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Life of Adam Smith
By
JOHN RAE
London
MACMILLAN & CO.
AND NEW YORK
1895
PREFACE
The fullest account we possess of the life of Adam Smith is still the
memoir which Dugald Stewart read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh on
two evenings of the winter of 1793, and which he subsequently
published as a separate work, with many additional illustrative notes,
in 1810. Later biographers have made few, if any, fresh contributions
to the subject. But in the century that has elapsed since Stewart
wrote, many particulars about Smith and a number of his letters have
incidentally and by very scattered channels found their way into
print. It will be allowed to be generally desirable, in view of the
continued if not even increasing importance of Smith, to obtain as
complete a view of his career and work as it is still in our power to
recover; and it appeared not unlikely that some useful contribution to
this end might result if all those particulars and letters to which I
have alluded were collected together, and if they were supplemented by
such unpublished letters and information as it still remained possible
to procure. In this last part of my task I have been greatly assisted
by the Senatus of the University of Glasgow, who have most kindly
supplied me with an extract of every passage in the College records
bearing on Smith; by the Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,
who have granted me every facility for using the _Hume
Correspondence_, which is in their custody; and by the Senatus of the
University of Edinburgh for a similar courtesy with regard to the
_Carlyle Correspondence_ and the David Laing MSS. in their library. I
am also deeply indebted, for the use of unpublished letters or for the
supply of special information, to the Duke of Buccleuch, the Marquis
of Lansdowne, Professor R.O. Cunningham of Queen's College, Belfast,
Mr. Alfred Morrison of Fonthill, Mr. F. Barker of Brook Green, and Mr.
W. Skinner, W.S., late Town Clerk of Edinburgh.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
EARLY DAYS AT KIRKCALDY
Birth and parentage, 1. Adam Smith senior, 1; his death and funeral,
3. Smith's mother, 4. Burgh School of Kirkcaldy, 5. Schoolmaster's
drama, 6. School-fellows, 6. Industries of Kirkcaldy, 7.
CHAPTER II
STUDENT AT GLASGOW COLLEGE
Professors and state of learning there, 9. Smith's taste for
mathematics, 10. Professor R. Simson, 10. Hutcheson, 11; his influence
over Smith, 13; his economic teaching, 14. Smith's early connection
with Hume, 15. Snell exhibitioner, 16. College friends, 17.
CHAPTER III
AT OXFORD
Scotch and English agriculture, 18. Expenses at Oxford, 19. Did Smith
graduate? 20. State of learning, 20; Smith's censure of, 20. His
gratitude to Oxford, 22. Life in Balliol College, 22. Smith's devotion
to classics and belles-lettres, 23. Confiscation of his copy of Hume's
_Treatise_, 24. Ill-health, 25. Snell exhibitioners ill-treated and
discontented at Balliol, 26. Desire transference to other college, 27.
Smith's college friends, or his want of them, 28. Return to Scotland,
28.
CHAPTER IV
LECTURER AT EDINBURGH
Lord Kames, 31. Smith's class on English literature, 32. Blair's
alleged obligations to Smith's lectures, 33. Smith's views as a
critic, 34. His addiction to poetry, 35. His economic lectures, 36.
James Oswald, M.P., 37. Oswald's economic correspondence with Hume,
37. Hamilton of Bangour's poems edited by Smith, 38. Dedication to
second edition, 40.
CHAPTER V
PROFESSOR AT GLASGOW
Admission to Logic chair, 42. Letter to Cullen about undertaking Moral
Philosophy class, 44. Letter to Cullen on Hume's candidature for Logic
chair and other business, 45. Burke's alleged candidature, 46. Hume's
defeat, 47. Moral Philosophy class income, 48. Work, 50. Professor
John Millar, 53. His account of Smith's lectures, 54; of his qualities
as lecturer, 56. Smith's students, 57. H. Erskine, Boswell, T.
Fitzmaurice, Tronchin, 58, 59. Smith's religious views suspected, 60.
His influence in Glasgow, 60. Conversion of merchants to free trade,
61. Manifesto of doctrines in 1755, 61. Its exposition of economic
liberty, 62. Smith's alleged habitual fear of the plagiarist, 64. This
manifesto not directed against Adam Ferguson, 65.
