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190.: To WILLIAM STRAHAN - 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.


190.

To WILLIAM STRAHAN

MS., University of Illinois Libr.; Rae 322–3.

Kirkcaldy, 14 Jan. 1778

Dear Sir

I should have sent you the enclosed bill the day after I received your letter accompanyed with a note from Mr Spottiswood,1 had not Mr Charteris, the Sollicitor to the Customs here, told me that the fees were not paid at London, but at Edinburgh; where Mr Shadrach Moyes acted as receiver and agent for the officers of the treasury at London. I have drawn the bill for the £120. in order to pay, first what you have advanced for me; secondly, the exchange between Edinburgh and London; and lastly, the account which I shall owe to Mr Cadell after he has delivered the presents I desired him to make of the second edition of my book.2 To these I beg he will add two copies handsomely bound and guilt, one to Lord North, the other to Sir Gray Cooper. I received Sir Grays letter3 and shall write to him as soon as the new commission arrives, in order not to trouble him with answering two Letter[s]. I believe that I have been very highly obliged to him in this business. I shall not say anything to you of the obligations I owe you for the concern you have shewn and the diligence you have exerted on my account. Remember me to Mr Spottiswood. I shall write to him as soon as the affair is over. Would it be proper to send him any present or fee? I am much obliged to him and should be glad to express my sense of it in every way in my power.

I would not make any alteration in my title page on account of my new office.

Remember me to Mrs and Miss Strahan, likewise to the Humes4 and the Hunters. How does the Painter5 go on? I hope, he thrives. I ever am

My Dear Sir most faithfully and affectionately yours

Adam Smith

[1 ]John Spottiswoode, nephew of Strahan. The letter and note have not been traced.

[2 ]WN ed. 2, 1778.

[3 ]Letter 186, dated 7 Nov. 1777.

[4 ]? John Home the poet and his wife.

[5 ]? Allan Ramsay (1713–84), settled in England c. 1756 and became portrait–painter to George III, 1767.