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66.: To SIR GILBERT ELLIOT, LORD MINT - 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.


66.

To SIR GILBERT ELLIOT, LORD MINTO1

  • Address: To the Honourable The Lord Minto, Edinburgh

MS., GUL Gen. 1465/5; unpubl.

My Lord

I received some time ago a letter from Mr James Clarke2 in which he informed me that your Lordship had a long time before that sent him a letter of recommendation to your Son Mr Elliot, that, however, as he had no opportunity of going to London he had sent the Letter by a friend, imagining, I suppose, that it was necessary to deliver it immediately. Your Lordship will very easily excuse this impropriety in a very honest Tar who is not much acquainted with the way of the world. He is now of full standing to press for a Lieutenant and proposes to come to London soon in order to be examined for that purpose. By every account that I can hear he is perfectly well qualified and is, in every respect, a brave, honest and expert Seaman. He is extremely desirous that your Lordship should send him another letter to the same Purpose as the former and wrote to me to apply to you for that Purpose, which is the occasion of your getting this trouble. If your Lordship will be so good as to enclose that letter to me I shall send it to him by the first Post. He is doing well in every sense of the word and has even made a little money which he has disposed of in favour of his Sister. All the family, indeed, behave very well and I hope will do credit to their friends. I am My Lord, with very great respect,

your Lordships most obliged and most Obedient Servant

Adam Smith

[1 ]Sir Gilbert Elliot (1693–1766); advocate 1715; M.P. 1722–6; Lord of Session 1726; Lord Commissioner of Justiciary 1733; Lord Justice–Clerk, 1763–6; father of Smith’s friend Gilbert Elliot, then a Lord of Admiralty.

[2 ]Not identified.