king that the lively emotion of the persons
around him was not occasioned by the musical effect of the air itself,
but by some association of ideas which connected the discordant sounds
of the pipe with historical events brought forcibly to their
recollection."[318]

Nor were these annual competitions the only local institutions in
which Smith took a more or less active interest. One of the duties of
a citizen which he undertook will perhaps occasion surprise--he became
a Captain of the City Guard. He was made Honorary Captain of the
Trained Bands of Edinburgh--the City Guard--on the 4th of June 1781,
"with the usual solemnity," the minutes state, "and after spending the
evening with grate joy, the whole corps retired, but in distinct
divisions and good order, to quarters."[319]

The business of this body, according to its minutes, seems practically
to have been mostly of a convivial character, and we can sympathise
with the honest pride of the clerk in recording in what a condition of
good order they were able to retire after celebrating that auspicious
occasion with the joy it deserved. Smith no doubt attended their
periodical festivities, or paid his fine of eight magnums of claret
for absence. But their business was not all claret and punch. On the
8th September 1784, for example, the captains, lieutenants, and
ensigns of the Trained Bands were called out, in consequence of an
order from the Lord Provost, "to attend the wheeping of Paull and
Anderson, actors in the late riots at Cannonmills." A rescue riot was
apprehended, and the Trained Bands met in the old Justiciary
Court-room, and were armed there with "stowt oaken sticks." Marching
forth in regular order, they acted as guard to the magistrates during
the day, and "by their formidable and respectable appearance had the
good effect of detering the multitude so that they became only
peaceable spectators." Whether an honorary captain could be called
upon for active service in an emergency I cannot say, but Smith's name
is not mentioned in the list of absentee captains upon this occasion.

In 1783 Smith joined Robertson and others in founding the Royal
Society of Edinburgh. Robertson had long entertained the idea of
establishing a society on the model of the foreign academies for the
cultivation of every branch of science, learning, and taste, and he
was at length moved into action by the steps taken in 1782 by the Earl
of Buchan and others to obtain a royal cha