen years’ residence he -did more college business than any other professor. -He audited accounts, inspected drains and hedges, -examined encroachments on college land, and served -as college quæstor, or treasurer, with the management -of the library funds, for the last six years of his professorship. -He was Dean of Faculty from 1760 to -1762, when he was appointed Vice-Rector. As such, -in the frequent absence of the Rector, he had to preside -over all University meetings, including the Rector’s -Court, which had judicial as well as administrative -powers, and could even punish students by imprisonment -in the college steeple. He went frequently to -Edinburgh, and at least once to London, on college -business; and altogether we may discredit the remark -made by one of Smith’s Edinburgh neighbours and -reported by Robert Chambers: “It is strange that a -man who wrote so well on exchange and barter had to -get a friend to buy his horse-corn for him.”</p> -<p>There is one picturesque incident in the history -<span class="pb" id="Page_95">95</span> -of Smith’s connection with the college. The imposition -of octroi duties on food coming into the -city was still the principal means of raising municipal -revenue in Glasgow as in most other towns of Scotland. -But the students of the University were so far exempt -from the tribute that they were allowed at the beginning -of each session to bring in with them as much -oatmeal as would keep them till the end of it. In -1757 this ancient privilege was contested, and the -students were obliged by the “tackman” of the meal -market to pay duty on their meal. Smith and another -professor were sent to the Provost to protest against -this infraction of University privileges, and to demand -repayment. At the next meeting of the Senate, “Mr. -Smith reported that he had spoken to the Provost of -Glasgow about the ladles, exacted by the town from -students, for meal brought into the town for their own -use, and that the Provost promised to cause what had -been exacted to be returned, and that accordingly -the money was offered by the town’s ladler to the -students.”</p> -<p>The intellectual level of the professors and lecturers -in the University of Glasgow was already high when -Smith joined them, and the place was free from the -monopolistic spirit which dulled and enervated the -universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In 1752, a -year after his arrival, Smith took part in founding -what was called the Literary Society of Glasgow. -Besides the professors a number of outsiders were -admitted—David Hume, Sir John Dalrymple the -historian, John Callander the antiquary, Robert Foulis -the famous printer, and others. In one of the first -papers read to this society (January 1753) Adam -<span class="pb" id="Page_96">96</span> -Smith reviewed Hume’s <i>Essays on Commerce</i>. He had -no doubt read the essays in proof, as there is a letter -from Hume in the previous September, asking him for -criticisms towards a new edition he was then preparing -of his <i>Essays, Moral and Political</i>, in which these new -Commercial Essays were to be incorporated.</p> -<p>Another and more convivial club was presided -over by Simson, the professor of Mathematics, whose -genius and amiability had impressed Adam Smith from -his student days. When Simson died in 1768 he had -spent half a century in the college. He divided each -day with precision between work, sleep, refection in -the tavern at the gate, and a measured walk in the -gardens. Every Friday evening his club supped in -the tavern, and every Saturday the members walked -out a mile to the neighbouring village of Anderston, -and there feasted on the customary one-course dinner -of chicken broth, with a tankard of claret followed by -whist and punch. Ramsay of Ochtertyre says that -Smith was a bad partner. If an idea came to him in -the middle of the game he would renounce or neglect -to call. After cards they would talk, or Simson, who -was the soul of gaiety, would sing Greek odes to -modern airs. A more distinguished circle than this of -plain livers and high thinkers could hardly have been -found in Europe. Besides the editor of Euclid it -included the founders of political economy and modern -chemistry, and the inventor of the steam engine. For -Joseph Black and his young assistant, James Watt, sat -round the same fireside with Simson and Adam Smith. -To the conversation of the club, said Watt, “my -mind owed its first bias towards such subjects [literature, -philosophy, etc.], in which they were all my -<span class="pb" id="Page_97">97</span> -superiors, I never having attended college, and being -then but a mechanic.” In 1756 young Watt had come -from London to Glasgow, and being refused permission -by the close corporation of hammermen to set up as a -mechanic in the town, he was welcomed by the professors, -who appointed him maker of mathematical -instruments to the University, and gave him a workshop -and saleroom within its precincts. It is easy to -imagine the delight with which Smith joined in -rescuing Watt from the tyranny of a close corporation. -The workshop was one of his favourite resorts, and the -two became fast friends. More than half a century -afterwards, one of the first works which the “young” -artist of eighty-three executed with his newly invented -“sculpture machine” was a bust of Smith -in ivory.</p> -<p>In another part of the college space had been found -for Robert Foulis’s printing-office. Encouraged by -Hutcheson, Foulis had begun his business in Glasgow -just before Smith left for Oxford. His “immaculate” -Horace, the famous duodecimo, appeared in 1744, the -proof-sheets having been hung up in the college and a -reward offered for the detection of any inaccuracy. -Adam Smith was a subscriber for two sets of Hutcheson’s -<i>System of Moral Philosophy</i>, two beautifully -printed quarto volumes issued by the Foulis press -in 1755. The type used by the press came from -Alexander Wilson’s typefoundry at Camlachie. But in -1760 the college built an observatory, and with the -aid of the Crown founded a new chair of Astronomy. -Thereupon Wilson, being appointed to the chair, asked -to be allowed to transfer his foundry to the college, and -the authorities, on the motion of Adam Smith, resolved -<span class="pb" id="Page_98">98</span> -to build a foundry in the grounds. Thus during -Smith’s residence there were set up within the precincts -of the University Watt’s workshop, Foulis’s printing-press, -Wilson’s observatory and foundry, and last but -not least, Cullen’s laboratory, where Black his assistant -discovered the existence of latent heat.</p> -<p>The professors even started a series of lectures on -natural science to a class of working men. In 1761 -Smith and others sought to establish a school for -dancing, fencing, and riding. But this project failed; -and in the following year Smith is found as an active -opponent of a proposal started in the town for the -erection of a permanent theatre. He presides at a -meeting which resolves that the University should -join forces with the magistracy against this innovation. -Shortly after his departure the opposition dropped and -the theatre was built. But it was burned down by a -mob of zealots, and in the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> Smith -not only lashes those “fanatical promoters of popular -frenzies,” who have always made the theatre an object -of their peculiar abhorrence, but demands that the -State should give “entire liberty to all those who for -their own interest would attempt, without scandal or -indecency, to amuse and divert the people by painting, -poetry, music, dancing, by all sorts of dramatic representations -and exhibitions.” Such public diversions -would easily dissipate “that melancholy and gloomy -humour which is almost always the nurse of popular -superstition and enthusiasm,” and would, with the -aid of science and philosophy, correct whatever was -unsocial or disagreeably rigorous in the morals of the -country. By then he had learned to admire the French -theatre as well as the French dramatists. A true -<span class="pb" id="Page_99">99</span> -liberal, he was always open to new ideas, and this last -stump of Scottish prejudice was rooted out by his -continental tour.</p> -<p>In the fifties Smith and Black helped Foulis to -start an institution called the Academy of Design, -said to have been the first of its kind in Great -Britain. The authorities of the University found rooms -for the purpose in the college, and they may therefore -claim to have been the fathers, not only of the University -extension movement, but also of technical -instruction. Painting, sculpture, and engraving were -the principal arts taught in this Academy. Tassie and -David Allan were among the students; and Lord -Buchan, who boasted of walking “after the manner of -the ancients in the porticoes of Glasgow with Smith -and with Millar,” learned to etch in Foulis’s studio. A -shop was started in Edinburgh for the sale of works -of art produced in the Academy, and Sir John -Dalrymple, writing to Foulis in 1757, begs him to take -the advice of Mr. Smith and Dr. Black, who are the -best judges of what will sell. He also advises Foulis -to have a circular drafted showing the advantages of -the Academy. “Mr. Smith is too busy or too indolent, -but I flatter myself Dr. Black will be happy to make -out this memorial for you.” He invites Foulis and -Smith to visit him in the Christmas vacance.</p> -<p>There is no doubt, from the amount of business they -laid on his shoulders, and their choice of him as -“Præses” in 1762, that Smith’s colleagues had a high -opinion of his practical abilities. His public spirit and -loyalty to the University were unbounded. The -warmest and most generous of friends, he was also one -of those rare spirits, especially rare in the reign of -<span class="pb" id="Page_100">100</span> -George the Third, who never let private interests -turn the scale against the common good. He made -three protests against a professor exercising the legal -right of voting for himself in an election to an office of -profit. When Rouet, the professor of History, asked -for leave of absence, so that he might travel abroad as -Lord Hope’s tutor without relinquishing his professorship, -Smith voted with a majority for refusing the -leave, and on a later occasion for depriving him of -office. This led to a quarrel with the Lord Rector, -but the pressure of college opinion eventually forced -Rouet to resign. We shall see that Smith on a similar -occasion was careful to practise as he had preached.</p> -<p>From this reformed and progressive University the -economist often issued forth to breathe the eager -air of a thriving mart. The town was remarkably -free from poverty and crime. In his lectures he -said that in Glasgow there was less crime than in -Edinburgh, because it had more commerce and independence, -fewer servants and retainers. When he -first went to Glasgow as a student it was still -poor; when he returned as a professor, its commercial -prosperity had fairly begun. Its loyalty to the -Hanoverian dynasty had cost it heavily in 1745, but -that loyalty is intelligible enough; for the Act of -Union which deprived Edinburgh of its Parliament, -and of much of its resident aristocracy, opened up the -colonial markets to Glasgow, and enabled its enterprising -merchants to participate in the profitable -monopoly of the American trade. By the middle of -the century it was already the emporium for colonial -tobacco. A tannery employed several hundred men; -linen, copper, tin, and pottery became staple manufactures -<span class="pb" id="Page_101">101</span> -in the forties; carpets, crape, and silk in the -fifties. Gibson, in his history of the town, tells us that -after 1750 (when the first Glasgow Bank was opened) -“not a beggar was to be seen in the streets.” When -he adds that “the very children were busy,” we think -of the early history of factories and shudder. “I have -heard it asserted,” says Smith in the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> -(Book II. chap. ii.), “that the trade of the city of -Glasgow doubled in about fifteen years after the first -erection of the banks there, and that the trade of -Scotland has more than quadrupled since the first -erection of the two public banks at Edinburgh.” He -will not vouch for the figures, and holds such an -effect “too great to be accounted for by the sole -operation of this cause,” but says it cannot be doubted -that the trade of Scotland did increase very considerably -during the period, and that the banks contributed -a good deal to this increase.</p> -<p>All these external marks of enterprise and progress -indicated the truth of another of Smith’s sayings, -that a few spirited merchants are a much better thing -for a town than the residence of a court. According -to Sir John Dalrymple, the three leading merchants of -that time were together worth a quarter of a million -of money. Measured by modern standards these are -petty figures; but Mr. Rae says that commercial men -in Glasgow still look back to John Glassford and -Andrew Cochrane as perhaps the greatest merchants -the Clyde had ever seen. Cochrane, who was Provost -when the Young Pretender paid his unwelcome visit, -founded a weekly club, the express design of which, -according to Dr. Carlyle, was to inquire into the -nature and principles of trade. Smith, who joined the -<span class="pb" id="Page_102">102</span> -club, became intimate with Cochrane, and afterwards, -in Dr. Carlyle’s words, “acknowledged his obligations -to this gentleman’s information when he was collecting -materials for his <i>Wealth of Nations</i>.” The junior -merchants, adds the Doctor, who flourished after -Cochrane, “confess with respectful remembrance that -it was Andrew Cochrane who first opened and enlarged -their views.” In <i>Humphrey Clinker</i> he is described as -“one of the first sages of the Scottish Kingdom.”</p> -<p>Dugald Stewart, who drew his information from -James Ritchie, an eminent merchant of Glasgow, tells -us that Smith’s intimacy with its most respected inhabitants -gave him the commercial information he -needed; and he adds: “It is a circumstance no less -honourable to their liberality than to his talents, that -notwithstanding the reluctance so common among men -of business to listen to the conclusions of mere speculation -and the direct opposition of his leading principles -to all the old maxims of trade, he was able before he -quitted his situation in the University to rank some -very eminent merchants in the number of his proselytes.” -That Provost Cochrane and his brethren -were well inclined to these doctrines is probable, as -they suffered severely from the duties on American -iron; and that interest in economic subjects was -strong is proved by the printing of several important -books at Glasgow about this time.</p> -<p>The merchants were, however, much under the -influence of an economist of the old school, Sir James -Steuart, who lived in the neighbourhood, and the -progress of Smith’s opinions was more rapid in the -University. It was the students, as Dugald Stewart -tells us, “that first adopted his system with eagerness -<span class="pb" id="Page_103">103</span> -and diffused a knowledge of its fundamental principles -over this part of the kingdom.”</p> -<p>During these thirteen years at Glasgow Smith kept -up his connection with Edinburgh by pretty constant -visits. Shorn of royalty by the union of crowns, and -of its parliament by the union of parliaments, Edinburgh -was slowly recovering in trade what it had -lost in political significance. It had kept its Courts of -Justice, and its boards of customs and excise. Above -all, it was the centre of an intellectual activity which -gave Scotland for the first time a name and a fame in -European philosophy and letters.</p> -<p>The social and intellectual leader of the new movement -was Smith’s early friend and benefactor, Henry -Home, who was raised to the bench as Lord Kames in -1752, a man of very liberal and progressive ideas, full -of patriotic schemes for the improvement of Scottish -art, manufactures, and agriculture. His writings, -though highly praised for their learning, have long -been forgotten, for sufficient reason. “I am afraid of -Kames’s <i>Law Tracts</i>,” Hume once wrote to Smith. -“The man might as well think of making a fine sauce -by a mixture of wormwood and aloes as an agreeable -combination by joining metaphysics and Scottish Law.” -Robertson, already a prominent preacher and ecclesiastical -politician, was feeling his way towards Edinburgh -and literary fame. John Home, a brother minister, -was composing the <i>Tragedy of Douglas</i>, counted by -Hume, so he told Smith in 1756, “the best, and by -French critics the only tragedy in our language.” -Another member of this circle, quite a fashionable -oddity, who ploughed his own glebe like a peasant, -and startled a passer-by with apt quotations from -<span class="pb" id="Page_104">104</span> -Theocritus, was Wilkie, the author of the <i>Epigoniad</i>, a -particular friend and admirer of our philosopher. -Then there were the two Dalrymples, both historians, -and the gossipy autobiographer, Dr. Carlyle. Three -politicians of distinction often adorned Edinburgh -society at this time: brilliant Charles Townshend, who -was to make a revolution in Smith’s life, James Oswald, -his old friend and neighbour, and William Johnstone -(Sir William Pulteney). Among the relics of Smith’s -correspondence is an introductory letter, dated January -19, 1752, to Oswald, then at the Board of Trade, -which “will be delivered to you by Mr. William -Johnstone, son of Sir James Johnstone of Westerhall, -a young gentleman whom I have known intimately -these four years, and of whose discretion, good temper, -sincerity, and honour, I have had during all that time -frequent proof.” The young gentleman was to give a -further signal proof of his discretion by bestowing his -affections on a Pulteney, whose vast fortune doubtless -consoled him for the surrender of his name. The -letter continues:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“You will find in him too, if you come to know him better, -some qualities which from real and unaffected modesty he -does not at first discover; a refinement and depth of observation -and an accuracy of judgment, joined to a natural delicacy -of sentiment, as much improved as study and the narrow -sphere of acquaintance this country affords can improve it. -He had, first when I knew him, a good deal of vivacity and -humour, but he has studied them away. He is an advocate; -and though I am sensible of the folly of prophesying with -regard to the future fortune of so young a man, yet I could -almost venture to foretell that if he lives he will be eminent -in that profession. He has, I think, every quality that ought -to forward, and not one that should obstruct his progress, -<span class="pb" id="Page_105">105</span> -modesty and sincerity excepted, and these, it is to be hoped, -experience and a better sense of things may in part cure him -of. I do not, I assure you, exaggerate knowingly, but could -pawn my honour upon the truth of every article.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>A cluster of these and many other stars formed, in -1754, a constellation known as the Select Society, an -institution, as we learn from Dugald Stewart’s life of -Robertson, “intended partly for philosophical inquiry, -and partly for the improvement of the members in -public speaking.” It was projected, he says, by Mr. -Allan Ramsay, the painter, and a few of his friends—Dr. -Robertson, Mr. David Hume, Mr. Adam Smith, -Mr. Wedderburn (afterwards Lord Chancellor), Lord -Kames, Mr. John Home, Dr. Carlyle, and Sir Gilbert -Elliot. Hailes, Monboddo, and Dalrymple were also -members. In the Select Society, writes Stewart, -“the most splendid talents that have ever adorned -this country were roused to their best exertions by -the liberal and ennobling discussions of literature and -philosophy.”</p> -<p>When the projectors met in May 1754, Smith, who -had come from Glasgow, was required to explain -the proposals. At the second meeting, as appears -from the minutes now preserved in the Advocates’ -Library at Edinburgh, he was “Præses,” and gave out -as subjects for the next debate (1) whether a general -naturalisation of Foreign Protestantism would be -advantageous to Britain; and (2) whether bounties -on the exportation of corn would be advantageous to -manufactures as well as to agriculture.</p> -<p>Many economic questions such as pauperism, slavery, -hiring, banking, export bounties on linen, rent, leases, -highways, the relative advantages of large and small -<span class="pb" id="Page_106">106</span> -farms, were discussed by a society which, in Stewart’s -words, contributed so much to the fame and improvement -of Scotland. A year after its foundation Hume -wrote to Allan Ramsay that it had grown to be a national -concern. “Young and old, noble and ignoble, witty and -dull, laity and clergy, all the world are ambitious of a -place amongst us, and on each occasion we are as much -solicited by candidates as if we were to choose a member -of Parliament.” The society did more than debate. -Adam Smith and eight others were appointed managers -to carry out a scheme for the promotion of Scottish -arts, sciences, manufactures, and agriculture. Executive -committees were formed. Contributions poured in; -and prizes and premiums large in those days were -offered and awarded for every subject under the sun. -From the researches of Mr. Rae we learn, for example, -that twenty-six prizes were offered in the first year -(1755), including three gold medals for the best discovery -in science, the best essay on taste, and the best -on vegetation. Six silver medals were given, including -one for the best and most correctly printed book, -another for the best imitation of English blankets, and -a third for the best hogshead of strong ale. Four -years later the number of prizes given had increased to -142, and they included one for the person who cured -most smoky chimneys.</p> -<p>The society sank as suddenly as it rose. After -only a decade of brilliant usefulness, the meteor fell, -and expired, it is said, in a flash of Townshend’s wit. -“Why,” he asked, after listening to a debate rich in -eloquence, but unintelligible to a southern ear, “why -can you not learn to speak the English language as -you have already learned to write it?” So the society -<span class="pb" id="Page_107">107</span> -died, and Thomas Sheridan, father of the statesman, -came to Edinburgh with a course of lectures on English -elocution, which he delivered to about three hundred -eminent gentlemen in Carrubber’s Close.</p> -<p>Upon the ashes of this famous society arose an equally -patriotic but perhaps less beneficent organisation. The -Poker Club, as its name indicated, was intended to be -an instrument for stirring opinion. The cause to be -agitated was the establishment of a Scotch Militia on -national lines, to be followed, as some of its radical -members hoped, by a parliamentary reform which -would “let the industrious farmer and manufacturer -share at last in a privilege now engrossed by the great -lord, the drunken laird, and the drunkener bailie.”</p> -<p>Adam Smith was one of the original members of the -Poker Club, which gathered in most of the Select -Society; but before 1776 he had changed his opinions, -for, in the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, he comes to the conclusion -that “it is only by means of a well regulated standing -army that a civilised country can be defended.” If it -relied for its defence on a militia, it would be exposed -to conquest. The militia movement is mentioned by -Smith in a letter to Strahan (April 4, 1760), in the -course of some reflections suggested by the Memoirs of -Colonel Hooke. The passage is interesting as a Scotch -Whig’s explanation and defence of the disaffection -which prevailed north of the Tweed in the early part -of the eighteenth century:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“<i>Apropos</i> to the Pope and the Pretender, have you read -Hook’s Memoirs? I have been ill these ten days, otherwise I -should have written to you sooner, but I sat up the day before -yesterday in my bed and read them thro’ with infinite satisfaction, -tho’ they are by no means well written. The substance -<span class="pb" id="Page_108">108</span> -of what is in them I knew before, tho’ not in such detail. I -am afraid they are published at an unlucky time, and may -throw a damp upon our militia. Nothing, however, appears -to me more excusable than the disaffection of Scotland at that -time. The Union was a measure from which infinite good has -been derived to this country. The Prospect of that good, -however, must then have appeared very remote and very uncertain. -The immediate effect of it was to hurt the interest of -every single order of men in the country. The dignity of the -nobility was undone by it. The greater part of the gentry -who had been accustomed to represent their own country in -its own Parliament were cut out for ever from all hopes of -representing it in a British Parliament. Even the merchants -seemed to suffer at first. The trade to the Plantations was, -indeed, opened to them. But that was a trade which they -knew nothing about; the trade they were acquainted with, -that to France, Holland, and the Baltic, was laid under new -embar[r]assments, which almost totally annihilated the two -first and most important branches of it. The Clergy, too, who -were then far from insignificant, were alarmed about the -Church. No wonder if at that time all orders of men conspired -in cursing a measure hurtful to their immediate interest. -The views of their Posterity are now very different; but those -views could be seen by but few of our forefathers, by those few -in but a confused and imperfect manner.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>In the same letter he asks to be remembered to -Benjamin Franklin (who had lately visited Glasgow), -and also to Griffiths, the editor of the <i>Monthly Review</i>, -which had just paid a handsome tribute to the <i>Theory</i>.</p> -<p>In the notes of lectures, given as we have seen -about the time when the Poker Club was established, -Smith admitted the necessity of a standing army, -but seems to have thought that its abuse should be -guarded against by a militia. The Poker Club proved -little more than a convivial society, and felt the -scarcity and dearness of claret more than the want of -<span class="pb" id="Page_109">109</span> -a national army. Lord Campbell says that when the -duty on French wine was raised to pay for the -American War, they “agreed to dissolve the ‘Poker,’ -and to form another society which should exist without -consumption of any excisable commodity.” When -the duties were again reduced by Pitt’s French Treaty -in 1786, a Younger Poker Club arose, but Pitt’s -master, who had contributed so substantially to this -revival of patriotism, was too old or too indifferent to -become a member.</p> -<p>In one other important Edinburgh project the -Glasgow professor played a prominent part. In 1755 -an <i>Edinburgh Review</i> was started to supply the rising -authors of North Britain with the stimulus of sympathetic -criticism. Wedderburn, then a young advocate, -was chosen editor; Robertson and Smith were contributors -in chief. But only two numbers appeared of this -precursor in name and in intention of the most famous -and successful review ever launched in our islands. -Smith’s two articles are of considerable, although of -unequal, interest. The first and less important is a -review of Dr. Johnson’s <i>Dictionary</i>. “When we compare -this book with other dictionaries,” writes the -critic, “the merit of its author appears very extraordinary.” -In previous English dictionaries the chief -purpose had been to explain hard words and terms of -art; “Mr. Johnson has extended his views much further, -and has made a very full collection of all the different -meanings of each English word, justified by examples -from authors of good reputation.” The defects of the -work consisted chiefly in the plan, which was not -sufficiently grammatical. To show what he meant he -took Johnson’s articles on <i>but</i> and <i>humour</i>, appending -<span class="pb" id="Page_110">110</span> -more philosophical and lucid articles of his own. -Johnson seems to have taken no notice of these -criticisms in later editions of the dictionary. We may -observe in passing that Smith’s <i>but</i> is better than his -<i>humour</i>. He seems singularly mistaken when he -observes that “a man of wit is as much above a man -of humour as a gentleman is above a buffoon.” In -Scotland, he thinks, the usefulness of the <i>Dictionary</i> -will soon be felt, “as there is no standard of correct -language in conversation.”</p> -<p>A far more remarkable contribution is a letter to -the editors, which appeared in the second number. -It is a protest against the reviewers confining themselves -to accounts of books published in Scotland, a -country “which is but just beginning to attempt -figuring in the learned world.” He proposes therefore -that they should enlarge their scope, and observe -with regard to Europe the same plan that was being -followed with regard to England, that is to say, -examine all books of permanent value while contriving -to take notice “of every Scotch production that is -tolerably decent.” Smith illustrated his plea by a very -luminous and masterly survey of French literature, and -a comparison of the French, German, and Italian -genius with the English.</p> -<p>The review was intended to appear every six months, -but it never reached a third number, either because it -was not well received by the public, or because a formidable -theologian spied heresy lurking in its pages.</p> -<p>It was at this time that the General Assembly was -proposing to pass a censure on Hume’s <i>Enquiry concerning -the Principles of Morals</i>, and to excommunicate -the author. Hume wrote to Allan Ramsay in Rome: -<span class="pb" id="Page_111">111</span> -“You may tell that reverend gentleman the Pope, -that there are men here who rail at him, and yet would -be much greater persecutors had they equal power. -The last Assembly sat on me. They did not propose -to burn me, because they cannot, but they intended to -give me over to Satan. My friends prevailed, and my -damnation has accordingly been postponed a twelve-month, -but next Assembly will surely be upon me.” -Lord Kames was also attacked; but Smith seems to -have escaped, though his turn was to come later.</p> -<p>The pupil of Hutcheson was also in many ways the -philosophical disciple and ally of Hume. Their intercourse -during all these years was close and constant. -They paid mutual visits, and interchanged many -letters, too few of which have been preserved. Hume -had been abroad, or at Ninewells, during most of -Smith’s stay in Edinburgh, and had only just made -Edinburgh his home when Smith obtained the professorship -at Glasgow; but, as Mr. Rae notes, before -a year was out, Smith’s “dear sir” had ripened into -“my dearest friend,” and on these terms the two -philosophers remained until death parted them.</p> -<p>We have seen how in the spring of 1759 Charles -Townshend was much taken with the <i>Theory of Moral -Sentiments</i>, and told Oswald he would put his young -ward the Duke of Buccleuch under the author’s care. -Hume did not at first believe that Townshend would -persevere, or if he did, that he would offer such terms -as would tempt Smith from Glasgow. But on this -occasion he was in earnest and never relinquished the -idea, anxious, it is said, to connect the fleeting fame of -a parliamentarian with the lasting renown of a philosopher. -Townshend had married the widowed -<span class="pb" id="Page_112">112</span> -Countess of Dalkeith. Her eldest son, the Duke of -Buccleuch, was then a boy at Eton, under Hallam, -father of the historian. The time when his stepson -would leave school was still distant, but Townshend -had made up his mind to send the boy abroad. In -England it was becoming more and more the fashion -for the sons of the nobility to travel abroad when they -left school, instead of going to one of the universities. -It was thought that they returned home much -improved by their travels, and with some knowledge -of one or two living languages, whereas if they went to -Oxford or Cambridge they would learn nothing but -idleness and dissipation. Adam Smith himself afterwards -came to the conclusion that foreign travel was -no substitute for a sound university training. The -schoolboy, he wrote after his continental tour, “commonly -returns home more conceited, more unprincipled, -more dissipated, and more incapable of any serious -application either to study or business, than he could -well have become in so short a time had he lived at -home.... Nothing but the discredit into which the -universities had fallen could ever have brought into -repute so very absurd a practice.”<a class="fn" id="fr_20" href="#fn_20">[20]</a></p> -<p>In the summer of 1759 Townshend went to see Smith -at Glasgow, and apparently prevailed, for in the following -September Smith wrote to him about some books -which he had been getting for Buccleuch, as if he were -already in the position of an educational adviser to the -boy. As might have been expected of one whom -Burke immortalised as “the delight and ornament -of the House, and the charm of every private society -which he honoured with his presence,” Townshend -<span class="pb" id="Page_113">113</span> -captivated Glasgow. “Everybody here remembers -you with the greatest admiration and affection.”</p> -<p>Smith was doubtless informed from time to time of -the boy’s progress, but we hear no more of the subject -for four years. In the early part of 1763 he invited -Hume to pay a visit to Glasgow. Hume was then in -Edinburgh; he had just brought out two volumes of -his <i>History</i>, and was drinking the nectar of general -applause. At the end of March he replied with a -bantering reference, perhaps, to his friend’s economic -studies: “I set up a chaise in May next, which will -give me the liberty of travelling about, and you may -be sure a journey to Glasgow will be one of the first I -shall undertake. I intend to require with great strictness -an account how you have been employing your -leisure, and I desire you to be ready for that purpose. -Woe be to you if the Balance be against you. Your -friends here will also expect that I should bring you -with me. It seems to me very long since I saw you.” -But in the summer Lord Hertford was appointed -Ambassador to the Court of France, and Hume accepted -the post of Secretary to the British Embassy at -Paris, “with great prospects and expectations.” He -told his friend not to expect him back for some time; -“but we may meet abroad.” And so they did; for, a -couple of months later, Smith received the following -letter:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“<span class="sc">Dear Sir</span>,—The time now drawing near when the Duke -of Buccleugh intends to go abroad, I take the liberty of -renewing the subject to you: that if you should still have the -same disposition to travel with him I may have the satisfaction -of informing Lady Dalkeith and his Grace of it, and of -congratulating them upon an event which I know that they, -as well as myself, have so much at heart. The Duke is now -<span class="pb" id="Page_114">114</span> -at Eton; he will remain there till Christmas. He will then -spend some short time in London, that he may be presented -at Court, and not pass instantaneously from school to a -foreign country, but it were to be wished he should not be -long in Town, exposed to the habits and companions of -London, before his mind has been more formed and better -guarded by education and experience.</p> -<p>“I do not enter at this moment upon the subject of establishment, -because, if you have no objection to the situation, I -know we cannot differ about the terms. On the contrary, -you will find me more solicitous than yourself to make the -connection with Buccleugh as satisfactory and advantageous -to you as I am persuaded it will be essentially beneficial to -him.</p> -<p>“The Duke ... has sufficient talents; a very manly temper, -and an integrity of heart and reverence for truth, which in a -person of his rank and fortune are the firmest foundations of -weight in life and uniform greatness. If it should be agreeable -to you to finish his education and mould these excellent -materials into a settled character, I make no doubt that he -will return to his family and country the very man our -fondest hopes have fancied him.