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29.: To LORD SHELBURNE - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith [1740]

Edition used:

Correspondence of Adam Smith, ed. E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross, vol. VI of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987).

Part of: The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 7 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


29.

To LORD SHELBURNE1

MS., Bowood Libr., Marquess of Lansdowne; Scott 243–4.

Glasgow, 10 Mar. 1759

My Lord

I have been very much out of my Duty in having so long neglected to write to your Lordship who have trusted me with so very important a charge as the Education of Mr Fitzmaurice. I waited till I could say something to your Lordship with regard to what I expected of him which might be depended upon, and I can now venture to assure your Lordship that the fault ought to be laid to my charge if he does not turn out at least an uncommonly good Scholar. There is not a poor boy in the college who is supported by charity and studies for bread that is more punctual in his attendance upon every part of College discipline. He attends different Masters for Greek, Latin and Philosophy five hours a day, and is besides employ’d with me at home between two and three hours, in going over the subjects of those different lectures.2 He reads too every day some thing by himself and a good deal on Saturdays and Sundays when he has most leisure. He has never yet missed a Single hour, except two days that he was ill of a very voilent Cholic, occasioned by cold and I suspect by the want of his usual exercise, which, I find, was very violent at Eton, and for which he has at present no leisure. It was with the greatest difficulty that I could keep him at home for those two days. He is perfectly sober, eats no supper, or what is next to none, a roasted apple or some such trifle and drinks scarce any thing but water. There is the more merit in this part of his conduct as it is the effect of Resolution not of habit: for I find he had been accustomed to a different way of living at Eton: But your Lordships and My Lady Shelburnes3 good advice has, I understand, produced this change. I can assure your Lordship that I have conversed with him for these two months with the greatest intimacy and that I find him every way agreeable; full of spirit and sensibility; two qualities which are very rarely joined together. I have a great deal more to say to your Lordship, but an unexpected call obliges me to conclude this letter abruptly. I shall write to your Lordship again by next at greater length. I had delayed writing so long that I was ashamed to delay it any longer, so snatched the first quarter of an hour which business of this [?kind] afforded me to scrawl this Letter

I am with the greatest respect Your Lordships most Obedient and most humble Servant

Adam Smith

[1 ]1st Earl of Shelburne.

[2 ]The strict regimen at Glasgow is to be contrasted with the laxity at Oxford; see Letter 1 addressed to William Smith, dated 24 Aug. 1740, and Letter 27 from Gilbert Elliot, dated 14 Nov. 1758.

[3 ]Lady Mary, dau. of Hon. William Fitzmaurice of Gullane, Co. Kerry, Ireland. She married her cousin, Hon. John Fitzmaurice (later 1st Earl of Shelburne) in 1734.