CHAPTER VI
THE COLLEGE ADMINISTRATOR
Smith's alleged helplessness in business transactions, 66; his large
participation in business at Glasgow, 67. Appointed Quæstor, 68; Dean
of Faculty, 68; Vice-Rector, 68. Dissensions in the University, 69;
their origin in the academic constitution, 70. Enlightened educational
policy of the University authorities, 71. James Watt, University
instrument-maker; Robert Foulis, University printer, 71. Wilson,
type-founder and astronomer. The Academy of Design. Professor
Anderson's classes for working men, 72. Smith and Watt, 73. Smith's
connection with Foulis's Academy of Design, 74. Smith and Wilson's
type-foundry, 77. Proposed academy of dancing, fencing, and riding in
the University, 79. Smith's opposition to the new Glasgow theatre, 80;
his generally favourable views on theatrical representations, 81. His
protests against Professor Anderson voting for his own translation to
Natural Philosophy chair, 83. Joins in refusing Professor Rouet leave
to travel abroad with a pupil, and in depriving him of office for his
absenteeism, 84.
CHAPTER VII
AMONG GLASGOW FOLK
Glasgow at period of Smith's residence, 87; its beauty, 88; its
expanding commerce and industry, 89; its merchants, 90. Andrew
Cochrane, 91. The economic club, 92. Duty on American iron and foreign
linen yarns, 93. Paper money, 94. The Literary Society, 95. Smith's
paper on Hume's Essays on Commerce, 95. "Mr. Robin Simson's Club," 96.
Saturday dinners at Anderston, 97. Smith at whist, 97. Simson's ode to
the Divine Geometer, 98. James Watt's account of this club, 99.
Professor Moor, 99.
CHAPTER VIII
EDINBURGH ACTIVITIES
Edinburgh friends, 101. Wilkie, the poet, 102. William Johnstone
(afterwards Sir William Pulteney), 103. Letter of Smith introducing
Johnstone to Oswald, 103. David Hume, 105. The Select Society, 107;
Smith's speech at its first meeting, 108; its debates, 109; its great
attention to economic subjects, 110; its practical work for
improvement of arts, manufactures, and agriculture, 112; its
dissolution, 118. Thomas Sheridan's classes on elocution, 119. The
_Edinburgh Review_, 120; Smith's contributions, 121; on Wit and
Humour, 122; on French and English classics, 123; on Rousseau's
discourse on inequality, 124. Smith's republicanism, 124. Premature
end of the _Review_, 124; Hume's exclusion from it, 126. Attempt to
subject him to ecclesiastical censure, 127. Smith's views and
Douglas's _Criterion of Miracles Examined_, 129. Home's _Douglas_,
130. Chair of Jurisprudence in Edinburgh, 131. Miss Hepburn, 133. The
Poker Club, 134; founded to agitate for a Scots militia, 135. Smith's
change of opinion on that subject, 137. The tax on French wines, 139.
CHAPTER IX
THE "THEORY OF MORAL SENTIMENTS"
Letter from Hume, 141. Burke's criticism, 145. Charles Townshend, 146.
Letter from Smith to Townshend, 148. Second edition of Theory, 148.
Letter from Smith to Strahan, 149. The union of Scotland with England,
150. Benjamin Franklin, 150.
CHAPTER X
FIRST VISIT TO LONDON
Conversion of Lord Shelburne to free trade, 153. Altercation with Dr.
Johnson, 154. Boswell's account, 155; Sir Walter Scott's, 156; Bishop
Wilberforce's, 157.
CHAPTER XI
LAST YEAR IN GLASGOW
Letter on Rev. W. Ward's Rational Grammar, 159. Letter to Hume
introducing Mr. Henry Herbert, 161. Smith's indignation at Shelburne's
intrigues with Lord Bute, 162. On Wilkes, 163. Letter from Hume at
Paris, 163. Letter from Charles Townshend about Buccleugh tutorship,
164. Smith's acceptance, 165. Salary of such posts, 165. Smith's poor
opinion of the educational value of the system, 166. Smith's
arrangements for return of class fees and conduct of class, 167.
