THE EARLY TEACHING OF ECONOMICS IN THE UNITED STATES 287 
adopted and Pryme thus became the first professor of Political 
Economy at Cambridge. 
Many years later, namely in 1861, he endeavored to have the 
chair endowed. He was told, however, that there was no chair 
of Political Economy, the title only having been conferred upon 
him personally in 1828." Pryme resigned in 1863; whereupon 
much to his surprise the syndics resolved to inaugurate a perma- 
nent chair of Political Economy, with the generous salary of 
£200 a year. 
The problem as to Oxford is a little more perplexing. We 
know that in 1825 a professorship was endowed at the Uni- 
versity by Mr. Drummond. There is in our library a work 
entitled An Introductory Lecture on Political Economy delivered 
hefore the University of Oxford on the 6th of December, 1826, 
by Nassau William Senior, of Magdalen College, Oxford, A. M., 
London, 1827. We find on the dedicatory page the inscription: 
“To the Munificent and Enlightened Founder of this Professor- 
ship who occasioned its Delivery, this Lecture is respectfully and 
gratefully inscribed by the author.” 
We know, however, that Senior was a student of Whately and 
that the latter was a tutor at Oriel College from 1818 on.’ 
Whether Whately delivered lectures or simply gave instruction 
is uncertain, but it is entirely probable that in connection with 
his teaching of Logic, he also touched on economic topics.® 
While, therefore, there were no titular professorships of 
Political Economy at either Oxford or Cambridge, the subjects 
were actually being taught in those institutions and the instruc- 
tors, Messrs. Pryme and Whately, were with reason elected mem- 
bers of the new Political Economy Club. 
Senior was succeeded in the professorship in 1829 by Whately, 
and when the latter was promoted to the Archbishopric of Dublin, 
he signalized his appointment by founding a Professorship of 
Political Economy at Dublin University. The first incumbent 
of this chair was Mountifort Longfield, in 1832, who was fol- 
lowed by Isaac Butt, in 1837.° In the meantime, McCulloch, 
* Op. cit., ch. xxiv, p. 344. 
* Cf. Life and Correspondence of Richard Whately, D.D., Late Arch- 
bishop of Dublin, by Jane Whately, London, 1866. 
* This appears from the passage on page 37 of Senior's introductory lec- 
ture quoted above. 
* Not Whately himself, as Wills says. 
> Cf. Seligman, Essays in Economics, 1925, pp. 111-118.