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those particulars and letters to which I have alluded were collected together, and if they were supplemented by such unpublished letters and information as it still remained possible to procure.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 I am also deeply indebted, for the use of unpublished letters or for the supply of special information, to the Duke of Buccleuch, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Professor R.O. Cunningham of Queen's College, Belfast,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
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
"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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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].
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.