235.: To [WILLIAM EDEN] - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith [1740]
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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).
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235.
To [?WILLIAM EDEN]
MS., GUL Gen. 1035/134 (draft, unsigned); Scott 288–90.
[Edinburgh, 1783?]
My Dear Sir
After making you wait a fortnight, in expectation of an account from the excise which I have not yet received, I at last sit down to answer your very obliging letter, not one bit better informed than I was an hour after I received it. As soon as I get more information you shall have it.
By the 1st George 3. Cap: 1 Sect: 8, all the duties and revenues which were payable to the late king during his life in Scotland were reserved to his present majesty; over and above the £800,000 per an granted to him from the aggregate fund.
By the 10th Anne Cap: 26. Sect: 108, all the duties of customs and excise at that time payable in Scotland were made liable to the expense of keeping up the three courts of Session, Justiciary and Exchequer.
In consequence of the first of these clauses, not only the rents of the Crown lands, and the feudal Casualties arising in Scotland but the produce of all fines and forfeitures and consequently of all Seizures, the new Subsidy, the Hereditary and temporary excise, as well as several other branches of revenue are, by our Barons of Exchequer, considered as making part of the private estate of the king; to be disposed of in what manner he pleases, and consequently applicable to pensions and Gratuities.
In consequence of the second of these clauses combined with the first, when if those private funds should be so far exhausted by pensions and Gratuities as not to be sufficient for the maintenance of the 3 courts, the same Judges consider all the different branches of customs and excise payable to Scotland in the 10th of Queen Anne as liable to make up the deficiency.
The pensions upon the civil list of Scotland at the death of the late king did not, I have been assured, much exceed four thousand pounds a year. They at present amount to upwards of eighteen thousand pounds a year. I should have enclosed a list of them, had I not known that it was sent up quarterly to the treasury.
The amount of the civil establishment in Scotland during the last year has been as follows.
| Michaelmass quarter 1782 | £15,550. | 1 | |
| Christmas 1782 . . . | 16,798 | 12 | 1 |
| Ladyday 1783 . . . . | 16,615 | 15 | 5½ |
| Midsummer 1783 . . . | 17,915. | 2. | 1½ |
| | 66,879: | 10: | 8 |
Whatever part of the funds which are considered as the private property of the king is not exhausted by pensions is applied to the payment of the three courts, and the other necessary charges of the civil establishment of Scotland. So far as those private funds are not sufficient for this purpose, the deficiency is supplied by having recourse to the subsidiary funds applicable to the same purpose by the above clause in the 10th of Queen Anne. The remainder of those subsidiary funds is remitted by the order of the boards of Customs and Excise to the Receivers general of those respective Revenues in England.
The enclosed Account will sufficiently explain to you the nature of the funds under the management of our board which are applicable to the civil list, and the manner in which they are applied. In a post or two I shall probably be able to send you a similar account of those under the management of the Excise.
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