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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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234.

From GEORGE DEMPSTER1

MS., GUL Gen. 1035/165; Scott 287–8.

London, 18 Dec. 1783

Dear Sir

Will you forgive my troubling you with the inclosed.2 It is the Effusion of a very gratefull Heart, and the writer a good man and deserving officer.

I dare say you have heard of a smuggling Committee lately appointed.3 I promised to Mr Eden our Chairman that I would drop you a hint of the intention of the Committee to desire the favour of your attendance in Town after the Holidays. Strange Events have since happend which render doubtfull the existence of the House itself and of course of all its Committees even to the beginning of the Holidays.4 So far as I can judge there is as great a probability of your seeing some of the Committee in Scotland as of the Committee seeing you in London. Should however the present surmises of a dissolution prove groundless, the Committee will be much indebted to you for your Ideas of the most effectual means to prevent smuggling, which by all the Information we have received has come to an alarming height, threatening the destruction of the Revenue, the fair trader, the Health and morals of the People.

I am with most sincere respect Dear Sir Your most Obedient and most humble Servant

George Dempster

[1 ]George Dempster (1732–1818) of Dunnichen, Forfar; M.P. for Perth Burghs 1761–8, 1769–70; educ. St Andrews, Edinburgh, and Brussels; advocate 1755; Director, East India Co. 1769, 1772–3; member of the Select Soc.; a dedicated improver, especially with respect to the Scottish fisheries, responsible for the practice of sending salmon on ice to London; championed reform of Scottish franchise.

[2 ]Not traced.

[3 ]A ‘Committee on Smuggling and other Illicit Practices used in Defrauding the Revenue’, met Dec. 1783–Mar. 1784. The ensuing Report does not appear to contain or mention a contribution from Smith. For his views on preventing smuggling, see WN V.ii.k.27, 35–6. See also Letter 235, WN V.ii.k.64, and Appendix D, No. 11.

[4 ]The controversy over Fox’s India Bill and the fall of the North–Fox administration; a general election was held in 1784.

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234.: From GEORGE DEMPSTER - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith [1740]

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