Letter to Hume announcing his speedy departure for Paris, 168. Parting
with his students, 169. Letter resigning chair, 172.
CHAPTER XII
TOULOUSE
Sir James Macdonald, 174. Toulouse, 175. Abbé Colbert, 175. The
Cuthberts of Castlehill, 176. Archbishop Loménie de Brienne, 177.
Letter to Hume, 178. Trip to Bordeaux, 179. Colonel Barré, 179.
Toulouse and Bordeaux, 180. Sobriety of Southern France, 180. Duke of
Richelieu, 181. Letter to Hume, 181; letter to Hume, 183. Visit to
Montpellier, 183. Horne Tooke, 183. The States of Languedoc, 183. The
provincial assembly question, 184. Parliament of Toulouse, 185. The
Calas case, 186.
CHAPTER XIII
GENEVA
Its constitution, 188. Voltaire, 189; Smith's veneration for, 190;
remarks to Rogers and Saint Fond on, 190. Charles Bonnet, G.L. Le
Sage, 191. Duchesse d'Enville and Duc de la Rochefoucauld, 192. Lord
Stanhope, Lady Conyers, 193.
CHAPTER XIV
PARIS
Arrival, 194. Departure of Hume, 196. Smith's reception in society,
197. Comtesse de Boufflers, 198. Baron d'Holbach, 199. Helvetius, 200.
Morellet, 200. Mademoiselle de l'Espinasse, 201. Turgot and
D'Alembert, 202. Question of literary obligations, 203. Alleged
correspondence, 204. Smith's opinion of Turgot, 205. Necker, 206.
Dispute between Rousseau and Hume, 206. Letter to Hume, 208. Madame
Riccoboni, 210; letter from her to Garrick introducing Smith, 211.
Visit to Abbeville, 212. A marquise, 213. The French theatre, 214.
Smith's love of music, 214. The French economists, 215. Dupont de
Nemours's allusion, 215. Quesnay, 216. Views of the political
situation, 217. Mercier de la Rivière and Mirabeau, 218. Activity of
the sect in 1766, 219. Smith's views of effect of moderate taxation on
wages, 220. Illness of Duke of Buccleugh at Compiègne, 222. Letter of
Smith to Townshend, 222. Hume's perplexity where to stay, 225. Death
of Hon. Hew Campbell Scott, 226. Duke of Buccleugh on the tutorship,
226. Smith's merits as tutor, 227. His improvement from his travels,
227; their value to him as thinker, 228. Did he foresee the
Revolution? 229. His views on condition of French people, 230. His
suggestion for reform of French taxation, 231.
CHAPTER XV
LONDON
Arrival in November 1766, 232. On Hume's continuing his _History_,
233. Third edition of _Theory_, 233. Letter to Strahan, 234. Letter to
Lord Shelburne, 233. Alexander Dalrymple, hydrographer, 235. Colonies
of ancient Rome, 236. Anecdote of Smith's absence of mind, 237.
F.R.S., 238.
CHAPTER XVI
KIRKCALDY
Count de Sarsfield, 240. Letter from Smith to Hume, 241. His daily
life in Kirkcaldy, 242. Letter to Hume from Dalkeith, 243. Bishop
Oswald, 243. Captain Skene, 243. The Duchess of Buccleugh, 243.
Home-coming at Dalkeith, 244. The Duke, 245. Stories of Smith's
absence of mind, 246. Letter to Lord Hailes on old Scots Acts about
hostellaries, 247. On the Douglas case, 248. Reported completion of
_Wealth of Nations_ in 1770, 251. Smith receives freedom of Edinburgh,
251. Letter to Sir W. Pulteney on his book and an Indian appointment,
253. Crisis of 1772, 254. The Indian appointment, 255; Thorold Rogers
on, 256. Work on _Wealth of Nation_ after this date, 257. Tutorship to
Duke of Hamilton, 258. Anecdote of absence of mind, 259. Habits in
composing _Wealth of Nations_, 260.
CHAPTER XVII
LONDON
Letter to Hume appointing him literary executor, 262. Long residence
in London, 263. Assistance from Franklin, 264. Recommendation of Adam
Ferguson for Chesterfield tutorship, 266. Hume's proposal as to Smith
taking Ferguson's place in the Moral Philosophy chair, 266. The
British Coffee-House, 267. Election to the Literary Club, 267. Smith's
conversation, 268. His alleged aversion to speak of what he knew, 269.
