These experiments, on the relative conducting powers of mercury, water, air, and a torricellian vacuum, were read to the Royal Society, March 9, 1786.
He then proceeded to make experiments on the relative warmth of various substances used in making artificial clothing; relative quantities of the same substance; different qualities of substance chemically, as charcoal, ashes, dust. All his experiments indicated that the air which occupies the interstices of substances used in forming coverings for confining heat acts a very important part in that operation. Air is a perfect non-conductor of heat. These experiments were chiefly made in 1787. They were not read before the Royal Society until January 19, 1792.
Early in the winter of 1787, as soon as the cold was sufficiently intense, he began to repeat the experiments of Dr. Fordyce (‘Transactions of the Royal Society,’ vol. lxxv.) on the weight said to be acquired by water in the act of freezing; and, being possessed of a most excellent balance belonging to the Duke of Bavaria, he soon came to the conclusion that all attempts to discover any effect of heat upon the apparent weights of bodies would be fruitless.
He had previously, in April 1785, convinced himself of the errors that arose from currents of air and from the drying of the cords by which the scales were hung.
These experiments were made into a paper entitled ‘An Inquiry concerning the Weight Ascribed to Heat.’ This was read before the Royal Society, May 2, 1799.
In May and June 1786 he made experiments on the production of air from water exposed to light. These were read before the Royal Society, February 15, 1787.
When engaged in his experiments on the conducting powers of various bodies with respect to heat, and particularly of such substances as are used for clothing, he made experiments on the relation between their conducting power and their power of absorbing moisture, but found none. Flannel and fur, contrary to his expectation, absorbed much more moisture from the air than silk and cotton. On this he forms an idea of the good of wearing flannel. This, the weakest of his papers, was read to the Royal Society, March 22, 1787.
In the spring of 1791 a large building was erected in the neighbourhood of Munich, on the ground destined for the exercise of the artillery, where a most complete apparatus was put up for measuring the velocities of cannon bullets by the recoil of the gun, and also by the pendulum at the same time, and with this apparatus a great number of interesting experiments were made.
He observed that the force of the charge was always sensibly increased when the gun was discharged by firing a pistol (constructed for that use) into the vent, instead of using a priming and a common match for firing off the gun.
These experiments were continued in 1792, and in 1793 they were shown to Dr. Blagden, who was in Munich during the absence of Sir B. Thompson in Italy for his health.
The principal objects in view were to determine the expansive force of the elastic vapour generated in the combustion of gunpowder in its various states of condensation, and to ascertain the ratio of its elasticity to its density, and to measure the utmost force of this fluid in its most dense state.
In order to find the most economical method of lighting his Workhouse at Munich, he devised a new way of measuring the relative quantities of lights by their shadows. His arbitrary standard was a London made Argand lamp. He first experimented on the resistance of air to light, then on the loss of light in its passage through different kinds of glass, and in its reflection from a plate glass mirror, then on the relative quantities of oil burnt by different lamps and relative quantities of light emitted by different substances, and lastly on the transparency of flame.
He made these experiments into a paper on the ‘Relative Intensities of the Light Emitted by Luminous Bodies,’ and it was read before the Royal Society, February 6, 1794; and on February 20 another paper was read, being an ‘Account of some Experiments on Coloured Shadows,’ and he came to the conclusion that our eyes are not always to be believed, even with respect to the presence or absence of colours.
For his national and scientific work he received various honours between 1783 and 1794.
In 1785 he was elected member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, which had been established in 1758, and he was made chamberlain to the Elector.
In 1786 the King of Poland, at the request of the Elector of Bavaria, conferred on him the Order of St. Stanislaus. This was done because the statutes of Bavaria did not allow a foreigner to receive any national honours.
In 1787, when in Prussia, he was made a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences.
In 1788 the Elector made him Major-General of Cavalry and Privy Councillor of State, and he was placed at the head of the war department.
On May 29, 1789, he was elected a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he was made Lieutenant-General of the Bavarian Armies and received the command of a regiment of artillery.
In 1791, in the interval between the death of the Emperor Joseph and the coronation of Leopold II., the Elector of Bavaria was one of the Vicars of the Empire, and he made Sir Benjamin Thompson a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, and gave him the Order of the White Eagle.
Early in the following year the wife of Count Rumford, who had been a great invalid, and who had lived with her son by her first husband and with her daughter, the child of Rumford, died at the age of 52. Her own property had given her every comfort that her ill health required.
At the end of this year Count Rumford was in correspondence with his early friend Colonel Baldwin, through whom probably for some time previously he had sent money to his mother. He wrote to Colonel Baldwin from Munich, January 18, 1793:
You could hardly conceive the heartfelt satisfaction it would give me to pay a visit to my native country. Should I be kindly received? Are the remains of party spirit and political persecutions done away? Would it be necessary to ask leave of the State?
It is possible you may see me at Woburn before you are aware of it. I wish exceedingly to be personally acquainted with my daughter. I wish to know her real character, and how I must go to work to lay a solid foundation for her future happiness. I wish once more to have the satisfaction of seeing my most kind and affectionate mother. I wish to prove to her how dear she is to me, and how grateful I am for all her goodness to me. My dear, beloved parent! What would I give to see her, were it but for one hour! I should be much obliged to you for any accounts you may from time to time send me of her situation, and of others, my friends, in your neighbourhood. Desiring to be remembered to all those of my old acquaintance who interest themselves in my welfare, I am, my dear Sir, with unfeigned regard and much esteem, yours most affectionately.
Count Rumford, in the spring of 1793, left Munich for Italy on account of his health. He was absent sixteen months. At Verona the directors of the two great hospitals La Pieta and La Misericordia, containing 350 and 500 poor, accepted his offer to rebuild the kitchens. Seven-eighths of the fire-wood were saved, and he made arrangements to supply the poor with clothing from the Munich House of Industry at a saving of twenty per cent.
On May 11, 1793, Sir C. Blagden, who was travelling with Lord Palmerston, wrote to Sir Joseph Banks from Rome:
Count Rumford is come into Italy. I have just received a very friendly letter from him, in which he desires me to appoint a meeting. It will probably be at Milan.
Three months later he wrote from Augsburg:
Thompson, now Count Rumford, met me by appointment at Pavia. Volta showed us his experiments on animal electricity, and said he had sent off his paper for the Royal Society about three weeks before, probably not time enough for it to be read before the vacation. I thought his experiments proved that there is no particular animal electricity, and that the animals serve only the purpose of very delicate electrometers; but they leave other circumstances unexplained.
On his return to London Sir C. Blagden wrote on November 21 to Sir Joseph Banks:
From Italy I brought two papers by Count Rumford, one on ‘Coloured Shadows,’ the other on a ‘Method of Measuring the Comparative Intensities of the Light Emitted by Luminous Bodies.’ In the former he shows neatly enough that the colours ascribed to these shadows depend entirely on comparing them with light of another colour. The method referred to in the second paper is that of the intensity of the shadows produced by the different luminous bodies. These two papers will furnish matter for nearly three meetings of the Royal Society.
