since the previous October, except the short note
introducing Mr. Urquhart. At any rate in this letter of September 1765
Hume, as if in reply to Smith's account of his pupil's improvement in
his letter of October 1764, says, "Your satisfaction in your pupil
gives me equal satisfaction." It is no doubt possible that Smith may
have written letters in the interval which have been lost, but he had
clearly written none for the previous three months, and it is most
probable, with his general aversion to writing, that he wrote none for
the four or five months before that. Hume's own object in breaking the
long silence is, in the first place, to inform him that, having lost
his place at the Embassy through the translation of his chief to the
Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, he should be obliged to return to England
in October before Smith's arrival in Paris; and in the next, to
consult him on a new perplexity that was distressing him, whether he
should not come back to Paris and spend the remainder of his days
there. In compensation for the loss of his place, he had obtained a
pension of L900 a year, without office or duty of any kind--"opulence
and liberty," as he calls it. But opulence and liberty brought their
own cares, and he was rent with temptations to belong to different
nations. "As a new vexation to temper my good fortune," he writes to
Smith, "I am in much perplexity about fixing the place of my future
abode for life. Paris is the most agreeable town in Europe, and suits
me best, but it is a foreign country. London is the capital of my own
country, but it never pleased me much. Letters are there held in no
honour; Scotsmen are hated; superstition and ignorance gain ground
daily. Edinburgh has many objections and many allurements. My present
mind this forenoon, the 5th of September, is to return to France. I am
much press'd also to accept of offers which would contribute to my
agreeable living, but might encroach on my independence by making me
enter into engagements with Princes and great lords and ladies. Pray
give me your judgment."[159]

Events soon settled the question for him. He was appointed Under
Secretary of State in London by Lord Hertford's brother, General
Conway, and left Paris, as I have just said, early in January 1766.
Rousseau had been in Paris since the 17th of December waiting to
accompany Hume to England, and Smith must no doubt have met Rousseau
occasionally with Hume during that last fortnight of 1