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THE ROYAL INSTITUTION.




                          LONDON: PRINTED BY
                SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
                         AND PARLIAMENT STREET




                                  THE
                          ROYAL INSTITUTION:

                             _ITS FOUNDER
                                  and
                        ITS FIRST PROFESSORS._

                                  BY
                           DR. BENCE JONES,
                          HONORARY SECRETARY.

                                LONDON:
                       LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
                                 1871.




PREFACE.


I begin the history of the Royal Institution, and its professors to
the time of Faraday, with the life of its founder, Count Rumford,
because his career and character determined its original form. I have
written short accounts of the earliest professors because the spirit
that has shown itself in them has up to this time been the life of the
Institution. Dr. Garnett and Dr. Thomas Young had comparatively little
influence there, because the founder took the most active part in the
establishment of his Institution; but when Count Rumford and Sir Joseph
Banks had left and Mr. Bernard and Sir John Hippesley were the leading
managers, Professor Davy gradually became the main supporter of the
place, and to him chiefly it owes the form which it now retains.

During the last half-century the name of Faraday has been so blended
with that of the Royal Institution that few people know what Davy made
it; and fewer still have heard what Rumford at first intended it to be.

The following account will show that the Institution owes its origin
entirely to Rumford, and would certainly have failed but for Davy.
Moreover, it will be seen that before Faraday came there, it had been
the home of Dr. Garnett and of Dr. Thomas Young; Dr. Dalton had lodged
and lectured for weeks there; Sydney Smith, Coleridge, Sir James Smith,
Dibden, Dr. Crotch, Campbell, Landseer, Opie, and Flaxman had also
lectured there; Sir Joseph Banks and Mr. Cavendish had been managers,
and Dr. Wollaston and Dr. Jenner had been members.

I have searched everywhere to find new or forgotten facts about the
Institution.

For the sketch of the founder I owe much to the Rev. Dr. G. E. Ellis,
of Boston, who has lately written the Life of Rumford for the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences. I have found many despatches and letters
relating to Rumford in the manuscripts of the American War now in the
library of the Royal Institution, and in the unpublished correspondence
of Sir Joseph Banks, in the archives of the Foreign Office, and in the
State Paper Office.

Not the least strange fact in the history of this original man is that
during his life he received no thanks for all that he did for the Royal
Institution. Moreover at the present time he is scarcely known as the
finder of Davy and the founder of that place where very many of the
greatest scientific discoveries of this century have been made.

For the account of the origin and progress of the Institution I have
searched the minutes of the meetings of the managers, the proprietors,
and the members. I am much indebted to Earl Spencer, who has lent me
from the Althorp library a printed copy of the first prospectus of the
Royal Institution. This was written by Count Rumford. I have found
many forgotten things in the manuscript letters to and from Sir Joseph
Banks, to which I have had access by permission of the Knatchbull
family; also in a manuscript life of Mr. Webster, the architect of the
Royal Institution theatre; and in some letters which belonged to Mr.
Savage, the clerk and first printer at the Institution, and for which I
am indebted to his daughters.

For the sketch of the lives of Dr. Garnett and of Dr. Young I have been
able to find very little original matter.

For the life of Sir Humphry Davy I have met with some new facts in
his laboratory note-books. These books give most of his daily work at
the time when he was making his great discoveries regarding chemical
electricity, the alkalies, and chlorine. I have also had the use of
the notes by Faraday of four of the last lectures given by Davy at the
Institution. This is the manuscript volume sent to Davy by Faraday
when he asked to be employed at the Institution. It consists of 386
small quarto pages. Davy at this time was thirty-three, and Faraday was
twenty-one. The one was full of energy to profit by the excellence
he could follow, or to shun the evil he could foresee; the other had
long reached the climax of his success by his youthful popularity as a
lecturer and his early renown as a discoverer; and was about to make a
rich and an unsuitable marriage; and before long was to suffer from the
restlessness of the failing health that ended in fatal disease.

Whenever a true comparison between these two nobles of the Institution
can be made, it will probably be seen that the genius of Davy has been
hid by the perfection of Faraday.

Incomparably superior as Faraday was in unselfishness, exactness,
and perseverance, and in many other respects also, yet certainly in
originality and in eloquence he was inferior to Davy, and in love of
research he was by no means his superior.

Davy, from his earliest energy to his latest feebleness, loved
research; and, notwithstanding his marriage, his temper, and his early
death, he first gained for the Royal Institution that great reputation
for original discovery which has been and is the foundation of its
success.

                                                               H. B. J.

 ROYAL INSTITUTION, ALBEMARLE STREET,
         _October 27, 1871_.




CONTENTS.


 CHAP.                                                              PAGE

   I. THE LIFE OF COUNT RUMFORD BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE
        INSTITUTION                                                    1

  II. HIS LIFE AFTER THE FOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTION                69

 III. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTION, 1799-1800; WITH THE
        LIFE OF PROFESSOR GARNETT, 1766-1802                         114

  IV. THE PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION TO THE RESIGNATION OF
        PROFESSOR YOUNG, 1801-3; WITH THE LIFE OF DR. THOMAS
        YOUNG, 1773-1829                                             180

   V. THE FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION TO THE TIME OF
        FARADAY, 1804-14                                             258

  VI. THE LIFE OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, 1788-1829                        312

 APPENDIX

   I. ORIGINAL PAPERS REGARDING THE AMERICAN WAR                     405

  II. ORIGINAL LETTERS FROM DR. THOMAS YOUNG                         417

 III. INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION TO 1814        425




THE ROYAL INSTITUTION.




CHAPTER I.

LIFE OF RUMFORD BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTION.

1753 to 1799.


At Charlestown, Massachusetts, in the year 1630, James Thompson was
among Winthrop’s company. He settled about ten miles inland, and the
place was called Woburn. In 1752 Benjamin Thompson was there with his
father, Captain Ebenezer Thompson, and he married Ruth Simonds, of
that place. Their child, the future Count Rumford, was born in his
grandfathers farmhouse, on March 26, 1753. The house is still to be
seen near the meeting-house in North Woburn. When the child was a
year old his father died, and when he was three years old his mother
married again. ‘To the close of her life Rumford wrote to her full of
affection, and by the munificent provision which he made for her he
showed his tender, grateful regard for her.’

A small inheritance from his grandfather helped to support and to
educate the boy. By the law of Massachusetts everyone had a good
grammar-school education, and the village school teacher at Woburn
was then a graduate of Harvard College and taught a little Latin.
From his earliest years the boy was fickle and careless. He neglected
regular work, but liked arithmetic. He was full of energy and quick
to make what he wanted. When eleven he went to a better school in the
neighbouring town of Medford. When thirteen Benjamin Thompson appeared
unlikely to make a farmer. He was therefore apprenticed to an importer
of British goods and a dealer in everything, at Salem, on October 14,
1766. ‘Instead of watching for customers over the counter, he busied
himself with tools and instruments under it.’ When he could he played
his fiddle, and played it well. When only fourteen his master allowed
him to make small ventures in shipping goods that were paid for by a
relative. He was clever at drawing and cutting names, and he thought
he had ‘invented a machine for making motion perpetual.’ When the
repeal of the Stamp Act occurred, he blew himself up with fireworks,
and was in great danger of death. His master signed the non-importation
agreement. Thus his apprentice became useless. When sixteen he returned
to his mother. To an elder school-fellow, L. Baldwin, at this time he
wrote questions on light, heat, and the wind.

In 1769, when seventeen, he was apprentice and clerk to a drygoods
dealer at Boston. There he went to an evening-school to learn French,
paying only for the hours he attended.

A note-book made by him about this time still exists. It abounds in
caricatures. Has receipts for different fireworks. One of these ends
with, ‘Love is a noble passion of the mind.’ Contains the sum he paid
for learning French and for pew-rent, and the sums gained by cutting
and carting firewood for relatives. Instructions for the back sword
exercise, with a sketch of two combatants; and later there is an
account of ‘what expense I have been at towards getting an electrical
machine,’ and ‘an account of what work I have done towards getting an
electrical machine.’

In the winter of 1770 he was ill for five weeks with fever. Then for
eighteen months off and on he boarded with Dr. John Hay, of Woburn,
and whilst with him he learned something of anatomy, chemistry,
materia medica, surgery, and physic. During the summer, 1771, he
went to Cambridge, to attend Mr. Winthrop’s lectures on Experimental
Philosophy. In the winter of 1771-2 for some weeks he was teaching in a
school at Wilmington, and in the spring he taught at Bradford. In the
summer he left Dr. Hay for good, because he was asked by Colonel Walker
to become the fixed master of a school at Concord, New Hampshire.
This place had been called Rumford when it belonged to Essex County,
Massachusetts. The name was changed when the disputes as to the county
to which it belonged were ended.

The Rev. T. Walker was the first minister of Concord. He was a native
of Woburn and connected with the Thompson family. He was the chief
man in Concord. His son was a colonel and a lawyer, and his daughter,
when about thirty, was married to Colonel Rolfe, who was sixty. She was
left a rich widow in two years, and in the middle of the following year
Thompson came as schoolmaster to Concord. He was not yet quite twenty.
His friend Baldwin describes him ‘as of fine, manly make and figure,
nearly six feet high, with handsome features, bright blue eyes and dark
auburn hair. His manners were polished and his ways fascinating, and
he could make himself agreeable. He had well used his opportunities of
culture, so that his knowledge was beyond that of most of those around
him, and he was able to give satisfaction as a teacher.’

In the country parsonage and at Colonel Walker’s house he frequently
met Mrs. Rolfe, and he told his friend Professor Pictet that she
married him rather than he her. This was about the end of 1772, when he
was nearly twenty. He had to teach no more in school. His marriage made
him one of the chief men in Concord.

After his marriage he went with his wife to Portsmouth, where she
knew Governor Wentworth. ‘He saw in young Thompson not only the
representative of a family already known in the public and social life
of his province, but also a man of much promise, one likely to work
vigorously in whatever he took up.’ The Governor soon gave Thompson a
commission as major in the second provincial regiment of New Hampshire.
The young officer at once became an object of jealousy and ill-will to
all the lieutenants and captains of his regiment. The favour of the
Governor made all his brother officers his enemies.

The following letter to the Rev. Mr. Williams, at Bradford, afterwards
Professor at the college there, shows the influence of Thompson with
the Governor, and also some of his scientific thoughts and aims:

                                     Concord, Monday, January 17, 1773.

    DEAR SIR,--Last Friday I had the honour to wait upon his
    Excellency, Governour Wentworth, at Portsmouth, where I was very
    politely and agreeably entertained for the space of an hour and
    a half. I had not been in his company long before I proceeded
    upon business, viz. to ask his Excellency whether ever the White
    Mountains had been surveyed. He answering me in the negative, I
    proceeded to acquaint him that there was a number of persons who
    had thought of making an expedition that way next summer, and
    asked him whether it would be agreeable to his Excellency. He said
    it would be extremely agreeable, seemed excessively pleased with
    the plan, promised to do all that lay in his power to forward
    it,--said that he had a number of Mathematical instruments (such
    as two or three telescopes, Barometer, Thermometer, Compass, &c.)
    at Wentworth House, (at Wolfeborough, only about thirty miles from
    the mountains), all which, together with his library, should be at
    our service. That he should be extremely glad to wait on us, and
    to _crown all_ he promised, if there were no public business which
    rendered his presence at Portsmouth _absolutely necessary_, that
    he would take his tent equipage and go with us to the mountain and
    tarry with us, and assist us till our survey, which he said he
    supposed would take about twelve or fourteen days!!!--!!--!!!!!

During 1773 he was chiefly farming. Whilst on a visit with his wife
to Boston he was introduced to Governor Gage and to several of the
British officers. Among those who worked for him on his farm were four
deserters from the grenadiers at Boston. He persuaded them to return
to their regiment. He wrote to General Gage to beg pardon for them.
He asked that his petition might be kept secret. He wished not to
excite more enmity among his neighbours. But the use of his influence
with the Governor got known. The bitterest feeling was working in the
country. Civil war was about to begin. Major Thompson was suspected
by the people because he was in favour with the royal Governors. The
committees of correspondence and of safety listened to the reports
of any of the ‘sons of liberty.’ Major Thompson was called before a
committee of the people in Concord for being ‘unfriendly to the cause
of liberty.’ He denied the charge, and was acquitted. About this
time (August 1774) he asks his friend, Mr. Loammi Baldwin, merchant
in Woburn, ‘to favour him with an easy question, arithmetical or
algebraical, and he will give as good an account of it as possible.’ In
October his only child, Sarah, was born. In November the mob gathered
round his house, but by friendly warning he was able to escape to his
mother’s at Woburn, fifty miles away. Here he sought to busy himself by
reading, and he made some experiments on gunpowder; but ill-will soon
followed him, and he was driven for shelter to a friend at Charleston.
Thence he wrote to his father-in-law at Concord:

                                                     December 24, 1774.

    REVEREND SIR,--The time and circumstances of my leaving the town of
    Concord have, no doubt, given you great uneasiness, for which I am
    extremely sorry. Nothing short of the most threatening danger could
    have induced me to leave my friends and family; but when I learned
    from persons of undoubted veracity, and those whose friendship I
    could not suspect, that my situation was reduced to this dreadful
    extremity, I thought it absolutely necessary to abscond for a
    while, and seek a friendly asylum in some distant part.

    Fear of miscarriage prevents my giving a more particular account of
    this affair; but this you may rely and depend upon, that I never
    did, nor (let my treatment be what it will) ever will do, any
    action that may have the most distant tendency to injure the true
    interest of this my native country.

    I most humbly beg your kind care of my distressed family; and I
    hope you will take an opportunity to alleviate their trouble by
    assuring them that I am in a place of safety, and hope shortly to
    have the pleasure of seeing them. I also most humbly beseech your
    prayers for me, that under all my difficulties and troubles I may
    behave in such a manner as to approve myself a true servant of God
    and a sincere friend of my country.

    To have tarried at Concord and have stood another trial at the bar
    of the populace would doubtless have been attended with unhappy
    consequences, as my innocence would have stood me in no stead
    against the prejudices of an enraged, infatuated multitude,--and
    much less against the determined villany of my inveterate enemies,
    who strive to raise their popularity on the ruins of my character.
    My friends would have been deemed unfriendly to the cause of
    Liberty, and my defence would have been treated with contempt and
    disdain. It would have been vain for me to have pretended to curb
    the fury or calm the rage of this popular whirlwind; but I must
    have been cast, and condemned to suffer punishments equal to the
    blackness of my supposed transgressions.

    The plan against me was deeply laid, and the people of Concord
    were not the only ones that were engaged in it. But others to the
    distance of twenty miles were extremely officious on this occasion.
    My persecution was determined on, and my flight unavoidable. And
    had I not taken the opportunity to leave the town the moment I did,
    another morning had effectually cut off my retreat.

In May his wife and her infant joined him at his mother’s home at
Woburn. When there, skirmishes took place between the people and troops
at Concord, Massachusetts, and Lexington, and in this last fight Major
Thompson is said to have taken part with the people; but he was soon
the object of ill-feeling, and, although he was saved from immediate
arrest by his friend Major Baldwin, a short time afterwards he was
arrested, and then he appealed from the Committee of Correspondence
of Woburn to the Committee of Safety of the Provincial Congress. When
he was acquitted at Woburn and set free, he withdrew his petition
from the Committee of Safety. Soon after he was with Major Baldwin at
Charlestown, and probably he took part in the battle of Bunker’s Hill.
He certainly helped to pack up the library at Cambridge, and was only
prevented by the officers of the New Hampshire Militia from obtaining a
commission from General Washington. When epaulets were ordered for the
non-commissioned officers, he had samples made and sent them with the
price to his friend, then Colonel Baldwin, offering to take an order
for any number that might be wanted.

In August he again writes a long reply to his father-in-law, in answer
to letters urging him to express his sorrow that he had done wrong and
to ask forgiveness of the people:

                                               Woburn, August 14, 1775.

    As to my being instrumental in the return of some Deserters, by
    procuring them a pardon, I freely acknowledge that I was. But you
    will give me leave to say that what I did was done from principles
    the most unexceptionable--the most disinterested--a sincere desire
    to serve my _King_ and _Country_, from motives of _Pity_ to those
    unfortunate Wretches who had deserted the service to which they
    had _voluntarily_ and so _solemnly_ tyed themselves, and to which
    they were desirous of returning. If the designed ends were not
    answered by what I did, I am sincerely and heartily sorry. But if
    it is a Crime to act from principles like these, I glory in being a
    Criminal.

    Many other crimes which you do not mention have been laid to
    my charge, for which I have had to answer both _publicly_ and
    _privately_. My enemies are indefatigable in their endeavours
    to distress me, and I find to my sorrow that they are but too
    successful. I have been driven from the Camp by the clamours of the
    New Hampshire people, and am again threaten’d in this place. But
    I hope soon to be out of the reach of my Cruel Persecutors, for I
    am determined to seek for _that Peace_ and _Protection_ in foreign
    Lands and among strangers which is deny’d me in my native country.
    I cannot any longer bear the insults that are daily offered me.
    I cannot bear to be looked upon and treated as the _Achan_ of
    Society. I have done nothing that can deserve this _cruel usage_.
    I have done nothing with any design to injure my countrymen, and
    cannot any longer bear to be treated in this barbarous manner by
    them.

    And notwithstanding I have the tenderest regard for my Wife
    and family, and really believe I have an equal return of love
    and affection from them; though I feel the keenest distress at
    the thoughts of what Mrs. Thompson and my Parents and friends
    will suffer on my account, and though I foresee and realise the
    distress, poverty, and wretchedness that must unavoidably attend
    my Pilgrimage in unknown lands, destitute of fortune, friends, and
    acquaintance, yet all these Evils appear to me more tolerable than
    the treatment which I meet with from the hands of my ungrateful
    countrymen.[1]

    I am too well acquainted with your Paternal affection for your
    Children to doubt of your kind care over them. But you will
    excuse me if I trouble you with my _most earnest_ desires and
    entreaties for your _peculiar_ care of my family, whose distressed
    circumstances call for every indulgence and alleviation you can
    afford them.

    I must also beg a continuance of your Prayers for me, that my
    present afflictions may have a suitable impression on my mind, and
    that in due time I may be extricated out of all my troubles. That
    this may be the case, that the happy time may soon come when I may
    return to my family in peace and safety, and _when every individual
    in America may sit down under his own vine, and under his own
    Fig-tree, and have none to make him afraid_, is the constant and
    devout wish of

                    Your dutiful and affectionate son,
                                                     BENJAMIN THOMPSON.

    Rev. Tim. Walker.

Dr. Ellis, in his admirable biography, says:

    Major Thompson remained in and about Woburn two months after
    writing his last letter to Mr. Walker, in which he so deliberately
    avowed his intentions. He settled his affairs with his neighbours,
    collecting dues and paying debts, well assured that his wife and
    child would lack none of the means of a comfortable support. Having
    thus made all his preparations, he started from Woburn, October 13,
    1775, in a country vehicle, accompanied by his stepbrother, Josiah
    Pierce, who drove him near to the bounds of the province, on the
    shore of Narragansett Bay, whence young Pierce returned. Thompson
    was taken on board the ‘Scarborough,’ British frigate, to Newport
    and from thence to Boston.

In the Alienation Act of the Senate of New Hampshire in 1778 he was
named among the proscribed; and in 1781, the confiscation papers of his
property call him ‘of Woburn, physician, now an absentee.’

Whilst Mr. Thompson was at Boston the American rebellion became
a revolution. General Gage was succeeded by General Howe, and to
him Lord Dartmouth wrote in September 1775: ‘No room was left for
any other consideration but that of proceeding against the twelve
associated Colonies in all respects with the utmost vigour as the open
and avowed enemies of the State,’ and he spoke of the great risk and
little advantage that are to be expected from the continuance of the
army at Boston during the winter, and on the advantages of recovering
possession of New York. He tells the general that ‘the Empress of
Russia, in the fullness of her affection for the British nation,
and of gratitude for the benefits she had received under her late
difficulties, had made the most explicit declaration and given the most
ample assurance of any number of infantry that might be wanted.’ When,
‘in consequence of this generous and magnanimous offer,’ a requisition
was made to her for 20,000 men for Canada, objections arose, and ‘much
embarrassment and disappointment were the only results.’

The Cape Fear expedition failed from ignorance of the depth of the
river.

When Lord George Germain became one of his Majesty’s principal
Secretaries of State, November 10, a commission was issued under the
great seal ‘for the restoration of public tranquillity among his
Majesty’s deluded subjects in the affected colonies.’ A proclamation
said: ‘Apprised of the fatal consequence of the conduct they had
adopted, and seeing the determined spirit of the nation to maintain
its constitutional rights, they will avail themselves of the means
which the justice and benevolence of the supreme legislature have
held out to them of being restored to the King’s grace and peace.’
This failed utterly, from ignorance of the depth of opposition in
the colonies. Boston was evacuated in March 1776, and Mr. Thompson
was sent to England with the news. He was probably thought perfectly
qualified to answer every question relative to his Majesty’s service.
Cuvier says, ‘La bonne mine du jeune officier, la netteté et l’étendue
des renseignements qu’il donna, prévinrent en sa faveur le secrétaire
d’État au département de l’Amérique.’ His news caused no great
distress, and his information must have reassured the minister, for
even in June Lord G. Germain and the Prime Minister wrote to General
Howe on the good prospect of an end being put to the rebellion in one
campaign. It was the good news from Canada that helped to deceive them.

Mr. Thompson was taken into Lord George Germain’s office, and he was
appointed Secretary of the Province of Georgia.

In the autumn of 1777 Thompson was at Bath for his health, drinking
the waters. Whilst there he made some experiments on the cohesive
strength of different substances. These led to no great results, but he
communicated them to Sir Joseph Banks, the new President of the Royal
Society.

Sir W. Howe was at this time asking for large reinforcements. He thus
wrote to Lord G. Germain from Philadelphia:

‘From the little attention, my Lord, given to my recommendations since
the commencement of my command, I am led to hope that I may be relieved
from this very painful service wherein I have not the good fortune
to enjoy the necessary confidence and support of my superiors, but
which I conclude will be extended to Sir Henry Clinton, my presumptive
successor.’

In 1778 Mr. Thompson was with Lord G. Germain at his house, Stoneland
Lodge, Sussex. Whilst there Thompson made experiments on testing
gunpowder, and on a new method of determining the velocity of
projectiles. The results were sent to the Royal Society, in 1781, and
were published at great length in the ‘Philosophical Transactions.’
One good observation is now of great interest. ‘Being much struck
with the accidental discovery of the great degree of heat that pieces
acquire when they are fired with powder without any bullet, and being
desirous of finding out whether it is a circumstance that obtains
universally, I was very attentive to the heat of the barrel after each
of the succeeding experiments, and I constantly found the heat sensibly
greater when the piece was fired with powder only than when the same
charge was made to impel one or more bullets.’

In order to pursue these experiments he went in 1779, on board of the
‘Victory,’ of 110 guns, commanded by his friend Sir Charles Hardy.
He passed the whole of the campaign on board of the fleet, and the
result of the observations that he then made furnished the materials
for a chapter which he contributed to Stalkart’s ‘Treatise on Naval
Architecture.’ He added to it a code of signals for the navy, which was
not published. In his paper on gunpowder, read in 1797 to the Royal
Society, he says:

    During a cruise which I made, as a volunteer, in the ‘Victory,’
    with the British fleet, under the command of my late worthy friend
    Sir Charles Hardy, in the year 1779, I had many opportunities of
    attending to the firing of heavy cannon; for though we were not
    fortunate enough to come to a general action with the enemy, as
    is well known, yet, as the men were frequently exercised at the
    great guns and in firing at marks, and as some of my friends in
    the fleet, then captains (since made admirals), as the Honourable
    Keith Stewart, who commanded the ‘Berwick,’ of 74 guns,--Sir
    Charles Douglas, who commanded the ‘Duke,’ of 98 guns,--and Admiral
    Macbride, who was then captain of the ‘Bienfaisant,’ of 64 guns,
    were kind enough, at my request, to make a number of experiments,
    and particularly by firing a greater number of bullets at once from
    their heavy guns than ever had been done before, and observing the
    distances at which they fell in the sea,--I had opportunities of
    making several very interesting observations, which gave me much
    new light relative to the action of fired gunpowder.

In 1778 Mr. Thompson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Great must have been the trouble in his office this year. In October
1778, Sir H. Clinton wrote to Lord G. Germain from New York that he was
about to send, as he was ordered, ten thousand men to the West Indies
and St. Augustine. ‘After a wound in my humble opinion so fatal to the
hopes of any future vigour in this army, I trust, my Lord, you cannot
wish to keep me in the mortifying command of it.’ ‘You cannot, I am
confident, my Lord, desire that I should remain a mournful witness
of the debility of an army at whose head, had I been unshackled by
instructions, I might have indulged expectations of rendering serious
service to my country.’

Lord G. Germain thought that much good would be done by encouraging the
provincial forces, and by promising to the provincial officers half-pay
and permanent rank in America.

On January 23, 1779, he wrote to Sir H. Clinton: ‘It is likewise his
Majesty’s pleasure that you publish and make known to his provincial
corps, as also to all others his loyal subjects in America, his
gracious intention to support and protect them by making the rank of
the officers permanent in America, and allowing them half-pay upon the
reduction of their regiments, in the same manner as the officers of
British reduced regiments are paid.’

This order for promotion immediately excited the discontent of the
officers in the army. In their memorial to Sir H. Clinton they ask him
‘to prevent our being superseded by officers of yesterday who have
served under us.’

In 1780 proposals were made to Lord G. Germain to revive the
Association of Loyalists in America, ‘so that Government, at a very
moderate expense, might be served by a considerable number of men, and
Captain Murray offered on behalf of Brigadier Ruggles, who had been
Brigadier-General of Provincial Forces in America during the last war,
Deputy Surveyor-General of the Woods, and late his Majesty’s council
in the province of Massachusetts Bay in New England, to raise and to
command a regiment of light dragoons, to be called the King’s American
Dragoons.’

Lord G. Germain wrote to Sir H. Clinton, June 7, 1780, from Whitehall:

    The services of Brigadier Ruggles in the last war, and the
    influence he still retains in those provinces of North America,
    where his character, his honour, and his name are respected, made
    me long desirous of seeing that gentleman engaged in the King’s
    service. The enclosed plan of raising a regiment of dragoons was
    communicated to me by Captain Murray, by authority of Brigadier
    Ruggles. It appeared to me so fair and so disinterested, that
    I laid it before his Majesty, and it so far met with his royal
    approbation that he permitted me to transmit the plan to you. And
    if the public service requires any provincial cavalry to be raised,
    his Majesty would be pleased to see Mr. Ruggles placed at the head
    of such a corps, where he may have an opportunity of again acting
    with that zeal and spirit which formerly did him so much honour.

In September 1780 Mr. Thompson was made Under-Secretary of State for
the Northern Department by Lord George Germain.

In May 1781 the Inspector-General of Provincial Forces wrote to the
Under-Secretary, Thompson, to say that the distress for the want of
cavalry appointments was beyond conception. ‘Had all the appointments,’
he says, ‘for Brigadier-General Ruggles come out, it would have
afforded us a small temporary supply; but only twenty-five helmets have
yet appeared.’

Lord G. Germain then moved the Treasury to send fresh and large
supplies, and said he had directed Mr. Thompson, the Deputy
Inspector-General of Provincial Forces, to procure patterns and
estimates and to give information. Lord North, Lord Palmerston, and
Sir R. Sutton referred the question of quality and quantity to the
Adjutant-General, who reported that ‘it would be doing injustice to
Mr. Thompson not to declare that, as far as my judgment goes, he
will not only gain great credit for himself, but at the same time
essentially serve the public by his disinterested and very attentive
execution of the trust that has been reposed in him on this occasion.’
Their lordships directed Mr. Thompson forthwith to provide the
several articles mentioned, and allowed him one and a half per cent.
commission. The sum he received at this time was one hundred and twenty
pounds.

Among the exiles in London was Judge Curwen, of Salem, Massachusetts.
He kept a journal, and in it he gives a picture of Thompson, May 23,
1781:

    On returning home I found a letter from Arthur Savage, informing me
    of Mr. Thompson’s compliments and wish to see me at eleven o’clock
    to-morrow at his lodgings.

    May 24.--Went early, in order to be at Mr. Benjamin Thompson’s in
    time, and being a little before, heard he was not returned from
    Lord George Germain’s, where he always breakfasts, dines, and sups,
    so great a favourite is he. To kill half an hour, I loitered to
    the park through the palace, and on second return found him at
    his lodgings. He received me in a friendly manner, taking me by
    the hand, talked with great freedom, and promised to remember and
    serve me in the way I proposed to him [probably the securing the
    continuance of his allowance unreduced]. Promises are easily made,
    and genteel delusive encouragement, the staple article of trade,
    belonging to the courtier’s profession, I put no hopes on the fair
    appearances of outward behaviour, though it is uncandid to suppose
    all mean to deceive. Some wish to do a service who have it not in
    their power; all wish to be thought of importance and significancy,
    and this often leads to deceit. This young man, when a shop-lad
    to my next neighbour, ever appeared active, good-natured,
    and sensible; by a strange concurrence of events, he is now
    Under-Secretary to the American Secretary of State, Lord George
    Germain, a secretary to Georgia, inspector of all the clothing sent
    to America, and Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of Horse Dragoons
    at New York. His income arising from these sources is, I have
    been told, near seven thousand a year--a sum infinitely beyond
    his most sanguine expectations. He is, besides, a member of the
    Royal Society. It is said he is of an ingenious turn, an inventive
    imagination, and, by being on a cruise in Channel service with Sir
    Charles Hardy, has formed a more regular and better-digested system
    for signals than that heretofore used. He seems to be of a happy,
    even temper in general deportment, and reported of an excellent
    heart; peculiarly respectful to Americans that fall in his way.

This statement of the income of Thompson was certainly enormously
exaggerated. That about this time he was appointed to the King’s
American Dragoons the following autograph letter, now in the library of
the Royal Institution, shows:

              FROM LORD GEORGE GERMAIN TO SIR H. CLINTON.

                                   Stoneland Lodge, September 30, 1781.

    SIR,--I beg leave to introduce Mr. Thompson to you, and at the
    same time to thank you for the favour and protection which you
    have shewn him in giving him the command of a regiment of light
    dragoons, which, I trust, will be raised in a manner to entitle the
    officers of it to your approbation. Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson
    shows at least a spirit and zeal for the service, in quitting for a
    time an agreeable and profitable civil situation, in the hopes of
    being useful to his country, and by his military conduct, shewing
    himself not unworthy of the protection which you have granted to
    him. If you do him the honour to converse with him, you will find
    him well informed, and, as far as theory goes, a good officer
    in whatever you may think fit to employ him. I can answer for
    his honour and his ability, and I am persuaded he will ever feel
    himself attached by gratitude to you for the very kind and obliging
    manner in which you have protected him and the regiment under his
    command.

    I am, Sir, with great regard, your Excellency’s faithful, humble
    servant,

                                                        GEORGE GERMAIN.

On October 4, 1781, Colonel Thompson appointed Mr. Fisher, a clerk in
his office, as his attorney, to receive his pay (thirteen shillings
daily) and to attend to his clothing commission. He soon after left
England in the ‘Rotterdam,’ a fifty-gun ship, for New York, but
contrary winds compelled him to disembark at Charlestown (South
Carolina).

In his paper on Gunpowder he shows that he was busy during his passage:

    His Majesty having been graciously pleased to permit me to take out
    with me from England four pieces of light artillery, constructed
    under the direction of the late Lieutenant-General Desaguliers,
    with a large proportion of ammunition, I made a great number of
    interesting experiments with these guns, and also with the ship’s
    guns on board the ships of war in which I made my passage to and
    from America.

He arrived towards the end of December. Lord Cornwallis had surrendered,
and Charlestown, in Carolina, was in great danger for want of
reinforcements and food.

Early in 1782 Lord G. Germain wrote to General Leslie, who commanded
at Charlestown: ‘I agree with you that mounted troops are the fittest
for service in the southern provinces, but I cannot encourage you to
expect that any will be sent from home; I am glad, however, you will
have Colonel Thompson’s assistance in forming what you have. His offer
to serve in your army until the season for action to the northward
arrives corresponds with that public spirit and zeal for the King’s
service which prompted him to quit his civil situation and engage in
the military line.’

General Leslie wrote to Sir H. Clinton, January 29: ‘The army is now
well clothed and recovered from the sickness and fatigue it underwent
during the last summer.

‘The several detached corps of cavalry have been incorporated into
distinct ones under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson. From
the unwearied attention and diligent efforts of that officer they
are become respectable, and I have everything to expect from this
improvement.’

On February 20 Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson wrote to the Honourable
Lieutenant-General Leslie that he has not been so fortunate as to meet
with the enemy he had come in search of; but the following despatch was
sent by him on February 25, 1782:

                       Duxcent’s Plantation, Monday, February 25, 1782.

    SIR,--I did not expect, after the affair of yesterday, the enemy
    would so soon have put it in my power to congratulate you upon
    another defeat of their troops by those which you have done me
    the honour to put under my command. We had the good fortune this
    morning to fall in with a chosen corps, under the command of
    General Marion in person, which we attacked and totally routed,
    killing a considerable number of them, taking sixteen prisoners,
    and driving General Marion and the greatest part of his army into
    the Santee, where it is probable a great many of them perished.

    After resting and refreshing our horses at the plantation where we
    halted last night, at nine o’clock this morning the cavalry marched
    back to the Santee, to the ground where we fell in with the enemy
    yesterday. The infantry marched at the same time for this place,
    and we promised to join them in the afternoon.

    We had advanced about nine miles from the place we left in the
    morning, when, coming in through a gate-way to the cleared grounds
    of a plantation, we discovered the enemy about three hundred yards
    distant, directly in front of us, drawn up in the area between the
    negroe huts belonging to the plantation.

    As soon as the troops were formed I ordered a charge to be sounded,
    and the line moved forwards. The enemy also sounded a charge, but,
    instead of coming out to meet us, they were discovered going off
    by their right in the greatest hurry and confusion, and attempting
    to gain a swamp that was upon the banks of the river on that side.
    We immediately charged after them at full speed, and had the good
    fortune to come up in time to cut off a great part of their rear.
    Those that gained the swamp were pursued, and many of them were
    killed in attempting to get into the river, and others were shot
    and drowned in attempting to swim to the opposite shore. We took
    near forty horses, many of which are capital chargers.

    After the action we collected at our leisure all the cattle from
    the rebel plantations in that quarter, and have sent them down the
    road with a proper escort. We shall follow as soon as the troops
    are refreshed.

    In this last affair with the enemy, as well as during the whole
    time I have had the honour to command this detachment, the troops,
    both officers and men, have behaved in such a manner as to merit my
    warmest acknowledgment.

    I have the honour to be, with perfect respect, Sir, your most
    obedient and most humble servant,

                                                           R. THOMPSON.

In the general orders on March 1 the General expressed to the army the
opinion he entertained of the merit of Colonel Thompson’s conduct upon
this occasion, and of the spirited behaviour of the troops, and to Sir
H. Clinton he wrote, March 12, 1782:

    I had the honour to inform your Excellency that Lieutenant-Colonel
    Thompson having offered his service during his stay here, I had
    appointed him to the command of the cavalry. He has put them in
    exceeding good order and gained their confidence and affection.
    I am very happy to inform your Excellency of his success in a
    late excursion upon the Santee. [An account of the action is then
    given in the despatch.] I enclose to your Excellency Colonel
    Thompson’s report to me of this very handsome piece of service,
    and I assure your Excellency that I have much regret to part with
    this enterprising young officer, who appears to have an uncommon
    share of merit and zeal for the service; and could he and his corps
    be spared to act in this part, where cavalry are so much wanted,
    I am confident it would tend much to the benefit of his Majesty’s
    service.

Despatches of this date show that in council also Thompson was as
efficient as in the field.

General Leslie wrote to Sir H. Clinton:

    I beg to know your Excellency’s opinion with regard to our putting
    arms into the hands of the negroes. I have desired Colonel Thompson
    to speak with your Excellency upon the subject, and to make known
    to you the particulars of our situation in that respect.

On April 11 Colonel Thompson arrived at New York.

Four days afterwards Sir H. Clinton wrote to General Leslie: ‘Those
parts of your letters to which you have referred for a more full
explanation to Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson, I shall answer after
consulting with him upon the subject;’ and he also says: ‘With respect
to the disagreeable predicament which you mention Lieutenant-Colonel
Balfour and other officers of rank in the Southern army stand in on
account of Mr. Green’s threats for Colonel Hayne’s execution, I shall
consult Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson, and let you know my sentiments by
the earliest opportunity.’

At this time Sir H. Clinton was about to give up the command he had
so often petitioned to resign. He had ‘lamented that his happiness
was sacrificed to prevent the partial inconvenience which might have
arisen from a change,’ and later he wrote: ‘His Majesty’s assent to my
petition will crown the many favours of which my heart will ever retain
the most grateful remembrance.’

On February 6 General Robinson was appointed to succeed Sir H. Clinton,
and soon after Sir Guy Carleton took the command.

Colonel Thompson’s chief business was to complete his regiment, which
was encamped about three miles from Flushing, in Long Island. There,
on August 1, colours were presented to the regiment by Prince William,
then a boy of eighteen in the Royal Navy, accompanied by Admiral
Digby. On the 6th, on behalf of himself and the officers of the King’s
American Dragoons, Colonel Thompson petitioned Sir Guy Carleton to
order them to enjoy the advantages stipulated on the completion of the
regiment; and at the end of August Sir Guy Carleton notifies in the
general orders that Colonel Thompson and his officers are entitled to
permanent rank in America.

In September Colonel Thompson’s name is to be found first on a list
of six agents, selected to act for them by those Royalists who were
willing to emigrate with their families from Long Island to Nova Scotia.

Two months later it appears, from a bill, that he was building chimneys
in the barracks at Huntingdon, Long Island, where his regiment was
stationed, when the treaty of peace between America and England was
made in Paris without the consent and even without the knowledge of
France.

In December every preparation was made for a sudden attack of the
French upon New York, and orders were issued by General Robinson in
case that event took place. Alarm posts for each of the different corps
and the details of the duties of each corps were arranged. ‘If an
attack was made on Huntingdon, the troops were immediately to assemble
and march to the support of Colonel Thompson.’

Early in the spring active measures were proposed against the French in
the West Indies. Peace with France stopped these plans, and on April
11, 1783, Colonel Thompson obtained leave of absence, in order that he
might return to London to urge the claims of the provincial officers to
rank and to half-pay.

Some original documents in the appendix to this chapter will show the
energy, the ability, and the perseverance of Colonel Thompson when he
arrived in London.

On August 17 Sir Guy Carleton issued an order that all the men who
wished to be discharged in America, should hold themselves in readiness
to embark for Nova Scotia; and in October the King’s American Dragoons
were disbanded on the lands appropriated to them, many miles up the
river St. John, on the north side of the Bay of Fundy.

On October 25, 1783, Colonel Thompson’s half-pay began, and it
continued for the remainder of his life. He had at this time began a
new career. He determined to go abroad, intending to take part in a war
which was then expected between Austria and the Turks.

Gibbon wrote from Dover, September 17, 1783, to Lord Sheffield:

    Last night the wind was so high that the vessel could not stir from
    the harbour; this day it is brisk and fair. We are flattered with
    the hope of making Calais Harbour by the same tide in three hours
    and a half, but any delay will leave the disagreeable option of
    a tottering boat or a tossing night. What a cursed thing to live
    in an island! this step is more awkward than the whole journey.
    The triumvirate of this memorable embarkation will consist of the
    grand Gibbon, Henry Laurens, Esq., President of Congress, and Mr.
    Secretary, Colonel, Admiral, Philosopher Thompson, attended by
    three horses, who are not the most agreeable fellow-passengers.
    If we survive, I will finish and seal my letter at Calais. Our
    salvation shall be ascribed to the prayers of my lady and aunt, for
    I do believe they both pray.


                                                              Boulogne.

    Instead of Calais the wind has driven us to Boulogne, where we
    landed in the evening, without much noise and difficulty....
    Laurens has read the pamphlet, and thinks it has done much
    mischief. A good sign![2]

Professor Pictet, of Geneva, has published in the ‘Bibliothèque
universelle’ the notes he made of a conversation with Count Rumford
regarding his life at this time. He says:

    A purely accidental circumstance had a decisive influence over his
    destiny. He arrived at Strasburg, where the Prince Maximilian of
    Deux Ponts, now [1801] Elector of Bavaria, then Field-Marshal in
    the service of France, was in garrison. This prince, commanding on
    parade, sees among the spectators an officer in a foreign uniform,
    mounted on a fine English horse, whom he addresses. Thompson
    informs him that he comes from serving in the American war. The
    Prince, in pointing out to him many officers who surround him,
    says, ‘These gentlemen were in the same war, but against you; they
    belonged to the Royal Regiment of Deux Ponts, that acted in America
    under the orders of Count Rochambeau.’

    They engaged in conversation, which became very animated. Colonel
    Thompson being invited to dine with the Prince, met at the table
    a number of French officers whom he had encountered on the field
    in America. They talked at length of the events of this war. The
    Colonel produced his portfolio, which contained exact plans of the
    principal engagements, the forts, the sieges, and an excellent
    collection of maps. One and another recognised the place or the
    interesting incident which was recalled to him. They conversed a
    long while, and separated promising to meet again. The Prince was
    passionately devoted to his profession and intensely eager for
    information. He invited the Colonel for the next day. They resumed
    with the same zest the conversation of yesterday. When at last
    the traveller took leave, the Prince engaged him to pass through
    Munich, and gave him a friendly letter to the Elector of Bavaria,
    his uncle.

    The season was advanced, and he was in haste to reach Vienna. He
    had promised to stop at Munich two or three days at most; but he
    passed there five days, and then did not leave but with regret
    a city where the tokens of the regard of the sovereign and the
    attentions of different classes of society were extended to him
    with that frank cordiality which so eminently distinguishes the
    Bavarian nation. He received equally at Vienna the most flattering
    welcome, and was presented at Court and mingled in the first
    society. There he passed a part of the winter, and, learning that
    the war against the Turks was not to be carried on, he yielded to
    the attractive memories of Munich, and, passing through Venice,
    where he stopped some weeks, and by the Tyrol, he returned to
    Brompton by the end of the winter of 1783-84.

In February he was knighted by George the Third, and he received
permission to enter into the service of the Duke of Bavaria.

From Munich, July 6, Thompson wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, to tell him
that his Electoral Highness had been asked to become a Fellow of the
Royal Society. He said:

    I should have done myself the honour to have written to you
    upon this subject some time ago, but I waited for a favourable
    opportunity to speak to his Electoral Highness about it.

    It was only a few days since I came into waiting as aide-de-camp
    to his Most Serene Highness. I shall continue about his person
    till September, when I purpose making a tour for a couple of
    months in the mountains of Tyrol, upon the confines of Bavaria,
    and the dominions of the Bishop of Saltzburg, a country extremely
    interesting in several points of view.

       *       *       *       *       *

    He gave his direction as ‘M. le Chevalier Thompson, colonel et
    aide-de-camp général au service de S.A.S. l’Élect. Palatin, Duc de
    Bavière.’

    He ended, ‘I am, dear Sir, with sincere regard and respect, your
    most obedient and most humble servant.’

He again wrote to Sir Joseph Banks on July 24. He began by asking if he
could have one of the two hundred medals for Cook’s voyages given to
Fellows of the Royal Society, and he ended with a postscript:

    I beg you would make my best compliments to Mr. Blagden when you
    see him, and tell him I hope he will not entirely forget an old
    correspondent who remembers him with great affection.

Cuvier, in his _éloge_ of Count Rumford, says of the Electors of
Bavaria:

    Les souverains agrandis à l’époque des guerres de religion,
    par suite de leur zèle pour le catholicisme, avaient longtemps
    porté les marques de ce zèle bien au-delà de ce que réclame
    un catholicisme éclairé: ils encourageaient la dévotion et ne
    faisaient rien pour l’industrie; on comptait dans leurs états plus
    de couvents que de fabriques. L’armée y était à peu près nulle;
    l’ignorance et l’inertie dominaient dans toutes les classes de la
    société.

The first work in Bavaria of Sir Benjamin Thompson was to rearrange
the military service and introduce a new system of order, discipline,
and economy among the troops. In the execution of this commission
he says: ‘I was ever mindful of that great and important truth that
no political arrangement can be really good except in so far as it
contributes to the general good of society. I have endeavoured to unite
the interest of the soldier with the interest of civil society, and to
render the military force, even in the times of peace, subservient to
the public good.’ To make soldiers citizens, and citizens soldiers, the
soldier was better paid, better clothed, better housed, better taught,
better occupied, better amused, and, above all, allowed to earn money
and to spend it as he pleased. Fixed garrisons were formed, and the
army was used as a means of introducing useful improvements into the
country. Thus military gardens were formed to introduce the culture
of the potato. Workhouses for manufacturing clothing for the army
were founded, first at Mannheim for the troops of the Palatinate and
Duchies of Juliers and Bergen, and a few months afterwards at Munich
for the fifteen Bavarian regiments. The greatest order and economy
were used in the military manufactory and magazine, and after six
years Sir B. Thompson wrote that the net profit on the various trades
and manufactures in the Munich Workhouse up to that time was 100,000
florins; and he could refer to its growing reputation, its extensive
connexions, which reached even to foreign countries, to the punctuality
with which all its engagements were fulfilled, to its unimpeached
credit, and to its growing wealth. The amount of orders executed in
the sixth year of its establishment did not fall much short of half a
million of florins.

Among the various measures that occurred to Sir B. Thompson by which
the military of the country might be made subservient to the public
good in time of peace, ‘none,’ he says, ‘appeared to me of so much
importance as that of employing the army in clearing the country of
beggars, thieves, and other vagabonds, and in watching over the public
tranquillity.’

The beggars swarmed everywhere. They were dissolute, sturdy, shameless,
importunate robbers.

A system of mounted police was formed throughout the country by four
regiments of cavalry. Means were taken, first, to furnish suitable
employment for those who were able to work; and, secondly, to provide
the necessary assistance for those who, from age, sickness, or other
bodily infirmities, were unable by their industry to provide for
themselves.

‘To make vicious and abandoned people happy, it has generally been
supposed necessary _first_ to make them virtuous. But why not reverse
this order? Why not make them first happy and then virtuous?’

A large building, once a manufactory, was taken in one of the suburbs
of Munich; arrangements were made for a kitchen, an eating-room, a
bakehouse, workshops for carpenters, smiths, turners, tool-makers,
spinners of cotton wool and worsted, for weavers of all kinds, a dyers’
shop, a fulling mill, a washhouse.

Everything was done that could be desired to make the inmates really
comfortable by good food, raiment, and cleanliness. The rooms were
scrupulously clean, well warmed, and well lighted; the people were well
fed, well taught, and well paid for their work. ‘They had the kindest
usage from every person, from the highest to the lowest. No ill usage,
no harsh language, was permitted; and at the end of five years not a
blow had been given to anyone, not even to a child by its instructor,’
and Sir B. Thompson could say: ‘The pleasure I have had in the success
of this experiment is much easier to be conceived than described; would
to God that my success might encourage others to follow my example! If
it were generally known how little trouble and how little expense are
required to do much good (the heartfelt satisfaction which arises from
relieving the wants and promoting the happiness of our fellow-creatures
is so great), I am persuaded acts of the most essential charity would
be much more frequent, and the mass of misery among mankind would
consequently be much lessened.’

New Year’s Day having been long specially set apart for giving alms
early that morning in 1790, three regiments of infantry, with their
officers, were stationed in the streets, and Sir B. Thompson assembled
the magistrates and asked their assistance to take up all the beggars
and to provide for the poor. Accompanied by the chief magistrate,
he went into the street, and the first beggar who asked for alms he
arrested with his own hands, and orders were given to all the other
officers, who also were accompanied with magistrates, to do the same.
In less than an hour no beggar was to be found in the streets. They
were taken to the Town Hall, inscribed in printed lists, and then told
to go to the newly-erected Military Workhouse. An address was opened to
the public, asking for perfectly voluntary subscriptions to put an end
to begging; monthly sums were given, and daily supplies of bread, meat,
and soup were collected.[3]

Several good spinners of hemp were engaged at the House of Industry,
and this was the first occupation of the poor. Knitting, sewing, and
carding wool were early occupations, but the object to be desired
was woollen work for the clothing of the army. If the poor did well,
they were rewarded; if they came late, their food was lessened. They
slept at their own homes, and when ill they received relief at home.
Everything was done to encourage industry and emulation. ‘To incite
activity and inspire with a true spirit of persevering industry, it was
necessary to fire the poor with emulation--to awaken in them a dormant
passion whose influence they had never felt; the love of honest fame;
an ardent desire to excel, the love of glory, or by what other pompous
name this passion, the most noble and most beneficent that warms the
human heart, can be distinguished.’[4]

To excite emulation praise, distinctions, rewards are necessary; and
these were all employed.

The House of Industry for the Poor and the Military Workhouse were
quite separate in their management, though they were so dependent on
each other that neither of them could subsist alone; one building
served for both.

Twice yearly small sums were given to the poor to assist them in paying
for lodgings, and ultimately a large house was bought and fitted up
as an hospital for those who were infirm and unable to take care of
themselves.

Means were adopted for giving relief to those who never were beggars,
but who, from poverty and inability to provide the necessaries of life,
were involved in distresses and difficulties which they bore in silence.

Persons of distinguished birth even sent to the House of Industry
at Munich for flax, or wool, or linen, which they manufactured into
goods, and received the usual amount of wages; and some who had been
accustomed to sumptuous fare took the soup furnished gratis from the
public kitchen to the poor.

The warming, lighting, clothing, feeding, occupying the poor, seemed
the sole object of all Sir B. Thompson thought and of all he did. His
success must be told in his own words.