Count Rumford had another serious illness in Naples in the early part of 1794. He returned to Munich in August.
He left Munich for London in 1795. He had spent the year after his return from Italy in comparative quiet. He was unfit for public business and he chiefly occupied himself by writing out the results that he had obtained. He thus made a series of essays.
In order to publish these in England and to meet his daughter, who was about to come to him from America, and to recover further his health, he obtained leave of absence from the Elector of Bavaria.
In his paper on Gunpowder in 1781 he said he would make experiments on the strength of various bodies. In 1797, when he had another paper in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ on this subject, he added this note:
Since writing the above I have met with a misfortune which has put it out of my power to fulfil this promise. On my return to England from Germany, in October 1795, after an absence of eleven years, I was stopped in my post-chaise in St. Paul’s Churchyard, in London, at six o’clock in the evening, and robbed of a trunk which was behind my carriage, containing all my private papers and my original notes and observations on philosophical subjects. By this cruel robbery I have been deprived of the fruits of the labours of my whole life, and have lost all that I held most valuable. This most severe blow has left an impression on my mind which I feel that nothing will ever be able entirely to remove. It is the more painful to me, as it has clouded my mind with suspicions that never can be cleared up.
These essays were published at different times separately between 1796 and 1802. The two first volumes were reprinted in 1800.
His first essay gave an account of an establishment for the poor in Munich; the second was on establishments for the poor in general. It contains the germ of the Royal Institution.
This was a ‘proposal for forming in London by private subscription an establishment for feeding the poor and giving them useful employment, and also for furnishing food at a cheap rate to others who may stand in need of such assistance, connected with an institution for introducing and bringing forward into general use new inventions and improvements, particularly such as relate to the management of heat and the saving of fuel, and to various other mechanical contrivances by which domestic comfort and economy may be promoted, submitted to the public by A.B.’ Dated January 1, 1796. Count Rumford begins by saying that no person shall find means to make a job of the proposed establishment. That the general arrangement of the establishment and all its details shall be left to the author of these proposals, who will be responsible for their success. He engages, however, in the prosecution of this business to adhere faithfully to the plan here proposed, and never to depart from it on any pretence whatever.
He proposed first to establish a public kitchen with every useful invention and improvement by which fuel may be saved.
As soon as the measures for feeding the poor and giving them employment are carried into execution the secondary object will be attended to—the formation of a grand repository of all kinds of useful mechanical inventions, particularly such as relate to furnishing houses and are calculated to promote domestic comfort and economy.
He concluded thus: ‘The author of these proposals will think himself most amply repaid for any trouble he may have taken in the execution of this scheme by the heartfelt satisfaction he will enjoy in the reflection of having been instrumental in doing essential service to mankind.’
In the summer of 1796 a conversation took place between the Bishop of Durham, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Bernard, and the Honourable Edward James Eliot, and in consequence of this a society was formed for encouraging industry and promoting the welfare of the poor.
The object of this Society was everything that concerned the happiness of the poor, everything by which their comforts could be increased; to correct the abuses of workhouses; to assist the poor in placing out their children; to add to and meliorate their means of subsistence by public kitchens, by the union of liberal and benevolent minds, by circulating information and by personal assistance and influence.
The Bishop of Durham and Mr. Thomas Bernard were the chief contributors to the funds. Mr. Bernard was the third son of Sir Francis Bernard, Governor of New Jersey and Massachusetts Bay. He was a graduate of Harvard College, New England. He was the original promoter of the School for the Indigent Blind, of an Institution for the Protection and Instruction of Climbing Boys, of a Society for the Relief of Poor Neighbours in Distress, of the Cancer Institution, of the London Fever Hospital. He was also the founder of the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom, and the originator of the Alfred Club.
The first meeting of the new Society was held on December 21, 1796, when the King declared himself the patron of it. On February 24, 1797, the Society resolved that, ‘in consideration of the extraordinary services of Count Rumford for the benefit of the poor, and as a testimony of the respect and esteem with which this Society regards his services in the promotion of the general objects of the institution, he be elected and declared a member of the Society and one of the general committee for life.’
In consequence Count Rumford wrote to Thomas Bernard, Esq., from Germany:
Munich, April 28, 1797.
I feel myself very highly honoured by the distinguished mark of esteem and regard which the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor has conferred on me, and I beg leave through you to return the Society my respectful and grateful acknowledgments.
This flattering proof of the approbation of those most respectable persons who compose the Society will tend very powerfully to encourage me to persevere in those endeavours to promote the important objects they have in view, by which I first obtained their notice and esteem.
I am very sanguine in my expectations of the good which will be done by this Society; they will, however, be able to do much more by examples—by models that can be seen and felt—than by anything that can be said or written.
The following year he wrote:
Munich, May 13, 1798.
The rapid progress you are making in your most interesting and laudable undertakings affords me a high degree of satisfaction. It proves that I was not mistaken when I concluded that, notwithstanding the alarming progress of luxury and corruption of taste and of morals in England, there is still good sense and energy to be found, even in the highest classes of society, where the influx of wealth has operated most powerfully. Go on, my dear sir, and be assured that when you shall have put doing good in fashion, you will have done all that human wisdom can do to retard and prolong the decline of a great and powerful nation that has arrived at, or passed, the zenith of human glory.
And again:
Munich, June 8, 1798.
I have received your letter from Brighton of the 12th ult. You can hardly imagine the high degree of pleasure and satisfaction which I feel at your success in your most laudable undertakings. Go on, my dear sir, and be assured that you will contribute more essentially to the revival of taste and morals, of energy, industry, benevolence, and prosperity in your favoured country than all the speculators and reformers in the three kingdoms.
When society is arrived at a certain degree of torpid indifference and enervation of mind and body, which are the unavoidable effects of wealth, luxury, and inordinate indulgence, mankind must either be allured or shamed into action. Precepts and admonitions have no effect on them.
As they are too indolent to take the trouble either to investigate or to choose, they must be led to acts of useful benevolence as they are led in everything else—by fashion; when you shall have rendered it perfectly ridiculous for a man of fashion and fortune to have the appearance of being insensible to the most noble and most delightful of human enjoyments—that which results from doing good—you will have done more for the relief of the poor than all that the Poor Laws can ever effect. Deeply impressed with the necessity of rendering it fashionable to care for the poor and indigent, and contribute to their relief and comfort, in order to diffuse in England that spirit of active benevolence you are kindling, I am apt to insist, perhaps with too much prolixity, on that important point.
I am anxious to hear of the execution of your plan with regard to Bridewell. A well arranged House of Industry is much wanted in London. It is indeed absolutely necessary to the success of your undertaking, for there must be something to see and to touch, if I may use the expression, otherwise people in general will have but very faint, imperfect, and transitory ideas of those important and highly interesting objects with which you must make them acquainted in order to their becoming zealous converts to our new philosophy, and useful members of our community. Pray read once more the ‘Proposals,’ published in my second essay. I really think that a public establishment like that there described might easily be formed in London, and that it would produce infinite good. I will come to London to assist you in its execution whenever you will in good earnest undertake it.
