approbation, by his undertaking the task of tranflating them into the French language.

I am aware that the evidence I have hitherto produced of Mr. SMITH's originality may be objected to as not perfectly decifive, as it rests entirely on the recollection of thofe ftudents who attended his firft courses of moral philosophy at Glasgow; a recollection which, at the distance of forty years, cannot be fuppofed to be very accurate. There exists, however fortunately, a fhort manufcript drawn up by Mr. SMITH in the year 1755, and prefented by him to a fociety of which he was then a member; in which paper, a pretty long enumeration is given of certain leading principles, both political and literary, to which he was anxious to establish his exclufive right; in order to prevent the poffibility of fome rival claims which he thought he had reafon to apprehend, and to which his fituation as a Profeffor, added to his unreserved communications in private companies, rendered him peculiarly liable. This paper is at present in my poffeffion. It is expreffed with a good deal of that honest and indignant warmth, which is perhaps unavoidable by a man who is confcious of the purity of his own intentions, when he fufpects that advantages have been taken of the frankness of his temper. On fuch occafions, due allowances are not always made for those plagiarisms which, however cruel in their effects, do not neceffarily imply bad faith in thofe who are guilty of them; for the bulk of mankind, incapable themselves of original thought, are perfectly unable to form a conception of the nature of the injury done to a man of inventive genius, by encroaching on a favourite fpeculation. For reasons known to fome members of this Society, it would be improper, by the publication of this manufcript, to revive the memory of private differences; and I should not have even al5 luded

luded to it, if I did not think it a valuable document of the progrefs of Mr. SMITH's political ideas at a very early period. Many of the most important opinions in The Wealth of Nations are there detailed; but I shall quote only the following fentences: "Man is generally "confidered by statesmen and projectors as the materials of a sort of "political mechanics. Projectors difturb nature in the course of "her operations in human affairs; and it requires no more than to "let her alone, and give her fair play in the pursuit of her ends,.. "that she may establish her own defigns."---And in another paffage: "Little elfe is requifite to carry a state to the highest degree of opu"lence from the lowest barbarifm, but peace, eafy taxes, and a to"lerable administration of justice; all the reft being brought about "by the natural course of things. All governments which thwart "this natural course, which force things into another channel, or "which endeavour to arreft the progrefs of fociety at a particular "point, are unnatural, and to fupport themfelves are obliged to be " oppreffive and tyrannical.—A great part of the opinions (he ob~ferves) enumerated in this paper is treated of at length in fome "lectures which I have ftill by me, and which were written in the "hand of a clerk who left my fervice fix years ago. They have all "of them been the constant subjects of my lectures fince I first taught Mr. CRAIGIE'S clafs, the first winter I spent in Glasgow, "down to this day, without any confiderable variation. They had "all of them been the subjects of lectures which I read at Edin

burgh the winter before I left it, and I can adduce innumerable witneffes, both from that place and from this, who will afcertain "them fufficiently to be mine.":

After all, perhaps the merit of fuch a work as Mr. SMITH's is to be eftimated lefs from the novelty of the principles it contains, than from

the reafonings employed to fupport these principles, and from the fcientific manner in which they are unfolded in their proper order and connection. General affertions with refpect to the advantages of a free commerce, may be collected from various writers of an early date. But in queftions of fo complicated a nature as occur in political economy, the credit of fuch opinions belongs of right to the author who firft established their folidity, and followed them out to their remote confequences; not to him who, by a fortunate accident, firft ftumbled on the truth.

Befides the principles which Mr. SMITH confidered as more peculiarly his own, his Inquiry exhibits a systematical view of the most important articles of political œconomy, fo as to ferve the purpose of an elementary treatise on that very extensive and difficult science. The skill and the comprehensiveness of mind difplayed in his arrangement, can be judged of by thofe alone who have compared it with that adopted by his immediate predeceffors. And perhaps, in point of utility, the labour he has employed in connecting and me thodising their scattered ideas, is not less valuable than the results of his own original fpeculations: For it is only when digested in a clear and natural order, that truths make their proper impreffion on the mind, and that erroneous opinions can be combated with fuccefs.

It does not belong to my prefent undertaking (even if I were qualified for fuch a tafk) to attempt the feparation of the folid and important doctrines of Mr. SMITH's book from those opinions which appear exceptionable or doubtful. I acknowledge, that there are fome of his conclufions to which I would not be understood to fubfcribe implicitly; more particularly in that chapter, where he treats of the principles of taxation, and which is certainly executed

in a manner more loofe and unfatisfactory than the other parts of his fyftem.

It would be improper for me to conclude this section without taking notice of the manly and dignified freedom with which the author uniformly delivers his opinions, and of the fuperiority which he discovers throughout, to all the little paffions connected with the factions of the times in which he wrote. Whoever takes the troublé to compare the general tone of his compofition with the period of its first publication, cannot fail to feel and acknowledge the force of this remark.It is not often that a difinterested zeal for truth has fo foon met with its just reward. Philofophers (to use an expreffion of Lord BACON's) are "the fervants of pofterity;" and most of those who have devoted their talents to the beft interefts of mankind, have been obliged, like BACON, to "bequeath their fame" to a race yet unborn, and to confole themfelves with the idea of fowing what another generation was to reap

Infere Daphni pyros, carpent tua poma nepotes.

Mr. SMITH was more fortunate; or rather, in this refpect, his fortune was fingular. He furvived the publication of his work only fifteen years; and yet, during that fhort period, he had not only the fatisfaction of seeing the oppofition it at firft excited, gradually fub fide, but to witness the practical influence of his writings on the commercial policy of his country.

AB BOUT two years after the publication of "The Wealth of Na-tions," Mr. SMITH was appointed one of the Commiffioners of his Majefty's Customs in Scotland; a preferment which, in his eftimation, derived an additional value from its being bestowed on him at the request of the Duke of BUCCLEUGH. The greater part of thefe two years he passed at London, in a fociety too extenfive and varied to afford him any opportunity of indulging his taste for ftudy. His time, however, was not loft, to himself; for much of it was spent with some of the first names in English literature. Of these no unfavourable specimen is preserved by Dr. BARNARD, in his well known "Verfes addreffed to Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS and his friends."

In confequence of Mr. SMITH's appointment to the Board of Customs, he removed, in 1778, to Edinburgh, where he spent the

* See Annual Regifter for the year 1776.

laft