    My hopes of engaging others to follow my example are chiefly
    founded upon my success in the enterprise. Then why should I not
    mention even the marks of affectionate regard and respect which
    I received from the poor people for whose happiness I interested
    myself? And will it be reckoned vanity if I mention the concern
    which the poor of Munich expressed in so affecting a manner when
    I was dangerously ill? That they went publicly in a body in
    procession to the cathedral church, where they had divine service
    performed, and put up public prayers for my delivery. That four
    years afterwards, on hearing that I was again dangerously ill at
    Naples, they of their own accord set apart an hour each evening
    after they had finished their work in the Military Workhouse to
    pray for me.

    Let the reader, if he can, picture my situation. Sick in bed, worn
    out by intense application, and dying, as everybody thought, a
    martyr in the cause to which I had devoted myself, let him imagine,
    I say, my feelings upon hearing the confused noise of the prayers
    of a multitude of people, who were passing by in the streets,
    upon being told that it was the poor of Munich, many hundreds in
    number, who were going in procession to the church to put up public
    prayers for me; public prayers for me! for a private person, a
    stranger, a Protestant! I believe it is the first instance of the
    kind that ever happened; and I dare venture to affirm that no proof
    could well be stronger than this that the measures adopted for
    making these poor people happy were really successful; and let it
    be remembered _that this fact is what I am most anxious to make
    appear_ IN THE CLEAREST AND MOST SATISFACTORY MANNER.

Cuvier says: ‘Il convient lui-même que cet acte spontané de
reconnaissance religieuse en faveur d’un homme d’une autre communion
lui parut la plus touchante des récompenses; mais il ne se dissimulait
pas qu’il en avait obtenu une autre qui sera plus durable. En effet,
c’est en travaillant pour les pauvres qu’il a fait ses plus belles
découvertes....

‘Chacun sait que dans ses plus belles espérances on eut pour objet
la nature de la chaleur et de la lumière, ainsi que les lois de leur
propagation; et c’était là effectivement ce qu’il importait le plus de
bien connaître pour nourrir, vêtir, chauffer et éclairer avec économie
un grand rassemblement d’hommes.’

Other measures for the benefit of the country were carried out at the
same time.

A Military Academy was formed, principally with a view to bring forward
extraordinary talents and employ them in the civil or military public
service. Anyone was admissible. The children of the meanest mechanics
and day-labourers, provided they had _very extraordinary natural
genius_, a healthy constitution, and a good character, were educated.
It was an establishment designed for the encouragement of genius, and
for calling forth into public utility talents which would otherwise
remain buried and lost in obscurity.

Measures were adopted for improving the breed of horses and horned
cattle in Bavaria and the Palatinate. An attempt was made to put an
end to usury in Munich and to improve the highways and public roads,
by employing the soldiery in repairing them and preserving order and
public tranquillity on them.

A new English Garden was formed, beginning upon the ramparts of the
town. It was nearly six English miles in circumference. Within the
Garden was a fine and very valuable farm, with thirty of the finest
cows procured from Switzerland, Flanders, the Tyrol, and other places.
There was a public coffee-house in the middle of the Garden for
refreshment and public resort.

The scientific work which Sir B. Thompson did whilst in the service
of the Elector of Bavaria between 1783 and 1794, shows his energy and
originality, his accuracy and his depth.

When at Mannheim in July 1785 he made experiments in the presence of
Professor Hemmer, of the Electoral Academy of Sciences of Mannheim, on
the propagation of heat through various substances; on the increased
difficulty of conduction of heat through the torricellian vacuum; on
the effect of humidity in increasing the conducting power of the air;
and on the effect of air of different degrees of density. The Duke
ordered the meteorological instrument maker to the academy at Mannheim
to come to Munich, and to spare neither labour nor expense in providing
the complete apparatus necessary for the experiments.

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 1,000_l._ 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
200_l._ 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.




CHAPTER II.

LIFE OF RUMFORD AFTER THE FOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTION.

1799 to 1814.


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.

On August 10, Tuesday, Sir C. Blagden writes: ‘I am on the point of
setting out with Count Rumford for Munich. We go first to Mannheim, and
I expect to be there next Sunday; afterwards, perhaps, through that
tract of country bordering on Switzerland which will be ceded to the
Elector as a compensation, so as to reach Munich about the latter end
of this month.’

On August 30, from Munich, Sir C. Blagden wrote to Sir Joseph Banks:

    I wrote to you from Paris on the day of our departure, and left the
    letter to be sent by post next day. Our journey hither was made
    during the hottest time of this summer; we had the thermometer
    in the carriage one day at 93°, and several days within a degree
    or two of it; but this great heat did not injure our health or
    materially impair our spirits or appetite.

    It is really pleasant to see with what respect and affection Count
    Rumford is treated here by all ranks of people. I do not mean to
    say that he is without enemies, for surely he has many, but all,
    as far as I can learn, from envy, jealousy, or competition of
    interests. The great mass of the people consider him as a public
    benefactor, and would rejoice to see the government of the country
    thrown into his hands. This, however, as far as I can judge from
    what he says, as well as from his actions, is by no means his own
    wish, and, indeed, I think he can do as much good, leading at the
    same time a vastly pleasant life, if he remains simply as the
    Elector’s friend. In our way we called at a convent in Bavaria, and
    it was surprising to see how much attachment the monks show to him,
    though they must consider him as a heretic. In spite of religious
    differences he has found the means to persuade them of his general
    good intentions. The Elector and every person in his family behave
    to the Count with great respect, and are extremely gracious to me,
    evidently for the purpose of showing regard to his introduction.

On September 1, Rumford wrote to his daughter that he found his English
Garden grown more beautiful than ever, the Elector sparing no expense
upon it. But his House for the Poor had not been well attended to,
though there were few or no beggars to be met with in the streets. The
Count says that he was received by the public with the most flattering
marks of esteem and respect. The Emperor of Russia sent him an
invitation to visit St. Petersburg, but the Count could not make up his
mind to the undertaking. He writes:

    My health requires that I should keep more quiet. It is all I
    ask here. I have and ask no augmentation of appointments. Many
    cannot understand why I am not more anxious for places and money.
    People even pretend I am going to be Minister of State; but for a
    certainty I am not, neither do I desire to be. I want only quiet.

In her summary of a letter from her father, dated from Mannheim,
November 30, 1802, his daughter says that ‘he alludes to his love
concern: says he has got into full employment at Munich, but would
rather be in Paris; and the _certain lady_ would rather have him there.’

At Christmas he was still at Mannheim, and thence he wrote to the clerk
at the Institution: ‘As I have no correspondent but you who can inform
me how you are going on at the Royal Institution, you will oblige me
very much by writing to me now and then, and letting me know what you
are doing, and how the Institution stands in the public opinion. You
will easily believe that I must be very anxious to hear of its welfare
and prosperity.’ He said that he hoped to be back in April or May. In
January he sent his compliments to Dr. Young and to Mr. Davy.

Writing to his daughter again from Munich, January 22, 1803, Rumford
says he is unsettled there, and therefore that he cannot conveniently
have her with him, but that at a future time, not far distant, he will
attempt it. He spoke of the style in which he was living, having his
servants, the Aichners, with him, with his carriages. While he was at
Munich he was joined by Madame Lavoisier.

Sir C. Blagden wrote to Sir Joseph Banks:

                                               Paris, October 15, 1802.

    As a good occasion of making the journey to Paris presented itself,
    I left Munich about a week sooner than I originally intended, and
    have now been some days in this capital.

    Count Rumford was in very good health, and proposed to spend the
    winter at Munich; he was going into a magnificent house, or rather
    palace, lent him by one of the nobility, an old friend, in which
    he meant to give concerts as he used to do. The Elector continued
    to treat him with the most marked distinction, but he did not seem
    to be engaging in any public business. Indeed, the country was
    rather in a state of alarm, on account of the menacing appearances
    of the Emperor, who evidently wants part of Bavaria as a further
    compensation to the Grand Duke. The Count’s opinion when I quitted
    him was that he should be in Paris next spring, and thence return
    to England.

Two months later Sir C. Blagden said: ‘The Count finds the climate of
Mannheim much milder and more suitable to his constitution than that
of Munich, which is really sharp and trying.’ And afterwards he wrote
regarding the French Institute:

    Count Rumford has been removed from the third class to the first, a
    change which I believe he very much desired. In consequence there
    is now only one vacancy to be filled up in the first class, and I
    think that Volta will be the man chosen at the next election.

    Unless we are all sent away by the war, I shall probably stay near
    a fortnight longer than the 5th of April.

    The Count expects to be in England some time in the summer. He is
    very busy making experiments on heat, and says his new-invented
    instruments have already put him in possession of several new and
    interesting facts.

Sir C. Blagden wrote to Rumford’s daughter from London, August 8, 1803:

    When my letter of last June was written I thought your father
    pretty much fixed at Munich, and therefore ventured to suggest to
    you that it might contribute to your happiness if you were to be
    established at that Court. But I learn since that the Elector has
    set him more at his liberty, and that in consequence he intends to
    return to England this autumn. Political difficulties may possibly
    stand in the way of this journey, but he hopes to avoid them. I am
    still as much at a loss as I was in June to answer your question
    whether your father be going to marry. He is now, as I told you in
    that letter, making the tour of Switzerland with a very amiable
    French lady. But I have no reason to think that they have any idea
    of matrimonial connexion. When the Count comes to England she is to
    return to Paris; at least so he writes me word.

He wrote to Sir Joseph Banks:

    Count Rumford has sent me a letter from Mannheim, dated the 13th
    of September. He had applied for leave to pass through France to
    England, but was refused. I suppose the French Government thought
    that he too would act the spy.[10]

    He professes himself still uncertain whether he should not attempt
    the journey by the north of Germany, but I am myself pretty well
    satisfied that he will not. In the meantime he desires me to
    assure you that he will certainly contrive to send the paper on
    Heat before Christmas. The King and Queen of Sweden were then at
    Mannheim. He had been presented to and had dined with them.

Later he wrote:

                                             Soho Square, September 29.

    My last letter from Count Rumford was of July 31, but I have
    learned otherwise that he was at Geneva about the 20th of
    August, setting out for a tour to the icy mountains of Savoy. He
    has permission, therefore, to travel in that part of the French
    territory. Whether he will be allowed to return to England through
    France, or whether he will come at all, I do not yet know.

Whilst in Switzerland Rumford wrote ‘Some Observations on the Glaciers
of Chamouni, and on the Propagation of Heat in Liquids.’ This paper
was sent to the Royal Society, of which he was then vice-president,
December 15. It was published in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ for
1804.

On December 5, 1803, Sir C. Blagden again wrote to Rumford’s daughter:

    All I can tell you about your father is this: He continued
    travelling with the French lady till about the middle of September,
    when she left him at Mannheim and returned to Paris. Your father
    had applied to the French Government for leave to come to England
    through France, but was refused. In consequence he remained at
    Mannheim till the middle of October, when, having by some means,
    I do not know how, induced the French Government to change their
    resolution, and allow him to travel in France, he set out for
    Paris; and I know that he was in that city on the 1st of November.
    In the last letter I received from him, which was written the day
    before he set out from Mannheim, he said that he had great hopes
    of being in England before the end of this year. Since that time I
    have heard nothing from him. He continues very intimate with the
    lady, but whether it will end in a marriage I cannot say. My own
    opinion is rather inclined to the negative, yet I have no good
    foundation for it.

    Since this was written I have received a letter from your father,
    dated at Paris, November 11. By this it is evident that he expects
    to marry the French lady, though nothing is yet finally determined.

On March 12, 1804, he again writes from Liverpool:

    The last account I received of your father was dated the 19th of
    January. He was then at Paris, very assiduous in his attentions to
    the French lady, with whom, indeed, he spent most of his time. But
    I believe she had not then determined to marry him, and I am still
    inclined to think she never will. In the meantime he is entirely
    losing his interest in the country. His residence at Paris this
    winter, whilst we were threatened with an invasion, is considered
    by everyone as very improper conduct, and his numerous enemies do
    not fail to make the most of it. He has quarrelled with Mr. Bernard
    and others of his old friends at the Royal Institution, and they do
    all they can to render him unpopular. Probably he has written to
    you more than once by American ships since his residence at Paris.
    To me he wrote on the 12th of November, about a fortnight after his
    arrival there. But I expect no other letter from him, as it would
    certainly be imprudent in him to keep up a correspondence with this
    country during his residence in France.

On January 22, 1804, Rumford wrote to his daughter:

    I shall withhold this information from you no longer. I really
    do think of marrying, though I am not yet absolutely determined
    on matrimony. I made the acquaintance of this very amiable woman
    in Paris, who, I believe, would have no objection in having me
    for a husband, and who in all respects would be a proper match
    for me. She is a widow, without children, never having had any,
    is about my own age, enjoys good health, is very pleasant in
    society, has a handsome fortune at her own disposal, enjoys a most
    respectable reputation, keeps a good house, which is frequented by
    all the first philosophers and men of eminence in the science and
    literature of the age, or rather of Paris, and, what is more than
    all the rest, is goodness itself.... She is very clever (according
    to the English signification of the word); in short, she is
    another Lady Palmerston. She has been very handsome in her day, and
    even now, at forty-six or forty-eight, is not bad-looking; of a
    middling size, but rather _en bon point_ than thin. She has a great
    deal of vivacity and writes incomparably well.

He soon after writes again of the lady: ‘She is fond of travelling,
and wishes to make the tour of Italy with me. She appears to be most
sincerely attached to me, and I esteem and love her very much.’

On February 7, 1804, the Count writes again from Paris. He and Madame
Lavoisier were then making preparations for their marriage. She
deposited in his name one hundred and twenty thousand _livres_ in the
five per cent. French funds, which was to go to the survivor of the
three--herself, himself, or his daughter. An income of six thousand a
year out of her own property was secured to Madame Lavoisier. Her house
in Paris, as well as the Count’s at Brompton, was to revert to the
survivor of the two.

On July 2 he said:

    MY DEAR SALLY,--This letter, which will be entirely devoted to very
    serious and important business, will, no doubt, obtain your serious
    attention.

    In order to be able to complete in a _legal manner_ some domestic
    arrangements of great importance to me and to you, I have lately
    found, to my no small surprise, that certificates of my birth and
    of the death of my former wife are indispensably necessary. You
    can, no doubt, very easily procure them--the one from the town
    clerk of Woburn, the other from the town clerk of Concord. And I
    request that you would do it without loss of time, and send them
    to me under cover, or rather in a letter addressed to me and sent
    to the care of my bankers in London. As an accident may possibly
    happen to that letter, I beg you would at the same time send
    another set of these certificates directly to Paris, addressed to
    me, rue de Clichy, No. 356.

On July 3 he wrote to Mr. Savage, the clerk of the Royal Institution:

    With regard to the outstanding bills which you mention, as I intend
    and expect to come to England soon, they may as well stand on till
    my arrival. Some of the charges require examination. It gives me
    great pleasure to hear that my house is kept in good order. I hope
    to inhabit it next winter.

On August 10 the Count left Paris for Munich.

On May 1, 1805, he wrote to the clerk of the Royal Institution:

                                                         Munich, May 1.

    I have written to Mr. Herries respecting the letting or selling
    of my house. I hear that the Royal Institution is become a great
    favourite with the public. I am sorry, however, to find that the
    Journals of the Institution have not been continued. I desire you
    would make my compliments to Mr. Davy, and tell him that I am still
    employed in my researches on heat and light. I should be glad to
    know what he is doing, for I am sure he cannot be idle. It is now
    more uncertain than ever when I shall have it in my power to visit
    England.

To his daughter he wrote, June 18, from Munich:

    I left Paris the 9th of June, and arrived here the 16th. My stay
    here is uncertain, for many things are yet wanting that are
    indispensably necessary for the success of such an establishment
    as the Academy of Arts and Sciences.[11] I continue to pursue my
    philosophical researches, and that will ever be the most pleasing
    occupation I can have.

On September 17 he was again in Paris.

He wrote to his daughter:

                          Rue d’Anjou, No. 39, Paris, October 25, 1805.

    You will have intelligence by the papers of the events that have
    lately taken place in Germany. Foreseeing the storm, I left Munich
    the day before the Elector left it. I have brought Aichner and his
    whole family, not being willing to leave them behind. I succeeded
    in so winding up my affairs in Bavaria as in the future to be able
    to live where I please. I shall, of course, go from time to time to
    pay my respects to the Elector, for he has ever treated me with too
    much respect for me to be negligent on that account towards him.

    I have informed you before of the arrangements Madame Lavoisier
    and I had made in case of our marriage, which, in fact, took place
    yesterday.

    I have the best-founded hopes of passing my days in peace and quiet
    in this paradise of a place, made what it is by me--my money,
    skill, and directions. In short, it is all but a paradise, removed
    from the noise and bustle of the street, facing full to the south,
    in the midst of a beautiful garden of more than two acres, well
    planted with trees and shrubbery. The entrance from the street is
    through an iron gate, by a beautiful winding avenue, well planted,
    and the porter’s lodge is by the side of this gate; a great bell to
    be rung in case of ceremonious visits.

The daughter’s comment on this letter is: ‘It seems there had been an
acquaintance between these parties of four years before marriage. It
might be thought a long space of time enough for perfect acquaintance.
But, ah Providence! thy ways are past finding out.’

Dr. Ellis, the biographer of Rumford, says:

    An interval, though a very brief one, of cheerfulness and
    satisfaction, was enjoyed by the Count after his marriage. There
    were but two letters to his daughter recognising this state of
    content and pleasant anticipation. He informed her that he left
    Munich under the pleasantest relations with the Bavarian sovereign
    and his friends at that Court. He had received a letter from
    Maximilian, congratulating him on his marriage and approving of
    his settling himself in France, and at the same time adding four
    thousand florins a year to his pay.

One letter was dated from Paris, December 20, 1805, two months after
his marriage:

    I gave up my lodgings on quitting Munich, and managed so as to
    settle all concerns of business. I flatter myself I am settled
    down here for life, far removed from wars and all arduous duties,
    as a recompense for past services, with plenty to live upon and
    at liberty to pursue my own natural propensities, such as have
    occupied me through life--a life, as I try to fancy, that may come
    under the denomination of a benefit to mankind.

    Next spring we are going to travel into Italy and the south of
    France, to be gone two years, so you must patiently stay where you
    are for the present.

    You will wish to know what sort of a place we live in. The house is
    rather an old-fashioned concern, but in a plot of over two acres of
    land, in the very centre and finest part of Paris, near the Champs
    Elysées and the Tuileries and principal boulevards. I have already
    made great alterations in our place, and shall do a vast deal more.
    When these are done I think Madame de Rumford will find it in a
    very different condition from that in which it was, that being very
    pitiful with all her riches.

    Our style of living is really magnificent. Madame is exceedingly
    fond of company, and makes a splendid figure in it herself. But
    she seldom goes out, keeping open doors; that is to say, to all
    the great and worthy, such as the philosophers, members of the
    Institute, ladies of celebrity, &c.

    On Mondays we have eight or ten of the most noted of our associates
    to dinner. Thursdays are devoted to evening company, of ladies and
    gentlemen, without regard to numbers. Tea and fruits are given, the
    guests continuing till twelve or after. Often superb concerts are
    given, with the finest vocal and instrumental performers.

At this time Sir C. Blagden wrote to Sir Joseph Banks:

    I have received a letter, dated November 22, from a lady in Paris,
    which contains no kind of news except the following article about
    Count Rumford and his lady: ‘Madame Lavoisier s’appelle à présent
    Madame de Rumford. J’ai vu Madame de Rumford [the writer of the
    letter has been returned to Paris only two days]. Ils ne donnent
    ni l’un ni l’autre aucun détail sur leur mariage ni sur l’époque;
    un jour ils l’ont dit à leurs amis, et il n’y a pas eu plus de
    formalité que cela. Ils sont sur un pied fort amical, mais ils
    étaient ainsi depuis longtemps. La maison de Mdme. de Rumford est
    charmante. Elle l’embellit tous les jours et avec beaucoup de goût.’

On January 15, 1806, Rumford wrote to his daughter:

    The newspapers will acquaint you with the other particulars of this
    peace, which will occasion a great change in the political state of
    Germany, as, in fact, of all Europe. I hope that I shall not, and
    I do not think that I shall, lose by any of these changes. At all
    events the Elector, or rather the new King, has just written me a
    very kind letter, giving me hopes, rather than suggesting fears of
    anything of a disagreeable nature. But dependencies like mine can
    never be otherwise than uncertain, as I feel it, notwithstanding
    my marriage. I may make a change, after all, but never certainly
    to the disadvantage of anyone. Between you and myself, as a family
    secret, I am not at all sure that two certain persons were not
    wholly mistaken, in their marriage, as to each other’s characters.
    Time will show. But two months barely expired, I forebode
    difficulties. Already I am obliged to send my good Germans home--a
    great discomfort to me and wrong to them.

On March 8, 1806, Sir C. Blagden, who had quarrelled with his friend
because he thought that Count Rumford had not defended him from the
imputation of acting as a spy in Paris in 1803, wrote to Rumford’s
daughter regarding the marriage:

    They are now living together in Paris, and, as far as I can learn,
    very happily. I know nothing of it from your father himself, which
    is not surprising, as I some time since intimated to him my wish
    that our correspondence should cease. We are not, to the best of my
    knowledge, on terms of enmity, but it is not likely that any kind
    of confidence or friendship should subsist between us again.

In 1806 and 1807 Count Rumford sought for relief by the pursuit of
science. He published in the Memoirs of the mathematical class of
the Institute a continuation and extension of his investigations on
light and heat. These were in the sixth, seventh, and eighth volumes,
and made nine papers. 1. ‘A Description of a New Thermoscope or
Differential Thermometer.’ 2. ‘Researches on Heat, Showing the Effect
of Difference of Surface on Radiation.’ 3. ‘Further Experiments on
the Effect of Blackening the Surface.’ 4. ‘Researches Continued on
the Different Properties of Bodies with Respect to Radiation and to
Conducting Powers.’ 5. ‘Further Researches on the Passage of Heat
through Solids.’ 6. ‘Experiments on the Heat of the Solar Rays.’ 7.
‘Remarks on the Temperature of Water at the Maximum Density.’ He made
it 41° F. or 5° C. This paper was published in the ‘Philosophical
Transactions.’ 8. On the ‘Dispersion of the Light of Lamps by Screens
of Ground Glass, Silk, and so forth, with a Description of a New Lamp.’
He had an illuminator constructed and presented to the Institute.
This paper was published in England as his sixteenth essay on the
‘Management of Light in Illuminations.’ 9. On the ‘Cooling of Liquids
in Vases of Porcelain, Gilt or not Gilt.’

In October 1806 he gave this sad account to his daughter:

    MY DEAR CHILD,--This being the first year’s anniversary of my
    marriage, from what I wrote two months after it, you will be
    curious to know how things stand at present. I am sorry to say
    that experience only serves to confirm me in the belief that in
    character and natural propensities Madame de Rumford and myself
    are totally unlike, and never ought to have thought of marrying.
    We are, besides, both too independent, both in our sentiments
    and habits of life, to live peaceably together--she having been
    mistress all her days of her actions, and I, with no less liberty,
    leading for the most part the life of a bachelor. Very likely she
    is as much disaffected towards me as I am towards her. Little it
    matters with me, but I call her a female dragon--simply by that
    gentle name! We have got to the pitch of my insisting on one thing
    and she on another.

    It is possible that, had the war ceased raging, and had we gone
    into Italy, where she is dying to go, and with me too, she having
    heard me speak much of the delights of that country, she having
    been very happy, too, in travelling with me in Switzerland, it
    might have suspended difficulties, but never have effected a cure.
    That is out of the question. Indeed, I have not the least idea of
    continuing here, and, if possible, still less the wish, and am only
    planning in my mind what steps I shall take next--to be hoped more
    to my advantage. Communication with England is prohibited, and it
    makes me sad.

He wrote more pitiably a year later:

                                  Rue d’Anjou, Paris, October 24, 1807.

    I can do no more, my dear Sally, than simply give you the latest
    news upon this the anniversary of my marriage, for I am still here,
    and so far from things getting better they become worse every day.
    We are more violent and more open, and more public, as may really
    be said, in our quarrels. If she does not mind publicity, for a
    certainty I shall not. As I write the uncouth word _quarrels_, I
    will give you an idea of one of them.

    In the first place be it known that this estate is a joint concern.
    I have as good a right to it as Madame, she having paid rather
    more in the beginning, but I an immensity of money in repairs and
    alterations, &c. &c., besides a great deal of my own time and care
    spent while we have been here.

    I am almost afraid to tell you the story, my good child, lest in
    future you should not be good; lest what I am about relating should
    set you a bad example, make you passionate, and so on. But I had
    been made very angry. A large party had been invited I neither
    liked nor approved of, and invited for the sole purpose of vexing
    me. Our house being in the centre of the garden, walled around,
    with iron gates, I put on my hat, walked down to the porter’s lodge
    and gave him orders, on his peril, not to let anyone in. Besides, I
    took away the keys. Madame went down, and when the company arrived
    she talked with them, she on one side, they on the other, of the
    high brick wall. After that she goes and pours boiling water on
    some of my beautiful flowers.

And the wretched climax came the next year:

                Rue d’Anjou, St. Honoré, No. 39, Paris, April 12, 1808.

    After what you know, my dear Sally, of my domestic troubles you
    will naturally be anxious to know the present state of things.
    There are no alterations for the better. On the contrary, much
    worse. I have suffered more than you can imagine for the last four
    weeks; but my rights are incontestable, and I am determined to
    maintain them. I have the misfortune to be married to one of the
    most imperious, tyrannical, unfeeling women that ever existed, and
    whose perseverance in pursuing an object is equal to her profound
    cunning and wickedness in framing it.

    It is impossible to continue in this way, and we shall separate. I
    only wish it was well over. It is probable I shall take a house at
    Auteuil, a very pleasant place, with the Seine on one side and the
    Bois de Boulogne on the other, about a league from Paris. I have
    seen a very handsome house there which I can have--rather dear,
    but that matters little can I but find quiet. It would be truly
    unfortunate, after the King of Bavaria’s late bounties joined to
    former ones, if I could not live more independently than with this
    unfeeling, cunning, tyrannical woman.

    Little do we know people at first sight! Do you preserve my
    letters? You will perceive that I have given very different
    accounts of this woman, for _lady_ I cannot call her.

    Now, my dear Sally, as soon as I get settled, enjoying again
    independence, I shall wish you to join me.

    In the meantime believe me your affectionate Father.

The Count bought the lease of his villa at Auteuil in April 1808.

For the last two or three months of his most miserable married life he
was seriously ill. The nature of his illness is seen by the remedies
that benefited him. He told his daughter that the King of Bavaria,
having knowledge of his domestic discomforts, had recently written him
a letter that had done him much good. ‘He speaks most kindly to me, and
encourages me to bear my misfortunes like a man of firmness who has
nothing to reproach himself with.’

The separation took place amicably on June 30, 1809. He soon after
wrote to his daughter:

    I find myself relieved from an almost insupportable burden. I
    cannot repeat too much how happy I am, gaining every day in
    health, which, from vexations, had become seriously deranged. I am
    persuaded it is all for the best. After the scenes which I have
    recently passed through I realise, as never before, the sweets of
    quiet, liberty, and independence. My household consists of the
    most faithful, honest people, attached to me, without dissension,
    bribery, or malice. And, above all, that eternal contradiction. Oh!
    happy, thrice happy, am I to be my own man again!

Later he wrote:

    Madame de Rumford is well. I see her sometimes, though very seldom.
    After what is past a reconciliation is impossible. She now repents
    of her conduct, but it is too late. The less I see her the better.
    I now enjoy peace and tranquillity, and my health improves every
    day.

Again:

                                             Auteuil, October 24, 1809.

    DEAR SALLY,--The ‘Mentor’ arrived some weeks since, when I was
    expecting you. Without doubt the reason you did not come was owing
    to your not finding proper protection, and in these terrible times
    of war you cannot be too particular. This unfortunate war chains me
    to the spot, for I am so situated between three governments that I
    am obliged almost to turn into a cypher. It is to England I want
    to go, but dare not risk it. And it is there I should much prefer
    receiving you than here.

    By the date of this letter you will perceive it to be the
    anniversary of my wedding-day with Madame Lavoisier to-day four
    years. I own I make choice of this day to write to you, in reality
    to testify joy, but joy that I am away from her, as has been the
    case for the last six months. It would be difficult to describe
    what I suffered there for the last year. I often wished for you,
    but am now exceedingly glad you did not come, as it would have made
    you unhappy and perhaps have done me no good. I was made quite
    ill at last, but now, thank Heaven, I am recovering my health and
    spirits fast. I am like one risen from the dead. Adieu, my dear
    child. You will hear from me soon again, and I hope to see you
    soon. I have some pretty rooms prepared for you. I had one of the
    Aichners to come and wait upon you, but she did not exactly please
    me, and I sent her back again. My old servants, her father and
    mother, are nicely established, owing to mine and the Elector’s
    kindness, at Munich, and are very happy.


                                            Auteuil, November 12, 1809.

    MY DEAR DAUGHTER,--Here is another month past, and you do not come.
    I know all the difficulties of travelling either by sea or by land,
    so do not blame you; am only sorry. Sorry on several accounts--on
    one account that I want to see you. For do you recollect, my dear,
    that it is many years since we saw each other? We will not say how
    many, lest the time should seem longer. And little did I think,
    when you quitted me at Brompton, it would have been for such a
    length of time, nor would it have been but for this unfortunate
    marriage. Never were there two more distinct beings than this
    woman (for I cannot call her a lady) before and after marriage.
    But undoubtedly she was pushed on by those looking forward to her
    fortune, fearing some of it would light on me. She is the most
    avaricious woman I ever saw, and the most cunning--things which I
    could not possibly know before marriage.

    I suffered more for the last fourteen months--indeed, the whole
    three years and a half that I lived with her--than I had an idea I
    could have gone through. Luckily I have money enough of my own, but
    war and these terrible times prevent me from receiving money from
    Bavaria, or my half-pay from England. Yet I am obliged to keep up a
    certain consequence, besides being disgusted with everything. I am
    afraid you will have to quit the world if you stay with me.


                                             Auteuil, January 10, 1810.

    Here month after month arrives, but you do not come. I am very
    impatient to see you, but I am more anxious lest something should
    happen to you on the way, for discord reigns everywhere.

Later he said:

    I am absolutely obliged to set out for Munich, so if you come in
    the time you must make yourself comfortable. If I find you here on
    my return, it will give me much pleasure.

    The King has been in Paris, and invited me so kindly I thought it
    my duty to go; but he assures me I shall not be detained there on
    any business of importance.

On his arrival in Munich he wrote:

    My reception here has been most kind and flattering. The whole town
    is in expectation of seeing me again fixed here and employed in the
    public affairs of the country. But I know positively, and it is my
    greatest consolation, that I shall be permitted to return quietly
    to my retreat at Auteuil.

    Adieu, my dear Sally. I shall write to you again, I think, before
    leaving Munich; but you had better not write me, lest I should be
    already set out on my return.

    My health is perfectly good, and I am very happy. All my late
    sufferings are forgotten. I feel as if just relieved from an
    insupportable weight. God be thanked for my delivery! All your
    friends here have desired to be remembered to you. Adieu, my dear
    Sally; make yourself as comfortable and happy as you can, and be
    assured that I have at length quite recovered my reason, and that
    I am now persuaded that all that has happened to me has been most
    fortunate for me. I am now a free man.


                                              Munich, October 24, 1810.

    You will perceive that this is the anniversary of my marriage.
    I am happy to call it to mind, that I may compare my present
    situation with the three and a half horrible years I was living
    with that tyrannical, avaricious, unfeeling woman. You can have no
    idea, my dear Sally, what I had to suffer during the last fourteen
    months--indeed, during the whole three years and a half I lived in
    that house--but the closing six months was a purgatory sufficiently
    painful to do away the sins of a thousand years.

    The Prince Royal was married on the 12th, and we have had continued
    _fêtes_ and rejoicings. The English Garden is in high beauty; no
    expense is spared upon it. I am allowed to dine with the King
    pretty much as often as I wish, but to-morrow I take leave of him,
    of Munich, and the rest of my friends; so you will soon, my dear
    Sally, see me at Auteuil.

In December 1811 his daughter arrived at Auteuil, and found him in
excellent health. She writes:

    I had not been many days at Auteuil before we had a visit from his
    separated lady, for they seemed to be on good terms--at least on
    visiting terms. The lady was gracious to me, and I was charmed with
    her, nor did I ever after find reason to be otherwise, for she was
    truly an admirable character. Their disagreements must have arisen
    from their independence of character and means; being used always
    to having their own ways. Their pursuits in some particulars were
    different. He was fond of his experiments, and she of company.

A picture of Madame de Rumford was thus drawn by M. Guizot in 1841,
five years after her death:

    Soit affection pour son mari, soit disposition naturelle, Madame
    Lavoisier s’associa à ses travaux comme un compagnon ou un
    disciple. Ceux-là même qui ne l’ont connue que bien loin de la
    jeunesse ont pu démêler que sous une apparence un peu froide et
    rude, et presque uniquement préoccoupée de sa vie de société,
    c’était une personne capable d’être fortement saisie par un
    sentiment, par une idée, et de s’y adonner avec passion. Elle
    vivait dans le laboratoire de M. Lavoisier, l’aidait dans ses
    expériences, écrivait ses observations sous sa dictée, traduisait,
    définait pour lui. Elle apprit à graver, pour qu’il fût sûr d’un
    ouvrier exact jusqu’au scrupule, et les planches du ‘Traité de
    Chimie’ furent bien réellement l’œuvre de ses mains. Elle publia,
    parce qu’il le désirait, la traduction d’un ouvrage du chimiste
    anglais Kirwan sur ‘la Force des Acides et la Proportion des
    Substances qui composent les Sels neutres,’ et elle avait acquis,
    de la science qu’ils cultivaient ensemble, une intelligence si
    complète que lorsqu’en 1805, onze ans après la mort de Lavoisier,
    elle voulut réunir et publier ses mémoires scientifiques, elle
    put se charger seule de ce travail et l’accomplit en effet, en y
    joignant une préface parfaitement simple, où ne se laisse entrevoir
    aucune ombre de prétention.

    Un intérieur aussi animé par affection réciproque et des
    occupations favorites, une grande fortune, beaucoup de
    considération, une bonne maison à l’Arsenal, recherchée par les
    hommes les plus distingués, tous les plaisirs de l’esprit, de la
    richesse, de la jeunesse, c’était là, à coup sûr, une existence
    brillante et douce. Cette existence fut frappée, foudroyée par la
    Révolution, comme toutes celles qui l’entouraient. En 1794 Mdme.
    Lavoisier vit monter le même jour sur l’échafaud son père et son
    mari, et elle n’échappa elle-même, apres un emprisonnement assez
    court, qu’en plongeant avec la patience la plus persévérante dans
    la plus complète et silencieuse obscurité.

    Quand les proscriptions cessèrent, quand l’ordre et la justice
    revinrent apaiser et ranimer en même temps la société, Mdme.
    Lavoisier reprit sa place dans le monde, entourée de toute une
    génération de savants illustres, les amis, les disciples, les
    successeurs de Lavoisier, Lagrange, Laplace, Berthollet, Cuvier,
    Prony, Humboldt, Arago, charmés en honorant sa veuve de trouver
    dans sa maison, en retour de l’éclat qu’ils y répandaient, les
    agréments d’une hospitalité élégante. M. de Rumford arriva parmi
    eux. Il était alors au service du roi de Bavière et jouissait dans
    le public d’une grande popularité scientifique; son esprit était
    élevé, sa conversation pleine d’intérêt, ses manières empreintes
    de bonté. Il plut à Mdme. Lavoisier; il s’accordait avec ses
    habitudes, ses goûts, on pourrait presque dire avec ses souvenirs.
    Elle espéra recommencer en quelque sorte son bonheur. Elle l’épousa
    le 22 October, 1805, heureuse d’offrir à un homme distingué une
    grande fortune et la plus agréable existence.

    Leurs caractères ne se convinrent point. A la jeunesse seule
    il est facile d’oublier au sein d’un tendre bonheur la perte
    de l’indépendence. Des questions délicates furent élevées, des
    susceptibilités s’éveillèrent. Mdme. de Rumford en se remariant
    avait formellement stipulé dans son contrat qu’elle se ferait
    appeler Madame Lavoisier de Rumford. M. de Rumford, qui y avait
    consenti, finit par le trouver mauvais. Elle persista. ‘J’ai
    regardé comme un devoir, comme une religion,’ écrivait-elle en
    1808, ‘de ne point quitter le nom de Lavoisier.... Comptant sur
    la parole de M. de Rumford je n’en aurais pas fait un article de
    mes engagements civils avec lui, si je n’avais voulu laisser un
    acte public de mon respect pour M. Lavoisier et une preuve de la
    générosité de M. de Rumford. C’est un devoir pour moi de tenir à
    une détermination qui a toujours été une des conditions de notre
    union; et j’ai dans le fond de mon âme l’intime conviction que M.
    de Rumford ne me désapprouvera pas et qu’après avoir pris le temps
    d’y réfléchir ... il me permettra de continuer à remplir un devoir
    que je regarde comme sacré.’

    Ce fut encore là une espérance trompée. Après des agitations
    domestiques, que M. de Rumford avec plus de tact eût rendues moins
    bruyantes, la séparation devint nécessaire, et elle eut lieu à
    l’aimable le 30 juin, 1809.

    Depuis cette époque et pendant vingt-sept ans aucun événement, on
    pourrait dire aucun incident, ne dérangea plus Mdme. de Rumford
    dans sa noble et agréable façon de vivre. Elle n’appartint plus
    qu’à ses amis et à la société, tantôt étendue, tantôt resserrée,
    qu’elle recevait avec un mélange assez singulier de rudesse et
    de politesse, toujours de très-bonne compagnie et d’une grande
    intelligence du monde même dans ses brusqueries de langage et ses
    fantaisies d’autorité.

In February 1812 Count Rumford gave his mother 10,000 dollars in 3½ per
cent. stock as a free gift, and he wrote to her:

    I desire that you will accept of it as a token of my dutiful
    affection for you, and of my gratitude for the kind care you
    took of me in the early part of my life. I have the greatest
    satisfaction in being able to show my gratitude for all your
    goodness to me, and to contribute to your ease and comfort. I
    request that you will consider this donation as being perfectly
    free and unconditional, and that you would enjoy and dispose of
    what is now your property just as you shall think best and most
    conducive to your happiness and to your satisfaction, without any
    regard to any former arrangements you have made at my request.

    My health continues to be good, and I yet feel none of those
    infirmities of age which sometimes render the evening of life
    painful. I have the satisfaction to think that I have done my duty
    through life, and that is a great consolation to me as I approach
    the end of my course. I shall never cease to be, my dear mother,
    your dutiful and affectionate child,

                                                              BENJAMIN.

On January 23 he had a paper read before the Royal Society which he
published as his seventeenth essay. It was an ‘Inquiry Concerning
the Source of the Light which is Manifested in the Combustion of
Inflammable Bodies.’

His object was to prove by decisive experiments that the light which
accompanies the complete combustion of any given quantity of pure
inflammable matter is variable, and therefore light cannot be one of
the chemical products of combustion.

    If light were a substance, as has been supposed, it seems highly
    probable that means would long since have been found to discover
    where and how it exists; but if it be nothing more than a blow
    given to the eye by the repercussion of an ethereal fluid which
    touches that organ and at the same time every other body in the
    universe, it is evident that all attempts to discover it in a state
    of combination must be vain.

    Nobody, I imagine, ever thought of searching for sound in a
    fulminating powder. Is it more reasonable to search there for the
    light that accompanies the combustion of substances?

    The greatest light may be obtained by preserving the heat of the
    flame. Thus several flat flames placed together, in order that
    they may mutually cover and defend each other against the powerful
    cooling influence of surrounding bodies, form a lamp that has
    answered far beyond my most sanguine expectation.

    I lose no time in giving an account of the principles on which it
    is constructed, in hopes that others may be induced to assist in
    improving it.

    So far from being jealous of their success I shall rejoice in it,
    and shall ever be most ready to contribute to it by all the means
    in my power.

On February 24 he had a paper read before the French Institute on the
‘Heat Manifested in the Combustion of Inflammable Substances.’

On August 1 he published his last essay, the eighteenth, of the
‘Excellent Qualities of Coffee and the Art of Making it in the Highest
Perfection.’

In 1813 the founder of the Royal Institution once more met Davy, then
the great discoverer who by his eloquence and genius had saved the
Rumford Institution from an early death.

In the ‘Life of Davy,’ by Dr. Paris, it is said, probably on the
authority of Mr. Underwood, ‘On November 10 they (Underwood and Davy)
dined at Auteuil with Count Rumford, at this time a prisoner in France,
who showed his laboratory to Davy. This was exactly eight months
before the poor, broken-hearted Count sank into the grave, the victim
of domestic torment and of the persecutions of the French savans,
instigated by his wife, the widow of the celebrated Lavoisier.’

The following account of Count Rumford’s life at Auteuil was probably
also written by his friend Mr. Underwood. It was published in the
‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ in 1814:

    After the death of his worthy friend, the illustrious Lagrange, he
    saw only his next-door neighbour, the Senator Leconteux Caneleux;
    Mr. Underwood, a member of the Royal Institution, who assisted
    him in his experiments; and an old friend, Mr. Parker, a learned
    American, who possesses a splendid mansion in Paris and a very fine
    landed estate and agricultural establishment in its environs. He
    ceased to attend the sittings of the National Institute; but for
    the perpetual secretary, Cuvier, a man as morally estimable as
    his talents are superior to his French fellow-members, he always
    preserved the highest admiration and esteem.

    One object of his later occupations was a work--not yet finished,
    though it has been constantly going on for more than twenty
    years--on the ‘Nature and Effects of Order,’ which, had he been
    spared to finish it, would probably have been one of the most
    valuable presents ever made to domestic society. No man in all his
    habits had more the spirit of order; everything was classed; no
    object was ever allowed to remain an instant out of its place the
    moment he had done with it, and he was never behind his time in an
    appointment a single instant.

    He was also latterly employed on a series of experiments on the
    propagation of heat in solids. He had by him several unpublished
    works, particularly one of considerable interest on Meteorolites,
    in which he demonstrated that they came from regions beyond the
    atmosphere of the earth. He has left several memoirs in French
    (of which he had a few copies printed for the use of his friends)
    on the quantity of heat obtained by the combustion of various
    substances and the relative quantity of light from others, with a
    description of different improvements in the construction of lamps,
    which he had the satisfaction of seeing very generally adopted in
    Paris. His admirable paper on the ‘Advantages of Broad Wheels
    to Carriages’ is well known. He put this in practice in his own
    chariot; but, though there could be no doubt of their advantages,
    they were not used by others, the Count’s being the only carriage
    in Paris that had them. Nor did anyone follow (which is not to be
    wondered at) his whimsical winter dress, which was entirely white,
    even his hat. This he adopted agreeably to the law of nature, that
    more heated rays are thrown from a dark body than from a light
    one. I do not know whether his very simple, and I may add perfect,
    calorimeter is known in England. The apparatus with which he was
    making a series of experiments on the relative conducting powers
    of different solid bodies for heat, and which death prevented his
    completing, is of the greatest beauty. It consists of a cylindrical
    vessel of cork (which is a perfect non-conductor of heat), in
    the centre of the bottom of which the small solid cylinder of
    the substance to be experimented upon is fitted into an aperture
    of exactly the same diameter as the cylindrical vessel, which is
    then filled with water, and heat from the flame of a spirit-lamp
    is applied to the lower extremity of the substance; the time
    the heat takes to pass through and raise the temperature of the
    water indicates the relative conducting powers of the different
    substances through which it is made to pass. He has repeatedly
    declared to me it was his decided opinion that heat and light were
    the result of vibrations in bodies, and were not bodies themselves.
    He had lately brought to the greatest perfection a lamp for
    burning spirits of wine, and by which all explosion was rendered
    impossible. This in France is of the greatest convenience, where,
    from the low price of alcohol, it is nearly as economical as any
    other fuel for heating water.

    The Count met with considerable plague in his pursuits from the
    malignant disposition and jealousies of his fellow-members of the
    National Institute, in consequence of having differed in opinion on
    capillary attraction from their despotic leader, Laplace. He often
    used to exclaim that no one who had not lived a considerable time
    in France could imagine how contemptible a nation they are, and how
    void of honour and even honesty. Whenever he ordered any instrument
    at a mathematical instrument maker’s a similar one was instantly
    made for some one of the Great Nation, though of the intended use
    they were at the moment ignorant; but the hope of supplanting a
    foreigner and of arrogating to themselves a discovery (a common
    practice with them) incited them to adopt this dishonourable
    practice. This forced him to send for a workman from Germany, whom
    he constantly employed, and who lived in his house. I was one day
    with the Count at a sitting of the first class of the Institute,
    when we heard one of the leading members declare that they would
    set their faces against any discovery which did not originate among
    themselves.

    The Count displayed extraordinary spirited conduct and firmness
    in refusing the French the passage of the city of Munich. He used
    often to dwell with much pleasure on having been the means of
    bringing forward two celebrated characters, the Bavarian general
    Wieden and Sir Humphry Davy--the former originally a lawyer, or a
    land steward, and possessing great military dispositions; Count
    Rumford, then Minister of War to the Elector of Bavaria, gave him a
    commission: and the latter was recommended to him when he had the
    direction of the Royal Institution by Mr. Underwood, and was made
    Lecturer on Chemistry.

    The climate of France agreeing with him far better than that of
    Bavaria, he received permission of the King of Bavaria to reside
    there; and his half-pay as lieutenant-general in his service and
    pension of retreat as minister of his late father [uncle] were
    regularly paid him, amounting to about twelve hundred pounds
    sterling _per annum_. It was this which prevented his return to
    England, as Bonaparte would not, in that case, have allowed his
    vassal, the King of Bavaria, to have paid the Count.

    When Bavaria joined in the coalition for the emancipation of Europe
    it was agitated in Bonaparte’s council to send the Count away.
    However, as it was proved that he scarcely ever stirred out of his
    house, he was allowed to remain.

    The German, French, Spanish, and Italian languages were as familiar
    to the Count as the English, both in speaking and writing. His only
    recreations were playing at billiards against himself, for want of
    one to play with, and walking in his garden, of which he was very
    fond, though ignorant of botany and even of the common names of the
    commonest plants. He was very fond of chess, at which he played
    well, but rarely enjoyed this pleasure, as he said that after a
    few minutes’ play his feet became like ice and his head like fire.
    He drew with great skill the designs of his own inventions, but
    of painting and sculpture he had no knowledge and little feeling;
    nor had he any taste for poetry. He had, however, great taste for
    landscape-gardening.

    His habits of life were latterly most abstemious, so much so that
    he had not sufficient vital strength to resist a nervous fever,
    which carried him off on the 21st of August, after three days’
    illness, when he was on the eve of returning to England, to which
    as long as he lived he retained the most devoted attachment.

In the ‘Moniteur Universel’ of August 25, 1814, the death and burial of
Count Rumford are mentioned. An address was pronounced over his grave
by the Baron Benjamin Delessert, his friend and banker in Paris, on the
24th.

The news of Count Rumford’s illness and burial reached the French
Academy at the same time, so that the members were unable to attend
his funeral. On January 9, 1815, Baron Cuvier read his éloge to the
Academy. In it he said:

    Nous l’y avons vu, en effet, pendant dix ans honoré des Français
    et des étrangers, estimé des amis des sciences, partageant leurs
    travaux, aidant de ses avis jusqu’aux moindres artisans, gratifiant
    noblement le public de tout ce qu’il inventait chaque jour d’utile.
    Rien n’y aurait manqué à la douceur de son existence si l’aménité
    de son commerce avait égalé son ardeur pour l’utilité publique.

    Mais il faut l’avouer, il perçait dans sa conversation et dans
    toute sa manière d’être un sentiment qui devait paraître fort
    extraordinaire dans un homme si constamment bien traité par les
    autres, et qui leur avait fait lui-même tant de bien: c’est que
    c’était sans les aimer et sans les estimer qu’il avait rendu tous
    ces services à ses semblables. Apparemment que les passions viles
    qu’il avait observées dans les misérables commis à ses soins ou ces
    autres passions non moins viles que sa fortune avait excitées parmi
    ses rivaux l’avaient ulcéré contre la nature humaine. Aussi ne
    pensait-il point que l’on doit confier au commun des hommes le soin
    de leur bien-être; ce besoin qui leur semble si naturel d’examiner
    comment ils sont régis n’était à ses yeux qu’un produit factice des
    fausses lumières. Il avait sur l’esclavage à peu près les idées
    d’un planteur, et il regardait le gouvernement de la Chine comme
    le plus voisin de la perfection, parce qu’en livrant le peuple au
    pouvoir absolu des seuls hommes instruits, et en élevant chacun
    de ceux-ci dans la hiérarchie selon le degré de son instruction,
    il fait en quelque sorte de tant de millions de bras les organes
    passifs de la volonté de quelques bonnes têtes--doctrine que
    nous exposons sans prétendre la justifier en rien et que nous
    savons de reste être peu propre à faire fortune chez nos nations
    européennes. M. de Rumford a éprouvé lui-même à plus d’une reprise
    qu’il n’est pas si aisé dans l’occident qu’en Chine d’engager les
    autres à n’être que des bras; et cependant personne ne s’était
    autant préparé que lui à bien se servir de bras qu’on lui aurait
    soumis. Un empire tel qu’il le concevait ne lui aurait pas été
    plus difficile à conduire que ses casernes et ses maisons de
    pauvres; il se confiait surtout pour cela à la puissance de
    l’ordre. Il appelait l’ordre l’auxiliaire nécessaire du génie,
    le seul instrument possible d’un véritable bien et presque une
    divinité subordonnée régulatrice de ce bas monde. Il se proposait
    d’en faire l’objet d’un ouvrage qu’il regardait comme devant être
    plus important que tous ceux qu’il a écrits; mais on n’en a trouvé
    dans ses papiers que quelques matériaux informes. Lui-même de
    sa personne était sur tous les points et sous tous les rapports
    imaginables le modèle de l’ordre; ses besoins, ses plaisirs, ses
    travaux, étaient calculés comme ses expériences. Il ne buvait que
    de l’eau: il ne mangeait que de la viande grillée ou rôtie, parce
    que la viande bouillie donne sous le même volume un peu moins
    d’aliment. Il ne se permettait enfin rien de superflu, pas même un
    pas ni une parole, et c’était dans le plus strict qu’il prenait le
    mot _superflu_.