Attends William Hunter's lectures, 271. Letter to Cullen on freedom of
medical instruction, 273. Hume's health, 280. Smith's zeal on the
American question, 281. Advocacy of colonial incorporation, 282.
CHAPTER XVIII
"THE WEALTH OF NATIONS"
Terms of publication and sales, 285. Letter from Hume, 286. Gibbon's
opinion, 287; Sir John Pringle's, 288; Buckle's, 288. General
reception, 288. Fox's quotation, 289. Fox and Lauderdale's
conversation on Smith, 289. Quotations in Parliament, 290. Popular
association of economics with "French principles," 291. Prejudice
against free trade as a revolutionary doctrine, 291. Editions of the
book, 293. Immediate influence of the book on English taxation, 294.
CHAPTER XIX
THE DEATH OF HUME
Smith and John Home meet Hume at Morpeth, 295. The _Dialogues on
Natural Religion_, 296. Letter from Hume, 297. Hume's farewell dinner,
299. Correspondence between Hume and Smith about the _Dialogues_, 300.
Hume's death and monument in Calton cemetery, 302. Correspondence of
Smith with Home or Ninewells, 302. Correspondence with Strahan on the
_Dialogues_, 305. Copy money for _Wealth of Nations_. Strahan's
proposal to publish selection of Hume's letters, 309. Smith's reply,
310. Clamour raised by the letter to Strahan on Hume's death, 311.
Bishop Horne's pamphlet, 312. Was Hume a Theist? 313. Mackenzie's "La
Roche," 314.
CHAPTER XX
LONDON AGAIN--APPOINTED COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS
Mickle's translation of the _Lusiad_, 316. His causeless resentment
against Smith, 317. Governor Pownall, 318. Letter of Smith to Pownall,
319. Appointed Commissioner of Customs, 320. Lord North's indebtedness
to the _Wealth of Nations_, 320. Salary of post, 321. Correspondence
with Strahan, 321.
CHAPTER XXI
IN EDINBURGH
Panmure House, Canongate, 325; Windham on, 326. Sunday suppers, 327.
Smith's library, 327. His personal appearance, 329. Work in the Custom
House, 330. Anecdotes of absence of mind, 330. Devotion to Greek and
Latin classics, 333. The Oyster Club, 334. Dr. Black and Dr. Hutton,
336.
CHAPTER XXII
VARIOUS CORRESPONDENCE IN 1778
Letter from Duc de la Rochefoucauld, 339. Letter to Lord Kames, 341.
Sir John Sinclair's manuscript work on the Sabbath, 342. The surrender
at Saratoga, 343. Letter to Sir John Sinclair on the _Mémoires
concernant les Impositions_, 343. Smith's view of taxes on the
necessaries and on the luxuries of the poor, 345.
CHAPTER XXIII
FREE TRADE FOR IRELAND
Commercial restrictions on Ireland, 346. Popular discontent, 347.
Demand for free trade, 347. Grattan's motion, 348. Smith consulted by
Government, 349. Letter to Lord Carlisle, 350. Letter from Dundas to
Smith, 352. Smith's reply, 353. Smith's advocacy of union, 356.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE "WEALTH OF NATIONS" ABROAD AND AT HOME
Danish translation, 357. Letter of Smith to Strahan, 357. French
translations, 358; German, 359; Italian and Spanish, 360. Suppressed
by the Inquisition, 360. Letter to Cadell, 361. Letter to Cadell on
new edition, 362. Dr. Swediaur, 362. The additional matter, 363.
CHAPTER XXV
SMITH INTERVIEWED
Reminiscences in the _Bee_, 365. Opinion of Dr. Johnson, 366; Dr.
Campbell of the _Political Survey_, 366; Swift, 367; Livy, 367;
Shakespeare, 368; Dryden, 368; Beattie, 368; Pope's _Iliad_, Milton's
shorter poems, Gray, Allan Ramsay, Percy's _Reliques_, 369; Burke,
369; the Reviews, 370. Gibbon's _History_, 371. Professor Faujas Saint
Fond's reminiscences, 372. Voltaire and Rousseau, 372. The bagpipe
competition, 372. Smith made Captain of the Trained Bands, 374.