The third essay was on ‘Food and Feeding the Poor; Rumford Soup and Soup-Kitchens.’ The fourth on ‘Chimney Fire-Places.’ The fifth on ‘Several Public Institutions Founded in Bavaria; on Nurseries for Genius; for Horses and for Cattle.’
During 1797 and 1798 Rumford published in England a second volume containing four essays.
These were on the ‘Management of Fire and the Economy of Fuel;’ on the ‘Propagation of Heat in Fluids,’ extending to liquids, the doctrine which he had before advanced respecting elastic fluids; on the ‘Propagation of Heat in various Substances;’ and an ‘Experimental Inquiry concerning the Source of Heat Excited by Friction.’
An account of this last essay must be given here, because from it Count Rumford derives his chief scientific reputation.
Whilst directing the military affairs of the Duke of Bavaria he had to organise the field artillery, and he found no cannon foundry in Bavaria. The arsenal at Munich was filled with cannon, but by far the greater part of them were perfectly useless, being too heavy to be moved. There was a very good foundry at Mannheim, the capital of the Elector’s dominions on the Rhine, but the distance between Munich and Mannheim is so great that it would have cost more to have sent the Bavarian guns to Mannheim to be refounded and to have brought them back than was required to defray the expense of establishing a new manufactory for the construction of artillery in Bavaria.
A foundry was accordingly established at Munich, and neither pains nor expense were spared to make it as perfect as possible. A most excellent machine was erected for boring cannon, with workshops adjoining to it for the construction of gun-carriages and ammunition waggons.
Whilst engaged in superintending the boring of the cannon he was struck by the heat produced in a brass gun and with the still more intense heat of the metallic chips separated by the borer.
He says: ‘The more I meditated on these phenomena the more they appeared to me to be curious and interesting. A thorough investigation of them seemed even to bid fair to give a further insight into the hidden nature of heat, and to enable us to form some reasonable conjectures respecting the existence or non-existence of an igneous fluid.
‘Whence comes the heat actually produced?
‘Does it come from the metallic chips? If so, their capacity for heat must be changed; but by repeated experiments I found that no change of capacity was caused by the boring. Determination of the actual heat produced and of the amount of chips showed that there was no relation between them. That the heat did not come from the gun itself was shown by the absence of every sign of exhaustion in the metal, notwithstanding the large quantities of heat given off.
‘Did the heat come from the air? Exclusion of the air did not in the smallest degree diminish the heat.
‘It would be difficult,’ he says, ‘to describe the surprise and astonishment expressed in the countenances of the bystanders on seeing a large quantity of cold water heated and actually made to boil without any fire.
‘Though there was, in fact, nothing that could justly be considered as surprising in this event, yet I acknowledge fairly that it afforded me a degree of childish pleasure which, were I ambitious of the reputation of a grave philosopher, I ought most certainly rather to hide than to discover.’
The amount of heat given out in a continual stream by his borer he estimated at that of nine wax candles each of three-quarters of an inch in diameter. This was produced by the work of two horses. ‘But,’ he adds, ‘no circumstances can be imagined in which this method of procuring heat would not be disadvantageous; for more heat may be obtained by using the fodder necessary for the support of a horse as fuel.’
He concludes thus:
‘Anything which any insulated body or system of bodies can continue to furnish without limitation cannot possibly be a material substance, and it appears to me to be extremely difficult, if not quite impossible, to form any distinct idea of anything capable of being excited and communicated in these experiments except it be MOTION.
‘I am far from pretending to know how that particular kind of motion which has been supposed to constitute heat is excited, continued, and propagated. Nobody surely in his sober senses has ever pretended to understand the mechanism of gravitation, and yet what sublime discovery was our immortal Newton enabled to make merely by the investigation of the laws of its action!’
The account of these experiments was read to the Royal Society, January 25, 1798.
Some interesting facts regarding this paper are to be found in the correspondence of Sir C. Blagden with Sir J. Banks.
Dear Sir Joseph,—Count Rumford’s paper on Friction, together with your letter, were safely delivered to me by Lord Palmerston. The paper is by no means incorrect in itself, nor has the copyist made any remarkable blunders, and it is valuable from the large scale on which the experiments were tried, and the quantity of heat produced in consequence. As the result of the experiments was such as the Count himself foresaw, and as every other philosopher would have expected, they do not furnish any new argument in favour of the opinion he has adopted that heat is motion, though perhaps they add force to the old ones. There is, however, an experiment of some consequence if it can be depended upon; namely, that which seemed to show that the shavings cut by the borer out of the cannon had the same capacity for heat as the metal on which the borer had not acted; but I do not feel much confidence in experiments of this nature. You will recollect that one opinion pretty much adopted on this subject is that the heat produced in boring a cannon depends on the compression of the metal of the cannon by the borer, in consequence of which it gives out heat; on the principle that the same body has a less capacity for heat when it is in a denser than when it is in a rarer state. I wish the Count had ascertained whether the metal shavings he tried had really a greater specific gravity than that of the chips of metal he had sawed off.
Whilst in England Rumford at this time strove to advance scientific knowledge not only by the publication of his own discoveries, but also by his benefactions for the promotion of discovery by others, and by the further practical application of some of the results which he had obtained.
On July 12, 1796, he wrote to the Honourable John Adams, President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at Boston, to offer 5,000 dollars in the 3 per cent. stocks, ‘to the end that the interest may be spent every second year on a silver and gold medal as a premium to the author of the most important discovery or useful improvement on heat or on light; the preference always being given to such discoveries as shall, in the opinion of the Academy, tend most to promote the good of mankind.’
In 1829 the fund accumulated to 20,000 dollars, and in 1870 to 37,000 dollars. The Academy applied to the Legislature to use the money for the purchase of books and apparatus, and to pay for experiments, lectures, and treatises, and this was decided in 1831. During the first fifty years only one award of the medals was made. This was to Dr. Hare, of Philadelphia, 1839. They have been since given to Mr. Ericsson, Professor Treadwell, Mr. Alvan Clark, and Mr. Corliss.
On the same day in 1796 Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, offering 1,000l. stock on the same conditions to the Royal Society of London.
Sir Joseph Banks was requested by the council to return their sincere thanks to Count Rumford, and at the same time to inquire ‘how far improvements or discoveries in optics and chemistry might come under the Count’s views.’
Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, from Munich, April 20, 1797:
I think the premium should be limited to new discoveries tending to improve the theories of fire, of heat, of light, and of colours, and to new inventions and contrivances by which the generation and preservation and management of heat and of light may be facilitated. In as far, therefore, as chemical discoveries or improvements in optics answer any of these conditions they may, I think, fairly be considered as being within the limits assigned to the operation of the premium. The objects which I had more particularly in view to encourage, are such practical improvements in the generation and management of heat and light as tend directly and powerfully to increase the enjoyments and comforts of life, especially in the lower and more numerous classes of society.
