Revisiting Enlightenment Historiography and Aesthetics: Smollett, Sterne, and Mackenzie

A suggestive anecdote is inserted into a short section of the Scots Magazine for March 1, 1768. As it is often the case with this textual form, no contextualizing frame is offered other than the title—“The Smuggled Scotsman.” Given that this Edinburgh periodical presented its readers with excerpts from English newspapers, one might suspect the anecdote of being itself a fugitive piece, one that was “smuggled” in. The anecdote features the gutting common in such potentially slanderous ephemerae: One Lady R— and one Scottish Lord— discuss the meaning of a typical observation, “Why it was in general remarked by foreigners, that the Scots who travelled were men of parts and learning, while the English were generally wanting in both.” No stranger to the art of repartee, the Lady offers her interpretation by claiming that while “only fools went out of England,” only “fools would stay in [Scotland].” To this the Lord, already characterized as lacking in intellect, adds that Scots wanting to leave the country must undergo intelligence tests to legally do so. At this, Lady R— delivers the punchline: “Then [I]’m sure your Lordship was smuggled.”