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 

 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, 



