Panmure House in the Canongate (still standing), where he settled with his mother, his cousin Miss Douglas, and David, son of another cousin, Colonel Robert Douglas of Strathendry. He had a good library, and entertained his friends simply, especially at Sunday suppers. He read Greek, and took a weekly dinner at the ‘Oyster Club,’ of which he and his friends Joseph Black and James Hutton the geologist were the chief members. He was one of five commissioners, and attended to his duties regularly. Scott gives some singular anecdotes of the absence of mind for which he was always remarkable, and especially of one occasion upon which he automatically imitated the military salute made by a stately porter (‘John Home’ in Misc. Works, vol. xix.). He was becoming infirm; and though his duties were not severe, they occupied him sufficiently to prevent him from completing new original work. He apologises to his publisher in December 1782 for his idleness (Rae, p. 362). He was now, however, preparing a third edition of the ‘Wealth of Nations,’ to which he made considerable additions. He was consulted by William Eden (afterwards Lord Auckland) and the secretary to the board of trade in 1779 in regard to free trade with Ireland (Letters in Rae, pp. 350–4, from English Historical Review of April 1886), and in 1783 in regard to the regulations of the American trade. Smith was a steady whig, and heartily approved of Fox's East India Bill. In 1784 Burke passed through Edinburgh on his way to be installed as lord rector of Glasgow. ‘Burke,’ as Smith said (Bisset, ii. 429), ‘is the only man I ever knew who thinks on economic subjects exactly as I do without any previous communication having passed between us.’ They were at this time in political agreement, and Smith, after receiving Burke at Edinburgh, accompanied him to Glasgow and upon an excursion to Loch Lomond (Dalzel, University of Edinburgh, i. 42). Burke was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in June 1784. This society had been founded in the previous year, superseding the old Philosophical Society. Smith was one of the four presidents of the literary branch, Robertson, Blair, and Cosmo Gordon being his colleagues. In August 1785 Burke again visited Scotland in company with Windham, and renewed his intercourse with Smith.
Smith's mother died on 23 May 1784 in her ninetieth year. His grief was so intense as to surprise his friends, and was the more trying as his own health was declining. In the winter of 1786–7 he had an attack which caused serious alarm. In April he went to London to consult John Hunter. He was much wasted, but was able to go into society. He met Pitt on several occasions. They dined together at Henry Dundas's house at Wimbledon, when Pitt told him to be seated first; ‘for we are all your scholars’ (Kay, Edinburgh Portraits, p. 75). George Wilson reports to Bentham (14 July) that Smith is ‘much with the ministry,’ and engaged in some researches for which the clerks at the public offices are to give him every facility. Wilberforce also talked about the society recently started for extending the Scottish fisheries (Wilbeforce, Correspondence, i. 40). Smith observed, ‘with a certain characteristic coolness,’ that the only result would be the loss of every shilling invested. He was not far wrong.
In November 1787 Smith was elected lord rector of Glasgow. He acknowledged the honour in a warm letter of thanks to the principal (Rae, p. 411), and was installed on 12 Dec., but he gave no inaugural address. In 1788 he was in much better health. He lost his cousin, Jane Douglas, who had lived with him for many years, in the autumn. In 1789 Smith employed himself upon a revision of the ‘Moral Sentiments,’ the previous editions of which had remained unaltered. The suppression of a reference to Rochefoucauld, whom he had coupled with Mandeville, was criticised, very needlessly, as a concession to a private friendship with Rochefoucauld's grandson (Stewart, x. 46 n.). The suppression of another passage, in which he had said that the Christian doctrine of the atonement coincided with natural religion, was brought to notice in consequence of a reference to the original edition by Archbishop Magee. On hearing of the suppression Magee said that it was a proof that Smith had been seduced by the infidel Hume. The statement that the ‘Criterion’ of his friend John Douglas was written to meet Smith's difficulties as to the miracles is regarded as doubtful by Mr. Rae (p. 129), who observes that it cannot be traced beyond Chalmers's ‘Dictionary.’ There can in any case be no doubt that Smith was a sincere theist, and that he especially lays great stress upon the doctrine of final causes. It is probably as clear that he was not an orthodox believer. His characteristic shrinking from ‘clamour’ explains his reticence as to deviations from accepted opinions. But his warm admiration for Hume, Voltaire, and Rousseau was scarcely compatible with complete disapproval of their religious doctrines; and not to express such disapproval, had he felt it, would have been cowardly rather than reticent. He no doubt shared the rationalism of