    C’était sans doute un moyen de consacrer plus sûrement toutes ses
    forces au bien, mais ce n’en était pas un d’être agréable dans la
    société de ses pareils; le monde veut un peu plus d’abandon, et
    il est tellement fait qu’une certaine hauteur de perfection lui
    paraît souvent un défaut quand on ne met pas autant d’efforts à la
    dissimuler qu’on en a mis à l’acquérir.

    Quels que fussent au reste les sentiments de M. de Rumford pour les
    hommes, ils ne diminuaient en rien son respect pour la divinité.
    Il n’a négligé dans ses ouvrages aucune occasion d’exprimer
    sa religieuse admiration pour la Providence et d’y offrir à
    l’admiration des autres les précautions innombrables et variées
    par lesquelles elle a pourvu à la conservation de ses créatures;
    peut-être même son système politique venait-il de ce qu’il croyait
    que les princes doivent faire comme elle et prendre soin de nous
    sans nous en rendre compte.

Cuvier finished his éloge with this epitaph: ‘L’homme qui par l’heureux
choix des sujets de ses travaux a su lui donner à la fois pour appui
l’estime des savans et la reconnaissance des malheureux.’

Dr. Young, who, whilst Professor at the Royal Institution, knew Rumford
well, said of him in the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica:’

    Count Rumford certainly possessed considerable facility of
    conversation, and there was a very laudable spirit of originality
    in his views and mode of reasoning, although he had never leisure
    to acquire profound learning in any department of study. In person
    he was above the middle size, with a dignified and pleasing
    expression of countenance and a mildness in his manner and tone of
    voice. He was ambitious of fame and distinction, and had too great
    a propensity to dictate without sufficiently regarding the opinions
    of those who were of equal authority with himself. His mode of life
    was abstemious, and his health was even supposed to have suffered
    from too great abstinence, though his regimen was much more the
    result of medical opinion regarding his health than of his own
    peculiar taste for temperance.

By his will, of which Lafayette was a witness, he made a bequest to his
daughter, and another to Harvard College

    for the purpose of founding, under the direction and government
    of the corporation, overseers, and governors of that university,
    a new institution and professorship, in order to teach by regular
    courses of academical and public lectures, accompanied with proper
    experiments, the utility of the physical and mathematical sciences
    for the improvement of the useful arts, and for the extension of
    the industry, prosperity, happiness, and well-being of society.

He left all his military books and papers to the Government of the
United States, and the snuff-box given to him by the Emperor of Austria
to Baron Delessert, and his gold enamelled watch to his friend Mr.
Parker. He thus showed his regard for Davy:

    I give to Sir Humphry Davy, Knight, Professor of Chemistry in the
    Royal Institution of Great Britain, my plain gold watch, as a token
    of my esteem.

Madame de Rumford gave up her interest in the lease of the Count’s
house at Brompton to his daughter, who went to London in May 1815 and
lived there for twenty years, during which period she returned to Paris
for three years. In 1835 she went to America, and then she returned to
Paris until 1844, when she revisited America. In the room in which she
was born she died, when seventy-eight years of age, December 21, 1852.
She left her property chiefly to form the Rolfe and Rumford Asylum for
the Poor and Needy at Concord.

The memory of Count Rumford is preserved in Munich by a stone monument
in the English Garden, erected by public subscription in 1795, and by a
bronze statue placed in 1867 by the present King in the finest street
in the city.

In Paris a street once bore his name, and his gravestone in the
cemetery at Auteuil is the only material mark of his residence in
France.

In America the Rumford medals which he founded, and the institutions he
originated, form his enduring monuments.

In England the highest scientific reward which the Royal Society can
bestow, and the place where the greatest scientific discoveries of this
century have been made, should both in gratitude be inseparably united
with the name of Rumford.




CHAPTER III.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, 1799-1800; WITH THE LIFE OF
PROFESSOR GARNETT.


The history of the Proposals for founding the Royal Institution is thus
given by Count Rumford in 1799:

    Having long been in a habit of considering all useful improvements
    as being purely _mechanical_, or as depending on the perfection of
    machinery and address in the management of it, and of considering
    _profit_ (which depends much on the perfection of machinery) as
    the only incitement to _industry_, I was naturally led to meditate
    on the means that might be employed with advantage to diffuse
    the knowledge and facilitate the general introduction of such
    improvements; and the plan which is now submitted to the public was
    the result of these investigations.

    In the beginning of the year 1796 I gave a faint sketch of this
    plan in my second essay; but, being under a necessity of returning
    soon to Germany, I had not leisure to pursue it farther at that
    time, and I was obliged to content myself with having merely thrown
    out a loose idea, as it were by accident, which I thought might
    possibly attract attention.

    After my return to Munich, I opened myself more fully on the
    subject in my correspondence with my friends in this country, and
    particularly in my letters to Thomas Bernard, Esq., who, as is
    well known, is one of the founders and most active members of the
    Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of
    the Poor.

    This gentleman I found, on my return to England in September 1798,
    not only agreeing with me in opinion in regard to the utility and
    importance of the plan I had proposed, but very solicitous that
    some attempts should be made to carry it into immediate execution
    in this capital.

    After several consultations, that were held at Mr. Bernard’s
    apartments in the Foundling Hospital and at the house of the Lord
    Bishop of Durham, at which several gentlemen assisted who are well
    known as zealous promoters of useful improvement, it was agreed
    that Mr. Bernard should report to the Committee of the Society
    for Bettering the Condition of the Poor the general result of
    these consultations, and the unanimous desire of the gentlemen who
    assisted at them, that means might be devised for making an attempt
    to carry the scheme proposed into execution.

    The gentlemen of the Committee agreed with me entirely in the
    opinion I had taken the liberty to express, that the Institution
    which it was proposed to form would be too conspicuous, and too
    interesting and important, to be made _an appendix_ to any other
    existing establishment, and, consequently, that it must stand
    alone, and on its own proper basis; but as these gentlemen had no
    direct communication with any persons, except with the members of
    their own Society, they appointed a Committee, consisting of eight
    persons, from their own body, to confer with me on the subject of
    the plan.[12]

    I had the honour to meet this Committee on this business on the
    31st of January, at the house of Richard Sulivan, Esq., where a
    plan I had previously drawn up for forming the Institution in
    question was read and examined, and its principles unanimously
    approved; but, as some of the gentlemen present were of opinion
    that the plan entered too much into detail to be submitted to the
    public in the beginning of the business, I undertook to revise it,
    and to endeavour to accommodate it to the wishes of the Committee.

    Having made such alterations in it as I thought might satisfy the
    Committee, I sent a corrected copy of it to them, accompanied by
    the following letter:

        ‘GENTLEMEN,--Inclosed I have the honour to send you a corrected
        copy of the Proposals I took the liberty of laying before you
        on Thursday last, for forming in this capital, by private
        subscription, a public Institution for diffusing the knowledge
        and facilitating the general and speedy introduction of new
        and useful mechanical inventions and improvements; and also
        for teaching, by regular courses of philosophical lectures
        and experiments, the application of the new discoveries in
        science to the improvement of arts and manufactures, and
        in facilitating the means of procuring the comforts and
        conveniences of life.

        ‘The tendency of the proposed Institution to excite a spirit of
        inquiry and of improvement amongst all ranks of society, and to
        afford the most effectual assistance to those who are engaged
        in the various pursuits of useful industry, did not escape
        your observation; and it is, I am persuaded, from a conviction
        of the utility of the plan, or its tendency to increase the
        comforts and enjoyments of individuals, and at the same time
        to promote the public prosperity, that you have been induced
        to take it into your serious consideration. I shall be much
        flattered if it should meet with your approbation and with your
        support.

        ‘Though I am perfectly ready to take any share in the business
        of carrying the scheme into execution, in case it should be
        adopted, that can be required, yet there is one preliminary
        request which I am desirous may be granted me, and that is,
        that the Government may be previously made acquainted with
        the scheme before any steps are taken towards carrying it
        into execution; and also that his Majesty’s Ministers may be
        informed that it is in the contemplation of the founders of the
        Institution to accept of my services in the arrangement and
        management of it.

        ‘The peculiar situation in which I stand in this country, as
        a subject of his Majesty, and being at the same time, by his
        Majesty’s special commission, granted under his royal sign
        manual, engaged in the service of a foreign prince, this
        circumstance renders it improper for me to engage myself
        in this important business, notwithstanding that it might
        perhaps be considered merely as a private concern, without the
        knowledge and the approbation of the Government.

        ‘I am quite certain that my engaging in this, or in any other
        business in which there is any prospect of my being of any
        public use in this country, will meet with the most cordial
        approbation of his Most Serene Highness the Elector Palatine,
        in whose service I am; for I know his sentiments on that
        subject; and although I do not imagine that his Majesty or his
        Majesty’s Ministers would disapprove of my giving my assistance
        in carrying this scheme into execution, yet I feel it to be
        necessary that their approbation should be asked and obtained;
        and, if I might be allowed to express my sentiments on another
        matter, which, no doubt, has already occurred to everyone
        of the gentlemen to whom I now address myself, I should say
        that, in my opinion, it would not only be proper, but even
        necessary, to inform Government of the nature of the scheme
        that is proposed and of every circumstance relative to it,
        and at the same time to ask their countenance and support in
        carrying it into execution; for although it may be allowable
        in this free country for individuals to unite in forming and
        executing extensive plans for diffusing useful knowledge and
        promoting the public good, yet it appears to me that no such
        establishment should ever be formed in any country without the
        knowledge and approbation of the Executive Government.

        ‘Trusting that you will be so good as to excuse the liberty I
        take in making this observation, and that you will consider
        my doing it as being intended rather to justify myself, by
        explaining my principles than from any idea of its being
        necessary on any other account, I have the honour to be, with
        much respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient and most humble
        Servant,

                                                     (Signed) ‘RUMFORD.

        ‘Brompton Row, February 7, 1799.
             (Addressed)

        ‘To the Gentlemen named by the Committee of the Society for
        Bettering the Condition of the Poor to confer with Count
        Rumford on his scheme for forming a new Establishment in London
        for Diffusing the Knowledge of Useful Mechanical Improvements,
        &c.’

    The Committee above mentioned having, in the meantime, made their
    report to the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the
    Comforts of the Poor, that Society came to the following resolution:

        ‘At a meeting of the Society for Bettering the Condition and
        Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, on Friday, the 1st of
        February, 1799,

        ‘_Present_:

        The BISHOP OF DURHAM, in the chair,
        PATRICK COLQUHOUN, Esq.,
        THOMAS BERNARD, Esq.,
        WILLIAM MANNING, Esq.,
        JOHN SULLIVAN, Esq.,
        The REV. DR. GLASSE,
        JOHN J. ANGERSTEIN, Esq.,
        WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, Esq.,
        RICHARD JOSEPH SULIVAN, Esq.,
        MATTHEW MARTIN, Esq., Secretary,

        the Committee appointed to confer with Count Rumford reported
        that they had had a conference with the Count, and that they
        were satisfied that the Institution proposed by him would be
        extremely beneficial and interesting to the community; that,
        in order to provide the pecuniary funds of the Society at
        its commencement, it was proposed that subscribers of fifty
        guineas each should be the perpetual proprietors of the
        Institution, and be entitled each to perpetual transferable
        tickets for the lectures and for admission to the apartments of
        the Institution; and that as soon as thirty such subscribers
        offered it was proposed to call a meeting of those thirty
        subscribers, in order to lay the plan before them and elect
        managers for the Institution.

       *       *       *       *       *

        ‘Resolved,--That the said report be approved of, and that
        it be referred to the gentlemen of the Select Committee
        to communicate the outlines of the plan to the members of
        the Committee of the Society, and to such other persons as
        they shall think fit, desiring that those who wish to have
        their names inserted among the original subscribers to the
        Institution would communicate their wish to the Special
        Committee.

                     ‘Extracted from the Minutes.
                                                ‘M. MARTIN, Secretary.’

    In consequence of this resolution a paper was printed by the
    gentlemen of the Select Committee containing the outlines of the
    plan, and sent round privately among their friends and others whom
    they thought likely to countenance the scheme, accompanied by a
    printed copy of the foregoing resolution, with a request that those
    who were willing to allow their names to be put down among the
    original subscribers and proprietors of the Institution would be so
    good as to communicate their intentions by a letter addressed to
    Thomas Bernard, Esq., at the Foundling Hospital.

    The Proposals that were circulated in this manner met with so much
    approbation that fifty-eight of the most respectable names were
    sent in before measures could be taken for holding a meeting, and
    these successful beginnings encouraged those who were principally
    concerned in forming and bringing forward the plan to make some
    alterations in it, and particularly in respect to the time and
    manner of choosing the first set of managers, and in regard to an
    application for a charter for the Institution, which it has been
    determined to make, in order to place the establishment on a more
    solid and more respectable foundation, and to give full security to
    the subscribers against all future claims upon them.

    IN THIS STAGE OF THE BUSINESS, and especially as a meeting of
    the subscribers is to be held in a few days for the purpose of
    determining what other steps shall be taken for carrying the
    proposed plan into execution, I have thought it to be my duty to
    lay all these particulars before the subscribers, and at the same
    time to state to them at length the general outline of the plan I
    have taken the liberty to propose, and in the execution of which,
    if it should be adopted, I am ready to take any part that the
    subscribers may wish me to take.

                                                               RUMFORD.

    Brompton Row, March 4, 1799.


    THE PROPOSALS FOR FORMING BY SUBSCRIPTION, IN THE METROPOLIS OF THE
    BRITISH EMPIRE, A PUBLIC INSTITUTION FOR DIFFUSING THE KNOWLEDGE
    AND FACILITATING THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION OF USEFUL MECHANICAL
    INVENTIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS, AND FOR TEACHING BY COURSES OF
    PHILOSOPHICAL LECTURES AND EXPERIMENTS THE APPLICATION OF SCIENCE
    TO THE COMMON PURPOSES OF LIFE WERE THESE:

    The two great objects of the Institution being the speedy
    and general diffusion of the knowledge of all new and useful
    improvements, in whatever quarter of the world they may originate;
    and teaching the application of scientific discoveries to the
    improvement of arts and manufactures in this country, and to the
    increase of domestic comfort and convenience, these objects will be
    constantly had in view, not only in the arrangement and execution
    of the plan, but also in the future management of the Institution.

    As much care will be taken to confine the establishment within its
    proper limits as to place it on a solid foundation, and to render
    it an ornament to the capital and an honour to the British nation.

    In the execution of the plan it is proposed to proceed in the
    following manner:

    A place having been fixed on by the managers for forming the
    Institution,

    Spacious and airy rooms will be prepared for the reception and
    public exhibition of all such new and mechanical inventions and
    improvements as shall be thought worthy of the public notice, and
    more especially of all such contrivances as shall tend to increase
    the conveniences and comforts of life, to promote domestic economy,
    to improve taste, or to promote useful industry.

    The most perfect models of the full size will be provided and
    exhibited in different parts of this public repository of all such
    new mechanical inventions and improvements as are applicable to
    the common purposes of life. Under this head will be included:

      Cottage Fire-places and Kitchen Utensils for Cottages.

      A complete Kitchen for a Farm-house, with all the necessary
        Utensils.

      A complete Kitchen, with Kitchen Utensils, for the family of a
        gentleman of fortune.

      A complete Laundry for a gentleman’s family, or for a public
        hospital, including Boilers, Washing-room, Ironing-room,
        Drying-room, &c.

      Several of the most approved German, Swedish, and Russian Stoves,
        for heating rooms and passages.

    In order that those who visit this establishment may be enabled to
    acquire more just ideas of these various mechanical contrivances,
    and of the circumstances on which their _peculiar merit_
    principally depends, the machinery exhibited will, as far as it
    shall be possible, _be shown in action_, or in _actual use_, and
    with regard to many of the articles it is evident that this can be
    done without any difficulty and with very little additional expense.

      Open Chimney Fire-places on the most approved principles will be
        fitted up as models in the different rooms, and fires will be
        kept constantly burning in them during the cold season.

      Ornamental as well as Economical Grates, for Open Chimney
        Fire-places, will also be exhibited; as also,

      Ornamental Stoves, in the form of elegant Chimney-pieces, for
        halls, drawing-rooms, eating-rooms, &c.

    It is likewise proposed to exhibit _working models_, on a reduced
    scale, of that most curious and most useful machine the Steam
    Engine.

      Of Brewer’s Boilers, with improved Fire-places.

      Of Distiller’s Coppers, with improved Fire-places and improved
        Condensers.

      Of large Boilers for the kitchens of hospitals, and of Ships’
        Coppers, with improved Fire-places.

    Further it is proposed to exhibit in the repository of the
    Institution--

      Models of Ventilators for supplying rooms and ships with fresh
        air.

      Models of Hot-houses, with such improvements as can be made in
        their construction.

      Models of Lime-kilns on various constructions.

      Models of Boilers, Steam-boilers, &c., for preparing food for
        cattle that are stall-fed.

      Models of Cottages on various constructions.

      Spinning-wheels and Looms, on various constructions, for the use
        of the poor, and adapted to their circumstances, together with
        such other machinery as may be useful in giving them employment
        at home.

      Models of all such new-invented Machines and Implements as bid
        fair to be of use in Husbandry.

      Models of Bridges on various constructions, together with _models
        of all such other machines and useful instruments as the
        managers of the Institution shall deem worthy of the public
        notice_ and proper to be publicly exhibited in the repository
        of the Institution.

    It is proposed that each article exhibited should be accompanied
    with a detailed account or description of it, properly illustrated
    by correct drawings. The name of the maker and the place of his
    abode will also be mentioned in this account, together with the
    price at which he is willing to furnish the article to buyers.

    In order to carry into effect the second object of the
    Institution--namely, TEACHING THE APPLICATION OF SCIENCE to the
    USEFUL PURPOSES OF LIFE--

    A lecture room will be fitted up for philosophical lectures and
    experiments, and a complete LABORATORY and PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS,
    with the necessary instruments, will be provided for making
    _chemical_ and other _philosophical experiments_.

    In fitting up this lecture room (which will never be used for any
    other purpose than for giving lectures in natural Philosophy and
    Philosophical Chemistry) convenient places will be provided and
    reserved for the subscribers, and care will be taken to warm and
    light the room properly, and provide for a sufficient supply of
    fresh air, so as to render it comfortable and salubrious.

    In engaging lecturers for the Institution care will be taken by the
    managers to invite none but men of the first eminence in science to
    officiate in that most important and most distinguished situation;
    and no subjects will ever be permitted to be discussed at these
    lectures but such as are strictly scientifical, and immediately
    connected with that particular branch of science publicly announced
    as the subject of the lecture. The managers to be responsible for
    the strict observance of this regulation.

    In case there should be places to spare in the lecture room,
    persons not subscribers will, on the recommendation of a
    subscriber, and on paying a certain small sum to be determined by
    the managers, be permitted to attend the public lectures or any one
    or more of them.

    Among the various branches of science that will occasionally be
    made the subjects of these public lectures may be reckoned the
    following, _viz._: These lectures will treat--

      Of Heat, and its application to the various purposes of life.

      Of the Combustion of Inflammable Bodies, and the relative
        quantities of Heat producible by the different substances used
        as fuel.

      Of the Management of Fire and the Economy of Fuel.

      Of the Principles of the Warmth of Clothing.

      Of the Effects of Heat and of Cold, and of hot and of cold winds,
        on the human body in sickness and in health.

      Of the Effects of breathing vitiated and confined air.

      Of the Means that may be used to render Dwelling-houses
        comfortable and salubrious.

      Of the Methods of procuring and preserving Ice in Summer, and of
        the best principles for constructing Ice-houses.

      Of the Means of preserving Food in different seasons and in
        different climates.

      Of the Means of cooling Liquors in hot weather, without the
        assistance of ice.

      Of Vegetation, and of the specific nature of those effects that
        are produced by Manures, and of the Art of composing Manures
        and adapting them to the different kinds of soil.

      Of the nature of those changes that are produced on substances
        used as food in the various processes of cookery.

      Of the nature of those changes which take place in the Digestion
        of Food.

      Of the Chemical Principles of the process of Tanning Leather,
        and of the objects that must particularly be had in view in
        attempts to improve that most useful art.

      Of the Chemical Principles of the art of making Soap, of the art
        of Bleaching, of the art of Dyeing, and in general of _all the
        Mechanical Arts_, as they apply to the various branches of
        manufacture.


    OF THE FUNDS OF THE INSTITUTION.

    It is proposed to raise the money necessary for defraying the
    expense of forming this Institution, and also for the future
    expense of keeping it up, in the following manner:

    1st. By the sums subscribed by the original founders and sole
    _proprietors_ of the Institution, at _fifty guineas each person_,
    to be but once paid.

    2dly. By the sums contributed by those who shall subscribe _for
    life_, at _ten guineas_ each person, to be but once paid.

    3dly. By the sums contributed by the _annual subscribers_ at two
    guineas _per annum_ for each person.

    4thly. By the particular donations and legacies that may be
    expected to be made for the purpose of extending and improving so
    interesting and so useful an Institution; and,

    Lastly. By the sums that shall be received at the door from
    strangers who shall visit the repository of the Institution, or who
    shall obtain leave to frequent the philosophical lectures.


    PRIVILEGES OF THE ORIGINAL SUBSCRIBERS OR PROPRIETORS OF THE
    INSTITUTION.

    _1mo._ These subscribers, who will _never be called upon for any
    further contributions_ after the sum subscribed (fifty guineas)
    shall have been once paid, will be effectually secured against all
    future legal claims and demands upon them on account of any debts
    the managers of the Institution may contract, as a charter for
    the Institution will be applied for and obtained, for the express
    purpose of providing for that security, before any other step shall
    be taken for carrying this plan into execution, and before any part
    of the money subscribed will be demanded.

    _2do._ Proprietors will not be deemed liable to serve, either as
    managers or as visitors, against their consent; and none will be
    considered as candidates for either of those offices, or will be
    entered on the lists as candidates, or be proposed as such, except
    it be those who shall have previously signified their willingness
    to serve in one of those offices in case of their being elected.

    _3tio._ For the still greater security of the proprietors, as well
    as to found the Institution on a more solid basis, one-half of the
    sums subscribed by the original subscribers and proprietors of the
    Institution will be permanently vested in the public funds, or in
    the purchase of freehold property, and the annual produce thereof
    employed in defraying the expense of keeping up the Institution.

    _4to._ Each original subscriber and proprietor of the Institution
    to be an hereditary governor of the Institution--to have a
    perpetual _transferable_ share in all the property belonging
    to it--to have a voice in the election of the managers of
    the Institution, as also in the election of the Committee of
    Visitors--to have, moreover, two _transferable_ tickets of
    perpetual admission into the establishment, and into every part of
    it, and two _transferable_ tickets of admission to all the public
    philosophical lectures and experiments.

    _5to._ Although the shares of proprietors and all the privileges
    annexed to them are hereditary, and are also _transferable_ by
    sale or by donation, yet those to whom such shares are conveyed by
    sale or by donation must, in order to their being rendered capable
    of holding them, have obtained the approbation and consent of the
    majority of the managers for the time being. Those who shall become
    possessed of these shares by inheritance will not stand in need of
    the consent of the managers to be qualified to hold them, and to
    enjoy the rights and privileges annexed to them.

    _6to._ Proprietors’ tickets will admit any persons who shall be the
    bearers of them.

    _7mo._ Proprietors will have the privilege of recommending persons
    for admittance to the philosophical lectures and experiments, and
    the persons so recommended will be admitted in all cases where
    there shall be room for their accommodation, provided that the
    persons so admitted conform to the rules and regulations which will
    be established by the managers for the preservation of order and
    decorum within the walls of the Institution.

    _8vo._ No more than _forty per cent._ of the sum subscribed by
    each proprietor will be wanted immediately, and the remainder may
    be furnished in three equal payments at the expiration of the
    three next succeeding half-years; but it will be in the option of
    proprietors to pay the whole sum of fifty guineas at once if they
    should prefer doing it.


    PRIVILEGES OF THE SUBSCRIBERS FOR LIFE.

    Each subscriber of this class will receive _one_ ticket for life,
    but not transferable, of free admission into the Institution, and
    into every part of it, together with _one_ other ticket for life,
    but not transferable, of free admission to all public philosophical
    lectures and experiments.


    PRIVILEGES OF ANNUAL SUBSCRIBERS.

    Each annual subscriber will receive _one_ ticket for one year,
    but not transferable, of admission into the Institution, and into
    every part of it; as also _one_ ticket for one year, but not
    transferable, of admission to all the public philosophical lectures
    and experiments. Subscribers of this class will, moreover, have
    a right of becoming subscribers for life, on paying at any time
    within the year for which they subscribe an additional sum of eight
    guineas.


    PRIVILEGES THAT ARE COMMON TO SUBSCRIBERS OF ALL DENOMINATIONS.

    _1mo._ Subscribers for life and annual subscribers, as well as the
    proprietors of the Institution, will be entitled to have copies or
    drawings (made at their own expense, however) of any of the models
    in the repository, and this even when such copies are designed for
    the use of their friends, as well as when they are wanted for their
    own private use; and for their better and more speedy accommodation
    workshops will be prepared, and workmen provided under the
    direction of the managers, for executing such work properly and at
    reasonable prices. And, to prevent mistakes, all copies or drawings
    that shall be made of the machines, models, and plans lodged in
    the repository of the Institution will be examined by persons
    appointed for that purpose, and marked with a seal or stamp of the
    Institution.

    _2do._ Tradesmen and artificers employed in executing any work
    after any of the models lodged in the repository will, on the
    recommendation of a proprietor or of a subscriber for life, or
    for one year, be allowed free access to such model as often as
    shall be necessary; and any workman or artificer so recommended
    who shall be willing to furnish to buyers any article exhibited in
    the repository that is in his line of business, will be allowed
    to place a specimen of such article of his manufacture in the
    repository, with his name and place of abode attached to it,
    together with the price at which he can furnish it, such specimen
    having been examined and approved by the managers.


    OF THE GOVERNMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF THE INSTITUTION.

    _1mo._ All the affairs of the Institution will be directed
    and governed by _nine_ managers, chosen by and from among the
    proprietors of the Institution.

    _2do._ For the greater convenience of the proprietors, and to
    spare them the trouble of a general meeting, all the elections of
    managers, after the first, will be made by ballot, by means of
    sealed lists of names sent in by the proprietors individually to
    the Institution, which lists will be opened, and the result of the
    election ascertained and published, by the united committees of the
    managers and of the visitors for the time being.

    _3tio._ The first set of managers will be chosen by the first
    fifty or more original subscribers, at a general meeting of them to
    be held for that purpose; and of this first set of managers three
    will be chosen to serve _three years_, three to serve _two years_,
    and three to serve _one year_, reckoned from the 25th day of March,
    1799.

    _4to._ All managers, as well those of the first set as others, will
    be capable of being _re-elected_ without limitation.

    _5to._ The elections of managers to be made annually on the 25th
    day of the month of March,[13] and fourteen days previous to
    each election the managers for the time being will send to each
    proprietor individually a printed list containing the names of
    all such of the proprietors as shall have offered or consented
    to be candidates for the places among the managers that are to
    be filled up. On this printed list, which each proprietor will
    receive, he will indicate the persons to whom he gives his suffrage
    by making a mark with a pen and ink in the form of a small cross
    just before the names of those persons; and, this being done,
    he will seal up the list without signing it and send it to the
    Institution, directed ‘To the United Committee of the Managers and
    of the Visitors.’ In order that these lists may be recognised on
    their being returned to the Institution, they will all be marked
    with the stamp of the Institution previous to their being issued
    or sent to the proprietors. And, for still further security, each
    proprietor will be requested to send in his or her sealed list
    of names under an additional cover, signed with his or her own
    name, which additional cover will be taken off, and all the sealed
    lists mixed together in an urn, previous to any of them being
    opened--an arrangement that will effectually prevent the vote of
    any individual subscriber being known.

    _6to._ The managers are to serve in that office without any pay or
    emolument or pecuniary advantage whatever; and by their acceptance
    of their office they shall be deemed solemnly to pledge themselves
    to the proprietors of the Institution and to the public for the
    faithful discharge of their duty as managers, and also for their
    strict adherence to the fundamental principles of the government of
    the Institution as established at its formation.

    _7mo._ The managers are to take care that the property of the
    Institution, as far as it shall be practicable, be insured against
    accidents by fire.

    _8vo._ The managers will cause exact and detailed accounts to be
    kept of all the property belonging to the Institution, as also of
    all receipts and expenditures. They will also keep regular minutes
    of all their proceedings, and will take care to preserve the most
    exact order and the strictest economy in the management of all the
    affairs and concerns of the Institution.

    _9mo._ The managers are never, on any pretext, or in any manner
    whatever, to dispose of any money or property of any kind belonging
    to the Institution in _premiums_, as the design or object of the
    Institution is NOT TO GIVE REWARDS to the authors of ingenious
    inventions, but to _diffuse the knowledge of such improvements
    as bid fair to be of general use_, and to facilitate the general
    introduction of them; and to excite and assist the ingenious and
    the enterprising by _the diffusion of science_, and by awakening a
    spirit of inquiry.

    _10mo._ The ordinary meetings of the managers for the despatch
    of the current business of the Institution will be held
    weekly--namely, on every [space], at the hour of [space],--and
    extraordinary meetings will be held as often as shall be found
    necessary.

    _11mo._ Any three or more of the managers being present at any
    ordinary or at an extraordinary meeting, the others having been
    duly summoned, to be a quorum.

    _12mo._ The managers will be authorised to make all such standing
    orders and regulations as they shall deem necessary to the
    preservation of order and decorum in the Institution, as also such
    regulations respecting the manner of transacting the business of
    the Institution as they shall think proper and convenient, or
    that may be necessary in order to regulate the responsibility of
    the managers for their acts and deeds; all such standing orders
    and regulations must, however, in order to their being valid, be
    approved by six at least of the managers, and they must all be
    published and made known to all the proprietors.


    OF THE COMMITTEE OF VISITORS.

    _1mo._ The Committee of Visitors will be composed of _nine_
    persons, the first set to be elected three months after the opening
    of the Institution.

    _2do._ Three persons of the nine of which this Committee will
    consist will be chosen for _three years_, three of them to serve
    _two years_, and three of them to serve _one year_, reckoned from
    the 25th of March, 1799.

    _3tio._ Any three or more of the members of this Committee being
    present at any meeting of the Committee, the others having been
    duly summoned, to make a quorum.

    _4to._ It will be the business of this Committee formally to
    inspect and examine the Institution, and every part and detail
    of it, once every year--namely, on the 25th day of the month of
    March--and to give a printed account or report to the proprietors,
    and to the subscribers of all denominations, of its state and
    condition, and of the degree and manner in which it is found
    to answer the important ends for which it was designed. This
    Committee will also once every year--namely, on the 25th of the
    month of March--examine and audit the accounts of the receipts and
    expenditures of the Institution kept by the managers or by their
    orders; and the report of the Committee of Visitors on this audit
    will always make the first article in their public annual reports.

    _5to._ A person actually serving as a visitor will not be eligible
    as a manager, nor can his name be put on the list of candidates for
    that office till one whole year shall have elapsed after he shall
    have ceased to belong to the Committee of Visitors. Those, however,
    who serve as visitors will be capable of being _re-elected_ on that
    Committee without limitation.


    MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES.

    _1mo._ The managers will take care to procure, and to exhibit in
    the repository as early as possible, models of all such new and
    useful mechanical inventions and improvements as shall, from time
    to time, be made in this or in any other country.

    _2do._ All presents to the Institution, and all new purchases and
    acquisitions of every kind, will be and remain the joint property
    of the proprietors of the Institution and of their heirs and
    assigns, and all the surplus of the income of the Institution, over
    and above what shall be found necessary for maintaining it and
    keeping it up, will be employed by the managers in making additions
    to the local accommodation of the Institution, or in augmenting the
    collection of models, or in making additions to the philosophical
    apparatus, accordingly as the managers of the Institution for the
    time being shall deem most useful.

    _3tio._ In order that the proprietors of the Institution and the
    subscribers may have the earliest notice of all new discoveries
    and useful improvements that shall be made, from time to time, not
    only in this country, but also in all the different parts of the
    world, the managers will employ the proper means for obtaining,
    as early as possible, from every part of the British Empire, and
    from all foreign countries, authentic accounts of all such new and
    interesting discoveries in the various branches of science, and
    in arts and manufactures, and also of all such new and useful
    mechanical improvements as shall be made; and a room will be
    set apart in the Institution where all such information will be
    lodged, and where it will be kept for the sole and exclusive use
    and inspection of the proprietors and subscribers, and where no
    stranger will ever be admitted.

At a general meeting of the proprietors, held at the house of the Right
Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, Bart., K.B., in Soho Square, on the 7th
day of March, 1799, the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks in the chair, the
following list of the proprietors and original subscribers of fifty
guineas each was read:

  Sir Robert Ainslie, Bart.
  J. J. Angerstein, Esq.
  Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, K.B.
  Thomas Bernard, Esq.
  Scrope Bernard, Esq., M.P.
  The Earl of Besborough.
  Rowland Burdon, Esq., M.P.
  James Burton, Esq.
  Timothy Brent, Esq.
  Henry Cavendish, Esq.
  Rich. Clarke, Esq., Chamb. of London.
  Sir John Colpoys, K.B.
  John Craufurd, Esq.
  The Duke of Devonshire, K.G.
  Andrew Douglas, Esq.
  The Lord Bishop of Durham.
  The Earl of Egremont.
  George Ellis, Esq., M.P.
  Joseph Grote, Esq.
  Sir Robert Bateson Harvey, Bart.
  Sir John Cox Hippesley, Bart.
  Henry Hoare, Esq.
  John Spalding, Esq., M.P.
  The Earl Spencer, K.G.
  Sir George Staunton, Bart.
  John Sullivan, Esq.
  Richard Joseph Sulivan, Esq.
  Lord Teignmouth.
  John Thomson, Esq.
  Lord Hobart.
  Lord Holland.
  Henry Hope, Esq.
  Thomas Hope, Esq.
  Lord Keith, K.B.
  William Lushington, Esq., M.P.
  Sir John Macpherson, Bart., M.P.
  William Manning, Esq., M.P.
  The Earl of Mansfield.
  The Earl of Morton, K.T.
  Lord Ossulston.
  Thomas Palmer, Esq.
  The Lord Viscount Palmerston, M.P.
  Edward Parry, Esq.
  Right Hon. Thomas Pelham, M.P.
  John Penn, Esq.
  William Morton Pitt, Esq., M.P.
  Sir James Pulteney, Bart., M.P.
  Sir John Buchanan Riddell, Bart.
  Count Rumford.
  Sir John Sinclair, Bart., M.P.
  Lord Somerville.
  Samuel Thornton, Esq., M.P.
  Henry Thornton, Esq., M.P.
  George Vansittart, Esq., M.P.
  William Wilberforce, Esq., M.P.
  The Earl of Winchelsea.
  Hon. James Stuart Wortley, M.P.
  Sir William Young, Bart., M.P.

    _The following Resolutions were agreed to unanimously:_

    I.--That before any measures are taken for carrying the plan into
    execution, a petition be presented to his Majesty, praying that he
    would be graciously pleased to grant a charter to the Institution.

    II.--That an outline of the plan be laid before the Right
    Honourable Mr. Pitt and his Grace the Duke of Portland.

    III.--That for these purposes it is expedient to elect the
    Committee of Managers.

    IV.--That the following proprietors (_who have agreed to serve in
    case they shall he elected_) be now elected as the _first managers_
    of the Institution:

      _For three years._

      The Earl Spencer.
      Count Rumford.
      Richard Clark, Esq.

      _For two years._

      The Earl of Egremont.
      Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.
      Rich. Joseph Sulivan, Esq.

      _For one year._

      The Earl of Morton.
      The Rt. Hon. Thomas Pelham.
      Thomas Bernard, Esq.

    V.--That the said managers be desired to solicit a charter for the
    Institution, upon principles conformable to the Proposals which
    have been printed and distributed, and (as soon as the charter is
    obtained) to publish the plan for the benefit of the public, in
    such manner as they shall deem most expedient; and also to take
    preparatory measures for opening the Institution.

    That these resolutions be inserted in the public papers.

                                                  JOS. BANKS, Chairman.

    Sir Joseph Banks having quitted the chair,

    Resolved,--That the thanks of the meeting be given to him for his
    conduct in the chair.

After this meeting of the proprietors a meeting of the managers was
held, and the following resolutions taken:

At the first meeting of the Managers of the Institution, held at
the house of the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, in Soho Square,
Saturday, March 9, 1799,

On a motion made by Count Rumford--

    I.--Resolved, That Sir Joseph Banks be requested to take the chair,
    and that he do continue to preside at all future meetings of the
    managers, until a charter shall have been obtained from his Majesty
    for the Institution.

    II.--Resolved, That all acts and deeds of the managers, in carrying
    on the business of the Institution, be transacted and done in the
    name of the managers of the Institution.

    III.--Resolved, That at each meeting of the managers one of the
    managers present be elected by a majority of those present to act
    as secretary to the managers at that meeting.

    IV.--Resolved, That the minutes of the proceedings of each
    meeting of the managers for the despatch of the business of the
    Institution, as well as all orders, resolutions, and other acts
    and deeds of the managers, be signed by the person who acts as
    president, and also by the person who acts as secretary at the
    meeting at which such business is transacted.

    V.--Resolved, That the persons present at this meeting do now
    proceed to make choice of one of their number to act as secretary
    at the present meeting.

    VI.--Resolved, That Thomas Bernard, Esq., is duly elected to act as
    secretary at the present meeting.

    VII.--Resolved, That the Proposals for forming the Institution,
    as published by Count Rumford, be approved and adopted by the
    managers, subject, however, to such partial modifications as shall
    be by them found to be necessary or useful.

    VIII.--Resolved, That the Earl of Morton, the Earl Spencer,
    Sir Joseph Banks, and Mr. Pelham, or any one or more of them,
    be requested to lay the Proposals for forming the Institution
    before his Majesty and the Royal Family, and before his Majesty’s
    Ministers and the Great Officers of State.

    IX.--Resolved, That the Proposals for forming the Institution be
    laid before the Members of both Houses of Parliament, and also
    before the members of his Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council
    and the twelve Judges.

    Messrs. Cadell and Davies, booksellers in the Strand, having
    generously offered to make a donation to the Institution of 500
    copies of the original Proposals for forming the Institution,
    published by Count Rumford:--

    X.--Resolved, That the thanks of the managers be given to Messrs.
    Cadell and Davies for this donation; that it be accepted; and that
    these 500 copies of the Proposals be distributed among such persons
    as the managers may think most likely to give their assistance in
    forming the Institution.

At the next meeting of managers, on March 23, Count Rumford was elected
secretary.

It was decided that ladies should be admitted as proprietors and
subscribers, and entitled to all privileges, ‘excepting only that
ladies will not be called upon to take any part in the management with
the officers of the Institution.’

And on the 30th, Mr. Bernard being secretary, the draft of the charter
was read.

On April 30 Dr. Glasse was elected honorary secretary, and Mr. Bernard
treasurer. Mr. Mellish’s house in Albemarle Street was ordered to be
bought. Count Rumford was asked to see the Rev. Mr. Farish regarding
lectures on experimental philosophy. Mr. Swan was chosen as clerk
assistant to the treasurer and secretary. Mr. Webster, a young
architect twenty-six years old, was engaged as Clerk of the Works. He
had been educated at Aberdeen, and had studied at the Royal Academy and
with an eminent architect. At this time he had also a small school for
about a dozen mechanics.

In May it was decided that the treasurer and secretary should be
entitled to assist at all the deliberations of the managers, and a
committee of expenditure was appointed.

On Wednesday, June 5, the managers first met in Albemarle Street.

In the second volume of the ‘Reports of the Society for Bettering the
Condition of the Poor,’ Mr. Bernard gives an account of the Institution
‘so far as it may be expected to affect the poor.’ He thus gives a view
of the Institution as it was intended to be, June 1, 1799: ‘Besides
having a general view to the benefit of arts and manufactures and to
the advancement of taste and science in this country, the Institution
should specifically direct itself to the improvement of the _means
of industry and of domestic comfort among the poor_. In bettering
the condition of the poor there is very little prospect of these
difficulties being removed until a _centre of action_ can be fixed, to
which persons may apply for examples, for models, and for engravings
accompanied by printed instructions, without being any longer compelled
implicitly to rely on the talents, the docility, and the conscientious
moderation of the different tradesmen who may be employed to make and
sell them.

‘A convenient house was proposed for the purpose of lectures and
experiments, and for a public exhibition of all such new and useful
inventions and improvements as are applicable to the common purposes
of life, and especially those which tend to increase the conveniences
and comforts of mankind, and to promote domestic economy and useful
industry. In the priority of introduction it was proposed that regard
should be had to the degree of public utility, and particularly as they
might benefit the general mass of the people.

‘Of the subjects of the lectures there are few which appear peculiarly
to apply to the poor. Such as those on heat, on the principles of the
warmth of clothing, and on the effects of the different temperatures of
the air on the human body.

‘The models and inventions in which the poor are most immediately
concerned will be those which may promote economy in food and fuel,
and tend to correct and purify the air in cottages and workhouses,
and which may supply means and instruments of industry on a cheap and
simple construction.

‘Thus the models to be exhibited will consist of improved fire-places
and kitchens, and of flues and louvres for supplying rooms either with
tepid or fresh air.

‘There will be small models of inventions at a very cheap price, with
engravings and explanatory descriptions useful to those who are unable
to employ the persons recommended by the Institution or to examine them
in actual and constant use at the Institution.’

Mr. Bernard’s report ends thus: ‘Though the charter is not yet
obtained, and the Institution may be considered only in its infancy,
the subscriptions already exceed 8,000_l._

‘It is not very easy to calculate what may be eventually the progress
of the Institution, and what its influence on the condition of the
poor. If it is followed up with an equal zeal and attention on the
part of the conductors, and it receives the support it merits from
the public, its effects must be extremely beneficial and important.
For, without adverting to the general advantage of a new species of
employment and amusement being afforded to the higher classes of life;
and science and useful occupation being brought into some degree of
fashion; it must be apparent to everyone that, without some such means,
the poor can never receive all that benefit and assistance which the
efforts and co-operation of many are now directed to procure for them;
and that the improvement of the domestic comfort and means of industry
in the cottage, the promotion of health, the economy and well-being of
the inhabitants of poor-houses, hospitals, manufactories, and other
public establishments will never be effectually obtained without such
an establishment as the Institution.’

It is difficult to believe that the Royal Institution of the present
day was ever intended to resemble the picture given of it in this
report.

In June the Earl of Winchester became the first president, and the
King became the patron, and he allowed the Institution to be called
Royal. At the last meeting in the month Count Rumford was authorised to
carry into effect his proposition for a repository of models, and to
employ such artisans as he might think necessary, paying according to
his discretion for their services. He was instructed to procure such
instruments and utensils as relate more immediately to the management
of fire; and he was empowered to draw 500_l._ to fit up the house for
their reception.

On July 6 he submitted to the managers a form of advertisement to be
inserted in the public papers, in order to carry out the exhibition of
models.

In September Count Rumford was requested to engage Dr. Garnett as
lecturer and scientific secretary and Editor of the Journals, with
lodgings in the house and 300_l._ emolument, with a prospect of a
gradual increase to 500_l._, provided the funds of the Institution in
future authorised this additional expenditure. A committee was formed
to prepare a lecture room on the first floor for the next winter.

Mr. Webster was appointed clerk to the treasurer and secretary, as
well as Clerk of the Works, and a long report from him was read to the
managers by Count Rumford on the formation of an industrial school for
mechanics at the Institution.

A letter written by Mr. Webster to Dr. Garnett in August 1800, and
another in 1801 to a friend, give an explanation of this proposal.

                                                  Probably August 1800.

    The original object of the Institution was certainly to disseminate
    knowledge in the most effectual way possible; and for this purpose,
    while the higher ranks of society were amused and instructed by
    lecturers on science and its too much neglected applications to the
    purposes of common life, it was conceived necessary to do somewhat
    in order to enlighten the minds of that class which had not enjoyed
    the advantages of a liberal education, and yet whose improvement
    was necessarily connected with the progress of the useful arts.

    This was always considered as an object of so much importance
    by Count Rumford, who has certainly had the greatest share in
    establishing the Institution, that he repeatedly declared to me
    when I first knew him that it was his intention to do everything in
    his power to establish a school for science under the auspices of
    the Institution and particularly calculated for working mechanics,
    a class of men whose deficiency in knowledge proves one of the
    greatest drawbacks to the progress of art. It was through the
    prospect of being employed in this way, which would have been as
    agreeable to my habits of thinking as useful to my interest, that I
    was induced to give up the school which I then kept and the other
    business in which I was engaged, and to accept of a situation and
    salary in the Institution by no means equivalent to what I should
    have considered myself as entitled to under other circumstances.

Later Mr. Webster wrote to a friend:

    You have heard, no doubt, that I was employed as draftsman to
    the Royal Institution at its first formation, and was besides
    engaged by Count Rumford to take the management of a school
    for mechanics which he then proposed to establish. In order to
    overcome the scruples of some of the managers of the Institution
    on this subject, as well as to give a specimen of my abilities
    for conducting such an establishment, I addressed a paper to
    Count Rumford in August 1799, in which I gave him my opinion of
    the kind of school which would prove most useful to the public,
    and also entered into a detail of the plan which I proposed to
    follow. This paper, which the Count read at the meeting of the
    managers, was highly approved of, and I had then every reason to
    expect that something would be done which would be creditable to
    the Institution and useful to myself. I was induced in consequence
    to give up the school which I then had, and which promised to
    answer pretty well. But, after remaining some time in suspense,
    I found some reason to be apprehensive that those who are at the
    head of an Institution which professes to be a grand and national
    establishment were not altogether possessed of that liberality of
    sentiment and knowledge of the subject necessary for carrying into
    effect plans which can only be accomplished by those whose industry
    has made them acquainted with the arts and sciences taught. In
    short, I saw but little prospect of its being done in the way I
    wished, and I had no desire to engage in it otherwise. I am not
    certain that the plan has been entirely abandoned, but I think it
    is not likely to take place.

In 1837 Webster gave the following account of the intention to form an
industrial school at the Institution:

    Whilst employed as an architect, having occasion to direct various
    workmen, I had observed their frequent inability to do what was
    required from them through their deficient education, and that
    it was no easy matter to find those who could understand either
    drawings or directions; one had also frequently to contend with a
    species of perverseness and conceit often the result of ignorance.
    In attempting our improvements in fire-places, &c., I felt this the
    more as this kind of work demanded a superior class of artificers.
    Knowing from previous experience what it was possible to effect
    in their improvement, I conceived the idea of giving to mechanics
    for this purpose a species of scientific education suited to their
    condition, and I believe I was the first person in this country who
    took active steps for effecting so desirable an object. I was not
    unacquainted with the political feelings of that time, but I did
    not think a little learning was a dangerous thing _if judiciously
    bestowed_, although without due caution it might be capable of
    doing more harm than good. My idea was to make _good mechanics_,
    not to force them like hot-bed plants out of the sphere in which
    they are so useful.

    I proposed, then, to found a school for mechanics in the house
    of the Royal Institution, in which they should be taught such
    principles of science as would be useful in their several
    occupations, which I considered would in a great degree promote
    the ‘application of science to the common purposes of life.’ In
    the house of the Institution itself the men would be under the eye
    of the higher classes, and anything wrong would easily be put a
    stop to. With this view I wrote a long letter to Count Rumford,
    detailing my views and plans. He was delighted with them, and he
    read my letter to the board of managers; the idea was favourably
    received, and my letter was inserted upon the Minutes of the
    Institution, where of course it may be seen (Managers’ Minutes,
    Sept. 14, 1799). Some difficulties were, however, suggested. It
    was thought that Sir Joseph Banks, then president, would object,
    and I was requested to take the minute book to him and do what
    I could to win him over. I accordingly saw Sir Joseph, and, by
    explaining to him how much the arts would gain by intelligent
    operatives, I overcame a few political scruples which he had. At
    last all objections were silenced, and everyone seemed to rejoice
    in the prospect that opened of adding to the Royal Institution a
    decided proof of liberal feeling. The general idea and intention
    with respect to this school were published in the Journals of the
    Institution;[14] and the news reached every corner of the kingdom
    that the managers of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, among
    whom were persons of the highest rank, instead of being adverse to
    the diffusion of knowledge, had actually formed a school for the
    instruction of mechanical classes.

