Law, then resident in Beverly, conceived the project of founding a Law Professorship at Harvard University. With this view, he wrote to my father, requesting an interview, and a time having been appointed, they met at his house. He then opened his views, by stating that, in his belief, the establishment of a Law College at Cambridge, at which the principles of jurisprudence should be taught systematically, as a science, would not only extend the influence of the University, but would render effectual service to the country and the profession. He then proceeded to say, that as the profits he had received from his Abridgment were now sufficient to enable him to carry out these views, he proposed to bestow upon Harvard University the sum of ten thousand dollars, as a foundation for a Professorship of Law, on one condition, that my father should become the first occupant of the Professorial Chair. My father, having already declined to accept the Royall Professorship of Law at Cambridge, was at first wholly indisposed to treat the proposition with favor, as far as it related to him; but as his acceptance of the office was urged, as the indispensable condition of the donation, he was prevailed upon to take the matter into consideration. Several interviews succeeded, during which, the amount of compensation, the duties to be required, and all the details of the scheme were discussed, until finally, my father became so much interested, that, despite his many doubts, he concluded to accept the office. Several considerations conspired to induce this conclusion: his enthusiasm for education; his love of the law as a science; the peculiar scope which this position would give to his powers, as an extempore lecturer; the interest