[6] The Glasgow Herald described the city as being in a "state of utmost apparent security" and the following day Smart, escorted by a group of pensioners armed with firearms approached the mob.

[7] The Glasgow Herald reported that it was soon acknowledged that Smart's "firmness had prevented the riot attaining even more formidable proportions" with Sheriff Sir A. Alison stating that "his conduct was not only unexceptionable but highly meritorious in the trying circumstances".

[7] The bread riots led to the resignation of Glasgow's Chief Superintendent William Pearce who had received complaints over the way in which he dealt with the crowds.

[11] Smart requested that the Scottish Office produce criminal statistics from 1857 which he used to make "repeated representations to his Police Board bemoaning the carelessness of the public affecting his crime figures".

[1] Smart did not support the lighting of stairs being the legal responsibility of home owners as many did so by breaking the law and so in 1864, after unsuccessfully trying to convince local authority representatives that they should carry out the task, he flooded the police courts with 17,472 cases to prove how impractical the existing system was.

[11] These changes, which would remain in place until the 1900s, meant that Smart could focus his attention on ways to improve the force which included the introduction of mounted police through the use of hired horses and policemen with cavalry experience.

[13] In the middle of 1869, he was diagnosed with a "cancerous condition of the stomach” and his health had deteriorated to the point that Alexander McCall, superintendent of Glasgow's Central Division, had to deputise in his absence.

[1] His protégé McCall was the favoured candidate to succeed him described in the same report as Smart's funeral as being an intelligent and polite young man with "plenty of vigour and resources as has more than once been shown by the way he has handled notorious criminal cases".

[18] The 2016 lecture also saw the James Smart Memorial Medal being awarded to Andrew Flanagan, Phil Gormley, Paul Ponsaers, Iain McLeod, Nick Fyfe and Paddy Tomkins.