    It is saying little to assert that the Institution acquired some
    popularity by this measure. It gained much not only here but all
    over Europe; and in June 1801 Professor Pictet, of Geneva, the
    well-known and learned editor of the ‘Bibliothèque Universelle,’ in
    his published account of a tour which he made through England at
    this time, speaks of it as one of the most important branches of
    the Institution. It is unnecessary to enter into a detailed account
    of my plan, which was, in fact, intended as an experiment. It was
    generally to educate a number of mechanics sent by the proprietors
    of the Institution. At first all were to learn the same elementary
    principles, but afterwards they were to branch off according
    to their several trades. My first intention was to instruct
    bricklayers, joiners, tinmen, and ironplate workers, as those were
    the trades most connected with our improvements at this time. In a
    large room on the ground floor we built up for practising the men
    chimneys and fire-places of all kinds in a slight manner, pulled
    them down, and built up others. We fitted up improved fire-places
    within, models of old-fashioned cottage chimneys, also boilers of
    various kinds, and showed how smoky chimneys might be cured, &c.;
    models of various culinary vessels were made from ideas of Count
    Rumford, and were put in the model room for the inspection of the
    public. Of the workmen to be instructed some were sent by Lord
    Winchelsea, by Sir Thomas Barnard, Lady Palmerston, &c., and when
    they were thought to be sufficiently instructed they returned to
    the part of the country from which they had come, and practised
    what they had learned and taught others. Thus by degrees a laudable
    zeal was created amongst various classes of society, even the
    highest, for acquiring useful knowledge and diffusing it by their
    several exertions. Never was there a period when this was felt in
    a stronger degree, and the establishment of the Royal Institution
    ought to be considered as the commencement of a new era in the
    history of science in this country. I should not here forget to
    mention the then existing Society for Bettering the Condition of
    the Poor, composed of men of the highest rank, such as the Bishop
    of Durham, &c.; and to this Society, which met in the house of
    the Royal Institution (December 23, 1799), I was made assistant
    secretary for the purpose of letting me the better into their views.

    It is impossible to state the whole of the good that has proceeded
    from these liberal endeavours to improve society, and the country
    owes more than is generally known to the benevolent spirit thus
    excited.

After September 14 Count Rumford was absent until February 3. During
this time six meetings only of the managers were held, one in October,
when Sir John Hippesley brought at great length the question of the
arms of the Institution before the managers. Another meeting was on
December 23, when the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor
were granted a room for the committee meetings. The prospectus and
charter were ordered to be printed in octavo, and Dr. Garnett laid
before the managers the plan of his lectures for the following year.

Thus, then, in 1799 the Rumford Institution began in the house of Sir
Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, and in the first year
of its life it became the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street. It had
its origin in the work which Count Rumford did for the poor in Munich,
and its primary objects were models, workshops, and useful knowledge to
benefit the poor; lectures, researches, and scientific experiments to
amuse and interest the rich and to advance science were comparatively
the secondary intentions of its founder.

In 1800 a new and very long prospectus was written by Count Rumford. It
was printed with the charter, bye-laws, and names of the proprietors
and subscribers, and published on January 23. It again said, ‘the
two chief purposes of the Institution were the speedy and general
diffusion of the knowledge of all new and useful improvements, in
whatever quarter of the world they may originate; the application of
scientific discoveries to the improvement of arts and manufactures in
this country, and to the increase of domestic comfort and convenience.’
There is a remarkable addition in May of two paragraphs to the edition
in quarto of this publication. They read as if some one had pointed out
the absence of all mention of attraction for the rich. These words were
added: ‘But, in estimating the probable usefulness of this Institution,
we must not forget the public advantages that will be derived from
the general diffusion of a spirit of experimental investigation and
improvement among the higher ranks of society. When the rich shall take
pleasure in contemplating and encouraging such mechanical improvements
as are really useful, good taste, with its inseparable companion good
morals, will revive; rational economy will become fashionable; industry
and ingenuity will be honoured and rewarded; and the pursuits of all
the various classes of society will then tend to promote the public
prosperity.’

On the 13th of January Sir J. Hippesley read to the managers a letter
proposed to be sent to every proprietor and subscriber. It stated
that the charter had been approved, and would be sealed the next seal
day; that temporary accommodation for lectures was completed; and
that Mr. Professor Garnett would lecture early in February; that the
subscribers’ rooms, containing the periodical scientific publications,
foreign and domestic, would be opened at the same time. All subscribers
were requested to pay their subscriptions immediately to Professor
Garnett, or to Mr. Webster, the clerk of the Institution, or to one of
the six bankers of the Institution.

At the end of the month Mr. Webster was ordered to prepare plans for
a new lecture room. When an old man he thus spoke of his work: ‘After
nearly forty years the theatre of the Royal Institution is pronounced
to be _the most perfect room of the kind in the kingdom_ for possessing
the properties of allowing the lecturer to be well heard and seen by
the audience, and for affording them easy entrance and exit, &c. I
have never “puffed” myself respecting it, as is very common in similar
cases, and hence, probably, my name is scarcely known as connected
with it. But I may _now_ say, “that it has been stated by Faraday, in
his late examination before a committee of the House of Commons, to be
‘almost perfect as a lecture room,’ and that ‘although architects are
continually measuring and drawing it to copy from, and many other rooms
have been built in imitation of it in which he has tried his voice, yet
none of them proved equal to that in question.’”

‘_After my designs were quite finished, and after it was resolved by
the Institution that they should be carried into execution by me_, Mr.
Saunders, then architect of the British Museum, offered his assistance
should any difficulties arise. I willingly accepted his offer, as his
name would be some sanction and security in a case where I knew I had
enemies as well as friends, and I took care to show him everything I
did in the construction of the building; but the whole of the working
drawings, even the details of the mouldings, &c., were made by my own
hand. The estimate and contract were made by me and not by Saunders,
and every person employed was under my _immediate direction_. My
designs were not in the smallest degree altered by him.

‘Soon after my designs were made they were taken away by one of the
managers (whose name I shall not mention at present) and put into
the hands of Mr. Spiller, an architect, in order that he might make
another set of designs, thereby giving him the advantage of my ideas.
This was accordingly done. His lecture room was upon the second story
and mine was upon the first. His was covered by a lofty dome highly
enriched; my ceiling was flat. His estimate was 10,000_l._; mine was
5,000_l._ His would take two years to execute; mine was to be finished
in six months. I shall pass over the unpleasant circumstances to which
this affair gave rise, my resigning my situation in the Institution,
being requested by the managers to retain it, &c., and shall only
say both the sets of designs were submitted to the members of the
Institution at their annual meeting, and _mine were_ adopted, and it
was resolved that they should be executed under my superintendence.
Mr. Spiller claimed and got, I believe, 150_l._ I received nothing
as an architect, because I was an officer of the Institution at a
very small salary, and Count Rumford had in the beginning caused a
strange regulation to be made and _printed_ “that no one should ever be
_rewarded_ by the Institution for any services which he might perform.”’

In another note he says:

‘In designing the lecture room of an institution so peculiar (unique
indeed at that time) my object was to adapt it for different ranks in
society, for any attempt to destroy all distinctions must be absurd. I
constructed a gallery intended for those who either wished to be less
observed, or who, for obvious reasons, would not like to sit down by
their employers. It was also to receive such ingenious mechanics as
had gained a title to be there. To this gallery a _separate stone
staircase led from the street_. The whole of this _was built_.’[15]

On January 15 Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks from Broadlands:

    I certainly am in much better health than I was when I came here,
    which I attribute as much to my having left off taking medicines
    as to the salubrious air of the country. I think that I shall stay
    here about a fortnight longer, and shall then return to Brompton,
    and shall be at the disposal of the managers of the Institution for
    the remainder of the winter. I am very glad indeed that you like
    Webster. I am much deceived if he does not turn out to be a very
    useful acquisition. I hope Dr. Garnett will do well, but I must own
    that I am not as prepossessed in his favour as I am in favour of
    Webster.

    If more active and more useful men could be found to serve as
    managers in lieu of two or three of ours who seldom or never
    attend, I think it would be advisable to accept their resignation.
    _One_ has _privately_ offered me to resign whenever I may wish it,
    and I should think it would not be difficult to persuade two others
    to follow the example. But we will talk this matter over when we
    meet.

    I have been very busy here for the last fortnight putting up a
    public kitchen in the town of Romsey. It is now nearly finished,
    and begins to attract public curiosity. As it contains a complete
    well-arranged kitchen for a private family as well as cottage
    fire-places, German stoves, nests of small ovens, large soup
    boilers, &c., it almost deserves the name of a public repository,
    and I have no doubt but it will be useful as such. If Webster were
    here for a few days, he might take drawings of the whole for the
    use of the Royal Institution.

A week after he wrote: ‘I am expecting the arrival of Webster every
moment. I am glad you have sent him here, for the drawings he will make
of the works that have been executed in the Romsey public kitchen will
save me much trouble (for I must have made them), and his seeing the
kitchen here will enable him to be of great use to me in directing the
works in Albemarle Street.’

On February 3 Count Rumford was again present. Doubtless the following
passage in the Managers’ Minutes refers to him: ‘The unfortunate
illness and long confinement of one of the managers, whose zeal had
been so conspicuous in the formation and success of the Institution,
was another obstacle to the commencement of many interesting
arrangements, which he necessarily considered as essential to
superintend in person.’

The same day Sir John Hippesley made a long report to the managers to
be laid before the proprietors of the Institution on the 10th.

He alluded to a proposal for private boxes in the new theatre, and
spoke of accommodating nearly 1,000 persons, and said that the floor
under the theatre was for a repository, and that the sunk floor of
the new building was designed for a complete laboratory, ‘which
unfortunately this great metropolis of the British Empire has hitherto
failed to produce, but which is an essential appendix to the Royal
Institution.’

It was proposed to raise 5,000_l._ by transferable debentures, and the
sum subscribed during the meeting was 5,200_l._

At the next meeting a building committee, consisting of Earl Morton,
Count Rumford, and Sir J. Hippesley, was appointed. The following week
this was made to include all the managers.

In this month Count Rumford went to live in the house, and the
managers resolved ‘that as long as he did so he should be required to
superintend all the works going on in the house, and to see that the
servants in the house and the different workmen employed discharge
their various duties with diligence and due decorum, and that the
proprietors, subscribers, and others who visit the Institution are
received with civility and treated with proper respect and attention.’

Sir Joseph Banks drew up the bye-laws, and Count Rumford was afterwards
asked, agreeably to a provision in the draft bye-laws, to prepare
internal regulations for conducting the business of the Institution. An
under-librarian and clerk to the managers was also appointed.

The meeting of managers on March 31 was the starting point of
the Journal of the Institution. The publication was left to the
superintendence of Rumford.

A printing press was ordered to be bought as soon as possible, and a
scientific committee of council was formed. This was to be a standing
committee ‘to examine the syllabuses of the professor of natural
philosophy and chemistry, to the end that no false scientific doctrine
might be taught at the Institution, and to superintend all the new
philosophical experiments that might be made in the house of the
Institution, and, when made, to cause to be drawn up an account of the
same for the managers and for the Royal Society of London.’

This committee consisted of Cavendish, Maskelyne, Blagden, Rennell,
Planta, Gray, Vince, Farish, and Hatchett.

The managers also decided that fourteen committees should be appointed
for the purpose of specific investigation and improvement. Persons in
no way connected with the Institution might be appointed. The chairman
and deputy chairman were to be nominated by the managers. The meetings
were to be held in the house, and the results were to be published
in the Journals. The subjects were, 1, making bread; 2, soup; 3,
cottages; 4, stoves; 5, kitchen fire-places and utensils; 6, household
furniture; 7, food for cattle; 8, cooking in ships and distilling fresh
water at sea; 9, lime-kilns; 10, fire-balls and combustible cakes; 11,
mortar and cements; 12, composition houses; 13, useful machines of all
descriptions; 14, iron founding and working and refining iron and steel.

Dr. R. J. Thornton offering to lecture on botany as connected with
agriculture, it was resolved that the cultivation of natural history
and agriculture was not included in the original plan of the Royal
Institution, and that it was not expedient to accept the offer.

On April 5 the first number of the ‘Journal of the Royal Institution
of Great Britain’ was published. It contains, 1. The proceedings of
the managers of March 31 and the report to the proprietors made on
February 10. 2. An advertisement respecting the publication of the
Journal, ‘that threepence would be the price of a number of eight
pages, and sixpence if sixteen pages; that no stated period could
then be fixed, but it is expected a number would appear as often at
least as once every fortnight.’ 3. A short account of the works now
carrying on at the house of the Institution. Mention is made of the
theatre, and under it a spacious airy semicircular repository for
receiving various useful machines which will be exhibited as models for
imitation. Immediately under the repository will be constructed a lofty
and capacious laboratory for chemical experiments. The fire-places,
the kitchen, the boilers, the ovens, the complete roaster, steamers,
and other articles of kitchen furniture on new principles were either
prepared or preparing for exhibition. An account is given of the number
of the proprietors, 248; life subscribers, 259; annual subscribers,
297; ladies, annual, 97; and a notice of the philosophical lectures for
the following week.

The second number of the Journal did not appear for nearly fourteen
months.

In May Mr. Savage was engaged as printer; and ‘a good cook for the
improvement of culinary advancement, one object, and not the least
important, for the Royal Institution.’ A resolution was passed that
as Count Rumford had, at the request of the managers, undertaken to
superintend the house, no new works should be undertaken in it, nor any
alterations made in it, nor any furniture ordered for it, or brought
into it, or placed or displaced in it unless it be with his knowledge,
and by his orders; and he was requested, whilst he continued to lodge
in the house, to superintend all the servants, to preserve order and
decorum, and to control the expenses of housekeeping. It is most
probable that this resolution was intended to control Dr. Garnett. A
printing-press was bought. Sir John Hippesley was elected treasurer.

Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks:

                                       Royal Institution, May 29, 1800.

    I am very sorry to find, on making inquiry of Doctor Garnett,
    that your information was accurate respecting his having ascribed
    the late discoveries of our friend Volta to the French. Had I
    been apprised of his intention to mention this discovery at his
    lectures, I should certainly have taken care that he should have
    mentioned it in a proper manner; but I knew nothing of the matter
    until it was too late to prevent the mistake. I have, however,
    insisted on its being rectified as far as it is possible in some
    future lecture, and I am promised that it will be done. I know
    not from whom the Doctor procured his information respecting his
    discovery, but I learnt by accident late last evening that he
    borrowed the apparatus with which he exhibited the experiments at
    the lecture from Mr. Howard. I dined out and did not come home till
    his lecture was nearly over.

The next day Rumford wrote again:

                                       Royal Institution, May 30, 1800.

    Doctor Garnett is perfectly ready to make the following public
    declaration this evening at his lecture at the Institution, or he
    will say anything else on the subject in question which you may
    think will be more proper for him to say to atone for his mistake
    and to make amends to Professor Volta:

    ‘Having by mistake on Wednesday, in the course of my public
    lecture, ascribed to the French philosophers a new and interesting
    discovery relative to galvanism, which, on inquiry, I find belongs
    to Professor Volta, of Milan, I feel it to be my duty to state this
    fact in a public manner, in order that Professor Volta may not be
    deprived in any degree of the honour of a discovery which so justly
    belongs to him and to him alone. The first news of this discovery,
    which arrived in this country in the beginning of last month, was
    communicated in a letter from Professor Volta to the President of
    the Royal Society, and it was in consequence of the information
    contained in that letter that Dr. Carlisle, Mr. Nicholson, Mr.
    Howard, and others have been enabled to construct the necessary
    apparatus, and to repeat the ingenious Professor’s very interesting
    experiments.’

    Any alterations you may wish in the above shall be made, if you
    will point them out.

In June Count Rumford reported that, in consequence of the request of
the managers, he had transmitted through the envoy of the United States
of North America to each of the philosophical societies, academies,
universities, &c., in that country a copy of the prospectus, charter,
ordinances, bye-laws, and regulations of the Royal Institution of Great
Britain.

Copies were sent to different public institutions abroad.

Dr. Garnett finished his lectures on June 10. He then wrote to the
managers to say that he proposed to go into the country, but would
at all times be ready to obey the summons of the managers if his
attendance should be wanted before the commencement of the lectures.

On June 12, 1800, Count Rumford wrote to Sir Joseph Banks:

                        Royal Institution, Thursday Morning, 6 o’clock.

    I hope you can make it convenient to come and give me a lift this
    morning at our meeting, for I want you very much. Our treasurer[16]
    has not qualified, and he does not seem to be in any hurry to do
    so. I mentioned to him at our last meeting the embarrassments we
    were under for the want of a treasurer to furnish money to the
    new Committee of Expenditure; but he proposed, as an _expedient_,
    that I should draw on Ransom and Co., who he said would not refuse
    my draft. I see no reason why business should be done in this
    irregular way, when it may and ought to be done in the manner
    specially and clearly pointed out in our bye-laws. Our lectures are
    over for this season, and Garnett is going into the country to stay
    there till January next. I see no good reason why we should keep
    up our present numerous and expensive establishment of servants,
    especially as a great part of the house is coming down, and we
    shall soon have no place in the house to lodge them.

    All we can possibly want till January next are--

    Our clerk of the works         Webster

    Our clerk                      Savage

    Our messenger, who may act }
        as porter and messenger}

    And one housemaid              Blanchett

    This arrangement will enable us to discharge--

    Dr. Garnett’s assistant        Sadler

    The porter                     Wharton

    The housekeeper                Mrs. Wharton

    And one housemaid

    If this scheme should meet with your approbation, I beg that _you_
    would move the necessary resolutions to-day, and there will be more
    than one difficulty removed. As soon as this disagreeable business
    shall be completed, and everything in the house belonging to the
    Institution delivered over to the care of those persons who are to
    take and have the charge of them, my mind will be at rest, and I
    can go to Harrogate and give these waters a fair trial, which, as
    things are now circumstanced, would be impossible.

The expensive establishment was at once ordered to be reduced, and the
assistant to the Professor was discharged.

The agreement for building the new premises was this month sealed and
signed, the treasurer qualified, and the weekly meetings of managers
ceased to be held.

As soon as the basement of the new building was finished, it must have
been apparent that it was much too dark and low for a laboratory, and
this part of the intended plan was given up.

Many years afterwards Mr. Webster said of the present laboratory: ‘I
may perhaps just mention that the chemical laboratory in which so many
valuable discoveries have been made was not only designed and built by
me, but owes to me its very existence, for, though I inserted it in my
plans, the managers did not at first consider it necessary.’

In August Mr. Webster thus wrote to Count Rumford, who was then at
Harrogate:

    I have deferred writing to you so long in expectation of being
    able to send you drawings of the proposed mode of building the
    laboratory. Mr. Hatchett has been several times at the Institution
    and has given his opinion respecting it, from which the drawings
    have been made out. There was a meeting of managers on Monday
    last, at which Mr. Saunders laid before them the drawings and
    an estimate of several works which he proposed to do, and which
    were not included in the original contract. These are the engine
    and reservoir on the staircase, the removal of the water-closet
    from the place where it now stands to the roof of the laboratory;
    taking down the present stack of chimneys from the great kitchen,
    together with the breast-work in the kitchen which contains the
    range, roasters, and oven, which he considers necessary in order
    to fit up a strong closet in the managers’ room; together with a
    small addition to the fitting up of the laboratory itself, which it
    is proposed to do in a more complete and more expensive way than
    was provided for by the contract. All these additions, Mr. Saunders
    informs me, the managers approved of, and he is accordingly
    preparing the necessary agreements with Mr. Hancock for executing
    them.

    Everything in the new building goes on briskly and well. We have
    got as high as the lecture-room floor, and I expect in a month we
    shall be ready for the roof. No deviation whatever has been made
    from the plans, and all the works hitherto done have been executed
    to the satisfaction of Mr. Saunders.

    I wished to send you the drawings of the laboratory, but they not
    being quite ready, I shall take the next opportunity.

In September he wrote again:

    The timbers of the roof are on, and we are beginning to board
    it for slating. The brickwork of the laboratory is also nearly
    completed.

    Hitherto I have found employment for Mr. Wincks, the model-maker;
    when I had nothing else for him to do he has been at work upon the
    model of the pile engine, which will now be finished in a day or
    two; and, as I have not any further occasion for him to assist me,
    I shall be happy if you will write whether there is anything he
    might be employed upon until you come to town.

In another letter he says:

    The buildings are advancing rapidly, and I hope the lecture room at
    least will be ready by the 1st of January. The laboratory will, I
    think, be found very convenient, being airy and well lighted.

During his stay at Harrogate Rumford made careful experiments on
himself with regard to the warm bath. These are given in his thirteenth
essay, on the ‘Salubrity of Warm Bathing.’ He found that a daily bath
at ninety-six degrees or ninety-seven for half-an-hour two hours before
dinner for five weeks increased the appetite, the digestion, the
spirits, the strength, and the insensibility to cold.

On leaving Harrogate he went to Scotland.

A visit of ceremony was paid him by the magistrates of Edinburgh; he
was consulted respecting the abolition of mendicity, and the measures
which he recommended were speedily executed with complete success.

He was made an honorary member of the Royal Society and of the Royal
College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and he received a gold snuff-box as
a compliment for his assistance in reforming the culinary establishment
of Heriot’s Hospital, and was elected a member of the Society of
Scotland for Bettering the Condition of the Poor. His letters of thanks
for these last honours are preserved.

To the Lord Provost of Edinburgh he wrote:

    I shall always remember with pleasure, and with the most sincere
    gratitude, the kind and flattering attentions I received in
    Edinburgh during my stay there. The public honours that were
    conferred on me by the corporation of the city and by the
    University were highly gratifying to me; but nothing affected me so
    deeply as the deference which was paid to my opinions and advice on
    subjects of public utility by men in the highest stations and of
    the most respectable character and abilities, and the liberality,
    zeal, and perseverance with which the measures I took the liberty
    to recommend were adopted and pursued.

    May the important undertaking in which the inhabitants of Edinburgh
    are now engaged--the prevention of that most disgusting and
    disgraceful of public evils, mendicity--and the formation of a
    permanent establishment for the _instruction_ and _employment_ of
    the poor be completely successful, and may it serve as a model for
    imitation to every city and every town in Great Britain and Ireland.

To the Rev. George Baird, Principal of the University of Edinburgh, he
wrote from the Royal Institution, March 21, 1801, thanking him for the
honour which the Society in Scotland for Bettering the Condition and
Improving the Comfort of the Poor had conferred on him by electing him
a member.

During the autumn Webster wrote to Dr. Garnett to ask if he would help
him to become his assistant. He wished this place in order to make
himself a better teacher of operatives, and to have employment when
the additional buildings were finished. Dr. Garnett, in his reply,
says ‘an operator’s time ought to be dedicated to natural philosophy.’
‘Nevertheless,’ he said, ‘the School of Mechanics might perhaps be
carried on by the operator.’ In Webster’s answer to Dr. Garnett the
position of the School of Design at the end of September 1800 is seen.

    When I mentioned that teaching mechanics might probably form a
    part of my employment I did not speak from any certain knowledge
    on the subject, but merely because such a thing had once been in
    agitation. I have now very little reason for supposing that such
    a plan will be at all put in practice, but if ever it should, no
    doubt the managers will take care that it shall not prove any
    inconvenience to you. I could not myself engage in it upon any
    other conditions. Setting that aside, therefore, as extremely
    uncertain if not improbable....

At the end of the year hot-water pipes were ordered for warming the
theatre.

The chief events in the history of the Institution during the year 1800
may be thus summed up: The new theatre was built; large committees
for scientific investigation were formed; and the first number of
the Journal was published. No advance was made in the formation of a
repository for models; or in the foundation of a school of design.
The lectures of Dr. Garnett were successful, but he was refused
permission to practise his profession as a physician and to bring his
children to live at the Institution. Count Rumford himself ordered and
superintended _everything_ in the house. Early the next year there was
a visible rupture between him and Dr. Garnett regarding the prospectus
of the lectures for the season, and in June 1801 Dr. Garnett resigned.

The causes of this will be best seen by a short sketch of his life.

Dr. Thomas Garnett was born in 1766 in Westmoreland. He was apprenticed
to a medical man in the country and graduated as a physician
in Edinburgh in 1788. Dr. Brown at that time was teaching his
new theory of medicine, and Dr. Garnett became a strong Brunonian. In
an inaugural essay on Health, which was published ultimately, he showed
with great clearness how the doctrine of accumulated and exhausted
excitability could be applied to explain the movements in the body in
health and disease.

He left Edinburgh to study medicine in London, and in 1790 he went to
Bradford to practise his profession; there he gave some private lessons
in natural philosophy and chemistry.

In 1791, when twenty-five, he thought he should succeed better by
practising at Knaresborough in the winter and at Harrogate in the
summer. He analysed the waters at Harrogate, and in 1794 he built a
house there and determined to practise only at Harrogate. An engagement
to be married made him form a new plan for success. He persuaded his
intended wife reluctantly to agree to emigrate to America after their
marriage, which took place in the following year. Then he sold his
house in Harrogate and purchased apparatus for lectures on natural
philosophy and chemistry. On their way to America they went to
Liverpool. There, whilst waiting for a ship, he was persuaded to give a
course of lectures. This was successful, and he was invited to give the
same course on chemistry and experimental philosophy at Manchester. He
was still more successful, and invitations came to him from Warrington,
Lancaster, Birmingham, and Dublin. He did not give up his intention
of emigrating until he was offered the professorship in Anderson’s
Institution at Glasgow. His wife had borne him a daughter, and she
earnestly urged him to settle in Glasgow.

In November 1796, when thirty, he published the ‘Outlines of a Course
of Lectures on Natural and Experimental Philosophy.’ His subjects
were the properties of matter, astronomy, electricity, magnetism,
pneumatics, hydrostatics and hydraulics, optics and mechanics.

When the session at Glasgow was over he went to Liverpool to repeat his
course of lectures. In the autumn he returned to Glasgow and made known
his intention of practising as a physician there. Fortune continued to
favour him; his reputation increased and he soon had the best prospect
of the leading practice in Glasgow.

In 1797, when thirty-one, he published his ‘Outlines of a Course of
Lectures on Chemistry.’ His twenty-seventh lecture was on Agriculture;
his twenty-eighth on Bleaching; his twenty-ninth on Dyeing and on
Calico Printing; and his last on the Analysis of Mineral Waters.

On Christmas Day, 1798, his wife died in childbirth, and on New Year’s
Day he wrote this feeling letter:

    Oh! my dear cousin, little did I expect that I should begin the
    new year with telling you that I am now deprived of all earthly
    comforts; yes, the dear companion of my studies, the friend of
    my heart, the partner of my bosom, is now a piece of cold clay.
    The senseless earth is closed on that form which was so lately
    animated by every virtue, and whose only wish was to make me happy.

    Is there anything which can now afford me any consolation? Yes,
    she is not lost, but gone before; but still it is hard to have all
    our schemes of happiness wrecked when our bark was within sight of
    port. When we were promising ourselves more than common felicity
    it struck upon a rock; my only treasure went to the bottom, and I
    am cast ashore friendless and deprived of every comfort. My poor
    dead love had been as well as usual during the two or three last
    months, and even on the dreadful evening (Christmas Eve) she spoke
    with pleasure of the approaching event. My spirits were elevated to
    so uncommon a pitch by the birth of a lovely daughter, that they
    were by no means prepared for the succeeding scene; and they have
    been so overwhelmed that I sometimes hope it may be a dream out of
    which I wish to awake. The little infant is well, and I have called
    it Catherine, a name which must ever be dear to me, and which I
    wish to be able to apply to some object whom I love; for, though it
    caused the death of my hopes, it is dear to me as being the last
    precious relic of her whom everybody, who knew her, esteemed, and I
    loved. I must now bid adieu to every comfort and live only for the
    sweet babes. Oh! ’tis hard, very hard!

                                                        THOMAS GARNETT.

In the summer of 1799 Count Rumford wrote to Dr. Garnett, to whom he
was then an entire stranger, for information regarding the nature and
economy of Anderson’s Institution and the plan of the lectures given
there. This led finally to the proposal that Dr. Garnett should become
the first lecturer at Rumford’s new Institution in London.

On October 15 Dr. Garnett informed a special meeting of the managers
of Anderson’s Institution of his wish to resign his situation in order
to go to London. When Dr. Garnett arrived, December 23, the managers of
the Royal Institution resolved that he should be styled Professor of
Natural Philosophy and Chemistry to the Royal Institution. He sent to
the board a letter from which a view of the earliest lectures at the
Institution can be obtained.

                  PROFESSOR GARNETT TO THE MANAGERS.

                                                     December 23, 1799.

    TO THE MANAGERS OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION.--Count Rumford requested
    me to arrange and put on paper my ideas concerning the plan and
    economy of the Royal Institution for the perusal of the managers.
    On looking over the prospectus, however, I find the plan so well
    digested that I cannot make any improvement or even advantageous
    alteration. I shall therefore confine myself in the following
    observations to what I conceive to belong more particularly to
    my department--I mean the arrangement of the lectures--and shall
    propose a plan which, from experience, I think most likely to be
    useful; but I propose it with the utmost deference to the opinions
    of the managers, and shall be ready to make any alterations which
    they may think proper to point out.

    Our object ought undoubtedly to be both amusement and instruction.
    We shall have two classes of auditors, the one consisting of
    those who will come chiefly for amusement or because it may be
    fashionable. These it is our business to amuse, while at the same
    time I hope we shall be able to interest them in the subjects,
    and communicate considerable knowledge without any trouble to
    themselves.

    For these I would propose a popular course of experimental
    philosophy, in which all abstract reasoning shall be avoided, the
    most entertaining and interesting experiments introduced, and the
    whole calculated to afford pleasure and instruction to those who
    have not had an opportunity of examining these subjects and to
    refresh the memory of those who have.

    On the supposition that the lectures of the Institution should open
    the first week in February, if we appropriate one evening a week
    to it, we can comprise this course in eighteen or twenty lectures,
    each lecture to continue only an hour, that the attention may not
    be fatigued.

    A course of lectures on chemistry, popular and amusing, at the same
    time sufficiently scientific, might be given twice a week. This
    course would contain the elements of chemistry and the application
    of this science to the arts and manufactures, and would be
    illustrated by interesting and pleasing experiments.

    For the sake of the second class of auditors, which would not at
    first be the most numerous, but which would continually increase
    in number, even though the auditors of the other course should
    diminish--I mean those attached to scientific pursuits--I would
    propose a full and scientific course of experimental philosophy
    on the plan generally adopted in universities. In this course
    particular attention should be paid to mechanics, hydrostatics,
    hydraulics, and pneumatics, which are the most useful branches
    of mechanical philosophy. The mathematical demonstration of the
    propositions would first be given, next the experimental proof, and
    lastly the application of each to the mechanical and chemical arts.

    In this way those who could follow the mathematical demonstration
    would see the coincidence between theory and experiment, and those
    who could not would be satisfied with the experimental proof.

    As an instance we may take one proposition.

    The momentum or force of a moving body is proportioned to the
    quantity of matter multiplied by its velocity; this will first be
    demonstrated mathematically, then experimentally, and afterwards
    applied to the explanation of mechanical powers in machinery,
    projectiles, &c., illustrated by familiar examples and calculations.

    If we suppose that five mornings in the week should be devoted to
    this course, we shall be enabled to go through one hundred lectures
    before the conclusion of the session.

    It is scarcely necessary to observe that in this course opportunity
    will be taken to show working models of machinery and chemical
    processes in their proper places.

    This would be the most useful course, and, as was before observed,
    the numbers who attend it would gradually increase. At least this
    was the case at Glasgow. A morning hour would probably be best for
    this course.

    My apparatus is elegant and good. It was made for me by the
    late Mr. Adams. What the Institution will chiefly want will be
    of the supplementary kind, and will not, I apprehend, cost more
    than 150_l._ or 200_l._, supposing we purchase the most complete
    and elegant instruments, which I would strongly advise. My own
    apparatus shall be at the service of the Institution while I
    continue among you, which I hope will be while I live, and it is
    my intention eventually to bequeath it to the Institution. As
    it will be necessary to come to an arrangement as speedily as
    possible, Mr. Webster and myself, after having carefully surveyed
    the house, are of opinion that the apparatus should be placed in
    cases with glass doors, and that the best situation for it would
    be round the large room[17] on the same floor with the lecture
    room, and what could not conveniently be placed there, either on
    account of their bulk or inelegant appearance, might be put in the
    small room[18] adjoining to it. This would render this room very
    interesting to strangers, and, even considering it as a lounging
    room, it would be much better to have an elegant apparatus to look
    at than bare walls. It would likewise be much the most convenient
    as an apparatus and model room with respect to its vicinity to the
    lecture room--a circumstance of no small importance.

    With respect to a lounging room, in which persons might meet
    before the lecture, or to which they could retire during the
    lecture, I assume with submission that such a place should not _on
    any account_ be allowed. Wherever I have had accidentally such
    a convenient room in the vicinity of a lecture room I have been
    obliged to lock it up; otherwise the disturbance to the company by
    persons coming in and going out is intolerable. The lectures will
    always begin at a certain hour to a minute. If any find themselves
    a few minutes too soon, they will find an elegant lecture room,
    well warmed. This will prevent their coming into the room in a body
    and disturbing the audience and the lecturer after the lecture is
    begun.

    That matters might be put in a proper train it would, I think, be
    best to agree immediately upon the arrangement of the house, and to
    give Mr. Webster and myself, with one or more of the managers, the
    power of seeing the arrangement executed.

    I am, with much respect, your most obedient Servant,

                            THOS. GARNETT.

On January 6, 1800, the managers resolved that the morning lectures of
Dr. Garnett should be given on Tuesday and Thursday at two, and the
evening lectures at eight, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The first lecture was on Tuesday, March 4. The two rooms which now
make the upper library formed the theatre. It had been fitted up to
accommodate the greatest possible number of auditors, ‘with a greater
deference to their curiosity than to their convenience.’

In the first number of the Journal of the Institution the account
of Dr. Garnett’s lectures for the week beginning April 7 shows the
arrangements that then existed.

    MORNING LECTURES.--On Tuesday, the 8th, the lecture will be
    on Charged Electrics and the Theory of the Leyden Phial, with
    experiments. On Thursday, Respiration and Animal Heat will be
    continued, with the Effects of Oxygen in the Blood. On Saturday,
    on Hydrogen Gas and the Composition of Water, Sulphurated and
    Phosphorated Hydrogen; and a specimen of the philosophical
    fireworks with the inflammable air will be exhibited.

    EVENING LECTURES.--On Monday evening, the 7th, the subject will
    be Spontaneous Evaporation, Ignition, and Inflammation, with some
    Remarks on Light. On Wednesday evening, the Different Powers of
    Bodies as Conductors of Heat; and some Experiments with the Passage
    Thermometer. The method of confining heat and applying it to useful
    purposes with economy.

    Friday being Good Friday, no lecture will be given on that day.

    Those who come to the lectures in carriages are requested to give
    orders to their coachmen to set down and take up with their horses’
    heads towards Grafton Street.

A contemporary account says:

    During the winter the lecture room was crowded with persons
    of the first distinction and fashion, as well as by those who
    had individually contributed much to the promotion of science,
    and although the northern accent, which he still retained in a
    slight degree, rendered his voice somewhat inharmonious to a
    London audience, his modest and unaffected manner of delivering
    his opinions, his familiar and at the same time elegant language
    rendered him the object of almost universal kindness and
    approbation.

Dr. Garnett left Glasgow with the expectation that he should have
accommodation for his family in the house of the Institution, and the
first disappointment he met with was the opposition to his wishes in
this respect. When he gave up his position in Glasgow he fully intended
to enter into practice as a physician in London, but from this also he
was restrained in great measure by the managers of the Institution.

His biographer says:

    The exertions of the winter in some degree injured his health, and
    the uncertainty he saw in his prospects tended greatly to depress
    his spirits. He determined, however, to keep his place at the
    Institution.

    In the summer he rejoined his children in Westmoreland, but his
    anxiety of mind was not diminished or consequently his health
    improved by the relaxation from active employment. He walked over
    the same ground and viewed the same prospects that he had formerly
    enjoyed in the company of his wife. He had not resolution to check
    the impressions as they arose, and thus, instead of being solaced
    by the beauties which surrounded him, he gave the reins to his
    melancholy fancy, which, unchecked by any other remembrance, dwelt
    only on the affection and virtues of her whose loss he had ever
    to deplore, the want of whose society he imagined to be the chief
    source of his misery.

Dr. Garnett showed his own position when he answered the application of
Webster for his recommendation as chemical operator.

                                   Kirkby-Lonsdale, September 27, 1800.

    DEAR SIR,--I have received your letter, and, in answer to it, must
    observe that such is my opinion of both your industry and abilities
    that it would give me pleasure to serve you, and I should with the
    greatest willingness recommend you to any situation for which I
    knew you qualified. That you could in time qualify yourself for
    the situation of operator there is not the smallest doubt, but
    still it must have been evident to you that if _you_ had acted in
    that capacity last year, imperfect as the lectures were, they must
    have been much more so; for though I had an operator capable of
    preparing any experiments that could be made, still it was with
    the greatest difficulty that I could get through it. How, then,
    could I have done had my time been taken up with instructing an
    operator? And, having the greatest number of chemical things to
    prepare, I could not have got through it with any credit to myself
    or satisfaction to the managers. You are better acquainted with
    the duty of an operator than you were before the commencement of
    the lectures, and can therefore form some judgment concerning
    the knowledge requisite and the labour which it requires. It is
    unnecessary to say that an operator must give up his whole time
    to it; and, as we are to have a good laboratory, it seems to me
    necessary that he should be a good practical chemist, which he
    cannot be without working some years in a laboratory. Sadler could
    do anything in that way, and, were he a little more steady, would
    be invaluable in the Institution. You say nothing what has become
    of him. I was in hopes he might have been employed again next year.
    Indeed, the managers ought, in my opinion, to endeavour to have an
    operating chemist who would be permanent.

    That you could in time do everything required I am very far from
    doubting, and, should it be the wish of the managers, I shall be
    far from opposing it; on the contrary, were you qualified, there
    is not one person whom I should so much wish to have it. But,
    before you come to a determination, you must well consider whether
    you would relish the many dirty jobs to which it will subject
    you as well as the labour; and, if it be still your wish and
    determination, it would certainly be proper to attend an autumnal
    course of lectures. If it be your intention to remain in the
    Institution and to continue as operator, which probably might be
    carried on along with the School of Mechanics (though of this I am
    not certain, as an operator’s time ought to be dedicated to natural
    philosophy), I would do all in my power to instruct you properly;
    but to have the weight upon myself without the prospect of being
    relieved from it another year is what I dare scarce look at.

    In deciding put everything out of the question but the good of the
    Institution, for unless you can promote that you cannot promote
    your own by its means. You will, I hope, excuse my having spoken
    thus freely on the subject which so much concerns us both; consider
    it well and favour me with your sentiments again. I suppose that I
    shall be in town in about a month, but I should wish to hear from
    you before. There are probably some of my objections which you can
    remove.

                   I am, dear Sir, yours sincerely,
                                                         THOS. GARNETT.

Towards the latter end of the autumn Dr. Garnett returned to the
Institution. The differences between him and the managers soon
appeared. He prepared the outlines of a course of lectures on Natural
and Experimental Philosophy, to be delivered in 1801, and he printed
this preface: ‘This pamphlet contains the outlines of the popular
course on Natural and Experimental Philosophy, delivered at the
Royal Institution every Tuesday at two o’clock during the present
session.--Royal Institution, February 2, 1801.’

At the same time he printed another pamphlet--‘Outlines of a Course of
Lectures on Chemistry delivered at the Royal Institution,’ and to it
he put this preface: ‘This work contains the outlines of the course
of chemistry delivered at the Royal Institution by the Professor of
Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, every Thursday and Saturday at two
o’clock during the present season.--Royal Institution, February 2,
1801.’

In the table of contents he gave thirty lectures, and it was almost
exactly a reprint of the table of contents of the lectures on chemistry
published by him in 1797.

There can be no doubt that Dr. Garnett printed these pamphlets, the
one of twelve and the other of two hundred and sixteen pages, without
consulting the managers; for at their meeting on February 2, 1801, they
resolved that the annual courses of philosophical and chemical lectures
at the Royal Institution should commence ‘as soon as the new theatre
can be got ready for them, and that Count Rumford be authorised to
take all such steps on the part of the managers as shall be necessary
in that business;’ and they also resolved that Sir Joseph Banks,
Henry Cavendish, and Count Rumford be a committee to superintend the
drawing up and publication of a suitable syllabus or account of the
philosophical and chemical lectures given at the Royal Institution.
They further resolved that no syllabus of lectures or other account
of what is doing or done, or to be done, at the Royal Institution,
be published by any person or persons without the permission of the
aforesaid committee, or the express leave of the managers formally
signified in writing. This last resolution shows that Count Rumford
had then probably determined that Dr. Garnett should give up his
professorship at the Royal Institution.

On February 16 the managers resolved that their resolutions of
February 2 should be communicated to Dr. Garnett, and on this day
they determined to engage Mr. Humphry Davy as Assistant Lecturer
on Chemistry. Still the managers did not decide on the removal of
Professor Garnett, for the following letter shows that Count Rumford at
this time had some conversation with him as to the terms upon which he
would give up his rooms in the house. On February 22 Dr. Garnett wrote
to Count Rumford:

    SIR,--I have considered the matter you did me the honour to desire
    I would deliberate upon, and I place much confidence that when
    you and the other managers of the Royal Institution reflect upon
    the necessary expenditure for rent, coals, and candles, domestics
    and other out-goings, the sum of 100_l._ per annum will not be
    considered as an improper allowance for giving up the apartments
    and advantages assigned me in the house of the Institution by the
    honourable managers.

    You will allow me to add that I have also considered the
    possibility of my residing out of the house occasioning any
    inconvenience to the interests of the Institution, and that if
    upon the maturest consideration I was not confident no such
    inconvenience could arise, there is no personal compensation that
    could tempt me to quit my residence in the house of the Institution.

    It is with great deference I take the advantage at the same time
    to submit to your and the other managers’ consideration whether
    the funds of the Institution are in your and their judgment in a
    condition to authorise any of that gradual increase of my salary
    of 300_l._ which the resolution of September 14, 1799, gave me
    well-founded reason to hope for, and which I now most cheerfully
    and with perfect confidence beg to leave to the candour and
    liberality of yourself and the managers.

    I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your very
    obedient Servant,

                                                         THOS. GARNETT.

On February 23 it was resolved that the consideration of Dr. Garnett’s
letter be postponed till the annual accounts of the Institution for the
present year be made up and the state of its finances ascertained.

The lectures began in February. His biographer says: ‘The transactions
of the winter almost completely undermined his constitution. He
became sallow, listless, melancholy. A gloomy day or the smallest
disappointment gave him inconceivable distress.

‘The effect produced upon his lecturing was remarkable. Debility of
body as well as uneasiness of mind incapacitated him. His spirited
and, at the same time modest, method of delivery was changed into one
languid and hesitating. He would have resigned in the middle of his
course, and on one occasion at least Count Rumford, at a few hours’
notice, found a substitute to lecture for him.’ This was on the evening
of March 2, when with the shortest possible notice Count Rumford got
Dr. Crichton to give the lecture on account of the illness of Dr.
Garnett.

He again wrote to the managers on May 11, and on the 25th a special
meeting of the managers was held, and it was resolved that ‘the
managers, taking into consideration the two applications of Dr.
Garnett, are unanimously of opinion that they cannot agree to make any
alteration in his present salary and situation.’

On June 1 Davy was appointed Lecturer on Chemistry.

On June 15 it was resolved by the managers unanimously that Dr.
Garnett’s resignation should be accepted, that his salary up to the end
of the year should be paid to him by the Committee of Expenditure, and
that his letter of resignation should be preserved. Unfortunately this
letter does not exist now.

‘Dr. Garnett had long determined to apply himself to medical practice,
and at the same time to give private lectures, to secure that income of
which he seemed fated to be disappointed.’

In the summer of 1801 he removed to Great Marlborough Street, and
brought his family to London, and he sought for practice as a
physician. He built a lecture room; he made arrangements for editing
the ‘Annals of Philosophy, Natural History, Chemistry, Literature,
Agriculture, and Fine Arts’ for the year 1800, intending to continue
it yearly; and he prepared himself to give not less than eight courses
of lectures during the winter. At his own house he gave two courses
on Chemistry, one on Mineralogy, one on Botany, two on Experimental
Philosophy, and a private course on this subject also; he gave a course
on Botany at Brompton, and in a room at Tom’s Coffee House, in the
City, a course of popular lectures on Zoonomia, or the Laws of Animal
Life in Health and Disease. This was for the convenience of medical
students and others in that part of the town.

A return of ill health prevented him from completing some of these
courses, but he used every means to increase his private practice.
In May 1802 he was elected physician to the Marylebone Dispensary,
which he thought would bring the success which he seemed never able
to obtain. Very weak in body and not exempt from anxiety of mind, he
began the hard work of his Dispensary. He caught typhus fever from one
of the patients in June, and died on the 28th of that month.

He left his children penniless.

On August 2 Dr. Garnett’s executor, Mr. Parker, asked permission to
have the popular lectures on the Laws of Animal Life, the Zoonomia,
printed at the press of the Royal Institution, and that the printer to
the Institution, Mr. W. Savage, might receive subscriptions for the
publication of the work. The managers resolved to subscribe for the
Institution 50_l._, and in 1804, when the work was published in quarto,
they allowed it to be dedicated to them, a privilege which they refused
on many occasions afterwards. The dedication was in these words:

    To the Right Honourable and Honourable the Managers of the Royal
    Institution of Great Britain these Lectures, composed by a man who,
    in his lifetime, was honoured by their selection as their first
    lecturer, and whose infant family have since experienced their
    benevolence and protection, are, with permission, dedicated by the
    trustees of the subscription in favour of these orphans.

The amount of the subscription was nearly two thousand guineas.




CHAPTER IV.

THE PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION TO THE RESIGNATION OF PROFESSOR YOUNG.

1801 to 1803.

WITH THE LIFE OF DR. THOMAS YOUNG.

1773 to 1829.


In 1801 Count Rumford continued to carry out his plans at the
Institution. In February he engaged Mr. Humphry Davy as Assistant
Lecturer on Chemistry, Director of the Chemical Laboratory, and
Assistant Editor of the Journals. On March 11 Davy arrived at the
Institution and took possession of his situation, and in April he began
to lecture.

In this month the managers decided to build five new bed-rooms, forming
the south attics, equalising the height of the house.

Sir John Hippesley declined to continue the treasurership. He drew up
the following abstract of accounts from the commencement to April 30 of
this year: Receipts, 19,257_l._ 8_s._; Expenditure, 12,601_l._ 2_s._
1_d._; Consols, costing 4,471_l._ 5_s._; Balance at Banker’s, 2,185_l._
0_s._ 11_d._; Debts due, 4,400_l._: making a disposable sum of between
10,000_l._ and 11,000_l._ ‘Now, as all bills are paid, there are
sufficient grounds to hope that the managers will be able not only to
finish all the new works, but also to furnish the different apartments
and workshops, and complete the arrangement of the establishment in all
its details, without incurring any permanent debt, or calling upon the
subscribers for any part of the 7,000_l._ which was generously offered
for defraying the expense of the new buildings.’ Lord Kinnaird was
elected treasurer.

In May Count Rumford reported that, ‘as a Master of the Workshops will
soon be wanted, he had taken considerable pains to find out some person
qualified for that office, and he had found a sober, steady, single,
mathematical instrument maker, to whom he proposed to give 80_l._ a
year and a room in the house.’

Sir Joseph Banks recommended Mr. Böekman, a German chemist, to be
engaged in the laboratory at 50_l._ a year and a room in the house.

On May 25 Count Rumford laid before the managers his report on
the progress, present state, and probable future prosperity and
utility of the Institution. This was ordered to be printed in the
Journals of the Institution, and this report, with a paper by Count
Rumford--‘Observations Relative to the Means of Increasing the
Quantities of Heat Obtained in the Combustion of Fuel’--forms the
second number of the Journals edited by Rumford alone.

In this paper a picture is seen of the Institution as Rumford wished
it to be. Except when prevented by illness and care for his health, he
had worked night and day with all his energy to make his prospectus of
February 1799 a realised fact. After twenty-eight months the idea was
carried out. Rumford’s Institution was formed. He gives a long account
of all he had done and of all he intended to do. Hence this report is a
record of his mind as well as a record of the Institution.

He dismisses the professors, and lectures, and lecture rooms with
four lines. He dwells at more length on the spacious and complete
chemical laboratory, furnished for carrying on upon a large scale all
the various processes of practical chemistry and chemical analysis and
for making new and interesting experiments. He speaks of a director
of the laboratory, a chemical operator, and an assistant in the
laboratory (a very ingenious German chemist), who will devote his whole
time to the business of it. Nearly a page is given to the workshops
of the Institution, ‘where models of new and useful inventions will
be constructed and sold at reasonable prices to professors and
subscribers.’ ‘These are quite finished, and are now furnished with the
most complete set of tools that can be procured.’

He speaks of the Master of the Workshops, who will take care of the
philosophical apparatus and direct the workmen, and says he will
likewise superintend and instruct all such ingenious and well-behaved
young men as may, at the recommendation of the professors, be admitted
into the workshops of the Institution to receive instruction and to
complete their education in any one or more of the mechanic arts. The
following workmen, he says, are already engaged for the workshops of
the Institution, viz.--

    A mathematical instrument maker, a model maker, a cabinet maker,
    a carpenter, a worker in brass and copper, a tin-plate worker, and
    an iron-plate worker. To these will soon be added bricklayers and
    stonemasons, who will be instructed and enabled to instruct others
    in setting new-invented grates, roasters, ovens, boilers, &c.

    A complete kitchen for a small family has been put up for
    examination in the housekeeper’s room. The principal kitchen
    will be begun in a few weeks. It will contain roasters, ovens,
    boilers, steamers on the newest and most improved construction,
    and will be kept in daily use. In order that the proprietors and
    inventors may be enabled to judge from actual experiment of the
    merit of any new-method of cooking, or any new dish that may be
    proposed, a dining room has been built, and will soon be ready for
    use, at the house of the Institution, in which the managers will
    occasionally order _experimental dinners_, to which the proprietors
    and subscribers will be invited, in as far as the accommodations
    will admit. The expense of such dinners to be defrayed by those who
    partake of them.