</p> -<p>“I go to Town next Friday, and should be obliged to you -for your answer to this letter.—I am, with sincere affection -and esteem, dear sir your most faithful and most obedient -humble servant,</p> -</blockquote> -<p><span class="lr"><span class="sc">C. Townshend.</span></span></p> -<div class="verse"> -<p class="t0"><span class="sc">Adderbury</span>, <i>25th October 1763</i>.”</p> -</div> -<p>The offer was accepted, and an arrangement concluded, -in a pecuniary point of view certainly “satisfactory -and advantageous.” Smith was to have a -salary of £300 a year with travelling expenses, and a -pension of £300 a year for life. He was thus to enjoy, -as Mr. Rae says, twice his Glasgow income, and to -have it assured till death. Altogether, Smith drew -more than £8000 from his three years’ tutorship. On -November 8th, “Dr. Smith represented,” so runs the -<span class="pb" id="Page_115">115</span> -record of the Faculty, “that some interesting business -would probably require his leaving the College some -time this winter”, and he was thereupon granted -leave of absence for three months.</p> -<p>For some time, however, Smith heard nothing more. -In the middle of December, when he wrote to tell Hume -of Townshend’s letter, he was still in uncertainty. But -a few days afterwards it was arranged that they should -start early in the new year, and on January the 9th -Smith told the Faculty that he should make use of -his leave of absence, that he should pay his deputy his -half-year’s salary commencing from October the 10th, -and that he had returned all his students’ fees. This -last act of liberality he was only able to carry out by -a display of violence at the end of his last lecture. -The scene has luckily been reproduced with unusual animation -by the pen of Tytler, Lord Kames’s pedestrian -biographer. After concluding his last lecture, and -describing the arrangements he had made for them, “he -drew from his pocket the several fees of the students, -wrapped up in separate paper parcels, and beginning -to call up each man by his name, he delivered to the -first who was called the money into his hand. The -young man peremptorily refused to accept it, declaring -that the instruction and pleasure he had already -received was much more than he either had repaid or -ever could compensate; and a general cry was heard -from every one in the room to the same effect. But -Mr. Smith was not to be bent from his purpose. After -warmly expressing his feelings of gratitude and the -strong sense he had of the regard shown to him by his -young friends, he told them this was a matter betwixt -him and his own mind, and that he could not rest -<span class="pb" id="Page_116">116</span> -satisfied unless he performed what he deemed right -and proper. ‘You must not refuse me this satisfaction; -nay, by heavens, gentlemen, you shall not’; and -seizing by the coat the young man who stood next to -him, he thrust the money into his pocket and then -pushed him from him. The rest saw it was in vain to -contest the matter, and were obliged to let him take -his own way.”<a class="fn" id="fr_21" href="#fn_21">[21]</a></p> -<p>Scotch professors at that time often continued to -hold their chairs during a temporary appointment like -a travelling tutorship, and paid their salaries to a -substitute until they returned. But Smith was no -friend of absenteeism. The interest of the College was -his chief anxiety, and accordingly in the following -month he sent his formal letter of resignation to the -Lord Rector, immediately on his arrival in Paris. “I -never was,” he writes, “more anxious for the good of -the College than at this moment; and I sincerely wish -that whoever is my successor may not only do credit -to the office by his abilities, but be a comfort to the -very excellent men with whom he is likely to spend -his life, by the probity of his heart and the goodness -of his temper.” (February 14, 1764.)</p> -<p>In accepting his resignation the Senate added a few -words which may fittingly conclude our account of -what Smith always regarded as the most fruitful and -honourable period of his life:—“The University cannot -help at the same time expressing their sincere regret -at the removal of Dr. Smith, whose distinguished -probity and amiable qualities procured him the esteem -and affection of his colleagues; whose uncommon -genius, great abilities, and extensive learning did so -<span class="pb" id="Page_117">117</span> -much honour to this society; his elegant and ingenious -<i>Theory of Moral Sentiments</i> having recommended him to -the esteem of men of taste and literature throughout -Europe. His happy talents in illustrating abstracted -subjects, and faithful assiduity in communicating useful -knowledge, distinguished him as a professor, and at -once afforded the greatest pleasure and the most important -instruction to the youth under his care.”</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_118">118</div> -<h2 id="c7">CHAPTER VII -<br /><span class="smaller">THE TOUR IN FRANCE, 1764-66</span></h2> -<p>“Everything I see appears the throwing broadcast of -the seed of a revolution,” wrote Voltaire to Chauvelin, -a few weeks after Smith landed in France. While the -poor grew poorer, administration worse, taxes more -oppressive, that thick cloud of conventional darkness -which had so long shrouded misgovernment was dispersing, -irradiated by the fierce glare of an intellectual -illumination such as the world had never seen before. -Already the mind of France was undimmed. Voltaire’s -search-light had shown the nakedness of Church and -State. Diderot’s great lamp was fixed; Rousseau -waved his fiery torch, beaconing oppressed civilisation -back to the freedom of its cradle. Quesnai was at his -patient calculations in the Royal Palace. The great -<i>Encyclopædia</i> itself was on the eve of completion.</p> -<p>This gigantic work—in thirty-five folio volumes, of -which the first appeared in 1751—was doubly English; -for it was inspired by Lord Bacon’s plan for a universal -dictionary of sciences and arts, and it began as a mere -translation of the Cyclopædia which Ephraim Chambers -had published in 1727.</p> -<p>One of the first of our writers to study, perhaps -the first to weigh and measure the importance of the -<i>Encyclopædia</i>, was Adam Smith. He seems to have -<span class="pb" id="Page_119">119</span> -read it from the outset. In his letter to the <i>Edinburgh -Review</i> he called it the most complete work of the kind -ever attempted in any language. He there noticed -that D’Alembert’s preliminary discourse upon the genealogy -and filiation of arts and sciences was nearly the -same as that of Lord Bacon, that the separate articles -were not dry abstracts of what is commonly known by -a superficial student, but “a compleat, reasoned, and -even critical examination of each subject.” Its pages -bore testimony to the triumphant progress of English -philosophy and science in France. The ideas of Bacon, -Boyle, and Newton were explained with that order, -perspicuity, and judgment which distinguished all the -eminent writers of France. “As since the Union we -are apt to regard ourselves in some measure as the -countrymen of those great men, it flattered my vanity -as a Briton to observe the superiority of the English -philosophy thus acknowledged by their rival nation.” -It seems, Smith added, “to be the peculiar talent of -the French nation to arrange every subject in that -natural and simple order which carries the attention -without any effort along with it.”</p> -<p>Smith was himself by nature and habit an Encyclopædist, -not inferior even to Diderot in his grasp of the -whole field of science. Wanting the laborious industry -of the compiler, he was the equal perhaps of his French -contemporaries in the power of correlating knowledge -and combining truth. But he yielded to none in -admiration of the <i>Encyclopædia</i>, and commended it to -English readers by translating the magnificent eulogy -bestowed on it by Voltaire in the conclusion of his -account of the artists who lived in the time of Louis -the Fourteenth:—</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_120">120</div> -<p>“The last age has put the present in a condition to -assemble into one body and to transmit to posterity, -to be by them delivered down to remoter ages, the -sacred repository of all the arts and all the sciences, -all of them pushed as far as human industry can go. -This is what a society of learned men, fraught with -genius and knowledge, are now labouring upon, an -immense and immortal work which accuses the shortness -of human life.”</p> -<p>The Encyclopædists’ doctrine of the perfectibility of -man was the rational basis of Smith’s incurable optimism, -but he did not share the opinion of the French School -that an absolute monarchy is the most hopeful if not -the only vehicle of human progress. Quesnai and his -disciples never dreamed that people could govern -themselves; they conjured up an ideal monarch -who would let his people live in a state of natural -liberty. Adam Smith had faith in men as well as -in philosophy, and therefore his politics were not -for his own age only but for the time to come. A -Whig in practice and a Republican in theory, he was -not likely to sympathise with the idea that natural -liberty is to be enjoyed under a despot.</p> -<p>One critic expresses surprise that so close an -observer had not the sagacity to anticipate the downfall -of the French Monarchy. But Turgot’s dismissal, -which first made Voltaire despair of a peaceful reformation, -occurred two months after the publication of -the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, and ten years after its author’s -return to England. Nay, at the time when the finishing -touches were being given to that work, it might -have been a fair question whether Turgot’s reforms -were less likely to save France than Lord North’s -<span class="pb" id="Page_121">121</span> -policy to enslave England. In any case, it was not for -a foreigner to play Cassandra to the Bourbons. But -it will be shown that the author of the <i>Wealth of -Nations</i> was under no illusions as to the wretched state -of the French peasant, the misgovernment of the -kingdom, and its fiscal disorganisation.</p> -<p>The tutor and his pupil arrived in Paris on February -13, 1764, and, after ten days with Hume, they proceeded -to Toulouse, which still preserved the dignity -of a provincial capital, with a parliament, a university, -and an archbishopric. The nobility and notables of -Languedoc spent the winter there, and it was also a -favourite resort of English visitors, probably because it -combined a good climate with agreeable society. Its -advocates vied with those of Paris. As a social and -intellectual centre it might be denominated the Edinburgh -of France. Its political importance is marked in -the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, where Adam Smith describes the -parliament of Toulouse as being “in rank and dignity -the second parliament of the kingdom.” Fortunately -for the two Scots, a cousin of Hume, the Abbé Seignelay -Colbert, was at that time Vicar-General of the diocese. -Colbert was of the same family as the great minister, -and doubtless owed his success in the Gallican Church -to that connection. Hume’s personal popularity in -Paris was enormous, and his letters of introduction, -which he wrote or procured, were everywhere of service -to the travellers. The Abbé, immediately on their -arrival, promised Hume he would do all that he could -to make their stay agreeable. After a month he was -full of enthusiasm for his new friends:—“Mr. Smith -is a sublime man. His heart and his mind are equally -admirable.... The Duke, his pupil, is a very amiable -<span class="pb" id="Page_122">122</span> -spirit, and does his exercises well, and is making -progress in French.”</p> -<p>The Abbé was a man of liberal ideas. Promoted to -the bishopric of Rodez, he tried to assist the agriculture -and manufactures of his diocese, and even had -a momentary popularity in Paris in the year of the -Revolution (1789), when as a member of the States-General -he proposed the union of the clergy with the -Third Estate. The Archbishop of Toulouse at this -time was the famous Loménie de Brienne, an old -friend of Turgot and Morellet, and so far a disciple of -their economic principles that he persuaded the States -of Languedoc to adopt free trade in corn. But, as Mr. -Rae observes, he could not have been very friendly to -Smith; for afterwards, when Cardinal and Minister of -France, he refused Morellet a hundred louis to defray -the cost of printing his translation of the <i>Wealth of -Nations</i>. In spite of Colbert’s kindness, the early -months at Toulouse dragged heavily, and the Duke -proved at first an exacting companion. On July 5th, -Smith sent a rather lugubrious and petulant letter -to Hume:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“I should be much obliged to you if you could send us -recommendations to the Duke of Richelieu, the Marquis de -Lorges, and the Intendant of the Province. Mr. Townshend -assured me that the Duc de Choiseul was to recommend -us to all the people of fashion here and everywhere else in -France. We have heard nothing, however, of these recommendations, -and have had our way to make as well as we -could by the help of the Abbé, who is a stranger here -almost as much as we. The progress indeed we have made is -not very great. The Duke is acquainted with no Frenchman -whatever. I cannot cultivate the acquaintance of the few -with whom I am acquainted, as I cannot bring them to our -<span class="pb" id="Page_123">123</span> -house, and am not always at liberty to go to theirs. The life -which I led at Glasgow was a pleasurable dissipated life -in comparison of that which I lead here at Present. I have -begun to write a book in order to pass away the time.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>The world has no reason to regret this want of -gaiety, for the book which Smith had begun in order -to “pass away the time” was no other than the <i>Wealth -of Nations</i>. At Bordeaux, Adam Smith, his pupil and -the Abbé met Colonel Barré who wrote from that -town to Hume on September the 4th:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“I thank you for your last letter from Paris, which I -received just as Smith and his <i>élève</i> and l’Abbé Colbert were -sitting down to dine with me at Bordeaux. The latter is a -very honest fellow, and deserves to be a bishop; make him -one if you can.... Smith agrees with me in thinking that -you are turned soft by the <i>délices</i> of the French Court, and -that you don’t write in that nervous manner you was remarkable -for in the more northern climates.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>From this time all went smoothly. Hume got them -introductions from his chief, Lord Hertford, the British -Ambassador, to the Duc de Richelieu and others.</p> -<p>On the 21st of October they were again in Toulouse, -and Smith wrote in good spirits to thank Hume for -his kindness and the Ambassador “for the very -honourable manner in which he was so good as to -mention me to the Duke of Richelieu in the letter of -recommendation which you sent us.” He adds:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“There was, indeed, one small mistake in it. He called me -Robinson instead of Smith. I took upon me to correct this -mistake myself before the Duke delivered the letter. We -were all treated by the Maréchal with the utmost Politeness -and attention, particularly the Duke, whom he distinguished -in a very proper manner.... Our expedition to Bordeaux -and another we have made since to Bagnères has made a great -<span class="pb" id="Page_124">124</span> -change upon the Duke. He begins now to familiarise himself -to French company, and I flatter myself I shall spend the rest -of the time we are to live together not only in peace and contentment, -but in gayetty and amusement.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>They went to Montpellier to see the meeting of the -States of Languedoc, the most important of the six -local parliaments still remaining in France. There they -met Horne Tooke, who afterwards called the <i>Wealth of -Nations</i> wicked and the <i>Moral Sentiments</i> nonsense, and -Cardinal Dillon, the Archbishop of Narbonne, another -of the band of Gallicised Scots.</p> -<p>In Montpellier and Toulouse they saw many members -of the parliament, and obtained an insight into the -legal and administrative system of a province which -enlightened Frenchmen were fond of citing as a model -for the reformation of their country. Smith took -rather a favourable view of French justice. The -parliaments, he said, “are perhaps, in many respects, -not very convenient courts of justice; but they have -never been accused, they seem never even to have -been suspected, of corruption.”</p> -<p>But, though incorruptible, the Toulouse Court had -been guilty of one scandalous act of fanatical injustice. -In 1762 it found the unfortunate Jean Calas, a Protestant, -guilty of the murder of his son, who had abjured -his faith in order to join the Toulouse Bar, and then in -an agony of remorse had committed suicide in his -father’s house. Characteristically Smith did not allow -this foul episode to distort his perspective. In his last -edition of the <i>Moral Sentiments</i> the story is told as one -of those fatal accidents which “happen sometimes in all -countries, even in those where justice is in general very -well administered”:—</p> -<blockquote> -<div class="pb" id="Page_125">125</div> -<p>“The unfortunate Calas, a man of much more than ordinary -constancy (broke upon the wheel and burnt at Toulouse for -the supposed murder of his own son, of which he was perfectly -innocent), seemed with his last breath to deprecate, not -so much the cruelty of the punishment, as the disgrace which -the imputation might bring upon his memory. After he had -been broke, and was just going to be thrown into the fire, the -monk, who attended the execution, exhorted him to confess -the crime for which he had been condemned. ‘My Father,’ -said Calas, ‘can you yourself bring yourself to believe that I -am guilty?’”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>To such a man, he thinks, “humble philosophy, which -confines its views to this life, can afford but little consolation.” -He must seek refuge in religion, which alone -can offer him a prospect of another world of more -candour, humanity, and justice. But justice was not -allowed to sleep. For three years Voltaire assailed the -ears of France with impassioned argument. Before -Smith left Toulouse a new trial was ordered, and fifty -judges, among them Turgot, revised the sentence, pronounced -Calas innocent, relieved his family from infamy, -and awarded them a large sum of money.</p> -<p>A long stay in Languedoc would necessarily give a -foreigner more favourable impressions of the social and -economic state of France than he would have gained, -say, in the Limousin, where Turgot was doing heroic -battle against famine and maladministration. Languedoc, -with its two millions of inhabitants, is described -by Tocqueville as the best-ordered and most prosperous -as well as the largest of all the <i>pays d’états</i>. Its -roads, made and repaired without a <i>corvée</i>, were among -the best in France. Smith was struck by the great canal -of Burgundy, constructed some seventy years before by -Riquet and kept in good repair by his family, and he -<span class="pb" id="Page_126">126</span> -saw the province incessantly spending money on developing -and improving its roads and rivers. The -charitable workhouses established at the royal expense -in other parts of France had not been required in this -comparatively happy territory. In fiscal system and -credit Languedoc was incomparably superior to the rest -of the kingdom. A land-tax instead of a poll-tax, few -exemptions for the nobles, no farmers-general to collect -taxes and fortunes. The contrast between the good -local administration of Languedoc, and the fatal results -of centralisation in other parts of France, was often in -the mind of the author of the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>; and -all that he said is fully confirmed by Tocqueville’s -study of French society before the Revolution. Here is -a passage that sounds like an echo of Turgot: Smith is -speaking of the advantages of local administration from -local funds. Under such an administration, he says, -“a magnificent highroad cannot be made through a -desart country where there is little or no commerce, or -merely because it happens to lead to the country villa -of the intendant of the province, or to that of some -great lord to whom the intendant finds it convenient -to make his court. A great bridge cannot be thrown -over a river at a place where nobody passes, or merely -to embellish the view from the windows of a neighbouring -palace: things which sometimes happen in countries -where works of this kind are carried on by any other -revenue than that which they themselves are capable of -affording.”</p> -<p>After eighteen months in Toulouse the party went, -we are told, “by a pretty extensive tour, through the -south of France to Geneva.” There Smith was able to -gratify two of his strongest passions: his admiration -<span class="pb" id="Page_127">127</span> -for the Republican form of government and for -Voltaire. The little Republic was then in a constitutional -tumult, for the citizens were pressing for a -share in what had till then been a narrow aristocracy. -In this they had the support of Voltaire, who lived, the -literary potentate of Europe, at Ferney, just outside the -city bounds, in the feudal seigniory of Gex. To his -château by the lake pilgrims resorted from all parts of -Europe to pay their court, and were hospitably received. -Smith seems to have visited Ferney five or six times -during his short stay, and conversation deepened the -admiration which his favourite author had inspired.</p> -<p>Samuel Rogers, meeting Smith a year before his death, -happened to remark of some writer that he was rather -superficial, a Voltaire. “Sir!” cried Smith, incensed by -this use of the indefinite article, striking the table with -his hand, “there has been but one Voltaire.” Voltaire, -on his side, probably thought well of the <i>Theory of -Moral Sentiments</i>, for his intimate friend, Dr. Tronchin, -the famous physician of Geneva, had sent his son to -attend Smith’s classes at Glasgow. Rogers’s visit fell -in the year of the French Revolution, and the question -of king against parliaments was being debated. Smith -mentioned that Voltaire had an aversion to the States, -and was attached to the royal authority. Voltaire -had talked about the Duke of Richelieu, whom the -party had met at Toulouse, as a singular character. -The duke had slipped down at Versailles, a few years -before his death, “the first <i>faux pas</i> he had ever made -at Court.” When Saint-Fond, who visited Edinburgh -in 1784, called on Adam Smith, he was shown a fine -bust of Voltaire; and Smith discoursed upon the incalculable -obligations that Reason owed to the Philosopher -<span class="pb" id="Page_128">128</span> -of Ferney. “The ridicule and sarcasms which he -lavished upon fanatics and hypocrites of all sects have -enabled the understandings of men to bear the light -of truth,” and prepared them for research. “He -has done much more for the benefit of mankind than -those grave philosophers whose books are read by a -few only. The writings of Voltaire are made for all -and read by all.” Smith said he could not pardon -Joseph the Second of Austria, “who pretended to -travel as a philosopher,” for passing Ferney without -doing homage to the historian of Peter the Great. -He concluded from this circumstance that Joseph -“was but a man of inferior mind.”<a class="fn" id="fr_22" href="#fn_22">[22]</a></p> -<p>Smith kept no journal during his French tour, -and as usual wrote as few letters as possible, though -he must have made extensive notes. Most of his -letters were probably to report progress to Charles -Townshend. I have in my possession part of an -abstract of one of these, which, though of no importance -in itself, serves to show that he took his -tutorship very seriously. From sidelights in the -correspondence of Charles Bonnet the naturalist, and -Le Sage, and Adam Ferguson, we know that he enjoyed -the best company in Geneva, particularly at the house -of the Duchesse d’Enville, who was there under Dr. -Tronchin’s treatment with her son, the ill-fated Duc de -la Rochefoucauld. In 1774 Adam Ferguson wrote to -Smith that his own bad French reminded the Duchesse -d’Enville of her old difficulties with Smith, “but she -said that before you left Paris she had the happiness to -learn your language.” Two years later Bonnet wished -<span class="pb" id="Page_129">129</span> -Hume to remember him to “the Sage of Glascow, ... -whom we shall always recollect with great pleasure.”</p> -<p>The tutor with his two pupils, for the Duke had been -joined at Bordeaux by a younger brother, left Geneva -for Paris early in December 1765, promising, however, -to return to republican soil before they left the continent. -Hume, now a rich man with a pension of £900 -a year, was just leaving the Embassy, and relinquishing -his sovereignty of philosophy and society; but the -two friends had a few days together before he crossed -the Channel with poor, wayward, irresolute Rousseau, -hunted or haunted by the furies. Adam Smith was -soon in a whirlpool of gaiety and philosophy. Friendship -with Hume was enough to ensure a friendly -reception from Parisian society, where science and -letters were still fashionable. But Smith was known -and valued for his own sake; his <i>Theory of Moral -Sentiments</i> was so much read, praised, and talked about -that several translators, among them the young Duc de -Rochefoucauld, were competing to repair the badness -of the first attempt, published in 1764 by Dous at the -instance of Holbach. That of the Abbé Blavet was, -Smith thought, but indifferently executed. The best -translation, it is said, was that published in 1798 by -Condorcet’s widow.</p> -<p>For ten months Smith suffered and enjoyed enough -dissipation for a lifetime, if we may judge from the -Hume correspondence, which shows that in one week -of July 1766 he was at Baron Holbach’s conversing -with Turgot, at the Comtesse de Boufflers’, and in the -salon of Mademoiselle de l’Espinasse. In fact, as Mr. Rae -says, he seems to have been a regular guest in almost -all the famous <i>salons</i> of Paris. Thus we find Hume -<span class="pb" id="Page_130">130</span> -writing in March to the Countess de Boufflers: “I am -glad you have taken my friend Smith under your protection. -You will find him a man of true merit, -though perhaps his sedentary recluse life may have -hurt his air and appearance as a man of the world.” -She replies in May that she has made the acquaintance -of Mr. Smith, and for love of Hume has given him a -very hearty welcome; that she is reading the <i>Theory of -Moral Sentiments</i>, and believes it will please her. Six -years later she talked of translating the book, and said -that Smith’s doctrine of Sympathy was supplanting -Hume’s philosophy as the fashionable opinion, especially -with the ladies! Smith was a keen playgoer in Paris, -and made the acquaintance of Madame Riccoboni, who -had been a great actress but had abandoned the stage -for the novel, and was almost as popular as Richardson. -When he left France she gave him a charming letter -of introduction to Garrick:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“Je suis bien vaine, my dear Mr. Garrick, de pouvoir vous -donner ce que je perds avec un regret très vif, le plaisir de -voir Mr. Smith. Ce charming philosopher vous dira combien -il a d’esprit, car je le défie de parler sans en montrer.... -Oh ces Écossois! ces chiens d’Écossois! ils viennent me plaire -et m’affliger. Je suis comme ces folles jeunes filles qui -écoutent un amant sans penser au regret, toujours voisin du -plaisir. Grondez-moi, battez-moi, tuez-moi: mais j’aime Mr. -Smith, je l’aime beaucoup. Je voudrois que le diable emportât -tous nos gens de lettres, tous nos philosophes, et qu’il -me rapportât Mr. Smith.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>In a separate letter to Garrick the novelist again -describes her friend: “Mr. Smith, un Écossois, homme -d’un très grand mérite, aussi distingué par son bon -naturel, par la douceur de son caractère que par son -esprit et son savoir, me demande une lettre pour vous. -<span class="pb" id="Page_131">131</span> -Vous verrez un philosophe moral et pratique; gay, -riant à cent lieus de la pédanterie des -nôtres.”<a class="fn" id="fr_23" href="#fn_23">[23]</a> -Of the Rochefoucaulds we have already heard at Geneva. -They seem to have been at Paris during Smith’s stay -there, for “from Madame d’Enville,” writes Dugald -Stewart, “the respectable mother of the late excellent -and much lamented Duke of Rochefoucauld, he received -many attentions which he always recollected with -particular gratitude.” A story is told of another lady, -a marquise of talent and wit, who was so overcome by -his personal charms that she fell in love with him at -Abbeville, where Smith and the Duke of Buccleuch -stopped on one of their excursions from Paris. A -Captain Lloyd, who was with the party, doubtless on -a patriotic visit to the field of Creçy, told the story to -Dr. Currie, the biographer of Burns. The philosopher -could neither endure these addresses nor conceal his -embarrassment, for the reason, said Lloyd, that he was -deeply in love with an English lady who was also at -Abbeville. But Dugald Stewart only mentions an -early attachment with a lady who remained single, -and at eighty years of age still retained evident -traces of her former beauty, and adds that “after -this disappointment he laid aside all thoughts of -marriage.”</p> -<p>Susan Curchod, that “inestimable treasure” for -whom Gibbon sighed as a lover, had married Necker, -then only a successful banker, while Smith and his -party were at Toulouse. The mother of Madame de -Stäel, as we learn from her first admirer, united elegant -manners and lively conversation with wit, beauty, and -erudition. No wonder then that her new home was -<span class="pb" id="Page_132">132</span> -already a centre of Parisian life. The Neckers -were very hospitable, and were intimate with Morellet -and others of the economic sect. Adam Smith’s -impressions of Necker are mentioned by Sir James -Mackintosh in the ever admirable though recanted -<i>Defence of the French Revolution</i>. He had, as we there -read, no very high opinion of the future minister, -speaking of him as a man probably upright and not -illiberal, but narrow, pusillanimous, and entangled by -the habit of detail. He predicted that Necker’s fame -would fall when his talents should be brought to the -test, and always said emphatically, “He is a man of -detail.” Mackintosh adds: “At a time when the -commercial abilities of Lord Auckland were the theme -of profuse eulogy, Dr. Smith characterised him in the -same words.”</p> -<p>Dugald Stewart mentions that Smith was also -acquainted with D’Alembert, Helvétius, and Marmontel. -It was at the house of Helvétius that he -first met the great Turgot and the excellent Abbé -Morellet. “He talked our language very badly,” -writes the Abbé in his memoirs; “but his <i>Theory of -Moral Sentiments</i> had given me a great idea of his -depth and sagacity, and in fact I still look upon him -as one who made most comprehensive observations -and analyses of all the questions that he dealt with. -M. Turgot, who was as fond of metaphysics as I was, -held a high opinion of his genius. We saw him often; -he was presented at the house of Helvétius: we discussed -the theory of commerce, banking, loans, and -many points in the great book he was then composing. -He gave me a very pretty pocket-book which he used -and which has served me for twenty years.”</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_133">133</div> -<p>Turgot’s <i>Reflections on the Formation and Distribution -of Wealth</i>, which were written about this time, remained -unpublished till 1769, when they began to appear in -the <i>Éphémérides du Citoyen</i>. It is noteworthy as bearing -upon the question of mutual obligation between Smith -and Turgot that it was the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, not the -<i>Reflections</i>, which gave topics for their economic discussions. -It has been supposed, on the authority of -Condorcet, that a correspondence was subsequently -carried on between Smith and Turgot. But the -publication quite recently of a letter written by Smith -to the young Duke of Rochefoucauld has removed all -doubt upon the subject. Rochefoucauld had written -to inquire of Smith if he possessed any letters from -Turgot, and this is the answer:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“I should certainly have been very happy to have communicated -to your Grace any letters which the ever to be -regretted Mr. Turgot had done me the honour to write to me; -and by that means to have the distinguished honour of being -recorded as one of his correspondents. But tho’ I had the -happiness of his acquaintance and, I flattered myself, even -of his friendship and esteem, I never had that of his correspondence. -He was so good as to send me a copy of the -<i>Procès Verbal</i> of what passed at the bed of justice upon the -registration of his six edicts which did so much honour to -their Author, and, had they been executed without alteration, -would have proved so beneficial to his country. But the -present (which I preserve as a most valuable monument of a -person whom I remember with so much veneration) was not -accompanied with any letter.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Twenty-three years afterwards there is an entry in -the diary of Samuel Rogers: “Adam Smith said Turgot -was an honest, well-meaning man, but unacquainted -with the world and human nature; that it was his -<span class="pb" id="Page_134">134</span> -maxim (he mentioned it to Hume, but never to Smith) -that whatever is right may be done.” This is certainly -not Adam Smith’s whole mind about Turgot, for whom -he entertained a lively admiration. But undoubtedly -he considered that his own obligations to the French -School of Political Economy began and ended with -Quesnai, and we know that he intended at one time -to dedicate his book to the author of the <i>Economic -Table</i>. Turgot, Morellet, Rivière, and the rest were -interpreters of Quesnai—disciples, not masters.</p> -<p>Quesnai was the inventor of a new system, the founder -of a sect, and the wielder of whatever influence that sect -exerted on the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>. Smith’s intercourse -with Quesnai and the physiocrats, as well as a careful -study of their writings, accounts for some important -developments of theory which distinguish his book -from his lectures, and particularly the attention he -there pays to the problem of distribution, as well -as a distinct though moderated bias towards agriculture -as the most productive of pursuits. He was -not a physiocrat. Indeed his criticism of the distinctive -doctrine of the school, that all wealth comes -from the soil, was felt to be convincing and final. -But he went a long way with them, and some of his -most important practical conclusions coincided with -theirs. No reader of the ninth chapter of Smith’s -fourth book could doubt that Smith knew Quesnai -as well as Quesnai’s <i>Table</i>, which had been published -in 1758 and was regarded with an almost superstitious -veneration by the whole sect. If the doubt -existed, it would be dispelled by a curious piece of -evidence. Of the half-dozen letters he wrote from -France that have been preserved, the longest, dated -<span class="pb" id="Page_135">135</span> -Compiègne, August 26, 1766, is to Charles Townshend, -and describes some anxious moments in which he had -called in the aid of the king’s physician. The Duke -of Buccleuch had been to Compiègne to see the camp -and to hunt with the King and the Court, and after -hunting had eaten too heartily of a cold supper with -a vast quantity of salad and some cold punch. Sickness -and fever followed. The faithful tutor begged -him to send for a doctor:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“He refused a long time, but at last, upon seeing me -uneasy, consented. I sent for Quenay, first ordinary physician -to the King. He sent me word he was ill. I then sent for -Senac; he was ill likewise. I went to Quenay myself to beg -that, notwithstanding his illness, which was not dangerous, -he would come to see the Duke. He told me he was an old -infirm man, whose attendance could not be depended on, -and advised me as his friend to depend upon De la Saone, -first physician to the Queen. I went to De la Saone. He -was gone out, and was not expected home that night. I -returned to Quenay, who followed me immediately to the -Duke. It was by this time seven at night. The Duke -was in the same profuse sweat which he had been in all -day and all the preceding night. In this situation Quenay -declared that it was improper to do anything till the sweat -should be over. He only ordered him some cooling ptisane -drink. Quenay’s illness made it impossible for him to return -next day (Monday), and De la Saone has waited on the Duke -ever since, to my entire satisfaction.