ADAM SMITH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11062, 13 May 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

ADAM SMITH.

THE FATHER OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. Adam Smith was born at Kirkcaldy— a little town in Fifeshire, which afterwards came to have its associations with Edward Irving and Thomas Carlylc—on the sth of .Tune, 1723, and he died in Edinburgh, as all good Scotsmen ought, though few of them do, on the 17th of July, 1790. He led a lifo which even Wordsworth, with his passion, on paper at least, for plain living and high thinking, would not have disallowed. It is not easy to speak calmly of the scope and quality of the tasks achieved by this great pioneer of economic science, and Buckle, therefore, may be forgiven—even by thoso who cavilfor his majestic assertion that "The Wealth of Nations" was the most important book that has ever been written It was once said, and with justice, that Adam Smith made the dream of the study the truism of the market-place, and that sums lip, as well as a phrase can, the world s debt in ideas to the shy, unassuming Scottish philosopher. Everyone knows that Adam Smith was a dutiful son to his widowed mother, and a loyal friend to David Hume in days when tlio latter was under a cloud. He was educated at Glasgow and at Bnlliol, but in those days Oxford looked rather askance at the rough unpolished youths who came from North of the Tweed to replenish her intellectual life. There is no need to dwell upon him as Lecturer on Rhetoric in Edinburgh and Professor of Logic in Glasgow; nor need we concern ourselves here that the poor Scotch scholal, ea«er to see the world, jumped at the offer, in October, 1763, when Charles Townshend suggested that he should become bear-leader to the young Duke of Buccleuch. It was not a pleasant life, but it brought Adam Smith into relationship with the Physiocrats, and he saw France when she was hastening down the road to the Revolution. It pleased the young Duke to loiter for 18 mortal months at Toulouse,, and Adam Smith had to kick his heels in attendance. " I have begun to write a book in order 'to pass away tlie time," wrote Smith to Hume, and so began in an atmosphere of boredom "The Wealth of Nations." Finally, Pans was reached, and Hume bustled about, introducing his friend Adam Smith in the salons, where Quesney, Turgot, Necker, and the like foregathered. The noble house of Buccleugli did its duty by the philosopher, who after three years' service retired with a pension of £300 a year to cultivate literature on more than a little oatmeal in the quietude of his prosaic native town of Kirkcaldy, where he spent ten years in busy obscurity over the midnight lamp and "The Wealth of Nations." It was published in 1776, and represented the direct labour of twelve years and the indirect of twenty. It sold well from the first, and this was the more remarkable since it was not helped by reviews laudatory or hostile, though Burke's brilliant pen called the world's attention presently to the book. In the spring of 1787 Adam Smith was seen for the last time in London. ; His health was failing, not swiftly, but 1 surely, and lie came south to consult his old i friend, Dr. John Hunter. Pitt at that time was at the height of his fame, and. had been i quick to see and seize the far-reaching teach--1 ing of "The Wealth of Nations." He was eager to meet the philosopher, and at the house of Dundas they came to speech. Aldington, Wilberforce, Grenville were of the 1 company. Adam Smith came late, and as he entered the room they all rose to receive > him. •" Be seated, gentlemen," said the emi barrassed philosopher. "No," exclaimed i Pitt, with generous warmth, " we. will stand • till you are first seated, for we are all your • scholars." He was worthy for whom they • should do this. Sir James Mackintosh knew 1 intimately Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and " Thomas. Malthus. ~.." Is it not. something, he used to ask, " to say : for a science that ' its- three greatest masters were about the , three best men I ever knew?"— Speaker- ;