LVIII ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND

of which he had now publifhed fo valuable a part,occupied a much fmaller portion of the courfe thanformerly: and accordingly, his attention was na-turally directed to a more complete illuftration ofthe principles of jurifprudence and of politicaloeconomy.

To this lafl fubjed, his thoughts appear to havebeen occafionally turned from a very early periodof life. It is probable, that the uninterruptedfriendfhip he had always maintained with his oldcompanion Mr. Oswald had fome tendency toencourage him in profecuting this branch of hisftudies; and the publication of Mr. Hume’s poli_tical difcourfes in the year 175 q, could not fail toconfirm him in thofe liberal views of commercialpolicy, which had already opened to him in thecourfe of his own inquiries. His long refidence inone of the molt enlightened mercantile towns inthis ifland, and the habits of intimacy in whichhe lived with the moft refpedable of its inhabit-ants, afforded him an opportunity of deriving whatcommercial information he flood in need of, fromthe belt fources; and it is a circumflance no lefshonorable to their liberality than to his talents,that notwithftanding the reludance fo commonamong men of bufinefs to liften to the conclufionsof mere fpeculation, and the dired oppofition ofhis leading principles to all the old maxims of trade,he was able, before he quitted his fituation in