Foundation of Royal Society of Edinburgh, 375. Count de
Windischgraetz's proposed reform of legal terminology, 376.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE AMERICAN QUESTION AND OTHER POLITICS
Smith's Whiggism, 378. Mackinnon of Mackinnon's manuscript treatise on
fortification, 379. Letter from Smith, 380. Letter to Sir John
Sinclair on the Armed Neutrality, 382. Letter to W. Eden (Lord
Auckland) on the American Intercourse Bill, 385. Fox's East India
Bill, 386.
CHAPTER XXVII
BURKE IN SCOTLAND
Friendship of Burke and Smith, 387. Burke in Edinburgh, 388. Smith's
prophecy of restoration of the Whigs to power, 389. With Burke in
Glasgow, 390. Andrew Stuart, 391. Letter of Smith to J. Davidson, 392.
Death of Smith's mother, 393. Burke and Windham in Edinburgh, 394.
Dinner at Smith's, 394. Windham love-struck, 395. John Logan, the
poet, 396. Letter of Smith to Andrew Strahan, 396.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE POPULATION QUESTION
Dr. R. Price on the decline of population, 398. Dr. A. Webster's lists
of examinable persons in Scotland, 399. Letter of Smith to Eden, 400.
Smith's opinion of Price, 400. Further letter to Eden, 400. Henry Hope
of Amsterdam, 401. Letter to Bishop Douglas, introducing Beatson of
the _Political Index_, 403.
CHAPTER XXIX
VISIT TO LONDON
Meeting with Pitt at Dundas's, 405. Smith's remark about Pitt, 405.
Consulted by Pitt, 406. Opinion on Sunday schools, 407. Wilberforce
and Smith, 407. The British Fisheries Society, 408. Smith's
prognostication confirmed, 409. Chosen Lord Rector of Glasgow
University, 410. Letter to Principal Davidson, 411. Installation, 412.
Sir John Leslie, 412. Letter of Smith to Sir Joseph Banks, 413. Death
of Miss Douglas, 414. Letter to Gibbon, 414.
CHAPTER XXX
VISIT OF SAMUEL ROGERS
Smith at breakfast, 416. Strawberries, 417. Old town of Edinburgh,
417. Loch Lomond, 417. The refusal of corn to France, 417. "_That_
Bogle," 418. Junius, 429. Dinner at Smith's, 420. At the Royal Society
meeting, 421. Smith on Bentham's _Defence of Usury_, 422.
CHAPTER XXXI
REVISION OF THE "THEORY"
Letter from Dugald Stewart, 426. Additional matter in new edition of
_Theory_, 427. Deletion of the allusion to Rochefoucauld, 427.
Suppressed passage on the Atonement, 428. Archbishop Magee, 428.
Passage on the Calas case, 429.
CHAPTER XXXII
LAST DAYS
Declining health, 431. Adam Ferguson's reconciliation and attentions,
433. Destruction of Smith's MSS., 434. Last Sunday supper, 434. His
words of farewell, 435. Death and burial, 435. Little notice in the
papers, 436. His will and executors, 436. His large private charities,
437. His portraits, 438. His books, 439. Extant relics, 440.
CHAPTER I
EARLY DAYS AT KIRKCALDY
1723-1737
Adam Smith was born at Kirkcaldy, in the county of Fife, Scotland, on
the 5th of June 1723. He was the son of Adam Smith, Writer to the
Signet, Judge Advocate for Scotland and Comptroller of the Customs in
the Kirkcaldy district, by Margaret, daughter of John Douglas of
Strathendry, a considerable landed proprietor in the same county.
