Historical Studies of Church-Building in the Middle Ages: Venice, Siena, Florence by Charles Eliot Norton

Historical Studies of Church-Building in the Middle Ages: Venice, Siena, Florence by Charles Eliot Norton

CHAPTER IX THE WEALTH OF NATIONS AND ITS CRITICS IN February 1776 Hume wrote to Smith: "By all accounts your book has been printed long ago, yet it has never been so much as advertised. What is the reason? If you wait till the fate of America be decided, you may wait long." Declining health made him anxious to accelerate his friend's return. "Your chamber in my house is always unoccupied." In the same letter there are a few words about the war with the American colonies. The two friends were at one in condemning the war and the colonial policy which provoked it. But Smith was more deeply moved by the impending disaster, and was eagerly endeavour- ing to induce the Government to adopt means of con- ciliation before it was too late. He was therefore -- so the Duke of Buccleuch had informed Hume -- "very zealous" in American affairs. "My notion," writes Hume, cool as ever where only national interests were concerned, "is that this matter is not so important as is commonly imagined. If I be mistaken, I shall pro- bably correct my error when I see you, or read you. Our navigation and general commerce may suffer more than our manufactures. Should London fall as much in size as I have done, it will be the better. It is nothing but a hulk of bad and unclean humours." -163-

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Publication Information: Book Title: Adam Smith. Contributors: Francis W. Hirst - author. Publisher: Macmillan. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1904. Page Number: 163.