cuniary proportion of the copartnery being advanced for him by Dr Hope and Dr Fergusson, professors in the university. In 1767, a new copartnery was formed by the introduction of Mr Balfour, bookseller, who brought along with him the property of a newspaper called the Weekly Journal, which had for a considerable time previously been established. The management of the latter was solely intrusted to Mr Smellie; but as it happened to be a losing concern, he shortly afterwards insisted on its discontinuance. This led to disputes, which finally terminated in a dissolution of the copartnery in 1771; when a new contract was entered into between Mr Balfour and Mr Smellie only. About the same time, he appears to have been on terms with the eminent Mr William Strahan, to undertake the management of the vast printing concern carried on by him in London; but from some cause not clearly explained the treaty was broken off. It is worthy of mention, as showing the respect in which Mr Smellie was at this time held, that upon his entering on this new copartnery, lord Kames became security for a bank credit in favour of the younger printer, to the amount of £300. His lordship appears to have had a particular regard for Mr Smellie, and at his suggestion the latter commenced the composition of a series of lectures on the Philosophy of Natural History. About the same time the professorship of natural history in the Edinburgh university fell vacant, and great exertions were made to procure Mr Smellie's appointment to it; but the political interest of his rival, Dr Walker, prevailed, and was even strong enough to prevent him from delivering his lectures publicly, although the Antiquarian Society, of whose Museum he was keeper, offered him the use of their hall for that purpose.
Mr Smellie's acquaintance with lord Kames originated in his venturing to send, anonymously however, some animadversions on his lordship's "Elements of Criticism," whilst that work was going through the press of Messrs Murray and Gochrane in 1764. Lord Kames replied by thanking the young critic, and requesting him to reveal himself. The result was a strict and intimate friendship during their lives; lord Kames uniformly submitting all his subsequent works to the critical judgment of Mr Smellie, who, after the death of lord Kames, wrote the life of his illustrious friend for the Encyclopædia Britannica, in the third edition of which it appeared in 1800.
Amongst Mr Smellie's many literary undertakings, one of the earliest was the compilement and entire conducting of the first edition of the work just named, which began to appear in numbers at Edinburgh in 1771, and was completed in three volumes in quarto. The plan, and all the principal articles were devised and written or compiled by him, and he prepared and superintended the whole of that work, for which he only received the sum of £200, from its proprietors, Mr Andrew Bell, engraver, and Mr Colin Macfarquhar, printer. Had Mr Smellie adhered to this literary project, there is little doubt that he would thereby ultimately have realized an ample fortune, as both the proprietors died in great affluence, arising solely from the labours of Mr Smellie in the original fabrication of the work. Unfortunately, however, when applied to by the proprietors to undertake the second edition, he fastidiously refused to meddle with it on account of their desiring to introduce a plan of biography into it, which Mr Smellie imagined would detract from its dignity as a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences.
It will, we should think, be interesting to our readers to learn something of the early history of a work which has latterly swelled out into such bulk and importance. Of the original edition—the entire work, as we have said, of Mr Smellie—it is not exactly known how many copies were thrown off. The second edition, which consisted of 1500 copies, extended to ten volumes
