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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).

Part of: The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 7 vols.

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124.

From DAVID HUME

Address: To Adam Smith Esqr at Kirkaldy

MS., RSE ii. 50; HL ii. 217.

[Edinburgh, Feb. 1770]1

‘This Night Opposition produc’d a Motion to overwhelm Administration as they said; that no Officer, employ’d in collecting his Majesty’s Revenue should be allowed to vote in the Election of a Member of Parliament: Administration carry’d the Question 263 to 188, so administration has gaind 35 since the last Division. At the same Moment the House of Lords divided 81 against 41. We look upon Opposition to be over.’2

Pray when do you come over to us? Do not buy any Claret to me

D H

[1 ]The provenance is suggested by the phrase ‘over to us’, i.e. across the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh, in the last para. of the letter. The date is indicated by the reference in the first para. to the motion seeking to disenfranchise the revenue officers.

[2 ]In this para. Hume is quoting from a letter from someone in London. The motion was one proposed on 12 Feb. 1770 by William Dowdeswell, leader of the Rockingham group in the House of Commons. It was intended to reduce the influence of the Government, and it foreshadowed Crewe’s Act of 1782. Its defeat marked the growing power in the Commons of Lord North.

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