Of his father little is known. He was a native of Aberdeen, and his
people must have been in a position to make interest in influential
quarters, for we find him immediately after his admission to the
Society of Writers to the Signet in 1707, appointed to the
newly-established office of Judge Advocate for Scotland, and in the
following year to the post of Private Secretary to the Scotch
Minister, the Earl of Loudon. When he lost this post in consequence of
Lord Loudon's retirement from office in 1713, he was provided for with
the Comptrollership of Customs at Kirkcaldy, which he continued to
hold, along with the Judge Advocateship, till his premature death in
1723. The Earl of Loudon having been a zealous Whig and Presbyterian,
it is perhaps legitimate to infer that his secretary must have been
the same, and from the public appointments he held we may further
gather that he was a man of parts. The office of Judge Advocate for
Scotland, which was founded at the Union, and which he was the first
to fill, was a position of considerable responsibility, and was
occupied after him by men, some of them of great distinction.
Alexander Fraser Tytler, the historian, for example, was Judge
Advocate till he went to the bench as Lord Woodhouselee. The Judge
Advocate was clerk and legal adviser to the Courts Martial, but as
military trials were not frequent in Scotland, the duties of this
office took up but a minor share of the elder Smith's time. His chief
business, at least for the last ten years of his life, was his work in
the Custom-house, for though he was bred a Writer to the Signet--that
is, a solicitor privileged to practise before the Supreme Court--he
never seems to have actually practised that profession. A local
collectorship or controllership of the Customs was in itself a more
important administrative office at that period, when duties were
levied on twelve hundred articles, than it is now, when duties are
levied on twelve only, and it was much sought after for the younger,
or even the elder, sons of the gentry. The very place held by Smith's
father at Kirkcaldy was held for many years after his day by a Scotch
baronet, Sir Michael Balfour. The salary was not high. Adam Smith
began in 1713 with £30 a year, and had only £40 when he died in 1723,
but then the perquisites of those offices in the Customs were usually
twice or thrice the salary, as we know from the _Wealth of Nations_
itself (Book V. chap. ii.). Smith had a cousin, a third Adam Smith,
who was in 1754 Collector of Customs at Alloa with a salary of £60 a
year, and who writes his cousin, in connection with a negotiation the
latter was conducting on behalf of a friend for the purchase of the
office, that the place was worth £200 a year, and that he would not
sell it for less than ten years' purchase.[1]
Smith's father died in the spring of 1723, a few months before his
famous son was born. Some doubt has been cast upon this fact by an
announcement quoted by President M'Cosh, in his _Scottish
Philosophy_, from the Scots Magazine of 1740, of the promotion of Adam
Smith, Comptroller of the Customs, Kirkcaldy, to be Inspector-General
of the Outports. But conclusive evidence exists of the date of the
death of Smith's father in a receipt for his funeral expenses, which
is in the possession of Professor Cunningham, and which, as a curious
illustration of the habits of the time, I subjoin in a note below.[2]
The promotion of 1740 is the promotion not of Smith's father but of
his cousin, whom I have just had occasion to mention, and who appears
from Chamberlayne's _Notitia Angliæ_ to have been Comptroller of the
Customs at Kirkcaldy from about 1734 till somewhere before 1741. In
the _Notitia Angliæ_ for 1741 the name of Adam Smith ceases to appear
as Comptroller in Kirkcaldy, and appears for the first time as
Inspector-General of the Outports, exactly in accordance with the
intimation quoted by Dr. M'Cosh. It is curious that Smith, who was to
do so much to sweep away the whole system of the Customs, should have
been so closely connected with that branch of administration. His
father, his only known relation on his father's side, and himself,
were all officials in the Scotch Customs.
On the mother's side his kindred were much connected with the army.
His uncle, Robert Douglas of Strathendry, and three of his uncle's
sons were military officers, and so was his cousin, Captain Skene, the
laird of the neighbouring estate of Pitlour. Colonel Patrick Ross, a
distinguished officer of the times, was also a relation, but on which
side I do not know. His mother herself was from first to last the
heart of Smith's life. He being an only child, and she an only parent,
they had been all in all to one another during his infancy and
boyhood, and after he was full of years and honours her presence was
the same shelter to him as it was when a boy. His friends often spoke
of the beautiful affection and worship with which he cherished her.
One who knew him well for the last thirty years of his life, and was
very probably at one time a boarder in his house, the clever and
bustling Earl of Buchan, elder brother of Lord Chancellor Erskine,
says the principal avenue to Smith's heart always was by his mother.
