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267.: From HENRY DUNDAS - 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.


267.

From HENRY DUNDAS

MS., GUL Gen. 1035/170; Scott 302.

India Board, [London,]1 21 Mar. 1787

Dear Smith,

I received your letter this forenoon. Ross was certainly injured, but Sir Archibald Campbell will do him justice.2 I would have persevered against the Court of Directors, but I was suspicious they would have carried their bad humour so far as to dismiss him from their Service, so that by Protecting him farther I might have ruined him.

I am glad you have got Vacation. Mr Pitt,3 Mr Greenville4 and your humble Servant are clearly of opinion you cannot spend it so well as here.5 The Weather is fine, My Villa at Wimbledon a most comfortable healthy Place. You shall have a comfortable Room and as the Business is much relaxed we shall have time to discuss all your Books with you every Evening. Mr Greenville who is an uncommonly sensible man is concert in this Request.

Yours faithfully

Henry Dundas

[1 ]Besides being virtual minister for Scotland, Dundas had complete command of Indian affairs by this time.

[2 ]Smith no doubt hoped through Dundas to prevail on Campbell, who was Governor and C.–in–C. of Madras, to get military advancement for Patrick Ross. In the end, Ross retired with the rank of General.

[3 ]William Pitt (1759–1806), the Younger; M.P. 1781–1806; Chancellor of the Exchequer 1782–3; First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer Dec. 1783–Mar. 1801, May 1804–d.; dominated Parliament with his calmness and assurance; began as a reformer but turned conservative in response to the stresses of a revolutionary era.

[4 ]William Wyndham Grenville (1759–1834), M.P. 1782–90, sat in the Lords as Lord Grenville from 1790; Privy Councillor 1783; Paymaster–General, then Jt. Paymaster 1782–9; member of the Board of Trade 1784–9, Vice–Pres. 1786–9, member of Board of Control 1784–90, President 1790–3; Speaker of the House of Commons Jan.–June 1789; Home Sec. 1789–91; Foreign Sec. 1791–1801; First Lord of the Treasury 1806–7; c. 1785 was reported as having second place in Pitt’s favour: ‘The ties of consanguinity cemented every other motive derived from mental endowments. Nature had bestowed on him no exterior advantages. His person was heavy, and devoide of elegance or grace, his manners destitute of suavity. Even his eloquence partook of these defects. In debate he wanted Pitt’s copious pomp of words, his facility and majesty of expression’ (Wraxall’s Memoirs, quoted in HP ii. 549).

[5 ]Smith went to London for his last visit in March 1787 and remained there until August. He was consulted by Pitt about tax matters. In Dundas’s house during this visit, Addington, Grenville, Wilberforce, and Pitt all stood until Smith was seated, because as Pitt said, they were all his scholars (Scott 302).