286 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK 
do not know how to reconcile this with the records of the Political 
Economy Club.” 
A somewhat further investigation enables us to throw a little 
licht on this discrepancy. There exist in our library several 
rather rare pamphlets by George Pryme (not de la Pryme). 
One is entitled A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on the Prin- 
ciples of Political Economy, by George Pryme, Professor of 
Political Economy and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
This is, however, the fourth edition published in 1859. In the 
second edition, published at Cambridge in 1819, Pryme sub- 
scribes himself on the title page as Barrister-at-Law and late 
Fellow of Trinity College. The preface to the first edition, how- 
ever, is dated 1816, which shows that the instruction in the sub- 
ject began not in 1820, as Mr. Pigou thinks, but four years earlier. 
Another work by Pryme with the date 1823 bears the title 
Introductory Lecture and Syllabus to a Course delivered in the 
University of Cambridge on the Principles of Political Economy. 
In the preface he describes the lectures as having been given 
during the last six years in the University. 
Finally it may be said that all doubt as to the matter is 
removed by the Autobiographical Recollections of George Pryme, 
edited by his daughter and published in Cambridge, 1870. In 
this work we find full details as to the origin of the title. We 
are told * that before he left college Pryme had already medi- 
tated giving a course of lectures on the subject. When he 
originally suggested the matter he apprehended considerable 
opposition to so novel an attempt, and waited until Dr. Kaye, 
Master of Christ’s College, became vice-chancellor in 1815. The 
request was then unexpectedly granted and Pryme began to 
lecture in March, 1816. He tells us that his lectures “although 
elementary and eclectic contained somewhat not exactly to be 
found in any books.” He also collected a library of some seven 
nundred volumes on the subject. His first audience numbered 
forty-five. Later on, “having given a course of lectures for twelve 
successive years . . . a grace was proposed in the Senate (May 
21, 1828) to confer upon me the title of Professor in Political 
Economy. It was opposed by that class of persons who are 
averse from anything new.” > The proposition was, however, 
! Chapter vii, p. 120. 
2 Op. cit., ch. x, p. 164.