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>In reading this we are reminded of a passage in -the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> where Quesnai is described as -“a physician, and a very speculative physician,” who -thought the health of the human body could be -preserved only by a certain precise regimen of diet and -exercise, the slightest violation of which necessarily -<span class="pb" id="Page_136">136</span> -occasioned some degree of disease or disorder. The -letter to Townshend continues:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“Depend upon hearing from me by every post till his -perfect recovery; if any threatening symptom should appear -I shall immediately despatch an express to you; so keep your -mind as easy as possible. There is not the least probability -that any such symptom ever will appear. I never stir from -his room from eight in the morning till ten at night, and watch -for the smallest change that happens to him. I should sit -by him all night too if the ridiculous, impertinent jealousy of -Cook, who thinks my assiduity an encroachment upon his -duty, would not be so much alarmed, as it gave some disturbance -even to his master in his present illness.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>The visit was now drawing to an end, but our -account of it would be incomplete if we omitted -Smith’s part in one of the most furious squabbles of -the century. Rousseau had arrived in Paris almost -simultaneously with our travellers, tempted by Hume’s -generous promise to find him a refuge in England from -his persecutors. The advent of the author of the <i>Social -Contract</i> and <i>Émile</i> threw Paris into a tumult of excitement. -“People may talk of ancient Greece as they -please,” wrote Hume, full of affection and enthusiasm -for his <i>protégé</i>, “but no nation was ever so proud of -genius as this, and no person ever so much engaged -their attention as Rousseau. Voltaire and everybody -else are quite eclipsed by him.” The philosophers of -Paris predicted a quarrel before they got to Calais, but -for some time Hume contrived to manage this wayward, -suspicious genius admirably well, procuring him a -pension and a comfortable establishment in Derbyshire. -At last, in June, Rousseau suddenly lost his head, -mastered by the haunting fears of treachery, and wrote -<span class="pb" id="Page_137">137</span> -to Hume that his horrible designs were at last found out. -For once in his life Hume lost his temper, and discretion -departed from him. He determined to punish -Rousseau’s ingratitude and put himself right in the -eyes of the world. But before taking this step he -wrote to consult his friends in Paris, and Smith sent -the following reply:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p><span class="lr">“<span class="sc">Paris</span>, <i>6th July 1766</i>.</span></p> -<p>“<span class="sc">My dear Friend</span>,—I am thoroughly convinced that Rousseau -is as great a rascal as you and as every man here believes -him to be. Yet let me beg of you not to think of publishing -anything to the world upon the very great impertinence which -he has been guilty of to you. By refusing the pension which you -had the goodness to solicit for him with his own consent, he -may have thrown, by the baseness of his proceedings, a little -ridicule upon you in the eyes of the court and the ministry. -Stand this ridicule; expose his brutal letter, but without -giving it out of your own hand, so that it may never be -printed; and, if you can, laugh at yourself; and I shall pawn -my life that before three weeks are at an end this little affair -which at present gives you so much uneasiness shall be understood -to do you as much honour as anything that has ever -happened to you. By endeavouring to unmask before the -public this hypocritical pedant, you run the risk of disturbing -the tranquillity of your whole life. By letting him alone he -cannot give you a fortnight’s uneasiness. To write against -him is, you may depend upon it, the very thing he wishes you -to do. He is in danger of falling into obscurity in England, -and he hopes to make himself considerable by provoking an -illustrious adversary. He will have a great party, the Church, -the Whigs, the Jacobites, the whole wise English nation, who -will love to mortify a Scotchman, and to applaud a man who -has refused a pension from the King. It is not unlikely, too, -that they may pay him very well for having refused it, and -that even he may have had in view this compensation. Your -whole friends here wish you not to write,—the Baron, -D’Alembert, Madame Riccoboni, Mademoiselle Riancourt, -<span class="pb" id="Page_138">138</span> -M. Turgot, etc. etc. M. Turgot, a friend every way worthy -of you, desired me to recommend this advice to you in a particular -manner as his most earnest entreaty and opinion. He -and I are both afraid that you are surrounded with evil -counsellors, and that the advice of your English <i>literati</i>, who -are themselves accustomed to publishing all their little gossiping -stories in newspapers, may have too much influence upon you. -Remember me to Mr. Walpole, and believe me to be with the -most sincere affection, ever yours,</p> -<p><span class="lr"><span class="sc">Adam Smith</span>.”</span></p> -</blockquote> -<p>Within six months Hume was sorry that he had not -taken this sage advice, and blamed himself for the -“Succinct Exposure,” which had been followed of course -by a cloud of pamphlets. We must be careful not -to suppose from this letter that Smith really had a -mean opinion of Rousseau. He had reviewed with -warm but discerning praise the second discourse on -the <i>Origin and Foundation of Inequality among Mankind</i>; -and in later days he spoke with reverential emotion of -the author of the <i>Social Contract</i>.</p> -<p>Smith was now anxious to return home. To -Millar, his publisher, he wrote early in the autumn:—“Though -I am very happy here, I long passionately -to rejoin my old friends, and if I had once -got fairly to your side of the water, I think I -should never cross it again. Recommend the same -sober way of thinking to Hume. He is light-hearted, -tell him, when he talks of coming to spend the -remainder of his days here or in France.”</p> -<p>Their return was precipitated by a tragedy. Hew -Scott, the Duke’s younger brother, a lad of nineteen, -was assassinated in the streets of Paris on October -19th. Smith and the Duke almost immediately left -Paris, and were in London at the beginning of -November. “We returned,” wrote the Duke to -<span class="pb" id="Page_139">139</span> -Dugald Stewart, “after having spent near three years -together without the slightest disagreement or coolness, -and on my part with every advantage that could be -expected from the society of such a man. We continued -to live in friendship till the hour of his death.” -Besides the substantial advantages of independence, -Smith, as we learn from many of his contemporaries, -had gained vastly in manner, address, and knowledge of -the world. Much of his awkwardness had disappeared. -In the bustle of travel and society, he almost forgot -how to be absent-minded.</p> -<p>We have already mentioned a complaint that Smith -failed to realise the utter misery of France or to foresee -the Revolution. The second half of the complaint -seems to be an impertinence. He was not called upon -to write out the past, or present, much less the future -of France. The first part of the complaint is more -plausible. The <i>Wealth of Nations</i> abounds in illustrations -drawn from the French tour, and from these we -certainly get a less melancholy picture than from the -pages of Arthur Young, or from the correspondence of -Voltaire, D’Alembert, Turgot and the rest. But then, -Young’s tour was twenty years later, and the French -reformers were thinking exclusively of the stagnant -condition of France in a moving and progressive age. -They felt bitterly the dreadful difference between -their France and the France that should have been -but for the impoverishing wars and oppressive misgovernment -of Louis XIV. and his successors. Smith -took France as she was, and found her still one of the -richest and most powerful countries of the world. In -the ninth chapter of his first book he compares -Holland, England, France, and Scotland. The first, -<span class="pb" id="Page_140">140</span> -“in proportion to the extent of its territory and the -number of its people, is a richer country than England.” -Its government can borrow at two per cent.; wages of -labour are said to be higher than in England, and the -Dutch trade upon lower profits than any people in -Europe. They have large investments in foreign -countries, and “during the late war the Dutch gained -the whole carrying-trade of France, of which they still -retain a very large share.” England comes next. -“France is perhaps in the present times not so rich a -country as England.” Its market rate of interest is -generally higher, and so are the profits of trade; “and -it is no doubt upon this account that many British -subjects chuse rather to employ their capitals in a -country where trade is in disgrace than in one where -it is highly respected.” Then he shows that, though -France was still richer than Scotland, Scotland was -making far more rapid progress:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“The wages of labour are lower in France than in England. -When you go from Scotland to England, the difference which -you may remark between the dress and countenance of the -common people in the one country and in the other, sufficiently -indicates the difference in their condition. The contrast is -still greater when you return from France. France, though -no doubt a richer country than Scotland, seems not to be -going forward so fast. It is a common and even a popular -opinion in the country, that it is going backwards; an opinion -which, I apprehend, is ill-founded even with regard to -France, but which nobody can possibly entertain with regard -to Scotland, who sees the country now, and who saw it twenty -or thirty years ago.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Misgovernment, it is true, had done its worst in pre-revolutionary -France, but it could not ruin fertile -<span class="pb" id="Page_141">141</span> -territory and a thrifty population. At that time the -cities of Bordeaux, Lyons, and Marseilles surpassed in -wealth and in the number of their inhabitants Copenhagen, -Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and Berlin. Several -of the provincial parliaments offered as fair a field for -legal talent as the Courts of Dublin and Edinburgh. -After the landed nobility, the Church, the King, his -ministers, intendants, and a host of minor officials had -taken their rents and revenues and stipends, fortunes -were still left for rapacious financiers and rascally -farmers-general. Smith saw all this and explained it -with his usual lucidity. But he never mistook wealth -for welfare. He applied his favourite test of the condition -of the labouring poor. Though France was a -much richer country, with a better soil and climate than -Scotland, and “better stocked with all those things -which it requires a long time to raise up and accumulate, -such as great towns and convenient and well-built -houses, both in town and country,” yet the poor -were worse off. In England the common people all -[<i>sic</i>] wore leather shoes, in Scotland the men only; in -France both men and women went about sometimes in -wooden shoes and sometimes barefooted. He finds -the reason for these things in unfair and ill-judged -taxation, and he devotes many pages to a severe -scrutiny of the French system.</p> -<p>Considering that France had some twenty-four -millions of people, thrice the number of Great Britain, -that it was naturally richer and had been “much -longer in a state of improvement and cultivation,” it -might have been expected that the French Government -could have raised a revenue of thirty millions -with as little inconvenience as a revenue of ten -<span class="pb" id="Page_142">142</span> -millions was raised in Great Britain. In 1765 and -1766 the revenue actually paid into the French -Treasury did not amount to fifteen millions sterling. -Yet the taxes were so devised and collected that the -French people, it was generally acknowledged, were -much more oppressed by taxes than the people of -Great Britain. “France, however, is certainly the great -Empire in Europe which, after that of Great Britain, -enjoys the mildest and most indulgent government!” -Smith had not only diagnosed the disease; his French -studies and his friendship with enlightened men like -Turgot, Quesnai, and Morellet had enabled him to -propose remedies. “The finances of France,” he -observes in the second chapter of his fifth book, -“seem in their present state to admit of three very -obvious reformations.” First, he would abolish the -<i>taille</i> and the capitation, balancing the loss by increasing -the number of <i>vingtièmes</i> or land-tax. Second, -“by rendering the <i>gabelle</i>, the <i>aides</i>, the <i>traites</i>, the -taxes upon tobacco, and all the different customs and -excises, uniform in all the different parts of the kingdom, -those taxes might be levied at much less expense, -and the interior commerce of the kingdom might be -rendered as free as that of England.” Thirdly, by -subjecting all taxes to the immediate inspection and -direction of government, the exorbitant profits of the -farmers-general might be added to the revenue of the -State. But, he adds, with the same scepticism that -colours his view of the prospects of Free Trade in -England, the opposition arising from the private -interests of individuals would probably be effectual in -preventing all three parts of the scheme of reformation. -Yet half a century after the appearance of the -<span class="pb" id="Page_143">143</span> -<i>Wealth of Nations</i> one of its annotators was able to write: -“Taxes in France are now placed almost on the footing -suggested by Dr. Smith. The <i>taille</i> and <i>capitation</i> -have been abolished, and replaced by the <i>contribution -foncière</i>; the different taxes have been rendered -equal in all the provinces of the kingdom, and they -are chiefly collected by officers appointed by the -Government.” Nor is the connection between the -book and the reforms either fanciful or remote. “It -was, I avow—to the shame of my first instructors,” -wrote “le bon Mollien,” Napoleon’s favourite minister -of finance, “this book of Adam Smith, then so little -known, that taught me better to appreciate the multitude -of points at which public finance touches every -family, and raises judges of it in every household.”</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_144">144</div> -<h2 id="c8">CHAPTER VIII -<br /><span class="smaller">POLITICS AND STUDY, 1766-76</span></h2> -<p>Adam Smith, as we have seen, had begun to write his -immortal book at Toulouse in the summer of 1764 “in -order to pass away the time.” But even after his -return to London, in November 1766, more than nine -years were still to pass before the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> -could be placed in the publisher’s hands. All this -time the book was his chief occupation, and but for -the light which an occasional letter throws upon his -studies, the story of Smith’s life during these nine -years might almost be written in as many lines. For -about six months he remained in London, where he -mingled with men, collected books and material for -his treatise, and saw the third edition of his <i>Theory of -Moral Sentiments</i> through the press.</p> -<p>In an undated letter to Strahan, who was now a -partner in Millar’s publishing firm, about the title-page -to this volume, the author desired to be called “simply -Adam Smith, without any addition either before or -behind.” He had received the honorary degree of -LL.D. before leaving Glasgow, but he did not like to -be called Dr. Smith, and seldom used the title. But -politics, which had just taken a strange turn, soon commanded -his attention; and a curious letter from Smith -to Shelburne (February 12, 1767) raises for a moment -<span class="pb" id="Page_145">145</span> -the curtain that divides the spectator from the actors, -and allows us to survey the scene behind which the -most enlightened member of the Government was -working to introduce common sense into the colonial -policy of Great Britain. It was a scene, too, in the -greatest political drama of Adam Smith’s lifetime, -which left deep, decipherable marks on the pages of -the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>.</p> -<p>While Smith was discussing the new principles -with the philosophers of Paris, an active spirit of -dissatisfaction had been spreading in distant communities -of men. The spirit of liberty seemed to -have walked forth over the face of the earth and to -threaten revolutions in every part. The Georgians -under the valiant Heraclius had revolted against their -ignominious tribute to the Turkish seraglios. The -tyrannies of a French governor had provoked insurrections -in St. Domingo. The first tramp of a revolutionary -march was heard in the Spanish dominions of -South America; above all, the long and smouldering -discontent in our own American colonies had suddenly -been fanned into a blaze. But Europe, whose policy -had been the source of all these woes, was for once in -a peaceful mood. The Empress of Russia was busy -entertaining her savants. The Swede was occupied at -home, and the tall Pomeranian was content to drill. -A financial crisis in France and England made the two -Governments friendly; and though there were bloody -feuds and insurrections in Turkey, Poland, and Spain, -the historian of Europe, surveying the year 1766 and -comparing it with its predecessors, marked it with a -white chalk and fancied he could at last spell a drift -towards peace in the hollow states and bankrupt empires -<span class="pb" id="Page_146">146</span> -of the old world. Ambition indeed seldom stoops to -calculations, but the most acquisitive imperialist seeing -multitudes of unemployed, food at famine prices, and -manufactures at a standstill, began to wonder whether -after all the conquests of the war had been worth such -a price. For once the governing classes were sobered -and were ready to make some grudging atonement -for one of their worst blunders. The same commercial -stress which constrained the French King to pacify -his parliaments inclined the parliament of Great -Britain to appease the colonial assemblies.</p> -<p>The session of 1766 was one of the longest, most -momentous, and stirring within living memory. It had -begun, as we have said, with sharp distress at home, and -that distress had been aggravated by the disturbances in -America; for the colonists, incensed by the Stamp Act, -refused to pay for English goods (to the value of several -millions) with which their shops and warehouses were -stocked. No wonder, then, that in all parts of the -realm traders and manufacturers did their best to persuade -the Rockingham ministry to adopt conciliatory -measures. Parliament was besieged by petitions from -the merchants of London, Bristol, Lancaster, Liverpool, -Hull, Glasgow, and most of the trading and manufacturing -towns in the kingdom, setting forth the great -damage done to their trade by the new laws and regulations -made for America. They pointed out that the -Stamp Act and other harassing legislation had not -only sown a crop of discontent in the colonies, but had -already produced many bankruptcies at home and were -rapidly leading to widespread distress.</p> -<p>A contemporary writer of great power tells us that -no matter of debate was ever more ably or learnedly -<span class="pb" id="Page_147">147</span> -handled in both Houses than the colonial policy which -Lord Rockingham and his colleagues laid before Parliament. -Those who denied the right of taxing the -colonies cited Locke and Selden, Harrington and Puffendorf, -to show that the very foundation and ultimate point -in view of all government is the good of the society. -They inferred from the Magna Charta and Bill of -Rights, and from the whole history of our constitution, -that no British subject can be taxed save by himself -or his own representative; and they further quoted -in support of their argument the constitutions of the -Tyrian colonies in Africa, and of the Greek colonies in -Asia. On this last head the supporters of the Stamp -Act (Charles Townshend’s fatal measure) observed, -sensibly enough, that arguments about the British -colonies drawn from the colonies of antiquity were a -mere useless display of learning, for the Tyrian and -Greek colonies were planned on a totally different -system. Besides, they said, the Romans were the first -to form a regular colonial system, and Rome’s jurisdiction -over her colonies was “boundless and uncontrollable.” -As for Locke, Selden, and Puffendorf, they were -only <i>natural</i> lawyers, and their refinements were little -to the purpose in arguing the law and practice of a -particular constitution.</p> -<p>The Rockinghams carried the Repeal of the Stamp -Act; but the effect of this wise and generous policy -was marred by a Declaratory Act for better securing -the dependence of His Majesty’s dominions in -America, which set forth the supremacy of Parliament -over all the colonies and its right to impose taxes. -At the end of July, after the conclusion of a satisfactory -session, the Marquis of Rockingham was suddenly, to -<span class="pb" id="Page_148">148</span> -the surprise of the nation, ejected from office by the -king, and a new ministry of strangely assorted talents, -with Chatham at its head, in which Shelburne, Charles -Townshend, the Duke of Grafton, and Camden were the -leading figures, was pushed into office. Accordingly -when Adam Smith returned to England he found -not only that those commercial, fiscal, and colonial -questions in which he was so deeply versed were the -first questions in politics, but also that the two statesmen -with whom he was most intimate occupied two -of the most important posts—for Charles Townshend -was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Shelburne was -a Secretary of State.</p> -<p>These events sufficiently explain why a real statesman -like Shelburne, one of the leading members of -the ministry, was seeking information at the beginning -of the session of 1767 upon colonial topics. It seems -astonishing to us now that the Roman analogy should -have so exercised the minds of practical statesmen; -but Greek and Latin were the only subjects in those -days with which educated members of the governing -classes were sure to be familiar, and it was to these -men in Parliament that political arguments were -exclusively addressed. Probably Shelburne wanted -classical precedents to check his colleagues from reverting -to a coercive policy, and was anxious to meet the -argument from Rome that had been used in the -debates of the previous year. At any rate, he had -asked help of Adam Smith, and received the following -reply, which was more helpful than it should have -been: “Within these two days I have looked over -everything I can find relating to the Roman colonys. -I have not yet found anything of much consequence.... -<span class="pb" id="Page_149">149</span> -They seem to have been very independent. Of -thirty colonys of whom the Romans demanded troops -in the second Carthaginian War, twelve refused to -obey. They frequently rebelled and joined the enemies -of the republic; being in some measure little independent -republics, they naturally followed the interests -which their peculiar situation pointed out to them.” -His first studies on Roman colonisation had a decidedly -whiggish complexion. Further reading led him to the -juster view expressed in the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, that a -Roman colony was quite different from the autonomous Greek -ἀποικία, -“at best a sort of corporation, which, -though it had the power of enacting byelaws for its -own government, was at all times subject to the correction, -jurisdiction, and legislative authority of the -mother country.” And this explains why the Greek -colonies were so much more prosperous: “As they were -altogether independent of the mother city, they were -at liberty to manage their own affairs in the way they -judged was most suitable to their own interests.” But -before the colonial debates of 1767 came on Adam -Smith had left London.</p> -<p>On March 25th he wrote from Lower Grosvenor -Street to Thomas Cadell, one of the partners in Millar’s -firm, which combined bookselling with publishing, to -ask him to insure four boxes of books for £200, and -despatch them to Kincaid, his publisher in Edinburgh.<a class="fn" id="fr_24" href="#fn_24">[24]</a> -He probably stayed in London till the third of May, -<span class="pb" id="Page_150">150</span> -when the Duke of Buccleuch was married. He would -then pick up his valuable parcels in Edinburgh and go -on without delay to Kirkcaldy to rejoin his mother and -his cousin, Miss Jane Douglas, from whom he had been -separated for more than two years.</p> -<p>His first letter to Hume (Kirkcaldy, June 9th) describes -his daily life. “My business here is study, in -which I have been very deeply engaged for about a -month past. My amusements are long solitary walks -by the seaside. You may judge how I spend my time. -I feel myself, however, extremely happy, comfortable, -and contented. I never was perhaps more so in all my -life.” He goes on to ask about his friends in London, -and wishes to be remembered to all, particularly to Mr. -Adams the architect, and to Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu. -He inquires about Rousseau: “Has he gone abroad, because -he cannot contrive to get himself sufficiently persecuted -in Great Britain?” He also wants to know the -meaning of “the bargain that your ministry have made -with the India Company,” and rejoices that they have -refused to prolong its charter. At the end of August -Smith paid a visit to Dalkeith House to help the newly -married couple to entertain their tenants and friends -on the occasion of the Duke’s birthday. “The Duke -and Dutchess of Buccleugh,” he wrote to Hume on -September 15th, “have been here now for almost a -fortnight. They begin to open their house on Monday -next, and I flatter myself, will both be very agreeable -to the people of this country. I am not sure that I -have ever seen a more agreeable woman than the -Dutchess. I am sorry that you are not here, because I -am sure you would be perfectly in love with her. I -shall probably be here some weeks.”</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_151">151</div> -<p>Dr. Carlyle was among the guests at Dalkeith House, -and in his autobiography takes some credit to himself -for the success of the proceedings. “Adam Smith,” he -says, “was but ill qualified to promote the jollity of a -birthday,” and but for Carlyle’s exertions the meeting -might have been dissolved without even drinking the -proper toasts. His conclusion is that the Duke and -Duchess should have brought down a man of “more -address,” and he leaves little doubt as to who that man -should have been. Incidentally Dr. Carlyle has to -admit that the new Duke proved a great credit to his -tutor. The Buccleuch family had always been good -landlords, but Duke Henry “surpassed them all as -much in justice and humanity as he did in superiority -of understanding and good sense.” Lord Brougham -relates a story which illustrates what Carlyle meant by -“want of address.” On one occasion, during dinner at -Dalkeith, our philosopher broke out into a discourse on -some political matters of the day, and was bestowing a -variety of severe epithets on a certain statesman, when -he suddenly perceived the statesman’s nearest relative -sitting opposite, and stopped; but he was heard to -mutter, “Deil care, deil care, it’s all true!”</p> -<p>After two months at Dalkeith he returned to his -mother and his studies, and remained for the next six -years, so far as we know, uninterruptedly at Kirkcaldy, -save for an occasional visit to Edinburgh, whither -he was constantly and with much importunity invited -by his friend Hume. Dugald Stewart remarks that -this retirement “formed a striking contrast to the -unsettled mode of life he had been for some time -accustomed to, but was so congenial to his natural disposition, -and to his first habits, that it was with the -<span class="pb" id="Page_152">152</span> -utmost difficulty he was ever persuaded to leave it.” -He was never happier than now, living with his -mother in Kirkcaldy; “occupied habitually in intense -study, but unbending his mind at times in the company -of some of his old school-fellows, whose sober wishes’ -had attached them to the place of their birth. In the -society of such men Mr. Smith delighted; and to them -he was endeared, not only by his simple and unassuming -manners, but by the perfect knowledge they all -possessed of those domestic virtues which had distinguished -him from his infancy.”<a class="fn" id="fr_25" href="#fn_25">[25]</a></p> -<p>The High Street of Kirkcaldy contained some -excellent houses, and that occupied by Smith was one -of the best. It was large and substantially built, four -stories high, with twenty windows facing into the High -Street. It had a frontage of about fifty feet, and a -garden of the same width ran back a hundred yards or -more eastwards down to the sands. On either side of -the garden was a high wall, and on the north side a -narrow public footpath divided Smith’s garden from -his neighbour’s. This quaint passage, enclosed by -two high walls, is still called Adam Smith’s Close.</p> -<p>The house was pulled down in 1844. Robert Chambers, -who saw it in the twenties, noticed a mark on the -<span class="pb" id="Page_153">153</span> -wall of Smith’s study, and was told that the philosopher -used to compose standing. As he dictated to his clerk -he would rub his wig sideways against the wall, and -so left a mark which, says the antiquary regretfully, -“remained till lately, when the room being painted -anew it was unfortunately destroyed.” Hume, who had -just removed to James’s Court, Edinburgh, wrote to his -friend in August 1769 to tempt him from his retreat:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“I am glad to have come within sight of you, and to have -a view of Kirkaldy from my windows: but as I wish also to -be within speaking terms of you, I wish we could concert -measures for that purpose. I am mortally sick at sea, and -regard with horror and a kind of hydrophobia the great gulf -that lies between us. I am also tired of travelling, as much as -you ought naturally to be of staying at home. I therefore -propose to you to come hither and pass some days with me -in this solitude. I want to know what you have been doing, -and propose to exact a rigorous account of the method in -which you have employed yourself during your retreat. I am -positive you are in the wrong in many of your speculations, -especially where you have the misfortune to differ from me. -All these are reasons for our meeting, and I wish you would -make me some reasonable proposal for that purpose. There is -no habitation on the island of Inchkeith, otherwise I should -challenge you to meet me on that spot, and neither of us ever -to leave the place till we were fully agreed on all points of -controversy.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>By the following February the book had made such -progress that Hume was expecting to see his friend in -Edinburgh for a day or two on his way to London, -where Smith already talked of arranging for immediate -publication. He changed his mind, however, though -he went to Edinburgh in June, where with the Duke -of Buccleuch and John Hallam he received the freedom -of the city. In January 1772 we find the friends -<span class="pb" id="Page_154">154</span> -corresponding about Italian literature. Smith recommends -Hume to read Metastasio. Hume replies that -he is reading Italian prose, again reminds him of the -promised visit, and refuses to take the excuse of ill-health, -which he calls a subterfuge invented by -indolence and love of solitude. “Indeed, my dear -Smith, if you continue to hearken to complaints of -this nature, you will cut yourself out entirely from -human society to the great loss of both parties.”</p> -<p>This year was marked by a severe commercial -crisis; nearly all the banks in Edinburgh came to grief, -and the Duke of Buccleuch and other friends of Smith -were in the greatest difficulty. In a letter to Pulteney -(September 5, 1772), Smith says, though he has himself -suffered no loss in the public calamities, some of -his friends have been deeply concerned, and he has -been much occupied about the best method of extricating -them. He continues:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“In the book which I am now preparing for the press, I -have treated fully and distinctly of every part of the subject -which you have recommended to me; and I intended to send -you some extracts from it; but upon looking them over I -find that they are too much interwoven with other parts of -the work to be easily separated from it. I have the same -opinion of Sir James Steuart’s book<a class="fn" id="fr_26" href="#fn_26">[26]</a> that you have. Without -once mentioning it, I flatter myself that any fallacious -principle in it will meet with a clear and distinct confutation -in mine.... My book would have been ready for the press -by the beginning of this winter, but interruptions occasioned -partly by bad health, arising from want of amusement and -from thinking too much upon one thing, and partly by the -avocations above mentioned, will oblige me to retard its -publication for a few months longer.”</p> -</blockquote> -<div class="pb" id="Page_155">155</div> -<p>It appears that Pulteney had recommended the -Directors of the East India Company to appoint Smith -as a commissioner to examine their administration -and accounts. Smith says he is much honoured and -obliged: “You have acted in your old way, of doing -your friends a good office behind their backs, pretty -much as other people do them a bad one. There is -no labour of any kind which you can impose upon me -which I will not readily undertake.” He believes he -is in agreement with Pulteney as to the proper remedy -for the disorders of the coin in Bengal. The commission, -however, was not appointed. No reforms worth -mentioning were made, and the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> -teems with severe criticisms of the Company.<a class="fn" id="fr_27" href="#fn_27">[27]</a></p> -<p>A month after this letter to Pulteney, Hume drafts -a little programme for the completion and publication -of the work, evidently in reply to one of Smith’s -dilatory notes: “I should agree to your reasoning if I -could trust your resolution. Come hither for some -weeks about Christmas; dissipate yourself a little; -return to Kirkcaldy; finish your work before autumn; -go to London; print it; return and settle in this town, -which suits your studious, independent turn even better -than London. Execute this plan faithfully, and I -forgive you.”