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182.: To GOVERNOR POWNALL - 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.


182.

To GOVERNOR POWNALL

Gentleman’s Magazine, lxv (1795), 635; Rae 319.

Sir,

I received, the day before I left Edinburgh, the very great honour of your letter.1 Though I arrived here on Sunday last, I have been, almost from the day of my arrival, confined by a cold, which I caught upon the road; otherwise I should, before this time, have done myself the honour of waiting on you in person, and of thanking you for the very great politeness with which you have treated me. There is not, I give you my word, in your whole letter, a single syllable, relating to myself, which I could wish to have altered; and the publication of your remarks does me much more honour than the communication of them by a private letter could have done.

I hope in a few days to have the honour of waiting on you, and of discussing in person with you both the points in which we agree and those in which we differ. Whether you will think me, what I mean to be, a fair disputant, I know not; I can venture to promise, you will not find me an irascible one. In the mean time, I have the honour to be, with the highest respect and esteem, etc. etc.

Adam Smith

[1 ]Letter 174, dated 25 Sept. 1776. See Appendix A; also Letter 208, for Smith’s subsequent views on his attempts to answer Pownall’s criticisms of WN.