TO-DAY IN HISTORY

Southland Times, Issue 20792, 5 June 1929, Page 4

TO-DAY IN HISTORY

JUNE 5. Bcm: Socrates, Grecian philosopher, B.C. 468; Joseph de Tournefort, botanist, 1656; Dr Adam Smith, political economist, Kirkaldy, 1723; Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, 1771. Died: Count D’Egmont and Count Horn, beheaded, Brussels, 1568; John Henry Hettinger, orientalist, 1667; Rev. Dr Henry Sacheverell, 1724; John Paisiello, musical composer, Naples, 1816; Carl Maria Von Weber, musical composer, London, 1826; T. H. Lister, novelist, London, 1842; Jacques Pradier, French sculptor, 1852. COUNT EGMONT. Lamoral, Count of Egmont, Flemish statesman, was born at La Hamaide Castle in Hainault, November 18, 1522. In 1541 he went on the expedition of Charles V., to Algiers, and participated in the subsequent campaigns against France. In 1545 he married a sister of the elector palatine and was later appointed governor of Flanders. In spite of his proved loyalty to the Spanish government he fell under suspicion and was beheaded at Brussels, June 5, 1568. His life forms the subject of Goethe’s well-known tragedy. In 1865 a monument to .his memory was erected in Brussels. ADAM SMITH. Adam Smith, the Economist, was the posthumous son of an official in the customs, and was born at Kirkaldy, June 5, 1723. He was educated in the university of Glasgow and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1748 he began lecturing in Edinburgh, and in' 1751 was chosen professor of logic at Glasgow, where from 1752-63 he was professor of moral philosophy. In 1764 he went abroad with a pupil, the Duke of Buccleuch, after which he spent ten years in writing and study. In 1776 the result of this labour appeared in the "Wealth of Nations.” Two years later he was appointed a commissioner of customs, a post he held until his death in 1790. Smith enunciated a philosophy of .his own that all our sentiments arise from sympathy in his “Theory of Moral Sentiments,” 1759. . His reputation, - however, rests on his “Wealth of Nations,” the most influential and exhaustive work of its kind. Its influence on the study of political economy was enormous, and it» was perhaps equally great on practical politics. Mention should be .made of Smith’s friendship with David Hume and many of the most notable literary figures of his day, in France as well as in Britain.