</p> -<p>Before following our hero to London with the fateful -manuscript, we must repeat a local tradition belonging -to this period which is recorded in Dr. Charles Rogers’s -<i>Social Life in Scotland</i>. One Sunday morning Smith, -falling into an unusually profound reverie (brought on -perhaps by thought upon the disorders of the Bengal -<span class="pb" id="Page_156">156</span> -currency), walked into his garden in an old dressing-gown. -Instead of returning to the house, he made -his way by a small path into the turnpike road, and -eventually marched into the town of Dunfermline, -fifteen miles from his home. The people there were -flocking to church, and the bustle restored the philosopher -to his wits. In April 1773, after six years of -seclusion, he at last left home with his manuscript, -intending no doubt to have it printed and published -in the course of a few months. He broke his journey -at Edinburgh, and there wrote a formal letter constituting -Hume his executor:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“As I have left the care of all my literary papers to -you, I must tell you that except those which I carry along -with me, there are none worth the publishing but a -fragment of a great work which contains a history of -the astronomical systems that were successively in fashion -down to the time of Descartes. Whether that might not be -published as a fragment of an intended juvenile work I leave -entirely to your judgment, tho’ I begin to suspect myself -that there is more refinement than solidity in some parts of it. -This little work you will find in a thin folio paper book in my -writing-desk in my book-room. All the other loose paper -which you will find either in that desk or within the glass -folding-doors of a bureau which stands in my bedroom, -together with about eighteen thin paper folio books, which -you will likewise find within the same glass folding-doors, I -desire may be destroyed without any examination. Unless I -die very suddenly, I shall take care that the Papers I carry -with me shall be carefully sent to you.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>He reached London in May, and seems to have -remained there until after the publication of the -<i>Wealth of Nations</i> in March 1776. But the records of -his stay are of the slightest. There is left but one -important letter, a long and earnest plea against the -<span class="pb" id="Page_157">157</span> -principle of monopoly in medical education. It was -to his friend Dr. Cullen. Some of the Scottish -universities had been conferring medical degrees without -examination on incompetent men. The Duke of -Buccleuch was willing to join in a petition to Parliament -to stop the mischief. Smith’s views upon the -subject are highly characteristic. He considers that the -Scotch universities, though of course capable of amendment, -are “without exception the best seminaries of -learning that are to be found anywhere in Europe.” -A visitation (that is, a Royal Commission) would be -the only proper means of reforming them:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“Before any wise man, however, would apply for the -appointment of so arbitrary a tribunal in order to improve -what is already, upon the whole, very well, he ought certainly -to know with some degree of certainty, first, who are likely to -be appointed visitors, and secondly, what plan of reformation -those visitors are likely to follow; but in the present multiplicity -of pretenders to some share in the prudential management -of Scotch affairs, these are two points which, I apprehend, -neither you nor I, nor the Solicitor-General nor the Duke of -Buccleugh, can possibly know anything about.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Perhaps in the future a better opportunity might -present itself. An admonition, or other irregular -means of interference, was out of the question. Dr. -Cullen had proposed that no person should be admitted -to examination for his degrees unless he brought a -certificate of his having studied at least two years in -some university. Smith (who was himself at this -very time, with Gibbon, attending a course given by -Dr. William Hunter) objects: “would not such a -regulation be oppressive upon all private teachers, -such as the Hunters, Hewson, Fordyce, etc.? The -<span class="pb" id="Page_158">158</span> -scholars of such teachers surely merit whatever honour -or advantage a degree can confer much more than the -greater part of those who have spent many years in -some universities.... When a man has learnt his -lesson very well, it surely can be of little importance -where or from whom he has learnt it.”</p> -<p>The last sentence is one that men should lay to -heart. It is one of those obvious truths which few -have the candour to assert and still fewer the courage -to act upon. A very clever person, on reading the -<i>Wealth of Nations</i>, complained that it seemed to be -little more than a well arranged succession of truisms. -Yet for the want of those truths mankind has stumbled -along in the dark from the beginning. “The less -you restrain trade, the more you will have.” A truism, -if you like, but its denial has caused an infinitude of -avoidable suffering. “If a man has learnt his lesson -well, never mind about his university or his degree.” -A truism, without doubt, but one that is constantly -neglected and despised to the grave detriment of -justice and learning.</p> -<p>Smith held that the effect of degrees injudiciously -conferred was not very considerable. “That doctors -are sometimes fools as well as other people is not in -the present time one of those profound secrets which is -known only to the learned.” Apothecaries and old -herb-women practised physic without complaint, because -they only poisoned the poor people. “And if here and -there a graduated doctor should be as ignorant as an -old woman, can great harm be done?” Smith rubbed -in his moral about university degrees with evident -relish, comparing degrees which could only be conferred -on students of a certain standing to the statutes of -<span class="pb" id="Page_159">159</span> -apprenticeship and other corporation laws, which had -expelled arts and manufactures from so many -boroughs.</p> -<p>In boroughs, monopoly had made work bad and -dear; in universities, it had led to quackery, imposture, -and exorbitant fees. One remedy for the -inconveniences of town corporations had been found -in the outgrowth of manufacturing villages; and, in a -similar way, the private interest of some poor professors -of physic had done something to check the -exorbitance of rich universities, which made a course -of eleven or even sixteen years necessary before a -student could become a Doctor of Law, Physic, or -Divinity. The poor universities could not stipulate -for residence, and sold their degrees to any one who -would buy them, often without even a decent examination. -“The less trouble they gave, the more money -they got, and I certainly do not pretend to vindicate -so dirty a practice.” Nevertheless these cheap degrees, -though extremely disagreeable to graduates whose -degrees had cost much time and expense, were of -advantage to the public in that they multiplied doctors, -and so sunk fees. “Had the Universities of Oxford -and Cambridge been able to maintain themselves in -the exclusive privilege of graduating all the doctors -who could practise in England, the price of feeling a -pulse might by this time have risen from two and three -guineas, the price which it has now happily arrived at, -to double or triple that sum; and English physicians -might, and probably would, have been at the same time -the most ignorant and quackish in the world.”<a class="fn" id="fr_28" href="#fn_28">[28]</a></p> -<p>This trenchant reasoning seems to have prevailed. -<span class="pb" id="Page_160">160</span> -At any rate, the idea of obtaining governmental interference -was dropped. Some time afterwards, however, -Dr. Cullen took an opportunity of pointing out that -there is a good deal more to be said for the corporate -regulation of medicine than for ordinary trade guilds. -Adam Smith probably pushed his argument for free -trade in medical degrees to this extreme mainly from -anxiety to prevent the interference of an unwise -Government in his favourite universities, though -partly no doubt because he thought fraudulent competition -better than none, partly again for love of -maintaining a paradox. A more spacious handling of -this theme is found in the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, more -especially in the famous tenth chapter of the first -book, with its account of “Inequalities occasioned by -the Policy of Europe,” and in a later criticism of universities.</p> -<p>During his stay in London Smith was in close -intercourse with the ruling kings of art, science, and -letters, as well as with some of the leading statesmen. -We hear of him in January 1775 with Johnson, Burke, -and Gibbon at a dinner given by Sir Joshua Reynolds. -In December, Horace Walpole met him at Beauclerk’s. -With Gibbon, as we have seen, he attended Dr. William -Hunter’s lectures on Anatomy. Hume’s letters to him -were addressed to the British Coffee House in Cockspur -Street, a club kept by a clever sister of Bishop Douglas -and much favoured by Scots in London, though Goldsmith, -Reynolds, Garrick, and Richard Cumberland -were also members. In 1775 he was elected a member -of the famous Literary Club which met at the Turk’s -Head in Gerrard Street. The members present on -the night of his election were Gibbon, Reynolds, -<span class="pb" id="Page_161">161</span> -Beauclerk, and Sir William Jones, three of whom -appear in Dean Barnard’s lines:—</p> -<div class="verse"> -<p class="t0">“If I have thoughts and can’t express ’em,</p> -<p class="t0">Gibbon shall teach me how to dress ’em</p> -<p class="t2">In form select and terse;</p> -<p class="t0">Jones teach me modesty and Greek,</p> -<p class="t0">Smith how to think, Burke how to speak,</p> -<p class="t2">And Beauclerk to converse.”</p> -</div> -<p>The still small voice of a detractor was heard: -Boswell wrote to a friend that with Smith’s accession -the club had “lost its select merit.”</p> -<p>All this time the fatal quarrel with America was -drawing near. Upon this, as upon all other economical -questions, Smith was in full sympathy with Burke, -“the only man I ever knew who thinks on economic -subjects exactly as I do, without any previous communications -having passed between us.” This compliment, -as we know, was highly valued by the author -of the speech on American Taxation. But Smith -had another friend and counsellor for his critical -chapter on the colonies and their administration. -Dr. Franklin is reported to have said, that “the celebrated -Adam Smith when writing his <i>Wealth of Nations</i> -was in the habit of bringing chapter after chapter as -he composed it to himself, Dr. Price, and others of the -literati”; that he would then patiently hear their -observations, sometimes submitting to write whole -chapters anew, and even to reverse some of his -propositions. Franklin’s remark has probably been -inaccurately reported. We know from one of Smith’s -letters that he had not a high opinion of Dr. Price -as an economist; but Parton, Franklin’s biographer, -justly points to the countless colonial illustrations -<span class="pb" id="Page_162">162</span> -with which the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> abounds, and to that -intimate knowledge of American conditions which -Franklin was of all men the best fitted to impart. -And there is internal evidence in the text itself that -the important chapter on the colonies in Book <span class="smaller">IV.</span> was -written, or at least considerably enlarged, in the years -1773 and 1774. Franklin’s papers contained problems -which seemed to have been jotted down at meetings of -philosophers, and no doubt Price as well as Smith -would take a prominent part. At Glasgow Smith -must have heard a good deal about the colonial trade; -but colonial policy did not become the question of the -day until after he left, and in the lectures there is -nothing about the colonies. We may conjecture that -the idea of devoting a large section of the book to the -history and economics of colonial dominions did not -strike him until after his return from France. The -great debates of 1766 and of the early seventies, the -intimate acquaintance with British policy and finance -in large outline and in official detail, which his -friendships with Burke and Franklin, with Oswald, -Pulteney, and Shelburne helped him to acquire, and -his eagerness to prevent war and to discredit expenditure -on colonial establishments, or indeed upon any -provinces which could not support themselves, conspired -to make colonial policy and imperial expenditure -large and imposing themes in the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_163">163</div> -<h2 id="c9">CHAPTER IX -<br /><span class="smaller">THE <i>WEALTH OF NATIONS</i> AND ITS CRITICS</span></h2> -<p>In February 1776 Hume wrote to Smith: “By all -accounts your book has been printed long ago, yet -it has never been so much as advertised. What is -the reason? If you wait till the fate of America be -decided, you may wait long.” Declining health made -him anxious to accelerate his friend’s return. “Your -chamber in my house is always unoccupied.” In the -same letter there are a few words about the war with -the American colonies. The two friends were at one -in condemning the war and the colonial policy which -provoked it. But Smith was more deeply moved -by the impending disaster, and was eagerly endeavouring -to induce the Government to adopt means of conciliation -before it was too late. He was therefore—so -the Duke of Buccleuch had informed Hume—“very -zealous” in American affairs. “My notion,” writes -Hume, cool as ever where only national interests were -concerned, “is that this matter is not so important as -is commonly imagined. If I be mistaken, I shall probably -correct my error when I see you, or read you. -Our navigation and general commerce may suffer more -than our manufactures. Should London fall as much -in size as I have done, it will be the better. It is -nothing but a hulk of bad and unclean humours.”</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_164">164</div> -<p>At last, on the 9th of March, <i>An Inquiry into the -Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations</i> was published -in two sumptuous quarto volumes. The price was -thirty-six shillings, and the first edition, probably of a -thousand copies, was sold out in six months; though -the second, a reprint with some few corrections and -additions, was not issued till 1778. The publishers -were Strahan and Cadell. Smith is said to have -received £500 for the first edition, the sum paid by -the same firm to Steuart for his <i>Principles of Political -Economy</i> (1767). The first volume of Gibbon’s <i>History</i> -came out at the same time. Hume was immensely -taken with both performances. He told Gibbon that -he should never have expected such a work from the -pen of an Englishman. To Smith he wrote:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“<span class="sc">Euge! Belle! Dear Mr. Smith</span>,—I am much pleased -with your performance; and the perusal of it has taken me -from a state of great anxiety. It was a work of so much -expectation, by yourself, by your friends, and by the public, -that I trembled for its appearance, but am now much relieved. -Not but that the reading of it necessarily requires so much -attention, and the public is disposed to give so little, that I -shall still doubt for some time of its being at first very -popular. But it has depth, and solidity, and acuteness, and -is so much illustrated by curious facts that it must at last -take the public attention. It is probably much improved -by your last abode in London. If you were here at my fireside, -I should dispute some of your principles. I cannot -think that the rent of farms makes any part of the price of -the produce, but that the price is determined altogether by -the quantity and the demand.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>On the publication of the book Sir John Pringle -observed to Boswell that Dr. Smith, who had never -been in trade, could not be expected to write well on -<span class="pb" id="Page_165">165</span> -that subject any more than a lawyer upon physic. -Boswell passed this on to Johnson, who replied: “He -is mistaken, sir; a man who has never been engaged in -trade may undoubtedly write well upon trade, and -there is nothing which requires more to be illustrated -by philosophy than trade does.” Johnson -added, as if he had already turned over with profit -the pages of the new book, that trade promises what -is more valuable than money, “the reciprocation of -the peculiar advantages of different countries.” Gibbon -was no less delighted than Hume with the new philosophy. -“What an excellent work!” he exclaimed; -“an extensive science in a single book, and the most -profound ideas expressed in the most perspicuous -language.” Gibbon’s judgment has been confirmed by -the tribunals of Time, and the world places the <i>Wealth -of Nations</i> in the small library of masterpieces that -receives, as the years roll by, so surprisingly few -accessions.</p> -<p>In a science like political economy, every new teacher -endeavours to correct the mistakes of his predecessors, -to supply their deficiencies, and generally to teach the -science in its last stage of perfection. Some of Smith’s -successors were themselves men of genius, and proved -equal to the task of displacing their master for a -few years. But those who have seen the rise and -decline of Mill may well ask with Wakefield, who -had seen Smith superseded by Malthus and Ricardo -and M’Culloch: How is it that the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, -all these things notwithstanding, is still read and -studied and quoted as if it had been published -yesterday? How is it that British statesmen from -Pitt to Gladstone should have sought authority in the -<span class="pb" id="Page_166">166</span> -same pages? After all, the question we are asking is -a wider one. Why is this one of the great books -of the world? We would like to say simply: It -is the world’s verdict; take it or not as you like; -but whether you like it or not, it stands. One cannot -argue with universal consent. Still something -may be due in extenuation of fame. In the first -place, Adam Smith writes as one who has applied -his mind to definite problems without neglecting a -wider field of letters and learning. The store is rich -and the steward is bounteous. So far from being an -isolated study of abstract doctrines, political economy -is treated from first to last as a branch of the study of -mankind, a criticism of their manners and customs, of -national history, administration, and law. Even when -silencing a battery or throwing up a counterwork he is -very seldom disputatious or doctrinal. “He appears,” -says Wakefield, “to be engaged in composing not a -theory, but a history of national wealth. He dwells -indeed on principles, but nearly always, as it seems, -for the purpose of explaining the facts which he -narrates.” There is no scarecrow of thin abstractions -and deterrent terminology flapping over the pages to -warn men off a dismal science. The laws of wealth -unfold themselves like the incidents in a well-laid -plot. It was left for his successors to show how dull -economics might be, and how suitable for the empty -class-room of an endowed chair.</p> -<p>Hume, as we have seen, on reading the <i>Wealth of -Nations</i> foretold that its curious facts would help to -gain the public ear. Adam Smith was full of out-of-the-way -learning. He collected stories of all the -adventures in the New World, and loved to sift the -<span class="pb" id="Page_167">167</span> -wheat from the chaff of a traveller’s tale. Consequently -his book abounds in oddities about his own -and bygone ages, and a few of these with necessary -abbreviations may be retailed:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>There is at this day a village in Scotland, where it is -not uncommon, I am told, for a workman to carry nails instead -of money to the baker’s shop or to the alehouse.</p> -<p>In North America, provisions are much cheaper and -wages much higher than in England. In the province of -New York, common labourers earn three shillings and sixpence -currency, equal to two shillings sterling a day.</p> -<p>Till after the middle of the fourteenth century, an English -mason’s wages were much higher than those of a parish priest. -In spite of a statute of Anne there are still [1776] many -curacies under £20 a year.</p> -<p>A middling farmer in France will sometimes have 400 -fowls in his yard.</p> -<p>Between 1339 and 1776 the price of the best English -wool has fallen from 30s. to 21s. the tod, after allowing for -the changes in the currency. The price of a yard of the finest -cloth has fallen, after making the same allowances, from -£3, 3s. 6d. to £1, 1s. since 1487.</p> -<p>The first person that wore stockings in England is said -to have been Queen Elizabeth. She received them as a present -from the Spanish Ambassador.</p> -<p>What was formerly a seat of the family of Seymour, is -now an inn upon the Bath road. The marriage bed of James -the First of Great Britain, which his Queen brought with her -from Denmark as a present fit for a sovereign to make to a -sovereign, was a few years ago the ornament of an alehouse at -Dunfermline.</p> -<p>The wool of the southern counties of Scotland is, a great -part of it, after a long land carriage through very bad roads, -manufactured in Yorkshire, for want of a capital to manufacture -it at home. -<span class="pb" id="Page_168">168</span> -In England, owing to the laws of settlement, it is often -more difficult for a poor man to pass the artificial boundary -of a parish than an arm of the sea or a ridge of high mountains.</p> -<p>There is no city in Europe in which house rent is dearer -than in London, and yet I know no capital in which a furnished -apartment can be hired so cheap.</p> -<p>At Buenos Ayres forty years ago 1s. 9½d. was the ordinary -price of an ox.</p> -<p>A piece of fine cloth which weighs only eighty pounds, -contains in it the price not only of eighty pounds weight of -wool, but sometimes of several thousand weight of corn, the -maintenance of the different working people, and of their -immediate employers.</p> -<p>In the white herring fishery it has been common for vessels -to fit out for the purpose of catching not the fish but the -bounty. In 1759, when the bounty was at fifty shillings the -ton, each barrel of sea sticks cost Government in bounties -alone, £113, 15s.; each barrel of merchantable herrings -£159, 7s. 6d.</p> -</blockquote> -<p>The <i>Wealth of Nations</i> is a book to be read as it -was written. More than half its nutriment and all its -fascination is lost if you cut away the theory from its -historical setting.<a class="fn" id="fr_29" href="#fn_29">[29]</a> -Osteology is fatal to economics. -That is why the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> is far better suited -to beginners than an ordinary child’s primer. But as -the Lectures on Police were the author’s own first -draft, the reader of these pages is already cognisant -of a great part of the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>.</p> -<p>It remains to indicate some of the principal accessions -to Smith’s scheme of political economy after he -<span class="pb" id="Page_169">169</span> -left Glasgow. The task has been made easy by -Mr. Cannan. In the first place, the chapters on -Wages, Profit, and Rent in the First Book, and on -Taxation in the last, mark a wonderful development -and improvement of the imperfect and rudimentary -treatment accorded to these subjects in the Lectures. -Then again, chapter ix. of Book <span class="smaller">IV.</span> on the French -economists and their agricultural system is entirely -new. The system of the <i>économistes</i> is described -in that chapter as one which, with all its imperfections, -was perhaps the nearest approximation to the -truth that had yet been <i>published</i> on the subject of -political economy. We are told that its adherents, -a pretty considerable sect, had done good service to -their country by influencing in some measure the -public administration in favour of agriculture. They -all followed “implicitly and without any sensible variation -the doctrine of Mr. Quesnai,” whose <i>Economical -Table</i> they regarded with extraordinary veneration, -ranking it with writing and money as one of the three -great inventions made by mankind.</p> -<p>Quesnai’s <i>Table</i> showed three sorts of expenses: -Productive expenses, Expenses of revenue, and Sterile -expenses, with “their source, their distribution, their -effects, their reproduction, their relation to each other, -to population, to agriculture, to manufactures, to -commerce, and to the general riches of the nation.” -In the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> this idea is followed out and -improved; for the author, having shown in his First -Book how the average produce of labour is regulated -by the skilled dexterity and judgment with which it -is generally applied, shows in his Second that it is -further regulated “by the proportion between the -<span class="pb" id="Page_170">170</span> -number of those who are employed in useful labour, -and that of those who are not so employed.” It -would be absurd to call him a plagiarist; it would be -equally absurd to deny that the French School had -opened his eyes to the necessity for analysing the -distribution of wealth no less carefully than its production. -As the division of labour came from the -Greek, so the distribution of the annual produce of -wealth into wages, profit, and rent, came from the -French philosophers. And we cannot forget that -Quesnai’s death alone prevented Smith from dedicating -his book to the inventor of the Economic Table.</p> -<p>Equally important from the standpoint of theory, -and far more so from that of the legislator and statesman, -are the chapters upon taxation. There the -lectures, though they made a distinct advance upon -Hume, were rudimentary. But modern ingenuity -cannot improve upon the four practical maxims or -canons of taxation:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>1. The subjects of every State should contribute in -proportion to their respective abilities.</p> -<p>2. A tax should be certain, and not arbitrary.</p> -<p>3. A tax should be levied at the time and in the -way most convenient to the taxpayer.</p> -<p>4. Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to -take out and to keep out of the pockets of -the people as little as possible over and above -what it brings into the public treasury.</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Axiomatic as these rules appear to us, in Adam -Smith’s day they were new and startling: they had -never been formulated or practised in any country. -<span class="pb" id="Page_171">171</span> -Smith was “the first that ever burst” upon the silent -sea of taxation. He put into the hands of statesmen, -who had hitherto been groping and blundering in the -dark, a perfect touchstone by which to test projects old -and new of raising revenue. The idea of considering -the taxpayer was itself a novelty. It is true that the -criterion of ability had been adopted in the Elizabethan -poor-rate, but there was no other trace of it in the -fiscal system of Great Britain, which was on the whole, -even at that time, the best in Europe.</p> -<p>Smith treated taxation as one of the causes that -impede the progress of wealth. It is characteristic of -the man that he does not regard any tax, even the -land-tax, as good in itself, but only praises it comparatively -as a lesser evil. Burke himself was not a -more consistent or persistent preacher of economy. -Not that Smith was jealous of expenditure on roads -and communication, public instruction, and other services -which were plainly beneficial to the whole society, -and could not be left to private enterprise. He has no -pedantic objection to the State managing a business -that it is capable of managing well. He mentions -without disapproval that the republic of Hamburg -makes money out of a lombard,<a class="fn" id="fr_30" href="#fn_30">[30]</a> a wine cellar, and -an apothecary’s shop. But the post-office “is perhaps -the only mercantile project which has been successfully -managed by every sort of Government.”</p> -<p>Of all taxes he most dislikes taxes upon the -necessaries of life. Yet he does not deny that if, -after all the proper sources of taxation have been -exhausted, revenue is still required, “improper” taxes -must be imposed. To preserve their land from the -<span class="pb" id="Page_172">172</span> -sea, and their republic from its enemies, the Dutch -had had recourse to very objectionable taxes, and he -does not blame them if they could in no other way -maintain that republican form of government, which -he regards as “the principal support of the present -grandeur of Holland.” But he makes it very plain -indeed in his last, and perhaps his greatest, chapter “Of -Public Debts,” that the miseries and embarrassments of -Europe are due in the main to profligate expenditure -of all kinds, and especially to the immense sums wasted -on wars that ought to have been avoided.</p> -<p>Therefore a new commercial policy would not suffice. -New principles of foreign and colonial policy must be -introduced, and we must sweep away for ever the cobweb -occasions and pretexts that had drawn us into so -many futile conflicts. But he was equally anxious to -promote economy in time of peace. He was alarmed -at the progress of the enormous debts “which at -present oppress and will in the long-run probably ruin -all the great nations of Europe.” He saw that when -war has once been begun, no limit can be set to -expenditure. But some limit, he thought, could and -should be set to debt; and therefore he pleaded for a -policy of strict economy in time of peace, and pleaded -so effectively that it was adopted by Pitt in the -breathing-space between the American and the French -wars. But for that policy, which reduced armaments -to a point considered by some dangerously low, Great -Britain could hardly have stood the stress and strain -of her long-drawn conflict with Napoleon.</p> -<p>To thriftlessness in time of peace Smith attributes -some of the peculiar evils that attend modern warfare. -His remarks sound strangely familiar in our ears, -<span class="pb" id="Page_173">173</span> -as though they had been written by a philosopher of -yesterday about the events of the day before:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“The ordinary expense of the greater part of modern -governments in time of peace being equal or nearly equal to -their ordinary revenue, when war comes they are both -unwilling and unable to increase their revenue in proportion -to the increase of their expense. They are unwilling, for fear -of offending the people, who by so great and so sudden an -increase of taxes, would soon be disgusted with the war; and -they are unable, from not well knowing what taxes would be -sufficient to produce the revenue wanted. The facility of -borrowing delivers them from the embarrassment which this -fear and inability would otherwise occasion.... In great -empires, the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces -remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them, -scarce any inconveniency from the war, but enjoy at their -ease the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits -of their own fleets and armies. To them this amusement -compensates the small difference between the taxes which -they pay on account of the war, and those which they had -been accustomed to pay in time of peace. They are commonly -dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an -end to their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of -conquest and national glory.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Indeed, he adds, the return of peace seldom relieves -a nation from the greater part of the taxes imposed -during the war. They are still required to pay the -interest on the newly created debt.</p> -<p>Of all Smith’s theories, or rather opinions—for -after all, the question is a mixed one of morals and -expediency which cannot be answered by abstract -formulas of right or rules of logic—not the least -important or characteristic is his doctrine of empire -and imperial expenditure. The view now cherished -and practised in the great bureaucracies of Europe, -<span class="pb" id="Page_174">174</span> -and often advanced by socialists under the plausibly -scientific phraseology of a theory of consumption, that -national profusion is a good thing in itself, was not -then propagated or defended by responsible persons. -But, though thrift was on their lips, their hands were -often in the public purse; and it could not be said -that warnings against the outlay of national resources -upon useless or mischievous objects were unneeded. -Appropriately enough, the very first time, so far as we -know, that the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> was cited in Parliament, -it was cited as an authority against the policy -of accumulating armaments in time of peace. In his -speech on the address (November 11, 1783) Fox is -reported to have said: “There was a maxim laid down -in an excellent book upon the Wealth of Nations, -which had been ridiculed for its simplicity, but which -was indisputable as to its truth. In that book it was -stated that the only way to become rich was to manage -matters so as to make one’s income exceed one’s -expenses. The proper line of conduct, therefore, was -by a well-directed economy to retrench every current -expense, and to make as large a saving during the -peace as possible.”<a class="fn" id="fr_31" href="#fn_31">[31]</a></p> -<p>But Smith took no narrow or penurious view of -national economy. He did not prize thrift for its own -sake. Such a charge might possibly be brought by an -unfriendly critic against Ricardo or Joseph Hume, but -assuredly not against Adam Smith. Like Burke and -<span class="pb" id="Page_175">175</span> -Cobden, he valued frugality in nations as a safeguard -against wrong-doing, a prime source of security and -independence, and a perpetual check upon the lust -of conquest and aggrandisement that so often lurks -under the respectable uniform of a missionary civilisation. -As he describes the discoveries of the New World -and the beginnings of modern empire, a poignant epithet -or a burning phrase tells the lesson of many a romantic -scramble for the fleece that was so seldom golden, of -many a credulous hunt for a fugitive Eldorado.</p> -<p>After showing that the gold and silver mines of -their colonial empires had neither augmented the -capital nor promoted the industry of the two “beggarly -countries” of Spain and Portugal, he carefully distinguishes -between the natural advantages of a colonial -trade and the artificial disadvantages caused by the -policy of monopoly, that is by the endeavours of the -mother country to restrict that trade to her own -merchants. If the governments of Europe had been -content to found colonies, and see that they were well -and justly administered, the full benefit of opening up -new countries, and of interchanging their products, -would have been felt. But unhappily every country -that had acquired foreign possessions sought to engross -their trade, thus injuring its own people and the colonial -or subject race by checking the natural growth of -commerce, and forcing it into unnatural channels. This -so-called mercantilist policy was therefore just as disastrous -to commerce as to morals.</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up -a people of customers, may at first sight appear a project fit -only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project -altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely -<span class="pb" id="Page_176">176</span> -fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers. -Such statesmen, and such statesmen only, are capable of -fancying that they will find some advantage in employing the -blood and treasure of their fellow-citizens, to found and -maintain such an empire.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Far worse in their results than the regular conquests -of government, were the irregular acquisitions of companies -formed for trading purposes; and one of the -masterly chapters added to the third edition of his -book (1784) traces the misery, injustice, and commercial -failure which had attended the rule of the -East India Company.</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“It is a very singular government, in which every member -of the administration wishes to get out of the country, and -consequently to have done with the government, as soon as -he can, and to whose interest, the day after he has left it, and -carried his whole fortune with him, it is perfectly indifferent -though the whole country was swallowed up by an earthquake.