e greatest rider of hobby-horses" in all President Adams's
acquaintance, and some of his hobbies were for the most serious
studies. He published a work in metaphysics, and wrote essays against
serfdom and slavery, and on a number of other subjects, which were
found in MS. among President Adams's papers. Yet he was a
problem--and not a very soluble one--to the worthy President, for he
laid a weight on the merest trifles of ceremony or etiquette which
seemed difficult to reconcile with his devotion to profound and
learned studies. He visited Adams at Washington during his presidency,
and used constantly to lecture the President on his little omissions.
After any entertainment Sarsfield would say, writes Adams, "that I
should have placed the Ambassador of France at my right hand and the
Minister of Spain at my left, and have arranged the other principal
personages; and when I rose from the table I should have said,
Messieurs, voudrez vous, etc., or Monsieur or Duc voudrez vous,
etc.... How is it possible to reconcile these trifling contemplations
of a master of the ceremonies with the vast knowledge of arts,
sciences, history, government, etc., possessed by this nobleman?"[202]
Sarsfield kept a journal about all the people he met with, from which
Adams makes some interesting quotations, and which, if extant, might
be expected to add to our information regarding Smith. Having said so
much of Smith's "best and most agreeable friend in France," I will now
give the letter:--

KIRKALDY, _7th June 1767_.

MY DEAREST FRIEND--The Principal design of this Letter is to
Recommend to your particular attention the Count de
Sarsfield, the best and most agreeable friend I had in
France. Introduce him, if you find it proper, to all the
friends of yr. absent friend, to Oswald and to Elliot in
particular. I cannot express to you how anxious I am that
his stay in London should be rendered agreeable to him. You
know him, and must know what a plain, worthy, honourable man
he is. I enclose a letter for him, which you may either send
to him, or rather, if the weighty affairs of State will
permit it, deliver it to him yourself. The letter to Dr.
Morton[203] you may send by the Penny Post.

My Business here is study, in which I have been very deeply
engaged for about a month past. My amusements are long
solitary walks by the seaside. You may judge how I spend my