[45]Sir Gilbert Elliot wrote from Edinburgh, July 25, 1782, to his wife:—“I have found one just man in Gomorrah, Adam Smith, author of the _Wealth of Nations_. He was the Duke of Buccleuch’s tutor, is a wise and deep philosopher, and although made Commissioner of the Customs here by the Duke and Lord Advocate, is what I call an _honest fellow_. He wrote a most kind as well as elegant letter to Burke on his resignation, as I believe I told you before, and on my mentioning it to him he told me he was the only man here who spoke out for the Rockinghams.”—_Life of Lord Minto_, vol. i. p. 84. [46]Afterwards Lord Lauderdale, a finished economist, who passed some ingenious criticisms on the _Wealth of Nations_. [47]See Dugald Stewart’s _Memoir_, section V. [48]Mr. Rae, the only one of Smith’s biographers, I think, who has noticed Saint-Fond’s visit, dates it wrongly (in 1782), and says the account was published in 1783. The journey took place in 1784, and the account was published in 1797. An English translation appeared two years later. [49]This appeared in 1786 with a prefatory note expressing the author’s grateful obligations to Mr. Henry Hope of Amsterdam, for his information concerning the great Dutch Bank. [50]In his first will Gibbon left a legacy of £100 to Adam Smith. [51]In his _Defence of Usury_, “Letter XIII. to Dr. Smith,” Bentham had written: “Instead therefore of pretending to owe you nothing, I shall begin with acknowledging that, as far as your trade coincides with mine, I should come much nearer the truth were I to say I owed you everything.” Mr. Rae (_Life of Adam Smith_, p. 424) quotes a letter from George Wilson to Bentham, in the Bentham MSS., British Museum. I may add to this the following note which I find in Bentham’s _Rationale of Reward_ (1825), p. 332, in chapter xvi. of Book IV., on Rates of Interest. “Adam Smith, after having read the letter upon _Projects_, which was addressed to him, and printed at the end of the first edition of the _Defence of Usury_, declared to a gentleman, the common friend of the two authors, that he had been deceived. With the tidings of his death Mr. Bentham received a copy of his works, which had been sent to him as a token of esteem.” INDEX A Alembert, 132, 139. American colonies, 163, 176-9. Aristotle, 6, 24-6, 37, 53, 74, 194. Armaments, 172-4. _Astronomy, History of_, 16-18.