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>What, then, was the practical policy which Smith -recommended to the British Government? It had two -main ends in view. First, to pay off the debt; secondly, -to lessen and gradually remove all taxes which raised -the prices of articles consumed by the labouring -classes, or interfered with the free course of trade. -Writing as he did, in 1775, on the eve of war, his -thoughts naturally turned to the colonies, then so rich -and prosperous, which had contributed nothing to the -income but so heavily to the expenditure and debt of -the British crown.</p> -<p>Smith would have liked the British Government to -renounce its authority over the colonies, and so not -only relieve the revenue from a serious annual drain, -but at the same time convert the Americans from -<span class="pb" id="Page_177">177</span> -turbulent and fractious subjects to the most faithful, -affectionate, and generous allies. But seeing that -neither people nor government would brook such a -mortification, he suggested that to save the situation -they should try, by a scheme of union, to break up the -American confederacy and reconstitute the empire -on a fair basis. Let us give, he said, to each -colony which will detach itself from the general confederacy -a number of representatives in parliament -proportionate to its contribution, and so open up a -new and dazzling object of ambition to the leading -men of each colony. If this or some other method -were not fallen upon of conciliating the Americans, it -was not probable that they would voluntarily submit, -and “they are very weak who flatter themselves that, -in the state to which things have come, our colonies -will be easily conquered by force alone.” The leaders -of the Congress had risen suddenly from tradesmen -and attorneys to be statesmen and legislators of an -extensive empire “which seems very likely to become -one of the greatest and most formidable that ever was -in the world.” Nay, if the union he suggested as an -alternative to peaceful and friendly parting were constituted, -he predicted that in the course of little more -than a century the empire would draw more revenue -from America than from the mother country; and -“the seat of the empire would then naturally remove -itself to that part of the empire which contributed most -to the general defence and support of the whole.” It -was such a scheme as this that Burke ridiculed when -he pictured “a shipload of legislators” becalmed in -mid-Atlantic.</p> -<p>As a politician Smith was doubtless attracted by -<span class="pb" id="Page_178">178</span> -the prospect of introducing a strong democratic and -republican strain into parliament, though he pretends -to think that the balance of the constitution -would not be affected. He points out also that the -constitution would be completed by such a union, and -was imperfect without it, for “the assembly which -deliberates and decides concerning the affairs of every -part of the empire, in order to be properly informed, -ought certainly to have representatives from every -part of it.”<a class="fn" id="fr_32" href="#fn_32">[32]</a> -In the last chapter of the <i>Wealth of -Nations</i> he describes the project as at worst “a new -Utopia, less amusing, certainly, but no more useless -and chimerical than the old one,” and shows how the -British system of taxation might be extended along -with representation in parliament to the colonies in -such a way as to produce a great addition to the -imperial revenue and a large permanent surplus for -the redemption of debt. In this way the debt could -be discharged in a comparatively short period, and -as revenue would be continually released, the most -oppressive taxes could be gradually reduced and -remitted. By this prescription “the at present debilitated -and languishing vigour of the empire” might -be completely restored. Labourers would soon be -enabled to live better, to work cheaper, and to send -their goods cheaper to market. Cheapness would -increase demand, and the increased demand for goods -would mean an increased demand for the labour of -those who produced them. This again would tend -both to raise the numbers and improve the circumstances -of the labouring poor. Lastly, as the consuming -power of the community grew, there would be -<span class="pb" id="Page_179">179</span> -a growth in the revenue from all those articles of consumption -which remained subject to taxation.</p> -<p>The plan of an imperial parliament and imperial -taxation could not be realised. Smith himself saw -that the economic and constitutional objections were -great, though “not unsurmountable.” Upon one -point, however, he was clear. If it were impracticable -to extend the area of taxation, recourse must be had -to a reduction of expenditure; and the most proper -means of retrenchment would be to put a stop to all -military outlay in and on the colonies. If no revenue -could be drawn from the colonies, the peace establishments -“ought certainly to be saved altogether.” Yet -the peace establishments were insignificant compared -with what wars for the defence of the colonies had -cost. But for colonial wars the national debt would -have been paid off. It was urged that the colonies -were provinces of the British Empire:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“But countries which contribute neither revenue nor -military force towards the support of the empire, cannot be -considered as provinces. They may perhaps be considered as -appendages, as a sort of splendid and showy equipage of the -empire. But if the empire can no longer support the expence -of keeping up this equipage, it ought certainly to lay it down; -and if it cannot raise its revenue in proportion to its expence, -it ought, at least, to accommodate its expence to its revenue. -If the colonies, notwithstanding their refusal to submit to -British taxes, are still to be considered as provinces of the -British Empire, their defence in some future war may cost -Great Britain as great an expence as it ever has done in any -former war. The rulers of Great Britain have, for more than -a century past, amused the people with the imagination that -they possessed a great empire on the west side of the -Atlantic. This empire, however, has hitherto existed in -imagination only. It has hitherto been, not an empire, -<span class="pb" id="Page_180">180</span> -but the project of an empire; not a gold mine, but the -project of a gold mine; a project which has cost, which -continues to cost, and which, if pursued in the same way as -it has been hitherto, is likely to cost, immense expence, -without being likely to bring any profit: for the effects of the -monopoly of the colony trade, it has been shewn, are, to the -great body of the people, mere loss instead of profit. It is -surely now time that our rulers should either realise this -golden dream, in which they have been indulging themselves, -perhaps, as well as the people; or that they should awake -from it themselves, and endeavour to awaken the people. If -the project cannot be completed, it ought to be given up. -If any of the provinces of the British Empire cannot be made -to contribute towards the support of the whole empire, it is -surely time that Great Britain should free herself from the -expence of defending those provinces in time of war, and of -supporting any part of their civil or military establishments -in time of peace, and endeavour to accommodate her future -views and designs to the real mediocrity of her circumstances.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>With these ever-memorable and resounding words he -ends the great <i>Inquiry</i>, not vaguely admonishing some -shadowy cosmopolis of economic men, but straightly -beckoning his own countrymen and their rulers off -the broad way of wantonness and mischief to the -harder paths of an inglorious but fruitful economy.</p> -<p class="tb">The reader of this little volume will not expect or -desire an excursus upon the multitudinous treatises, -critical and apologetical, that have sprung out of the -<i>Wealth of Nations</i>. The vitality of the book may be -measured by the numbers of its detractors and defenders. -Among the former the modern historical -school of Germany claims notice; for has not its distinguished -and erudite leader, Professor Schmoller, -<span class="pb" id="Page_181">181</span> -placed Adam Smith somewhere below Galiani, Necker, -Hoffmann, Thünen, and Rümelin?</p> -<p>Perhaps the reason why economists of the modern -historical school so often fail as valuers of men and -books, is that they are enjoined by the very laws of -their existence to be “learned”; and “learning” requires -that obscure and deservedly forgotten writers -should be rediscovered and magnified at the expense -of surviving greatness. Too many modern critics of -“Smithianismus,” instead of attending to the author’s -own works and so penetrating his philosophy, seek him -elsewhere, rummage in the literature of the period, overhaul -every book, good, bad, or indifferent, characterise -it in the text, and place its title-page and date in a -footnote. Such labour, however useful to others, is -apt to destroy the perspective and warp the judgment.</p> -<p>A man who snares facts is of all men the most likely -to be caught in a theoretical trap. Here is an example. -In 1759 Adam Smith wrote a book on <i>moral</i> sentiments -which he founded on the natural instinct of sympathy. -In 1776 he wrote a book on <i>economic</i> sentiments, -which he derived from self-love or the desire of man to -improve his position. Upon these facts the following -theory is built up by the historical school of Germany:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“Smith was an Idealist as long as he lived in England -under the influence of Hutcheson and Hume. After living in -France for three years, and coming into close touch with the -materialism that prevailed there, he returned a Materialist. -This is the simple explanation of the contrast between his -<i>Theory</i> (1759), written before his journey to France, and his -<i>Wealth of Nations</i> (1776), composed after his return.”<a class="fn" id="fr_33" href="#fn_33">[33]</a></p> -</blockquote> -<div class="pb" id="Page_182">182</div> -<p>Most of this nonsense has been blown to the four -winds by Mr. Cannan’s publication of the <i>Lectures</i> -delivered at Glasgow before Adam Smith went to -France; but a vast quantity of similar rubbish is embedded -in the economic literature of the last thirty or -forty years, and a difficulty which learned investigators -have invented and solved has been dignified in -Germany by the name of “Das Adam Smith Problem.”</p> -<p>The truth, as Smith conceived it, is that men are -actuated at different times by different motives, benevolent, -selfish, or mixed. The moral criterion of an action -is: will it help society, will it benefit others, will it be -approved by the Impartial Spectator? The economic -criterion of an action is: will it benefit me, will it be -profitable, will it increase my income? Smith built -his theory of industrial and commercial life upon -the assumption that wage-earners and profit-makers -are generally actuated by the desire to get as high -wages and profits as possible. If this is not the -general and predominant motive in one great sphere of -activity, the production and distribution of wealth, the -<i>Wealth of Nations</i> is a vain feat of the imagination, -and political economy is not a dismal science but a -dismal fiction. But there is nothing whatever either -to excite surprise or to suggest inconsistency in the -circumstance that a philosopher, who (to adopt the -modern jargon of philosophy) distinguished between -self-regarding and other-regarding emotions, should -have formed the first group into a system of economics -and the second into a system of ethics.</p> -<p>If this comes of learning, an even more extravagant -charge has been preferred by an emotional school. -A heated imagination, certainly not encumbered with -<span class="pb" id="Page_183">183</span> -facts, and informed only that Adam Smith was the -founder of an odious science, denounced him as “the -half-bred and half-witted Scotchman” who taught “the -deliberate blasphemy”—“Thou shalt hate the Lord -thy God, damn His Laws, and covet thy neighbour’s -goods.” The same authority declares that he “formally, -in the name of the philosophers of Scotland, set up this -opposite God, on the hill of cursing against blessing, -Ebal against Gerizim”—a God who “allows usury, -delights in strife and contention, and is very particular -about everybody’s going to his synagogue on -Sunday.”<a class="fn" id="fr_34" href="#fn_34">[34]</a> -These three characteristics of Adam Smith’s deity were -unfortunately chosen; for, as it happens, he disliked -usury so much that he defended the laws which had -vainly sought to prevent high rates of interest; disapproved -vehemently of war, which he regarded as -one of the deadliest enemies of human progress, and -protested against the idea that a perfect Deity could -possibly desire His creatures to abase themselves before -Him. It is sad to think that to get his gold the -Ruskinian must pass so much sand through his mind. -The <i>Fors Clavigera</i>, with all its passionate intensity and -high-strung emotion, is a standing warning to preachers -not to abuse their masters, and to learn a subject before -they teach it. Let those who climb so recklessly on -Ebal deliver their curses from a safer foothold.</p> -<p>Perhaps what most impresses one in reading -the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> is its pre-vision. The author -seems to have been able to project himself into the -centuries. He saw the blades of wheat as well as -the tares that were springing up; and it would be -hard to mention a single one of his forecasts and -<span class="pb" id="Page_184">184</span> -Utopias that has not been realised in some degree, or -at least taken shape as a political project during the -last century. He was, of course, above all, the precursor -of Cobden and of the philosophic Radicals, -who drew from him not only their economics, but their -foreign and colonial policy. It is perhaps remarkable, -after so fair a beginning had been made in his own -lifetime, that the triumph of his doctrines was so -long delayed. But most of what Shelburne, Pitt, and -Eden did for commercial emancipation in the eighties -was swept away by the French war. And when -Napoleon fell, England was so weak, tyranny and -superstition were so ground into the principles of her -governing classes, that she seemed to be, in Milton’s -phrase, beyond the manhood of a Roman recovery. -For many years Smith’s disciples, and even the indefatigable -Bentham, laboured almost in vain. Parliament -was ignorant and bigoted. Until a great agitator -arose, very little could be done; and the great agitator -did not arrive quite soon enough to fulfil Pulteney’s -prediction that Smith would convert his own generation -and rule the next.</p> -<p>In the early years of the nineteenth century the -practical influence of Smith’s teaching was felt principally -in France and Germany. In France, as we have -seen, Count Mollien was a professed disciple of the new -economy. “It was then,” he said, in reviewing the -events of his youth, “that I read an English book -which the disciples M. Turgot had left eulogised in -the highest terms—the work of Adam Smith. I had -especially remarked how warmly the venerable and -judicious Malesherbes used to speak of it—this book -so disparaged by all the men of the old routine.” It -is perhaps the most dazzling of all Smith’s posthumous -<span class="pb" id="Page_185">185</span> -triumphs, that he, through Mollien, should have been -the philosophic guide of Napoleonic finance.</p> -<p>But his conquest of Germany was equally startling -and momentous. The movement in that country can -be directly traced to the university of Königsberg, -where Kraus began to lecture on the <i>Wealth of -Nations</i> in 1781. He soon gained the ears of the -official class. In East Prussia, vexatious dues and -taxes, with a multitude of feudal embarrassments, -were removed from internal commerce, and in spite -of much opposition Smith’s principles spread all over -Germany. By the close of the Napoleonic war the officials -as well as the professional economists were converts -to the new ideas. Stein and Hardenberg, two -truly great reformers, led the way. Year by year commercial -restrictions were removed, and though jealousy -of Prussia stood in the way of complete commercial -union, the North German Zollverein constituted a great -advance. It removed the barriers between Prussia and -the adjoining States, and reduced external duties to -such an extent that in 1827 Huskisson cited the -example set by Germany to prove the wisdom of -abandoning a restrictive policy. Even Friedrich List, -who sought for political reasons to build up a counter -theory of protection for infant industries, asserted -that free trade was the right policy for England -and for every adult nation. List, who often wrote -with a bitterness and malice that only readers of his -unhappy life can excuse, admitted in his principal -work “the great services of Adam Smith”:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“He was the first to introduce successfully into political -economy the analytical method. By means of this method -and of an unusual sharpness of intellectual vision he illuminated -the most important branches of a science, which before -<span class="pb" id="Page_186">186</span> -his time had lain in almost utter darkness. Before Adam -Smith there was only a policy (Praxis); his labours first -made it possible to build up a science of political economy; -and for that achievement he has given the world a greater -mass of materials than all his predecessors and successors.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Mill’s <i>Political Economy</i> is the only English treatise -that can be compared with the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>. -Indeed in his preface Mill challenges the comparison, -but adds that “political economy, properly so-called, -has grown up almost from infancy since the time -of Adam Smith.” He finds the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> -“in many parts obsolete, and in all imperfect,” and -though he speaks generously enough of Adam Smith’s -“admirable success in reference to the philosophy of -the [eighteenth] century,” it is plain from this preface -and from the autobiography that the later economist -felt he could look down upon the earlier from the -serene temples of increased knowledge and better -social ideas. Mill’s confidence was not only justified -for the time being by unqualified success in the sense -that his own book at once became, and remained -for a generation, the principal text-book of English -students, it was also based upon what appear at first -sight to be enormous advantages. A more logical -and systematic arrangement is adopted. Errors are -corrected; digressions are few; and in order to -attain scientific exactitude, historical illustrations from -the conditions and experience of nations are replaced -by more precise instances of imaginary societies -labelled A, B, C. Technical terms and definitions -make it easy for the student to move lightly about in -an artificial atmosphere.</p> -<p>But in this realm of political economy, is it not -<span class="pb" id="Page_187">187</span> -well to keep a foot, or at least an eye, on the ground? -In Mill’s treatise there is a danger of mistaking -words for things. It is never so in Smith’s inquiry. -He gave twenty years to a task for which Mill -could hardly spare as many months. With a gift -for exposition, certainly not inferior, he had what -Mill had not, a love of the concrete, a faculty for the -picturesque, and withal a nervous force and vigour in -argument quite peculiar to himself. It has been said -that Smith hunted his subject with the inveteracy of -a sportsman. With a wonderful knowledge of history, -law, philosophy, and letters, he combined an intuitive -insight into the motives of men and the unseen -mechanism of society. At the same time, by restricting -his horizon to wealth and its phenomena, he was able -to see how men always had acted and always would -act under certain circumstances, and by what rules -public finance should be governed. This is the secret -of his success in making political economy queen of -the useful arts, and in raising her alone among political -studies to the dignity of a science. “I think,” said -Robert Lowe, “that Adam Smith is entitled to the -merit, and the unique merit, among all men who -ever lived in the world, of having founded a deductive -and demonstrative science of human actions and conduct.” -True, he is not a systematic writer. He does -not shine, as so many inferior geniuses have shone, in -the art of comparing, correlating, and harmonising the -great truths which it is his glory to have discovered -and illustrated. He puts us, as Lowe remarked with -his usual felicity, in mind of the Sages of Ancient -Greece, who, after lives of labour and study, bequeathed -half a dozen maxims for the guidance of mankind.</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_188">188</div> -<h2 id="c10">CHAPTER X -<br /><span class="smaller">FREE TRADE</span></h2> -<p>One of the least edifying features of modern controversy, -and particularly of political and economic controversy, -is the habit of appealing to precedents and -authorities which, if honestly cited, would militate -against the opinions of the controversialist. No -great writer has suffered more of late years from -this species of misrepresentation than Adam Smith; -yet his contemporaries and immediate successors both -in England and abroad perfectly understood his drift. -When Pitt and Shelburne declared themselves disciples -of Smith, they thereby declared themselves free -traders, and Pitt’s commercial policy from 1784 to -1794 was simply an attempt to carry out Smith’s -views. Resolute retrenchment, customs’ reform, the -commercial treaty with France, reduction of debt, were -all projected under the inspiration and countenance of -Mr. Commissioner Smith.</p> -<p>Nor did the English economists, from Ricardo to -Mill, ever suggest that Adam Smith had doubts about -the main doctrine of his book. In France and Germany -his opinions were eagerly embraced. To translate, interpret, -and systematise the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> was the -main function of continental economists in the early -years of the nineteenth century; and its influence was -<span class="pb" id="Page_189">189</span> -seen in a rapid and radical modification of commercial -policy. Internal barriers were swept away, feudal -restrictions abolished, and tariffs reduced. When the -waves of reaction—political rather than economic—began -to roll in, and “national” economists tried to reconstruct -the case for protection, they paid Smith the -compliment of a violent onslaught. “Smithianismus” -then became a term of abuse in protectionist circles, -and so remained until it was superseded by the equally -cacophonous “Manchesterthum.” It was in England -that the idea was started of dressing up Adam Smith -as a protectionist. While List was inveighing against -“cosmopolitical economy,” our own free traders in -their agitation against the corn laws found themselves -confronted with a new interpretation of their prophet. -At one of the League meetings (July 3, 1844) Cobden -gave a humorous description of the way in which some -protectionist pamphleteers tried to adapt Adam Smith’s -opinions to their own views. “They have done it in -this manner: they took a passage, and with the -scissors snipped and cut away at it, until by paring off -the ends of sentences and leaving out all the rest of -the passage, they managed to make Adam Smith -appear in some sense as a monopolist. When we referred -to the volume itself, we found out their tricks, -and exposed them. I tell you what their argument -reminds me of. An anecdote is told of an atheist who -once asserted that there was no God, and said he -would prove it from Scripture. He selected that -passage from the Psalms which says, ‘The fool hath -said in his heart there is no God.’ He then cut out -the whole passage, except the words, ‘there is no God,’ -and brought it forward as proof of his statement.”</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_190">190</div> -<p>If these false notions about Adam Smith’s economic -opinions had died with the pamphlets of obscure protectionists -sixty years ago, no more need have been -said. But as they have been revived again and again -in England, Germany, and the United States, and -solemnly adopted with all the plausibility of seemingly -circumstantial moderation by persons of European -repute, we shall examine the passages in the original, -in order to settle the question whether Smith can be -made to serve as “the spiritual father” of a commercial -policy not essentially different from the one -his criticism destroyed.</p> -<p>By a policy of free trade, which Adam Smith said -was the best means a statesman could adopt of promoting -national wealth and commerce, he meant a policy -that would relieve commerce and industry from all -internal dues and all external duties or prohibitions. -Anything that would bring other nations into line -commanded his warm sympathy and support. But -what he desired as a patriot was a policy of free -imports irrespective of what other countries might do. -The object of a national, as of an individual policy in -trade, should be to buy in the cheapest and sell in the -dearest market.<a class="fn" id="fr_35" href="#fn_35">[35]</a> This will appear at once from the -so-called exceptions or limitations by which Smith is -supposed to have watered down what Cobden’s biographer -has called “the pure milk of the Cobdenic word.”</p> -<p>The Act of Navigation is the first of “the two cases -in which it will generally be advantageous to lay some -burden upon foreign for the encouragement of domestic -<span class="pb" id="Page_191">191</span> -industry.”<a class="fn" id="fr_36" href="#fn_36">[36]</a> -But by “advantageous” Smith does not -mean “likely to enrich.” It is a measure of defence, -and is unfavourable to trade.</p> -<p>“The defence of Great Britain,” he says, “depends -very much upon the number of its sailors and shipping. -The Act of Navigation, therefore, very properly endeavours -to give the sailors and shipping of Great Britain -the monopoly of the trade of their own country.” The -Act is justified as a pure measure of defence, though it -aims at monopoly, and offends against the principles of -free trade. Lest, however, there should be any doubt -upon the point, he goes on to make it quite clear that, -while he praises the Act, as he might praise the building -of a man-of-war, he condemns it as an economic -measure. In the passage immediately following there -are two sentences which exactly give the point of -view, and should help to dissipate the false impression -(accepted and circulated by authorities like Hasbach, -who ought to know better) that Smith’s doctrines are -very different from Cobden’s:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“The Act of Navigation is not favourable to foreign commerce, -or to the growth of that opulence which can arise -from it.... As defence, however, is of much more importance -than opulence, the Act of Navigation is, perhaps, the wisest -of all the commercial regulations of England.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>How completely the Navigation Act failed as a commercial -measure appears from a number of passages in -the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> which together completely refute -the fallacy, so generally adopted by English historians, -<span class="pb" id="Page_192">192</span> -that it ruined the Dutch, enriched England, and gave -her a commercial and naval supremacy which she could -not otherwise have achieved. Holland, he says, is -richer than England; she gained the whole carrying -trade of France during the late war; she still remains -“the great emporium of European goods,” and so forth. -All that Smith claims for the Act is that it helped to -secure the country a sufficient supply of seamen for the -navy in time of war.</p> -<p>Further, as there are two cases (the necessity of -defence and the propriety of countervailing an excise -duty) “in which it will <i>generally</i> be advantageous -to lay some burden upon foreign for the encouragement -of domestic industry, so,” continues Smith, -“there are two others in which it may <i>sometimes</i> -be a matter of deliberation”: in the one, how far it -is proper to continue the free importation of goods -from a particular foreign country; in the other, how, -and how far, free importation, after it has been interrupted -for some time, should be restored. The first -case of doubt is that of doing evil by retaliation in -order that good, in the shape of freer trade, may come. -Occasionally, he writes, it may be wise to retaliate, -“when some nation restrains by high duties or prohibitions” -the importations of our manufactures. -After giving some examples of commercial retaliation, -one of which ended in war, Adam Smith lays down -the cautious rule that there may be good policy in -retaliations of this kind, but only where there is a -probability that retaliatory duties will procure the -repeal of the high duties or prohibitions complained of. -“The recovery of a great foreign market will generally -more than compensate the transitory inconvenience -<span class="pb" id="Page_193">193</span> -of paying dearer during a short time for some sorts -of things.” He leans strongly against the policy, partly -because he is unwilling to trust “that insidious and -crafty animal vulgarly called a statesman” to use such -a weapon wisely; partly because you rarely benefit the -sufferers and always injure other classes of your own -citizens, than those whom you are trying to assist.</p> -<p>The second case of doubt was merely one of expediency—whether -free trade should be introduced quickly -or slowly. “In what manner the natural system of -perfect liberty and justice ought gradually to be restored” -Smith left to the wisdom of future statesmen -and legislators to determine. But he maintained that -the evils attending the remedy were usually exaggerated, -and this view proved to be correct when Sir -Robert Peel and Mr. Gladstone effected the transformation -by five mighty strokes of the fiscal axe.</p> -<p>We have now examined all the passages which could -give colour to the impression that Smith was only a -free trader—on conditions. That part of the task is -easy enough. The difficulty begins when we seek -positive arguments against protective or differential -taxation. The woodman of Mount Ida was not more -embarrassed in choosing a tree to fell. The <i>Wealth of -Nations</i> is a forest of full-grown arguments for free -trade. The more one reads it, the more irresistibly -is one driven to the conclusion that the science of -political economy, as established in this masterpiece, -is inextricably bound up with the doctrine of free -trade. Every assumption and conclusion, his criticisms -of previous and existing theories, laws, customs, -and opinions, his surveys of the commercial and -colonial policy of Europe, all bear us directly or -<span class="pb" id="Page_194">194</span> -indirectly to the same goal. Yet there is one -principle which seems to take precedence in the argument. -In the division of labour, Smith found a key -to the growth of wealth and to the enlargement -of the material comforts that are necessary to the -progress of refinement and civilisation. The division -of labour is therefore his starting-point, and instead -of leaving it where Plato and Aristotle let it rest—a -barren formula of economic society—he sets it vigorously -in motion, and converts it, as it were, from a -slumbering lake into a vast reservoir that irrigates and -fertilises the whole plain of inquiry. And had he been -confined to one argument for free trade, this is probably -the one he would have adopted.</p> -<p>If we were asked to select that passage in the -<i>Wealth of Nations</i> which gives most succinctly the broad -objections to a protective policy, we should turn to the -second chapter of the fourth book, “Of restraints upon -the importation from foreign countries of such goods -as can be produced at home.” He begins by admitting -that high duties or prohibitions can secure to home -producers a monopoly of the home market. At that -time British graziers enjoyed the monopoly of providing -the home market with butcher-meat. The manufacturers -of wool and silk were equally favoured, and -the duties on foreign linen, for which Hume had pleaded -in one of his commercial essays, had lately been raised.</p> -<p>Smith thereupon asks whether these protective -measures, by giving an artificial direction to industry, -are likely to be of general benefit to society. The first -answer is that in business every man seeks his own -advantage, that every man knows his own business -best, and that “the study of his own advantage naturally, -<span class="pb" id="Page_195">195</span> -or rather necessarily, leads him to prefer that -employment which is most advantageous to society.” -Though intending only his own gain, he is “led by -an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part -of his intention.” Indeed the selfish trader—the -economic man, if you like—promotes the interest of -society far more effectually than those who affect to -trade for the public good. Is it not evident that the -individual himself, though he may make mistakes, -can judge best how and where to employ his own -labour or capital? The statesman or lawgiver who -attempted to direct private people how to manage their -business and spend their money would not only be -overloaded with work, but would be assuming an -authority “which could safely be trusted, not only to -no single person, but to no council or senate whatever.” -From this consideration we pass almost insensibly into -the argument from the division of labour.</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“It is the maxim of every prudent master of a family never -to attempt to make at home what it will cost him more to -make than to buy. The taylor does not attempt to make his -own shoes, but buys them of the shoemaker. The shoemaker -does not attempt to make his own clothes, but employs a taylor. -The farmer attempts to make neither the one nor the other, but -employs those different artificers. All of them find it for their -interest to employ their whole industry in a way in which they -have some advantage over their neighbours, and to purchase -with a part of its produce, or what is the same thing, with -the price of a part of it, whatever else they have occasion for.</p> -<p>“What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, -can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom. If a foreign -country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we -ourselves can make it, better buy it of them with some part -of the produce of our own industry, employed in a way in -which we have some advantage.”</p> -</blockquote> -<div class="pb" id="Page_196">196</div> -<p>Capital and industry are certainly not employed to -the greatest advantage when they are directed to objects -which under natural conditions could be bought cheaper -than they could be made. It is true, he adds, anticipating -the infant industry argument of Alexander -Hamilton, List, and Mill, that “by means of such -regulations a particular manufacture may sometimes -be acquired sooner than it could have been otherwise, -and after a certain time may be made at home as cheap -or cheaper than in the foreign country.” But <i>cui bono</i>? -Even in this case “it will by no means follow that the -sum total either of its industry or of its revenue can -ever be augmented by any such regulation.” One -immediate effect of such regulations must be to -diminish the revenue of the society, “and what -diminishes its revenue is certainly not very likely to -augment its capital faster than it would have augmented -of its own accord had both capital and industry -been left to find out their natural employments.”</p> -<p>But though reason led him by every road to a complete -system of liberty as the true end of commercial -policy, he despaired of its adoption. “To expect indeed -that freedom of trade should ever be entirely -restored in Great Britain, is as absurd as to expect -that an Oceana or Utopia should ever be established in -it.” Even if public prejudice were overcome, the resistance -of private interests would be unconquerable. -The landlords indeed had not yet acquired a strong -interest in protection. At that time the home supply -of wheat and oats in ordinary years was sufficient, or -nearly so, for the requirements of the population, -and prices were much about the same in England as -in other European countries. The moving spirits of -<span class="pb" id="Page_197">197</span> -protection were master manufacturers, who, “like an -overgrown standing army,” had begun to intimidate -the legislature.