The first award of the Rumford medal was made, in November 1802, to Count Rumford himself for his own discoveries on heat and light. In 1870 the award was made for the twenty-sixth time. Eleven foreigners have received the honour, and thus added to the reputation of the prize. The greatest English discoverer on the subject of light is not on the list, but when sending the medal to M. Fresnel (who was on his death-bed) in 1827, Young, as foreign secretary of the Royal Society, wrote to him: ‘I also should claim some right to participate in the compliment which is tacitly paid to myself in common with you by this adjudication, but, considering that more than a quarter of a century is passed since my principal experiments were made, I can only feel it a sort of anticipation of posthumous fame, which I have never particularly coveted.’
In order further to apply some of his scientific researches to practice in the spring of 1796, on the invitation of his friend Mr. Secretary Pelham, Rumford went to Dublin.
In the house of the Dublin Society he fitted up a laundry and a model kitchen for private families, and also a cottage fire-place, and a model lime-kiln in the courtyard of the house of the Society; also in the hall in which the meetings of the Royal Irish Academy are held he fitted up two chimney fire-places. He contrived a fire-place for heating one of the principal churches in Dublin, and he promised to give a plan for heating the superb new building destined for the meeting of the Irish House of Commons. In the Linen Hall at Dublin he fitted up an oblong square boiler as a model for bleachers.
He was made a member of the Royal Irish Academy and of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, and he received after he left the country the public thanks of the Grand Jury of the County of Dublin, and of the Lord Mayor of the city, as well as of the Lord Lieutenant as the head of the Government.
Upon his return to London he superintended some improvements at the Foundling Hospital for his friend Mr. Bernard, who was treasurer there. Roasters and boilers were put up, but he was obliged to return to Munich before the kitchens were entirely finished.
His daughter left America to join her father in England in January 1796. By her Colonel Baldwin wrote from Woburn, January 26, 1796:
In answer to your inquiry, I can say that it is my opinion that you can freely return to America, either with or without official leave from the State, as you may choose; and that you would realise a hearty welcome from all your old friends and citizens in general. I can say, for one, that there is not a person on earth that I should rejoice so much to see.
Rumford answered:
London, March 26, 1796.
I return you many thanks for your friendly letter, which I received by my daughter, and I beg you would accept my warmest acknowledgments for all the kindness you have shown to my daughter for the many years she has been known to you.
Her gratitude to you is without bounds, and she says nothing on earth will ever make her forget your goodness to her. I do not despair of being able, at some future period, to express to you in person, by word of mouth, the sense I entertain of your kindness to my dear child. You will not expect that I should attempt to describe the pleasure I felt at seeing my dear girl after an absence of twenty years!
Some years afterwards the daughter gave a vivid picture of her father at this time.
Count Rumford, my father, having passed several preceding years at Munich, in Bavaria, had come to England to have published some of his essays. He took the opportunity to send for me, my mother being dead, and I requiring protection. Many were the scenes he had passed through after leaving me as an infant, and erroneous were the ideas I had formed of him, particularly of his appearance; we having had only a small profile of him in shade, giving ever an imperfect idea of the person. Indeed, so different from what I had thought were his looks, that I could hardly fancy him the person I sought after, and would willingly have run from him, and ended in a violent fit of crying, which he did not consider as a compliment, asking me afterwards what I meant by it. The playfulness of his character (at times) secured love to my father. Witness his laughter, quite from the heart, nothing made up about it. The expression of his mouth, ornamented with the most finished pearls, was sweetness itself. But to see him accidentally, he did not strike one as handsome, or very agreeable, though not exactly to the contrary. At the time I met him, having been ill, he was very thin and pale—again a reason of my disappointment. My opinion of him was naturally romantic, perhaps, as young people’s often are. I had heard him spoken of as an officer. I had attached to this an idea of the warrior, with the martial look, possibly the sword, if not the gun, by his side. His profile being in black, made me suppose him dark in complexion, possibly sunburnt; in short, in stature, size, and looks the perfect warrior. Yet my mother often spoke of him as carroty, his hair being red; but later not so, a very pretty colour. My father pretended I looked better than he expected to find me. It is true he had had a most unfavourable likeness of me in a small miniature.
Though it was a trying scene to meet, yet it was nothing to finding out each other’s disposition in the end, and my father began with being much alarmed about me. He himself resided in a large hotel in Pall Mall, but could not have me with him, putting me to board not far off, at a Mrs. Lackington’s. He had brought his valet, Aichner, with him, and for me a maid, by the name of Anymeetle, both Germans. I was to be presented to Lord and Lady Palmerston, Sir Charles Blagden, Sir William Pepperell and family (Americans), and other of his friends.
My father was often at the Royal Society, and intimate with its president, Sir Joseph Banks. I would be invited to the dinners Sir Joseph gave to the select ones of his royal learned Society. Through the kindness and civility of Lady and Miss Banks, his wife and sister, I several times found myself one of their party. Lady Banks was so kind, and, most likely out of civility to my father, she would allow me to be with her for days together, taking me about with her, letting me see things—in short, trying to amuse me. I recollect she took me to a Lord Mayor’s ball, where I saw the princes and royal family for the first time. As may be supposed, the select dinners of the Royal Society were highly interesting, and where, I think, ladies were seldom or never admitted. I was allowed to accompany Lady and Miss Banks as a mere nobody; but this did not prevent my making observations which never have been and never will be forgotten. The idea of very learned people suggests that of pedantry. At these dinners there was nothing of the kind, differing only from other refined societies when remarks were made to convey perhaps new ideas, discoveries, or highly entertaining instruction, sometimes there being no such talk at all.
The daughter wrote to Mrs. Baldwin in America, June 13, 1796:
We should have been gone long before this time to Germany if some business had not called my father to Ireland.
I enjoy very good health, and am very happy. I should think it strange if I were not to be. I am indulged in everything I wish, and I am under the protection of a parent that I have not only reason to love, but to be proud of.
The state of Europe at this time caused Rumford to return to Munich. At the close of the campaign of 1794 between France and the German Empire, when Prussia made peace with France, Bavaria desired to be neutral. It was not until the spring of 1796 that the Republicans under Moreau, who had crossed the Rhine at Strasburg, threatened Munich. Rumford was recalled. The Elector took refuge in Saxony eight days after Rumford arrived. He had appointed Rumford head of a council of regency and commander of the Bavarian troops. The Austrians, defeated by the French near Augsburg in August, retreated on Munich. They found Count Rumford determined to oppose them. On the arrival of the French troops he refused to admit them also, and by his firmness and wisdom the neutrality of Munich was preserved. The inhabitants of the town fully recognised that they owed the preservation of their city to Count Rumford alone.
The defeat of Jourdan on the Lower Rhine obliged Moreau to retreat. The Bavarian territory was evacuated, and the Elector returned to Munich. He made Rumford head of the General Police of Bavaria, and about 200l. of the pension which had been granted to him was settled on his daughter for her life. She was also received at Court as a Countess of the Empire.
