Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Buchanan, David (1779-1848)
BUCHANAN, DAVID, the younger (1779–1848), journalist and author, son of David Buchanan, printer and publisher [q. v.], was born at Montrose in 1779. He learned the business of his father, and, like him, also possessed intellectual tastes and sympathies. At an early period of his life he contributed to Cobbett's ‘Political Register’ a reply to the editor on a question of political economy. He also became a contributor to the ‘Edinburgh Review’ shortly after its commencement. In 1807 he published a pamphlet on the volunteer system originated by Pitt, which attracted considerable attention. The following year he accepted an invitation to start in Edinburgh a liberal newspaper, the ‘Weekly Register.’ The paper did not live above a year, and on its discontinuance he transferred his services to the ‘Caledonian Mercury,’ which he continued to edit from 1810 to 1827, when he accepted the editorship of the ‘Edinburgh Courant.’ This paper he edited until his death at Glasgow, 13 Aug. 1848.
Amidst his editorial duties Buchanan found time to devote his attention to a variety of literary projects. He made political economy his special study, and in 1814 he brought out an edition of Adam Smith's works, with life, notes, and a volume of additional matter, in which some of the more important subjects treated of by Smith were examined in the light of further progress and experience. A considerable portion of the volume was afterwards utilised by him in ‘Inquiry into the Taxation and Commercial Policy of Great Britain, with Observations on the Principles of Currency and of Exchangeable Value,’ published in 1844. Of this book the more noticeable features are its arguments against taxes on manufactured goods, its opposition to the income-tax as inconsistent with the spirit of freedom, and its attempted refutation of Ricardo's theory of rent. Buchanan also brought out an edition of the ‘Edinburgh Gazetteer,’ in six volumes, contributed numerous geographical and statistical articles to the seventh edition of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ and supplied a large portion of the letterpress for the ‘Edinburgh Geographical Atlas,’ published in 1835.
[Montrose Standard, 18 Aug. 1848; Anderson's Scottish Nation.]