e a few days. On my return I expect to find
a letter from you containing a bold acceptance of this
defiance. I am, dear Smith, yours sincerely.[213]

Smith seems to have made such progress with his work in the two years
of what Hume here calls his retreat at Kirkcaldy that in the beginning
of 1770 there was some word of his going up with it to London for
publication. For on the 6th of February Hume again writes him: "What
is the meaning of this, dear Smith, which we hear, that you are not to
be here above a day or two on your passage to London? How can you so
much as entertain a thought of publishing a book full of reason,
sense, and learning to those wicked abandoned madmen?"[214]

He had probably completed his first draft of the work from beginning
to end, but he kept constantly amplifying and altering parts of it for
six years more. He did not go to London in 1770, if he ever
contemplated doing so, but he came to Edinburgh and received the
freedom of the city in June. He seems to have received this honour for
the merits of the Duke of Buccleugh rather than for his own. For the
entry in the minutes of the Council of 6th June 1770 runs thus:

"Appoint the Dean of Guild and his Council to admit and
receive their Graces the Duke of Buccleugh and the Duke of
Montagu in the most ample form, for good services done by
them and their noble ancestors to the kingdome. And also
Adam Smith, LL.D., and the Reverend Mr. John Hallam to be
Burgesses and Gild Brethren of this city in the most ample
form.

(Signed) JAMES STUART, Provost."

The Duke of Montagu was the Duke of Buccleugh's father-in-law, and the
Rev. Mr. John Hallam--afterwards Dean of Windsor, and father of Henry
Hallam, the historian--was the Duke's tutor at Eton, as Adam Smith was
his tutor abroad. The freedom was therefore given to the Duke of
Buccleugh and party. Smith's burgess-ticket is one of the few relics
of him still extant; it is possessed by Professor Cunningham of
Belfast.

Smith promised Hume a visit about Christmas 1771, but the visit was
postponed in consequence of the illness of Hume's sister, and on the
28th of January he received the following letter, in reply apparently
to a request for the address of the Comtesse de Boufflers in Paris:--

EDINBURGH, _28th January 1772_.

DEAR SMITH--I should certainly before this time have
challenged the Performance of your Promise of being wi