    A conversation room has been set apart, so that silence may be
    kept in the reading rooms. There will be maps, pens, and ink in
    the conversation room, and as soon as some necessary previous
    arrangements (which are now actually making) shall be finished,
    those who frequent this room will be furnished at the most
    reasonable prices from the housekeepers room below with soups of
    various kinds, tea, coffee, chocolate, and other refreshments.

    Two letter-boxes have been established in the great hall.

    A complete printing office exists. The Journals will appear at
    regular intervals, probably once a week. The reports of the various
    committees for specific scientific investigations (which will
    soon be appointed by the managers) will no doubt furnish much
    interesting matter for the Journals of the Institution.

    Twenty-five foreign periodical scientific publications, and
    twenty-four domestic periodical scientific and literary
    publications are regularly taken in. Twenty-four new foreign
    publications on scientific subjects have been purchased for the
    library, and many valuable books have been presented. Nine daily
    newspapers are taken in.

He goes on to say:

    One of the most interesting details of the Institution still
    remains to be mentioned. It is the repository. The measures
    necessary for forming it have not been neglected, but from its
    nature it cannot be finished, nor indeed can it be begun, till the
    establishment is quite complete in all its other essential parts.
    Models of mechanical inventions and contrivances, in order to their
    being really useful, must be so made as to serve for imitation;
    consequently they must be constructed with the greatest care, and
    they cannot be made in the workshops of the Royal Institution
    till those shops are fitted up and furnished with the best tools
    and the best workmen. These workshops will soon be completed and
    properly manned. In the meantime a spacious and elegant room, 44
    feet long and 32 feet wide, with the ceiling supported by two rows
    of columns, has been built for the repository, and will be finished
    in a month and ready to receive machines for public inspection.
    [This was the room beneath the theatre.] It may be useful to
    observe here that it never was the intention of the managers, nor
    of any of them, to expose to public view models of machines of all
    kinds indiscriminately. Considerable alarms have, it is said, been
    occasioned among some of our principal manufacturers from an idea
    that the construction of their machines and the valuable secrets of
    their trade, on which the excellence of their manufactures depend,
    are in danger of being disclosed by means of the public lectures
    and exhibitions of the Royal Institution, but the event will show
    that these apprehensions are without foundation.

    The measure lately adopted by the managers for completing the attic
    story will be finished before the end of November.

    As soon as this addition to the buildings shall be completed, and
    not before, there will be room in the house for the accommodation
    of a certain number of young men, from eighteen to twenty
    in number, of different mechanical professions, who, at the
    recommendation of proprietors, will be taken into the house to be
    instructed; who will be boarded and lodged in the house and be
    employed in the workshops, and for whose improvement in drawing,
    practical geometry, and mathematics an evening school, under the
    direction of the Clerk of the Works (Mr. Webster), who was formerly
    a teacher in such a school, will be established in the house in a
    room adjoining the workshops. As most of the young men who will be
    admitted to this seminary will probably come from distant parts
    of the country, and will return home after a residence of three
    or four months at the Institution, carrying with them a perfect
    knowledge of such new and useful inventions applicable to the
    common purposes of life as may be deserving of being generally
    known and adopted, it is easy to foresee that this arrangement will
    be of great and extensive public utility. It is, perhaps, that part
    of the establishment precisely which will be the most interesting,
    and which will contribute the most powerfully to the attainment
    of the principal object of the Institution--_the diffusing the
    knowledge and facilitating the general introduction of useful
    mechanical inventions and improvements_.

    The proprietors, he says, were 325; life subscribers, 268; and
    annual subscribers, 527.

He concludes thus:

    We may safely look forward with confidence to a period not far
    distant when the Royal Institution of Great Britain, complete in
    all its details, and in full activity, will become so interesting
    that every person of liberality and discernment who takes pleasure
    in contemplating the process of human improvement, will be desirous
    of belonging to it and willing to assist in promoting its permanent
    prosperity.

In June Davy was made Lecturer, instead of Assistant Lecturer, in
Chemistry, and in a few days Dr. Garnett resigned. A permanent
committee, consisting of Charles Hatchett, chairman, Lord Dundas, Mr.
Howard, Mr. Chenevix, Mr. Pepys, Dr. G. Pearson, Mr. Nicholson, and Mr.
Carlisle, was appointed for the purposes of chemical investigation and
analysis; to make such experiments in the laboratory of the Institution
as they think useful; Messrs. Hatchett, Howard, and Nicholson were
requested to draw up a few short rules for the ordinary meetings and
manner of conducting the business of the committee; and once a month or
once a fortnight the committee was to be allowed to dine together at
the house of the Institution.

The managers resolved that on November 2 Mr. Davy should begin a course
of lectures on Tanning; that he should have leave of absence in July,
August, and September, to learn the practical part of the business; and
that respectable persons of the trade, if recommended by proprietors of
the Institution, should be admitted gratis.

In order to obtain more support Count Rumford drew up in his own name a
letter to be sent as a circular with a printed fly-leaf. The heading of
it ran thus:

    Being desirous of becoming a member of the Royal Institution of
    Great Britain, I request that Count Rumford would propose me to
    the managers of the said Institution as a candidate for election
    in the class pointed out in the column below, in which my name is
    subscribed.

    1st class proprietors, who up to May 1802 pay seventy guineas; 2nd
    class life subscribers, who pay twenty guineas; 3rd class annual
    subscribers, three guineas.

The letter states that, as the Institution will certainly become more
interesting and more useful in proportion as it is made more complete
and more extensive in all its numerous details, it is very desirable
that as great a number as possible of respectable individuals should
be induced to unite in its support and interest themselves in its
prosperity; and then, after mentioning that its plan has been much
praised abroad, it says:

    And if some persons in this country, influenced by
    misrepresentation or by groundless apprehensions or other motives,
    have been withheld from giving to the undertaking their countenance
    and support, the character, reputation, and distinguished rank of
    many of those who have been most active in promoting it, and who
    certainly may be supposed to be best acquainted with its nature
    and tendency, and above all the ostensible patronage of our most
    gracious Sovereign, who has given so many proofs of his solicitude
    to encourage useful improvements and to discourage dangerous and
    doubtful innovations, ought to be sufficient to relieve the doubts
    of all, and to recommend the Royal Institution of Great Britain to
    the support of all those who take pleasure in contributing to the
    diffusion of useful knowledge and the encouragement of industry and
    ingenuity.

The postscript says:

    Any one or more gentlemen of your acquaintance whom you shall
    recommend will be proposed to the managers, and will no doubt be
    elected.

Soon after the third number of the Journal was edited by Rumford alone.
It contained a paper on the ‘Use of Steam as a Vehicle for Conveying
Heat from one Place to another,’ by Count Rumford, and ‘An Account of
a New Eudyometer,’ by Mr. Davy.

In July Count Rumford returned to his own house, but he was requested
to continue his general superintendence of the works in the same
manner as if he had continued to reside in the house. Dr. Young, at
the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks, was made Professor of Natural
Philosophy, Editor of the Journals, and Superintendent of the House,
with 300_l._ a year and rooms. In the autumn Dr. Young alone edited the
fourth number of the Journal, which consisted only of the outlines of a
view of galvanism, which Davy had made his first course of lectures.

In August the Committee of Chemistry agreed to the following rules:
To meet by summons the third Wednesday of every month at 7 P.M.
That all decisions should be by ballot. The decisions respecting
experiments to be undertaken should be made by a majority, consisting
of three or more members. That the orders to the proper officers of
the Institution concerning experiments should be strictly attended
to, and be immediately carried into effect. That by unanimous ballot
the Committee should elect new members. That every question should be
put in writing, proposed, and seconded. That apparatus or materials,
if immediately required, should be obtained without reference to the
Committee of Managers. That the clerk should attend and take notes of
all the proceedings of the Committee.

The managers immediately agreed that no person should be added to any
committee without previous consultation with the committee on the
qualification of the candidate proposed for election.

In the autumn Count Rumford went to Paris and Germany, and made the
acquaintance of Madame Lavoisier. He returned by Paris. The clerk, Mr.
W. Savage, wrote to him, probably in December:

    In obedience to your commands, I annex an account of the present
    state of the works at the Royal Institution.

He then gives the state of the laboratory, the workshops for iron and
copper, the joiners’ workshops, the kitchen, the library, the hall, and
passage to the conversation room.

He then says:

    The repository is in the same state you left it; indeed, it has
    been, and is at present, a workshop for the plumbers and glaziers.

    The printing office. We are busy printing Dr. Young’s syllabus and
    beginning Mr. Davy’s. Dr. Young’s is expected to make 10 or 12
    sheets. Of Mr. Davy’s there is none printed off. It is meant to be
    6 sheets. We print 1,000 on common paper and 100 on large paper of
    Dr. Young’s, and 500 on common paper and 50 large of Mr. Davy’s.
    We have printed one sheet for a number of the Journals which
    contains part of Mr. Davy’s paper on Galvanism, but it appears very
    uncertain when we shall publish it. [This was No. 4.]

    The apparatus for warming the lecture room is fitted up. They have
    tried it, but have not yet been able to raise the temperature more
    than 5 degrees. It is considerably hotter under the seats, and they
    have bored a great number of holes through the front of them to
    admit the hot air into the room.

    Mr. Davy’s rooms are fitted up; he does not mean to give separate
    courses of lectures on tanning, and on staining and printing
    cotton, but purposes to incorporate them in his general course. The
    attic floor is far from being finished; they have not yet begun
    to plaster it, but it is all lathed. There are three additional
    annual subscribers, one of them through your letter (the circular).
    The Committee of Chemistry have resolved to recommend to the
    managers to provide apparatus to the amount of 314_l._ 11_s._ for
    the laboratory, and to stop the passage through and attach the
    servants’ hall to the laboratory.[19]

He ends his letter thus:

    I anxiously wish for your return, as I can perceive that the
    Institution begins to feel the want of you. I have the honour to
    be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your most humble Servant,

                                                                  W. S.

The energy of supervision and the power of organisation of Count
Rumford enabled him in 1801 to work out most of his plan; but to keep
it in action far more money was wanted than he had obtained, and to
perfect it he must have continued much longer to act the part of a
dictator. Before 1801 was ended a new and powerful interest began to
draw him away from his Institution and from England.

In three years he had made more or less perfect working models of an
industrial school for mechanics; of a society for diffusing useful
knowledge by publications and lectures; of a mechanical exhibition of
things useful to the poor and to the rich; of an association for the
promotion of scientific investigation by means of different committees
of workers; and of a convenient modern club, with a school of cookery
attached to it. He had included all these objects in one design, and
had placed them under one roof.

He was not yet fifty years old, and after the events through which his
energy had carried him he saw no difficulty, and thought it would be
easy to make his most complicated Institution prove to the world how
scientific knowledge might be useful to the lower as well as to the
higher classes. He expected to gain the support of the whole nation. He
wished that his Institution should be approved by all the world.

The difficulties and dangers that arose as he worked out his plan
became only stimulants to his energy, and if engagements at Munich and
attractions at Paris had not interfered, he would not have allowed
his original Institution to fail from any want of support or from any
opposition to his designs.

Already he had made enemies and met with difficulties, and early in
1802 political necessity and private interest led him abroad, and made
him agree to changes which affected the foundations of his Institution,
and caused it to approach in some respects nearer to its present form.
Thus the year 1802 saw the first great change in the management of the
Royal Institution.

In the sixth number of the Journal of the Institution the lectures of
Young, and in the seventh number the lectures of Davy, which began on
January 21, are mentioned by Young thus:

    As the object of the Journals is to present to their readers
    discussions tending either to practical utility or to the
    illustrations of the principles of science, so particulars of any
    mode of demonstration either new or not commonly known that may
    occur in the lectures will be noticed.

    Not that anything like an abstract is intended, for this may be
    found in the compendiums already published; but it may be the more
    proper to notice some experiments as it has not been possible to
    introduce an enumeration of experiments into those compendiums.

In a meeting of the Committee of Chemistry of the Institution on the
20th of January it was resolved that--

    The Committee of Chemistry, having taken into consideration the
    present state of knowledge respecting the history of metallic
    alloys, and being of opinion that this branch of chemistry (so
    eminently important to science and so useful to various arts) has
    not been hitherto investigated with due accuracy, resolve that a
    series of experiments shall be made in the laboratory of the Royal
    Institution, in order to ascertain with all possible precision the
    physical and chemical properties of these metallic compounds.

This is probably the germ of Faraday’s investigation of the alloys of
steel.

Count Rumford moved that all the stock 7,000_l._ in the funds belonging
to the Institution should be sold out to pay for the new buildings and
other debts.

Early in February it was resolved that each proprietor should have
an extra transferable ticket, ‘to facilitate the admission of such
artists and mechanics as may derive advantage from the public lectures
delivered at the Institution, which will give admittance to the gallery
only of the great lecture room and to no other part of the house.

‘Resolved,--That this new arrangement, which is intended as an
experiment, do continue as long as the managers shall deem it
expedient.’

On April 12 Count Rumford passed a resolution to increase the payments
of life subscribers to forty guineas and of annual subscribers to four
guineas, and to elect a new class of subscribers to the lectures only,
the payment being two guineas. A requisition had been drawn up and
signed to call a general meeting of the proprietors to enlarge the body
of managers and visitors to fifteen, and to stop the election of more
proprietors. Count Rumford did not sign this requisition. The managers
who signed it were Winchelsea, Morton, Pelham, Banks, Sullivan, and
Hatchett.

That the management of the Institution at this time was by no means
harmonious is seen by a letter of Mr. Webster to his mother, and by
his recollections, written some time afterwards, of the failure of the
school for mechanics, of which he was to have been master.

                                                       January 8, 1802.

    I wish I could give you a more favourable account of my situation
    at the Institution. I believe I told you it did not by any means
    answer my expectations; the men who conduct it at present cannot
    always be its managers, and its very system may and probably will
    be very much altered at some future period.... Except some change
    takes place in the domestic arrangements of the Institution, I do
    not think that I shall sleep there again; I am sorry to say that
    whatever good qualities the managers possess--and they are by no
    means deficient in them--they have shown very little attention to
    the comforts of those employed in it.

In his recollections he says:

    But this project for improving mechanics, well intended as it was,
    which promised to be so useful, and which had already gained
    for the Institution ‘golden opinions,’ was doomed to be crushed
    by the timidity (for I shall forbear to speak more harshly) of a
    few. I was asked rudely (by an individual whom I shall not now
    name) what I meant by instructing the _lower classes_ in science.
    I was told likewise that it was resolved upon that the plan must
    be _dropped_ as _quietly as possible_. It was thought to have a
    dangerous political tendency, and I was told that if I persisted
    I would become a _marked man_! It was in vain to argue--the time
    was unfavourable--and I found the necessity of yielding. No notice
    was ever given publicly that the idea of instructing the mechanic
    was abandoned, and I have no doubt but that in many parts of the
    kingdom the Institution got the credit of great liberality long
    after the mechanics’ school had become extinct.

    I have no wish to detail now a thousand circumstances curious
    enough in a historical point of view connected with my residence
    in the house of the Royal Institution; suffice it to say that,
    notwithstanding I became much known and had many friends, yet my
    chief views being evidently thwarted, and there being no prospect
    of my situation becoming valuable in a pecuniary way, I thought
    it was high time to think of my own interest, and I determined
    on becoming a landscape painter, a profession which then offered
    considerable prospects in a very agreeable and independent
    occupation. Count Rumford left England about the same time,
    certainly neither rewarded nor thanked in proportion to the good he
    had done.

    The management of the Institution now fell into other hands, and,
    from what appeared to me very erroneous reasoning, my mechanics’
    stone staircase was pulled down at a considerable expense. All the
    culinary and other contrivances which the Count and I had taken
    so much trouble to fit up in the kitchen as an exhibition--and
    many of them were really good things--were put away. The workmen
    employed in the house to make models were discharged, there being
    no one to direct them. The lecture room had been warmed by steam
    and satisfactorily. When the boiler was worn out (as things will in
    time) the whole steam apparatus was taken away by the ironmonger
    then employed, and something of his own was put up, which for years
    was an annoyance to Mr. Faraday, who did not even know that steam
    had ever been employed till I informed him. In short, it might seem
    as if the then managers had resolved that the Institution should
    _not_ be for the application of science to the common purposes of
    life.

On April 26 Mr. Webster was allowed leave of absence for the benefit
of his health until December 1, and he was given 50_l._ on account of
his salary. This was his retirement from the Institution. In 1826 he
was appointed house secretary of the Geological Society, and Curator of
the Museum. He died in 1844, Professor of Geology in the (then) London
University.

At the meeting of managers and visitors on the same day Count Rumford
made a report on the present state of the Institution. This was the
last meeting of the managers that he ever attended.

He said: ‘I shall briefly state what has been accomplished since my
last report on May 25, 1801, and what still remains to be done to
complete this great and interesting establishment in all its details.’

He spoke of the new lecture room as holding nine hundred persons; ‘a
whisper may be distinctly heard from one extremity to the other, and no
echo is ever perceived in it on any occasion.’

    This theatre is warmed in cold weather by steam, which, coming
    in covered and concealed tubes from the lower part of the house,
    circulates in a large semicircular copper tube eight inches in
    diameter and above sixty feet long, which is concealed under the
    rising seats of the pit.

    The repository already contains a considerable number of specimens
    of new and useful mechanical contrivances. The chemical laboratory,
    in which there is provision made for placing and using no less than
    sixteen furnaces of different kinds at the same time, is quite
    finished.

    All the workshops of the Institution are now quite finished, and
    they have been furnished with the most complete sets of tools that
    could be procured, and several excellent workmen are now employed
    in them; and a great variety of useful articles designed as models
    of imitation have already been manufactured in the house, and are
    ready to be delivered to any of the proprietors or subscribers to
    the Institution who may be disposed to purchase them.

    The great kitchen at the house of the Institution has been
    furnished, and now contains a variety of new and useful utensils
    and implements of cookery, many of which are in daily use, and
    others (which are not) are so exposed to view as to be easily
    understood and their merit appreciated.

He then gives an account of each room. The present lower library was
divided into two rooms, the first for foreign newspapers, the other
for books. Over these rooms was the second lecture room, which at some
future period was to become the library.

    It will be useful for occasional lectures, and for exhibiting new
    experiments, and for the meetings of the committees.

    The conversation room has been furnished, and everything has been
    prepared for its being used as a coffee room. It is now set apart
    for the daily papers.

    The proprietors since June had increased 16, the life subscribers
    16, and annual subscribers 122. All the new works to be done and
    every demand would amount to 3,900_l._ The balance at the banks and
    the debts to the Institution came to 8,100_l._ The Institution has
    been completed without any debt, and the annual income is quite
    sufficient to defray all the expenses of keeping it up.

He ended thus:

    The Royal Institution of Great Britain may therefore be considered
    as finished and freely established. That it may long continue to
    flourish is no doubt the ardent wish of those who are connected
    with it, and also of all those who are acquainted with the
    principles on which it is founded, and who know how powerfully it
    must contribute to the general diffusion of an active spirit of
    inquiry and useful improvement among all the ranks of society.

Such was Count Rumford’s favourable statement when he was about to take
leave for a time, and, as it proved, for ever, of the Institution he
had founded.

The contrast between this report and that which he made to the managers
only one week afterwards shows that he was very suddenly made aware of
the changes which his absence would occasion in the Institution.

This, his last report, was dated May 3, and it was taken into
consideration by the managers the day after he left for Bavaria. He
begins by saying that at the desire of the managers he has made some
inquiries and taken some preparatory steps for making several new
arrangements in the internal regulation of the house of the Institution.

    First, of the Journals, to relieve the managers from the care and
    anxiety which is ever inseparably connected with the direction of
    business of account, of multifarious detail, and where inspection
    and control are difficult and sometimes impossible. It was proposed
    to put the publication of the Journals into the hands of Dr. Young,
    Mr. Davy, and Mr. Savage, on conditions which made them take the
    printing-office without the power of disposing of it.

    Second, of the workshops of the Royal Institution. These are
    proposed to be put into the hands of some respectable tradesman,
    to be managed by him under certain regulations at his own expense
    and for his own benefit. Mr. Feetham, a respectable ironmonger of
    Oxford Street, offered to take charge of the workshops of workers
    in metal,[20] which is immediately under the managers’ room, and
    carry on at his own expense and risk the same kinds of work with
    the same workmen.

    Charles Royce, who, in the absence of Mr. Webster, acts as an
    assistant of the professor and chemical lecturer, is ready to
    engage to carry on the business of the model-makers’ workshops at
    the house of the Institution on his own account, and at his own
    private expense and risk, promising to furnish at fair prices to
    all proprietors and subscribers such models as they may order. He
    will likewise continue to assist Dr. Young and Mr. Davy at their
    public lectures.

    If these arrangements are carried out, the office of Steward of the
    House and Master of the Workshops, held by Mr. M‘Cullock, might
    be suppressed. Mr. Royce will only require a boy to clean the
    laboratory.

    Of the coffee room and dining room. It has been proposed to give
    the management of these to some individual who shall agree to
    furnish the proprietors and subscribers with refreshments at his
    own account and risk.

He ended his dictatorship with these abdicating words:

    All the different subjects mentioned in this report remain for
    future discussion among the managers.

Many proofs exist that Count Rumford took little counsel from others in
founding the Royal Institution.

In the works of Peter Pindar (Dr. Walcot) (vol. v. p. 458) there is an
epistle to Count Rumford containing these lines and this note:

    ‘But what an insolence in me to prate,
    Pretend to him to open Wisdom’s gate,
    Who spurns advice, like weeds, where’er it springs,
    Disdaining counsel,[A] though it comes from kings.’

    [A] ‘Here I must beg leave to differ from the Count. Although a
    man may, like the Count, possess _extraordinary intellect_, and
    though a man may be the _best judge_ of _himself_, nevertheless it
    is _indecorous_ to treat the opinions of _others_ with contempt.
    The Count’s constant assertion is, ‘I never was yet in the wrong;
    I know everything.’ Granting this to be true, the declaration
    nevertheless is _arrogant_ and supercilious.’

In the ‘Monthly Magazine, or British Register’ for May 1815, in a
memoir of Count Rumford, speaking of his connexion with the Royal
Institution, and of the quarrels which arose among the managers, this
passage occurs:

    We feel it proper to state that the Count assumed the character
    of absolute controller, as well as the projector, of this
    establishment, and conducted himself with a degree of _hauteur_
    which disgusted its patrons, and almost broke the heart of our
    amiable friend and its first professor, Dr. Garnett.

And in Dr. Thomas Thompson’s ‘Annals of Philosophy’ for April 1815
a biographical account of Count Rumford is given, and the following
inaccurate statement is made:

    I pass over his quarrel with the managers of the Royal Institution,
    about the nature of which I am not fully informed, though I suppose
    it was an attempt on the part of the Count to retain in his own
    hands the entire management of that Institution. Be that as it may,
    the result of the dispute induced him to leave London, to which he
    never again returned.

Differences with the managers had nothing to do with Count Rumford’s
departure from London. The immediate cause is seen in his letter to
his daughter from Munich on October 2, 1801. He had promised the new
Elector to return as soon as the Royal Institution was in order. Dr.
Young states that the superiority of the climate of France was partly,
if not entirely, the cause of his leaving England. Probably the
influence of Madame Lavoisier had its full effect.

Count Rumford left England for Munich on May 9. It is quite certain
that when he left he intended to return to his Institution and his
house, to his housekeeper and his servants in Brompton Row. It is
equally certain that he no longer was on terms of intimacy with Mr.
Bernard, who was still a visitor of the Institution, and that he
kept up no correspondence during his absence with the other managers
regarding his Institution except with Sir Joseph Banks. Before he had
left England one month those objects which he had considered likely to
bear the best fruits at the Institution were marked for destruction,
and they gradually withered away.

The state of the funds was the cause of the immediate change. The
bills due were 3,900_l._ the balance at the bankers’ was 3,180_l._ The
arrears came to 4,960_l._ 10_s._, but these were chiefly bad debts.

In 1799 the income was 6,379_l._; in 1800, 11,047_l._; in 1801,
3,474_l._; whilst in 1802 it was only 2,999_l._ Moreover the
expenditure was increasing.

Meeting after meeting was held in May 1802 to make arrangements for
reducing the expenditure in the workshops and printing-office. In June
the resolution of Count Rumford to increase the rates of subscription
to be paid by life and annual subscribers was unanimously rescinded.

In July Dr. Young, when applying for leave of absence, had to ask for
the balance of his salary, and Mr. Davy at the same time requests that
he may be allowed a part of his salary.

In the autumn the managers seem from the Minutes to have held only two
meetings between July 5 and December 6.

But on December 20 Mr. Bernard, visitor, Lord Kinnaird, treasurer, and
Mr. Auriol, secretary, were requested by the managers to take into
consideration the state of the Institution, and to report their opinion
upon such measures and regulations as may appear to them eligible to
be adopted for reducing the expenses and increasing the benefit of the
Institution.

An accident, as it may be called, this year led the thoughts of Davy
to agricultural chemistry, and ultimately gave him a reputation in the
country resembling that which Liebig afterwards obtained.

During the summer it was resolved that the Board of Agriculture should
be allowed the use of the lecture room for a course of lectures on the
Application of Chemistry to Agriculture, provided the subscribers and
the proprietors of the Institution were allowed admission; and ‘if
the professors of the Institution can be of any service in assisting
or forwarding the wishes of the Board of Agriculture in giving these
lectures, the managers have no objection to their being employed.’ The
following year Davy gave in consequence his first course on Agriculture.

In 1803 the existence of the Royal Institution was in peril. This is
apparent from a letter written by Sir John Hippesley, in 1820, to the
President of the Board of Agriculture suggesting an amalgamation of the
two societies. He said: ‘I recollect with pain that when I was of the
Committee of Managers in the year 1803 (scarcely three years after the
date of the charter) our capital was exhausted and the corporation was
3,000_l._ in debt, insomuch that a proposal was then made at the board
to shut up the house of the Institution and to bring all the effects to
a sale for a discharge of its debts. Fortunately a better determination
prevailed. A liberal subscription among the members immediately took
place. The debt was paid off and near 3,000_l._ was invested for a
time in the public funds. I say for a time, as unfortunately the
Institution since that period has not been exempted from the pressure
of the general difficulties of the times, and has had to struggle with
their severity while its efforts nevertheless have not relaxed in
fulfilling the great objects of its establishment. To your Lordship I
need not insist upon the extent of these efforts nor the credit due to
the general management as well as to the eminent talents and exertions
of the able professors and lecturers who have so justly maintained the
high scientific celebrity of the Institution in every part of Europe.’

On January 17 Lord Kinnaird, Mr. Bernard, and Mr. Auriol made their
first report.

They proposed to continue the existing scientific establishment alone;
to reduce the workmen, the printers, and the domestics; and to appoint
a sub-committee to watch the expenditure.

Two thousand pounds were wanted for immediate payment of bills, and the
managers, visitors, treasurer, and secretary subscribed 100_l._ each,
to be repaid to them without interest.

The committee asked for more time in February to prepare the accounts
of the Institution.

Early in March an accountant was called in ‘to arrange the accounts
from the first.’

The result of this investigation is best seen in a report which was
drawn up by Mr. Bernard, and which was presented by the visitors to the
proprietors, May 2, 1803.

    Mr. Bernard reviewed all the expenditure from the first, beginning
    with the purchase of the house (and the two adjoining houses held
    under it) for 4,850_l._ For the charter, 583_l._ For arms, 101_l._
    For lecture room, repository, laboratory, and workshop, 5,227_l._,
    which was 1,800_l._ less than was expected, and ‘it has been
    completed, as the visitors conceive, in a manner and with a degree
    of attention and economy very creditable to those who undertook the
    care and direction of it.’[21]... 1,181_l._ was paid for fitting
    up and furnishing the workshops and for experiments incidental to
    the use of them. ‘It is to be observed that a part of this expense
    ought regularly to be charged to the apparatus. Some loss, however,
    will probably be incurred upon this article of expenditure, as that
    part of the arrangement seems to be in a great measure given up.
    The loss, however, it is hoped, will be inconsiderable, as by a
    plan recently brought forward by a very scientific member of the
    Committee of Managers (Mr. Hatchett), it is proposed to form for
    the use of proprietors, and for the benefit of the Institution,
    in these and the adjoining rooms, the establishment of a very
    extensive and useful laboratory, upon a scale of magnitude and with
    a degree of advantage that are not likely to be equalled in any
    part of his Majesty’s dominions.’

After reviewing the domestic expenditure and the expenditure of the
invested principal Mr. Bernard said:

    Upon the whole the visitors have the pleasure of stating to
    the annual meeting that, in the examination of the expenditure
    incurred in a concern of so great magnitude, under some peculiar
    circumstances and difficulties and during a period of near four
    years, they have found the whole of the accounts correctly stated,
    verified, and balanced except as to a small deficit of 47_l._
    14_s._ 10½_d._ entered as such by mistake, the vouchers for which
    having been actually produced; and they conceive that there is
    nothing that merits censure and much that deserves approbation.

With regard to the present state and progress of the Institution he
said:

    In the supply of useful models, one of its original and most
    important objects, very little advance is yet made. The lectures
    and public experiments connected with them will be considerably
    augmented in the coming season. The new plan for the laboratory
    promises to increase the scope and utility of it, and at the same
    time very much to diminish, if not eventually provide for, the
    expense of that part of the Institution. The library and proposed
    collection of books of reference will form a library establishment
    honourable to the British nation, favourable to science,
    advantageous to the pursuits of scientific men, and very conducive
    to the increase of the funds and of the utility, prosperity, and
    permanency of the Institution.

He thus ended his report:

    The fabric of the Royal Institution is now completed by the efforts
    of individuals.... The attempt has been as arduous as the object
    has been great and important--not less than that of giving fashion
    to science and of forming a centre of philosophical and literary
    attraction, for supplying instruction to the young, and rational
    amusement to mature life, with essential advantages to the public
    and increase of resources to the country by new discoveries and
    improvements in the arts and manufactures.

Early in January the managers resolved that Dr. Young and Mr. Davy
should give one hundred lectures in the ensuing season, to begin on
October 26.

On January 21 Dr. Young proposed to the managers a preface to the
second volume of the Journal of the Institution. It was referred to
the Select Committee, who advised that at the present period, when,
on account of the situation of the finances and expenses of the
Institution, a considerable alteration is become necessary in their
arrangements, any publication of the kind proposed by Dr. Young had
better be deferred for the present. This preface, written by Dr. Young,
never was published, and, as it gives a good view of the Institution as
it was left by Rumford, it is of interest as a record of the past.


    _Plan and Regulations of the Royal Institution of Great Britain,
    Albemarle Street, written by Dr. Thomas Young._

    The professed object of the Royal Institution is the diffusion
    of useful knowledge, derived from science, and applicable to the
    purposes of life.

    The means proposed for attaining this end are, first, an annual
    delivery of lectures on the various branches of natural philosophy
    and chemistry, familiar enough to be intelligible to moderate
    capacities, and extensive enough to comprehend the most important
    applications of theory to practice; secondly, the furnishing of
    a spacious repository with models of such machines, instruments,
    and utensils as, after sufficient experimental examination, can
    with confidence be recommended for introduction into common use;
    thirdly, the establishment of a chemical laboratory, with proper
    apparatus and materials to be employed in such investigations as
    are of the greatest practical utility; fourthly, the provision of
    reading rooms, supplied as well with periodical publications as
    with works of acknowledged merit, particularly relative to the
    sciences and the arts; and, lastly, the extension of the benefits
    derived from the Institution, by publishing from time to time, in
    its Journals, such improvements as may either have been made by
    its means, or may have been otherwise suggested by individuals in
    foreign countries or in our own.

    These objects are indeed of too great magnitude to be completely
    obtained at once; but a considerable progress has already been made
    in the pursuit of them, and a continuance of the public support
    alone is required for rendering the Royal Institution as well a
    natural ornament as a private accommodation.

    The lectures are already established on an unprecedented scale, in
    the order of the systematic compendiums which have been published;
    and weekly notice is given to the subscribers of the subjects of
    each lecture. The laboratory has been provided with an ample
    apparatus; and a number of original experiments have already been
    made in it, which are immediately connected with the useful arts.
    The reading rooms are furnished with all new works of importance,
    both foreign and domestic, which relate to the arts and sciences,
    as well as with newspapers and all other periodical publications;
    and they are open daily, from nine in the morning till midnight. A
    volume of the Journals is completed, and may serve as a specimen
    of what is to be expected from them when their editors shall be
    more at leisure to prepare materials for them. But a more complete
    collection of models and of apparatus can only be obtained by
    degrees, and in proportion as the funds of the Institution are
    enabled to support the expense.

    The affairs of the Institution are directed by a president and nine
    managers, elected out of the proprietors at large. Their meetings
    are usually the first Monday in every month, or oftener.

    The professors engage to deliver, annually, not less than fifty
    lectures each, on natural philosophy and the mechanical arts; and
    on chemistry, and the chemical arts respectively; to direct and
    superintend, with the approbation of the managers, the construction
    of apparatus necessary for their lectures, and of other models
    and experimental machines proper to be placed in the repository;
    to collect such information as is requisite for these purposes;
    and to provide jointly sufficient matter for the publication of
    the Journals. The Superintendent of the House is charged with
    the regulation of its internal economy; and the Director of the
    Laboratory is empowered to make such experiments in it as he may
    judge likely to promote the views of the Institution.

    The clerk is required to attend in the house in general from
    nine to five, and on the evenings when lectures are delivered
    from seven to nine; but in particular to be never absent between
    twelve and four; to be ready every day at one o’clock, to show
    the various parts of the house to all persons who are entitled to
    admission; to inspect and arrange the library, to receive payment
    of subscriptions, to deliver tickets, and to keep all the accounts,
    under the direction of the managers and of the Superintendent of
    the House.

    The mathematical instrument maker, and other workmen in the
    immediate service of the Institution, are employed in the
    construction and repair of apparatus for the lectures and for the
    repository. The Superintendent of the Workshops assists also in the
    experiments exhibited by the professors in their lectures, and has
    the charge of the preparation of all necessary apparatus.

    Besides these officers, and the domestic servants of the house, six
    workmen are at present constantly employed in various departments
    of the Institution.

    Such persons as are desirous of becoming proprietors of the Royal
    Institution, or subscribers for life, or for any number of years,
    must be nominated by one of the managers, at a meeting prior to
    that in which they are elected; but in cases of emergency they
    may receive temporary tickets of admission as soon as they are
    nominated, paying their subscriptions, to be returned in case of
    non-election.

    A proprietor pays at present 80 guineas. He receives two
    transferable tickets of admission to the lectures and to the house
    in general; but such tickets do not admit the bearer to the reading
    rooms, unless they have been personally transferred to him, with
    the consent of the managers, for a time not less than a year.

    Subscribers for life pay 20 guineas, and annual subscribers 3
    guineas a year. Their tickets admit the possessors to all parts of
    the house, but they are not transferable.

    Ladies who are desirous of subscribing must be recommended by one
    of the ladies holding books for the purpose. For personal admission
    to the lectures each lady pays a guinea for the season, but her
    ticket is not transferable, except among daughters of the same
    family subscribing with their mother. Ladies subscribing three
    guineas are entitled to introduce to each lecture any one lady of
    their acquaintance.

    All subscriptions must be paid, either to the clerk or to one of
    the bankers of the Institution, upon or before the receipt of a
    ticket of admission; and no annual subscriber can be admitted
    after the expiration of a former year before the payment of his
    subscription for the succeeding one.

    The lectures are delivered daily at two o’clock, excepting Tuesdays
    and Fridays, when they are at eight in the evening.

    The Journals are usually published every month or oftener, in
    numbers of two sheets or more; they are sold at the price of a
    shilling each at the house of the Institution and by the principal
    booksellers, and they are regularly sent to the houses of all those
    who wish to be considered as subscribers to them.

    Ladies empowered to recommend subscribers:

    Duchess of Devonshire,       Piccadilly.
    Countess of Sutherland,      Arlington Street.
    Countess Spencer,            St. James’s Place.
    Countess of Bessborough,     Cavendish Square.
    Viscountess Palmerston,      Hanover Square.
    Hon. Mrs. Barrington,        Cavendish Square.
    Lady Campbell,               Wimpole Street.
    Mrs. Sullivan,               Grafton Street.
    Mrs. Bernard,                At the Foundling.
    Mrs. Crewe,                  Lower Grosvenor Street.

    Bankers of the Royal Institution:

    Messrs. Down, Thornton, Free, and Cornwall, Bartholomew Lane.
    Messrs. Herries, Farquhar, and Co., St. James’s Street.
    Messrs. Hoare, Fleet Street.
    Messrs. Ladbrook and Co., Bank Buildings.
    Messrs. Pybus, Call, Grant and Hale, Bond Street.
    Messrs. Ransom, Morland, and Co., Pall Mall.

The second volume of the Journals never was published. Three sheets
only were printed, chiefly containing papers by Young and a few
extracts by Davy, and then the Journals of the Institution ceased, and
were not revived until 1830, when they were edited for a year and a
half by Professor Brande.

On April 21 Dr. Young wrote to the managers a letter, which is lost.
On the 26th the managers answered that ‘they cannot consent to grant
him the increase of salary which he desires for the next year, and with
respect to the other situations (Librarian and Keeper of the Library
of Reference) which he mentions, as they are appointments which do
not at present exist, the managers cannot now say anything regarding
them.’ This resolution was not communicated to Dr. Young until June 6,
and he then gave notice of his wish to resign his appointment. He was
asked whether it would be agreeable to him to deliver twenty lectures
in the next season, and what would be his subject and his terms. At the
next meeting it was resolved that the balance of two years’ complete
salary should be paid to Dr. Young, and that his engagement with the
Institution should terminate from that time, and that, in consideration
of his services, he should be proposed to the next meeting to be
admitted gratuitously to the privileges of subscribers for life.

In 1804 Dr. Young, in his reply to the articles of Lord Brougham in the
‘Edinburgh Review,’ gave the following account of his engagement and
of its termination:

    The reviewer has thought proper to unite, in several instances,
    with his invectives against me some ridicule of the objects of the
    Royal Institution of Great Britain--an Institution in which its
    managers have studied to concentrate all that is useful in science
    or elegant in literature. This connexion appears to him to add so
    much weight to his arguments that he has chosen, without further
    provocation, to insinuate its existence more than a year after
    it has been dissolved. I accepted the appointment of Professor
    of Natural Philosophy in the Royal Institution as an occupation
    which would fill up agreeably and advantageously such leisure
    hours as a young practitioner of physic must expect to be left
    free from professional cares. I was led to hope that I should
    be able to impress an audience, formed of the most respectable
    inhabitants of the metropolis, with such a partiality as the
    moderately well-informed are inclined to entertain for those who
    appear to know even a little more than themselves of matters of
    science. While I held the situation I wished to make my lectures as
    intelligible as the nature of the subjects permitted; but I must
    confess that it was not my ambition to render them a substitute
    for those of any superficial experimenter that was in the habit
    of delivering courses of natural philosophy for the amusement
    of boarding schools. Whatever may have been the imperfections
    of my lectures, it cannot be asserted, except perhaps in the
    ‘Edinburgh Review,’ that they were fit for audiences of ladies of
    fashion only. After fulfilling for two years the duties of the
    professorship, I found them so incompatible with the pursuits of
    a practical physician that, in compliance with the advice of my
    friends, I gave notice of my wish to resign the office.[22]

In March the Select Committee made their second report.

It recommended the supply and completion of the library, and the
formation of an _additional_ collection of books for the reference of
scientific men, as one of the measures most likely to give permanency
and stability to the Royal Institution.

On March 21 Mr. Bernard laid before a meeting of the managers and
visitors a plan for these libraries which he had prepared. By April
4 he had obtained subscriptions to the amount of 2,828_l._, and at
a meeting of the subscribers they appointed a select committee to
consider and report upon the arrangements proper to be made. On April
14 another general meeting of subscribers to the library and collection
of reference decided on an address to the proprietors and subscribers
to the Royal Institution. Further resolutions were adopted on April 20
and on April 29, the subscriptions having reached 3,798_l._ Regulations
were drawn up, and ultimately bye-laws regarding the library and
collection of books of reference were made on May 2. The total
subscriptions to February 6, 1806, came to 5,395_l._ 10_s._

This library and collection was an institution within an institution.
It had its chief patron, chairman, deputy chairman, treasurer,
secretary, and other patrons, its general committee and sub-committees,
its accounts, its bankers. Its great object, in addition to the
immediate completion of the library, was ‘the formation of an extended
collection of books of reference, comprehending not only the best
publications in practical science, but a library of general and
authentic history, political economy, finances, topography, and other
departments of knowledge that may be useful to individuals of the
United Kingdom, and also to scientific persons of other nations.’

This was formed in the room which is now the upper library. Before the
theatre was built it had been the lecture room.

In June Mr. Harris, who had been employed at Mr. Egerton’s, the
bookseller in Whitehall, was engaged to correct and arrange the
library, and to buy the London Library, in Hatton Garden, if he thought
it was desirable to do so. It was found to be in a very bad state and
was declined.

On July 27, 1803, at the meeting of the general committee of the
patrons of the library and collection of reference of the Royal
Institution, a letter was read from Mr. Dibden to Mr. Bernard, applying
for the situation of principal librarian of the Royal Institution.

    Being a married man with a young family, and having a particular
    partiality to the study of bibliography, such a situation would be
    an eligible one and agreeable to my general habits and pursuits.

He enclosed a testimonial from Dr. Jenner.

It was resolved that Mr. Dibden be informed ‘that it is not intended to
proceed to the choice of a librarian until after Christmas next.’

At the end of April Mr. Hatchett laid before the managers a report on
the chemical department of the Institution. He said:

    Chemistry was always a primary object of the Institution. A
    laboratory was therefore erected at an early period, and was
    furnished with such apparatus as was immediately requisite; but, as
    the Institution was then in a nascent state, great attention was
    paid to economy in the chemical department, and although much was
    in reality wanted to render the laboratory complete, yet nothing
    more was expended on this part than was absolutely necessary to the
    immediate demands of the lectures delivered in the Institution.
    On this account the laboratory has remained in a state inferior
    to that which might justly be expected in such a liberal and
    splendid establishment; but, as some extension may now be expected
    in a department so instructive, so interesting, and so eminently
    useful, the following intended regulations are submitted to the
    consideration of the Committee of Managers: 1st. That the workshop
    lately occupied by Mr. Feetham shall in future be annexed to the
    laboratory. 2nd. The forge to be adapted to chemical purposes.
    3rd. An air-furnace and reverberatory furnace to be built. 4th.
    Presses and shelves to be added to contain vessels and chemical
    preparations.

    This laboratory will be equal, or indeed superior, to any in this
    country, and probably to any on the Continent. Such a laboratory,
    therefore, will accord with the respectability and liberal views
    of this Institution, which, on the other hand, may henceforward
    regard this part of its establishment not only as very conducive
    to its honour, but as likely to produce real and substantial
    advantages. But to procure these some further regulations appear
    necessary: 1. Crude materials to prepare pure products should be
    bought. 2. The Professor shall be assisted by a person well versed
    in practical chemistry, who shall be expressly engaged to attend
    the laboratory and assist in the chemical lectures. 3. Operations
    in the laboratory should be taught. The Institution will derive
    therefrom honour and profit, and, as far as chemistry is concerned,
    that one of its chief purposes will be accomplished--the diffusion
    of knowledge and the application of science to the improvement of
    arts and manufactures.

On May 2 it was resolved ‘that a Committee of Science should be
appointed from among the managers to regulate the lectures and public
experiments; to direct the publication of the Journals; and to report
as to any experiments, or additions to apparatus, or models.’ It was
to meet weekly and be appointed monthly. Spencer, Banks, Cavendish,
Hatchett, Symonds, formed the first committee.

On May 16 the managers resolved ‘that the Committee of Science should
carry out improvements in the laboratory, that the workshops should
be thrown into the laboratory and fitted up as a lecture room for 120
persons.’ For nearly sixty years this laboratory theatre remained
unchanged.

Other traces of the activity of this Committee of Science are to be
found. On May 27 Sir Joseph Banks, in the name of the Committee of
Science of the Royal Institution, wrote to the Board of Agriculture:

    The Committee do not expect in agricultural analysis the same
    degree of precise accuracy as is necessary in that intended to
    illustrate philosophical experiments; it will be enough for them if
    the component parts of substances and their respective proportions
    to each other are marked with sufficient precision to demonstrate
    the probable effects on vegetables.

    The Committee are aware that at present the science of agricultural
    chemistry is in its infancy, and that till it has been more matured
    each analysis will take up a considerable portion of time; they
    trust, however, that it will not be long before Mr. Davy himself,
    or some one named by him and acting under his superintendence,
    will undertake the business of analysing soils and manures for
    individuals at a moderate fixed price for each substance that shall
    be brought to them.

    The Royal Institution wish to have Mr. Davy’s lectures repeated
    at their house, and have desired me to ask whether the Board of
    Agriculture have any objection to a measure which appears to them
    likely to extend still further.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Having been requested to suggest what I think a proper recompense
    to Mr. Davy on account of his six lectures delivered at the Board,
    and also a plan for securing his services in future to the Board
    of Agriculture, I beg leave to propose that sixty guineas be given
    by the Board to Mr. Davy as a remuneration for his six lectures,
    being at the rate of ten guineas for each lecture, and that the
    office of Professor of Chemical Agriculture to the Board, with a
    salary of 100_l._ a year, be offered to his acceptance; the duty
    of his professorship to consist of reading lectures in the spring
    at such time as shall be fixed by the Board, on the application
    of chemistry to the improvement of the art of agriculture, and in
    making an analysis of such substances as shall be put into his
    hands by the Committee, in case he is of opinion that the result of
    such analysis is likely to throw light on the theory and practice
    of that most useful art.

This Committee of Science also, as early as July 18, proposed that in
the ensuing session Mr. Dalton should be engaged to lecture.

The form which the Institution was at this time about to take is well
seen in the joint report of the committees of science and accounts
on the plan of the lectures and experiments and other proposed
arrangements for the ensuing year. This was made on November 28, 1803;
the reporters were Sir Joseph Banks, Henry Cavendish, Sir J. Hippesley,
Mr. Bernard, Mr. Sullivan.

They said:

    With regard to the lectures on Natural Philosophy, it is presumed
    that the subjects may be advantageously arranged in the three
    distinct courses. The first should be a complete course of
    experimental philosophy; the second should relate to practical
    mechanics; and the third should be on optics and astronomy.

    Abstruseness should in all cases be avoided, the processes of the
    arts should be particularly described, and the operations should
    be on such a scale as to instruct by their applications and to
    interest and amuse by the distinctness and brilliancy of their
    appearance.

    The lectures on Chemistry, it is supposed, may be included in two
    courses. The first would relate to the chemistry of natural history
    and the chemical economy of nature, and the second to theoretical
    and practical chemistry. From the progression of this branch of
    knowledge it will be easy to develope in both these courses many
    new objects, and it is supposed that they may at once be rendered
    useful and made to excite attention and gratify curiosity.

    It would be very advantageous to institute a particular and
    distinct series of public experimental operations, showing such new
    facts in elementary and natural philosophy as are connected with
    splendid and curious phenomena or highly useful applications.

    During the season it was proposed that there should be one hundred
    lectures and twenty public experiments--about four lectures weekly.

    For affording more practical and minute information concerning the
    objects of science, first, in relation to mechanical sciences and
    arts, the models of useful inventions should be increased and made
    more available; second, in relation to chemistry, the examination
    of the private experimental processes performed in the laboratory
    might be given as private instruction, for which those who thought
    proper to attend should make some annual contribution for defraying
    the extra expense, as it would be impossible to admit all the
    proprietors and subscribers.

    With the reduction of expenses and the strict economy that has
    taken place in the establishment, it is submitted to the managers
    that it will not be necessary to increase at present the annual
    subscription.

    The Committee concludes the report with observations on the
    progress which has been recently made and is now making in the
    Institution. After mentioning the lectures and the apparatus for
    the lectures, it is said the laboratory for experimental processes
    has been enlarged by the addition of the former workroom, and has
    been improved by many new arrangements, and provision has been
    made in it for preparing the different reagents and tests employed
    in philosophical chemistry and for carrying on various new and
    interesting researches.

    The foundation of a mineralogical collection has been laid by the
    exertions of Mr. Professor Davy. For the purpose of extending it
    one proprietor has offered 100_l._, and others promised to give
    minerals. A collection of fossils was also made.

    The reading library is now completed. The room for the collection
    of reference, fitted up for 10,000 volumes, some part of which are
    already purchased. It was proposed to open it to the proprietors
    and subscribers early in the ensuing season. The funds subscribed
    amounted to 4,368_l._ 15_s._ As this would not be sufficient to
    purchase the whole of the desired collection, it was hoped that
    other proprietors and subscribers ‘would enjoy the pleasure of
    adding their contributions.’

On November 24 Mr. Dalton wrote to Mr. Savage, the clerk:

    RESPECTED FRIEND,--As it will not be convenient to me to be in town
    before the 17th or 18th of next month, I should be glad to know
    previously whether my accommodation as to board and lodging would
    be in the Institution; if not, whether you know of any place in
    the vicinity where the same would probably be procured. It will
    be necessary for me to spend a considerable portion of time to
    make myself acquainted with the structure and use of some of the
    apparatus, and therefore I am the more solicitous on the above
    heads. Pray, what is the usual duration of a lecture--one or two
    hours? An immediate reply to these inquiries will much oblige,

                                                    Yours respectfully,
                                                             J. DALTON.

Apartments were ordered by the managers to be prepared in the house for
Mr. Dalton before December 17.

On Monday, December 22, at two, he gave the introduction to a course
of four lectures on Mechanics and Physics. In this lecture he dwelt on
the objects of natural philosophy, division of the science, utility of
the study, plan of the lectures. The second lecture was on Monday, 26,
at eight P.M., on the Properties of Matter; extension, impenetrability,
divisibility, inertia, various species of attraction and repulsion,
_motion_, _forces_, composition of forces, _collision_, _pendulums_.
The third lecture was on Wednesday, 28, at two. _Projectiles_;
resistance of the air, _mechanic powers_, strength of timber. The
fourth on Thursday, at two. Pneumatics; nature of electric fluids,
the atmosphere, air-pump, spring and weight of the air proved by
experiments, barometer. The last lecture was given on Saturday, 31, at
eight. This was followed by other courses, making altogether twenty
lectures.

