LONDON AGAIN--APPOINTED COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS
Smith remained at Kirkcaldy from May to December 1776, except for
occasional visits to Edinburgh or Dalkeith, but his thoughts, as we
have noticed from time to time, were again bent on London, as soon as
his mother's health should permit of his leaving home. He seems to
have enjoyed London thoroughly during his recent prolonged sojourn,
and inspired some hopes in friends like Strahan that he might even
settle there as a permanent place of residence. After his departure
for Scotland in April Strahan used to write him from time to time a
long letter of political news keeping him abreast of all that was
going on, and in a letter of the 16th of September he says: "I hope
your mother's health will not prevent you from returning hither at the
time you propose. You know I once mentioned to you how happy I thought
it would make you both if you could bring her along with you to spend
the remainder of her days in this Place, but perhaps it will not be
easy to remove her so far at this time of her life. I pray you offer
her the respectful compliments of my family, who do not forget her
genteel and hospitable reception at Kircaldy some years ago."[275] The
time Smith proposed to return, as he had written Strahan early in
September, was November, but he afterwards put the journey off for two
months on account of his own health, which had suffered from his long
spell of literary labour, and was in need of more rest; and he might
have postponed it still further but for the visit being necessary in
order to carry the second edition of his work through the press. Early
in January 1777 he is already in London, having found lodgings in
Suffolk Street, near the British Coffee-House, and on the 14th of
March we find him attending a dinner of the Literary Club, with Fox in
the chair, and Gibbon, Garrick, Reynolds, Johnson, Burke, and Fordyce
for the rest of the company.[276]
His great work had not yet attracted much public notice. Its merits
were being fully recognised by the learned, and it was already leaving
its mark on the budget of the year; but it was probable Smith was more
talked about in general company at the time for his letter to Strahan
than for his _Wealth of Nations_. In one little literary circle he was
being zealously but most unjustly decried for taking a shabby revenge
on a worthy young Scotch poet who had ventured to differ from him in
opinion about the merits of the East India Company. Mickle, the author
of the popular song "There's nae luck aboot the hoose," published his
translation of the _Lusiad_ of Camoens in 1775, and dedicated the book
by permission to the Duke of Buccleugh, whose family had been his
father's patrons, and from whose interest he hoped to obtain some
advancement himself. When the work appeared the author sent a
nicely-bound presentation copy to the Duke, but received no
acknowledgment, and at length a common friend waited on his Grace,
and, says one of Mickle's biographers, "heard with the indignation and
contempt it deserved, a declaration that the work was at that time
unread, and had been represented not to have the merit it had been
first said to possess, and therefore nothing could be done on the
subject of his mission." A dedication in those days was often only a
more dignified begging letter, and Mickle's friends declared that he
had been cruelly wronged, because the Duke had not only done nothing
for him himself, but by accepting the dedication had prevented the
author from going to some other patron who might have done something.
Whatever could have been the reason for this sudden coolness of the
Duke? Mickle and his little group of admirers declared it was all due
to an ill word from the Duke's great mentor, Adam Smith, whom they
alleged to have borne Mickle a grudge for having in the preface to the
_Lusiad_ successfully exposed the futility of some of the views about
the East India Company propounded in the _Wealth of Nations_.[277]
But since the _Wealth of Nations_ was only published in 1776, its
opinions obviously could not, even with the vision and faculty divine
of the poet, be commented on either favourably or unfavourably in the
_Lusiad_, which was published in 1775. The comments on Smith's views
appeared first in subsequent editions of Mickle's work, and were
probably effects of the injury the author fancied himself to have
suffered. Anyhow they could not have been its causes, and the whole
story, so thoroughly opposed to the unusual tolerancy and benevolence
of Smith's character, merits no attention. It sprang manifestly from
some imaginary suspicion of a sensitive minor poet, but Mickle used to
