LORD W0ODHOUSELEE. 529 



placed in some one of those public literary stations, where his 

 talents and his industry might be more conspicuously displayed 

 than in the retirement of private study. An opening of this 

 kind soon occurred, which Mr Tytler willingly embraced. The 

 late John Pringle, Esq. had been recently appointed to the 

 Professorship of Universal History and Roman Antiquities in 

 the University of Edinburgh ; but finding the discharge of the 

 duties of it incompatible with his other employments, had ex- 

 pressed his inclination to resign it. The Class, (I believe,) in 

 its original institution, in this and in other Universities of Scot- 

 land, had been intended as subsidiary to the study of the Civil 

 Law. It had been taught always by Members of the Faculty 

 of Advocates, and attended by students of that description : 

 And it had, therefore, that degree of relation to Mr Tytler's 

 own profession, that forfeited none of the hopes or expecta- 

 tions he might form of its future distinctions. An arrange- 

 ment was soon made with Mr Pringle. In 1780, Mr Tytler 

 was appointed Conjunct Professor, and in 1786, sole Professor 

 of Universal History. 



From that period until the year 1800, Mr Tytler devoted 

 his life almost exclusively to the duties of his Professorship ; 

 and ten years of assiduous study were employed in the com- 

 position and improvement of the Course of Lectures which he 

 annually read in the University. 



Of the character and value of that Course of Lectures I 

 should have felt it a duty to have attempted some slight de- 

 scription, if I were not prevented by the presence of many, to 

 whom every attempt of this kind would be superfluous, and by 

 the recollection, that while they remain unpublished, they 

 cannot be the objects of public criticism. I may be permit- 

 ted, however, to offer to the Society a few observations upon 

 the views with which Mr Tytler entered upon his Professor- 

 ship, 