</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“The member of parliament who supports every proposal -for strengthening this monopoly, is sure to acquire not only -the reputation of understanding trade, but great popularity -and influence with an order of men whose numbers and wealth -render them of great importance. If he opposes them, on the -contrary, and still more, if he has authority enough to be able -to thwart them, neither the most acknowledged probity, nor -the highest rank, nor the greatest public services, can protect -him from the most infamous abuse and detraction, from -personal insults, nor sometimes from real danger, arising from -the insolent outrage of furious and disappointed monopolists.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Under these circumstances it is very surprising that -Adam Smith should have chosen to submit the corn -laws to so long and destructive an analysis. He seems -to have foreseen that the great battle for which he was -sounding the advance would ultimately rage round a -question then almost academic, and that cheap food -would be the keystone of the free trade argument.</p> -<p>After several years’ experience as a customs official, -Adam Smith took the opportunity in his third edition -(1784) of considerably enlarging the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>; -and, among other important additions, he inserted at -the end of Book <span class="smaller">IV.</span> a new chapter, entitled “Conclusion -of the Mercantile System.” It is a deeply instructive -recital of the extremities of absurdity into -which the British legislature had suffered itself to be -led blindfold by a false theory and powerful interests. -The encouragement of exportation, and the discouragement -of importation, were the two great engines by -which the mercantile system proposed to enrich every -country; but with regard to some particular commodities, -<span class="pb" id="Page_198">198</span> -it followed an opposite plan: discouraging -exports, and encouraging imports. Thus it penalised -or prohibited the exportation of machinery, wool, and -coal; nor was the living instrument, the artificer, -allowed to go free. Two statutes had been passed in -the reigns of George <span class="smaller">I.</span> and <span class="smaller">II.</span> to prevent any British -artificer going abroad under penalty of being declared -an alien, and forfeiting all his goods and chattels. “It -is unnecessary, I imagine, to observe how contrary -such regulations are to the boasted liberty of the -subject, of which we affect to be so very jealous; but -which, in this case, is so plainly sacrificed to the futile -interests of our merchants and manufacturers.” Smith -is very sarcastic about regulations whose “laudable -motive” was to extend British manufactures, not by -improving them, but by depressing those of our neighbours, -and by putting an end as much as possible to -the troublesome competition of such odious rivals. He -then lays down a maxim “so perfectly self-evident, -that it would be absurd to attempt to prove it”:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; -and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only -so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>This golden rule was everywhere violated by the -mercantile system, which seemed to consider production -the ultimate object of all industry. But the worst of -all its inventions was the colonial monopoly. “In the -system of laws which has been established for the -management of our American and West Indian colonies, -the interest of the home consumer has been sacrificed -to that of the producer with a more extravagant profusion -<span class="pb" id="Page_199">199</span> -than in all our other commercial regulations.” -If there was anything more odious to Adam Smith -than a protective duty, it was the discriminating or -preferential duty which had been invented for the purpose -of tying up the trade between Great Britain and -her colonies. Both his “Utopias” were projected for -the express purpose of putting an end to a colonial -system which he regarded as a dead weight upon both -the mother country and her dependencies.</p> -<p>The theory that Smith grew more protectionist as -he grew older might be dismissed now that we have -considered the lectures, and compared the first and -third editions of the finished work. But it is possible -that a very desperate casuist might still find one -more plea to urge. He might say: granted that -Smith remained to the last a theoretical free trader, -yet he frankly admitted it to be a Utopian project, -and he would not, as a responsible official, have advised -its adoption. Did he not accept a Crown appointment -under Lord North’s protectionist administration, and -did he not spend the last years of his life as a principal -instrument in collecting the proceeds of a highly -protectionist tariff? Nay, further, did he not take a -carnal satisfaction in the leaps and bounds by which the -revenue under his charge was at that time advancing? -In December 1785 he wrote to William Eden:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“It may perhaps give that gentleman [Mr. Rose of the -Treasury] pleasure to be informed that the net revenue arising -from the customs in Scotland is at least four times greater -than it was seven or eight years ago. It has been increasing -rapidly these four or five years past, and the revenue of this -year has over-leaped by at least one half the revenue of the -greatest former year. I flatter myself it is likely to increase -still further.”</p> -</blockquote> -<div class="pb" id="Page_200">200</div> -<p>Whatever force the <i>argumentum ad officium</i> might -have in a country (if such there be) where customs -officials are sworn supporters of the commercial policy -of the Government, it has none in reference to Great -Britain, and less than none if regard be had to the -circumstances of Smith’s appointment. There is no -reason for supposing that Lord North had any particular -liking for protection, though as the instrument -of the king’s war policy he had an insatiable craving -for revenue, and in pursuit thereof adopted, as we -shall see, several taxes of a non-protective character -suggested by Smith in the first edition of his treatise. -Further, when the above letter was written Pitt was -already, under the inspiration of this very customs -official, initiating a free trade policy, and was actually -preparing the great commercial treaty with France -which he was to carry into effect a few months later. -A patriotic Scotsman might well delight in his country’s -rapid recovery from the disastrous effects of the war, -and the author of Pitt’s policy would naturally anticipate -an increase of prosperity with an expansion of -imports and a growth of the revenues under his charge.</p> -<p>Moreover, there is happily extant a relic of the -correspondence which Smith carried on as financial -adviser to ministers. In the year 1778 Ireland -was in a terrible plight. In addition to all the evils -of a minority rule, she suffered as a whole from a -commercial persecution by the predominant partner. -Her trade had been deliberately and malevolently -throttled by the superior legislature of Great Britain. -At that time Irish wool could be exported to no -country save Great Britain. Irish woollens could -only be exported from specified ports in Ireland to -<span class="pb" id="Page_201">201</span> -specified ports in Great Britain. All export of Irish -glass was absolutely prohibited. Worst of all, she was -not allowed to send her staple article—cattle—or even -salt provisions to the English market. And she was -excluded from the colonial trade.</p> -<p>Even so cool a political hand as Henry Dundas -(then Lord Advocate), writing to Smith at the -end of October 1779, confessed that he has been -shocked at the tone and temper of the House of -Commons in its dealings with Ireland’s prayers for -elementary justice. But the Irish Parliament was now -demanding free trade in tones too peremptory to be -ignored, for they were backed by a threatening display -of armed force. Dundas saw little objection to -acceding to some of the requisitions; but he had no -very clear grasp of the economics of the situation, -and being in correspondence with Eden, the Secretary -of the Board of Trade, he wanted an expert opinion -from the Seer of Edinburgh. Smith replies that the -Irish demand should be satisfied, first, because it is -just; second, because it will be for the benefit of -English consumers; and lastly, because English manufacturers -will suffer so much less than the nation, and -the national revenue, will gain. Dundas had seemed -to be rather afraid that with cheaper labour and lower -taxes the Irish manufacturers might be able to undersell -their British competitors. Smith pointed out that -they had neither the skill nor the stock [capital] to -enable them to do so; “and though both may be -acquired in time, to acquire them completely will -require more than a century.” Besides, Ireland had -neither coal nor wood; “and though her soil and -climate are perfectly suited for raising the latter, yet -<span class="pb" id="Page_202">202</span> -to raise it to the same degree as in England will -require more than a century.”</p> -<p>Before he can say precisely what the Irish Parliament -means by a free trade, he must see the heads of -the proposed bill. If it is only freedom to export, -nothing could be more just and reasonable. If it is -freedom to import, subject only to their own customs’ -duties, that again is perfectly reasonable, though it -would “interfere a little with some of our paltry -monopolies.” If they wish to be allowed to trade -freely with the American and African plantations, -that also should be conceded. It would interfere -with some monopolies, but would do no harm to -Great Britain. Lastly, they might mean to demand -a free trade with Great Britain. “Nothing, in my -opinion, would be more highly advantageous to both -countries than this mutual freedom of trade. It would -help to break down that absurd monopoly which we -have most absurdly established against ourselves in -favour of almost all the different classes of our own -manufacturers.” Dundas had hinted that the two -Parliaments might be reconciled by a proper distribution -of loaves and fishes. Smith did not shrink at all -from promoting a good policy by what was then the -ordinary method of promoting a bad policy:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“Whatever the Irish mean to demand in this way, in the -present situation of our affairs I should think it madness not -to grant it. Whatever they may demand, our manufacturers, -unless the leading and principal men among them are properly -dealt with beforehand, will probably oppose it. That they -may be so dealt with I know from experience, and that it may -be done at little expense and with no great trouble. I could -even point to some persons who, I think, are fit and likely to -deal with them successfully for this purpose. I shall not say -<span class="pb" id="Page_203">203</span> -more upon this till I see you, which I shall do the first moment -I can get out of this Town.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>A week later Smith repeated his argument with -some additions and modifications in a letter of -November 8th to Lord Carlisle, who then presided over -the Board of Trade. He maintains that “a very slender -interest of our own manufacturers is the foundation -of all these unjust and oppressive restraints,” and -ridicules “the watchful jealousy of the monopolists, -alarmed lest the Irish, who have never been able to -supply completely even their own market with glass -or woollen manufactures, should be able to rival them -in foreign markets.”</p> -<p>When he passes from commercial considerations to -the larger aspects of freedom and good government, -his wisdom is no less manifest. What Ireland most -wants, he writes, are order, police, and a regular administration -of justice, both to protect and to restrain -the inferior ranks of people: “articles more essential -to the progress of industry than both coal and wood -put together, and which Ireland must continue to -want as long as it continues to be divided between two -hostile nations, the oppressors and the oppressed, -the Protestants and the Papists.” He then points -out that what the monopolists dread (the prosperity -of another country) is not an evil but a good:—“Should -the industry of Ireland, in consequence of -freedom and good government, ever equal that of -England, so much the better would it be not only -for the whole British Empire, but for the particular -province of England. As the wealth and industry of -Lancashire does not obstruct but promote that of -Yorkshire, so the wealth and industry of Ireland -<span class="pb" id="Page_204">204</span> -would not obstruct but promote that of England.” -For exactly the same reasons he wanted free trade -with France, and with the whole world. If it is good -for one man to trade freely with another, for a town -with a town, and for a county with a county, how -can it be otherwise than good for countries to trade -freely together? An economist who strikes at the last -proposition should hail Smith’s humorous project of a -tariff which would secure Scotland a vintage as well as -a harvest.</p> -<p>Much more might be said upon a subject that enters -into the politics of every State, and vitally affects the -welfare of every struggling toiler in the universe. -But the purpose of this chapter will be fulfilled if it -restores to Adam Smith his identity as the protagonist -in a great contest, as the champion of the right -to trade with all the world, against those who stand -for privileges, monopolies, and tariffs. According to -Bagehot, Smith’s name can no more be dissociated from -free trade than Homer’s from the siege of Troy. “So -long as the doctrines of protection exist—and they -seem likely to do so, as human interests are what -they are, and human nature is what it is—Adam Smith -will always be quoted as the great authority on Anti-Protectionism, -as the man who first told the world -the truth, so that the world could learn and believe it.”</p> -<div class="pb" id="Page_205">205</div> -<h2 id="c11">CHAPTER XI -<br /><span class="smaller">LAST YEARS</span> -<br />(1776-1790)</h2> -<p>After seeing the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> through the press, -Smith lingered a few weeks in London. He was -anxious to persuade Hume to come up and consult the -London physicians, but Hume shrank from the journey, -and implored his friend to return to Edinburgh. So -about the middle of April, Smith and John Home<a class="fn" id="fr_37" href="#fn_37">[37]</a> took -the coach for Edinburgh. But at Morpeth, where the -coach stopped, they saw Hume’s servant at the door -of the inn. Hume had changed his mind, and was on -his way to see Sir John Pringle. Home returned with -Hume to London, but Smith, hearing that his aged -mother was ill, went on to Kirkcaldy. Before parting, -however, the two friends carefully discussed the question -of what should be done with Hume’s papers in the -event of his death. From a desire to avoid religious -controversy and public clamour, Hume had kept by -him unpublished his <i>Dialogues on Natural Religion</i>; -and he now tried to persuade his friend and literary -executor to edit them after his death.</p> -<p>But Smith resolutely declined the task. Although -he had himself lectured on Natural Religion, he had -<span class="pb" id="Page_206">206</span> -warily avoided the subject in his own publications. -Moreover, he was now hoping to be appointed to an -office under the Crown, and such a publication would -certainly be prejudicial. Hume argued that these -objections were groundless: “Was Mallet anywise -hurt by his publication of Lord Bolingbroke? He -received an office afterwards from the present king, -and Lord Bute, the most prudent man in the world, -and he always justified himself by his sacred regard -to the will of a dead friend.” And he reminded -Smith of a saying of Rochefoucauld, that “a wind, -though it extinguishes a candle, blows up a fire.” So -he wrote from London at the beginning of May. -However, he agreed to leave the question of publication -entirely to Smith’s discretion. “By the little -company I have seen,” he added, “I find the town very -full of your book, which meets with general approbation.” -Soon afterwards Hume changed his mind, and -made Strahan his literary executor, with instructions -to publish the <i>Dialogues</i> within two and a half years.</p> -<p>In July the two friends were again in Edinburgh, -conversing together. Smith was deeply impressed by -the philosophic courage, and even gaiety, with which -the great sceptic faced the approach of death. In -the well-known letter to Strahan,<a class="fn" id="fr_38" href="#fn_38">[38]</a> that is always -printed with Hume’s autobiography, he mentions among -other touching incidents that a certain Colonel Edmondstone -paid a farewell visit to Hume, but afterwards -could not forbear writing a last letter “applying to -him as to a dying man the beautiful French verses in -which the Abbé Chaulieu, in expectation of his own -death, laments his approaching separation from his -<span class="pb" id="Page_207">207</span> -friend the Marquis de la Fare.” “Mr. Hume’s magnanimity -and firmness were such,” continued Smith, -“that his most affectionate friends knew that they -hazarded nothing in talking or writing to him as a -dying man, and that, far from being hurt by this -frankness, he was rather pleased and flattered with it.”</p> -<p>At the end of the first week of August, Hume had -now become so very weak that the company of his -most intimate friends fatigued him:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“At his own desire, therefore, I agreed to leave Edinburgh, -and returned to my mother’s house here at Kirkcaldy, upon -condition that he would send for me whenever he wished to -see me; the physician who saw him most frequently, Dr. -Black, undertaking in the meantime to write me occasionally -an account of the state of his health.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>The correspondence which followed marks the close -of a deep, unbroken, and memorable attachment. On -August 15th Hume’s anxiety for the <i>Dialogues</i> revived: -“On revising them (which I have not done these five -years) I find that nothing can be more cautiously and -more artfully written. You had certainly forgotten them. -Will you permit me to leave you the property of the -copy, in case they should not be published in five years -after my decease? Be so good as write me an answer -soon.” On the 22nd Smith replied:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“I have this moment received yr. letter of the 15th inst. -You had, in order to save me the sum of one penny sterling, -sent it by the carrier instead of the Post, and (if you have -not mistaken the date) it has lain at his quarters these eight -days, and was, I presume, very likely to lie there for ever.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Then, after reassuring Hume about the <i>Dialogues</i>, he -continued:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“If you will give me leave I will add a few lines to yr. -<span class="pb" id="Page_208">208</span> -account of your own life, giving some account in my own -name of your behaviour in this illness, if, contrary to my own -hopes, it should prove your last. Some conversations we had -lately together, particularly that concerning your want of an -excuse to make to Charon, the excuse you at last thought of, -and the very bad reception wh. Charon was likely to give it, -would, I imagine, make no disagreeable part of the history. -You have in a declining state of health, under an exhausting -disease, for more than two years together now looked at the -approach of death with a steady cheerfulness such as very few -men have been able to maintain for a few hours, tho’ otherwise -in the most perfect Health. I shall likewise, if you give me -leave, correct the sheets of the new edition of your works, and -shall take care that it shall be published exactly according to -your last corrections. As I shall be at London this winter, -it will cost me very little trouble.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>But “the cool and steady Dr. Black” still gave him -some hopes of his friend’s recovery. On the following -day Hume dictated a brief answer to this letter, -explaining that he had only taken an extra precaution -in case anything might happen to Strahan. “You are -too good,” he added, “in thinking any trifles that concern -me are so much worthy of your attention, but I -give you entire liberty to make what additions you -please to the account of my life.”</p> -<p>Two days afterwards Hume died, and was buried in -Calton Cemetery. Smith did not like the round tower -erected under a provision of the will to mark the grave—“it -is the greatest piece of vanity I ever saw in my -friend Hume.” By the will a legacy of £200 and copies -of all Hume’s published works were left to him; but -he stoutly refused to accept the money, as he had ceased -to be executor, although he had no thought of relinquishing -his promise to edit Hume’s life and works. -“I have added,” he wrote to Hume’s brother (Kirkcaldy, -<span class="pb" id="Page_209">209</span> -October 7th), “at the bottom of my will the note -discharging the legacy of £200 which your brother -was so kind as to leave me. Upon the most mature -deliberation I am fully satisfied that in justice it is not -due to me. Tho’ it should be due to me therefore in -strict law, I cannot with honour accept of it.”</p> -<p>A month earlier he had written to Strahan from Dalkeith, -where he was staying with the Duke of Buccleuch, -a careful explanation of Hume’s will and last wishes. -“Both from his will and from his conversation I understand -that there are only two [manuscripts] which he -meant should be published—an account of his life, and -<i>Dialogues concerning Natural Religion</i>. The latter, tho’ -finely written, I could have wished had remained in -manuscript to be communicated only to a few friends. -I propose to add to his Life a very well authenticated -account of his behaviour during his last illness.”</p> -<p>Smith’s addition to Hume’s autobiography took -the form of a letter to Strahan giving an account -of Hume’s last illness, concluding with the words: -“Upon the whole, I have always considered him both -in his lifetime and since his death as approaching as -nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous -man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will -permit.” This warm-hearted and eloquent, but surely -extravagant eulogy of the “virtuous heathen,” created -precisely the kind of popular clamour that Smith had -been so anxious to avoid. Strahan liked the addition -exceedingly; but as this and the autobiography -together were too short to make even a tiny volume, -he wrote back, good publisher that he was:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“I have been advised by some very good judges to annex -some of his letters to me on political subjects. What think -<span class="pb" id="Page_210">210</span> -you of this? I will do nothing without your advice and -approbation, nor would I for the world publish any letter -of his but such as in your opinion would do him honour. -Mr. Gibbon thinks such as I have shown him would have -that tendency. Now if you approve of this in any manner, -you may perhaps add partly to the collection from your own -cabinet and those of Mr. John Home, Dr. Robertson, and -others of your mutual friends which you may pick up before -you return hither. But if you wholly disapprove of this -scheme, say nothing of it, here let it drop, for without your -concurrence I will not publish a single word of it.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>A decisive reply came at once from Kirkcaldy. It -gives a peremptory judgment—quite against the drift -of modern opinion—upon what will always be a case -for the casuist:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“I am sensible that many of Mr. Hume’s letters would do -him great honour, and that you would publish none but such -as would. But what in this case ought principally to be -considered is the will of the Dead. Mr. Hume’s constant -injunction was to burn all his Papers except the <i>Dialogues</i> -and the account of his own life. This injunction was even -inserted in the body of his will. I know he always disliked -the thought of his letters ever being published. He had been -in long and intimate correspondence with a relation of his own -who dyed a few years ago. When that gentleman’s health -began to decline he was extremely anxious to get back his -letters, least the heir should think of publishing them. They -were accordingly returned, and burnt as soon as returned. -If a collection of Mr. Hume’s letters besides was to receive -the public approbation, as yours certainly would, the Curls -of the times would immediately set about rummaging the -cabinets of all those who had ever received a scrap of paper -from him. Many things would be published not fit to see -the light, to the great mortification of all those who wish well -to his memory. Nothing has contributed so much to sink -the value of Swift’s works as the undistinguished publication -of his letters; and be assured that your publication, however -<span class="pb" id="Page_211">211</span> -select, would soon be followed by an undistinguished one. -I should therefore be sorry to see any beginning given to the -publication of his letters. His life will not make a volume, -but it will make a small pamphlet.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>The nervous objection felt by Hume and Smith to -the publication of correspondence or of any manuscript -not carefully considered by the writer, and intended by -him for publication, may be overstrained; but perhaps -this generation errs as much in its anxiety to penetrate -the privacy of the dead as they did in wishing to -destroy everything that was incomplete, or too easy, -intimate, and negligent—as they thought—for the eye -of a critical posterity.</p> -<p>Fortune now played our provident philosopher one -of her most insolent tricks. When the dreaded -<i>Dialogues</i> appeared, they fell perfectly flat; but the -letter to Strahan excited, as Mr. Rae says, “a long reverberation -of angry criticism.” His words, few and simple, -but warm with the glow of friendship, “rang like a -challenge to religion itself.” Pamphlets poured forth, -the cleverest of which, “A Letter to Adam Smith, -LL.D., on the Life, Death, and Philosophy of David -Hume, Esquire, by one of the People called Christians,” -was still being printed and circulated for edification -by the Religious Tract Society in the thirtieth year of -the nineteenth century. Its anonymous author, Dr. -George Horne, President of Magdalen College, Oxford, -proclaimed that no unbeliever could be virtuous or -charitable, and charged Smith as well as Hume with -the atrocious wickedness of diffusing atheism through -the land. “You would persuade us,” he cried, “by -the example of David Hume, Esq., that atheism -is the only cordial for low spirits and the proper -<span class="pb" id="Page_212">212</span> -antidote against the fear of death; but surely he who -can reflect with complacency on a friend thus employing -his talents in this life, and thus amusing himself -with Lucian, whist, and Charon at his death, can smile -over Babylon in ruins, esteem the earthquakes which -destroyed Lisbon as agreeable occurrences, and congratulate -the hardened Pharaoh on his overthrow in -the Red Sea.”</p> -<p>Smith made no answer to this attack, for which the -author was afterwards rewarded by a Bishopric. After -Christmas, when his mother’s health allowed him to -leave her, he travelled to London, and early in January -1777 he had taken lodgings in Suffolk Street, near -the British Coffee House, and was busy preparing his -second edition of the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, a reprint, with -corrections and two additional pages. In March he -was at a dinner of the Literary Club with Gibbon, -Garrick, Reynolds, Johnson, Burke, and Fox. Mr. Rae -thinks he remained most of the year in London, and -probably he had some intercourse with Lord North -and other members of the Government. At any rate -Lord North, who had studied Smith’s chapters on -taxation to more purpose than his chapters on expenditure -and policy, borrowed two of his ideas in the -Budget of 1777—for he laid taxes on men-servants -and on property sold by auction.<a class="fn" id="fr_39" href="#fn_39">[39]</a> Smith was back -in Edinburgh by the end of this year, and there heard -from Strahan that he had been appointed by Lord -<span class="pb" id="Page_213">213</span> -North one of the Commissioners of the Customs in -Scotland. In the middle of January he writes from -Kirkcaldy to Strahan, requesting him to send two -copies of the second edition of the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, -“handsomely bound and gilt, one to Lord North, -the other to Sir Gray Cooper,” and adds, “I believe -that I have been very highly obliged to him [Cooper] -in this business.”<a class="fn" id="fr_40" href="#fn_40">[40]</a> The Commissionership was worth -£600 a year, and Smith at once proposed to relinquish -his pension; but the Duke of Buccleuch would -not hear of it.</p> -<p>Early in 1778 Smith removed to Edinburgh. He -was now in the enjoyment of a certain income of £900 -a year apart from the considerable sums which he -derived from the sale of his books. He took Panmure -House in the Canongate, not far from the deserted -palace of Holyrood—a fashionable quarter where some -of the Scottish nobility, forsaken by King and Court, -still kept their town houses. Panmure House is now -a dismantled store; and it needs some imagination to -realise how Windham, accustomed to London palaces, -should have called it “magnificent,” as he looked from -its newly painted windows and plastered walls “over -the long strip of terraced garden on to the soft green -slopes of the Calton.”<a class="fn" id="fr_41" href="#fn_41">[41]</a></p> -<p>The rent was probably very nearly £20 a year. But -Smith was one of the richest men in Edinburgh, and -felt, no doubt, that he could well afford to take one of -the best houses in the city. To share and crown his -happiness he brought his mother, his cousin Miss -Douglas, and her nephew, a schoolboy David Douglas -<span class="pb" id="Page_214">214</span> -(afterwards Lord Strathendry), whom he made his heir. -From Panmure House “Mr. Commissioner Smith” -walked every day to his official duties in Exchange -Square, attired in a light-coloured coat, white silk -stockings, and a broad-brimmed hat, holding a cane at -his shoulder as a soldier carries a musket. He used -to turn his head gently from side to side as he walked, -and swayed his body “vermicularly,” as if at every -other step he meant to alter his direction or even to -turn back.<a class="fn" id="fr_42" href="#fn_42">[42]</a> His lips often moved, and he would smile -like one conversing with an invisible companion. He -was not always unaware of his surroundings, and was -fond of relating how a market woman in the High -Street took him for a well-to-do lunatic. “Hech, -sirs!” she cried, “to let the like of him be about! -And yet he’s weel enough put on!”</p> -<p>His letters show that he was very regular in attending -to his duties at the Customs, which indeed were -important in themselves, and not unattractive to one -who took so deep an interest in the art of revenue and -the growth of wealth. The duties of the Commissioners -were administrative and judicial. Sometimes -they had to despatch soldiers to guard part of the -coast against smugglers, or to put down an illegal still. -They heard merchants’ appeals from assessments; they -appointed and controlled the local officers, and every -year they prepared returns of customs’ revenue and -expenditure. There is good reason to think that he -found his work congenial, though Dugald Stewart, -who always grows morbid at the thought of any -check to the output of philosophic literature, laments -that these duties, “though they required little exertion -<span class="pb" id="Page_215">215</span> -of thought, were yet sufficient to waste his spirits and -dissipate his attention,” and that the time they consumed -was not employed in labours more profitable to -the world and more equal to his mind. During the -first years of his residence in Edinburgh “his studies -seemed to be entirely suspended, and his passion for -letters served only to amuse his leisure and to animate -his conversation.” This young mentor often caught -our misguided veteran wasting precious time in his -library with Sophocles or Euripides, and would be told -that re-acquaintance with the favourites of one’s youth -is the most grateful and soothing diversion of old age. -Let us forgive, and more than forgive, the tired -economist, who disapproved that care, though wise -in show,</p> -<div class="verse"> -<p class="t0">“That with superfluous burden loads the day,</p> -<p class="t0">And, when God sends a cheerful hour, refrains.”</p> -</div> -<p>It is indeed to be wished that the notes on Jurisprudence -could have been worked up into an ample -study after the manner of Montesquieu’s <i>Spirit of the -Laws</i>; but probably all that would have been gained -by retirement would have been the publication of -his lectures on <i>belles lettres</i>; and it is certain that some -of the most instructive additions to the <i>Wealth of -Nations</i> could never have been written, had Smith -declined the office of Commissioner.</p> -<p>At any rate, a problematical loss to the world was a -great gain to Edinburgh. Smith, though personally -the most frugal, was also the most hospitable, genial, -and charitable of men. Hume’s death, indeed, left a -gap that could not be filled. But every city in -Europe might still envy Edinburgh her Republic of -<span class="pb" id="Page_216">216</span> -Letters. Robertson the historian, who formed with -Hume and Gibbon what Gibbon proudly called the -Triumvirate, and Adam Ferguson, a little jealous at -this time of his greater rival, lived outside the town. -Black, too, who had taken Hume’s place as Smith’s -dearest living friend, had what was in those days a -country house, now the Royal Blind Asylum in -Nicolson Street. Kames, Hailes, and Monboddo, Sir -John Dalrymple and Dugald Stewart, and many other -minor celebrities, lived close at hand. Smith seems -to have kept something like open house. His Sunday -suppers were remembered long after his death, and -many distinguished visitors to Edinburgh enjoyed the -hospitality of Panmure House.</p> -<p>He loved good conversation. In Glasgow and in -London he had belonged to several dining-clubs, and -he now helped to found another. Swediaur, a Parisian -doctor, wrote from Edinburgh in 1784 to Jeremy -Bentham: “we have a club here which consists of -nothing but philosophers.” They met every Friday at -two o’clock in a Grassmarket tavern, and the Frenchman -found it “a most enlightened, agreeable, cheerful, -and social company.” Smith, Black, and Hutton, the -fathers of the three modern sciences of political -economy, modern chemistry, and modern geology, -were the illustrious founders of this society. All -three, wrote another member, Professor John Playfair, -had enlarged views and wide information, “without -any of the stateliness which men of letters think it -sometimes necessary to affect; ... and as the sincerity -of their friendship had never been darkened by the -least shade of envy, it would be hard to find an example -where everything favourable to good society was more -<span class="pb" id="Page_217">217</span> -perfectly united, and everything adverse more entirely -excluded.” Henry Mackenzie, who wrote the <i>Man of -Feeling</i>, and Dugald Stewart were also members.</p> -<p>The club was called the Oyster Club, though -Hutton was an abstainer, Black a vegetarian, and -Smith’s only extravagant taste was for lump sugar.