Prestonpans by his "Ode to the Battle of Gladsmuir"--the name the
Jacobites preferred to give the battle. This ode, which had been set
to music by M'Gibbon, became a great favourite in Jacobite households,
and created so much popular interest in the author's other works that
imperfect versions of some of his unpublished poems, and even of those
which were already in print, began to appear. The author was himself
an outlaw, and could not intervene. The ode which had lifted him into
popularity had at the same time driven him into exile, and he was then
living with a little group of young Scotch refugees at Rouen, and
completely shattered in bodily health by his three months' hiding
among the Grampians. Under those circumstances his friends thought it
advisable to forestall the pirated and imperfect collections of his
poems which were in contemplation by publishing as complete and
correct an edition of them as could possibly be done in the absence of
the author. And this edition was issued from the famous Foulis press
in Glasgow in 1748. In doing so they acted, as they avow in the
preface, "not only without the author's consent, but without his
knowledge," but it is absurd to call an edition published under those
circumstances, as the new _Dictionary of National Biography_ calls it,
a "surreptitious edition." It was published by the poet's closest
personal friends as a protection for the poet's reputation, and
perhaps as a plea for his pardon.

The task of collecting and editing the poems was entrusted to Adam
Smith. We are informed of this fact by the accurate and learned David
Laing, and though Laing has not imparted his authority for the
information, it receives a certain circumstantial corroboration from
other quarters. We find Smith in the enjoyment of a very rapid
intimacy with Hamilton during the two brief years the poet resided in
Scotland between receiving the royal pardon in 1750 and flying again
in 1752 from a more relentless enemy than kings--the fatal malady of
consumption, from which he died two years later at Lyons. Sir John
Dalrymple, the historian, speaks in a letter to Robert Foulis, the
printer, of "the many happy and flattering hours which he (Smith) had
spent with Mr. Hamilton." We find again that when Hamilton's friends
propose to print a second edition of the poems, they come to Smith for
assistance. This edition was published in 1758, and is dedicated to
the memory of William Craufurd, merchant, Gla