CHARACTERS, 
tinent in the month of March fol- 
lowing. At Dover, they were met 
by sir James Macdonald, who ac- 
companied them to Paris, and with 
whom Mr. Smith laid the foundation 
of a friendship, which he always 
‘mentioned with great sensibility, and 
of which he often lamented the short 
duration. The panegyrics with 
which the memory of this accom- 
plished and amiable person has been 
honoured, by so many distinguished 
characters, in the different countries 
of Europe, are a proof how well 
fitted his talents were to command 
general admiration. The esteem 
in which his abilities and learning 
were held by Mr. Smith, is a testi- 
mony to his extraordinary merit of 
still superior value. Mr. Hume 
too, seems, in this instance, to have 
partaken of his friend’s enthusiasm. 
““ Were you and I together, (says 
he, in a letter to Mr. Smith) we 
should shed tears at present, for the 
death of poor sir James Macdonald. 
We could not possibly have suffered 
@ greater loss than in that valuable 
young man.” 
In this first visit to Paris, the 
duke of Buccleugh and Mr. Smith 
employed only ten or twelve days; 
after which, they proceeded to 
Thoulouse, where they fixed their 
residence for eighteen months; and 
where, in addition tothe pleasure 
of an agreeable society, Mr. Smith 
had an opportunity of correcting and 
| extending his information concerning 
the internal policy of France, by 
the intimacy in which he lived with 
some of the principal persons of the 
parliament. 
From Thoulouse they went, by 
@ pretty extensive tour, through the 
south of France, to Geneva. Here 
they passed two months. ‘The late 
earl Stanhope, for whose learning 
[*47 
and worth Mr. Smith entertained a 
sincere respect, was then an inbabi- 
tant of that republic, 
About Christmas, 1765, they 
returned to Paris, and remained 
there. tiJ] October following. The 
society in which Mr. Smith spent 
these ten months, may be conceived 
from the adyantages he enjoyed, in 
consequence of the recommendations 
of Mr. Hume. Turgot, Quesnai, 
Necker, D’Alembert, Helvetius, 
Marmontel, madame  Riccoboni, 
were among the number of his ac- 
quaintances; and some of them he 
continued ever afterwards to reckon 
among his friends. From madame 
d’Anville, the respectable mother of 
the late excellent and much lament- 
ed duke of Rochefaucault, he re- 
ceived many attentions, which he 
always recollected with particular 
gratitude. 
It is much to be regretted, that 
he preserved no journal of this very 
interesting period of his history; 
and such was his aversion to write 
letters, that I scarcely suppose any 
memorial of it exists in his corres- 
pondence with his friends. The 
extent and accuracy of his memory,. 
in which he was equalled by few, 
made it of little consequence to 
himself, to record in writing what 
he heard or saw; and from his anxi- 
ety before his death to destroy all 
the papers in his possession, he seems 
to have wished, that no materials 
should remain for his biographers, 
but what were furnished by the 
lasting monuments of his genius, 
and the exemplary worth of his 
private life. 
The satisfaction he enjoyed in 
the conversation of Turgot may be 
easily imagined. Their opinions on 
the most essential points of political 
economy, were the same; and they 
were 
