42.: To LORD SHELBURNE - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith [1740]
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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).
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42.
To LORD SHELBURNE
MS., Bowood Libr., Marquess of Lansdowne; Scott 250–1 (in part).
Glasgow, 29 Oct. 1759
My Lord
Your Lordship will receive by the same post which brings you this letter two other packets, of which the one contains Mr. Fitzmaurices receipts for the money he has received at different times from me since he came here, the other, the different accounts of the way in which part of this money has been expended. I have marked every receipt with a letter of the Alphabet. Your Lordship will find the same letter upon the back of the Account or accounts which correspond to it.
Your Lordship will observe several receipts that have no accounts corresponding to them. It is always mentioned in the body of the receipt what the money was given for, but there is not always any discharged account from a third person vouching that it was actually so expended. This is the case with regard to all those articles which concern the payment of any of his masters, none of whom ever give any discharge; with regard to those for the fees of a Physician and Surgeon; with regard to those for pocket money; with regard to those for some books which were bought for ready money and which are named in the body of the receipt, for a set of Silver buckles, for a case of mathematical instruments and for some other smaller articles of a few shillings value. The two principal articles of which there is no account are that for a journey to Edinburgh: and that for another to the Duke of Argylls at Inverara. I am answerable for the first of these, as it was upon my account that he went to Edinburgh, I not chusing to leave him behind me. I expected to have brought him back with me for fourty shillings; But when I came there I was often obliged either to sup or dine at places where it was improper to carry him. When this happened to be the case, that I might be sure what company he was in in a very dissolute town, I ordered a small entertainment at our lodgings and invited two or three young lawiers to keep him company in my absence. Inverara is two days journey from Glasgow and we happened to be misinformed with regard to Dukes motions and came there two days before him during which time we stayed at a very expensive Inn. At both these places I laid out the money and Mr. Fitzmaurice kept the account and when we came home we divided the expence between us.
The fees of the four Masters whose classes he attended last winter your Lordship may justly think extravagant. But it is the fee which is expected from all noblemens sons. Not above the half would be expected from any Gentlemans son.
Your Lordship will observe the first Article for Pocket to be four Pounds. He asked it and as it was the beginning of my government I gave it. It was spent in less than a month, not upon any vitious pleasure, but upon prints and baubles of no great utility and a considerable portion of it upon nuts, apples and oranges. After that I capitulated with him for a guinea a month and he has kept to this pretty nearly. You will observe two guineas for Pocket charged in one or two articles. This, however, you will observe is the always the allowance not only of the month in which it is charged but of the preceding month for which my own indolence had made me defer taking any receipt.
Your Lordship expresses in a letter I received from you sometime ago, a very laudible anxiety that your son should be held to Oeconomy not that he might hoard, but that he might be able to give. I did not at that time take any notice of that part of your Lordships letter. I can now venture to assure your Lordship that, tho’ you may think this account a bad specimen of his management, he is punctual, regular and orderly beyond almost anybody of his age and condition I have ever known, that he is careful of every thing upon which he sets any value, of his books, of his cloaths, and will I am perswaded be so of his money, whenever he comes to have any money to manage that is worth caring for. His regularity is tempered by a great desire of distinguishing himself by doing actions of eclat that will draw upon him the Attention of the world. He is even animated by this passion to a degree that is a little hazardous and is capable of venturing to expose his talents, which are naturally excellent, before they are perfectly matured. If he lives to be a man, he will, I imagine be firm, steady and resolute in an uncommon degree, and by the time he comes to the meridian of Life, will be a man of severe and even of rigid morals. I am your Lordships
Most Obliged and Most Obedient humble Servant
Adam Smith
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