After his return to Manchester Dalton wrote to his brother, February 1,
1804:

    DEAR BROTHER,--I have the satisfaction to inform thee that I
    returned safe from my London journey last seventh day, having been
    absent six weeks. It has on many accounts been an interesting
    _vocation_ to me, though a very laborious one. I went in a great
    measure unprepared, not knowing the nature and manner of the
    lectures at the Institution nor the apparatus. My first was on
    Thursday, December 22, which was introductory, being entirely
    written, giving an account of what was intended to be done; and on
    natural philosophy in general. All lectures were to be one hour
    each, or as nearly as might be. The number attending were from one
    to three hundred of both sexes, usually more than half men. I was
    agreeably disappointed to find so _learned_ and _attentive_ an
    audience, though many of them of rank. It required great labour
    on my part to get acquainted with the apparatus and to draw up
    the order of experiments and repeat them in the intervals between
    the lectures, though I had one pretty expert to assist me. We
    had the good fortune, however, never to fail in any experiment,
    though I was once so ill prepared as to beg the indulgence of the
    audience as to part of the lecture, which they most handsomely and
    immediately granted me by a general plaudit. The scientific part of
    the audience was wonderfully taken with some of my original notions
    relative to heat, the gases &c., some of which had not before been
    published. Had my hearers been generally of the description I had
    apprehended, the most interesting lectures I had to give would have
    been the least relished; but, as it happened, the expectation
    formed had drawn several gentlemen of first-rate talents together,
    and my eighteenth, on Heat and the Laws of Expansion, &c., was
    received with the greatest applause; with very few experiments.
    The one that followed was on _Mixed Elastic Fluids_, in which
    I had an opportunity of developing my ideas, that have already
    been published on the subject, more fully. The doctrine has, as
    I apprehended it would, excited the attention of philosophers
    throughout Europe. Two journals in the German language came into
    the Royal Institution whilst I was there from Saxony, both of which
    were about half filled with translations from the papers I have
    written on this subject and comments upon them.

    Dr. Ainslie was occasionally one of my audience, and his sons
    constantly. He came up at the concluding lecture, expressed his
    high satisfaction, and he believed it was the same sentiment with
    all or most of the audience.

    I saw my successor, William Allen, fairly launched. He gave his
    first lecture on Tuesday, preceding my conclusion. I was an
    _auditor_ in this case--the first time--and had an opportunity
    of surveying the audience. Amongst others of distinction the
    Bishop of Durham was present. In lecturing on optics I got six
    ribbands--blue, pink, lilac, red, green, and brown--which matched
    very well, and told the various audience so. I do not know whether
    they generally believed me to be serious, but one gentlemen came up
    immediately after and told me he perfectly agreed with me. He had
    not remarked the difference by candle light.

Throughout the year 1803 scarcely a trace of Count Rumford’s name can
be found in the records of the Institution. On January 24, when writing
from Munich to the clerk, Mr. Savage, about his house in Brompton Row,
he only begs his compliments to Dr. Young and to Mr. Davy, and on
November 11, the clerk having asked him about an account relating to
the Institution, he wrote from Paris:

    I assure you that I have not the smallest recollection of having
    received from Mr. Hunter, the solicitor of the Institution, the
    account you mention in your letter of the 7th ult.; and had I in
    fact received it, I should most undoubtedly have laid it before
    the managers of the Institution. I can imagine no reason which
    could have induced me to keep it back; and, as all the affairs of
    the Institution in my hands were kept with the utmost care and
    regularity, as you can testify, it is not likely that I should have
    mislaid and forgotten it. This is all I can say on the subject, and
    I hope and trust that this declaration will be satisfactory to the
    managers of the Royal Institution and to Mr. Hunter.

    I expect to be in England in the course of the winter.

Gradually the ‘usefulness of science to the poorer classes and to
the common purposes of life’ ceased to be the prime object of the
Institution. The school for mechanics, the workshops, and the models,
the kitchens and the Journals, died away; and the laboratory, the
lectures, and the library became the life of the new Institution, and
its object became ‘the diffusion of knowledge and the application of
science to the improvement of arts and manufactures.’

The most memorable scientific incident in the history of the Rumford
Institution was its relationship with Dr. Thomas Young. His lectures
on physics must even now be held to rank as the greatest work in the
literature of the Institution. As Professor and Superintendent of the
House he had no great success; and he had no great influence on its
fortunes; but by his genius he anticipated the progress of science,
and his reputation has risen until it now ranks with that of Davy and
Faraday.

A short sketch of his life will bring this period of the history of the
Institution to a close.

Thomas Young was born in Somersetshire on June 13, 1773. Both his
parents were Quakers, and to their tenets he was accustomed to
attribute his resolution to effect any object on which he was engaged.
This determination he brought to bear on all he did, and by this
he educated himself almost from infancy ‘with little comparative
assistance or direction from others.’

His earliest years were passed with a grandfather, a merchant at
Minehead, who had some classical taste. He encouraged his precocious
grandchild and often repeated to him that--

    A little learning is a dangerous thing;
    Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring.

From 1780 to 1787 (7 to 14) he was chiefly at school. He gives an
account of his acquirements in an autobiography written in Latin at
this time--writing, arithmetic, Latin, Greek, mathematics, natural
philosophy, introduction to the Newtonian philosophy, turning,
telescope making, bookbinding, colour making, drawing, Hebrew, botany,
fluctions, Priestly on Air, Italian, Chaldee, Syriac, Samaritan. He was
a prodigy at fourteen.

His father had a neighbour, a man of great ingenuity, by profession a
land-surveyor, in whose office during the holidays the boy was given
the use of mathematical and philosophical instruments and the perusal
of three volumes of a dictionary of arts and science. He got some
practical knowledge of land-surveying. This led him to botany; and to
examine his plants he made a microscope. This required a knowledge of
optics, and thence he went to mathematics and fluctions.

From 1787 to 1792 (14 to 19) his studies and his position were equally
extraordinary. He became classical tutor to a boy a year and a half
his junior. Mr. Barclay, of Youngsbury, took him as companion to his
grandson, Hudson Gurney, who had a tutor. Young taught the tutor Greek,
and taught his companion Latin and Greek, whilst he taught himself
Latin, French, Italian, mathematics, natural philosophy, botany, and
entomology.

When 16 (1789) he was threatened with consumption. His uncle, Dr.
Brocklesby, the friend of Burke, attended him, and through him Burke
and Porson and others became interested in the great classical
knowledge of the youth, and encouraged him in his translations of
Shakespear into Greek iambics.

It was at this period that his character was most strongly formed:

    He was never known to relax in any object which he had once
    undertaken. During the whole term of these five years he was never
    seen by anyone on any occasion to be ruffled in temper. Whatever he
    determined on he did. He had little faith in any peculiar aptitude
    being implanted by nature for any given pursuits. His favourite
    maxim was, that whatever one man had done another might do; that
    the original difference between human intellects was much less than
    it was generally supposed to be; that strenuous and persevering
    attention would accomplish almost anything; and at this season, in
    the confidence of youth and consciousness of his own powers, he
    considered nothing that had been compassed by others beyond his
    reach to achieve; nor was there anything which he thought worthy to
    be attempted which he was not resolved to master.

In 1792 he entered the medical profession, learning anatomy from Hunter
in London.

In 1793 he became a pupil at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and on May
30 he had a paper read to the Royal Society on the ‘Structure of the
Crystalline Lens,’ which he thought to be muscular. Hunter claimed
the discovery as his, and was only prevented by death from giving the
Croonian lecture at the Royal Society in proof of his right. Sir E.
Home, in the Croonian lecture the following year, stated that neither
Young nor Hunter was right.

In 1794 (æt. 21) he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

About this time the Duke of Richmond, at Bath, thus wrote to Dr.
Brocklesby:

                                                     Bath, May 5, 1794.

    I need not write much about myself, as your nephew, who dined with
    us yesterday, will give you a good account of my health. I have,
    however, still returns of head-ache, and my legs continue very
    weak. But I must tell you how much pleased we all are with Mr.
    Young. I really never saw a young man more pleasing and engaging.
    He seems to have already acquired much knowledge in most branches
    and to be studious of obtaining more; it comes out without
    affectation on all subjects he talks upon. He is very cheerful and
    easy without assuming anything, and even on the peculiarity of his
    dress and Quakerism he talked so reasonably that one cannot wish
    him to alter himself in any one particular. In short, I end as I
    began, by assuring you that the Duchess and I are quite charmed
    with him, and shall be happy to renew our acquaintance with him
    when we return to London.

Later in the autumn the Duke, who was Master-General of the Ordnance,
offered to make him his private secretary.

In a letter to his mother Young says:

    I have very lately refused the pressing offer of a situation which
    would have been the most favourable and flattering introduction to
    political life that a young man in my circumstances could desire.
    I might have lived at a duke’s table, with a salary of 200_l._
    a year, as his secretary, and with hopes of a more lucrative
    appointment in a short time. I should have been in an agreeable
    family, have had time enough for study, a library, a laboratory,
    and philosophical apparatus at my service; and I was not ashamed to
    allege my regard for our society as a principal reason for my not
    accepting the proposal.

In the winter of 1794-5 he went to Edinburgh to study medicine. He
learnt Spanish, German, music in theory and by playing the flute,
dancing; and he went as much as he could into society and to the play.

Soon after he left Edinburgh in June he wrote to his friend and
fellow-student Dr. Bostock:

    I have seen Mrs. Siddons in ‘Douglas,’ the ‘Grecian Daughter,’ the
    ‘Mourning Bride,’ the ‘Provoked Husband,’ the ‘Fatal Marriage,’
    ‘Macbeth,’ and ‘Venice Preserved.’ She was neither below nor much
    above my expectation. I can form an idea of something more perfect.
    My friend Cruikshanks, when I went to take my leave of him, took
    me aside and, after much preamble, told me he heard I had been
    at the play, and hoped that I should be able to contradict it. I
    told him ‘I had been several times, and thought it right to go,’
    &c. &c., as civilly as I could. ‘I know you are determined to
    discourage my dancing and singing, and I am determined to pay no
    regard whatever to what you say. You think I shall never be able to
    play the flute well, and I am pretty sure that I may if I choose;
    as to dancing, the die is cast.’

At this time he gave up the dress and all the other peculiarities of
the Quakers.

On June 5 he started on a journey through the Highlands ‘in se totus
teres atque rotundus,’ as a friend described him.

    I was mounted on a stout, well-made black horse, fourteen hands
    high, young and spirited, which I had purchased from my friend
    Cathcart. I had before me my oiled linens, the spencer with a
    separate camlet cover; under me a pair of saddle-bags, well filled
    with three or four changes of linen, a waistcoat, and breeches;
    materials for writing and for drawing; paper, pens, ink, pencils,
    and colours; packing-paper and twine for minerals; soap, brushes,
    and a razor; a small edition of Thomson’s ‘Seasons,’ a third
    flute in a bag; some music, principally Scotch, bound with some
    blank music-paper; wafers; a box for botanising; a thermometer;
    two little bottles with spirits for preserving insects; a bag
    for picking up stones; two maps of Scotland--Ainslie’s small one
    and Sayer’s; letters of recommendation. The bags had pockets at
    the end, one containing a pair of shoes, the other boards with
    straps and paper for drying plants. I found my bags at first an
    encumbrance, but became afterwards more reconciled to them. They
    are to a saddle what pockets are to a coat; and who objects to
    wearing pockets? But they were wetted the first day and stained
    their contents. This will make me more careful in future.

Some of his notes at Gordon and Inverary Castles are cabinet pictures.

    It was Lady Georgina’s birthday (afterwards Duchess of Bedford);
    the flag was hoisted. Lord Alexander’s regiment of little boys was
    paraded, and employed in racing and dancing on the green, and in
    the evening a ball was given to the servants; all the family went
    downstairs and amused themselves with observing the agility of the
    lads and lasses. Every person employed about the house, except
    one man, is married, and most of them are descended from those
    who have served the family before them. The Duchess proposed, in
    honour of the day, that Sir George Abercrombie and I should dance
    a reel with the two younger ladies; for they danced nothing but
    reels. Afterwards the Duke danced with one of the upper servants.
    Some time after our party joined again in the amusement at the same
    time with two others; when it was late, and Sir George was tired,
    we took a girl in his place and resumed the sport. Lady Madeline
    (Sinclair) sat by, and made the music play till the other sets
    quitted the field, and left us victorious to reel through the whole
    room. I have now written as much of dancing in my tour as Johnson
    has in his, and as much more as a young man may be expected to
    write of it than an old one.

    At Inverary [he writes] after breakfast the party were to ride, and
    the Doctor gravely submitted to my determination whether I would go
    at a slow pace with him and the Duke to view the country leisurely
    on the way, or ride with the ladies and be galloped over. I told
    him that of all things I liked to be galloped over, and therefore
    should be of the youthful party....

    After dinner the Duke rode again, and the younger men of the party
    took a walk. I left them about nine, and joined the ladies at
    tea. I was showing Lady Charlotte some of my sketches; she begged
    to see my notes, and I showed the greatest part of them. All the
    family are musical; the ladies sing admirably. Cards and a fine
    piano occupied the evening. After supper, besides other songs, I
    heard a most beautiful canzonet by Jackson, beginning ‘Love in thy
    eyes.’ It was twelve o’clock when we retired. After breakfast I
    took my leave, not without regretting that I had so little time to
    observe the beauties of Inverary. Lady Charlotte is handsomer than
    Lady Augusta: she sings better, but she has less good sense and
    less sweetness. An innocent girlishness sometimes gives her the
    appearance of a little affectation. She is to Lady Augusta what
    Venus is to Minerva. I suppose she wishes for no more. Both are
    goddesses.

On October 7 he left London to graduate at Göttingen; he went by
Hamburg.

On December 14 he wrote to Dr. Bostock:

    You will be pleased, as a lover of the fine arts, to hear that I am
    taking lessons in drawing. You will not be surprised that I receive
    in this study, as well as in music and dancing, full approbation
    from my masters for application and accuracy. At the same time they
    honestly tell me that ease is wanting, and you will also readily
    believe that I have the assurance not to be discouraged with this
    character, while they all assert that I may confidently expect
    sufficient advancement in due time....

    I have not exhibited myself at a public dance. My master, who is a
    very sensible fellow, advising me against it, as he observed that a
    person seldom loses the character which he obtains from the first
    impressions; but we have agreed that I may venture at the next
    _pique nique_.

    On the alternate Sundays we have a dance: either a tea dance or
    a supper dance; one from four to eight, and the other from five
    to one. This is called a _pique nique_, and in its constitution
    resembles a Scotch oyster dance.

Soon after, to his uncle, he says:

    Blumenbach has shown me many civilities, but I am most at home
    at Arnemann’s, under whose roof I live, and who has been long in
    Britain, and brought an English wife home with him. You need not be
    afraid of my following his example and marrying a German lady. I am
    not likely to lose my heart here, though there are some tolerably
    agreeable girls with whom I wish to be more acquainted for the sake
    of exercise in the language; for conversation with women gives both
    a fluency of expression and a delicacy of manners which are never
    to be learned from men.

On April 30 he passed his examination before the Medical Faculty.

    I made [says he] no preparatory study, as is usual here, and
    also at Edinburgh not uncommon, under the name of grinding. The
    examination lasted between four and five hours. The four examiners
    were seated round a table, well furnished with cakes, sweetmeats,
    and wine, which helped to pass the time agreeably. The questions
    were well calculated to sound the depth of a student’s knowledge
    in practical physics, surgery, anatomy, chemistry, materia medica,
    and physiology; but the professors were not very severe in exacting
    accurate answers. Most of them were pleased to express their
    approbation of my replies. We were all previously obliged to give a
    summary account of the manner in which our lives had been spent.

He wrote to his uncle towards the close of his residence in Göttingen
thus:

    I have this morning been upon the back of the Springer. To mount
    this terrestrial Pegasus is considered here something like
    _Summos in re equestri honores_, and is seldom attained without
    long practice. I finish my lessons this week and look back with
    satisfaction on the health and amusement which have repaid
    my time and money. It might, perhaps, be more useful to me to
    take some instruction how to sit in a doctor’s chariot; but it
    is impossible to possess any qualification which one may not
    want, and capabilities are but light burdens. We have another
    fashionable exercise, which I think adequately corresponds to the
    athletic schools of the ancients--vaulting on a wooden horse in
    various positions--and I am much more known among the students for
    excelling in this than for writing Greek, of which they have little
    knowledge and not much more respect.

After being nine months at Göttingen he returned by Brunswick, Gotha,
Weimar, Jena, Dresden, and Berlin to England in February 1797. At
Brunswick he had a favourable opportunity of exhibiting his personal
agility at a court masquerade, where he made his appearance with great
success in the character of Harlequin.

From Berlin he wrote, December 12, to his uncle: ‘You say my Thesis
(for his medical degree, on the conservative forces of the human body)
is caviare to the general; but do not you think people have a greater
respect for anything out of the common way? It seems a fatality that
almost everything I do, or produce, should be termed stiff; in this
case it may arise from my having been obliged to treat the subject in a
short compass.’

Finding, when he came back from Germany, that the College of Physicians
of London required two years’ continuous attendance at one university
for a licence to practise, and shut out from the Fellowship all who
were not graduates at Cambridge or Oxford, he went as fellow-commoner
to Emmanuel College, Cambridge; and the account given by one who was
afterwards tutor of the college brings the Professor of the Royal
Institution most clearly into view.

    When the Master [says the writer] introduced Young to his tutors,
    he jocularly said, ‘I have brought you a pupil qualified to read
    lectures to his tutors.’ This, however, as might be concluded,
    he did not attempt; and the forbearance was mutual: he was never
    required to attend the common duties of the College.

    He had a high character for classical learning before he came to
    Cambridge; but I believe he did not pursue his classical studies
    in the latter part of his life--he seldom spoke of them, but I
    remember his meeting Dr. Parr in the College Combination Room;
    and when the Doctor had made, as was not unusual with him, some
    dogmatical observation on a point of scholarship, Young said
    firmly, ‘Bently, sir, was of a different opinion,’ immediately
    quoting his authority and showing his intimate knowledge of the
    subject. Parr said nothing, but when Dr. Young retired asked who he
    was, and, though he did not seem to have heard his name before, he
    said, ‘A smart young man that.’

    He had a great talent for Greek verse, and on one occasion I
    remember a young lady had written on the walls of the summer-house
    in the garden the following lines:--

        Where are these hours on airy pinions borne,
        That brought to every guiltless wish success,
        When pleasure gladdened each succeeding morn,
        And every evening closed with dreams of peace?

    On the next morning appeared a translation in Greek elegiacs,
    written under them in Young’s beautiful characters.

    It may be here mentioned that when his mode of writing Greek was
    laid before Porson, he said that if he had seen it before he would
    have adopted it.

    The views, objects, character, and arguments of our mathematicians
    were very different then to what they are now, and Young, who was
    certainly beforehand with the world, perceived their defects.
    Certain it is that he looked down upon the science, and would not
    cultivate the acquaintance of any of our philosophers. Wood’s books
    I have heard him speak of with approbation, but Vince he treated
    with contempt, and Vince afterwards returned the compliment.

    He never obtruded his various learning in conversation, but if
    appealed to on the most difficult subject he answered in a quick,
    flippant, derisive way, as if he was speaking of the most easy;
    and in this mode of talking he differed from all the clever men
    that I ever saw. His reply never seemed to cost him an effort,
    and he did not appear to think there was any credit in being able
    to make it. He did not assert any superiority, or seem to suppose
    that he possessed it, but spoke as if he took it for granted that
    we all understood the matter as well as he did. He never spoke in
    praise of any of the writers of the day, even in his own particular
    department, and could not be persuaded to discuss their merits. He
    was never personal; he would speak of knowledge in itself of what
    was known or what might be known, but never of himself or any other
    as having deserved anything, or as likely to do so.

    His language was correct, his utterance rapid, and his sentences,
    though without any affectation, never left unfinished; but his
    words were not those in familiar use, and the arrangement of
    his ideas seldom the same as those he conversed with. He was,
    therefore, worse calculated than any man I ever knew for the
    communication of knowledge.

    I remember his taking me with him to the Royal Institution to hear
    him lecture to a number of silly women and dilettante philosophers.
    But nothing could show less judgment than the method he adopted;
    for he presumed, like many other lecturers and preachers, on the
    knowledge, and not on the ignorance, of his hearers.

    In his manners he had something of the stiffness of the Quaker
    remaining, and, though he never said or did a rude thing, he never
    made use of any of the forms of politeness. Not that he avoided
    them through affectation; his behaviour was natural, without
    timidity, and easy without boldness. He rarely associated with
    the young men of the College, who called him, with a mixture of
    derision and respect, ‘Phenomenon Young,’ but he lived on familiar
    terms with the Fellows in the Common Room. He had few friends of
    his own age or pursuits in the University, and not having been
    introduced to many of those who were distinguished either by their
    situation or talent, he did not seek their society, nor did they
    seek him; they did not like to admit the superiority of anyone in
    _statu pupillari_, and he would not converse with anyone but as an
    equal.

    It is difficult to say how he employed himself; he read little, and
    though he had access to the College and University libraries he was
    seldom seen in them. There were no books piled on his floor, no
    papers scattered on his table, and his room had all the appearance
    of belonging to an idle man.

    I once found him blowing smoke through long tubes, and I afterwards
    saw a representation of the effect in the ‘Transactions of the
    Royal Society,’ to illustrate one of his papers upon sound; but
    he was not in the habit of making experiments. He walked little
    and rode less; but, having learnt to ride the great horse abroad,
    he used to _pace_ round Parker’s Piece on a hackney: he once made
    an attempt to follow the hounds, but a severe fall prevented any
    future exhibition.

    He seldom gave an opinion, and never volunteered one. He never laid
    down the law like other learned doctors, or uttered apophthegms
    or sayings to be remembered. Indeed, like most mathematicians
    (though we hear of abstract mathematics), he never seemed to think
    abstractedly. A philosophical fact, a difficult calculation,
    an ingenious instrument, or a new invention, would engage his
    attention; but he never spoke of morals, of metaphysics, or of
    religion. Of the last I never heard him say a word, nothing in
    favour of any sect, or in opposition to any doctrine; at the same
    time, no sceptical doubt, no loose assertion, no idle scoff, ever
    escaped him.

On July 8, 1799, he sent from Emmanuel College a paper to the Royal
Society, entitled ‘Outlines of Experiments and Inquiries respecting
Sound and Light.’ In it he established the great principle of the
interference of sounds, and he wrote one section on the analogy of
sound and light. In 1800 he referred, in the ‘British Magazine,’ to a
young gentleman of Edinburgh ‘who certainly promises, in the course of
time, to add considerably to our knowledge of the works of nature, but
who had a paper in the “Philosophical Transactions” for 1798, in which
what was new was not true, and what was true was not new.’ Dr. Robison,
in his article on Music in the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ criticised
Young’s papers. In Nicholson’s ‘Philosophical Journal’ for 1801
Young answered Robison, and published an extension of the principles
of interferences from sound to light. This was the preliminary
announcement of his views regarding the undulatory theory of light.

His first paper on the ‘Theory of Light and Colours’ was read to the
Royal Society, November 12, 1801. His second paper on this subject was
read July 1, 1802, and his third November 24, 1803. His ‘Syllabus of
Lectures at the Royal Institution,’ dated January 19, 1802, p. 116,
gives the first printed account of his views. He says, ‘Speaking
of Newton’s views, it will be sufficient for our present purpose to
enumerate the respective explanations of the principal phenomena
of light as they are furnished by the Newtonian system, and by the
theory lately submitted to the Royal Society’; and (p. 117) he says,
‘The colours of thin and of thick plates, and the fringes produced by
inflection, are referred by Newton to the very complicated effects
of an undulating medium on the corpuscles of light, but without any
attempt to accommodate the explanations to the measures obtained from
his own accurate and elegant experiments; those of striated surfaces
he has not noticed. But the general law by which all these appearances
are governed may be very easily deduced from the interference of two
coincident undulations which either co-operate or destroy each other in
the same manner as two musical notes produce an alternate intermission
and remission in the beating of an imperfect unison.’

‘The young gentleman of Edinburgh,’ afterwards known as Lord Brougham,
in the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ January 1803, criticised the Royal Society
papers.

    It is difficult [he said] to argue with an author whose mind is
    filled with a medium of so fickle and vibratory a nature. Were we
    to take the trouble to refute him, he might tell us, _My opinion
    is changed_, and _I have abandoned that hypothesis, but here is
    another for you_. We demand if the world of science which Newton
    once illuminated is to be as changeable in its modes as the world
    of taste, which is directed by the nod of a silly woman or a
    pampered fop? Has the Royal Society degraded its publications into
    bulletins of new and fashionable theories for the ladies who attend
    the Royal Institution? _Proh pudor!_ Let the Professor continue
    to amuse his audience with an endless variety of such harmless
    trifles, but, in the name of science, let them not find admittance
    into that venerable repository which contains the works of Newton,
    and Boyle, and Cavendish, and Maskelyne, and Herschel.

Young’s most famous experiment of stopping the rays which passed on one
side of a thin card exposed to a sunbeam in a dark chamber Brougham
threw aside, with the assertion that the experiment was inaccurately
made. Dr. Young replied:

    The reviewer has here afforded me an opportunity for a triumph, as
    gratifying as any triumph can be where an enemy is so contemptible.
    Conscious of inability to explain the experiment, too ungenerous to
    confess that inability, and too idle to repeat the experiment, he
    is compelled to advance the supposition that it was incorrect. ‘Let
    him make the experiment, and then deny the result if he can.’

He took no special means to make his answer known, and only one copy
of his reply was sold. The poison sank deep into the public mind, and
Dr. Young’s researches remained comparatively unnoticed until Arago, in
1815, when reporting upon the optical discoveries of Fresnel, showed
that a greater discoverer than Newton had anticipated the researches of
the French philosopher.

Dr. Young gives the following account of his discovery of the general
law of the interference of light:

    It was in May 1801 that I discovered, by reflecting on the
    beautiful experiments of Newton, a law which appears to me to
    account for a greater variety of interesting phenomena, than any
    other optical principle that has yet been made known. I shall
    endeavour to explain this law by a comparison:--Suppose a number of
    equal waves of water to move upon the surface of a stagnant lake,
    with a certain constant velocity, and to enter a narrow channel
    leading out of the lake; suppose, then, another similar cause to
    have existed, another equal series of waves will arrive at the
    same channel with the same velocity, and at the same time with
    the first. Neither series of waves will destroy the other, but
    their effects will be combined. If they enter the channel in such
    a manner that the elevations of one series coincide with those of
    the other, they must together produce a series of greater joint
    elevations; but if the elevations of one series are so situated as
    to correspond to the depressions of the other, they must exactly
    fill up those depressions, and the surface of the water must remain
    smooth; at least I can discover no alternative either from theory
    or from experiment.

    Now I maintain that similar effects take place whenever two
    portions of light are thus mixed, and this I call the general law
    of the interference of light.

Within three months he became Professor at the Royal Institution.

In 1801, on the 6th of July, Count Rumford reported to the managers
that, ‘at the recommendation of Sir Joseph Banks, he had had a
conversation with Dr. Young respecting his engaging as Professor of
Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution and Editor of the Journals,
together with a general superintendency of the house, and it appearing
from the report of Count Rumford that Dr. Young is a man of abilities
equal to these undertakings, it was resolved that Count Rumford be
authorised to engage Dr. Young in the aforesaid capacities at a salary
of 300_l._ per annum.’[23]

On August 3, at the managers’ meeting (Count Rumford in the chair;
present, Henry Cavendish, R. J. Sullivan; secretary J. P. Auriol),
Count Rumford reported that, agreeably to the authority granted him by
the managers, he had engaged Dr. Thomas Young. A copy of his letter to
Dr. Young, expressing the conditions of his engagement, was at the same
time laid before the committee.

The first number of the Journal had been published by Rumford on April
5, 1800. Dr. Young alone edited the fourth number in the autumn of
1801, the fifth number in December 1801, and, after editing two more
numbers alone, he joined with Davy in the editorship till the Journal
stopped in 1803.

On January 19 Dr. Young printed, at the press of the Royal Institution,
a syllabus of his first course of lectures.

The first part was on Natural Philosophy; the second part on
Hydrodynamics; the third part on Physics; and the fourth part on
Mathematical Elements.

Each had a Greek or Latin motto prefixed, and the following
advertisement to the first part was printed:

    In order to adapt the delivery of these lectures as much as
    possible to the convenience of different persons who may be
    disposed to attend them, they will be divided into three parts
    of nearly equal magnitude, and in great measure independent of
    each other. Two parts will be delivered in succession on Mondays
    and Wednesdays, at two o’clock, and the third on Friday evenings
    at eight. And in future winters, each part will be taken in turn
    for the evening lecture, so that the whole course may be heard at
    either hour. The fourth part contains all the preliminary knowledge
    that is necessary for those who may wish to enter mathematically
    on the various subjects of the lectures; it will save considerable
    pains in consulting other authors, and the most experienced may
    often find it convenient for occasional reference. It was the
    more desirable that something of this kind should be inserted, as
    mathematical arguments will be avoided as much as possible in the
    lectures; and for this reason the demonstrations which occur in the
    syllabus are distinguished from the principal text by a smaller
    type, and a separate place in the page. In a future edition a fifth
    part will probably be added, containing a catalogue of the best
    authors, with references to their works upon each subject. One
    acknowledgment must, however, be inserted here for the extensive
    use that has been made of the valuable articles contributed by
    Professor Robison to the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica.’

 Royal Institution, Albemarle Street,
       January 19, 1802.

The volume forms an octavo of upwards of 250 pages; and it is quite
evidence enough that the matter, no less than the manner of the
lectures of Dr. Young, were more fitted for Cambridge than for the
Royal Institution.

Dr. Paris thus contrasts Davy’s manner with that of Young:

    To judge fairly of the influence of a popular style we should
    acquaint ourselves with the effects of an opposite method, and, if
    an appeal be made to experience, I may very safely abide the issue.
    Dr. Young, whose profound knowledge of the subjects he taught no
    one will venture to question, lectured in the same theatre, and to
    an audience similarly constituted to that which was attracted by
    Davy, but he found the number of his attendants diminish daily, and
    for no other reason than that he adopted too severe and didactic a
    style.

The first afternoon lecture was given by Dr. Young, on Wednesday,
January 20, 1802, and the first evening lecture on Friday, January 22.

At the commencement he gave an introductory view of the nature and
objects of the Royal Institution and of the particular plan of the
lectures. Afterwards he proceeded to the subject of mechanics with the
doctrine of motion.

In the introductory lecture, when dwelling on the objects of the Royal
Institution and the dissemination of elementary knowledge, he said:

    Those who possess the genuine spirit of scientific investigation,
    and who have tasted the pure satisfaction arising from an
    advancement in intellectual acquirements, are content to proceed
    in their researches without inquiring at every step what they gain
    by their newly-discovered lights, and to what practical purposes
    they are applicable; they receive a sufficient gratification from
    the enlargement of their views of the constitution of the universe,
    and experience in the immediate pursuit of knowledge that pleasure
    which others wish to obtain more circuitously by its means. And it
    is one of the principal advantages of a liberal education that it
    creates a susceptibility of an enjoyment so elegant and so rational.

On the subject of the education of females at the Royal Institution he
said:

    The many leisure hours which are at the command of females in the
    superior orders of society may surely be appropriated with greater
    satisfaction to the improvement of the mind, and to the acquisition
    of knowledge, than to such amusements as are only designed for
    facilitating the insipid consumption of superfluous time.

    The Royal Institution may in some degree supply the place of a
    subordinate university to those whose sex or situation in life
    has denied them the advantage of an academical education in the
    national seminaries of learning.

With regard to the special objects of the Institution, the theory of
practical mechanics and of manufactures, he said:

    We must be more practical than academies of science and more
    theoretical than societies for the improvement of arts; while we
    endeavour at the same time to give stability to our proceedings
    by an annual recurrence to the elementary knowledge which is
    subservient to the purposes of both and, as far as we are able,
    apply to practice the newest lights which may from time to time be
    thrown on particular branches of mechanical science. It is thus
    that we may most effectually perform what the idolised sophists of
    antiquity but verbally professed--to bring down philosophy from the
    heavens and to make her an inhabitant of the earth.

    We may venture to affirm that out of every hundred of fancied
    improvements in arts or in machines ninety at least, if not
    ninety-nine, are either old or useless; the object of our
    researches is to enable ourselves to distinguish and to adopt the
    hundredth. But, while we prune the luxuriant shoots of youthful
    invention, we must remember to perform our task with leniency,
    and to show that we wish only to give additional vigour to the
    healthful branches, and not to extirpate the parent plant.

He spoke of the repository of models as being a supplementary room for
apparatus exhibited and described in the lectures, and ‘where a few
other articles may perhaps deserve admission.’ He mentioned the library
and the Journals as free from commercial shackles, but made no mention
of the workshops nor of the education of artisans.

    When all the advantages which may reasonably be expected from this
    Institution shall be fully understood and impartially considered,
    it is to be hoped that few persons of liberal minds will be
    indifferent to its success or unwilling to contribute to it and to
    participate in it.

    To that regulation which forbids the introduction of any
    discussions connected with the learned professions I shall always
    most willingly submit and most punctually attend. It requires the
    study of a considerable portion of a man’s life to qualify him
    to be of use to mankind in any of them, and nothing can be more
    pernicious to individuals or to society than the attempting to
    proceed practically upon an imperfect conception of a few first
    principles only. In physic the wisest can do but little, and the
    ignorant can only do worse than nothing; and anxiously as we are
    disposed to seek whatever relief the learned and experienced may be
    able to afford us, so cautiously ought we to avoid the mischievous
    interference of the half-studied empiric. In politics and in
    religion we need but to look back on the history of kingdoms and
    republics, in order to be aware of the mischiefs which ensue when
    fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

With regard to his prospectus and lectures he said:

    For the sake of those who are not disposed to undertake the labour
    of following with mathematical accuracy all the steps of the
    demonstrations on which the doctrines of the mechanical sciences
    are founded, I shall endeavour to avoid in the whole of this
    course of lectures every intricacy which might be perplexing to
    a beginner, and every argument which is fitter for the closet
    than for a public theatre. Here I propose to support the same
    propositions by experimental proofs, not that I consider such
    proofs as the most conclusive, or as more interesting to a truly
    philosophic mind, than a deduction from general principles, but
    because there is a satisfaction in discovering the coincidence
    of theories with visible effects, and because objects of sense
    are of advantage in assisting the imagination to comprehend,
    and the memory to retain, what in a more abstracted form might
    fail to excite sufficient attention. With regard to the mode of
    delivering these lectures, I shall in general entreat my audience
    to pardon the formality of a written discourse in favour of the
    advantage of a superior degree of order and perspicuity. It would
    unquestionably be desirable that every syllable advanced should
    be rendered perfectly easy and comprehensible even to the most
    uninformed, that the most inattentive might find sufficient variety
    and entertainment in what is submitted to them to excite their
    curiosity, and that in all cases the pleasing, and sometimes even
    the surprising, should be united with the instructive and the
    important. But, whenever there appears to be a real impossibility
    of reconciling these various objects, I shall esteem it better to
    seek for substantial utility than temporary amusement; for if we
    fail of being useful, for want of being sufficiently popular, we
    remain at least respectable; but if we are unsuccessful in our
    attempts to amuse, we immediately appear trifling and contemptible.
    It shall, however, at all times be my endeavour to avoid each
    extreme, and I trust that I shall then only be condemned when I am
    found abstruse from ostentation or uninteresting from supineness.
    The most difficult thing for a teacher is to recollect how much
    it cost himself to learn, and to accommodate his instruction
    to the apprehension of the uninformed. By bearing in mind this
    observation I hope to be able to render my lectures more and more
    intelligible and familiar, not by passing over difficulties, but
    by endeavouring to facilitate the task of overcoming them; and if
    at any time I appear to have failed in this attempt, I shall think
    myself honoured by any subsequent inquiries that my audience may be
    disposed to make.

    The division of the whole course of lectures into three parts
    was originally suggested by the periodical succession in which
    the appointed hours recur, but it appears to be more convenient
    than any other for the regular classification of the subjects. The
    general doctrines of motion and their application to all purposes,
    variable at pleasure, supply the materials of the first two parts,
    of which the one treats of the motions of solid bodies and the
    other of those of fluids, including the theory of light. The
    third part relates to the particular history of the phenomena of
    nature, and of the affections of bodies actually existing in the
    universe independently of the art of man, comprehending astronomy,
    geography, and the doctrine of the properties of matter, and of the
    most general and powerful agents that influence it.

    The synthetical order of proceeding from simple and general
    principles to their more intimate combinations in particular cases,
    is by far the most compendious for conveying information with
    regard to sciences that are at all referable to certain fundamental
    laws. For these laws being once established, each fact, as soon as
    it is known, assumes its place in the system, and is retained in
    the memory by its relation to the rest as a connecting link. In the
    analytical mode, on the contrary, which is absolutely necessary
    for the first investigation of truth, we are obliged to begin by
    collecting a number of insulated circumstances, which lead us back
    by degrees to the knowledge of original principles, but which,
    until we arrive at these principles, are merely a burden to the
    memory. For the phenomena of nature resemble the scattered leaves
    of the Sibylline prophecies; a word only, or a single syllable, is
    written on each leaf, which, when separately considered, conveys
    no instruction to the mind, but when, by the labour of patient
    investigation, every fragment is replaced in its appropriate
    connexion, the whole begins at once to speak a perspicuous and a
    harmonious language.

On July 5 he requested leave of the managers to be absent during the
months of August and September, taking care in the meantime to provide
sufficient matter for the publication of the Journals. He went with
the late Duke of Richmond and his brother to France. At Paris he was
introduced to the First Consul at the Institute.

This year he was appointed foreign secretary of the Royal Society,
and he held this office for the remainder of his life. He refused the
appointment of secretary in 1812, because he thought it would interfere
with his medical reputation.

In 1803, on January 26, the lectures at the Institution recommenced.
Young and Davy each gave weekly two day lectures and one evening
lecture. On Tuesday and Friday the lectures were in the evening.

On February 21 Young proposed his preface[24] to the second volume of
the Journal of the Institution.

This year, in March, he took his first Cambridge medical degree; he did
not receive his degree as Doctor of Medicine until 1808.

On July 4 the engagement of Dr. Young with the Royal Institution
terminated.[25]

On October 3 he was elected a subscriber for life for his services to
the Institution.

On November 6 he wrote to the managers:

                                                     40 Welbeck Street.

    I beg to return you my sincere thanks for the privileges of a life
    subscriber to the Royal Institution, which you have conferred
    upon me. I consider this honour both as a flattering mark of your
    approbation of the unremitting attention which it was my endeavour
    to pay to the objects of the Institution while I was employed in
    its service, and as a substantial advantage in giving me access to
    a collection of books so valuable as that which is now forming in
    it. For this privilege I cannot show my gratitude better than by
    endeavouring to make such use of it as to render the publication
    of my lectures, which I am preparing, more and more worthy of
    the Institution in which they were delivered, and fitted to
    co-operate in its exertions for the advancement and dissemination
    of mechanical knowledge.

After this time Dr. Young took no part in the progress of the Royal
Institution. A very short sketch of the remainder of his life,
therefore, will be given.

When between thirty-one and forty-one years of age he used his utmost
endeavours to succeed in practice in Welbeck Street. In 1804 he
married, and he built a house at Worthing, where he practised in the
autumn for sixteen years. In 1807 he tried to become physician to
the Middlesex Hospital. In this he failed, but he lectured there on
Chemistry, Physiology, Nosology, Practice of Medicine, and Materia
Medica. Many of the lectures formed afterwards part of his work on
‘Medical Literature.’

This year he published his ‘Course of Lectures at the Royal Institution’
in two quarto volumes. The long delay was occasioned partly from the
increase of matter and partly from the difficulty of the engravings.
Through the bankruptcy of his publisher, Johnson, he lost the
1,000_l._ he was to receive for his work. The Dean of Ely says of
these volumes: ‘They form altogether the most comprehensive system of
natural philosophy and of what the French call physics that has ever
been published in this country; equally remarkable for precision and
accuracy in the enunciation of the vast multitude of propositions and
facts which they contain, for the boldness with which they enter upon
the discussion of the most abstruse and difficult subjects, and for
the addition or suggestion of new matter or new views in almost every
department of philosophy.’

In the autumn of 1810 he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks an account of ‘an
agricultural micrometer for measuring the fineness of wool.’ See
Appendix II.

On January 24, 1811, he was elected one of the physicians of St.
George’s Hospital. The contest, he says, was almost unparalleled.
‘The Cabbells were very naturally confident of triumphant success;
parliamentary influence and the natural wish to serve a man who is
likely to be Lord Chancellor made Sir S. Romilly’s nephew, Dr. Roget,
very formidable.’ ‘Mrs. Young has emerged from death to life by the
event of this contest.’ Before and after this time he wrote frequently
for the ‘Quarterly Review,’ to which he contributed eighteen articles.
Perhaps the most celebrated was on the ‘Herculanean Manuscripts,’ of
which eighteen hundred were discovered. ‘It is a consolation to know,’
said a friend, ‘that Brougham, who took advantage of the growing
circulation of the ‘Edinburgh Review’ to desseminate his vile abuse of
you, and Jeffery, who permitted him to do so, should be condemned to
hear your praises on all sides, and to feel that the publication in
which they are engaged is suffering, and is likely to suffer, by your
means.’

In 1814 he was asked to contribute to the new supplement of the
‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ but he declined, because ‘it was necessary
to abstain as much as possible from appearing before the public as an
author in any department of science not immediately medical.’

During the next ten years of Dr. Young’s life the failure of his
efforts to succeed as a physician led him to the highest literary
success that could be attained.

In 1814 he began his ‘Hieroglyphical Researches,’ and throughout the
summer and autumn he worked at the Rosetta Stone.

At the end of the year he wrote to Mr. Hudson Gurney, who had got him
Champollion’s book--‘Egypt under the Pharaohs:’ ‘I have only spent
literally five minutes in looking over Champollion, turning by means of
the index to the parts where he has quoted the inscription of Rosetta.
He follows Akerblad (a Swedish attaché at Paris, a good classical and
first-rate Coptic scholar, who had written a letter on this stone to
Silvestre de Sacy) blindly, with scarcely any acknowledgment. But he
has certainly picked out the sense of a few passages in the inscription
by means of Akerblad’s investigations, although in four or five Coptic
words which he pretends to have found in it he is wrong in all but
one, and that is a very short and a very obvious one. My translation
is printed; it is anonymous, and must for some time remain so, but
everybody whose approbation is worth having will know the author.’ In
the summer of this year Arago and Gay-Lussac visited him at Worthing.
Young then learned what Fresnel was doing on the diffraction of light,
and they saw what Young had published in his lectures in 1807.

In 1816 he proposed to the editor of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’
to write for him. He says: ‘I would also suggest (in addition to
sound) alphabet, annuities, attraction, capillary action, cohesion,
colour, dew, Egypt, eye, forms, friction, halo, hieroglyphics,
hydraulics, motion, resistance, ship, strength, tides, and waves.
Anything of a medical nature which you might think desirable would
of course be doubly so to me. Nor should I be difficult with respect
to any other subject that might occur to you. L’alti non temo, e
l’umili non sdegno.’ He contributed sixty-three articles; forty-six
were biographical. This year he published his ‘Translation of the
Hieroglyphics’ with a correspondence with De Sacy and Akerblad.

In 1818 he wrote the article ‘Egypt’ for the Encyclopædia. ‘It was
pronounced to be the greatest effort of scholarship and ingenuity of
which modern literature could boast; yet it was only a popular and
superficial sketch of the vast mass of materials which his diligence
had collected and his genius had interpreted.’

He was this year appointed superintendent of the ‘Nautical Almanac’
and secretary of the Board of Longitude, which was established to
relieve the Astronomer Royal from all scientific questions regarding
the interests of navigation. He immediately set himself to correct all
the errors of the Almanac that endangered the safety of ships, but,
considering it as intended for nautical and not astronomical use, he
resisted the changes which practical astronomers strongly urged on him
and on the Government.

In 1822 he wrote to Mr. Gurney from Paris:

    In my own pursuits I have found abundance of novelty to interest
    me, both the scientific and literary departments of the Institute
    happening at this moment to be particularly engaged with my
    investigations, and a Frenchman having in each of them been engaged
    in going over my own ground without being fully acquainted with
    what I had done, and having had to exclaim, ‘Pereant qui ante nos
    nostra dixerunt.’ Fresnel, a young mathematician of the civil
    engineers, has really been doing some good things in the extension
    and application of my theory of light, and Champollion, the author
    of the book you brought over, has been working still harder upon
    the Egyptian characters. He devotes his whole time to the pursuit,
    and he has been wonderfully successful in some of the documents
    which he has obtained.

    How far he will acknowledge everything which he has either borrowed
    or might have borrowed from me, I am not quite confident, but the
    world will be sure to remark que c’est le premier pas qui coûte,
    though the proverb is less true in this case than in most others,
    for here every step is laborious.

The best comparative estimate of the value of the work of Young and
Fresnel on light was given by Sir John Herschel, in 1827, at the end
of his view of the undulating theory of light in the ‘Encyclopædia
Metropolitana’:

    Such is the beautiful theory of Fresnel and Young, for we must not,
    in our regard for one great name, forget the justice which is
    due to the other; and to separate them, and to assign to each his
    share, would be as impracticable as invidious, so intimately are
    they blended together throughout every part of this system--early,
    acute, and pregnant suggestion characterising the one, and maturity
    of thought, fulness of systematic development, and decisive
    experimental illustration equally distinguishing the other.

During the last five years of Dr. Young’s life, when he was between
fifty-one and fifty-six years old, he ceased to be a practising
physician, and occupied himself with science and literature only.

In 1827, at the anniversary of the Royal Society, after the resignation
of the presidency by Sir Humphry Davy, the claims of Dr. Young were too
strong to be altogether neglected.

Writing to his sister he says:

    I find there has been pretty general conversation about making
    me President of the Royal Society, and I really think if I were
    foolish enough to wish for the office, I am at this _moment_
    popular enough to obtain it; but you well know that nothing is
    further from my wishes.

Davies Gilbert was chosen. ‘I told him,’ says Young, ‘that he had not
quite enough of the devil in him, that Sir Joseph Banks should have
left his _eyebrows_ to go with his cocked hat, if he had left the
Society nothing else.’

In the summer of 1828 he visited Paris for the last time on his way to
Geneva. He was then one of the eight foreign associates of the Academy.
To Mr. Gurney he wrote:

    My principal object was Champollion, and with him I have been
    completely successful as far as I wanted his _assistance_, for, to
    say the truth, our conferences have not been very gratifying to my
    _vanity_. He has done so much more and so much better than I had
    any reason to believe he would or could have done, and, as he feels
    his own importance more, he feels less occasion to be tenacious of
    any trifling claims which may justly be denied him, and in this
    spirit he has borne my criticisms with perfect good humour, though
    Arago has charged me with some degree of undue severity, and wanted
    to pass the matter over as not having been published as mine; but
    to this I could not consent: and, supposing that Champollion might
    have been unacquainted with the remarks, I thought it a matter of
    conscience to carry them to him this morning, before I allowed him
    to continue his profuse liberality in furnishing me with more than
    I want.

From Geneva Young sent Arago, at his request, a statement of his
claims. He gave full justice to Champollion. But when Arago, a few
years later, read his éloge of Young, he still said that Young’s
principle of phonetisation of the hieroglyphics was mixed with error,
chiefly by making symbols stand for words and syllables, instead of for
letters only. He also denied Young’s knowledge of two or more signs for
the same letter.

His health up to this time, with the exception before mentioned, had
been perfect. During this summer excursion he was most easily fatigued,
and appeared to age rapidly.

In a letter written soon after his return he says:

    As for myself, I am perfectly content with the life I lead--walking
    on business of routine every day from eleven to two, the rest
    of the day sitting over my hieroglyphics, or my mathematics,
    and conversing in my library with people beyond the Alps or the
    Mediterranean. I have lost all ambition for a more bustling life,
    or more active scenes, and I believe I am as happy as a person so
    old in _soul_ is capable of being. In mental faculties I am not
    yet old, and I amuse myself almost daily with some petty bonnes
    fortunes among some of the nine sisters. I hear nothing whatever
    from the Admiralty, and so much the better, except receiving
    300_l._ a year instead of four. As for Croker, I never believe
    a word of his going out, and he may remain in for aught I care,
    and be Lord Melville’s master if he chooses; for the stronger of
    two heads will generally direct the weaker in the long run. I am
    deep in the value of life, and I really begin to think that people
    do live longer than was formerly supposed, though not in the
    extravagant degree that was asserted.

In 1828, at the Royal Society, when the President, Davies Gilbert,
announced Wollaston’s donation of 2,000_l._ for the promotion of
scientific research and his own gift of 1,000_l._, Young, as senior
officer, returned thanks for the Society. He tells Mr. Gurney, ‘I
summoned up courage to take the first opportunity of muttering out,
“Mr. President, a gentleman on my right says he never heard me make a
speech.”’

In January 1829 he wrote:

    Our new Committee of Longitude is settled, at least for the
    present, though the radical abuse of the ‘Nautical Almanac’ is
    likely to continue; but, fortunately for my security, they have
    put the Admiralty and the ‘Nautical Almanac’ together; so they may
    do their worst. Croker has appointed Sabine and Faraday and me to
    constitute a scientific committee to advise the Admiralty, which
    was all that the Board of Longitude would do, and it is better that
    things should be called by their right names.

