ial grievances of their country and the operation of the
proposed remedies. Mr. Lecky, who has seen those statements at the
Record Office, says they are conspicuous for their clear grasp of the
principles of free trade, and I think that they may with great
probability be considered a fruit of Smith's then recently published
work, because Hely Hutchinson's statement, or its substance, has been
published--it was, indeed, the last book publicly burned in this
country--and it makes frequent quotations from the _Wealth of
Nations_. It was in these circumstances that the Board of Trade made a
double application to Adam Smith for his opinion on the subject. Lord
Carlisle, the head of the Board, applied to him through Adam Ferguson,
who had been Secretary of the Commission, of which Lord Carlisle had
been President, sent out to America the year before to negotiate
terms of peace; and Mr. William Eden, Secretary of the Board, applied
to him through Henry Dundas. With Eden (afterwards the first Lord
Auckland) Smith became later on well acquainted; he was married in
1776 to a daughter of Smith's old friend, Sir Gilbert Elliot, but at
the date of this correspondence their personal acquaintance does not
seem to have been intimate.

Smith's letter to Lord Carlisle is as follows:--

MY LORD--My friend Mr. Ferguson showed me a few days ago a
letter in which your Lordship was so good as to say that you
wished to know my opinion concerning the consequence of
granting to the Irish that _free trade_ which they at
present demand so importunately. I shall not attempt to
express how much I feel myself flattered by your Lordship's
very honourable remembrance of me, but shall without further
preface endeavour to explain that opinion, such as it may
be, as distinctly as I can.

Till we see the heads of the bill which the Irish propose to
send over, it is impossible to know precisely what they mean
by a free trade.

It is possible they may mean by it no more than the freedom
of exporting all goods, whether of their own produce or
imported from abroad, to all countries (Great Britain and
the British settlements excepted) subject to no other duties
or restraints than such as their own Parliament may impose.
At present they can export glass, tho' of their own
manufacture, to no country whatever. Raw silk, a foreign
commodity, is under the same r