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270.: To LT. COL. ALEXANDER ROSS - 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.


270.

To LT. COL. ALEXANDER ROSS

  • Address: Lieutnt Collonel Ross, Calcutta

MS., NYPL Berg Collection; unpubl.

London, 13 June 1787

My Dear Sir

When I saw you at Edinburgh, immediately before your departure for India, I told you I would trouble you with no recommendation except for my old friend and near relation, Coll: Ross of the Madras establishment.1 The peculiar situation of the excellent William Burke obliged me to violate this resolution; and the commands of My Lord Loughborrough, to whom you know well my very great obligations, lay me under the necessity of violating it a second time in favour of a friend of his, and of a Gentleman, for whose success, though I have not the honour to be known to him, I am myself extremely interrested. The Gentleman who will present you this Letter, Mr Royds, is the son of one of the most respectable families in Halifax.2 His Brother is married to a young Lady of great beauty and merit, the daughter of one of the oldest and most respected friends I ever had in the world, Mr Robert White of Kirkaldy, who dyed a little more than a year ago, to the unspeakable loss of his family and friends. Give me leave, both on Lord Loughborroug[h]s account, on account of the Gentleman himself, of whom I have heard the most advantageous character, and on account of his whole family to recommend him in the most anxious and earnest manner to your best advice, countenance and Protection.

There is no news except about the unhappy confusions and disturbances in Holland, in which, I hope, we shall be wise enough to take no share.3 The Present administration4 seems as firmly established as it is possible for any administration to be in this country. No public or general discontent and great majorities in both Houses. Believe me to be, my Dear Sir, most faithfully

and affectionately ever yours

Adam Smith

[1 ]See Letter 264 addressed to Lt. Col. Alexander Ross, dated 13 Dec. 1786, above, and Letters 263 and 265 from Burke, dated 7 and 20 Dec. 1786.

[2 ]A note on the cover of the letter reveals that the letter was delivered in Feb. 1788 by Royds, who had travelled to India on the Ranger and that a reply (which has not been traced) was sent to Britain by the William Pitt in Nov. 1788. Royds and his relative Robert White have not been identified.

[3 ]In 1787, France was supporting the republicans in the Netherlands, while the British Envoy was organizing associations to defend the constitutional rights of the Stadtholder. The new King of Prussia, Frederick William II, who was married to the Stadtholder’s sister, mobilized his troops in the Rhineland. Assured of the co–operation of a Prussian army, Pitt warned France she must abandon attempts to control the Netherlands or fight. The Prussians invaded Holland, the republicans fled, the Stadtholder returned in triumph to The Hague, and the provincial Estates rescinded their suspension of him. On the eve of revolution, France could not interfere, and in April 1788 the United Provinces concluded a formal defensive alliance with Prussia and Britain.

[4 ]Pitt’s.