On receiving intimation of his appointment Smith wrote to Principal Davidson the following reply:—­

REVEREND AND DEAR SIR—­I have this moment received the honour of your letter of the 15th instant.  I accept with gratitude and pleasure the very great honour which the University of Glasgow have done me in electing me for the ensuing year to be the Rector of that illustrious Body.  No preferment could have given me so much real satisfaction.  No man can own greater obligations to a Society than I do to the University of Glasgow.  They educated me, they sent me to Oxford, soon after my return to Scotland they elected me one of their own members, and afterwards preferred me to another office to which the abilities and virtues of the never-to-be-forgotten Dr. Hutcheson had given a superior degree of illustration.  The period of thirteen years which I spent as a member of that Society, I remember as by far the most useful and therefore as by far the happiest and most honourable period of my life; and now, after three-and-twenty years’ absence, to be remembered in so very agreeable a manner by my old friends and protectors gives me a heartfelt joy which I cannot easily express to you.

I shall be happy to receive the commands of my colleagues concerning the time when it may be convenient for them to do me the honour of admitting me to the office.  Mr. Millar mentions Christmass.  We have commonly at the Board of Customs a vacation of five or six days at that time.  But I am so regular an attendant that I think myself entitled to take the play for a week at any time.  It will be no inconveniency to me therefore to wait upon you at whatever time you please.  I beg to be remembered to my colleagues in the most respectful and the most affectionate manner; and that you would believe me to be, with great truth, reverend and dear sir, your and their most obliged, most obedient, and most humble servant,

     ADAM SMITH.

     EDINBURGH, 16th November 1787.

     The Rev. Dr. ARCHIBALD DAVIDSON,
     Principal of the College, Glasgow.[347]

He was installed as Rector on the 12th December 1787 with the usual ceremonies.  He gave no inaugural address, nor apparently so much as a formal word of thanks.  At least Jeffrey, who might have been present, though he does not seem to speak from personal recollection, says he remained altogether silent.  His predecessor, Graham of Gartmore, held the Rector’s chair for only one year, but Smith, like Burke and Dundas, was re-elected for a second term, and was Rector therefore from November 1787 till November 1789.