In December 1797 Rumford wrote to his friend Baldwin from Munich:
My daughter never ceases her solicitations to engage me to pay a visit to my friends in America, and her wishes are so powerfully seconded by my own feelings and longing desires to breathe once more my native air, that I have come to the resolution to make the journey as soon as the restoration of peace and the arrangement of my concerns in this country will permit it. If the public affairs of Europe and of America take the turn I expect, and if no unforeseen event should happen to prevent my carrying my schemes into execution, I think you will see us in America in fifteen or sixteen months from this time.
Meanwhile his daughter amused herself at Munich.
The Elector was old and had married a young wife, so that there was gaiety at Court during this winter, and the attentions of one of the aides-de-camp of her father made rides, and dinners, and balls pleasant to the Count’s daughter; but she says ‘all her fine castles were demolished by one blow from her father, and Count Taxis was ordered to join his regiment in the country.’ Ill health followed, and change of air and scene was advised. ‘My father appeared to try how agreeable he could make himself, as if wishing to wear off by it some of the disagreeable impressions of his late conduct in drawing so many tears from my poor eyes.... When quiet and happy himself he was, like others, agreeable; but when perplexed with cares and business, or much occupied, there was no living with him.’
In the autumn of 1798, partly on account of his health, he determined to return to England with his daughter. The Elector of Bavaria, to show his esteem for Rumford, appointed him Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of St. James.
On September 14, 1798, Lord Grenville sent a despatch to the Hon. Arthur Paget at Munich, saying, ‘It is, I apprehend, a thing if not wholly unprecedented, at least extremely unusual, to appoint a subject of the country to reside at the Court of his natural sovereign in the character of minister from a foreign prince. I am to direct you in the last resort to state in distinct terms that his Majesty will by no means consent to receive Count Rumford in the character which has been assigned to him. You will observe that the circumstance of Count Rumford having heretofore filled a confidential situation (that of Under-Secretary of State in the American Department) under his Majesty’s Government, makes the appointment in his person peculiarly improper and objectionable.’
On Count Rumford’s arrival on September 19 he wrote to Lord Grenville to say that, notwithstanding the information and the intimation which had been communicated to him by Mr. Canning, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, he considered it his duty formally to notify that, having been appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, he had come to England in consequence of that appointment, and was charged with a letter to the King, which he ought to endeavour to obtain permission to deliver with his own hands. He therefore asked an audience or personal interview with the minister, to state the objects of his mission, and to receive such information as would enable him to give a clear, authentic, and satisfactory account to the sovereign who had entrusted him with the management of his affairs.
The day but one after, Lord Grenville shortly answers that ‘he conceives it will be more agreeable to Count Rumford that the substance of the representation with which Mr. Paget was charged should be transmitted by Count Rumford to the Elector rather than through any other channel.’
The same day a despatch to this effect was written to the Hon. Arthur Paget at Munich.
No other notice was taken of Count Rumford’s appointment. He did not return to Munich, and the following year his master, the Elector Charles Theodore, died.
The thoughts of Rumford, when rejected as minister of Bavaria, were directed to his native land. He thus wrote to his friend Baldwin in America:
London, September 28, 1798.
I arrived in this city last week from Germany, and I expect to be able to remain here several months. I have, indeed, some hopes of being able to pay you a visit in America in the spring. But these hopes, though apparently well founded, may easily be disappointed, for there are several events, none of which are very improbable, that would render it impossible for me to be absent from Europe next year. It is, however, my fixed intention to pay a visit to my friends in America as soon as ever it shall be in my power, which most probably will be in the course of a year or two. I have even a scheme of forming for myself a little quiet retreat in that country, to which I can retire at some future period and spend the evening of my life. Perhaps you may be so good as to assist me in carrying this plan into execution. As I am not wealthy, and prefer comfort to splendour, I shall not want anything magnificent. From forty to one hundred acres of good land, with wood and water belonging to it, if possible in a retired situation, from one to four miles from Cambridge, with or without a neat, comfortable house upon it, would satisfy all my wishes.
Among his friends in England was the Honourable Rufus King, the American minister.
Mr. King wrote to Colonel Pickering, the Secretary of State in America:
London, December 8, 1798.
Count Rumford, late Sir Benjamin Thompson, whose name and history are probably known to you, and whose talents and services have procured the most beneficial establishments and reforms in Bavaria, was lately named by the Elector to be his minister at this Court. On his arrival he has been informed that, being a British subject, it was contrary to usage to receive him, and that therefore he could not be acknowledged. The intrigues and opposition against which he had for some years made head in Bavaria probably made him desire the mission to England. The refusal he has here met with has decided him to return and settle himself in America. He proposes to establish himself at or near Cambridge, to live there in the character of a German count, to renounce all political expectations, and devote himself to literary pursuits. His connexions in this country are strictly literary, and his knowledge, particularly in the military department, may be of great use to us. The Count is well acquainted with and has had much experience in the establishment of cannon foundries; that which he established in Bavaria is spoken of in very high terms, as well as certain improvements that he has introduced in the mounting of flying artillery.
He possesses an extensive military library, and assures me that he wishes nothing more than to be useful to our country. I make this communication by his desire, and my wish is that he may be well received, as I am persuaded that his principles are good, and his talents and information uncommonly extensive. It is possible that attempts may be made to misrepresent his political opinions; from the inquiry that I have made on this head, I am convinced that his political sentiments are correct.
Be good enough to communicate this letter to the President.
Count Rumford soon after wrote to Mr. King:
I send you herewith a small pamphlet,[5] which will explain to you the causes which have rendered it impossible for me to go to America this spring, as I had intended. I have not, however, given over all ideas of visiting that country at some future period; very far from it, I really hope and expect to be able to go there next spring, and will most certainly do so, if it should be possible, provided you should continue to advise it, and to encourage me with the hope of a kind reception.
The model of a field-piece[6] on a new, and I believe on an improved construction, which I have destined as a present to the United States, I shall pack up and send to you, in order to its being shipped for America as soon as I shall get it from his Royal Highness the Duke of York, who has desired to have a copy of it.
You will recollect that in a conversation we had at your house on the great importance to the United States of the speedy establishment of a military school or academy, I took the liberty to say that to assist in the establishment of so useful an institution I should be happy to be permitted to make a present to the academy of my collection of military books, plans, drawings, and models. I now repeat this offer, and with a request to you that you would make it known to the Executive Government of the United States, and that you would let me know as soon as may be convenient whether this offer will be accepted.
Another letter written the following day to his friend Colonel Baldwin also gives the reason why Rumford stayed in England.
March 14, 1799.
