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82.: To DAVID HUME - 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.


82.

To DAVID HUME

  • Address: A Monsieur, Monsieur Hume, chez L’Ambassadeur de L’Angleterre a Paris [readdressed to ‘Compiegne’]

MS., RSE vii. 32; Rae 178–9.

Toulouse, 5 July 1764

My Dearest Friend

The Duke of Buccleugh proposes soon to set out for Bordeaux where he intends to stay a fortnight or more. I should be much obliged to you if you could send us recommendations to the Duke of Richelieu,1 the Marquis de Lorges2 and Intendant of the Province.3 Mr Townshend assured me that the Duke de Choiseul4 was to recommend us to all the people of fashion here and everywhere else in France. We have heard nothing, however, of these recommendations and have had our way to make as well as we could by the help of the Abbé5 who is a Stranger here almost as much as we. The Progress, indeed, we have made is not very great. The Duke is acquainted with no french man whatever. I cannot cultivate the acquaintance of the few with whom I am acquainted, as I cannot bring them to our house and am not always at liberty to go to theirs. The Life which I led at Glasgow was a pleasurable, dissipated life in comparison of that which I lead here at Present. I have begun to write a book in order to pass away the time.6 You may believe I have very little to do. If Sir James7 would come and spend a month with us in his travels it would not only be a great Satisfaction to me but he might by his influence and example be of great service to the Duke. Mention these matters, however, to nobody but to him. Remember me in the most respectful manner to Lord Beauchamp8 and to Dr Trail9 and believe me my Dear Friend

Ever yours,

Adam Smith

[1 ]Louis–François Armand Duplessis (1696–1788), duc de Richelieu; soldier, diplomat, administrator, and libertine, his old age being as amorous as his youth; Governor of Guienne from 1758, but alienated the people of Bordeaux by his hauteur and arbitrary acts; detested the philosophes, though Voltaire spoke of him as his hero.

[2 ]Louis de Durfort Duras (b. 1714), cr. duc de Lorges, 1759, soldier and administrator; served in Guienne under Richelieu and commanded in his absence.

[3 ]Not identified.

[4 ]Étienne–François, duc de Choiseul (1719–85), Prime Minister of France till Dec. 1770.

[5 ]Abbé Seignelay Colbert (1736–?) eldest son of Cuthbert of Castlehill, Inverness; cousin of Hume; went to France 1750, and entered Gallican Church; made Vicar–General of diocese of Toulouse 1764; Bishop of Rodez 1781; had agricultural and industrial interests; attended the meeting of the States General, 1789, and proposed union of the clergy and the third estate; resisted the civil constitution of the clergy; ended his days as secretary to Louis XVIII.

[6 ]First mention of writing of WN.

[7 ]Sir James Macdonald (1741–66), 8th Bt. of Sleat, Isle of Skye; educ. at Eton; in Paris, autumn and winter of 1764, where his intellect and personality charmed everyone; an early death while in Rome on the Grand Tour ended a most promising career.

[8 ]Eldest son of Lord Hertford, the British Ambassador in France.

[9 ]James Trail (d. 1783), Chaplain to the Ambassador, later Bishop of Down and Connor, when Lord Hertford became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.