denounce Smith without stint, and, thinking he had an opportunity for
retaliation when the letter to Strahan appeared, he wrote a satire
entitled, "An Heroic Epistle from Hume in the Shades to Dr. Adam
Smith," which he never published indeed, though he showed it about
among his friends, but in which, says Sim, who had seen it, Smith and
his noble pupil were rather roughly handled.[278] Mickle afterwards
burnt this _jeu d'esprit_, and very probably came to entertain better
views of Smith, for he seems to have been not only quick to suspect
injuries, but ready after a space to perceive his error. He once
inserted an angry note in one of his poems against Garrick, who had,
as he imagined, used him ill; but going afterwards to see the great
actor in _King Lear_, he listened to the first three acts without
saying a word, and after a fine passage in the fourth, heaved a deep
sigh, and turning to his companion said, "I wish that note was out of
my book." Had he foreseen the noise his several friends continued to
make, even after his death, about this purely imaginary offence on the
part of Adam Smith, the poet would not improbably wish the polemical
prefaces out of his book. Smith did not think much of Mickle's
translation of the _Lusiad_, holding the French version to be much
superior,[279] but if he happened to express this unfavourable opinion
to the Duke of Buccleugh, it could not have been with any thought of
injuring a struggling and meritorious young author. He has never shown
any such intolerance of public contradiction as Mickle's friends chose
to attribute to him. Dr. James Anderson, the first and true author of
what is known as Ricardo's theory of rent, won Smith's friendship by a
controversial pamphlet challenging some of his doctrines; Bentham
won--what is rarer--his conversion from the doctrines impugned, and a
very kindly letter still exists which Smith wrote to another hostile
critic, Governor Pownall, and which I shall give here, as it was one
of the first things he did after now arriving in London. Pownall had
been Governor of Massachusetts, a man of much activity of mind and
experience of affairs, and author of respectable works on the
_Principles of Polity_, the _Administration of the Colonies_, and the
_Middle States of America_. He was one of the forty-two persons to
whom the authorship of the letters of Junius has been attributed. He
differed strongly from many of Smith's views, especially from his
condemnation of the monopoly of the colonial trade, and wrote a
pamphlet setting forth his criticisms in the form of a letter to Adam
Smith. This pamphlet Smith received in Edinburgh, just before his
departure for London, and when he arrived he wrote the Governor as
follows:--
SIR--I received the day before I left Edinburgh the very
great honour of your letter. Though I arrived here on Sunday
last, I have been almost from the day of my arrival confined
by a cold, which I caught upon the road; otherwise I should
before this time have done myself the honour of waiting on
you in person, and of thanking you for the very great
politeness with which you have everywhere treated me. There
is not, I give you my word, in your whole letter a single
syllable relating to myself which I could wish to have
altered, and the publication of your remarks does me much
more honour than the communication of them by a private
letter could have done.
I hope in a few days to have the honour of waiting on you,
and of discussing in person with you both the points on
which we agree and those on which we differ. Whether you
will think me, what I mean to be, a fair disputant, I know
not; I can venture to promise you will not find me an
irascible one. In the meantime I have the honour to be, with
the highest respect and esteem, etc. etc.
ADAM SMITH.
SUFFOLK STREET, _12th January 1777_.[280]
The gentleman who forwarded this letter to the editor of the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ in 1795, but whose name is not published,
states, in further evidence, as he says, of Smith's liberality of
mind, that "he altered in his second edition some of the parts
objected to, and instead of a reply, sent to Governor Pownall a
printed copy of this second edition so altered, and there all contest
closed." Smith, however, does not appear to have made any such
alterations. In feet, in the second edition he hardly made more than
three or four alterations, and these were confined to the introduction
of an additional fact or two in confirmation of his argument; and
besides, when we refer to Pownall's pamphlet we find that their
differences were all about points on which Smith's views were mature
and the Governor's raw.