He was a delicate child, and afflicted even in childhood with those
fits of absence and that habit of speaking to himself which he carried
all through life. Of his infancy only one incident has come down to
us. In his fourth year, while on a visit to his grandfather's house at
Strathendry on the banks of the Leven, the child was stolen by a
passing band of gipsies, and for a time could not be found. But
presently a gentleman arrived who had met a gipsy woman a few miles
down the road carrying a child that was crying piteously. Scouts were
immediately despatched in the direction indicated, and they came upon
the woman in Leslie wood. As soon as she saw them she threw her burden
down and escaped, and the child was brought back to his mother. He
would have made, I fear, a poor gipsy. As he grew up in boyhood his
health became stronger, and he was in due time sent to the Burgh
School of Kirkcaldy.
The Burgh School of Kirkcaldy was one of the best secondary schools of
Scotland at that period, and its principal master, Mr. David Millar,
had the name of being one of the best schoolmasters of his day. When
Smith first went to school we cannot say, but it seems probable that
he began Latin in 1733, for _Eutropius_ is the class-book of a
beginner in Latin, and the _Eutropius_ which Smith used as a
class-book still exists, and contains his signature with the date of
that year.[3] As he left school in 1737, he thus had at least four
years' training in the classics before he proceeded to the University.
Millar, his classical master, had adventured in literature. He wrote a
play, and his pupils used to act it. Acting plays was in those days a
common exercise in the higher schools of Scotland. The presbyteries
often frowned, and tried their best to stop the practice, but the town
councils, which had the management of these schools, resented the
dictation of the presbyteries, and gave the drama not only the support
of their personal presence at the performances, but sometimes built a
special stage and auditorium for the purpose. Sir James Steuart, the
economist, played the king in _Henry the Fourth_ when he was a boy at
the school of North Berwick in 1735. The pupils of Dalkeith School,
where the historian Robertson was educated, played _Julius Cæsar_ in
1734. In the same year the boys of Perth Grammar School played _Cato_
in the teeth of an explicit presbyterial anathema, and again in the
same year--in the month of August--the boys of the Burgh School of
Kirkcaldy, which Smith was at the time attending, enacted the piece
their master had written. It bore the rather unromantic and uninviting
title of "A Royal Council for Advice, or the Regular Education of Boys
the Foundation of all other Improvements." The _dramatis personæ_ were
first the master and twelve ordinary members of the council, who sat
gravely round a table like senators, and next a crowd of suitors,
standing at a little distance off, who sent representatives to the
table one by one to state their grievances--first a tradesman, then a
farmer, then a country gentleman, then a schoolmaster, a nobleman, and
so on. Each of them received advice from the council in turn, and
then, last of all, a gentleman came forward, who complimented the
council on the successful completion of their day's labours.[4] Smith
would no doubt have been present at this performance, but whether he
played an active part either as councillor or as spokesman for any
class of petitioners, or merely stood in the crowd of suitors, a
silent super, cannot now be guessed.
Among those young actors at this little provincial school were several
besides Smith himself who were to play important and even
distinguished parts afterwards on the great stage of the world. James
Oswald--the Right Hon. James Oswald, Treasurer of the Navy--who is
sometimes said to have been one of Smith's schoolfellows, could not
have been so, as he was eight years Smith's senior, but his younger
brother John, subsequently Bishop of Raphoe, doubtless was; and so was
Robert Adam, the celebrated architect, who built the London Adelphi,
Portland Place, and--probably his finest work--Edinburgh University.
Though James Oswald was not at school with Smith, he was one of his
intimate home friends from the first. The Dunnikier family lived in
the town, and stood on such a footing of intimacy with the Smiths
that, as we have seen, it was "Mr. James of Dunnikier"--the father of
the James Oswald now in question--who undertook on behalf of Mrs.
