APPENDIX. 95 
the publication of Mr Hume’s political difcourfes in the year 
1752, could not fail to confirm him in thofe liberal views of 
commercial policy which had already opened to him in the 
courfe of his own enquiries. His long refidence in one of the: 
moft enlightened mercantile towns in this ifland, and the ha- 
bits of intimacy in which he lived with the moft refpe@able of 
its inhabitants, afforded him an opportunity of deriving what 
commercial information he ftood in need of, from the beft 
fources ; and it is a circumftance no- lefs honourable to their 
liberality than to his talents, that notwithftanding the reluc- 
tance fo common among men of bufinefs to liften to the con- 
clufions of mere fpeculation, and the direct oppofition of his. 
leading principles to:all the old maxims of trade, he was able, 
before he quitted his fituation in the Univerfity, to rank fome’ 
very eminent merchants in the number of his profelytes.*..~ 
Amonc the ftudents who attended his lectures, and whofe: 
' minds were not previoufly warped by prejudice, the’ progrefs. 
of his opinions, it may be reafonably fuppofed, was much: 
more rapid. It was this clafs of his friends accordingly that 
firft adopted his fyftem with eagernefs, and diffufed a know- 
ledge of its fundamental principles over this part of the king- 
dom. 
_ Towarons the end of 1763, Mr SmirH received an invita- 
tion from Mr Cuarxes TowNsEND to accompany the Duke of. 
BuccLeuGH on his travels ; and the liberal terms in which the: 
propofal was made to him, added to the ftrong defire he had 
felt of vifiting the Continent of Europe, induced him to refign. 
his office at Glafgow. With the conne@tion which he was led 
to form in confequence of this change in his fituation, he had 
reafon to be fatisfied in an uncommon degree, and he always 
fpoke of it with pleafure and gratitude. To the public, it was 
not perhaps a change equally fortunate; as it interrmpted that. 
ftudious 
* I mention this fa& on the refpectable authority of James Rircure, Efq; of: 
Glafgow. . g, 
g ae” mm 
Account of 
Dr Smith, 
