may yet be obliged to wait a few days for it. In
the meantime I send you a note extracted from Mr. Webster's
book by his clerk, who was of great use to him in composing
it, and who has made several corrections upon it since.

My letters as a Commissioner of the Customs are paid at the
Custom House, and my correspondents receive them duty free.
I should otherwise have taken the liberty to enclose them,
as you direct, under Mr. Rose's cover. It may perhaps give
that gentleman pleasure to be informed that the net revenue
arising from the customs in Scotland is at least four times
greater than it was seven or eight years ago. It has been
increasing rapidly these four or five years past, and the
revenue of this year has overleaped by at least one-half the
revenue of the greatest former year. I flatter myself it is
likely to increase still further. The development of the
causes of this augmentation would require a longer
discussion than this letter will admit.

Price's speculations cannot fail to sink into the neglect
that they have always deserved. I have always considered him
as a factious citizen, a most superficial philosopher, and
by no means an able calculator.--I have the honour to be,
with great respect and esteem, sir, your most faithful
humble servant,

ADAM SMITH.

CUSTOM HOUSE, EDINBURGH, _22nd December 1785_.

I shall certainly think myself very much honoured by any
notice you may think proper to take of my book.[339]

The second letter followed in a few days:--

EDINBURGH, _3rd January 1786_.

SIR--The accounts of the imports and exports of Scotland
which you wanted are sent by this day's post to Mr. Rose.

Since I wrote to you last I have conversed with Sir Henry
Moncreiff, Dr. Webster's successor as collector of the fund
for the maintenance of clergymen's widows, and with his
clerk, who was likewise clerk to Dr. Webster, and who was of
great use to the Doctor in the composition of the very book
which I mentioned to you in a former letter. They are both
of opinion that the conversation I had with Dr. Webster a
few months before his death must have been the effect of a
momentary and sudden thought, and not of any serious or
deliberate consideration or inquiry. It was, indeed, at a
very jolly table and i