I will not attempt to describe the painful disappointment I feel at being obliged to give up all hopes of seeing you and the rest of my dear friends in America this year. A small pamphlet which you will receive with this letter will acquaint you with the reasons which have induced me to postpone my intended voyage; and you will, I am confident, agree with me in opinion that I have done right in sacrificing the pleasure that voyage would have afforded me to the more important objects to which my attention has been called. I beg you would be so kind as to give my dear mother the earliest notice of this change in my plans, and that you would at the same time endeavour to give her just ideas of the very great importance of the undertaking in which I have been called upon to give my assistance, and show her how impossible it was for me to refuse that assistance, especially as it was asked in a manner so honourable to myself. And as the success of the undertaking will be productive of so much good, and will place me in so distinguished a situation in the eyes of the world and of posterity, you will, I am persuaded, find little difficulty in persuading her that I have done perfectly right, and in reconciling her to the disappointment she will naturally feel at not seeing me arrive in America at the time appointed.
The undertaking was the Royal Institution, and the pamphlet was the ‘Proposals’ for its foundation.
On September 8 Mr. King again wrote to Count Rumford:
London, September 8, 1799.
I have more than once expressed to you a wish that you might find leisure, as well as inclination, to revisit your native country, where I have been persuaded you would meet with a friendly and cordial reception, and by your presence and advice might be of great advantage to our public institutions, the establishment of which, upon approved principles, is an object of the highest consequence. I am happy that I have it in my power to assure you that I have not been mistaken in these sentiments, and it affords me peculiar satisfaction to execute the order that I have lately received from my Government to invite you in its name to return and reside among us, and to propose to you to enter into the American service.[7]
Count Rumford answered:
Brompton, September 12, 1799.
I am deeply sensible of the honour that has been conferred upon me by the Government of the United States, by the kind invitation they have sent me to come and reside in my native country, and also by the other distinguished and most flattering proofs of their confidence and esteem with which that invitation has been accompanied.
Nothing could have afforded me so much satisfaction as to have had it in my power to have given to my liberal and generous countrymen such proof of my sentiments as would in the most public and ostensible manner have evinced, not only my gratitude for the kind attentions I have received from them, but also the ardent desire I feel to assist in promoting the prosperity of my native country.
His affection for his mother, his daughter, and his friend is seen in the following letter to Colonel Baldwin, which he wrote the day before his daughter sailed for America:
Brompton, near London, August 24, 1799.
I cannot permit my daughter to return to America without charging her with a few lines for my oldest friend and schoolfellow, the companion of my earliest youth. In straining my recollection as much as possible, in order to look back into that dark cloud that covers the early period of my life, I can remember no person distinctly, longer than yourself, except it be my mother. I must therefore consider you as one of my oldest acquaintances, and I have never ceased to regard you and to love you as one of my best friends. A few months ago I flattered myself with the hope of soon seeing you, but events happened to frustrate those hopes. But though my voyage to America is postponed, it is by no means abandoned. On the contrary, I really think it very likely that I shall pay you a visit next spring.
My daughter will tell you what I am doing in this country, and will acquaint you with my plans and wishes respecting her establishment in America. If you can further the execution of my schemes, I have no doubt but you will do it. There is nothing I have so much at heart as to make my dear mother perfectly comfortable and happy during the remainder of her life.
And a year later he wrote to Colonel Baldwin:
Royal Institution, June 9, 1800.
I must begin my letter with a subject which is ever uppermost in my mind. My daughter and my dear mother will probably be in your neighbourhood when this letter reaches you. I most earnestly recommend them both to your kind attentions. I have one wish, and one only, respecting them, which is, that they may be as happy as possible. As I am at so great a distance from them, I am but ill qualified to judge of their wants and their wishes. Pray assist them in every way in which your friendly assistance can be of use to them, or make them comfortable and contented.
Perhaps my daughter may marry (which she has my leave to do whenever she pleases, and with whom she pleases).[8] This may greatly alter her relative situation with me and with my mother. She may perhaps wish at some future period to make me another visit in Europe, and even in this scheme I shall not oppose her inclinations, if her heart should be set on the gratification of them. I do not mean to be an indulgent father in theory only.
Tell me how I must act to make two persons who are very dear to me as happy as possible.
The history of the life of Count Rumford in 1799, 1800, 1801 to May 1802 is chiefly the history of the Royal Institution. The foundation of it forms an episode which must be separated from the rest of his career. But some of the letters and events of these years which are more closely related to his future life will be recorded here.
Before he began the Institution he had almost determined to go to America, and before the building was finished he wrote to his daughter regarding the time ‘when I shall be at liberty,’ and soon after he spoke of going to Munich, but before his plans for the Institution were carried out he went to Paris, where new attractions put an end to all he intended to do in America and in England, and he never revisited his native or his adopted country.
On June 9, 1800, Sir C. Blagden wrote to Rumford’s daughter in America:
It will give me great pleasure to see you again either here or in America. Do not depend upon the Count’s going to visit you there. It is indeed possible that the fancy may suddenly strike him, and then he will set off in an instant, almost without giving notice. But his favourite child, the Institution, cannot yet walk alone, and, if he quits it at the time he talks of, will be a helpless cripple, even if it should continue to exist at all. I still see with regret his time and powers wasted on an object so inferior, in my opinion, to those which presented themselves to him in America. But he views the thing in a different light, and I suspect will be led on to stay here one year after another, till you are worn out with expecting him, and the opportunity of distinguishing himself in a rising country will be past.
Count Rumford thus wrote to his daughter:
Royal Institution, London, March 2, 1801.
My dear Child,—I am still established at the Institution. I have been exceedingly busy, but desire to be thankful that all is now nearly completed, when I shall be at liberty. We have found a nice able man for this place as lecturer—Humphry Davy. Lectures are given, frequented by crowds of the first people. Lady Palmerston and her two daughters, Frances and Elizabeth, are pretty constant attendants.
They would not receive me as minister here, but seem disposed now to make it up to me by the respect they show the Institution—originally and chiefly my work. Bernard says they are crazy about it. It was certainly gratifying to me to see the honourable list of lords, dukes, &c., as fifty-guinea subscribers. It is a very extensive establishment, and will cost a great deal of money; but I hope it will be an equal advantage to the world, as the expense and labour of forming it have been great. To strive for good things I view as a laudable ambition, as I hope you do, my dear Sally. But I hope, above all, to hear of your being well and happy, not doubting the rest.
I hope to be undisturbed by visitors this morning, or workmen, from my being thought to be at Harrogate, and to be allowed quietly to fill this sheet. You can form no idea of the bustle in which I live since I have taken up my residence in this place. In short, the Royal Institution is not only the fashion but the rage. I am very busy indeed in striving to turn the disposition of the moment to a good account for the permanent benefit of society.
I have the unspeakable satisfaction to find that my labours have not been in vain. In this moment of scarcity and general alarm the measures I have recommended in my writings for relieving the distresses of the poor are very generally adopted, and public kitchens have been erected in all the great towns in England and Scotland. Upwards of sixty thousand persons are fed daily from the different public kitchens in London.
