1. In the early part of 1816 the Professorship of Mathematics at the East India College at Haileybury became vacant. The salary, I believe, was 500 l. a-year. I became a candidate, and had strong recommendations from Ivory and Playfair. I was informed that it was usual for the candidates to call on the Directors. I did so. One of them was an honest man, for he was kind enough to tell me the truth. He said, “If you have interest, you will get it; if not, you will not succeed.” {474}
2. In 1819 the Professorship of Mathematics at Edinburgh became vacant by the death of Playfair, and the succession of Professor Leslie to his chair. I immediately became a candidate, and received testimony of my fitness from Lacroix, Biot, and Laplace.
These communications, though gratifying to myself, were useless for the object. Not being a Scot, I was rejected at Edinburgh. That visit, however, led to a very agreeable incident. I spent a delightful week at Kinneil with Dugald Stewart. The second volume of his “Philosophy of the Human Mind” had fortunately fallen into my hands at an early period during my residence at Cambridge, and I had derived much instruction from that valuable work.
〈BOARD OF LONGITUDE.〉
3. About this time, in a conversation with Sir Joseph Banks, I mentioned my wish to have a seat at the Board of Longitude—an office to which a salary of 100 l. a-year was attached. Although not then appointed, hopes were held out by Sir Joseph that at some future occasion I might be more successful. In 1820 another vacancy occurred in the Board of Longitude. I called on Sir Joseph Banks to ask his influence with the Admiralty; this he declined, alleging as a reason for withholding it,—the part I had taken in the institution of the Astronomical Society.
I was one of its founders, had been one of its first Honorary Secretaries, and had taken an active part in that Committee, by which the “Nautical Almanac” was remodelled.
4. In 1824 an opportunity unexpectedly presented itself. I was invited to take the entire organization and management of an office for the assurance of lives, then about to be established.
It is sufficient to state that amongst our officers were the late Marquis of Lansdowne, the late Lord Abercrombie, the {475} present Master of the Rolls, and the present Judge of the Admiralty Court; and that our direction included some of the first merchants in the City, two or three Directors of the Bank of England, and about an equal number of India Directors.
〈LIFE ASSURANCE OFFICE.〉
The proposition made to me was that I should have the entire management of the concern as Director and Actuary, with a salary of 1,500 l. a-year, and apartments in the establishment, with liberty to practise as an Actuary.