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58.: From DR. WILLIAM LEECHMAN - 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.


58.

From DR. WILLIAM LEECHMAN

  • Address: To Mr Adam Smith, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow

MS., GUA University MSS. vol. 30. 62–5; Scott 200.

Sir,

I acquaint you and the other Professors by this that unless the Rector himself1 is to be present in the Meeting to preside there can be no meeting today as I have already resigned the Office of Vice–Rector.2 I likewise by this inform you that His Majesty has been graciously pleased by his Royal letter dated at St James’s the 6th of July to nominate me to be principal which I have also intimated to the Lord Rector and as soon as it can be done shall qualifye before the Presbytery and desire the Rector to call a meeting for my admission. Please to communicate this to all the Gentlemen my colleagues.

I am Sir your most obedient humble Servt

Sic Subscribitur Will. Leechman

[1 ]Lord Erroll.

[2 ]Adam Smith as Vice–Rector had called a University Meeting for 15 July 1761 to admit John Millar as Professor of Law and to elect a Professor of Oriental Languages. By this letter Leechman sought to exert his influence, but Smith’s colleagues considered they had been legally summoned to meet. Entreaties to attend the meeting were carried by Smith to Leechman but he refused, so the Meeting proceeded without him. Its acts were confirmed at another University Meeting attended by the Rector on 26 Aug. 1761. See Scott 200–2. This affair led to a controversy about the respective powers of the Rector and Principal: Scott 91–6, 202–19.