II LATER YEARS 31 



surprise, not unmixed with indignation, that 

 Hutcheson and Leechman, both clergymen and 

 sincere, though liberal, professors of orthodoxy, 

 should have expressed doubts as to his fitness for 

 1 becoming a professedly presbyterian teacher of 

 presbyterian youth. The town council, however, 

 would not have him, and filled up the place with 

 a safe nobody. 



In May, 1746, a new prospect opened. General 

 St. Clair was appointed to the command of an 

 expedition to Canada, and he invited Hume, at a 

 week's notice, to be his secretary; to which office 

 that of judge advocate was afterwards added. 



Hume writes to a friend: " The office is very 

 genteel, 10s. a day, perquisites, and no expenses; " 

 and, to another, he speculates on the chance of 

 procuring a company in an American regiment. 

 " But this I build not on, nor indeed am I very 

 fond of it/' he adds; and this was fortunate, for 

 the expedition, after dawdling away the summer 

 in port, was suddenly diverted to an attack on 

 L'Orient, where it achieved a huge failure and 

 returned ignominiously to England. 



A letter to Henry Home, written when this un- 

 lucky expedition was recalled, shows that Hume 

 had already seriously turned his attention to his- 

 tory. Eeferring to an invitation to go over to 

 Flanders with the General, he says: 



" Had I any fortune which would give me a prospect of 

 leisure and opportunity to prosecute my historical projects. 



