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67.: To JOSHUA SHARPE - 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.


67.

To JOSHUA SHARPE

  • Address: To Mr Joshua Sharpe, Lincolns Inn, London

MS., GUA MS/B/15625; unpubl.

Glasgow College, 15 June 1762

Sir

We have had of Late several remonstrances from the Exhibitioners on Snells foundation at Balliol College complaining that they yet enjoy but a very small part of the Advantages which they expect to derive from the late degree in Chancery1 and that those which they do enjoy are by no means the most essential. What they mean, no doubt, is that they have yet received no part of the augmentation of the pecuniary appointment which was decreed to them, which, I suppose, is occasioned by the delays which may have occurred in settling the conjunct Agreement. I wrote to Dr King of St. Mary Hall2 to apply to Balliol College to give orders to Mr Cater3 to give his consent to the Agreement, and received soon after enclosed in a letter from Dr. King an unsigned paper which in his letter he said was delivered to him by Mr Watkins of B.C.4 in which it was said that Balliol College was very well disposed towards the Agreement and that they would soon write to Mr Cater in such terms as was desired. In your letter to Mr Simson of the 8th of March last you say ‘that Balliol College has become very tractable of Late and we are going on quite amicably before the Master to settle the division of the lands the scheme of which I have laid before Mr Wedderburn as you desir’d and I hope it will be at last brought to a speedy conclusion’. My application to Dr King, therefore, I hope, has not been altogether ineffectual. We would beg to know at present what it is that hinders the final conclusion of this Agreement, in order that we may be able to give some satisfaction to the very natural and reasonable impatience of the young Gentlemen upon that foundation. In a letter of yours to Mr Simson of an earlier date than the foregoing, I think it was in the October preceeding, you seemed to think that if proper application was made to Balliol College, the conjunct agreement might be concluded in the ensuing term. I can very easily, however, imagine the difficulties which might occu[r] in the conduct of so very complex a transaction.

I write you this letter in the Presence and by the appointment of the University meeting, who likewise desire me to acquaint you that as our late worthy Collegue Dr Simson has resigned his office5 on account of his age, Dr Joseph Black Professor of Medicine is now Clerk to the University. The University meeting desires, theref[ore] that for the future you would correspond either with him or with me as you think proper. Remember me to Mr Wedderburn and tell him I have been long looking for a letter from him and believe me to be Sir

Your very humble Servant

Adam Smith

[1 ]The important provisions of the decree of 23 Mar. 1759 were as follows: no restraint as to conformity or ordination was to be placed on the Snell Exhibitioners; £70 per annum was to be given to the five ablest Exhibitioners and £65 to the others; vacancies were to be intimated to the College of Glasgow, and failing nomination within six months a vacancy was to be filled by Glasgow (W. Innes Addison, The Snell Exhibitions, Glasgow, 1901, 21).

[2 ]William King (1685–1763), D.C.L. 1715; Principal of St. Mary Hall from 1719.

[3 ]? John Cater (b. 1704) of Farendon, Berks., M.A. Oxford 1727.

[4 ]? Robert Watkins of Kentchurch, Hereford., M.A. Oxford 1728; ? associated with Balliol College.

[5 ]As Clerk of Senate.