d him ungrateful for the
censures he deemed meet to pass upon that order of things, but that
charge is of course unreasonable, because the censures were undeniably
true and undeniably useful, and I refer to it here merely to point out
that as a matter of fact Smith not only felt, but has publicly
expressed, gratitude for his residence at the University of Oxford. He
does so in his letter to the Principal of Glasgow College in 1787
accepting the Rectorship, when in enumerating the claims which Glasgow
College had upon his grateful regard, he expressly mentions the fact
that it had sent him as a student to Oxford. In truth, his time was
not wasted at Oxford. He did not allow it to be wasted. He read deeply
and widely in many subjects and in many languages; he read and thought
for six years, and for that best kind of education the negligence of
tutors and lecturers, such as they then were, was probably better than
their assiduity.

For this business of quiet reading Smith seems to have been happily
situated in Balliol. Balliol was not then a reading college as it is
now. A claim is set up in behalf of some of the other Oxford colleges
that they kept the lamp of learning lit even in the darkest days of
last century, but Balliol is not one of them. It was chiefly known in
that age for the violence of its Jacobite opinions. Only a few months
after Smith left it a party of Balliol students celebrated the
birthday of Cardinal York in the College, and rushing out into the
streets, mauled every Hanoverian they met, and created such a serious
riot that they were sentenced to two years' imprisonment for it by the
Court of King's Bench; but for this grave offence the master of the
College, Dr. Theophilus Leigh, and the other authorities, had thought
the culprits entitled to indulgence on account of the anniversary they
were celebrating, and had decided that the case would be sufficiently
met by a Latin imposition. If Balliol, however, was not more
enlightened than any of the other colleges of the day, it had one
great advantage, it possessed one of the best college libraries at
Oxford. The Bodleian was not then open to any member of the University
under the rank of a bachelor of arts of two years' standing, and Smith
was only a bachelor of arts of two years' standing for a few months
before he finally quitted Oxford. He could therefore have made little
use of the Bodleian and its then unrivalled treasures, but in his own
college li