to you to finish his education, and mould these excellent materials into a settled character, I make no doubt but he will return to his family and country the very man our fondest hopes have fancied him.

I go to Town next Friday, and should be obliged to you for your answer to this letter.—­I am, with sincere affection and esteem, dear sir, your most faithful and most obedient humble servant,

     C. TOWNSHEND.

     Lady Dalkeith presents her compliments to you.

     ADDERBURY, 25th October 1763.[134]

Smith accepted the offer.  The terms were a salary of L300 a year, with travelling expenses while abroad, and a pension of L300 a year for life afterwards.  He was thus to have twice his Glasgow income, and to have it assured till death.  The pension was no doubt a principal inducement to a Scotch professor in those days to take such a post, for a Scotch professor had then no resource in his old age except the price he happened to receive for his chair from his successor in the event of his resignation; and we find several of them—­Professors Moor and Robert Simson of Glasgow among others—­much harassed with pecuniary cares in their last years.  Smith’s remuneration was liberal, but nothing beyond what was usual in such situations at the time.  Dr. John Moore, who gave up his medical practice in Glasgow a few years later to be tutor to the young Duke of Hamilton, got also L300 a year while actively employed in the tutorship and a pension of L100 a year afterwards.[135] Professor Rouet, who, as already mentioned, sacrificed his chair in Glasgow for his tutorial appointment, is said to have received a pension of L500 a year from Lord Hopetoun, in addition to a pension of L50 he received, in consideration of previous services of the same kind, from Sir John Maxwell; and Professor Adam Ferguson, who was appointed tutor to the Earl of Chesterfield on Smith’s recommendation, had L400 a year while on duty, and a pension of L200 a year, which he lived to enjoy for forty years after, receiving from first to last nearly L9000 for his two years’ work.  Smith did almost as well, for with the pension, which he drew for twenty-four years, he got altogether more than L8000 for his three years’ service.

This residence abroad for a few years with a competent tutor was then a common substitute for a university education.  The Duke of Buccleugh, for example, was never sent to a university after he came back from his travels with Smith, but married almost immediately on his return, and entered directly into the active duties of life.  It was generally thought that travel really supplied a more liberal education and a better preparation for life for a young man of the world than residence at a university; and it is not uninteresting to recall here how strongly Smith disagrees with that opinion in the Wealth of Nations, while admitting that some excuse could be found for it in the low state of learning into which the English universities had suffered themselves to fall:—­