ith his other Hume letters to
the historian's nephew, is now in the Royal Society Library,
Edinburgh.

[267] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library.

[268] _New York Evening Post_, 30th March 1887. Original in possession
of Mr. Worthington C. Ford of Washington, U.S.A.

[269] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library.

[270] Hill's _Letters of Hume_, p. 351.

[271] Wendeborn, _Zustand des Staats, etc., in Gross-britannien_, ii.
365.

[272] _Caldwell Papers_, i. 41.

[273] Burton's _Hume_, ii. 451.

[274] See Mackenzie's "La Roche," and Mackenzie's _Works of J. Home_,
i. 21.

CHAPTER XX

LONDON AGAIN--APPOINTED COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS

Smith remained at Kirkcaldy from May to December 1776, except for
occasional visits to Edinburgh or Dalkeith, but his thoughts, as we
have noticed from time to time, were again bent on London, as soon as
his mother's health should permit of his leaving home. He seems to
have enjoyed London thoroughly during his recent prolonged sojourn,
and inspired some hopes in friends like Strahan that he might even
settle there as a permanent place of residence. After his departure
for Scotland in April Strahan used to write him from time to time a
long letter of political news keeping him abreast of all that was
going on, and in a letter of the 16th of September he says: "I hope
your mother's health will not prevent you from returning hither at the
time you propose. You know I once mentioned to you how happy I thought
it would make you both if you could bring her along with you to spend
the remainder of her days in this Place, but perhaps it will not be
easy to remove her so far at this time of her life. I pray you offer
her the respectful compliments of my family, who do not forget her
genteel and hospitable reception at Kircaldy some years ago."[275] The
time Smith proposed to return, as he had written Strahan early in
September, was November, but he afterwards put the journey off for two
months on account of his own health, which had suffered from his long
spell of literary labour, and was in need of more rest; and he might
have postponed it still further but for the visit being necessary in
order to carry the second edition of his work through the press. Early
in January 1777 he is already in London, having found lodgings in
Suffolk Street, near the British Coffee-House, and on the 14th of
March we find him attending a dinner of the Literary Club, with Fox in
the chair, and Gibb