Smith probably remained most of the year 1777 in London, for, as we
have seen, one of his reasons for being there was to see the second
edition of his work through the press, and the second edition of his
work did not appear till 1778. But he was back in Kirkcaldy again
before December, and while there he received from Lord North the
appointment of Commissioner of Customs in Scotland, vacant through the
death of Mr. Archibald Menzies. The offence he unexpectedly gave to
the world's religious sensibilities by his account of Hume's last days
had not interfered, as he feared such an offence would, with his
prospects of employment in the public service, nor, what is quite as
remarkable, had his political opinions. For he was always a strong
Whig, and the preferment was bestowed by a Tory ministry. It is
usually attributed to the influence of the Duke of Buccleugh and Henry
Dundas, then a member of the ministry as Lord Advocate for Scotland,
and their word may no doubt have helped; but there is reason to
believe that the appointment was really a direct reward to the author
of the _Wealth of Nations_ for the benefit Lord North, who was
Chancellor of the Exchequer as well as Prime Minister, derived from
that book in preparing the budgets for the years 1777 and 1778. Smith
himself, in a letter to Strahan which will presently appear (p. 323)
attributes the appointment largely to the favour of Sir Grey Cooper,
who had been Secretary to the Treasury since 1765, and was naturally
Lord North's right-hand man in the preparation of his budgets. At the
time the _Wealth of Nations_ appeared the English Chancellor of the
Exchequer was at his wits' end for fresh and convenient and easy means
of increasing the revenue to carry on the American war, and the book
was a mine of suggestions to him. He imposed two new taxes in 1777, of
which he got the idea there,--one on man-servants, estimated by him to
bring in £105,000, though in the event it yielded only £18,000, and
the other on property sold by auction, which was to bring in £37,000;
but in the budget of 1778, which he would have under consideration at
the very moment of Smith's appointment, he introduced two new taxes
recommended by Smith,--the inhabited house duty, estimated to yield
£264,000, and the malt tax, estimated to yield £310,000. Under those
circumstances Smith's appointment to the Commissionership of Customs
is to be regarded not as a private favour to the Duke of Buccleugh,
but as an express recognition on the part of the Premier of the public
value of Smith's work, and the more honourable because rendered to a
political opponent who had condemned important parts of the
ministerial policy--their American policy, for example--in his recent
work.
The appointment was worth £600 a year,--£500 for the Commissionership
of Customs and £100 for the Commissionership of the Salt Duties; and
Smith still retained his pension of £300 from the House of Buccleugh.
When he obtained this place he thought himself bound in honour to give
up his Buccleugh pension, possibly because of the assistance he may
have believed the Duke to have given in securing it; but he was
informed that the pension was meant to be permanent and unconditional,
and that if he were consulting his own honour in offering to give it
up, he was not thinking of the honour of the Duke of Buccleugh. Smith
now settled in Edinburgh accordingly with an assured income of £900 a
year, and £900 a year was a comparatively princely revenue in the
Scottish capital at a time when a Lord of Session had only £700 a
year, and a professor in the best chair in the University seldom made
as much as £300.
Though the appointment was made probably in November 1777, Smith did
not receive the Commission till January 1778, and there were still
fees to pay and other business to transact about the matter, which he
got Strahan to do for him. That occasioned the following letters:--
DEAR SIR--The last letter I had the pleasure of receiving
from you congratulated me upon my being appointed one of the
Commissioners of Customs in Scotland. You told me at the
same time that you had dined that day with Sir Grey Cooper,
and that you had both been so good as to speak very
favourably of me. I have received from London several other
congratulations of the same kind. But I have not yet
received, nor has the office here received, any official
information that any such appointment had been made. It is
possible that the Commission is not made out on account of
the fees. If this is the case, you may either draw upon me
for the amount, which I understand to be about £160, or you
may write to me, and I shall by return of post remit you the
money to London. Whatever be the cause of the delay, I beg
you will endeavour to find it out and let me know as soon as
possible, that I may at least be at the end of my hope.
Remember me most affectionately to all your family, and
believe me to be, most faithfully yours,
ADAM SMITH.
EDINBURGH, _20th December 1777_.
Neither you nor Mr. Cadell have wrote me anything concerning
the new Edition of my Book. Is it published? does it sell
well? does it sell ill? does it sell at all? I left
directions with Mr. Cadell to send copies of it to several
of my friends. If John Hunter was not among the number, put
him in _ex dono authoris_, and desire Cadell to send me the
account of the whole, that I may pay it. I should write to
him, but it would only be plaguing him. If you draw upon me
make your bill payable at five days' sight. I return to
Kirkaldy on Christmas Day.[281]
On returning to Kirkcaldy Smith again wrote Strahan:--
DEAR SIR--I should have sent you the enclosed bill the day
after I received your letter accompanyed with a note from
Mr. Spottiswood, had not Mr. Charteris, the Solicitor of the
Customs here, told me that the fees were not paid in London,
but at Edinburgh, where Mr. Shadrach Moyes acted as receiver
and agent for the officers of the treasury at London. I have
drawn the bill for £120, in order to pay, first, what you
have advanced for me; secondly, the exchange between
Edinburgh and London; and lastly, the account which I shall
owe to Mr. Cadell, after he has delivered the presents I
desired him to make of the second edition of my book. To
this I beg he will add two copies, handsomely bound and
guilt (_sic_), one to Lord North, the other to Sir Gray
Cooper. I received Sir Gray's letter, and shall write to him
as soon as the new Commission arrives, in order not to
trouble him with answering two Letters. I believe that I
have been very highly obliged to him in this business. I
shall not say anything to you of the obligations I owe you
for the concern you have shewn and the diligence you have
exerted on my account. Remember me to Mr. Spottiswood. I
shall write to him as soon as the affair is over. Would it
be proper to send him any present or fee? I am much obliged
to him, and should be glad to express my sense of it in
every way in my power.
