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such unpublished letters and information as it still remained possible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am also deeply indebted, for the use of unpublished letters or for the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