</p> -<p>“We shall never,” wrote Sir Walter Scott in some -recollections of these “old Northern Lights,” which -appeared in an early number of the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, -“forget one particular evening when he [Smith] put -an elderly maiden lady who presided at the tea-table -to sore confusion by neglecting utterly her invitation -to be seated, and walking round and round the circle, -stopping ever and anon to steal a lump from the sugar -basin, which the venerable spinster was at length constrained -to place on her own knee, as the only method -of securing it from his uneconomical depredations. -His appearance mumping the eternal sugar was something -indescribable.” Sir Walter was a schoolfellow -of young David Douglas; and the incident no doubt -took place in Panmure House, where Miss Douglas -would naturally preside at the tea-table.</p> -<p>Scott had a vivid recollection of Black and Hutton. -The former used the English pronunciation, and spoke -with punctilious accuracy of expression. He wore the -formal full-dress habit then imposed on members of the -medical faculty. Dr. Hutton’s dress had the simplicity -of a Quaker’s, and he used a broad Scotch accent which -often heightened his humour. Sir Walter told an -amusing anecdote which may, perhaps, explain why -the dining society, founded by the three philosophers, -was called the Oyster Club. It so chanced that Black -and Hutton had held some discourse together upon the -<span class="pb" id="Page_218">218</span> -folly of abstaining from feeding on the crustaceous -creatures of the land, when those of the sea were -considered as delicacies. Snails were known to be -nutritious and wholesome, even “sanative” in some -cases. The epicures of ancient Rome enumerated the -snails of Lucca among the richest and rarest delicacies, -and the modern Italians still held them in esteem. So -a gastronomic experiment was resolved on. The snails -were procured, dieted for a time, then stewed.</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“A huge dish of snails was placed before them; but philosophers -are but men after all; and the stomachs of both doctors -began to revolt against the proposed experiment. Nevertheless -if they looked with disgust on the snails, they retained -their awe for each other; so that each, conceiving the -symptoms of internal revolt peculiar to himself, began with -infinite exertion to swallow, in very small quantities, the mess -which he loathed. Dr. Black at length ‘showed the white -feather,’ but in a very delicate manner, as if to sound the -opinion of his messmate. ‘Doctor,’ he said in his precise and -quiet style, ‘Doctor, do you not think that they taste a little—a -very little green?’ ‘D——d green, d——d green -indeed!—tak’ them awa’, tak’ them awa’!’ vociferated Dr. -Hutton, starting up from table and giving full vent to his -feelings.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>One of Smith’s younger friends was John Sinclair, a -Scotch laird of much ability and immense industry, -whose <i>History of the Public Revenue</i> is still a standard -work. It owed much to the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>; for -when Smith saw how competent Sinclair was, he helped -him in every possible way. In 1777 he dissuaded the -young man from printing a pamphlet against the -Puritanical observance of the Sabbath, saying, “Your -work is very ably written, but I advise you not to -publish it; for rest assured that the Sabbath as a -<span class="pb" id="Page_219">219</span> -political institution is of inestimable value independently -of its claim to divine authority.” Late in -the following year, when Sinclair brought him the -news of Saratoga, and declared that the nation must -be ruined, Smith answered coolly, “Be assured, my -young friend, that there is a great deal of ruin in a -nation.” About the same time he let Sinclair have -the use (so long as he did not take it out of Edinburgh) -of his own much-prized copy of the <i>Mémoires concernant -les Impositions</i>, a contemporary survey of European -systems of taxation, which he had obtained “by the -particular favour of Mr. Turgot, the late Comptroller-General -of the Finances.” In one of his letters to Sinclair -he expressed his dislike of “all taxes that may affect -the necessary expenses of the poor.”</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“They, according to different circumstances, either oppress -the people immediately subject to them, or are repaid with -great interest by the rich, <i>i.e.</i> by their employers in the advanced -wages of their labour. Taxes on the <i>luxuries</i> of the -poor, upon their beer and other spirituous liquors, for example, -as long as they are so moderate as not to give much -temptation to smuggling, I am so far from disapproving, that -I look upon them as the best of sumptuary laws.”<a class="fn" id="fr_43" href="#fn_43">[43]</a></p> -</blockquote> -<p>Sinclair, who had entered Parliament in 1780, discussed -foreign policy with Smith in the autumn of -1782, soon after the surrender at Yorktown, when the -fortunes of Great Britain had sunk to their lowest ebb. -The American colonies were lost; Ireland was almost -in revolt; Gibraltar was besieged by the Spanish and -French fleets; and the Northern powers were arrayed -in an unfriendly armed neutrality. Sinclair had -drafted a tract suggesting that we should seek to draw -<span class="pb" id="Page_220">220</span> -the Northern powers into an alliance against the House -of Bourbon by offering them a share in our colonial -monopoly. Again Smith advised his young friend not -to go into print. The proposal, he thought, would -not find favour with the neutrals, and there seemed to -be a moral inconsistency in the argument. “If it be -just to emancipate the continent of America from the -dominion of every European power, how can it be just -to subject the islands to such dominion; and if the -monopoly of the trade of the continent be contrary to -the rights of mankind, how can that of the islands be -agreeable to those rights?”</p> -<p>In the following year peace was concluded with -America and France; and the Prime Minister boasted -to Morellet that all the treaties of that year were -inspired by “the great principle of free trade.”</p> -<p>The necessity for resuming commercial intercourse -with the United States raised in an acute form the -problem of the colonial monopoly. Should the States -be allowed to trade with Canada on the same terms as -with Great Britain? William Eden (afterwards Lord -Auckland) was afraid of abandoning the differential -principle, and in his perplexity wrote to Smith, who -replied that if the Americans really meant to subject -the goods of all nations to the same import duties, -they would “set an example of good sense which all -other nations ought to imitate.” He had little anxiety—and -his confidence was completely justified by the -event—about the loss of the American monopoly. “By -an equality of treatment of all nations, we might soon -open a commerce with the neighbouring nations of -Europe infinitely more advantageous than that of so -distant a country as America.” As he hopes to see -<span class="pb" id="Page_221">221</span> -Eden in a few weeks’ time, he will not write a tedious -dissertation, but contents himself with saying that -“every extraordinary, either encouragement or discouragement, -that is given to the trade of any country, -more than to that of another, may, I think, be demonstrated -to be in every case a complete piece of dupery, -by which the interest of the State and the nation is -constantly sacrificed to that of some particular class of -traders.” He ends with warm praise of the East India -Bill, and of the decisive judgment and resolution with -which it had been introduced and triumphantly carried -through the House of Commons by Fox.<a class="fn" id="fr_44" href="#fn_44">[44]</a></p> -<p>It is worth while here to note Smith’s steady devotion -to Fox and Burke, who represented the Rockingham -branch of the Whig party. He was faithful -found among innumerable false, for he approved alike of -Fox’s resignation in 1782 rather than serve under -Shelburne, and of his fatal coalition with Lord North -in the following year.<a class="fn" id="fr_45" href="#fn_45">[45]</a> It may seem strange to those -who think of Adam Smith only as the founder of -free trade that he should have been a Foxite, and -especially that he should have remained one in the -last decade of his life, when commercial questions -<span class="pb" id="Page_222">222</span> -were uppermost, and when Shelburne first, and then -Pitt, set themselves to translate the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> -into laws and treaties. But, as we have tried to show, -he never allowed economical considerations to weigh -in the scale with political liberty; and the clue to his -distrust of Shelburne and Pitt is his dislike of the -King as a corrupter of politics, and of the Court as a -corrupter of morals. Shelburne and Pitt exalting the -King and the executive would have depressed the -House of Commons. Rockingham, Fox, and Burke -sought manfully, and not unsuccessfully, so to maintain -and glorify constitutional usages as to check and -limit the power of the King. This single consideration -was enough to determine the allegiance of a truly -republican heart.</p> -<p>Burke, moreover, was in every way a sympathetic -figure. His measure of economical reform had docked -the resources of patronage, and sensibly relieved the -burdens of the taxpayer. And his views about commercial -liberty coincided with Smith’s own. About -this time a happy chance brought the two friends -together. In the autumn of 1783 Burke was elected -Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, and early -in the following April, during the general election -which overwhelmed the Whigs, Burke, having saved -his own seat at Malton, paid a visit to Scotland. He -stayed a few days in Edinburgh, and then, accompanied -by Adam Smith, Lord Maitland,<a class="fn" id="fr_46" href="#fn_46">[46]</a> and others, -went on to Glasgow to be installed in his new office. -On the day of their arrival (Friday, April 9) they -supped with that stalwart Whig, John Millar, the -<span class="pb" id="Page_223">223</span> -Professor of Law. On Sunday, Smith and Maitland -took Burke to see Loch Lomond, and made their way -back by Carron to Edinburgh, which they reached on -the following Wednesday. Next day Burke, with -a company of Smith’s Edinburgh friends, dined at -Panmure House. On Friday the great orator returned -to England extremely pleased by his reception -in Scotland, and leaving behind him many friends -and admirers. One of these has preserved some particulars -of the visit. “Smith, Dugald, and I,” wrote -Dalzel, “had more of his company than anybody in -this country, and we got a vast deal of political anecdote -from him and fine pictures of political characters -both dead and living.” Burke advised Lord Maitland, -if he had ambition and wanted office, to abandon the -Whig party. “Shake us off: give us up.” Smith -said cheerfully that “in two years things would come -about again.” “Why,” cried Burke, “I have already -been in a minority nineteen years, and your two years, -Mr. Smith, will make me twenty-one years, and it will -surely be high time for me then to be in my majority!”</p> -<p>Before the end of May a dark cloud came over -Smith’s life, for his mother passed away in her ninetieth -year. Four years later her death was followed by that -of his cousin, Miss Douglas. Their loss was irreparable. -“They had been the objects of his affection for more -than sixty years, and in their society he had enjoyed -from his infancy all that he ever knew of the endearments -of a family.”<a class="fn" id="fr_47" href="#fn_47">[47]</a></p> -<p>Late in the autumn of 1784 Faujas de Saint-Fond, -the geologist, visited Edinburgh after some adventurous -discoveries in the Hebrides. During his fortnight’s -<span class="pb" id="Page_224">224</span> -stay “that venerable philosopher Adam Smith” -was one of those whom he visited most frequently. -“He received me on every occasion in the kindest -manner, and studied to procure for me every kind of -information and amusement that the town afforded.” -Smith’s library, he says, bore evidence of his tour in -France and his stay in Paris. “All our best French -authors occupied prominent places on his shelves. He -was very fond of our language.”</p> -<p>On one occasion when Saint-Fond was at tea in -Panmure House, Smith spoke of Rousseau “with a -kind of religious respect,” and compared him with -Voltaire. “The latter,” he said, “sought to correct -the vices and follies of mankind by laughing at them, -and sometimes by treating them with severity; but -Rousseau catches his reader in the net of reason by the -attraction of sentiment and the force of conviction. -His <i>Social Contract</i> may well avenge him one day for -all his persecutions.” Smith’s features became very -animated when he spoke of Voltaire, “whom he had -known and greatly loved.”</p> -<p>One day Adam Smith asked his visitor if he -liked music, and said, on hearing that he did: “I -am very glad of it; I shall put you to a proof -which will be very interesting for me, for I shall -take you to hear a sort of music of which it is -impossible you can have formed any idea, and I shall -be delighted to find how it strikes you.” The annual -bagpipe competition was to take place next day, and -Smith came to Saint-Fond’s lodgings next morning at -nine o’clock, and conducted him to a spacious concert-room -full of people; but neither musicians, nor -orchestra, nor instruments were to be seen. A large -<span class="pb" id="Page_225">225</span> -space was reserved in the middle of the room and -occupied by gentlemen only, who, said his guide, were -Highlanders come to judge of the performances. The -prize was for the best executed piece of Highland -music, and the same air was to be played successively -by all the competitors. After some delay a door opened -and a kilted Highlander advanced into the hall:—</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“He walked up and down the vacant space with rapid -steps and a martial air, blowing his bagpipes. The tune -was a kind of sonata divided into three parts. Smith -requested me to pay my whole attention to the music, and to -explain to him afterwards the impression it made upon me. -But I confess that at first I could not distinguish either air -or design in the music. I was only struck with a piper -marching backward and forward with great rapidity, and -still presenting the same warlike countenance. He made -incredible efforts with his body and his fingers to bring into -play the different reeds of his instrument, which emitted -sounds that were to me almost insupportable. He received -much applause from all parts of the hall.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>Then came a second piper, who seemed to excel the -first, judging from the clapping and cheers. Having -heard eight in succession, the Professor began to discover -that the first part represented a warlike march, -the second a battle, and the last part the wailing over -the slain—which drew tears from the eyes of many -fair ladies in the audience. The <i>séance</i> ended with a -“lively and animated dance, accompanied by suitable -airs, though the union of so many bagpipes produced a -most hideous noise.” The Frenchman’s verdict was -highly unfavourable. He concluded that the pleasure -given by the music was due to historical associations. -Though he admired the impartiality of the audience -and judges, who showed no special favour even to a -<span class="pb" id="Page_226">226</span> -laird’s son unless he played well, he could not himself -admire the artists. “To me they were all equally -disagreeable. The music and the instrument alike -reminded me of a bear’s dance.”<a class="fn" id="fr_48" href="#fn_48">[48]</a></p> -<p>Burke revisited Glasgow in August 1785. Windham -was with him. They stopped on their way in Edinburgh -and dined with Smith—Robertson, Henry -Erskine, and Dr. Cullen being among the guests. On -September 13th, when they returned to Edinburgh, -Windham makes this entry in his diary: “After -dinner walked to Adam Smith’s. Felt strongly the -impression of a family completely Scotch. House -magnificent and place fine.” They stayed one more -day in Edinburgh, and dined at Panmure House. -Burke found time to visit John Logan, the author of -the lovely <i>Ode to the Cuckoo</i>. Dr. Carlyle says that -Smith was “a great patron” of this persecuted poet; -and when Logan was hounded out of the ministry, -and went to London to seek a living by his pen, he -took a letter of introduction from Smith to Andrew -Strahan the publisher, who was about to issue a -fourth edition of the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>.<a class="fn" id="fr_49" href="#fn_49">[49]</a></p> -<p>In the following year (1786) Smith was suffering -much from ill-health, but his mind and pen were -busy. T. Christie, Nichols’s Edinburgh correspondent, -informed his friend in August that Dr. Smith was -<span class="pb" id="Page_227">227</span> -writing “the history of Moral Philosophy.” This may -only mean that he was engaged in preparing the -enlarged (6th edition) of the <i>Moral Sentiments</i>; for in a -letter to the Duke of Rochefoucauld that recently -came to light, dated November 1, 1785, he speaks of -an edition of the <i>Theory</i> “which I hope to execute -before the end of the ensuing winter.” But it may -refer to one of two much larger and more ambitious -schemes which he goes on to mention in the same -letter: “I have likewise two other great works upon -the anvil; the one is a sort of philosophical history of -all the different branches of literature, of philosophy, -poetry, and eloquence; the other is a sort of theory -and history of law and government. The materials of -both are in a great measure collected, and some part -of both is put into tolerable good order. But the -indolence of old age, though I struggle violently against -it, I feel coming fast upon me, and whether I shall -ever be able to finish either is extremely uncertain.” At -the same time he was in correspondence with William -Eden, whom he was helping to refute Dr. Price’s alarmist -theories about the decrease of the population.</p> -<p>In the spring of 1787 he went to London, partly to -consult John Hunter, Sir William’s younger brother, -partly perhaps from curiosity to see the boy Premier, -who was so rapidly and skilfully carrying out his fiscal -policy. Pitt had just carried Smith’s favourite project -of a commercial treaty with France, and was now -engaged in the far more laborious task of simplifying -the chaos of customs and excise rates in a gigantic -Consolidation Bill. The economist had many conferences -with the statesman. It is said that he was -much with the ministry; and that the clerks of the -<span class="pb" id="Page_228">228</span> -public offices had orders to furnish him with all papers, -and to employ if necessary additional hands to copy -for him. One incident has been preserved that is -worth recording. At a dinner given by Dundas, -Smith came in late, and the company rose to receive -him. He begged them to be seated. “No,” said -Pitt, “we will stand till you are seated, for we are all -your scholars.” On another occasion, finding himself -next to Addington, he exclaimed: “What an extraordinary -man Pitt is; he understands my ideas better -than I do myself!” He stayed several months in -London, and though his disorders did not admit of -cure, the physicians operated with success, and pronounced -in July that he “might do some time -longer.”</p> -<p>At the end of this month Thomas Raikes had a -talk with him about the Sunday-school movement, -and was much delighted by the old man’s enthusiastic -approval: “No plan has promised to effect -a change of manners with equal ease and simplicity -since the days of the Apostles.” But towards another -philanthropic scheme, for planting fishing-villages along -the Highland coast, he displayed, wrote Wilberforce, -“a certain characteristic coolness,” observing that “he -looked for no other consequence from the scheme than -the entire loss of every shilling that should be expended -on it, granting, however, with uncommon candour, that -the public would be no great sufferer, because he -believed the individuals meant to put their hands only -in their own pockets.” Mr. Rae, who has traced the -scheme down to 1893 when it was finally wound up, -shows that the shareholders lost half their original -capital of £35,000, and wasted besides £100,000 of -<span class="pb" id="Page_229">229</span> -taxpayers’ money, which a foolish Government improvidently -provided for one of their ill-conceived projects. -After all, philanthropy cannot afford to neglect the -cool precepts of political economy, nor is moral fervour -the worse for a pinch of common sense. In November, -having returned to Edinburgh, he heard with “heartfelt -joy” the news that he had been elected Rector -of his old University, and he was installed in the -following month. “No preferment,” he wrote in a -graceful letter of thanks, “could have given me so -much real satisfaction.”</p> -<blockquote> -<p>“No man can own greater obligations to a Society than I -do to the University of Glasgow. They educated me, they -sent me to Oxford, soon after my return to Scotland they -elected me one of their own members, and afterwards preferred -me to another office to which the abilities and virtues of the -never-to-be-forgotten Dr. Hutcheson had given a superior -degree of illustration. The period of thirteen years which I -spent as a member of that Society, I remember as by far the -most useful and therefore as by far the happiest and most -honourable period of my life; and now, after three-and-twenty -years’ absence, to be remembered in so very agreeable a manner -by my old friends and protectors gives me a heartfelt joy -which I cannot easily express to you.”</p> -</blockquote> -<p>A year later, the death of his cousin, Miss Jane -Douglas, left him, says Stewart, “alone and helpless,” -and though he bore his loss bravely, and regained -apparently his former cheerfulness, yet his health -and strength gradually declined, until in the summer -of 1790 he passed away. A few particulars have -been preserved of these last two years by those who -enjoyed his friendship and hospitality; but of his -correspondence there is only a short letter thanking -Gibbon, with whom he had long been on very affectionate -<span class="pb" id="Page_230">230</span> -terms, for the last three volumes of the <i>Decline -and Fall</i>. “I cannot,” he writes, “express to you the -pleasure it gives me to find that by the universal consent -of every man of taste and learning whom I either know -or correspond with, it sets you at the very head of the -whole literary tribe at present existing in Europe.”<a class="fn" id="fr_50" href="#fn_50">[50]</a> -In July 1789, Samuel Rogers, then a young man -of twenty-three, came to Edinburgh with an introduction -to Adam Smith from Price. On the morning -after the storming of the Bastille he called on the -economist, and found him breakfasting, with a dish of -strawberries before him. Smith said they were a -northern fruit, at their best in Orkney and Sweden. -The conversation passed to Edinburgh, its high houses, -dirt, and overcrowding. Smith spoke slightingly of -the old town, and said he would like to remove to -George Square. Then he talked of the scenery, soil, -and climate of Scotland, and of the corn trade, which -led him to denounce Pitt’s Government for refusing to -supply France with a quantity of corn so small that it -would not have fed Edinburgh for one day.</p> -<p>He invited Rogers to dine with him next day at -the Oyster Club; but a tedious laird (brother of -the Thibetan traveller) monopolised the conversation. -“<i>That</i> Bogle,” said Smith afterwards, apologetically, -“I was sorry he talked so much. He spoiled our -evening.” Next Sunday Smith took an airing in his -sedan chair, while his young friend went to hear Robertson -and Blair preach. At nine o’clock, Blair having -concluded, Rogers supped at Panmure House, and found -the Oyster Club <i>minus</i> Bogle and <i>plus</i> a gentleman -<span class="pb" id="Page_231">231</span> -from Göttingen. The conversation was personal, and -perhaps the only item now worth recalling is Smith’s -reason for identifying Junius with “Single Speech -Hamilton.” Hamilton once told the Duke of Richmond -at Goodwood—the story came to Smith from -Gibbon—of “a devilish keen letter” from Junius in -that day’s <i>Public Advertiser</i>. But when the Duke got -the paper he found not the letter, but an apology for -its non-appearance; after this Hamilton was suspected -of the authorship, and no more Junius was published. -The inference Smith drew was that so long as suspicion -pointed to the wrong man the letters continued to -appear, and only stopped when the true author was -named. Next day Rogers again dined with Smith, -and Henry Mackenzie told them stories of second-sight. -Hutton came in to tea, and then they went on to a -meeting of the Royal Society to hear a paper by Dr. -James Anderson on “Debtors and the Revision of the -Laws that respect them.” Rogers says it was portentously -long and dull. “Mr. Commissioner Smith -fell asleep, and Mackenzie touched my elbow and -smiled.” Altogether Rogers gives us a very pleasing -picture of a serene and bright old age. “He is a very -friendly, agreeable man, and I should have dined and -supped with him every day if I had accepted all his -invitations.” He did not notice any trace of absentmindedness, -but thought that, compared with Robertson, -Smith was a man of the world.</p> -<p>In the same summer William Adam, a nephew of -the architect, conversed with Smith upon Bentham’s -letters on usury. The economist is reported to have -said that “the <i>Defence of Usury</i> was the work of a very -superior man, and that though he had given him some -<span class="pb" id="Page_232">232</span> -hard knocks, it was done in so handsome a way that -he could not complain.”<a class="fn" id="fr_51" href="#fn_51">[51]</a> It is quite possible that -had Smith lived to see another edition of the <i>Wealth -of Nations</i> through the press, he would have responded -to Bentham’s invitation by admitting the futility -of fixing interest by law. But at this time he was -still busy with the sixth edition of the <i>Moral Sentiments</i>, -which at last appeared early in the following -year. In the preface he referred to the promise he -had made in 1759 of a treatise on Jurisprudence. -That promise had been partially fulfilled in the -<i>Wealth of Nations</i>; but what remained, the theory -of Jurisprudence, he had hitherto failed to execute. -“Though my very advanced age leaves me,” he acknowledged, -“very little expectation of ever being able to -execute this great work to my own satisfaction, yet, as -I have not altogether abandoned the design, and as I -wish still to continue under the obligation of doing -what I can, I have allowed the paragraph to remain as -it was published more than thirty years ago, when I -<span class="pb" id="Page_233">233</span> -entertained no doubt of being able to execute everything -which it announced.”</p> -<p>These words were probably written late in the year -1789. In February 1790 he told Lord Buchan, “You -will never see your old friend any more. I find that -the machine is breaking down.” From this time he -rapidly wasted away, and in June his friends knew, as -well as he did, that there was no hope of recovery. -His intellect remained perfectly clear, and he bore his -sufferings with the utmost fortitude and resignation.</p> -<p>But he could not be easy about his papers. In 1773, -when he consigned their care to Hume, he had instructed -him to destroy without examination all his loose manuscript, -together with about eighteen thin paper folio -books containing his lectures. When he went to -London in 1787 he had given similar instructions to -Black and Hutton. Now that he had become very weak, -and felt that his days were numbered, he spoke again -to them on the same subject. They entreated him to -make his mind easy, as he might depend upon their -fulfilling his desire. He was satisfied for a time. But -some days afterwards—this is Hutton’s account—finding -his anxiety not entirely removed, he begged one of -them to destroy the volumes immediately. This accordingly -was done; and his mind was so much relieved -that he was able to receive his friends in the evening -with his usual cheerfulness. They had been used to -sup with him every Sunday, and that evening there -was a pretty numerous company of them. The old man -not finding himself able to sit up with them as usual, -retired to bed before supper; and as he went away -took leave of his friends by saying, “I believe we must -adjourn this meeting to some other place.” He died -<span class="pb" id="Page_234">234</span> -a very few days afterwards, on July the 17th, 1790, -and was buried in the Canongate Churchyard, in an -obscure spot which must have been overlooked by some -of the windows of Panmure House.</p> -<p>In his will he had made his cousin, David Douglas -(the youngest son of Colonel Douglas of Strathendry), -his heir, with instructions to dispose of his manuscripts -in accordance with the advice of Black and Hutton.</p> -<p>A small but choice library of four or five thousand -volumes, and a simple table, to which his friends were -always welcome without the formality of an invitation, -were, says Dugald Stewart, “the only expenses that -could be considered his own.” His acts of private -generosity, though sedulously concealed, were on a -scale “much beyond what might have been expected -from his fortune,” and those who knew only of his -frugality were surprised to find how small, in comparison -with the income he had long enjoyed, was the -property he left behind him.</p> -<p>His friends were indignant that the death of so -great a thinker made but little stir. They might have -been consoled had they been able to look forward -twenty years, and read a letter which a German -student, Alexander von der Marwitz, wrote to a friend -on reading the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>. It was on the eve -of Jena, and the form of Napoleon stood out a gigantic -menace to all that the young patriot held dear. Yet -he did not hesitate to compare the victorious author -with the conqueror of Europe. “Next to Napoleon he -is now the mightiest monarch in Europe.”</p> -<p class="tb">In the emancipation of thought and dispersion of -knowledge which mark the century that divides the -English from the French Revolution, Adam Smith -<span class="pb" id="Page_235">235</span> -takes his place in the order of time after Locke, -Montesquieu, Newton, and Voltaire, with Hume, -Rousseau, Diderot, Turgot, and Burke. With all of -them he agreed in abhorring religious intolerance; -with each of them he had some special affinity. Like -the first and the last, he had a truly English reverence -for law and order. A Newtonian in his patient and -tranquil research for the hidden secrets of Nature, he -had Voltaire’s love of Justice, while he resembled -Rousseau, the only democrat of the French school, in -a new sentiment for popular government, and in what -may be called either the Social or Republican instinct. -He vied with Diderot in an universal curiosity and an -encyclopædic grasp of all the sciences, but surpassed -him in originality and creative power. He combined -in an extraordinary degree the faculties of observation, -meditation, and abstraction. His achievements are -not accidents. If the architect’s plans are compared -with history, they will be found to have been executed -in large part by the builders of the nineteenth century. -Of the great Frenchmen who synchronised -with him and moved along parallel lines of thought, it -cannot be said that any one, or that all together, -destroyed the Church or the government, or even the -social system of France. It may even be questioned -whether they swayed the fortunes of France with an -influence so potent as Smith’s sceptre has wielded over -the destinies of Europe. The criticisms of Voltaire -had mighty consequences, no doubt, but those consequences -were not deliberately planned, or even -descried. Hume’s scepticism went far deeper than -Voltaire’s, tore up by the roots whole systems of -debased philosophy, and roused Kant from his dogmatic -slumbers. But Hume and Voltaire had little to -<span class="pb" id="Page_236">236</span> -sow on the land they ploughed and harrowed. In all -their anxiety to humble and ridicule religion, they -would retain the Church as a useful instrument of the -State. In all their appeals to public opinion, they -never thought of resting government on a broad basis -of popular right. Their view of society was conventional; -they were rather satirists than reformers. It -has been a commonplace of criticism to compare Adam -Smith with Locke. He is supposed to have done for -a particular branch of politics what Locke did for the -whole science. But Locke’s main achievement, after -all, was to find philosophic sanction for a revolution -accomplished by others, and to establish in the minds of -the Whig aristocracy an unlimited respect for a limited -constitution. Smith was the single-handed contriver -and sole author of a revolution in thought which -has modified the governing policy and prodigiously -increased the welfare of the whole civilised world.</p> -<p>Of his contemporaries, the nearest perhaps in spirit -are Turgot and the younger Burke, the Burke of the -American Revolution and of Free Trade and Economical -Reform. But Burke and even Turgot were in a certain -sense men of the past. Though their radiance can -never fade, their influence wanes. But Smith has -issued from the seclusion of a professorship of morals, -from the drudgery of a commissionership of customs, -to sit in the council-chamber of princes. His word has -rung through the study to the platform. It has been -proclaimed by the agitator, conned by the statesman, -and printed in a thousand statutes.</p> -<h2><span class="small">FOOTNOTES</span></h2> -<div class="fnblock"><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_1" href="#fr_1">[1]</a>Dugald Stewart wrongly describes him as a Writer to the -Signet, confusing him with a contemporary of the same name. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_2" href="#fr_2">[2]</a>See W. R. Scott’s <i>Hutcheson</i> (1900). -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_3" href="#fr_3">[3]</a>Even in 1763 there was but one stage-coach in Scotland -“which set out [from Edinburgh] once a month for London, -and was from twelve to fourteen days on the journey.”—George -Robertson’s <i>Rural Recollections</i>, p. 4. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_4" href="#fr_4">[4]</a>See the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, Book <span class="smaller">V.</span> ch. i. art. 2. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_5" href="#fr_5">[5]</a>See the -<i>Wealth of Nations</i>, Book <span class="smaller">I.</span> chap. ii. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_6" href="#fr_6">[6]</a>The advertisement goes on to say: -“It is long since he -found it necessary to abandon that plan as far too extensive; -and these parts of it lay beside him neglected till he was dead.” -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_7" href="#fr_7">[7]</a>First, Dugald Stewart declares that the <i>History of Astronomy</i> -“was one of Mr. Smith’s earliest compositions.” Second, -in a letter constituting Hume his literary executor, Smith -describes it as a fragment of an intended juvenile work. -Thirdly, Stewart heard him say more than once “that he -had projected in the earlier part of his life a history of the -other sciences on the same plan.” Fourthly, the work exactly -fits in with all that we hear of his youthful bent for the Greek -geometry and natural philosophy. Fifthly, it must have been -written long before 1758, for he mentions a prediction that a -certain comet will appear in that year. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_8" href="#fr_8">[8]</a>“The author at the end of his essay,” -says the advertisement, -“left some notes and memorandums from which it -appears he considered this last part of his <i>History of Astronomy</i> -as imperfect and needing several additions.” It consists of 135 -pages, and the imperfections are not obvious to the reader. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_9" href="#fr_9">[9]</a><i>Moral Sentiments</i>, -Part <span class="smaller">III</span>. chap. ii. p. 210 of the second, -third, and fourth editions; chap. iii. of the sixth edition. