avourable or
otherwise. The book was not noticed at all, for example, in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_, and it was allowed only two pages in the
_Annual Register_, while in the same number Watson's _History of
Philip_ got sixteen. This review of the book, however, was probably
written by Burke.

Smith speaks in one of his letters to Strahan of having distributed
numerous presentation copies. One of the first of these was of course
sent to his old friend David Hume, and that copy, by the way, with its
inscription, probably still exists, having been possessed for a time
by the late Mr. Babbage. Hume acknowledged receipt of it in the
following letter, which shows among other things that not even Hume
had seen the manuscript of the book before publication:--

EDINBURGH, _1st April 1776_.

EUGE! BELLE! DEAR MR. SMITH--I am much pleased with your
performance, and the perusal of it has taken me from a state
of great anxiety. It was a work of so much expectation, by
yourself, by your friends, and by the public, that I
trembled for its appearance, but am now much relieved. Not
but that the reading of it necessarily requires so much
attention, and the public is disposed to give so little that
I shall still doubt for some time of its being at first very
popular, but it has depth and solidity and acuteness, and is
so much illustrated by curious facts that it must at last
attract the public attention. It is probably much improved
by your last abode in London. If you were here at my
fireside, I should dispute some of your principles. I cannot
think that the rent of farms makes any part of the price of
the produce, but that the price is determined altogether by
the quantity and the demand. It appears to me impossible
that the King of France can take a seignorage of 8 per cent
upon the coinage. Nobody would bring bullion to the mint, it
would be all sent to Holland or England, where it might be
coined and sent back to France for less than 2 per cent.
Accordingly Necker says that the French king takes only 2
per cent of seignorage. But these and a hundred other points
are fit only to be discussed in conversation, which till you
tell me the contrary I still flatter myself with soon. I
hope it will be soon, for I am in a very bad state of health
and cannot afford a long delay. I fancy you are acquainted