Smith the arrangements for her husband's funeral; and the friendship
of James Oswald, as will presently appear, was, after the affection of
his mother, the best thing Smith carried into life with him from
Kirkcaldy. The Adam family also lived in the town, though the father
was a leading Scotch architect--King's Mason for Scotland, in
fact--and was proprietor of a fair estate not far away; and the four
brothers Adam were the familiars of Smith's early years. They
continued to be among his familiars to the last. Another of his school
companions who played a creditable part in his time was John Drysdale,
the minister's son, who became one of the ministers of Edinburgh,
doctor of divinity, chaplain to the king, leader of an ecclesiastical
party--of the Moderates in succession to Robertson--twice Moderator of
the General Assembly, though in his case, as in so many others, the
path of professional success has led but to oblivion. Still he
deserves mention here, because, as his son-in-law, Professor Dalzel
tells us, he and Smith were much together again in their later
Edinburgh days, and there was none of all Smith's numerous friends
whom he liked better or spoke of with greater tenderness than
Drysdale.[5] Drysdale's wife was a sister of the brothers Adam, and
Robert Adam stayed with Drysdale on his visits to Edinburgh.
A small town like Kirkcaldy--it had then only 1500 inhabitants--is a
not unfavourable observatory for beginning one's knowledge of the
world. It has more sorts and conditions of men to exhibit than a rural
district can furnish, and it exhibits each more completely in all
their ways, pursuits, troubles, characters, than can possibly be done
in a city. Smith, who, spite of his absence of mind, was always an
excellent observer, would grow up in the knowledge of all about
everybody in that little place, from the "Lady Dunnikier," the great
lady of the town, to its poor colliers and salters who were still
bondsmen. Kirkcaldy, too, had its shippers trading with the Baltic,
its customs officers, with many a good smuggling story, and it had a
nailery or two, which Smith is said to have been fond of visiting as a
boy, and to have acquired in them his first rough idea of the value of
division of labour.[6] However that may be, Smith does draw some of
his illustrations of the division of labour from that particular
business, which would necessarily be very familiar to his mind, and it
may have been in Kirkcaldy that he found the nailers paid their wages
in nails, and using these nails afterwards as a currency in making
their purchases from the shopkeepers.[7]
At school Smith was marked for his studious disposition, his love of
reading, and his power of memory; and by the age of fourteen he had
advanced sufficiently in classics and mathematics to be sent to
Glasgow College, with a view to obtaining a Snell exhibition to
Oxford.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Original letter in possession of Professor Cunningham, Belfast.
[2]
A COUNT OF MONEY DEBURSED ABOUT MR. SMITH'S FUNERALL
To eight bottles of ale £0 12 0
To butter and eggs to the seed cake 1 4 0
To four bottles of ale 0 6 0
To three pounds fresh butter for bread 0 14 0
To one pound small candles 0 4 6
To two pounds bisquet 1 4 0
To sixteen bottles of ale 1 4 0
To money sent to Edinr. for bisquet,
stockings, and necessars 25 4 0
To three expresses to Edinburgh 2 14 0
To a pair of murning shous to Hugh 1 10 0
To horse hyre with the wine from Kinghorn 0 15 0
To the poor 3 6 0
To six bottles and eight pints of ale
to the beadels, etc. 1 10 4
To pipes and tobacco 0 4 0
To four pints of ale to the workmen 0 12 8
To the postage of three letters 0 6 0
To making the grave 3 0 0
To caring the mourning letters thro'
the town and country 1 10 0
To the mort cloth 3 12 0
To Robert Martin for his services 1 4 0
To Deacon Lessels for the coffin and ironwork 28 4 0
To Deacon Sloan for lifting the stone 1 11 0
--------
Summa is £80 16 6
On the back is the docquet, "Account of funeral charges, Mr. Adam
Smith, 1723," and the formal receipt as follows: "Kirkaldie, Apl. 24,
1723. Received from Mr. James of Dunekier eighty pund sexteen shilling
six penes Scots in full of the within account depussd by me.
MARGRATE DOUGLASS."
"Mr. James of Dunekier" is Mr. James Oswald of Dunnikier, the father
of Smith's friend, the statesman of the same name, and he had
apparently as a friend of the family undertaken the duty of looking
after the funeral arrangements.
[3] In possession of Professor Cunningham.
[4] Grant's _Burgh Schools of Scotland_, p. 414.
[5] Drysdale's _Sermons_, Preface by Dalzel.
[6] Campbell, _Journey from Edinburgh through North Britain_, 1802,
ii. p. 49.
[7] _Wealth of Nations_, Book I. chap. iv.