s concludes his reminiscences by quoting one of Smith's
observations on a political subject. He said that at the beginning of
the reign of George the Third the dissenting ministers used to receive
L2000 a year from Government, but that the Earl of Bute had most
improperly deprived them of this allowance, and that he supposed this
to be the real motive of their virulent opposition to Government.

These recollections of Amicus provoked a letter in a succeeding number
of the _Bee_ from Ascanius (the Earl of Buchan) complaining of their
publication, not as in any way misrepresenting any of Smith's views,
but as obtruding the trifles of the ordinary social hour upon the
learned world in a way Smith himself would have extremely disliked.
Smith, he says, would rather have had his body injected by Hunter and
Monro, and exhibited in Fleet Street or in Weir's Museum. That may
very possibly be so; but though Smith, if he were to give his views on
literary topics to the public, might prefer putting them in more
elaborate dress, yet the opinions he expressed were, it must be
remembered, mature opinions on subjects on which he had long thought
and even lectured, and if neither Dr. Anderson nor the Earl of Buchan
has any fault to find with the correctness of Amicus's report of them,
Smith cannot be considered to be any way wronged. The Earl complains
too of the matter of the letter being "such frivolous matter"; but it
is not so frivolous, and, if it were, is it not Smith himself who used
to say to his class at Glasgow, as we are informed by Boswell, that
there was nothing too frivolous to be learnt about a great man, and
that, for his own part, he was always glad to know that Milton wore
latchets to his shoes and not buckles?

In 1781 Gibbon seems to have been in doubt as to continuing his
_History_, and desired Robertson, who happened to be up in London at
the time, to talk the matter over with Smith after his return to
Edinburgh. The result of this consultation is communicated in a letter
from Robertson to Gibbon on 6th November 1781. "Soon after my return,"
says Robertson, "I had a long conversation with our friend Mr. Smith,
in which I stated to him every particular you mentioned to me with
respect to the propriety of going on with your work. I was happy to
find that his opinion coincided perfectly with that which I had
ventured to give you. His decisions, you know, are both prompt and
vigorous, and he could not allow that you o