Dr. James Anderson, already
mentioned repeatedly in this book as the original propounder of
Ricardo's theory of rent. His paper was on "Debtors and the Revision
of the Laws that respect them," and Rogers says it was "very long and
dull," and, as a natural consequence, "Mr. Commissioner Smith fell
asleep, and Mackenzie touched my elbow and smiled,"[353]--a curious
tableau. When the meeting was over Rogers took leave of his host, went
to the play with Mrs. Piozzi, and, though he no doubt saw Smith again
before finally quitting Edinburgh, mentions him no more.

Having been so much with Smith during those few days, Rogers's
impressions are in some respects of considerable value. He was deeply
impressed with the warmth of Smith's kindness. "He is a very friendly,
agreeable man, and I should have dined and supped with him every day,
if I had accepted all his invitations."[354] He was very
communicative,[355] and to Rogers's surprise, considering the
disparity of their years and the greatness of his reputation, Smith
was "quite familiar." "Who shall we have to dinner?" he would ask.
Rogers observed in him no sign of absence of mind,[356] and felt that
as compared with Robertson, Smith was far more of a man who had seen
much of the world. His communicativeness impressed itself also upon
other casual visitors, because his first appearance sometimes gave
them the opposite suggestion of reserve. "He was extremely
communicative," says the anonymous writer who sent the first letter of
reminiscences to the editor of the _Bee_, "and delivered himself on
every subject with a freedom and boldness quite opposite to the
apparent reserve of his appearance."

Another visitor to Scotland that year who enjoyed a talk with Smith,
and has something interesting to communicate about the conversation,
is William Adam, barrister and M.P., afterwards Chief Commissioner of
the Jury Court in Scotland, who was a nephew of Smith's schoolfellow
and lifelong friend, Robert Adam, the architect. William Adam was an
intimate personal friend of Bentham since the days when they ate their
way to the bar together and spent their nights in endless discussions
about Hume's philosophy and other thorny subjects, and when in
Scotland in the summer of 1789 he met Smith, and drew the conversation
to his friend Bentham's recently published _Defence of Usury_. This
book, it will be remembered, was written expressly to controvert
Smith's recommendation of a legal limit