Immediately a memorial was sent to the Prime Minister, the Duke of
Wellington, against the ‘Nautical Almanac.’ A report on this paper was
made by Dr. Young in February.

    Though his health was at this time rapidly declining, his
    observations were written with his usual precision and ability,
    giving way in one instance only to feelings of personal resentment,
    if a stronger term may not be used, which had been provoked by
    attacks of unusual violence and bitterness. It is hardly necessary
    to add that he adhered substantially to the views which he had
    previously maintained. His death, which took place on May 10, put
    an end to the contest.

The life of Dr. Young began, continued, and ended strangely. Throughout
he was a phenomenon. His course was very different from what might have
been expected and quite opposed to that which would have been most
suited to him.

He was the great physicist of his time, and yet ‘at no period of his
life was he fond of repeating experiments or even of originating new
ones. He considered that, however necessary to the advancement of
science, they demanded a great sacrifice of time; and that, when a fact
was once established, that time was better employed in considering the
purposes to which it might be applied or the principles which it might
tend to elucidate.’ He was kind by nature and a Quaker by education,
and yet he was always at war for his discoveries. He never was free
from a scientific or literary controversy. As a professor at the Royal
Institution, as a hospital physician at St. George’s, and still more
as a practitioner of medicine in London and Worthing, his powers were
entirely misdirected. With a culture like that of Newton what noble
fruit might not Young have brought forth! The work he did for science
was undervalued during his life; nevertheless he was content; and
nothing shows that he foresaw or wished for that great reputation which
has gradually gathered round his name. Two years before his death,
writing to his sister-in-law regarding the praise which Herschel had
given him in his ‘Treatise on Light,’ he said:

    I think he has divided the prize very fairly, and I dare say poor
    Fresnel, if he had lived, would have preferred his share of the
    honour as much as I do mine. It was _before I knew you_ that mine
    was earned, and acute suggestion was then--and indeed always--more
    in the line of my ambition than experimental illustration. But
    surely one that is conscious that such things may be said with
    some truth (or who imagines it) has no further temptation to be
    President of the Royal Society even if he could.

His character was drawn by Sir Humphry Davy thus: ‘A man of universal
erudition and almost universal accomplishments. Had he limited himself
to any one department of knowledge he must have been first in that
department. But as a mathematician, a scholar, and hieroglyphist he
was eminent; and he knew so much that it is difficult to say what he
did not know. He was a most amiable and good-tempered man; too fond,
perhaps, of the society of persons of rank for a true philosopher.’

Mr. Davies Gilbert, the President of the Royal Society, in his speech
from the chair on the death of Young, said:

    He came into the world with a confidence in his own talents,
    growing out of an expectation of excellence entertained in common
    by all his friends, which expectation was more than realised in
    the progress of his future life. The multiplied objects which he
    pursued were carried to such an extent, that each might have been
    supposed to have exclusively occupied the full powers of his mind;
    knowledge in the abstract, the most enlarged generalisations, and
    the most minute and intricate details were equally effected by
    him; but he had most pleasure in that which appeared to be most
    difficult of investigation. The example is only to be followed by
    those of equal perseverance.




CHAPTER V.

THE PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION TO THE TIME OF FARADAY.

1804 to 1814.


In 1804 the change in the original management and objects of the Royal
Institution was completed. The place which Rumford, with the help of
Sir Joseph Banks, had held was taken by Mr. Bernard, who was supported
by Sir John Hippesley. He knew nothing of science but much of the
world, and his aim for the Institution can be given in his own words.
‘The object has been great and important, not less than that of giving
fashion to science.’

In the spring the report of the visitors reflected the picture of Mr.
Bernard’s management, but the shadow of future greatness was there.
Mention was made of the intention to carry on original inquiries upon
new objects of science.

The visitors said:

    There is every reason to suppose that a general interest in favour
    of the establishment has been created among the inhabitants of the
    metropolis.

    The laboratory has been enlarged by the old workshop; some of the
    space has been filled up with seats as a theatre for those who
    attend the experiments of research; an arched opening is being
    made in the wall in front of the table of the laboratory. This
    part of the establishment is now found to answer very completely
    the end of enabling the Professor of Chemistry and his assistants
    to prepare materials for the chemical lectures, and to carry on
    original inquiries upon new objects of science. A collection of
    minerals has been formed of more than 3,000 specimens, principally
    from presents. Great progress has been made in the library in the
    old lecture room; the library of the late Thomas Astle, Esq.,
    has been purchased for 1,000 guineas. It contains a variety of
    scarce and valuable books in ancient British history, topography,
    and antiquities. It will soon be opened. The model room has been
    rearranged, and the number of models slightly increased, but the
    adequate supply of useful models still continues a desideratum
    in our establishment, and seems to call for every exertion, as
    forming so interesting a part of the original prospectus of the
    Institution. The printing press has been removed; its utility has
    not been found adequate to its expense. At the same time it has
    occupied a space in the upper story which may hereafter be employed
    to greater advantage.

    The number and variety of the public lectures have been
    advantageous.

    The great improvements made during the year offer every reasonable
    prospect of increased advantage and extended utility.

In January Mr. Bernard was full of energy for the lectures. To the
managers he said he had reason to flatter himself that Mr. Fletcher,
of Cecil Street, would lecture on Natural Philosophy (but Mr. Fletcher
could not find room for his course, as Mr. Allen was engaged on the
same subject). Mr. Crowe would lecture on History; Dr. Stanger on
Physiology, and give another course on Medicine; Dr. James Smith on
Botany; John Opie on Painting; Astley Cooper on Comparative Anatomy
(but he did not give the lectures). All these courses were not to
cost 150_l._, if in two or three instances the privileges of a life
subscriber were granted. Davy was asked to report on the means of
escape in case of fire; on lighting the theatre; and whether a plan
could be formed for the regular publication of the Journal.

In February the printing office was discontinued and the Journals were
given up. Mr. Savage bought the printing press and type and removed
them in May, and became printer to the Royal Institution on his own
account.

In April all Sir Guy Carleton’s manuscripts on the American War,
including a copy of the treaty of peace between England and America,
signed by Benjamin Franklin, were given to the library. The bye-laws
regarding the library of reference were made less strict. In May Mr.
Bernard announced his arrangements for the autumn and spring lectures.

Davy agreed to give three courses; the Rev. Sydney Smith two courses
of ten lectures each on Moral Philosophy, one from November 10 to
January 30 and the other from February 20 to May 20, for 50_l._ and the
compliment of a life admission to him and Mrs. Smith. Mr. Fletcher was
to give twenty-four lectures on Natural Philosophy; Mr. Landseer, three
lectures on Engraving at eight o’clock on Monday evenings; Dr. Crotch,
six lectures on Wednesday and Friday evenings.

Two letters written at this time by Sir Joseph Banks to Count Rumford
at Paris give some insight into the divisions among the managers,
the causes of disagreement, and the different motives that had
been working in the Institution almost from its commencement. It is
clear that Count Rumford and Sir Joseph Banks especially desired the
promotion of scientific knowledge among the poor and the rich, and that
Mr. Bernard and Sir John Hippesley believed that the success of the
Institution depended upon fashionable popularity. For the first three
years the advancement of scientific knowledge was the chief object of
the Institution; in the fourth and fifth years this object gave way to
that of fashionable popularity, which was sought for until the original
investigations of Davy again made science, in the noble function of new
discovery, the life of the Royal Institution.

                  SIR JOSEPH BANKS TO COUNT RUMFORD.

                                                            April 1804.

    I am very glad to find by your letter that you are well and happy
    where you now are. In truth, you seem so much so that your friends
    here begin to suppose you will take root in the soil where you
    now grow. I cannot, however, disguise that your not appearing in
    England last year, as I had reason to expect you would have done,
    has been a material disappointment to me and a great detriment to
    the Royal Institution.

    It is now entirely in the hands of the profane. I have declared
    my dissatisfaction at the mode in which it is carried on and my
    resolution not to attend in future. Had my health and spirits not
    failed me, I could have kept matters in their proper level, but,
    sick, alone, and unsupported, I have given up what cannot now
    easily be recovered.

    The Royal Society, however, goes on extremely well; our members are
    industrious, especially Mr. Hatchett, whose chemical discoveries
    do him every day more and more credit. We shall not now, I trust,
    go astray, as I think we have not one attending member who is at
    all addicted to politics.

    All our subordinate societies also seem to prosper, and labour
    diligently in their respective departments; we have newly formed
    one for the improvement of horticulture, which promises to become
    very numerous. I send you a book on the subject of heat, &c.
    (Leslie), which certainly contains many interesting experiments and
    much bad reasoning. Upon the whole, however, it appears to me that
    he will not be an unlikely candidate for your medal of the next
    year. Pray let me have your opinion of the subject; and, if you
    disapprove of him, who do you think a more successful promoter of
    the science you wish to encourage?

    I send your medals by Mr. ----. This is the first opportunity I
    have had, or you would sooner have received them. [These were the
    first Rumford medals, awarded to Rumford himself.]


                  SIR JOSEPH BANKS TO COUNT RUMFORD.

                                             Soho Square, June 6, 1804.

    As it does not prove convenient to Mr. Livingstone to take with
    him the Society’s transactions or the observations of the Royal
    Observatory, which I wished to have sent, I am obliged to confine
    myself to the sending the enclosed books--‘Leslie on Heat’ for your
    acceptance, the ‘Nautical Almanac’ for M. Delambre--and the medals
    which the Royal Society decreed to you a year and a half ago.

    On the subject of the first I much wish for your opinion whether
    the author may be considered a proper person to receive your medal
    next year; and, if not, who you think a more deserving candidate?

    Be so good as to deliver the ‘Nautical Almanac’ to M. Delambre
    with my best regards, and to assure the Institute that I shall
    never forget the various favours I have in my literary character
    received from them or those which literary people, my friends, have
    received from them on my account. I honour and respect them both
    as a body and as individuals more than ever, and look forward with
    earnest wishes for the time when I may again communicate with them
    freely, as I once had the happiness of doing. I have received their
    medallic diplomas for Mr. Cavendish, Dr. Maskelyne, Dr. Herschel,
    and myself, and will distribute them without delay. Pray remind
    them, however, that Mr. James Forbes, F.R.S., is still a prisoner
    among them; though an old man, possibly he does not wish to return
    home, as his daughter has married into a French family. Possibly
    other insurmountable obstacles have prevented his release, as the
    Institute have so nobly and handsomely proved their wish that the
    Fellows of the Royal Society should be restored to their pursuits
    of science.

    From the tone of your letter it appears to me that you are likely
    to take root in the soil in which you now grow. I am sorry that you
    did not return to England, as you gave me every reason to expect
    you would, last year. Your house at Brompton is an inadequate
    pledge of your future residence here, as experience has confirmed
    me in believing.

    In the meantime the Institution has irrevocably fallen into the
    hands of the enemy, and is now perverted to a hundred uses for
    which you and I never intended it. I could have successfully
    resisted their innovations had you been here, but, alone,
    unsupported, and this year confined to my house for three months
    by disease (gout), my spirit was too much broken to admit of
    my engaging singly with the host of H.’s and B.’s[26] who had
    possession of the fortress. Adieu, then, Institution! I have long
    ago declared my intention of attending no more.

    You desire that Davy may have your papers for insertion in the
    Journals. Alas! the Journals have ceased for more than a year, and
    the printing office is removed from the house of the Institution.
    Your papers, however, shall be communicated to him, as they have
    already been to Sir Charles Blagden.

During this year a series of lectures was begun at the Institution by
the Rev. Sydney Smith, which for fashionable attraction surpassed any
courses that have ever been delivered there.

Mr. Horner thus wrote to Mr. J. A. Murray:

                                         The Temple, November 15, 1804.

    I suppose you know that Smith begins to lecture on Moral Philosophy
    next Saturday at the Royal Institution? You would be amused to hear
    the account he gives of his own qualifications for the task and
    his mode of manufacturing philosophy; he will do the thing very
    cleverly, I have little doubt, as to general manner, and he is
    sufficiently aware of all the forbearances to be observed. Profound
    lectures on metaphysics would be unsuitable to the place; he may
    do some good if he makes the subject amusing. He will contribute,
    like his other associates of the Institution, to make the real
    blue-stockings a little more disagreeable than ever and sensible
    women a little more sensible. It seems to me, for the interest
    of general conversation, that these subjects should not be quite
    so unknown to them as to be thought unintelligible pedantry if
    mentioned in their company; and the impertinence of those who
    set up as adepts is the price we must pay for this important
    acquisition. Your chemists and metaphysicians in petticoats are
    altogether out of nature--that is, when they make a trade or
    distinction of such pursuits--but when they take a little general
    learning as an accomplishment they keep it in very tolerable order.
    Tell me if I take this rightly. I know it is not well settled, and
    men of letters usually lean too much on one side. Good afternoon.

Mr. Horner wrote another letter to Mr. Thomas Thompson:

                                         The Temple, November 21, 1804.

    Our friend Sydney gave his first lecture on Saturday. I was not
    there, but all the accounts I have collected from different sorts
    of people agree in its favour, and that it took extremely well.

During the second course Mr. Horner wrote to Lady Mackintosh at Bombay:

                                            The Temple, April 18, 1805.

    We have all this winter had but two topics of conversation--Young
    Roscius and the lectures of the Right Reverend our Bishop of
    Mickleham.[27] His Lordship’s success has been beyond all possible
    conjecture--from six to eight hundred hearers; not a seat to be
    found, even if you go half-an-hour before the time. Nobody else,
    to be sure, could have executed such an undertaking with the least
    chance of this sort of success; for who else could make such a
    mixture of odd paradox, quaint fun, manly sense, liberal opinion,
    striking language? You must have had more than enough of the other
    great delight of the public--the Roscius. As it is the propensity
    of all superior minds to admire, I am sorry that this occasion has
    added another to my own proofs that I must place myself on a very
    low form; there never was such a rage except that for Sydney.

In the ‘Life of Sydney Smith’ Lady Holland mentions that Mr. Bernard
obtained these lectures for the Institution. She says:

    He obtained considerable increase of reputation by a course of
    lectures on Moral Philosophy, which Sir Thomas Bernard, who
    interested himself much about the Royal Institution, proposed to
    him to give. He continued to lecture for three successive years.

On May 17, 1804, a new proposal was made for the advancement of science
at the Royal Institution. A special meeting of the managers and
visitors was held, and an address to the proprietors and subscribers
was read and approved, and ordered to be circulated, respecting the
formation of a mineralogical collection and an assay office on a large
scale for the improvement of mineralogy and metallurgy.

The Hon. G. F. Greville, Sir J. St. Aubyn, Sir A. Hume, proposed to
raise a fund of 4,000_l._ to arrange a collection in a manner which
should exhibit all the interesting series of mineralogical facts; and
they proposed to establish an assay office, to be exclusively employed
for the advancement of mineralogy and metallurgy. They thought that the
whole time of a mineralogist of considerable talent would be employed;
and that the continued attention of a chemist of approved abilities
would be required.

It was proposed that a mineralogical institution like the library
institution should be united to the Royal Institution.

The address relating to the formation of this economic museum ended
thus: ‘The proprietors and subscribers may be assured that the managers
and visitors will never consider their labours as finished, while there
remains any effort to be made for the diffusion and useful application
of _practical science_ in this country. They would indeed have deemed
themselves extremely culpable if there had been any delay or neglect
on their part in submitting to the consideration of their members,
and of the public, a plan which promises essentially to promote the
prosperity of the Royal Institution, and at the same time to contribute
to the extension of useful science and to the increase of our national
resources.’

A plan was drawn up. There were to be hereditary patrons, paying
100_l._ and upwards, and patrons for life, paying 50_l._, and
subscribers of smaller sums might unite when they had subscribed sixty
guineas and select one of themselves as patron. The patrons were to
elect a chairman, a deputy-chairman, a treasurer and a secretary,
committees and sub-committees.

In 1804 Lord Dartmouth gave 200_l._ worth of minerals, and Mr. Hatchett
gave the cases for them.

In 1805 Davy gave his own collection of minerals, valued at 100 guineas.

The committee rooms were made into the mineral room, and 250_l._ was
spent in fitting it up. Davy went to Wales and Ireland to collect
minerals, and the following year he again went to the west and north
of Ireland, and took with him William Payne, the boy belonging to the
laboratory.

At the end of 1805 the rooms for the mineralogical collection were
ready, and the arrangement of the mineralogical and geological
specimens was made under the directions of Mr. Davy. The minerals
and fossils were removed from the model room, where they had been
deposited, and in consequence the models were arranged to more
advantage.

On June 9, 1806, a report was made by Mr. Bernard on the total failure
of the subscriptions to the mineralogical collection. Thereupon the
managers resolved that the three original proposers should receive back
their subscriptions, and that thanks should be given to them ‘for the
benefits which they had conferred upon the Institution by suggesting
the idea of a mineralogical collection, and by showing that it will
be practicable to establish and to support it out of the funds of the
Institution.’

In their answer the proposers said:

    We concur in your opinion that the space allotted for minerals and
    the plan pursued by the managers, according to the funds which the
    Institution can supply, will be found equal to the illustration of
    very interesting courses of mineralogy and geology, and it is bare
    justice to Mr. Davy to state that his activity and intelligence in
    bringing to notice the important facts of the natural history of
    Great Britain and Ireland, with the aid of the managers to make his
    assays keep pace with his discoveries, will ensure much credit to
    the Royal Institution and great benefit to the public.

       *       *       *       *       *

    We are still of opinion that, when the importance of a general
    collection and of a laboratory of assay in constant activity is
    felt as it ought to be, the influence of the Royal Institution
    will not be exerted in vain. The plan, which the managers have
    limited to the present scale of their building and to the funds of
    their Institution, has obtained general approbation. Its success
    will give a bias to public opinion favourable to the progress of
    mineralogy and chemistry, and enable the managers at a future
    time to extend their buildings, establishments, and plan to the
    scale which unsuccessfully we ventured to suggest to be better
    proportioned to their importance.

The original proposal was too scientific and not sufficiently
fashionable to agree with the management of Mr. Bernard at this time.

During this year another proposal was made for the good of science at
the Institution. This is to be seen in a letter from Mr. Davy to Mr.
Bernard, written on June 2:

    DEAR SIR,--I have reflected on our conversation at Brighthelmstone
    with regard to the utility of some new arrangements that may be
    made in the chemical department of the Royal Institution, and I
    still entertain the same opinions on the subject.

    In all universities and places of public scientific instruction it
    is, I believe, usual for the professors or teachers to admit into
    their laboratories a certain number of private or operating pupils,
    who give their aid in the processes that are carried on, and at
    the same time gain practical information and are of use to the
    experimenter. I have several times been applied to by subscribers
    to the Royal Institution who wished to assist in the experiments
    carried on in the laboratory; but, as I have had no instructions
    on this point from the managers, I have been unable to give them
    permission. I do not think any inconvenience could arise from the
    admission of private pupils in the chemical department of the
    Institution. Such a plan would gratify many persons, would tend
    to facilitate the execution of such operations as are carried on,
    and would coincide with the ends of the establishment without
    burthening it with any new expense. If you should think that the
    idea would not be disagreeable to the managers, perhaps you will
    have the goodness to mention it on Monday.

    I enclose a sketch of some regulations for Mr. Sadler and for
    myself; perhaps similar ones or better ones might be framed for the
    other persons in the service of the Institution.

    I have been thinking upon the lectures of which you furnished the
    title, and I shall be very glad to give them at the end of the next
    season.

    I am, dear Sir, with the warmest respect, your obliged and grateful

                                                               H. DAVY.

It was resolved by the managers ‘that Mr. Davy have permission to admit
six subscribers as private pupils in the laboratory in the manner
proposed in his letter.’ The regulations drawn up by Mr. Davy were
read, as well as a draft of the duties of the Professor of Chemistry
and the experimental operator at the Institution.

In 1805 the endeavour of Mr. Bernard to make the Royal Institution
fashionable was persevered in with zeal and success. Early in the
spring he announced eighteen courses of lectures for the following
autumn and spring. The visitors reported that ‘the success of the
Royal Institution was a matter of public notoriety,’ that ‘all the
debts which were owing from the Institution have been paid, and there
is every prospect of future surplus. The investments directed by the
bye-laws have been continued; these amount to 1,334_l._ 4_s._ The
engagement of lecturers of talent and reputation has given increased
interest and effect to the Institution, and with little additional
expense. Even if otherwise, no contraction of scale ought to be
admitted in this most interesting part of the Institution, which
furnishes not only an abundant source of amusement, but also the solid
materials of instruction and improvement.’

‘Though the mineral collection has not proceeded with the same
rapidity of success as the library of reference, yet a considerable
advance has been made. The subscriptions and the minerals presented
already amount to the value of about 1,500_l._ The managers have
laudably given up their board and committee rooms in order to prepare
suitable apartments for the collection, and have resolved to hold
their committees in the library on the days when it is not open to
subscribers in general. Notice has been given that the laboratory of
assay is ready for that useful and essential part of the plan the
analysis of ores and mineral substances.’

The report said that, ‘with a view to the permanent success of the
Institution, as the popularity of the lectures was so much increased,
the terms of subscription were altered and a supplementary list was
made of ladies subscribing three guineas and gentlemen six guineas.’
The ordinary subscription being two guineas and four guineas, the
ladies and unmarried daughters of proprietors were required to
subscribe only one guinea, ‘as, by relinquishing the transferable
right of one of their tickets, they had contributed to the success of
the plans which the managers had formed for the improvement of the
Institution.’

The visitors ended thus: ‘The great degree of improvement and
advancement under the auspices of the present managers is shown by
this report relating to the accommodation and convenience of those who
attend the Institution, instead of dwelling upon the means by which the
members might be increased.’

The number of proprietors at this time was four hundred, and the
qualification was raised to one hundred and fifty guineas.

A committee of proprietors, managers, and visitors was appointed to
revise the bye-laws.

The Rev. Sydney Smith began his second course of lectures on March 23.

He thus wrote in April to Francis Jefferey, Esq.:

                                            Doughty Street, April 1805.

    My lectures are just now at such an absurd pitch of celebrity that
    I must lose a good deal of reputation before the public settles
    into a just equilibrium respecting them. I am most heartily ashamed
    of my own fame, because I am conscious I do not deserve it, and
    that the moment men of sense are provoked by the clamour to look
    into my claims it will be at an end.

Mr. Landseer gave three lectures on Engraving. From some personal
allusions the managers resolved ‘that it is their earnest wish that no
allusion of a personal nature be ever offered on any account at the
lectures of the Institution.’ The next year Mr. Landseer was engaged
to give six lectures on Engraving, including the substance of those
already given, on the same terms as those of the preceding year. In
the announcement of the engagement it was said, ‘He will endeavour to
add a few lectures of a more general nature on the Philosophy of Art.’
The lectures were given early in 1806, and on March 17, after the
fourth lecture, the minutes of the managers state that Mr. Landseer
was called in and informed that the managers understood that his two
last lectures, particularly the last, were exceptionable from the
personal allusions they contained, and, he having admitted that they
were intended as personal allusions, although introduced with a view to
vindicate and support the art, and it appearing that Mr. Landseer had
before introduced personal allusions in his lectures, notwithstanding
notice last season from the managers, it was resolved ‘that Mr.
Landseer be informed that it is with great regret that the managers
feel themselves obliged to direct that his lectures be discontinued.’
The steward was ordered to pay Mr. Landseer 30_l._, the sum he was to
receive for his course of lectures.

On March 25 Mr. Bernard reported to the managers ‘that Mr. Davy will
give three courses of lectures in the ensuing season--the first in
November, December, and January, upon that part of Practical Chemistry
that relates to the Experimental History of Water, the Atmospheric
Heat, and Electricity; the second in February and March next, upon the
Chemical History of Water and the Atmosphere; and the third in April
and May, upon the Modern History of Science.’

On April 1 the clock in the gallery was ordered.

Mr. Dibden agreed to give ten or twelve lectures on the Use and
Progress of English Literature.

At the first meeting in May the following professors were proposed for
election at the meeting of managers: Professor of Chemistry, Mr. Davy;
Natural Philosophy, Mr. Allen; Poetry, Rev. W. Crowe; Belles Lettres,
Rev. John Hewlett; and Moral Philosophy, the Rev. Sydney Smith.

The proprietorship was raised to 150 guineas, and at the end of the
year to 200 guineas. The mineralogical room was fitted up for the
minerals. The laboratory was opened for analyses for persons paying
10_l._ at most. Ventilators were placed in the roof and under the
gallery of the theatre. It was impossible to keep out the wet because
of the settlement in the foundations, so the roof was new-leaded; and
Mr. Soane, the architect, advised that the roof should be examined
twice yearly.

On May 29 Mr. Bernard reported to the managers ‘that he had been
requested by Sir Francis Baring to inform them that a plan similar to
that of the Royal Institution was intended to be adopted in London,
with a view to the same laudable and beneficial effects as have been
produced with such extraordinary success in Westminster under the
auspices of the managers of the Royal Institution; that the gentlemen
who had taken the active part in the proposed establishment had no
other object in view but that of promoting, concurrently with the
Royal Institution, the prevalence of science and literature in the
metropolis, and in this they have flattered themselves that they shall
receive the approbation and assistance of the managers of the Royal
Institution.’ It was resolved unanimously ‘that Sir Francis Baring be
informed that the managers view with great satisfaction the exertions
of him and the other gentlemen to extend the beneficial effects of
science and literature in the metropolis, and that the managers will be
ready to give them any aid and assistance which they can with propriety
in the execution of their plan, conceiving as they do that the two
institutions will not interfere with each other, but will rather
increase the public interest in favour of their objects and promote the
success of both by the mutual assistance and beneficial co-operation
which they may be enabled to render to each other.’

In October Sir Francis Baring invited Sir Joseph Banks to become a
vice-president. This he declined by a letter written on October 14. He,
however, expressed his wish to purchase a share in the Institution. He
said:

    I confess, however, I do not at present foresee the period at which
    the utility of your new Institution is likely to commence. The
    Royal Society was set on foot by a number of persons well versed
    in those matters which its constitution was intended to promote.
    The Royal Institution was at first wholly under the direction of
    persons entirely addicted to science, and has not improved since
    the management of it has passed into other hands. The Athenæum at
    Liverpool has been formed, I may say, wholly under the immediate
    superintendence of Mr. Roscow and Dr. Currie. All this I can
    understand, but how the very worthy and most respectable men you at
    present look up to as managers of your new Institution will be able
    to guide it into the paths of science and literature is not to me
    quite so evident as I sincerely wish it to be.

In 1806 Sir James Mackintosh, writing from India to his friend Mr.
Sharp, also shows how fashion, rather than science, had become the
characteristic of the Royal Institution.

    Your account of the London Institution has delighted and tantalised
    me. I wish I were a professor! But the printed paper is too general
    to admit of any discussion. You do not say how many and who are
    to be professors. It may surely be a little more solid than the
    fashionable nerves of Albemarle Street could endure without ceasing
    to be popular.

In 1806 ‘the attempt to make the Institution fashionable’ by means of
the number and quality of the lectures seemed to attain the success
that Mr. Bernard desired. There was an increase of nearly 3,000_l._ in
proprietors’ shares and in subscriptions. The debt of 2,000_l._ formed
in 1802 was paid off, and the sum in the funds amounted to nearly
4,000_l._ The library was completed by a separate subscription; this
amounted to nearly 7,000_l._, of which about 5,000_l._ was spent in
books.

With the exception of the Professor of Moral Philosophy the same
professors were this year re-elected.

In the report of the visitors in 1807 the following statement of the
lectures and of the general result of the management in 1805-6 and in
1806-7 is made:

 +------------------+--------------------------------+---------+------+
 |                  |                                |Number of|      |
 |    Lecturers     |            Subjects            |Lectures.|Season|
 |                  |                                | Season  |1806-7|
 |                  |                                | 1805-6  |      |
 +------------------+--------------------------------+---------+------+
 |Mr. Davy          | Geology and Chemistry          |   22    |  28  |
 |Mr. Allen         | Natural Philosophy             |   25    |  32  |
 |Rev. W. Crowe     | Poetry and Dramatic Poetry     |   21    |  24  |
 |Rev. T. F. Dibden | English Literature             |   10    |  12  |
 |Rev. J. Hewlett   | Belles Lettres                 |    8    |   8  |
 |Dr. Crotch        | Music                          |   13    |  25  |
 |Rev. E. Foster    | History of Commerce            |   --    |   8  |
 |Mr. Douglas Guest | State of the Fine Arts in Spain|   --    |   4  |
 |Mr. Wood          | Perspective                    |   --    |   9  |
 |Dr. Shaw          | Zoology                        |   12    |  12  |
 |Dr. Smith         |                                |         |      |
 | (afterwards      |                                |         |      |
 |  Sir James)      | Botany                         |   14    |  14  |
 |Mr. Craig         | Drawing in Water Colours       |    8    |   8  |
 |Rev. Sydney Smith | Moral Philosophy               |   14    |      |
 |Mr. Opie          | Painting                       |    6    |      |
 |Mr. Landseer      | Engraving                      |    4    |      |
 +------------------+--------------------------------+---------+------+

‘Nothing,’ the visitors said, ‘seems necessary for substantiating and
promoting the interests of the Institution but that the managers should
proceed in the track which they have hitherto pursued, and should
continue to receive that approbation which has so fully rewarded their
former labours.’

On May 26, 1806, Mr. Bernard reported to the managers that Mr. Davy
would in November next begin a course of twenty lectures in the higher
departments of experimental chemistry, on Vegetable and Animal Analysis
and on the Experimental History of Heat, Light, and Electricity; and
that in the spring he would begin another course of twenty lectures
on the Chemistry of Nature, containing elucidations of the design,
order, and harmony of the chemical arrangements in the globe. In the
first course he proposed to give two lectures a week, on Wednesdays and
Saturdays, and in the second course one lecture a week, on Wednesdays;
the hour of the lecture to be two o’clock. The ventilation of the
lecture room was considered this day.

Mr. Bernard later reported that Mr. Coleridge would give two courses of
eight lectures on the Principles Common to the Fine Arts for 120_l._;
to commence in November, every Thursday at two.

Mr. Lawrence, the surgeon, proposed to give a course of lectures on the
Animal Economy. These were not accepted. The Rev. Sydney Smith proposed
to give a fifth course of eight lectures in the ensuing spring for a
compliment of 90_l._; ‘and, in case it should be in his power, he would
give some additional lectures, not exceeding six, for a compliment of
10_l._ a lecture.’ These lectures circumstances obliged him to give up.
He was paid 120_l._ for his third and fourth courses, which he gave in
1806. His lectures were not printed until after his death.

But it was not by the success of the lectures that this year deserves
to be remembered in the history of the Institution. Lectures, indeed,
are the support of the Institution, but discovery constitutes its
great success; and this year is famous for the first of those great
discoveries on which the credit of the Institution depends. The union
of chemistry and electricity was established by Davy.

Volta sent the first account of his discovery of the voltaic pile
to Sir Joseph Banks. His paper was printed in the ‘Philosophical
Transactions’ for 1800--on the ‘Electricity Excited by the mere
Contact of Conducting Substances of Different Kinds.’ Davy, on October
20, 1800, wrote, ‘Galvanism I have found, by numerous experiments,
to be a process purely chemical,’ and on June 18, 1801, the first
paper Davy sent to the Royal Society was on a galvanic combination
of a single metallic plate and two fluids. In May 1802 he says, ‘A
battery of immense size has been made for the Institution, and I am
now examining the agencies of it upon certain substances that have not
been decomposed.’ His lectures on Agriculture, Mineralogy, and Geology
so occupied his time that very little remained for original research,
and it was not until this year that a close examination of the
decomposition of water by electricity led him to investigate the action
of the voltaic battery, and to establish the union of electricity and
chemistry. For this and his former work the name of Davy ought for ever
to be inseparably united with the discovery of chemical electricity.
But the honour at that time paid to Davy was not for establishing the
production of electricity by chemistry, but for endeavouring to prove
that all chemical action was caused by electricity. He received no
praise as the founder of chemical electricity, but he was looked on
as the discoverer of electro-chemistry--that is, of the theory that
the electrical condition or polarity of each element determined its
chemical action.

The following year (1807) is still more memorable in the annals of the
Institution on account of the originality of the discoveries made in
the laboratory. No year in the life of the Institution has equalled
this in the magic novelty of the results that were obtained. Davy (æt.
28) proved that the bases of the alkalies were solid metals. He called
them potassium and sodium, and he showed that they made potash and soda
when united with oxygen.

The year 1831 was a noble year for the Royal Institution. In it Faraday
(æt. 40) discovered that the magnet produced electricity and founded
magneto-electricity.

Great discoveries in different sciences made at different periods do
not admit of any accurate comparison. It may, however, be said that in
unimagined novelty the results of Davy far surpassed the results of
Faraday; for the discovery of magneto-electricity had been foreshadowed
by the discovery of electro-magnetism; but in its telegraphic and other
applications the discovery of magneto-electricity will keep the name of
Faraday for ever in the remembrance of the world.

How much the prosperity of the Institution depended upon Davy was made
very evident by his illness, which occurred soon after his discoveries
were made. In the early part of the year the managers had not
recognised the fact that original discovery belonged to him, and that
their committees were useless for investigation. They did give Davy
early in the year a new assistant;[28] but on March 9 they resolved
that, in consequence of the completion of the chemical laboratory,
which was furnished with the necessary utensils and materials for
carrying on operations and experiments, ‘the chemical professor,
besides his regular annual courses of lectures delivered in the
lecture room, shall make, direct, superintend, and explain as far as
may be necessary all chemical experiments, or courses of experiments,
which the managers from time to time shall direct to be made in the
laboratory, and give his assistance in all committees appointed by the
managers for the purpose of scientific investigation which may require
his aid or stand in need of the use of the laboratory for prosecuting
their experiments or researches.’

In May the visitors said ‘the Institution continued to afford every
prospect of realising in their fullest extent those results which its
original promoters had in view.’

On July 13 the lectures of Mr. Davy were announced to the managers. In
the autumnal session, which was to begin the first week of December,
he intended to give twenty-six lectures on the General Elements of
Chemistry, and in the spring sixteen lectures on Chemistry in its
Connexion with Physiology and the Phenomena of Animated Nature. The
same day Mr. Davy informed the managers that he proposed going into
Cornwall for five weeks, with a view to collect specimens for the
collection of minerals, and that he wished William Payne, the attendant
on the laboratory, to accompany him. It was resolved that William
Payne’s expenses in the journey, and those incurred by Mr. Davy in
collecting the specimens, should be defrayed by the managers.

In October Davy made his great discoveries,[29] and the last week of
November he was laid low with fever, caught whilst disinfecting Newgate
Prison.

On December 7 the following notice was ordered to be sent round to the
proprietors and subscribers: ‘Mr. Davy having been confined to his bed
this last fortnight by a severe illness, the managers are under the
painful necessity of giving notice that the lectures will not commence
until the first week of January next.’

The lectures began on January 13, but Davy did not lecture until March
12.

This interruption of the lectures stopped the income of the Institution
in the autumn. The difficulties regarding the finances became urgent.
From the time when Davy’s support was temporarily removed until the
reign of Faraday was far advanced the Institution remained in a state
of great poverty.

In 1808 the visitors made the following report on the state of the
Institution:

‘Since 1803 the bills of each preceding year have been paid out of the
subscriptions received in the beginning of the succeeding year. The
amount has varied in different years, and is now about 2,000_l._ This
was not attended with inconvenience until this year, when, by some
disappointment as to lectures and by the postponement of the autumnal
course in consequence of the lamented illness of their excellent
Professor of Chemistry, the subscriptions have been diminished and
their payment postponed.

‘The expenses have increased. The library required 520_l._ There was
some extra expense--about 166_l._--in the laboratory, so honourable to
the Royal Institution and so beneficial to the interests of science in
every part of the world. The fitting up and forming the mineralogical
collection has cost 404_l._

‘It is proposed that 1,461_l._, to be paid by the representatives of
Mr. Edward Gray for renewing his lease of one of the adjoining houses,
should be spent, and that the cost of the proprietors’ shares should be
reduced.

‘Mr. Soane, the architect of the corporation, and Mr. Harris, the
librarian, have made a valuation of the Institution property.

 House and buildings, with the two adjoining houses,
   subject to the existing under-leases and to the
   proposed lease                                            £13,000
 Books and manuscripts                                         7,000
 Mineralogical collection                                      1,000
 Laboratory and apparatus                                        450
 Mechanical apparatus and models                               1,000
 Furniture of the house                                          900
 Consols 3½, 1,375 at 64                                         880
    "    4½, 2,684 "  83                                       2,297

‘With such a property, exempt from any mortgage or encumbrance, and
with views directed to the great and important advantages which
science, literature, and morality are deriving and may derive from
this royal and public establishment, the anticipation of a part of the
next year’s income will not be deemed of much importance.

‘When it is considered that in the last five years the library of
reference and the mineralogical collection have been formed and newly
completed, the laboratory very greatly enlarged and improved, and money
invested, we trust there will be no one disposed to think unfavourably
of the progress of the Institution.

‘An anticipation of a part of the next year’s income under circumstances
from which a more considerable deficiency might have been expected
will not make the friends of science and literature doubt of the Royal
Institution being now established on a solid and permanent basis.’

The income was stated to be 1,929_l._, and the expenditure 1,917_l._

The draft of this report was read by Mr. Bernard to the managers, and
they referred it to a sub-committee, who approved it. The Committee of
Visitors was then introduced, consisting of Lord Berkeley, Dr. Glasse,
Mr. Hammersley, who considered and approved it.

Mr. Dibden was requested to read his opening lecture on Literature on
January 13. He began with a short statement of Davy’s great discovery
and of his illness. Probably Davy was at this time ill in bed; for the
managers did not buy him a sofa, for which they paid three guineas,
until January 25.

On February 22 Mr. Davy attended the meeting of managers at their
request, and said he would commence his course of lectures on
Electro-Chemical Science on Saturday, March 12, at two, and those on
Geology on Wednesday evening, March 16, at eight.

At the end of the previous year Mr. Bernard had reported that Mr.
Coleridge would give in the ensuing session five courses of five
lectures each on the Distinguished English Poets, in illustration of
the general principles of poetry arranged under the following heads:
1. Shakespear. 2. Spencer and Allegorical Poetry. 3. Milton. 4. Dryden
and Pope, and the fifth course Modern Poetry. These lectures were to
begin immediately, one or two weekly, as might be convenient, for a
compliment of 140_l._, of which 60_l._ was proposed to be paid in
advance.

In February Mr. Bernard paid Mr. Coleridge 40_l._ in advance. The
lectures were still delayed.

At the end of April Mr. Bernard reported that Mr. Coleridge had
offered gratuitously to give a lecture on Education on Tuesday, May 3,
proposing it to be twice the length of his other lectures.[30]

On June 13 the steward, Mr. Savage, laid before the managers the
following letter from Mr. Coleridge:

    DEAR SIR,--Painful as it is to me, almost to anguish, yet I find my
    health in such a state as to make it almost death to me to give any
    further lectures. I beg that you would acquaint the managers that,
    instead of expecting any remuneration, I shall as soon as I can
    repay the sum I have received. I am, indeed, more likely to repay
    it by my executors than myself. If I could quit my bedroom, I would
    have hazarded everything rather than not have come, but I have
    such violent fits of sickness and diarrhœa that it is literally
    impossible.

                                                       S. T. COLERIDGE.

‘Ordered,--That Mr. Coleridge’s lectures be discontinued, and that Mr.
Savage make out an account of the number of lectures that Mr. Coleridge
has given, in order that a proportional payment may be made.’

On June 20, 2,000_l._ being wanted for the payment of the tradesmen’s
bills and salaries, the managers and visitors subscribed it as a loan
without interest. The tradesmen were paid to December 1806.

The terms of subscription to the Institution were altered thus: Annual,
four guineas; and life subscription, forty guineas; the qualification
for proprietors was reduced to a hundred guineas.

The position of the Royal Institution is well seen in the following
report, which the Committee of Managers made to the Committee of
Visitors, on the deficiency of the income of the Institution, &c., on
March 20, 1809.

They begin by stating ‘that the 700 transferable tickets of the
proprietors stopped the annual income from subscribers. In January
1803 the corporation were 3,000_l._ in debt. A subscription was made;
transferable rights were reduced one-half, so as to allow of a greater
number of annual subscribers.

‘The effects of the measures were soon felt. The income was more than
doubled and public interest attracted to a very great degree. The
debts were discharged and near 3,000_l._ invested.

‘The additions that have been made to the Institution by the library of
reference, the mineralogical collection (which, by the assistance and
exertions of the Professor of Chemistry, has been made at an expense
which bears no comparison to its use and value), the laboratory, the
seat of his interesting and extraordinary discoveries, the increased
variety of the lectures far exceeding anything in contemplation on the
forming of the Institution, have frustrated every attempt to keep the
scale of expenditure within the average amount of income.

‘The annual expenditure, including 1,055_l._ for professors and
lectures, is 3,295_l._ To meet this there is 133_l._ dividends, and
life and annual subscriptions of not more than 2,000_l._ It is for
the interest of the proprietors that some early and decisive measures
should be taken for the preservation of their hereditary property,
either by new modelling the constitution, so as to make their life and
annual subscriptions more productive, or by reducing the expenditure,
or by the proprietors and life members paying some annual sum. The
proprietors now enjoy much greater advantages than they originally had
from the libraries, collections, lectures, and laboratory, and from
that in which all Englishmen, and particularly the proprietors of the
Royal Institution, must glory, that in our laboratory those discoveries
have been made, and are now making, which excite the surprise and
admiration of the scientific in every part of the civilised world.

‘For the present support of the Institution, and for the discharge of
their bills up to January 1808, some of the managers and visitors have
advanced on loan without interest 2,300_l._ The sale of the stock and
the fine for the sublease will pay the debts of the corporation. The
proprietors must decide what it will be prudent and practical to adopt
for the support of the Institution.

‘If the support of scientific men is to be obtained, something must be
done to give the Institution more the form of a public establishment
than of private and hereditary property. The managers have no doubt
that the friends of science will come forward when the Institution
interests the country at large, and they believe the body of
proprietors will make any sacrifice of personal interest and advantage
to erect a public, national, and permanent establishment devoted to
the cultivation of science and to the promotion of every improvement
in agriculture, manufactures, and the useful arts of life that may be
conducive to the happiness and prosperity of the British Empire. The
important researches which have distinguished the laboratory of the
Royal Institution, are not only honourable to the proprietors but to
the kingdom at large.

‘The managers trust that an active co-operation of the proprietors in
increasing the number of life and annual subscribers, and a moderate
annual subscription for the transferable ticket of each proprietor,
will be adequate to secure the stability and prosperity of the
Institution, and to continue and extend its influence by the promotion
of science and literature, and by the supply of innocent and useful
sources of intellectual pleasure.’

The visitors made their report to the proprietors, April 18, thus:

‘The circumstances attending our present situation seem to call for
much consideration and reflection, and it would become our duty to
state what reasonable expectation could be entertained of more income
or less expenditure. But the managers have done this, and therefore we
forward their report.

‘Upon inspection there seems no deficiency of anything which could
contribute to the success or general utility of the Institution,
and our financial state alone leads us to concur in the necessity
of resorting to new measures for the support of so valuable an
establishment.

‘The visitors heartily concur with the managers in their
recommendations.’

In May a committee of the proprietors, with the managers and visitors,
was appointed to consider the general state of the affairs of the
Institution. The first step was to request Mr. Davy to prepare a plan
for the future management of the Institution, and every member of the
committee was asked to lay before the committee in writing his ideas
or plan. One proposal was to put an annual tax on the transferable
tickets; another to get a new charter; another to get an Act of
Parliament; and another to shut the Institution at six o’clock daily.
By the end of the year the joint committee had formed a plan which was
in the following year proposed to Parliament.

The whole of the stock possessed by the Institution, amounting to
4,058_l._, was sold; the managers and visitors were paid their loan of
100_l._ each without interest, and the bills of 1807 and 1808 were paid.

A communication was made to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty
and other public boards, suggesting the employment of the Royal
Institution laboratory for analyses and reports.

In November the managers decided to publish a statement regarding the
Royal Institution. This was probably written by Davy.

The objects of the Royal Institution in it were said to be ‘the
advancement and diffusion of useful knowledge and the application of
experimental science to the purposes of life.’

Regarding the laboratory it said: ‘In the laboratory, which is
under the direction of the Professor of Chemistry, and which is
open to any scientific persons who may propose important chemical
investigations, series of experiments are continually carried on.
Minerals and substances likely to be useful in agriculture, arts, and
manufactures are analysed and researches tending to the progress of
useful discovery prosecuted. Of the results of these many have been
already published, particularly researches upon tanning; the principles
of electrical decomposition; and the nature of the alkalies, earths,
inflammable bodies, and acids. In this laboratory there is constructed,
in consequence of the liberal contributions of a few individuals,
a voltaic apparatus of great power, which will be exhibited in the
lectures, and many new experiments will be performed with it and
applications of it made to new scientific researches.’

Regarding the lectures it said: ‘There are two terms for lectures, one
from December 10 to March 1, and the other from March 10 to July 7.’

On November 13 Mr. Hatchett and Mr. Davy reported that Mr. Dalton
proposed to give twenty lectures: 3 Mechanics, 2 Pneumatics, 1
Hydrostatics, 2 Steam Engine, 2 Electricity, 2 Meteorology, 2
Astronomy, 6 on Heat and Elementary Principles, to be delivered
immediately after Christmas, in the course of six weeks, for a
compliment of eighty guineas. Twenty other lectures were to be given by
Mr. Allen and Mr. Pond. An evening course on Electro-Chemical Science,
to consist of twelve lectures, was to be given by Mr. Davy, to commence
in December. A morning course on General Chemistry and its Applications
to Nature and to Art, to commence after Easter, and to continue through
the session, was also to be given by him.

At the commencement of the year 1810 the managers refused lectures on
Physiology and Comparative Anatomy, ‘because they could not convince
themselves that scientific lectures can be given on these subjects
without offence to a part of their audience.’

A few facts will show what the difficulties of the Royal Institution
at this time were. Mr. Allen, the Lecturer on Natural Philosophy, was
in February paid a hundred guineas for his lectures in 1807. The fine
to the city of London for the lease of the house was due at Michaelmas
1809. The lease lapsed because no payment was made. It was not until
April that the Institution could arrange the payment. In the spring Mr.
Easingwood, the Steward and Clerk of Accounts, left the Institution
without notice. The sum he misappropriated was said to be 179_l._
10_s._ 10_d._; it was more than 300_l._, and may have been much more.
His successor in the office afterwards robbed the Institution of a much
greater amount. Temporary relief from some debts was gained by the
payment of a fine of 1,500_l._ from the tenant of the corner house in
Albemarle St.

The proprietors met early in the year, and agreed to an immediate
application to Parliament for an Act for altering and amending the
charter, and for enlarging and more effectually promoting the objects
of the Institution.

Great expectations of the permanent prosperity of the Institution were
formed, in consequence of the proposed conversion of the Institution by
Act of Parliament from a private into a public body. Sir John Sinclair
took charge of the Bill and conducted it through the House of Commons.
It received the royal assent, April 23. The visitors, in their report,
said: ‘There is every reason to believe that the establishment on its
new foundation will at once contribute to our national prosperity and
glory. The conduct of the proprietors upon this occasion has been
honourable both to themselves and to their country. A fund has been
proposed to be raised on the plan of a loan for three years without
interest, and payable by instalments of 10 per cent., for carrying
the new scheme into effect.’ 12,500_l._ was subscribed, but a small
part only was wanted, as very few proprietors accepted the composition
which was offered to them. The actuary of the Westminster Life Office
estimated the value of each life proprietor’s share of 100_l._ at 42_l._

On March 3 Davy gave a lecture on the ‘Plan which it is proposed
to adopt for improving the Royal Institution and rendering it
permanent.’ It was printed by desire of the managers. As a record of
the Institution in its earlier and in its existing state, and as a
reflection of Davy in his full power, this lecture is of surpassing
interest. He said:

‘The first plan of the Royal Institution was that of a school for
promulgating the knowledge and use of important mechanical inventions,
for connecting the views of men of science and artisans, and for the
application of the sciences to the arts of life. The great feature of
the establishment was to be a collection of models of things used for
the common purposes of life, and to teach their use and relations to
science by lectures. Hence the instruction of manufacturers and workmen
was of equal importance with the promotion of the useful arts.

‘Soon after the foundation of the Royal Institution, a request was
made to one of the greatest practical mechanical philosophers of the
age[31] that he would examine the details of the establishment, and
become in some way connected with the body. His refusal was prompt
and his expression of disapprobation strong. “Your object,” says he,
“is one that every practical inventor ought to discountenance. You
would destroy the value of the labour of the industrious; by laying
open his invention you would take away the great stimulus to exertion.
Suppose a man, by a great devotion of time and of labour, by skill and
ingenuity, has made an important combination in chemistry or mechanics,
your object is to publish the details of his labours, to enable every
speculator to profit by his knowledge. This, could it happen, would
be ruinous to individuals, and would ultimately interfere with the
commercial prosperity of Britain; for your enemies would profit by
such disclosure more than your countrymen, and it would be absolutely
throwing away your superiority. Were I persuaded such a plan of models
could be executed, I should be seriously alarmed for the manufacturing
interest of the country; but I am convinced, from the nature of this
part of the scheme, that it will be ephemeral and that it will die even
in its cradle.” I am not sure that these were the very words of this
able reasoner, but I am sure that they convey his sentiments, which
were expressed in my hearing.

‘The object which at first was only secondary--that of teaching the
principles of the sciences by courses of public lectures--soon became
the prime object. The only difficulty resulted from the nature of the
audiences. To afford satisfaction to all by one series of subjects was
impossible. Numerous courses were consequently established. A great
library of reference was added, and a mineral collection has likewise
been formed. An object which I hope I shall be pardoned for being
partial to is the laboratory, which, though formed upon a small scale
and supplied with a small apparatus only, may yet, by its effects, tend
to demonstrate the importance and uses of such a foundation in the
metropolis.