The plan has lately been adopted in France, and a very large public kitchen for feeding the poor was opened in Paris three weeks since. A gentleman present tells me that the founders of the institution did me the honour to put my name at the head of the tickets given to the poor authorising them to receive soup at the public kitchens. At Geneva they have done still more to show me respect. They have marked their tickets with a stamp on which my portrait and my name are engraved.
I am not vain, my dear Sally, but it is utterly impossible not to feel deeply affected at these distinguished marks of honour conferred on me by nations at war with Great Britain, and in countries where I have never been, or know little of the inhabitants. But my greatest delight arises from the silent contemplation of having succeeded in schemes and labours for the benefit of mankind.
Sir C. Blagden wrote to Rumford’s daughter, September 10, 1801:
Your father is indeed going to Munich, and talks of setting out in a fortnight. I had at one time almost settled to go with him, but he then proposed to stay there all this winter and next summer. Two or three weeks ago he changed his plan, and determined to make this only a preparatory visit, and to return hither within three months. For my own part I sincerely wish that he had found it expedient to make a voyage to America instead of this journey on the Continent. I would then certainly have accompanied him across the Atlantic, notwithstanding the unsettled state of affairs here. He every day talks more and more coolly about going to America, and though I really think that he means to make you a visit there some time or other, yet it does not seem as if he promised himself much satisfaction besides.
As to his health, it is nearly the same as usual, except that he is rather thinner, having lived long upon a very spare diet. The constant agitation of his mind, and the irritable constitution with which it is connected, will necessarily prevent him from enjoying a regular state of good health.
Again, in September, writing to his daughter, Rumford says that the new Elector has invited him to return with assurances of his warm friendship, and ‘that though many salaries and pensions have been suspended through the war, his shall be paid.’ He says he is going to Munich, ‘but that if the Elector will excuse him he does not intend to stay long, the Royal Institution still requiring his oversight.’
He reached Munich by way of Mannheim, and thence wrote to his daughter:
Munich, October 2, 1801.
My dear Sally,—I arrived here late last evening, and early this morning went to pay my respects to the Elector, who received me with all imaginable kindness. He appears to have plenty of business for me in an academy he is about building, but, as things are not yet in readiness to begin, I am excused from remaining; instead of which I return to England, to put an end to the work begun there—that of the Royal Institution. I owe so much to the Elector, it is my duty to do all in my power to give him satisfaction. Besides, he says I shall be president of the academy when done.
In another letter he speaks of the kindness he met with in Bavaria.
He left Munich on October 13, and again wrote to his daughter on his arrival in Paris on the 25th. His daughter says this was her father’s first visit to Paris. The reception he met with was ‘simply enchantment.’ His inventions were in common use; his name was familiar to everyone. He made a multitude of acquaintances; parties were made for him every day; and he particularly liked one lady. Two letters written to Sir Joseph Banks from Paris in 1801 are of great interest.
Hôtel de Caraman, Paris, November 11.
My dear Sir Joseph,—I arrived here from Munich about a fortnight ago, and I purpose staying here three weeks longer. My reception has been very flattering, and I find many interesting objects of curiosity that engage my attention. I have already made the personal acquaintance of most of the men of eminence in science, and I have attended several of the meetings of the National Institute. At the last meeting of the mathematical and physical class the First Consul came in, and, fortunately for the complete gratification of my curiosity, he happened to come and seat himself very near me. One person only (Lagrange) was between us. He stayed about an hour—till the meeting was over. Volta read a memoir on Galvanism and explained his theory of the action of the voltaic pile or battery. His opinion is that all the appearances that are called galvanic are owing to the action of an electric fluid, and he says that the simple tact of two metals—silver and zinc, for instance—is sufficient to set the electric fluid in motion; and if the metals are insulated, one of them will become electrified positively and the other negatively. This assertion was proved by an experiment which was made before the assembly, and this fact is the foundation on which his explanation of the phenomena of the galvanic pile is established. After Volta had finished his memoir the First Consul demanded leave from the President to speak, which, being granted, he proposed to the meeting to reward M. Volta with a gold medal, and to appoint a committee to confer with M. Volta on the subject of his experiments and investigations respecting galvanism, and to make such new experiments as may bid fair to lead to further discoveries. He delivered his sentiments with great perspicuity and displayed a degree of eloquence which surprised me. He is certainly a very extraordinary man and is possessed of uncommon abilities. The expression of his countenance is strong, and it is easy to perceive by his looks that he can pronounce the magic words ‘je le veux’ with due energy. I was presented to him by the Bavarian minister at his last public audience, and was received by him with marked attention. He gave me to understand that he knew me by reputation very well, and intimated that the French nation had adopted several of the improvements I had recommended. A few minutes after I came home from the audience I received a note from him, inviting me to come and dine with him that day. The foreign ministers dined with him, but no other stranger except myself was invited; consequently my being invited was considered as a marked distinction. It was the next day that I saw him again at the National Institute.
I have had opportunities of making the acquaintance of several of the most distinguished characters now in power in this country. I am very intimate with Chaptal, the Minister of the Interior, and frequently see Talleyrand, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I have dined with both of them, and visit them often. Laplace and Bertholet are very civil and attentive to me, and have each of them given me a dinner, where I met most of the men of science of the first distinction in Paris. Fourcroy has also given me a dinner. In short, I am treated with the utmost civility, and I spend my time very agreeably and very usefully. I hope to see you in London about the 6th or 8th of December.
Ever yours most faithfully,
Rumford.
He again wrote:
November 22, 1801.
My dear Sir Joseph,—I do wrong perhaps, but I cannot help telling you that your name is at the head of the list of those ten persons whom the Class of Mathematics and Physics have resolved to present to the National Institute at their next general meeting, in order to their being elected foreign members of the Institute. You were proposed to the class by the Section of Botany. Your name is followed by those of Maskelyne, Cavendish, Herschel, Priestly, Pallas, Volta, and three others. I was present when the ballot of the class was taken, and had the satisfaction to see that all the votes agreed in placing your name at the head of the list. I was politely told that my name would have been near that of my friend, had it not been that the second class of the Institute had claimed me as belonging to them and had placed me on their list. The three first names on that list are, I am told, Mr. Jefferson, President of the United States, Count Rumford, and Major Rennell; the others I did not learn.
I was proposed to the class by the Section of Political Economy. The classes propose to the Institute, and the Institute elects at a general meeting. The number of foreign members is limited to twenty-four. As the election will not take place for some weeks to come, I beg you would make the most prudent use of the information I have given you. I shall not mention the subject to anybody but yourself.
I hope to see you in London in about three weeks from this time.
My health is much improved, and is still improving every day. My stay in Paris has afforded me much amusement, but I begin to be impatient to see my friends in England. I hope everything is going on well at the Royal Institution.
I am, my dear Sir Joseph, with unalterable esteem and attachment, yours most faithfully,
Rumford.