I would not make any alteration in my title-page on account
of my new office.
Remember me to Mrs. and Miss Strahan, likewise to the Homes
and the Hunters. How does the Painter go on? I hope he
thrives.--I ever am, my dear sir, most faithfully and
affectionately yours,
ADAM SMITH.
KIRKALDY, _14th January 1777_.[282]
The Mr. Spottiswood mentioned in this letter was a nephew of Strahan,
and no doubt an ancestor of Strahan's present successor in his
printing business. The Hunters are John and William Hunter, the Homes
are John Home and his wife, and the painter is Allan Ramsay.
In the course of a fortnight the Commission arrived, and Smith then
wrote Strahan again:--
EDINBURGH, _5th February 1778_.
MY DEAR STRAHAN--I received the Commission in due course,
and have now to thank you for your great attention to my
interest in every respect, but above all, for your
generosity in so readily forgiving the sally of bad humour
which, in consequence of General Skeenes, who meant too very
well, most unreasonably broke out upon you. I can only say
in my own vindication that I am not very subject to such
sallies, and that upon the very few occasions on which I
have happened to fall into them, I have soon recovered from
them. I am told that no commission ever came so soon to
Edinburgh, many having been delayed 3 weeks or a month after
appearing in the Gazette. This extraordinary despatch I can
impute to nothing but your friendly diligence and that of
Mr. Spottiswood, to whom I beg to be remembered in the most
respectful manner.
You have made a small mistake in stating our account. You
credit me with £150 only, instead of £170; the first bill
for £120, the second for £50. Cadell, however, still remains
unpaid. As soon as I understand he has delivered the books,
or before it, if he will send me the account of them, I
shall send him the money.--I ever am, dear sir, most
faithfully yours,
ADAM SMITH.[283]
What was the cause of Smith's outbreak of very unhabitual irritation
with Strahan on the occasion alluded to in this letter, I cannot say,
nor probably does it in the least matter. His temper, indeed, was one
of unusual serenity and constancy, and but for his own confession in
this letter, we should never have known that it was liable, like
others, to occasional perturbations, from which it appears, however,
he speedily recovered, and of which he is evidently heartily ashamed.
General Skeenes was probably one of his relations, the Skenes of
Pitlour.
The money transactions mentioned in the concluding paragraph refer
doubtless to his Commission fees, which from some calculations made,
probably by Strahan, on the back of the letter, seem to have come to
£147:18s. But the reference to Mr. Cadell's account shows that the
second edition of his book had now appeared. It was not published in
four volumes octavo, as he originally proposed to Strahan, but, like
the former edition, in two volumes quarto, and the price was now
raised from £1:16s. to two guineas, so that under the half-profit
arrangement which was agreed upon, he must have obtained a very
reasonable sum out of this edition, and we can understand how, from
the four authorised editions published during his lifetime, he made,
according to his friend Professor Dalzel, a "genteel fortune," as
genteel fortunes went in those days.
FOOTNOTES:
[275] _Hume MSS._, R.S.E. Library.
[276] Leslie and Taylor, _Life of Reynolds_, ii. 199.
[277] Sim's _Works of Mickle_, Preface, xl.
[278] _Ibid._, Preface, xliii.
[279] _The Bee_, 1st May 1791.
[280] _Gentleman's Magazine_, lxv. 635.
[281] Original with Mr. F. Barker.
[282] Original in possession of Mr. Alfred Morrison.
[283] Original in possession of Mr. Alfred Morrison.