[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.