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_10" href="#fr_10">[10]</a>Mr. Rae, -usually the most accurate of authorities, states -that the first edition appeared “in two volumes 8vo.” -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_11" href="#fr_11">[11]</a>The crude theory -that sympathy is the foundation of -altruism was noticed by Hutcheson. In his <i>System of Moral -Philosophy</i> (B. <span class="smaller">I.</span> ch. iii.) he writes: “Others say that we regard -the good of others, or of societies ... as the means of some -subtiler pleasures of our own by sympathy with others in -their happiness.” But this sympathy, he adds, “can never -account for all kind affections, tho’ it is no doubt a natural -principle and a beautiful part of our constitution.” -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_12" href="#fr_12">[12]</a>Mr. -Rae’s <i>Life of Adam Smith</i>, pp. 148-9. Mr. Rae also -says that it contained none of the alterations or additions that -Hume expected, and expresses surprise that the additions, -etc., which had been placed in the printer’s hands in 1760 were -not incorporated in the text until the publication of the sixth -edition thirty years afterwards. On the other hand, he says -that the <i>Dissertation on the Origin of Languages</i> was added. -But the <i>Dissertation</i> was first appended in the third edition -(1767). -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_13" href="#fr_13">[13]</a>See <i>Moral Sentiments</i>, -1st edition, p. 464. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_14" href="#fr_14">[14]</a><i>Origine de l’inégalité. -Partie première</i>, pp. 376, 377. -<i>Édition d’Amsterdam des œuvres diverses de J. J. Rousseau.</i> -The reference is from <i>Moral Sentiments</i>, 3rd ed. p. 440. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_15" href="#fr_15">[15]</a>Millar adds: “The -great Montesquieu pointed out the -road. He was the Lord Bacon in this branch of philosophy. -Dr. Smith is the Newton.” -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_16" href="#fr_16">[16]</a>Cp. -<i>Wealth of Nations</i>, Book <span class="smaller">I.</span> chap. iii. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_17" href="#fr_17">[17]</a>And -even Hume, as Smith warned his class, had not quite -emancipated himself from mercantilist misconceptions. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_18" href="#fr_18">[18]</a><i>Lectures</i>, p. 241: “Excise raises the price of commodities -and makes fewer people able to carry on business. If a man -purchase £1000 worth of tobacco he has a hundred pounds of -tax to pay, and therefore cannot deal to such an extent as he -would otherwise do. Thus, as it requires greater stock to carry -on trade, the dealers must be fewer, and the rich have, as it were, -a monopoly against the poor.” -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_19" href="#fr_19">[19]</a>Uztariz, <i>Theory and Practice of Commerce and Maritime -Affairs</i>, translated by John Kippax, 1751, vol. ii. p. 52. -The allusion has been discovered by Mr. Edwin Cannan. See -<i>Lectures</i>, p. 246. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_20" href="#fr_20">[20]</a><i>Wealth of Nations</i> -(1776), Book <span class="smaller">V.</span> chap. i. art. 2. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_21" href="#fr_21">[21]</a>Tytler’s <i>Kames</i>, i. p. 278. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_22" href="#fr_22">[22]</a>See Faujas Saint-Fond, -<i>Travels in England and Scotland</i>, -vol. ii. p. 241. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_23" href="#fr_23">[23]</a>See <i>Garrick Correspondence</i>, vol. ii. pp. 549, 550. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_24" href="#fr_24">[24]</a>See -letter from Adam Smith to T. Cadell printed in the -<i>Economic Journal</i> for September 1898. It appears that the last -two books he had ordered were Postlethwait’s <i>Dictionary of -Trade</i> and Anderson’s <i>Deduction of the Origin of Commerce</i>. -Neither appears in Mr. Bonar’s catalogue of his library. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_25" href="#fr_25">[25]</a>At Kirkcaldy George Drysdale, for some time Provost of -the town and afterwards Collector of Customs, was a “steady -and much esteemed friend.” His more distinguished brother, -Dr. John Drysdale the minister, had been at school with Smith, -and “among all his numerous friends and acquaintances,” says -Dalzel, there was none “whom he loved with greater affection -or spoke of with greater tenderness.” They often met in -Kirkcaldy and Edinburgh. The death of James Oswald, who -represented Kirkcaldy, early in 1769, was a serious loss to the -little society, and particularly to Smith. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_26" href="#fr_26">[26]</a>Steuart’s <i>Political Economy</i>, 1767. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_27" href="#fr_27">[27]</a>The -most important of these (in Book <span class="smaller">IV.</span> chap, vii.) appear -for the first time in the third edition (1784). -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_28" href="#fr_28">[28]</a>Letter -to Cullen, London, 20th September 1774. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_29" href="#fr_29">[29]</a>Mr. Macpherson’s recent -abridgment is the only tolerable -one I know of, and that solely because it carefully retains many -of the finest chapters, and leaves the flesh on the bones. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_30" href="#fr_30">[30]</a>A public pawnshop. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_31" href="#fr_31">[31]</a>Charles Butler, the learned -Catholic lawyer, once mentioned -to Fox that he had never read the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>. -“To tell you the truth,” said Fox, “nor I either. There is -something in all these subjects which passes my comprehension; -something so wide that I could never embrace them -myself or find any one who did.” -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_32" href="#fr_32">[32]</a>See Book <span class="smaller">IV.</span> chap. vii. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_33" href="#fr_33">[33]</a>See -Skarzinski’s <i>Adam Smith</i> (1878), quoted by Oncken, -<i>Economic Journal</i>, vol. vii. p. 445. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_34" href="#fr_34">[34]</a>See Ruskin’s <i>Fors Clavigera</i>, -letters 62 and 72. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_35" href="#fr_35">[35]</a>Smith avoids the error so commonly committed in modern -doctrines of international trade, of regarding a nation as a -trading unit. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_36" href="#fr_36">[36]</a>The second case is simple and uncontroversial. If there is -an excise duty upon a home product, it seems reasonable, says -Smith, that an equal tax should be imposed in the shape of an -import duty upon the same product imported from abroad. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_37" href="#fr_37">[37]</a>The -author of <i>Douglas</i>. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_38" href="#fr_38">[38]</a>Written from Kirkcaldy, -November 9, 1776. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_39" href="#fr_39">[39]</a>In the Budget of 1778 -North adopted two more important -recommendations: the inhabited house duty, which is still with -us, and the malt tax, which was commuted for the beer duty -by Mr. Gladstone in 1880. The house tax proved very productive, -as taxes went in those days, its yield rising from -£26,000 in 1779 to £108,000 in 1782. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_40" href="#fr_40">[40]</a>Sir Gray Cooper was -Secretary to the Treasury. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_41" href="#fr_41">[41]</a>Rae’s <i>Life of Adam Smith</i>, p. 326. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_42" href="#fr_42">[42]</a>See the <i>Life of Smith</i> -by William Smellie, a contemporary. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_43" href="#fr_43">[43]</a>See -Sinclair’s <i>Life of Sir John Sinclair</i>, vol. i. p. 39. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_44" href="#fr_44">[44]</a>Edinburgh, 15th December 1783. The letter is printed in -the <i>Journals and Correspondence of Lord Auckland</i>, vol. i. p. 64. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_45" href="#fr_45">[45]</a>Sir Gilbert Elliot wrote from Edinburgh, July 25, 1782, to -his wife:—“I have found one just man in Gomorrah, Adam -Smith, author of the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>. He was the Duke of -Buccleuch’s tutor, is a wise and deep philosopher, and although -made Commissioner of the Customs here by the Duke and -Lord Advocate, is what I call an <i>honest fellow</i>. He wrote a -most kind as well as elegant letter to Burke on his resignation, -as I believe I told you before, and on my mentioning it to him -he told me he was the only man here who spoke out for the -Rockinghams.”—<i>Life of Lord Minto</i>, vol. i. p. 84. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_46" href="#fr_46">[46]</a>Afterwards Lord Lauderdale, a finished economist, who -passed some ingenious criticisms on the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_47" href="#fr_47">[47]</a>See Dugald Stewart’s -<i>Memoir</i>, section <span class="smaller">V.</span> -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_48" href="#fr_48">[48]</a>Mr. Rae, -the only one of Smith’s biographers, I think, -who has noticed Saint-Fond’s visit, dates it wrongly (in -1782), and says the account was published in 1783. The -journey took place in 1784, and the account was published in -1797. An English translation appeared two years later. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_49" href="#fr_49">[49]</a>This -appeared in 1786 with a prefatory note expressing the -author’s grateful obligations to Mr. Henry Hope of Amsterdam, -for his information concerning the great Dutch Bank. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_50" href="#fr_50">[50]</a>In -his first will Gibbon left a legacy of £100 to Adam -Smith. -</div><div class="fndef"><a class="fn" id="fn_51" href="#fr_51">[51]</a>In his <i>Defence of Usury</i>, -“Letter <span class="smaller">XIII.</span> to Dr. Smith,” -Bentham had written: “Instead therefore of pretending to -owe you nothing, I shall begin with acknowledging that, as far -as your trade coincides with mine, I should come much nearer -the truth were I to say I owed you everything.” Mr. Rae -(<i>Life of Adam Smith</i>, p. 424) quotes a letter from George -Wilson to Bentham, in the Bentham <span class="smaller">MSS.</span>, British Museum. -I may add to this the following note which I find in Bentham’s -<i>Rationale of Reward</i> (1825), p. 332, in chapter xvi. of Book <span class="smaller">IV.</span>, -on Rates of Interest. “Adam Smith, after having read the -letter upon <i>Projects</i>, which was addressed to him, and printed -at the end of the first edition of the <i>Defence of Usury</i>, declared -to a gentleman, the common friend of the two authors, that -he had been deceived. With the tidings of his death Mr. -Bentham received a copy of his works, which had been sent -to him as a token of esteem.” -</div> -</div> -<div class="pb" id="Page_237">237</div> -<h2 id="c12">INDEX</h2> -<p class="center"><a class="ab" href="#index_A">A</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_B">B</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_C">C</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_D">D</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_E">E</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_F">F</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_G">G</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_H">H</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_I">I</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_J">J</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_K">K</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_L">L</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_M">M</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_N">N</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_O">O</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_P">P</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_Q">Q</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_R">R</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_S">S</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_T">T</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_U">U</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_V">V</a> <a class="ab" href="#index_W">W</a> <span class="ab">X</span> <span class="ab">Y</span> <span class="ab">Z</span></p> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_A">A</dt> -<dt>Alembert, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</dt> -<dt>American colonies, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>-9.</dt> -<dt>Aristotle, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>-6, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</dt> -<dt>Armaments, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>-4.</dt> -<dt><i>Astronomy, History of</i>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>-18.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_B">B</dt> -<dt>Bacon, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>-19.</dt> -<dt>Bagehot (quoted), <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</dt> -<dt>Balliol College, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>-12.</dt> -<dt>Banks (in Scotland), <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</dt> -<dt>Beauclerk, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>-1.</dt> -<dt><i>Bee, The</i>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</dt> -<dt>Bentham, Jeremy, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</dt> -<dd>his <i>Defence of Usury</i>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>-2.</dd> -<dt>Black, Joseph, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>-7, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</dt> -<dt>Bordeaux, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</dt> -<dt>Boswell, James, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.</dt> -<dt>Brougham, Lord, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</dt> -<dt>Buccleuch, Duke of, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>-14, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</dt> -<dt>Buchan, Lord, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</dt> -<dt>Buckle, Henry Thomas, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</dt> -<dt>Burke, Edmund, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>-2, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>-3, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>-6.</dt> -<dt>Butler, Bishop, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_C">C</dt> -<dt>Calas, Jean, the case of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-5.</dt> -<dt>Cannan, Edwin, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>-9, <a href="#Page_90">90</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</dt> -<dd>the <i>Lectures</i>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</dd> -<dt>Carlyle, Dr. Alexander, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</dt> -<dt>Clubs—the Poker, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>-9;</dt> -<dd>the Literary, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>;</dd> -<dd>the Oyster, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>-18, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</dd> -<dt>Cobden, Richard, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-91.</dt> -<dt>Cochrane, Andrew, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>-2.</dt> -<dt>Colbert, Abbé, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>-3.</dt> -<dt>Colliers, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>-7.</dt> -<dt>Colonies, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>-9, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>-80.</dt> -<dt>Condorcet, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</dt> -<dt>Cullen, Dr., <a href="#Page_26">26</a>-7, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</dt> -<dt>Customs, <a href="#Page_88">88</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>-15.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_D">D</dt> -<dt>Dalkeith House, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>-1.</dt> -<dt>Dalrymple, Sir John, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>-5, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</dt> -<dt>Degrees, medical, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>-60.</dt> -<dt>Descartes, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</dt> -<dt>Douglas, David, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</dt> -<dt>—— Jane, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</dt> -<dt>—— John, Bishop of Salisbury, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</dt> -<dt>Drysdale, John, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</dt> -<dt>Dundas, Henry, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</dt> -<dt>Dunlop, Alexander, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_E">E</dt> -<dt>Eden, William, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>-20, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></dt> -<dt class="pb" id="Page_238">238</dt> -<dt>Edinburgh, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a> <i>sqq.</i></dt> -<dt><i>Encyclopædia</i>, the, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>-20.</dt> -<dt>England, wealth of, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>-42.</dt> -<dt>Enville, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</dt> -<dt>Epictetus, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</dt> -<dt>Excise, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>-91, <a href="#Page_191">191</a> <i>n.</i></dt> -<dt>Exports, theory of, <a href="#Page_86">86</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a> <i>sqq.</i></dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_F">F</dt> -<dt>Ferguson, Adam, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</dt> -<dt>Ferney, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-8.</dt> -<dt>Foulis, Robert, printer, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>-9.</dt> -<dt>Fox, Charles James, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>-2.</dt> -<dt>France, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>-7, <a href="#Page_118">118</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</dt> -<dt>Franklin, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>-2.</dt> -<dt>Free Trade, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a> <i>sqq.</i>; (<a href="#c10">chapter x.</a>), <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_G">G</dt> -<dt>Garrick, David, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</dt> -<dt>Geneva, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>-8.</dt> -<dt>Gibbon, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>-31.</dt> -<dt>Gladstone, W. E., <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</dt> -<dt>Glasgow, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>-9, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>-3, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</dt> -<dt>—— University of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>-9, <a href="#Page_94">94</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</dt> -<dt>Glassford, John, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</dt> -<dt>Grotius, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_H">H</dt> -<dt>Hamilton of Bangour, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</dt> -<dt>Helvétius, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</dt> -<dt>Hobbes, Thomas, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</dt> -<dt>Holland, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</dt> -<dt>Home, Henry (see Kames).</dt> -<dt>—— John, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</dt> -<dt>Hume, David, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>-11, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>-8, <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-4, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>-11, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</dt> -<dt>Hunter, Sir William, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</dt> -<dt>—— John, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</dt> -<dt>Hutcheson, Francis, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>-8, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</dt> -<dt>Hutton, Dr., <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_I">I</dt> -<dt><i>Imitative Arts</i>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>-20, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</dt> -<dt>Imports, theory of, <a href="#Page_86">86</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</dt> -<dt>Ireland, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-3.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_J">J</dt> -<dt>Jardine, George, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>-31.</dt> -<dt>Johnson, Samuel, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>-10, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</dt> -<dt>Johnstone, William (see Pulteney).</dt> -<dt>Jurisprudence, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>-72, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</dt> -<dt>Justice, <a href="#Page_68">68</a> <i>sqq.</i></dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_K">K</dt> -<dt>Kames, Lord, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</dt> -<dt>Kant, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</dt> -<dt>Kirkcaldy, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>-3, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>-6, <a href="#Page_205">205</a> <i>sqq.</i></dt> -<dt>Kraus, Christian Jakob, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_L">L</dt> -<dt>Labour, division of, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>-5.</dt> -<dt>Languedoc, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-6.</dt> -<dt>Law, international, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>-3.</dt> -<dt>List, Friedrich, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>-6, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</dt> -<dt>Locke, John, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>-6.</dt> -<dt>Logan, John, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</dt> -<dt>Logic, chair of, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>-3.</dt> -<dt><i>Logic and Metaphysics, History of</i>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>-8, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>-3.</dt> -<dt>London, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>-8.</dt> -<dt>Lowe, Robert, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</dt> -<dt class="pb" id="Page_239">239</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_M">M</dt> -<dt>Mackintosh, Sir James, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</dt> -<dt>Malebranche, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</dt> -<dt>Malesherbes, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</dt> -<dt>Manchester School, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-91.</dt> -<dt>Mandeville, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>-7, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>-4, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</dt> -<dt>Mathematics, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</dt> -<dt><i>Maxims</i> of Rochefoucauld, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</dt> -<dt>Mercantile system, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>-8, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>-8.</dt> -<dt>Metaphysics, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>-3; see Logic.</dt> -<dt>Mill, John Stuart, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>-7, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</dt> -<dt>Millar, Andrew (the publisher), <a href="#Page_46">46</a>-8, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</dt> -<dt>—— John, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</dt> -<dt>Milton, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</dt> -<dt>Mollien, Count, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-5.</dt> -<dt>Monopoly, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</dt> -<dt>Montesquieu, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</dt> -<dt>Morals, Chair of, <a href="#Page_26">26</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>-17.</dt> -<dt><i>Moral Sentiments, Theory of</i>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>-9, <a href="#Page_46">46</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</dt> -<dt>Morellet, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_N">N</dt> -<dt>Navigation Act, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>-1.</dt> -<dt>Necker, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>-2.</dt> -<dt>Newton, Sir Isaac, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</dt> -<dt>North, Lord, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_O">O</dt> -<dt>Oswald, James, of Dunnikier, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</dt> -<dt>Oxford, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</dt> -<dt>—— University of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>-15.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_P">P</dt> -<dt>Panmure House, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>-14.</dt> -<dt>Paris, <a href="#Page_129">129</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>-9.</dt> -<dt>Peel, Sir Robert, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</dt> -<dt><i>Physics, History of Ancient</i>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</dt> -<dt>Pitt, the younger, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</dt> -<dt>Plato, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>-5, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</dt> -<dt>Police, lectures on, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>-72, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</dt> -<dt>Pope, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</dt> -<dt>Population, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</dt> -<dt>Price, Dr. Richard, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</dt> -<dt>Protection (see Free Trade).</dt> -<dt>Pulteney, Sir William, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>-5.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_Q">Q</dt> -<dt>Quesnai, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>-5, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_R">R</dt> -<dt>Rae, John (quoted), <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</dt> -<dt>Raikes, Thomas, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</dt> -<dt>Ramsay, Allan, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</dt> -<dt>—— John, of Ochtertyre, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</dt> -<dt>Religion, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</dt> -<dt><i>Review, Edinburgh</i>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</dt> -<dt>Revenue of France, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>-2.</dt> -<dt>Reynolds, Sir Joshua, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</dt> -<dt>Riccoboni, Madame, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</dt> -<dt>Richelieu, Duke of, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</dt> -<dt>Rochefoucauld, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</dt> -<dt>Rockingham Ministry, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>-7.</dt> -<dt>Rogers, Dr. Charles (quoted), <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</dt> -<dt>—— Samuel, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>-1.</dt> -<dt>Rousseau, J. J., <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>-8, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</dt> -<dt>Ruskin, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_S">S</dt> -<dt>Saint-Fond, Faujas de, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>-6.</dt> -<dt>Schmoller, Professor, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</dt> -<dt>Schools (public) in England, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</dt> -<dt>Scotland, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>-10, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>-41.</dt> -<dt>Scott, Sir Walter (quoted), <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</dt> -<dt>Shaftesbury, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</dt> -<dt>Shelburne, Lord, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</dt> -<dt>Simson, Robert, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</dt> -<dt>Smith, Adam (the elder), <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.</dt> -<dt>—— Margaret, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</dt> -<dt class="pb" id="Page_240">240</dt> -<dt>Snell Exhibition, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</dt> -<dt>Society, the Select, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-7.</dt> -<dt>Spectator, Impartial, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>-60, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</dt> -<dt>Spain, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</dt> -<dt>Stamp Act, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</dt> -<dt>Stewart, Dugald (quoted), <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</dt> -<dt>—— Matthew, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</dt> -<dt>Strahan, William, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</dt> -<dt>Strathendry, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.</dt> -<dt>Sympathy, doctrine of, <a href="#Page_57">57</a> <i>sqq.</i></dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_T">T</dt> -<dt><i>Taille</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</dt> -<dt>Tax, Land, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</dt> -<dd>the French, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</dd> -<dt>Taxation, <a href="#Page_88">88</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>-2, <a href="#Page_176">176</a> <i>sqq.</i></dt> -<dt>Theology, Natural, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</dt> -<dt>Tocqueville, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</dt> -<dt>Tooke, Horne, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</dt> -<dt>Toulouse, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-5, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</dt> -<dt>Townshend, Charles, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>-9, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>-15, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>-8.</dt> -<dt>Treaties, Commercial (with France), <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</dt> -<dt>Turgot, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>-4, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>-6.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_U">U</dt> -<dt>Union, Act of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</dt> -<dt>Uztariz (quoted), <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_V">V</dt> -<dt><i>Vingtième</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</dt> -<dt>Voltaire, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<dl class="index"> -<dt class="center b" id="index_W">W</dt> -<dt>Wages, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</dt> -<dt>Wakefield, E. G., <a href="#Page_165">165</a>-6.</dt> -<dt>Walpole, Sir Robert, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</dt> -<dt>War, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>-4.</dt> -<dt>Watt, James, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>-7.</dt> -<dt><i>Wealth of Nations</i>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>-2; (<a href="#c9">chapter ix.</a>), <a href="#Page_163">163</a> <i>sqq.</i>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</dt> -<dt>Wedderburn, Alexander, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</dt> -<dt>Wilberforce, William, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>-9.</dt> -<dt>Windham, William, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</dt> -<dt>Wordsworth, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</dt> -</dl> -<p class="tbcenter smaller">Printed by <span class="sc">T.</span> and <span class="sc">A. Constable</span>, Printers to His Majesty -<br />at the Edinburgh University Press</p> -<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2> -<ul> -<li>Silently corrected a few typos.</li> -<li>Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.</li> -<li>In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.</li> -</ul> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ADAM SMITH ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for -copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very -easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation -of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project -Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may -do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected -by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark -license, especially commercial redistribution. -</div> - -<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br /> -<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project -Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person -or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the -Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when -you share it without charge with others. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country other than the United States. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work -on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the -phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: -</div> - -<blockquote> - <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most - other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions - whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms - of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online - at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you - are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws - of the country where you are located before using this eBook. - </div> -</blockquote> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project -Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg™ License. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format -other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain -Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -provided that: -</div> - -<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> - <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> - • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation.” - </div> - - <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> - • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ - works. - </div> - - <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> - • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - </div> - - <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> - • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. - </div> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of -the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set -forth in Section 3 below. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right -of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, -Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up -to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website -and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread -public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state -visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Most people start at our website which has the main PG search -facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. -</div> - -</div> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/64753-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/64753-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 30109e8..0000000 --- a/old/64753-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/64753-h/images/spine.jpg b/old/64753-h/images/spine.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 76ba580..0000000 --- a/old/64753-h/images/spine.jpg +++ /dev/null |
