e of the few with whom I am
acquainted, as I cannot bring them to our house, and am not
always at liberty to go to theirs. The life which I led at
Glasgow was a pleasurable dissipated life in comparison of
that which I lead here at Present. I have begun to write a
book in order to pass away the time. You may believe I have
very little to do. If Sir James would come and spend a month
with us in his travels, it would not only be a great
satisfaction to me, but he might by his influence and
example be of great service to the Duke. Mention these
matters, however, to nobody but to him. Remember me in the
most respectful manner to Lord Beauchamp and to Dr.
Trail,[142] and believe me, my dear friend, ever yours,

ADAM SMITH.

TOULOUSE, _5th July 1764_.[143]

The trip to Bordeaux was taken probably in August, and in the company
of Abbe Colbert. At Bordeaux they fell in with Colonel Barre, the
furious orator, whose invective made even Charles Townshend quail, but
who was now over on a visit to his French kinsfolk, and making the
hearts of these simple people glad with his natural kindnesses. He
seems to have been much with Smith and his party during their stay in
Bordeaux, and to have accompanied them back to Toulouse. For he writes
Hume on the 4th of September from the latter town, and says: "I thank
you for your last letter from Paris, which I received just as Smith
and his _eleve_ and L'Abbe Colbert were sitting down to dine with me
at Bordeaux. The latter is a very honest fellow and deserves to be a
bishop; make him one if you can.... Why will you triumph and talk of
_platte couture_? You have friends on both sides. Smith agrees with me
in thinking that you are turned soft by the _delices_ of the French
Court, and that you don't write in that nervous manner you was
remarkable for in the more northern climates. Besides, what is still
worse, you take your politics from your Elliots, Rigbys, and
Selwyns."[144]

Smith was already acquainted with Barre before he left Scotland, where
the colonel, for services rendered to Lord Shelburne, held the
lucrative post of Governor of Stirling Castle; and now he could not go
sight-seeing in a French town under two better guides than Barre and
Colbert--a Frenchman who had become an English politician, and an
Englishman who had become a French ecclesiastic. He seems to have been
struck with the contrast between the co