SMITH, ADAM, political economist, born in Kirkcaldy, Fife; studied at Glasgow and Oxford, went to Edinburgh and became acquainted with David Hume and his confreres; was appointed to the chair of Logic in Glasgow in 1751, and the year after of Moral Philosophy; produced in 1759 his “Theory of Moral Sentiments,” visited Paris with the young Duke of Buccleuch, got acquainted with Quesnay, D’Alembert, and Necker, and returning in 1766, settled in his native place under a pension from the Duke of Buccleuch, where in 1776 he produced his “Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,” a work to which he devoted 10 years of his life, and which has had a world-wide influence, and that has rendered his name world-famous; in 1778 he settled in Edinburgh as Commissioner of Customs for Scotland, and in 1787 was elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University (1723-1790).

SMITH, ALEXANDER, poet, born in Kilmarnock; began life as a pattern-designer, contributed to the Glasgow Citizen, wrote a volume of poems, “A Life Drama,” and produced other works in a style characterised as “spasmodic,” and which, according to Tennyson, “showed fancy, but not imagination” (1880-1807).

SMITH, GEORGE, Assyriologist, born at London; trained as a bank-note engraver, but attracted the attention of Sir Henry Rawlinson by his interest in cuneiform inscriptions, and in 1867 received an appointment in the British Museum; acquired great skill as an interpreter of Assyrian inscriptions, published “Annals of Assurbanipal,” and in 1872 discovered a tablet with the “Chaldean Account of the Deluge”; carried through important expeditions (1871-3-6) in search of antiquities in Nineveh and other parts of Assyria, accounts of which he published; wrote also histories of Babylonia, Assyria, Sennacherib, &c. (1840-1876).

SMITH, GOLDWIN, English man of letters, born in Berks; was at one time intimately associated with Oxford University, went to America and became professor of English History in Cornell University, and since 1871 has settled in Canada, and believes that Canada will be annexed to the United States; has written a number of books and pamphlets, one on the “Relations between England and America” and another on “The Political Destiny of Canada”; he is an ultra-Liberal; b. 1823.

SMITH, JAMES AND HORACE, authors of the famous parodies “The Rejected Addresses,” born at London:  James, in business as a solicitor, and Horace, a wealthy stockbroker; both were occasional contributors to the periodical press before the public offer of a prize for the best poetical address to be spoken at the re-opening of Drury Lane Theatre prompted them to issue a series of “Rejected Addresses,” parodying the popular writers of the day—­Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, Scott, Byron, &c.; intensely clever, these parodies have never been surpassed in their kind; Horace was also a busy writer of novels now forgotten, and also published two vols. of poetry; James subsequently wrote a number of Charles Mathews’ “Entertainments” (James, 1775-1839; Horace, 1779-1849).