In another letter to his daughter, written January 15, 1802, he says that he returned to Brompton on December 20, and that he was three months on the Continent and seven weeks of the time in Paris. He spoke of his intention to enjoy again the delights of the French capital on his way, in the course of the summer, to Munich and to get excused from any longer residence at Munich. The Elector continued friendly to him, and had lately written to him a very gracious letter, in which he expresses his pleasure at the cordiality extended towards Rumford in France, and advises him to cultivate an acquaintance with a certain lady there, who, among other attractions, was said to have great wealth. When he made this second visit to Paris, the Count accepted an invitation which he had received to stay with the Bavarian ambassador.
Before he left England again, May 9, 1802, he published the third volume of his essays.
His tenth essay was on ‘Kitchen Fire-Places and Utensils;’ his eleventh on ‘Chimney Fire-Places.’
His twelfth on the ‘Salubrity of Warm Rooms in Cold Weather;’ his thirteenth on the ‘Salubrity of Bathing and the Construction of Warm Baths.’ His fourteenth consisted of ‘Supplementary Observations on the Management of Fires;’ his fifteenth was on the ‘Use of Steam for Transporting Heat.’
In May 1802 he also published a volume of his philosophical papers, with a dedication to his Most Serene Highness Maximilian Joseph, Elector Palatine of Bavaria. In this he says he must ever feel himself greatly indebted to his Most Serene Electoral Highness
for the kind assurances you gave me of your esteem, protection, and friendship on your succeeding to your present Bavarian dominions on the death of your late uncle, my kind friend and benefactor; but I am bound to you still more, if it be possible, by the flattering invitation you have lately given me to come to you and reside at your Court and assist in the local work of carrying into execution the vast plans you have formed for promoting the prosperity of your subjects.
From Brompton, May 6, 1802, he writes to his daughter: ‘In three days I shall set out for Dover, on my way to Paris, where I expect to stay four or five weeks, and then to proceed to Munich.’ He sent by way of Holland two carriages and much baggage.
On May 20 Sir C. Blagden wrote from Paris to Sir Joseph Banks: ‘Count Rumford arrived here last Friday (the 14th) in remarkably good health. Travelling agrees with him, and he seems very happy. We purpose to set out for Bavaria before the middle of next month.’
Writing to his daughter, June 25, Rumford says: ‘I did not propose to stay here long, but the Elector has written commissioning me to transact some business for him of a political nature in which he is much interested.’
On June 8 Sir C. Blagden writes to Sir Joseph Banks: ‘I was preparing everything to set off for Germany, and had even applied to Mr. Merry for a passport, when Count Rumford told me he had received permission from the Elector to stay a few weeks longer at Paris. This considerably deranges my plans.’
On July 19 Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks:
Rue de Clichy, 356, July 19, 1802.
My dear Sir Joseph,—The print[9] you sent me has afforded me much amusement, and, even more than that, it has given me real satisfaction. It is just that ‘those who take up the sword should perish by the sword.’ I never had a doubt who was the author of another print which certainly was not designed to give me pleasure. Although it has long been said, and I believe with truth, that those who render themselves conspicuous by their superior genius, their talents, and, above all, by their usefulness to society, must necessarily be exposed to the shafts of envy and to the hatred of all bad men, yet, much as I am desirous of deserving the approbation of mankind, so far from feeling any secret satisfaction at seeing myself distinguished by those miscreants, who may justly be considered as the vermin of society, I lament that I am not permitted to finish my days in peace and quietness. But the established order of things cannot be changed, and I must endeavour to support with patience and dignity all those evils which cannot be avoided.
I continue to pass my time here in Paris very agreeably. The society in which I live most is very pleasant, and I am surrounded by a great variety of interesting objects of curiosity. I have very often the satisfaction of hearing your name mentioned, and always in terms of the highest possible respect. No individual was ever in more complete possession of the enlightened world than yourself. It is indeed true that no man ever deserved it more.
An extraordinary meeting of the first class of the Institute was held on Saturday last for the purpose of deciding a dispute which had arisen among the Ingénieurs des Ponts et Chaussées relative to an intended canal from Cambray to St. Quentin, to form a communication by water between the Belgique and the interior of France. Two plans had been proposed, one by a M. Laurent and the other by M. Vicque.
Laurent proposed to form the junction by one straight subterranean canal about six French leagues in length; Vicque proposed to avail himself of a valley, in order to diminish the length of the subterranean passage to about three leagues. The latter was almost unanimously approved by the Institute, though the total length of the canal of Vicque is more than a third greater than that of Laurent, and though it has two subterranean passages instead of one. The First Consul was present at the discussion of this question by the Institute, and took a very active part in the debate. He displayed very uncommon abilities. He is indeed a very extraordinary man. He hears with patience and with the utmost attention every argument opposed to his own opinions, and he states the question in dispute in so clear a light, and divests it so completely from every consideration that is not essential, that every difficulty seems to be removed and the decision rendered quite plain and obvious.
I was at the public audience of the 14th of July, and dined with the First Consul, and also stayed and spent the evening at the Tuileries. We sat down to table about 240 persons, and about 60 or 80 of the company stayed and spent the evening. There were a few card tables—not more than four or five. The First Consul did not play, but walked about and talked to the company. He went out two or three times upon an elevated terrace, or rather large open platform, on the level of the apartment we were in to see the illuminations of the gardens. As often as he appeared, the crowd below saluted him by clapping hands.
He went to the opera the next evening, and, instead of occupying his private box, which is grillé, he went and took his place in the front of Madame Bonaparte’s box, where he was exposed to the view of the whole house. The applause he received was quite enthusiastic and lasted near a quarter of an hour. ‘Vive Bonaparte!’ was heard from every part of the theatre, and the actors were obliged to stop for some time. These applauses were again repeated when he went away. He came to the meeting of the Institute on Saturday without any guards, and accompanied only by his brother-in-law, General Murat. I followed him down the stairs when he went away. I found his carriage waiting for him, surrounded by about ten or twelve grenadiers, who kept the crowd at a small distance from the carriage and formed a line from the foot of the staircase. He was received by the populace with shouts of applause, and he drove away without guards and with a single footman behind his carriage, which was a coach.
Thursday Morning, July 31.
This letter will be forwarded by M. d’Ifeffel, the Elector’s chargé d’affaires at London, who will leave Paris this evening. My stay at Paris is very uncertain; I fancy, however, that I shall set out for Munich in the course of three or four weeks. The Elector writes me the kindest and most flattering letters, and I have the satisfaction to think that my stay here has been of some use to him. I avoid most carefully every appearance of interfering in public business, but I now and then find opportunities of putting in a word privately where it is not lost. I fancy the Elector will be well treated in the general arrangement which is about to take place.
I thank you for the information you have given me relative to the Royal Institution. It is impossible for me not to feel very deeply interested in its fate. I hope it will prosper; I know it will if you can support and protect it. It would grieve me to see it fall to the ground. My health is much improved since I have been in France. I am, indeed, now quite well. I continue to spend my time here very agreeably. If there should be anything I could do for you here, I hope and trust that you will have no scruples in favouring me with your commands.
I am, and shall ever be, my dear Sir Joseph, with unalterable attachment, yours most faithfully,
Rumford.