V; /" ^ / ^-. / ^ i ^■ J ?. ^:> V r I A CATALOGUE LIBRARY OF ADAM SMITH A Catalogue OF THE Library of Adam Smith Author of the ' Moral Sentiments ' and ' The Wealth of Nations ' EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION JAMES BONAR Novos parans amicos, ne obliviscere veterum Hontion MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1894 All rights reserved \fl. ? Vj CONTENTS Introduction — I. History of the Library ..... vii Letter of Adam Smith to Strahan, April 4, 1760 ....... To face X IL List of Works ....... xi in. Adam Smith's Will ...... xiv Plan of Adam Smith's House at Kirkcaldy. To face xiv IV. The Portraits of Adam Smith. By the late John M. Gray ...... xvlii V. Adam Smith on Portrait Painting . . . xxvii VI. Analysis of the Library, and List of Contri- butors TO the Catalogue . . xxviii to xxx Catalogue ......... I Index . . . . . . . • . .123 HISTORY OF THE LIBRARY At his death on 17th July 1790, Adam Smith's library went by will to his young cousin David Douglas, son of Colonel Robert Douglas of Strathendry, Fifeshire. David Douglas was born 1769, and, after studying law under Millar of Glasgow and passing as Advocate at Edinburgh in 1791, became Sheriff-Depute of Berwick- shire in 1809, was raised to the bench as Lord Reston (from an estate of Reston in Haddington) in 18 13, and afterwards became a Lord of Justiciary (1816). He died on 23rd April 1819.^ He probably sympathized to some extent with his cousin's tastes, for it is set down in the History of the Speculative Society that he read a paper there on 30th November 1790 on "The Effects of Taxation on the Necessaries of Life." On Lord Reston's death the library was divided between his two daughters, Mrs. Cunningham of Preston- pans, and Mrs. Bannerman of Edinburgh. On the death of Mrs. Bannerman (1879) her portion of the library went to her son, Rev. David Douglas Bannerman, D.D., now at Perth, who in 1884 presented a part to the New College (of the Free Church), Edinburgh. On the death of her husband, the Rev. W. B. Cun- ningham of Prestonpans (1878), Mrs. Cunningham sold 1 Brunton and Haig's Historical Account of the Senators of the College of Justice, Edinburgh, 1832, p. 549. viii Catalogue of Adam SmitJis Library some of the books at Edinburgh. Several were pur- chased by the late Professor Hodgson, and were pre- sented to the University library by Mrs. Hodgson in 1880.^ The remaining books of Mrs. Cunningham's portion were given by her to her son, Professor R. O. Cunningham of Queen's College, Belfast, by whom a part is still retained and a part has been presented to the library of Queen's College. The various possessors of books known to have belonged to the library of Adam Smith have been requested to supply information about them ; and the response has been in all cases courteous and cordial. The catalogues so furnished do not materially differ from each other in principle, and in most cases it has not been difficult to establish the identity of the books concerned. Where the information supplied by the possessors has been supplemented from other sources, the additions are enclosed in square brackets. The present Catalogue includes a great part of Adam Smith's library. Dr. Bannerman's half, still kept intact (though in two places), includes about 1400 volumes. MacCuUoch, who saw the books before the dispersion, reckons their number at 5000. Dugald Stewart says Adam Smith possessed " a small but excellent library, which he had gradually formed with great judgment in the selection " (Life prefixed to Essay s^ p. Ixxxv.) The entries in the present Catalogue amount to about 1000, and the volumes to about 2200. The whole collection was more probably 3000 than 5000. Most of the books are bound solidly in calf. One or two are richly decorated, being presentation copies. William Smellie (in his Literary and Char act eristical Lives of Gregory, Kames, Hume, and Adam Smith, 1800) tells us that Adam Smith said to him, " I am a beau in nothing but ^ See the List of Editi burgh Graduates, 1857-88, Appendix, p. 102. Introduction ix my books." But as a rule he seems to have aimed at strength rather than elegance of binding, and was no hunter of rarities or choice editions. A letter of Dupont to Adam Smith was found between the leaves of a presentation copy of a book of Dupont's, and has been printed for the first time in this volume (see Dupont). There is a Manuscript (on parchment) of Venetian Statutes that is probably of value. Other particulars of interest in regard to the volumes have been given in the course of the Catalogue. The editor has been able only in a very few cases to see and handle the books for himself. He is assured that, unless special note is made to the con- trary, each book bears the (very plain) bookplate of Adam Smith ADAM SMITH The chief facts of Adam Smith's life are as follows. He was the son of Adam Smith (lawyer and Customs' comptroller at Kirkcaldy) and Margaret Douglas of Strathendry ; and he was born probably at the beginning of June 1723.^ He was a student at Glasgow University from 1737 to 1740, and at Balliol College, Oxford (as Snell Exhibitioner) from 1740 to 1747. After a year and a half at Kirkcaldy he came to Edinburgh and lectured on belles lettres (1748-50). In 175 1 he was made Professor of Logic at Glasgow University, and in 1752 Professor of Moral Philosophy. In 1759 he pub- lished his Theory of Moral Sentiments. In 1764 he was persuaded by Charles Townshend to go abroad with the ^ The entry in the register (now in the Register House, Edin- burgh) of Kirkcaldy Church is that of his baptism, 7th June 1723. Catalogue of Adam SmitK s Library young Buccleuch to Toulouse, Geneva, and Paris, resigning his chair of Moral Philosophy. He was back in London in 1766 and at Kirkcaldy in 1767, devoting himself to his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations^ which appeared in 1776, just before the death of Hume. In 1778 he became a Commissioner of Customs in Edinburgh. In 1787 he was chosen Rector of his old University, and on 17th July 1790 he died at his residence, Panmure House, Canongate. He is buried in Canongate Churchyard. His last years were saddened by the loss of his mother and his cousin (Miss Jane Douglas), the former of whom died in 1784 and the latter in 1788. The ground -plan of the house at Kirkcaldy occupied by Adam Smith, as by his father before him, is still preserved in that town, and is reproduced here. Its date is 1776. The front elevation faced the High Street, and the garden stretched down towards the sea-shore. The Will of Adam Smith has been printed here, because governing the disposal of his books ; and a full list of his Works has been given, because frequent reference to them is part of the plan of this Catalogue. As there is promise of a Biography from the pen of Mr. John Rae, no attempt has been made to go into the details of his life. The preparation of this Catalogue was undertaken on behalf of the Economic Club, meeting at University College, London. Professor Foxwell and Mr. Henry Higgs, of that club, have given valuable help in the revision of the proofs ; and Professor Foxwell has kindly allowed the reproduction, in lithograph, of a letter of Adam Smith now in his possession. l^bcr^^L^h^.^^.v^.^^^,...,^^.^^,^*^ '^!$t=^/ tytr^- ^tfUUir^-*^ ^v>jonr-*~ o-c-*^ •^ ./»>>v-t.M^3fec<^- 4^ f\ K^^ /fK/^A *->^*^ >Z/J2-€L^, M^'^-'-^^r^ %^i^ ^^fM'J^^^ / /i'rir"'^'"-''/ /"'' ^'^'/ai'''