‘It would be indelicate for me to be the historian of the whole of
the progress of this part of the establishment, nor should I have
entered upon it at all except in consequence of the circumstance that
though it is generally known that some new philosophical facts have
been ascertained here, yet it is not generally known that the chemical
apparatus of the Royal Institution has given aid upon several occasions
to the useful arts, and that assistance has been afforded to various
great public bodies.

‘There is another object on which I can dwell with more pleasure and
more propriety; I mean the voltaic apparatus, which has been formed
in consequence of a fund raised by subscription. Without a public
establishment like the Royal Institution this great light of new
science might have been lost to us, and it is not the less honourable
to the character of the nation that the efforts of private individuals
have effected what in other countries flows only from the Government.

‘The new plan of the Royal Institution is intended to exalt and enlarge
all those parts of the establishment which are acknowledged to be
useful and profitable, so as to create a permanent foundation and means
which can never be misapplied for the advancement of every species of
useful knowledge.

‘Besides the diffusion of knowledge by popular philosophical lectures,
and by other more elementary and more scientific lectures, the new
plan will also embrace a design for the promotion of knowledge by
experiments and original investigations. It is proposed that the
members of the body shall meet at least once every week for the purpose
of inquiry and discussion. At these meetings any new facts that have
arisen in the progress of science will be stated, any important hints
for experiments pursued, and in the progress of investigation those
subjects will be most particularly attended to which promise to
increase the perfection of arts and manufactures.

‘That the diffusion and improvement of science may not be limited to
those persons only who can personally attend the Institution, it is
proposed to publish Journals at least quarterly.

‘Having described the philosophical objects, it may be necessary to
say something of the manner in which it is conceived the income of the
Institution may be made permanent.

‘In the original plan, as the prime object was the founding a
collection of models and the diffusing the knowledge of useful
mechanical inventions, it was but strict justice that these models
should be regarded as private property, and belong to the persons by
whom they were originally purchased or their heirs, and that this
property, being of the nature of common property, might be also
transferred by sale.

‘But, this idea being found impracticable, and new and more exalted
objects having arisen from this foundation, and the Royal Institution
having fortunately taken the form of a body for promoting experimental
science and for diffusing every species of philosophical knowledge, it
is obvious that the principles upon which its funds are to be raised
and its members elected will require considerable alteration.

‘On the new plan it is proposed upon a compensation, which, after
long discussion, has been regarded as the most equitable, to do away
entirely the saleable and hereditary rights, so as to leave no vestiges
of them in the constitution of the body, and to elect new members,
properly recommended, only by ballot.

‘The original scheme, by making the proprietary interest perpetual,
left no means for the renovation of the funds, except by adding new
burdens to the establishment.

‘In giving up their private interests for the purpose of founding what
may be called a national establishment, the proprietors of the Royal
Institution have a right to expect the support and encouragement of
their countrymen; and though they will be promoting a general benefit,
yet they may perhaps make a particular appeal to some of the most
distinguished classes of society--to the great landed proprietors.
Whatever specimens they send will be carefully examined and reported
upon. The simple truth will be stated by men whose character, as
well as motives, will secure them from any suspicion of inaccuracy;
and, if a general system of this kind is pursued, much error and
disappointment, and even dishonesty, will be prevented.

‘On the attention of the statesman and the politician we have likewise
no inconsiderable claim. The Royal Institution is able to offer
assistance in investigations of great interest connected with public
works and the promotion of arts and manufactures.

‘Our doors are to be open to all who wish to profit by knowledge; and I
may venture to hope that even the female part of our audiences may not
diminish, and that they will honour the plan with an attention which is
independent of fashion or the taste of the moment, and connected with
the use, the permanence, and the pleasure of intellectual acquisitions.
It is not our intention to invite them to assist in the laboratories,
but to partake of that healthy and refined amusement which results from
a perception of the variety, order, and harmony existing in all the
kingdoms of nature, and to encourage the study of those more elegant
departments of science which at once tend to exalt the understanding
and purify the heart.

‘The leisure of the higher female classes is so great, and their
influence in society so strong, that it is almost a duty that they
should endeavour to awaken and keep alive a love of improvement and
instruction.

‘Let them make it disgraceful for men to be ignorant, and ignorance
will vanish, and that part of their empire founded upon mental
improvement will be strengthened and exalted by time, will be untouched
by age, will be immortal in its youth.

‘Even in the common relations of society how much must be referred to
the conduct of the female mind. The mother gives, or ought to give,
most of the early impressions to the child, and his future habits may
depend in some measure upon her influence. It may in some measure
depend upon her whether he become an honour or a disgrace to his
country. Her power of enforcing instruction is the most effectual, as
flowing from love. We know that without feeling the human being is
mere clay, the dust of the earth without the living soul. Whatever is
to be permanently infixed on the understanding must be associated with
hope, or with joy, or with passion. How much more efficacious must
instruction be when communicated by an object beloved and venerated,
and in infancy almost adored, and when, instead of being afforded
with an effort of pain and of labour, it is carried into the heart by
kindness and made delightful by caresses and smiles.

‘It has been supposed by some persons who are little acquainted with
the nature of the plan and the general objects of philosophical
associations, that there is a tendency in them to lessen the importance
of our elder establishments for education, and to diminish the love of
ancient literature. But nothing is further from the truth. The maxim of
improvers is, “Promote whatever can tend to assist the progress of the
human mind,” and letters will always be the greatest, the most powerful
engine to this effect; it is one that all can employ, the strong
and the weak, in solitude or in the world. That which is beautiful,
that which is pathetic, that which is sublime, can never lose its
effects. There is one course of passion and feeling in all times and
in all countries; we should never cease to consider with admiration
and gratitude those models of excellence which have been happily
preserved amongst the wrecks of cultivated nations to be our guides
in the Middle Ages, to be our shelter in the storm, and our light in
the darkness, the beacons to guide us to pure taste, to correct our
wanderings, to bring us to nature and truth. Let us regard them with
all respect, but let not our veneration for them be exclusive; let us
admire them as we admire the works of art of antiquity. The Apollo
Belvidere or the Venus de Medicis were designed by their artists to be
objects of adoration; let us wonder at them as statues, as models of
perfection, but not worship them as deities, nor even make them our
only household gods.

‘Greek and Roman literature will always maintain their importance,
always exert their influence; but let us not neglect that basis
on which the greatness of modern times and of our own country so
peculiarly rests--experimental philosophy and the experimental arts.
Let their merits be justly estimated and set forth with dignity and
truth; let not the countrymen of Bacon, of Newton, and of Boyle
neglect those pure springs of knowledge from which those great men
drew such copious supplies both for profit and for glory; and let it
not be forgotten that science has its moral and intellectual as well
as its common uses, that its object is not only to apply the different
substances in nature for the advantages, comfort, and benefit of man,
but likewise to set forth that wonderful and magnificent history of
wisdom and intelligence which is written in legible characters both in
the heavens and on the earth.’

On May 1, at the annual meeting of the proprietors, it was resolved
unanimously that the election of managers and visitors should be for
one year only. Notice was given of alterations of the bye-laws on
June 4, for the election of members in accordance with the new Act of
Parliament.

The first monthly meeting of _members_ was held on Monday, May 7. A
committee of members was appointed to act with a committee of managers
and visitors in drawing up bye-laws.

On June 4 the bye-laws were read, and on July 2 they were proposed
to the members chapter by chapter and article by article, and their
consideration was continued on the 4th and 5th. On the 6th the election
of thirty-two members took place; among them was Davy.

On August 6 ‘Humphry Davy, Esq.,’ the first of the newly-elected
members, ‘having paid his admission fee and given his bond for his
annual payments, was admitted a member of the Royal Institution.’ Dr.
Wollaston was this day proposed as member.

On November 29 a special general meeting of members was held to ballot
for three scientific and literary committees. The ballot lasted for
ten minutes. For mathematics, mechanics, and mechanical inventions,
twenty-five members were elected; the same number for chemistry,
geology, and mineralogy twenty-five for general science, literature,
and arts.

At the December meeting of the members Mr. Auriol signified his desire
of resigning the secretaryship.

This year, by order of a committee of the House of Lords, the clerk of
the House wrote to the secretary of the Institution, to request him to
attend with any gentleman belonging to the Institution who might give
advice and assistance to the committee on the subject of warming and
ventilating their House. In this roundabout way Davy was asked to give
his advice. He made a report and his plan was adopted, without success.

At the monthly meeting of managers in February 1811 the following
letter from Sir T. Bernard, who, by the death of his brother, had
become a baronet, was read:

    It has been for some time my desire and intention to resign
    my place in the Committee of Managers, but the state of the
    Institution has made me apprehensive of some inconvenience from
    withdrawing before the new constitution was formed and the primary
    difficulties surmounted.

    Nothing more, I conceive, is now wanting except a continuance
    of that union and friendly co-operation by which it has been
    established; and, as I can no longer continue a regular attendant,
    I resign my situation as a manager of the Royal Institution. At
    the same time I beg leave to add that if the annual meeting should
    hereafter elect me a visitor, I will with great pleasure continue
    my services in that situation. I beg you will communicate the above
    to the next monthly meeting, and have the honour to be, with the
    greatest respect, your obedient and very faithful Servant,

                                                            T. BERNARD.

The managers resolved ‘that they could not avoid on this occasion
expressing their deep regret at the prospect of losing the assistance
of a gentleman whose zeal, abilities, and indefatigable industry had
so eminently contributed to the prosperity of the Institution. They
therefore unanimously expressed their wish that Sir Thomas Bernard
would consent to defer his resignation till the annual meeting in May.’
The next week Sir T. Bernard confirmed his resignation, and Lord
Darnley was elected in his place.

At the annual meeting in May Sir Thomas Bernard was not nominated as a
visitor, but the following November he was unanimously elected. In 1815
he was again elected a manager, and he was re-elected until his death
in the autumn of 1818.

In February the energy of the committees of the Institution gave
some signs of activity. The Committee of Chemistry and Geology, &c.,
chose Humphry Davy chairman, Charles Hatchett chairman, and James
Laird, M.D., secretary. The Committee of Mathematics, Mechanics, and
Mechanical Inventions elected the Earl of Stanhope chairman, the Hon.
R. Clifford chairman, and John Day, Esq., secretary. The Committee
of General Science, Literature, and Arts elected Daniel Moore, Esq.,
F.R.S., L.S., chairman, John Disney chairman, and John Hinckley, Esq.,
secretary. For eleven months Mr. Hinckley had acted as ‘honorary
secretary assistant,’ and he wished to be elected ‘honorary secretary’
of the Institution; but in May Mr. Guillemard was elected secretary in
the place of Mr. Auriol, who for nine years had apparently taken very
slight care of the records of the Institution.

In March it was proposed at the monthly meeting of members that
a professorship of astronomy should be created. Reports from the
Committee of General Science were read.

This year all the bills due for 1807, 1808, 1809, and 1810 were paid.

Very few managers attended the meetings; so few, that at the end of
the year it was necessary to call a special meeting, stating that it
was impossible to announce the lectures for the ensuing year. This
brought twelve managers to the first meeting of 1812, and they decided
that the lectures were to begin on January 25.

Mr. Lawrence the surgeon, Dr. Birkbeck, Dr. Wollaston, and Mr. Campbell
were asked, but declined, to lecture.

At the monthly meeting in April it was moved that a scientific journal
should be published. The question of having a Professor of Astronomy
and other sciences connected therewith was again discussed. Dr. Jenner
was proposed as member by Sir H. Davy and three others. On April 5,
at an adjourned general monthly meeting, a report from the Committee
of Mathematics and Mechanics was read and referred to the managers as
proper to be printed.

On April 20 the first report of the visitors since the passing of the
Act of Parliament was made.

They say ‘only fifteen proprietors withdrew, and received compensation
amounting to 630_l._ 12_s._ 6_d._ The rest remained with the enlarged
view of rendering the establishment more eminently what it was designed
to be--a great national laboratory and theatre for the improvement and
promulgation of science in all its branches.

‘Five per cent. only of the intended loan was required.’

The Committee closed their report by congratulating their brother
members on the promotion, progress, and diffusion of science,
particularly of chemical discovery, owing to the experiments carried
on and the lectures delivered at the Royal Institution. ‘And they hope,
from the energetic spirit of its members, that it will continue to
flourish and tend in its progress to improve arts and manufactures,
increase the resources, and exalt the scientific glory of the country.’

On May 6, at the monthly meeting, a professorship of astronomy was
established, but no appointment was made. Three fresh committees of
twenty-five members each were formed. The resolution for publishing
journals was carried, but no journals were published.

On June 8 the election of chairmen and secretaries to the committees
was reported to the members.

In 1812 a great change was about to come over the Royal Institution.
Sir Humphry Davy, by his splendid discoveries, had made the Institution
famous, and, by his attractive lectures, had brought it most material
support. How little it could afford to lose his help is seen by the
balance to December 31, 1811. This was only 3_l._ 9_s._ 11_d._ Early in
1812 a committee was formed for the publication of a journal, and in
April Mr. Wyatt presented a plan for a proposed new theatre. Davy was
married on April 11; the day previous he gave his last lecture. The new
theatre was no longer needed.

On May 11 Mr. Hatchett reported ‘that Sir H. Davy, though he cannot
pledge himself to deliver lectures, will be willing to accept the
offices of Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Laboratory and
Mineralogical Collection without salary.’ It was immediately resolved
‘that the managers hear with great regret the notification which they
have just received that Sir Humphry Davy cannot pledge himself to
continue the lectures which he has been accustomed to deliver with so
much honour to the Institution and advantage to the public; but, at the
same time, they congratulate themselves on the liberal offer which Sir
Humphry Davy has made to superintend the chemical department, and to
assist and advise any lecturer the managers may be pleased to appoint.’
The managers immediately appointed him Director of the Laboratory and
Mineralogical Collection, and expressed their high sense of his past
services, gave him their thanks, and ordered a special general meeting
to be called to nominate him Professor of Chemistry. He was elected
Professor of Chemistry on June 1. On the same day twenty-five members
were also elected on each of the committees.

A quarrel in the Institution must here be mentioned, because it
shows that the changed circumstances of Davy led to the engagement
of Faraday. The apparatus and models of the Institution had been
under Davy’s care; they were now placed under the care of Mr. Pepys,
and he was made Honorary Inspector of the Models and Apparatus, and
Mr. Newman, the instrument maker, was put under him. Soon after
the managers ordered that William Payne, originally the laboratory
boy, should be employed in cleaning and repairing the apparatus in
conjunction with Mr. Newman.

In December Dr. Smith was appointed to lecture on Botany; Dr. Roget
on Comparative Anatomy; T. Campbell on Poetry; Mr. Brande on Chemical
Philosophy; Rev. J. Powell on Natural Philosophy; Mr. Thompson on
Sculpture.

Before the lectures began in 1813 Mr. Edmund Davy, chemical assistant
in the laboratory, resigned; and, at the beginning of the year, Payne’s
salary was increased to 25_s._ weekly. He had had a room in the house
for nearly six months. On the increase of his salary his duties were
thus laid down by the managers, and five weeks afterwards they became
the duties of Mr. Faraday: ‘To attend and assist the lecturers and
professors in preparing for and during lectures. Where any instruments
or apparatus may be required, to attend to their careful removal from
the model room and laboratory to the lecture room, and to clean and
replace them after being used, reporting to the managers such accidents
as shall require repair, a constant diary being kept by him for that
purpose. That in one day in each week he be employed in keeping clean
the models in the repository, and that all the instruments in the glass
cases be cleaned and dusted at least once within a month.’

Towards the end of February Mr. Harris, the Librarian and Superintendent
of the House, reported to the managers ‘that, hearing a great noise
one evening in the lecture room, he went to see the cause of it. He
found Mr. Payne and Mr. Newman at high words, and Mr. Newman complained
of having been struck by Payne for representing to him his neglect of
duty in being absent when he should have attended on Mr. Brande.’ The
managers immediately resolved that Mr. Payne should be dismissed from
the Royal Institution, and that a gratuity of 10_l._ should be paid
him in consideration of his long services. He had come as a boy to the
Institution before November 1803.

At the following meeting (March 1) Sir Humphry Davy ‘had the honour
to inform the managers that he had found Michael Faraday,’ and the
managers engaged him and resolved ‘that the clerk furnish him with a
copy of the order relating to his duties accordingly.’

In March 1813 the chairman of the Committee of Chemistry having through
Sir H. Davy expressed a desire that an open committee of chemistry
should be held in the ensuing week, the managers resolved that ‘a
committee of chemistry, open to all members and gentlemen personally
introduced by members, should be held in the theatre of the Institution
on Wednesday, March 31, at three o’clock, when the Professor of
Chemistry will demonstrate a new series of facts on the fluoric
principle’ (fluorine).

At the general meeting of members on April 5 Sir Humphry Davy begged
leave to resign his situation of Professor of Chemistry. ‘He by no
means wished to give up his connection with the Royal Institution, as
he should ever be happy to communicate his researches in the first
instance to the Institution in the manner he did in the presence of
the members last Wednesday, and to do all in his power to promote the
interest and success of this Institution.’ Sir H. Davy having retired,
Earl Spencer moved ‘that the thanks of this meeting be returned to
Sir Humphry Davy for the inestimable services rendered by him to the
Royal Institution.’ The motion was seconded by the Earl of Darnley and
agreed to unanimously. Earl Spencer further moved ‘that, in order more
strongly to mark the high sense of this meeting of the merits of Sir
Humphry Davy, he be elected Honorary Professor of Chemistry.’ The Earl
of Winchester, the President of the Royal Institution, was requested to
sign these resolutions and to convey them to Sir Humphry Davy, and Mr.
Brande was elected to the professorship of chemistry.

At the end of June the two rooms that had been occupied by Sir Humphry
Davy were ordered to be prepared for Mr. Brande. A few months later he
was appointed Superintendent of the House, and was allowed to transfer
his chemical class of students of medicine to the laboratory.

On October 4 Sir H. Davy reported to the managers that ‘Michael Faraday
had expressed a wish to accompany him on his scientific travels, but
that he would not engage Mr. Faraday if the Professor of Chemistry
considered his services as at all essential to the Institution, or if
the managers had the slightest objection to the measure.’ Mr. Brande
reported that ‘arrangements could be made to prevent Mr. Faraday’s
resignation being felt, and that, as he had shown considerable
diligence and attention in cleaning and arranging the mineral
collection, he recommended his services to the managers’ attention, as
this was not his immediate duty.’

The managers permitted Mr. Faraday to resign his situation, and ordered
that he should be paid a month’s wages on the day of his departure.

The assistant porter was engaged as assistant in the laboratory on the
same terms as Michael Faraday.

This year Campbell again lectured on Poetry, and Southey and Moore
declined to lecture. Flaxman gave two lectures gratuitously, and was
elected a life subscriber. Two o’clock was tried as the lecture hour,
but a change was soon made back to three as heretofore.

In 1814, during the absence of Sir H. Davy, the Institution did little
for science, but, though poor, it strove to be fashionable. On May 23
it gave ‘a cold collation’ to the Grand Duchess of Oldenburgh, for
which Gunter, of Berkeley Square, was paid by contract twenty guineas.
The funds of the Institution were by no means flourishing; the balance
in favour of the Institution on the accounts of 1813 was 66_l._,
but many bills were paid out of the ‘benefactions to the fund for
discharging the debts and for providing for the future support of the
Institution.’ A list of the benefactors was ordered to be sent round to
the members and subscribers on the two last Saturdays in June.

For the promotion of science the three committees (1) on chemistry and
geology, (2) on general science and literature, and (3) on mathematics
and mechanics were requested by the managers to meet and to elect each
two chairmen and a secretary.

In 1815, in February, Mr. Babbage began a course of lectures on
Astronomy.

On May 15 Sir Humphry Davy was present at the meeting of managers. That
day Mr. Brande stated that he wanted assistance in the laboratory,
and that Michael Faraday was ‘willing to resume his situation.’ The
managers resolved that the assistant porter should be discharged,
and that the former assistant porter should take his place, and
‘that Michael Faraday be engaged as assistant in the laboratory and
mineralogical collection and superintendent of the apparatus at a
salary of 30_s._ a week, and that he be accommodated with apartments in
the house under the superintendence of Mr. Brande.’

The rooms given to him were 25 and 26, the two furthest on the attic
floor. The sister of the librarian, Mr. Harris, occupied the smallest
of these (26), and there were difficulties about any other arrangement,
so that a few weeks afterwards the librarian asked permission to reside
out of the house.

In 1816 the managers decided that, in consideration of the additional
labour caused to Michael Faraday by the lectures of Mr. Brande in
the laboratory, his salary should be raised to 100_l._ per annum.
The pecuniary difficulties of the Institution were increasing, and
Sir Humphry Davy, Mr. Auriol, and Mr. Solly were appointed as a
sub-committee to examine the expenditure. In 1817 the debts increased.

In 1818 the bill for coals in 1816 was paid. Mr. Fuller, who ultimately
founded the Fullerian Professorships, allowed one thousand pounds,
which he had invested for the benefit of the Institution, to be used
for the payment of debts. In the autumn Sir Thomas Bernard died.

In 1819 Mr. Brande applied to the board, on the part of Mr. Faraday,
for permission to occupy the two southernmost front rooms on the second
floor.

In 1820 an anniversary dinner was held on May 8 at Willis’s Rooms. The
following year Mr. Faraday was given the use of two more rooms on the
second floor, and appointed Superintendent of the House and Laboratory
in the absence of Mr. Brande.

In 1822 the treasurer had to advance 1,000_l._ to pay the bills, and
in 1823 a loan of 4,000_l._ without interest was raised amongst the
members.

In 1824 Faraday first lectured at the Royal Institution, and was
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for his discoveries made in the
laboratory.

From 1815 the life of Faraday and the history of the Royal Institution
became inseparable, and from 1824 it was kept alive by his unselfish
devotion to its welfare.




CHAPTER VI.

LIFE OF DAVY.

1778 to 1829.


The history of thirteen years of the life of Davy, like that of fifty
of the life of Faraday, is closely interwoven with the history of the
Royal Institution. Their lives were the life of the place; and hence,
to complete the history of the Institution to the time of Faraday, a
sketch of Davy and his scientific life must be given here.

Humphry Davy was born on December 17, 1778, at Penzance. He was the son
of a wood carver and was apprenticed to a surgeon.

Mr. Davies Gilbert heard that the boy was fond of making chemical
experiments. He encouraged him and spoke of him to Dr. Beddoes,
Professor of Geology and Chemistry at Oxford, who happened to be at
work upon the ‘Geology of Cornwall.’

Afterwards Dr. Beddoes established the Pneumatic Institution at
Clifton, and he required an assistant to prepare the gases and
superintend the Pneumatic Hospital, and Mr. Gilbert proposed Davy. He
went on October 2, 1798, ‘to superintend experiments on the medical
powers of factitious airs or gases.’

Davy thus wrote to Mr. Davies Gilbert:

                                                     November 12, 1798.

    I have purposely delayed writing until I could communicate to
    you some intelligence of importance concerning the new Pneumatic
    Institution. The speedy execution of the plan will, I think,
    interest you both as a subscriber and a friend to science and
    mankind. The present subscription is, we suppose, nearly adequate
    to the purpose of investigating the medicinal powers of factitious
    airs. It still continues to increase, and we may hope for the
    ability of pursuing the investigation to its full extent. We are
    negotiating for a house in Downe Square, the proximity of which to
    Bristol and its general situation and advantages render it very
    suitable for the purpose. The funds will, I suppose, enable us to
    provide for eight or ten patients in the Hospital, and for as many
    out of it as we can procure.

    We shall try the gases in every possible way.

       *       *       *       *       *

    We are printing in Bristol the first volume of the ‘West Country
    Collection,’ which will, I suppose, be out the beginning of January.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Believe me, dear Sir, with affection and respect, truly yours,

                                                          HUMPHRY DAVY.

The first two hundred pages of this collection, constituting very
nearly half the volume, consist of essays of Davy on ‘Heat, Light,
and the Combinations of Light,’ on ‘Phos-Oxygen or Oxygen and its
Combinations,’ and on the ‘Theory of Respiration.’

He wrote on February 22, 1799, to Davies Gilbert:

    DEAR FRIEND,--(For I love you too well to call you by a more
    ceremonious name), I have delayed writing to you, expecting
    that some of our experiments would produce results worthy of
    communication.

    I am now as much convinced of the non-existence of caloric as I am
    of the existence of light.

    Our laboratory in the Pneumatic Institution is nearly finished.

    I hope the gaseous oxide of azote will prove to be a specific
    stimulus for the absorbents.

       *       *       *       *       *

    I know of little general scientific news. Berthollet makes
    sulphuretted hydrogen out to be an acid.

       *       *       *       *       *

    I remain, with affection and respect, yours,

                                                          HUMPHRY DAVY.

Again on April 10, 1799, to Mr. Gilbert, writing of light and heat, he
said:

    The supposition of active powers common to all matter from the
    different modifications of which all the phenomena of its changes
    result, appears to me more reasonable than the assumption of
    certain imaginary fluids, alone endowed with active powers, and
    bearing the same relation to common matter as the vulgar philosophy
    supposes spirit to bear to matter.

    It is only by forming theories, and then comparing them with facts,
    that we can hope to discover the true system of nature.

    I made a discovery yesterday which proves how necessary it is
    to repeat experiments. The gaseous oxide of azote is perfectly
    respirable when pure. It is never deleterious but when it
    contains nitrous gas. I have found a mode of obtaining it pure,
    and I breathed it to-day in the presence of Dr. Beddoes and some
    others--sixteen quarts of it for near seven minutes. It appears
    to support life longer than even oxygen gas, and absolutely
    intoxicated me. Pure oxygen gas produced no alteration in my pulse
    nor any other material effect, whereas this gas raised my pulse
    upwards of twenty strokes, made me dance about the laboratory as a
    madman, and has kept my spirits in a glow ever since.

       *       *       *       *       *

                  Yours, with affection and respect,
                                                          HUMPHRY DAVY.

Dr. Paris says Coleridge gave him this account of of the caution of
Davy at this time:

    Dr. Beddoes thought nitrous oxide gas would cure paralysis. A
    patient was to be treated by Davy. He first took the temperature
    by means of a small thermometer placed under the tongue. The
    patient immediately declared that he felt better. The opportunity
    was too tempting to be lost. Davy cast an intelligent glance at
    Mr. Coleridge, and desired the patient to renew his visit on
    the following day, when the same ceremony was again performed,
    and repeated every succeeding day for a fortnight, the patient
    gradually improving during that period, when he was dismissed as
    cured, no other application having been used than that of the
    thermometer.

Southey thus wrote his opinion and that of Coleridge regarding Davy
at this time: ‘He is a marvellous young man, whose talents I can only
wonder at.’

Later he wrote:

    My residence at Westbury was one of the happiest portions of
    my life.... I was in habits of the most frequent and intimate
    intercourse with Davy, then in the flower and freshness of his
    youth. We were within an easy walk of each other over some of the
    most beautiful ground in that beautiful part of England. When I
    went to the Pneumatic Institution he had to tell me of some new
    experiment or discovery and of the views which it opened for him,
    and when he came to Westbury there was a fresh portion of Madoc for
    his hearing.

On July 3, 1800, Davy wrote from Bristol to Gilbert:

    We have been repeating the galvanic experiments with success.
    Nicholson, by means of a hundred pieces of silver and zinc, has
    procured a visible spark. Cruickshank has revived oxidated metals
    in solution by means of the nascent hydrogen produced from the
    decomposition of water by the shock, and both he and Carlisle have
    absolutely resolved water into oxygen and hydrogen by means of
    it, making use of silver and platina wires. An immense field of
    investigation seems opened by this discovery; may it be pursued so
    as to acquaint us with some of the laws of life!

    You have undoubtedly heard of Herschel’s discovery concerning the
    production of heat by invisible rays emitted from the sun?

    Coleridge is gone to reside in Cumberland.

       *       *       *       *       *

                    Yours, with sincere affection,
                                                          HUMPHRY DAVY.

On October 20, 1800, again he wrote to Gilbert:

    In pursuing experiments on galvanism during the last two months I
    have met with unexpected and unhoped-for success. Some of the new
    facts on this subject promise to afford instruments capable of
    destroying the mysterious veil which nature has thrown over the
    operation and properties of ethereal fluids.

    Galvanism I have found, by numerous experiments, to be a process
    purely chemical.

    I remain, with sincere respect and affection, yours,

                                                          HUMPHRY DAVY.

During this year he published a volume entitled ‘Researches,
Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly concerning Nitrous Oxide and its
Respiration.’

In the spring of 1800 Mr. Underwood, a geologist and artist, had become
a proprietor of the Royal Institution. He had several conversations
with Count Rumford on the subject of Davy’s superior talents and the
advantages that would accrue to the Institution from engaging him as
a lecturer. ‘The Count called on me,’ Underwood says, ‘on January 5,
1801, having received from the managers of the Institution full powers
to negotiate upon this subject. On this occasion, however, I thought it
advisable to introduce the Count to Mr. James Thompson, as being the
more eligible person to treat in behalf of Davy, not only on account of
his greater intimacy with him, but because, not being a proprietor, he
was unconnected with the interests of the Institution.’ Mr. Thompson
wrote to Davy. With his characteristic energy Davy answered in person,
and had several conferences with Count Rumford. The following letter
from Count Rumford to Davy, written from the Royal Institution, is
dated February 16, 1801:

    DEAR SIR,--In consequence of the conversations I have had with you,
    respecting your engaging in the service of the Royal Institution of
    Great Britain, I this day laid the matter before the managers of
    the Institution at their meeting,[32] and I have the pleasure to
    acquaint you that the proposal I made to them was approved, and the
    following resolution unanimously taken by them: ‘Resolved,--That
    Mr. Humphry Davy be engaged in the service of the Royal Institution
    in the capacity of Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry, Director of the
    Chemical Laboratory, and Assistant Editor of the Journals of the
    Institution, and that he be allowed to occupy a room in the house
    and be furnished with coals and candles, and that he be paid a
    salary of 100_l._ per annum.’

    On this occasion I did not neglect to give an account to the
    managers of the whole of what passed between us respecting the
    situation it was intended you should fill in the Institution
    on your engaging in its service, and the prospects that could
    with propriety be held out to you of future advantages, and the
    managers agreed with me in thinking that, as you had expressed
    your willingness to devote yourself entirely and permanently to
    the Institution, it would be right and proper to hold out to you
    the prospect of becoming, in the course of two or three years,
    Professor of Chemistry in the Institution, with a salary of 300_l._
    per annum, provided that within that period you shall have given
    proofs of your fitness to hold that distinguished situation.

    Although you must ever consider the duties of the offices you may
    hold under the Institution as the primary objects of your care and
    attention, yet the managers are so far from being desirous that you
    should relinquish the private philosophical investigations in which
    you have hitherto been engaged, and by which you have so honourably
    distinguished yourself and attracted their attention, that it will
    afford them the sincerest pleasure to encourage and assist you in
    these laudable pursuits, and give you every facility which the
    philosophical apparatus at the Institution can afford to make new
    and interesting experiments.

    You will naturally consider the Journals of the Institution as
    the most proper vehicle for communicating to the public from
    time to time short accounts of the progress you may make in your
    investigations; this will, however, by no means be considered as
    precluding you in any degree from presenting to the Royal Society
    of London, or any other learned body, philosophical papers or
    memoirs on such scientific subjects as may engage your attention,
    or from publishing in any other manner the results of your
    researches.

    As you are fully informed with respect to the nature and objects
    of the Royal Institution and are acquainted with the respectable
    character of those distinguished persons with whom I have the
    honour to act in the management of its concerns, you cannot, I
    think, entertain the smallest doubt of their constant protection
    and of their readiness on all occasions to do full justice to the
    zeal and abilities you may display in the situation in which they
    have placed you.

    It is with much esteem and a sincere desire that the talents which
    at so early a period of life you discovered may be cultivated with
    care, and always employed with success, that I am, dear Sir, your
    most obedient Servant,

                                                               RUMFORD.

On March 8 Davy wrote to Davies Gilbert:

    I cannot think of quitting the Pneumatic Institution without giving
    you information of it in a letter; indeed, I believe I should have
    done this some time ago had not the hurry of business and the fever
    of emotion produced by the prospect of novel changes in futurity
    destroyed to a certain extent my powers of consistent action.

    You, my dear sir, have behaved to me with great kindness, and
    the little ability I possess you have very much contributed to
    develope; I should therefore accuse myself of ingratitude were I
    to neglect to ask your approbation of the measures I have adopted
    with regard to the change of my situation and the enlargement of my
    views in life.

    In consequence of an invitation from Count Rumford, given to me
    with some proposals relative to the Royal Institution, I visited
    London in the middle of February, where, after several conferences
    with that gentleman, I was invited by the managers of the Royal
    Institution to become the director of their laboratory and their
    assistant professor of chemistry. At the same time I was assured
    that, within the space of two or three seasons, I should be made
    sole professor of chemistry, still continuing director of the
    laboratory.

    The immediate emolument offered was sufficient for my wants, and
    the sole and uncontrolled use of the apparatus in the Institution
    for private experiments was to be granted me.

    The behaviour of Count Rumford, Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Cavendish,
    and the other principal managers was liberal and polite, and they
    promised me any apparatus that I might need for new experiments.

    The time required to be devoted to the services of the Institution
    was but short, being limited chiefly to the winter and spring.
    The emoluments to be attached to the office of sole professor of
    chemistry are great, and, above all, the situation is permanent and
    held very honourable.

    These motives, joined to the approbation of Dr. Beddoes, who,
    with great liberality, has absolved me from my engagements at the
    Pneumatic Institution, and the strong wishes of most of my friends
    in London and Bristol determined my conduct.

    Thus I am quietly to be transferred to London, whilst my sphere
    of action is considerably enlarged, and as much power as I could
    reasonably expect, or even wish for at my time of life, secured to
    me without the obligation of labouring at a profession.

    The Royal Institution will, I hope, be of some utility to society.
    It has undoubtedly the capability of becoming a great instrument
    of moral and intellectual improvement. Its funds are very great.
    It has attached to it the feelings of a great number of people
    of fashion and property, and consequently may be the means of
    employing to useful purposes money which would otherwise be
    squandered in luxury and in the production of unnecessary labour.

    Count Rumford professes that it will be kept distinct from party
    politics. I sincerely wish that such may be the case, though I
    fear it. As for myself, I shall become attached to it, full of
    hope, with the resolution of employing all my feeble powers towards
    promoting its true interests.

       *       *       *       *       *

    I have been pursuing galvanism with labour and some success; I
    have been able to produce galvanic power from single plates, by
    effecting on them different oxidating and deoxidating processes.

    After the 11th I shall be in town--my direction, Royal Institution.

    I am, my dear Friend, with respect and affection, yours,

                                                          HUMPHRY DAVY.

At the meeting of the managers of the Royal Institution on February
16 (present, Sir J. Banks, Earl Morton, Count Rumford, and Mr. R.
Clark, Chamberlain of the City of London), it was resolved ‘that Mr.
Humphry Davy be engaged in the service of the Royal Institution in
the capacities of Assistant Lecturer in Chemistry, Director of the
Laboratory, and Assistant Editor of the Journals of the Institution;
that he be allowed to occupy a room in the house, and be furnished with
coals and candles; and that he be paid a salary of one hundred guineas
per annum.’

On March 16 Count Rumford, after reporting that a room had been
prepared and furnished, stated that Mr. Davy had arrived at the
Institution on Wednesday, March 11, and taken possession of his
situation.

Davy gave three courses of lectures in the spring of 1801.

His first course consisted of five lectures on the ‘New Branch of
Philosophy’--the galvanic phenomena. His first lecture was on Tuesday
evening, April 25. He began with the history of galvanism, detailed
the successive discoveries, and described the different methods of
accumulating galvanic influence. Polished plates of different metals
and the effect of their lying together in contact with water and air
were exhibited. ‘Air is absolutely necessary to the oxydating process.’
He observed that ‘it was difficult to prove that hydrogen was given out
in the decomposition of water in this way, and that it seemed rather
probable that alkali was formed.’ He showed the effects of galvanism
on the legs of frogs, and exhibited some interesting experiments on
the galvanic effects on the solution of metals in acids. As a recent
discovery of his own he showed that with one kind of metal only, more
powerful effects may be produced than with two, as heretofore employed;
but in this case there must be more than one liquid interposed between
the plates. He stated that copper, for example, and discs of cloth
or pasteboard, moistened with diluted nitrous acid and solutions of
muriat of soda and sulphuret of potash, and arranged in the order named
(viz. copper, nitrous acid, muriat of soda, sulphuret of potash, &c.),
give much more sensible shocks than the pile as at first constructed.
The reporter added: ‘Sir Joseph Banks, Count Rumford, and other
distinguished philosophers were present. The audience was highly
gratified, and testified their satisfaction by general applause. Mr.
Davy, who appears to be very young, acquitted himself admirably well;
from the sparkling intelligence of his eye, his animated manner, and
the _tout ensemble_ we have no doubt of his attaining a distinguished
eminence.’

The second lecture was given on the 28th, and the others were to be
delivered on the Tuesday and Saturday evenings till completed. He
gave another short course on Pneumatic Chemistry. ‘The lectures were
extremely ingenious and excited considerable attention.’ The concluding
lecture was on June 20, on Respiration, and after the lecture an
opportunity was given to such as wished it to breathe some of the
nitrous oxide. The reporter said, ‘Mr. Grosvenor Bedford, Mr. Stodart,
and Mr. Underwood breathed the gas, and the effects it produced, and
especially on the last, were truly wonderful. Mr. Underwood experienced
so much pleasure from breathing it that he lost all sense of everything
else, and the breathing bag could only be taken from him at last by
force.’ ‘The irresistible tendency to muscular action produced by
this gas was such as cannot be described. It must be witnessed to be
conceived.’

‘Professor Pictet, of Geneva, who is now on a visit in this country,
Count Rumford, and other philosophers of eminence were present, and
seemed not a little gratified with the exhibition of the gas.’[33]

‘Another galvanic course was also given by Mr. Davy, which, being
delivered in the fore part of the day, was attended not only by men of
science, but by numbers of people of rank and fashion, a proof that the
Institution bids fair to promote a taste for philosophical pursuits
among those whose wealth has but too often fostered the idea that such
subjects were beneath the notice of independence.’

At a meeting of managers, held on June 1, it was resolved ‘that Mr.
Humphry Davy, Director of the Chemical Laboratory and Assistant
Lecturer in Chemistry, since he has been employed at the Institution,
has given satisfactory proofs of his talents as a lecturer, and also it
was resolved that he be appointed and in future denominated Lecturer on
Chemistry at the Royal Institution, instead of continuing to occupy the
place of Assistant Lecturer, which he has hitherto filled.’

On June 18 his first paper was read at the Royal Society. It was an
account of some galvanic combinations formed by an arrangement of
single metallic plates and fluids analogous to the galvanic apparatus
of M. Volta.

On June 29 a permanent committee for the general purposes of chemical
investigation and analysis was appointed at the Royal Institution,
and the Minutes say that Mr. Davy was instructed to prepare himself
to give in the month of December next a course of lectures on the
Philosophical and Chemical Principles of the Art of Dyeing, or on the
Arts of Staining or Printing with Colours, Woollen, Linen, and Cotton
Goods. ‘That Mr. Davy have permission to absent himself during the
months of July, August, and September for the purpose of making himself
more particularly acquainted with the practical part of the business of
tanning.’

Davy first went to Bristol, and thence he wrote to his friend Mr.
Underwood to join him for a tour in Cornwall.

    MY DEAR UNDERWOOD,--That part of Almighty God which resides in
    the rocks and woods, in the blue and tranquil sea, in the clouds
    and sunbeams of the sky, is calling upon thee with a loud voice;
    religiously obey its commands, and come and worship with me on the
    ancient altars of Cornwall.

    I shall leave Bristol on Thursday next, possibly before; so that
    by this day week I shall probably be at Penzance. Ten days or a
    fortnight after I shall expect to see you, and to rejoice with you.
    We will admire together the wonders of God--rocks and the sea, dead
    hills and living hills covered with verdure. Amen.

    Write to me immediately, and say when you will come. Direct, H.
    Davy, Penzance. Farewell, being of energy. Yours with unfeigned
    affection,

                                                               H. DAVY.

On November 14 he wrote to Davies Gilbert from the Royal Institution:

    I didn’t arrive in London until the 20th of September. On my
    arrival I found that Count Rumford had altered his plans of
    absence, and had left London on that very day for the Continent,
    purposing to return in about two months. He is now at Paris, and in
    about a fortnight we expect him here.

       *       *       *       *       *

    I yesterday ascertained rather an important fact; namely, that
    a galvanic battery may be constructed _without any metallic
    substance_. By means of ten pieces of well-burnt charcoal, nitrous
    acid, and water, arranged alternately in wine-glasses, I produced
    all the effects usually obtained from zinc, silver, and water.

    The Bakerian lecture[34] by Dr. Young, our Lecturer on Natural
    Philosophy, is now reading before the Royal Society. He attempts
    to revive the doctrine of Huygens and Euler, that light depends
    upon undulations of an ethereal medium. His proofs (_i.e._ his
    presumptive proofs) are drawn from some strong and curious
    analogies he has discovered between light and sound.

       *       *       *       *       *

    You should fix your permanent residence in London, where alone you
    can do what you ought--instruct and delight numbers of improved
    men. I am, my Friend, yours with unfeigned esteem and respect,

                                                          HUMPHRY DAVY.

On January 5, 1802, a syllabus of Davy’s course of lectures on
Chemistry was printed at the press of the Royal Institution. He wrote
for it the following advertisement:

    It is generally admitted that the best method of teaching the
    sciences is to begin with simple facts, and gradually to proceed
    from them to the more complicated phenomena.

    In the following pages, which contain the outlines of a course of
    lectures on Chemistry, an attempt has been made to employ such a
    method. Hence the abstruse doctrines concerning the imponderable
    fluids have been separated from the history of simple chemical
    action, and the applications of the science from the science
    itself. The classification of substances adopted is founded
    rather upon facts than analogies, and in consequence certain
    bodies have been placed among the simple principles which, from
    their resemblance to other bodies of known composition, have
    been generally arranged in the class of compounds. This is an
    imperfection, but on the principles assumed it could not easily be
    avoided. And it will be fortunate for the author if a discerning
    public should not discover many more important imperfections.

    Part I. ‘The Chemistry of Ponderable Substances.’

    Part II. ‘The Chemistry of Imponderable Substances.’ Div. 1,
    of Heat or Caloric; Div. 2, of Light; Div. 3, of the Electric
    Influence; Div. 4, of Galvanism.

    Part III. ‘The Chemistry of the Arts.’ Div. 1, of Agriculture; Div.
    2, of Tanning; Div. 3, of Bleaching; Div. 4, of Dyeing; Div. 5, of
    Metallurgy; Div. 6, of the Manufactory of Glass and Porcelain; Div.
    7, of the Preparation of Food and Drink; Div. 8, of the Management
    of Heat and Light Artificially Produced.

He gave his introductory lecture to the morning course on General
Chemistry on Thursday, January 21, and to the evening course on
Outlines of Chemical Science and Chemistry of the Arts on February 9.
The allusion to the Royal Institution with which he ended his first
lecture was full of poetry.

‘In reasoning concerning the future hopes of the human species we
may look forward with confidence to a state of society in which the
different orders and classes of men will contribute more effectually
to the support of each other than they have hitherto done. This state,
indeed, seems to be approaching fast; for, in consequence of the
multiplication of the means of instruction, the man of science and the
manufacturer are daily becoming more assimilated to each other.

‘The arts and sciences also are in high degree patronised by the rich
and privileged orders.

‘The unequal division of property and of labour, the differences
of rank and condition amongst mankind, are the sources of power
in civilised life--its moving causes and even its very soul. In
considering and hoping that the human species is capable of becoming
more enlightened and more happy we can only expect that the different
parts of the great whole of society should be intimately united
together by means of knowledge and the useful arts, that they should
act as the children of one great parent with one determinate end, so
that no power may be rendered useless, no exertions thrown away.

‘In this view we do not look to distant ages or amuse ourselves with
brilliant though delusive dreams concerning the infinite improvability
of man, the annihilation of labour, disease, and even death; but we
reason by analogy from simple facts; we consider only a state of human
progression arising out of its present condition; we look for a time
that we may reasonably expect, FOR A BRIGHT DAY OF WHICH WE ALREADY
BEHOLD THE DAWN.’

The following day Sir H. Englefield wrote to Mr. Underwood from Tilney
Street, ‘Davy, covered with glory, dines with me at five to-day. If you
could meet him it would give me great pleasure.’

At this dinner Sir Henry wrote a request to Davy to print his lecture.

A friend of Davy’s some years afterwards thus mentioned the success of
his lectures to Dr. Paris:

‘The sensation created by his lectures at the Institution and the
enthusiastic admiration which they obtained is at this period scarcely
to be imagined. Men of the first rank and talent, the literary and
the scientific, the practical and the theoretical, blue-stockings and
women of fashion, the old and the young, all crowded, eagerly crowded,
the lecture room. His youth, his simplicity, his natural eloquence,
his chemical knowledge, his happy illustrations and well-conducted
experiments excited universal attention and unbounded applause.

‘Compliments, invitations, and presents were showered upon him in
abundance from all quarters. His society was courted by all, and all
appeared proud of his acquaintance.’

On February 5 he again dined with Sir H. Englefield at his house at
Blackheath. Eighteen long years afterwards, looking back through Davy’s
career, Sir H. Englefield said of this evening, ‘It was the last flash
of expiring nature.’

On May 31, 1802, at the managers’ meeting, it was resolved that Mr.
Humphry Davy be for the future styled Professor of Chemistry to the
Royal Institution. In July ‘he respectfully requested leave of the
managers that he may be permitted to spend a few weeks during the
summer in the country. It is not amusement alone that he hopes to
gain during his short absence, but he believes that he may be able to
collect some information that may be useful in the lectures to be given
on Agriculture in the spring, and which may be in other ways connected
with the views of the Institution. He will take care that his absence
shall not interfere with the regular publication of the Journals, and
he will never be so far from town but that he can speedily return
whenever his presence may be necessary.’

He wrote to Davies Gilbert, October 26:

    DEAR FRIEND,--The anxieties and hopes connected with a new
    occupation have prevented me from paying sufficient attention even
    to the common duties and affections of life.... Your correspondence
    is to me a real source of pleasure, and, believe me, I would suffer
    no opportunity to escape of making it more frequent and regular.

    My labours in the theatre of the Royal Institution have been more
    successful than I could have hoped from the nature of them. In
    lectures the effect produced upon the mind is generally transitory;
    for the most part they amuse rather than instruct, and stimulate
    to inquiry rather than give information. My audience has often
    amounted to four or five hundred and upwards, and amongst them some
    promise to become permanently attached to chemistry. This science
    is much the fashion of the day.

    I mentioned to you in a former letter the great powers of
    galvanism in effecting the combustion of metals. I have lately had
    constructed for the laboratory of the Institution a battery of
    immense size; it consists of four hundred plates of five inches in
    diameter and forty of a foot in diameter.

    I am now examining the agencies of it upon certain substances that
    have not as yet been decomposed.

       *       *       *       *       *

    Have you seen the theory of my colleague, Dr. Young, on the
    undulations of an ethereal medium as the cause of light? It is
    not likely to be a popular hypothesis after what has been said by
    Newton concerning it. He would be very much flattered if you could
    offer any observations upon it, whether for or against it.

       *       *       *       *       *

    We are publishing at the Royal Institution a ‘Journal of Science,’
    which contains chiefly abridged accounts of what is going on in
    different parts of Europe, with some original papers; and, in hopes
    that its diffusion may become more general, we have fixed its price
    at one shilling.

       *       *       *       *       *

    I am beginning to think of my course of lectures for the winter.
    In addition to the common course of the Institution, I have to
    deliver a few lectures on Vegetable Substances, and on the
    Connexion of Chemistry with Vegetable Physiology, before the Board
    of Agriculture.

       *       *       *       *       *

          I am, dear Sir, with affection and respect, yours,
                                                               H. DAVY.

In April Davy joined Dr. Young in editing the eighth number of the
Journal. Count Rumford had edited the three first and Dr. Young the
four following numbers. In the third number Davy had given an account
of a new eudiometer, and in the fourth outlines of a view of galvanism.
In another number he gave an account of a method of copying paintings
upon glass, and of making profiles by the agency of light upon nitrate
of silver, invented by T. Wedgwood, Esq. He says, ‘Nothing but a method
of preventing the unshaded parts of the delineation from being coloured
by exposure to the day is wanting to render the process as useful as it
is elegant.’

On February 24, 1803, an account of some experiments and observations
on the constituent parts of certain astringent vegetables, and on their
operation in tanning, was read by Davy at the Royal Society.

He was proposed as a Fellow of the Royal Society on April 20, and
elected on November 17.

A letter from Coleridge to Mr. Purkis, dated February 17, 1803, from
Nether Stowey, thus speaks of Davy at this time:

    I rejoice in Davy’s progress. There are three suns recorded in
    Scripture--Joshua’s, that stood still; Hezekiah’s, that went
    backward; and David’s, that went forth and hastened on his course
    like a bridegroom from his chamber. May our friend prove the
    latter! It is a melancholy thing to see a man, like the sun in
    the close of the Lapland summer, meridional in his horizon, or
    like wheat in a rainy season, that shoots up well in the stalk,
    but does not kern. As I have hoped and do hope more proudly of
    Davy than of any other man, and as he has been endeared to me
    more than any other man by the being a thing of hope to me (more,
    far more, than myself to my own self in my most genial moments),
    so of course my disappointment would be proportionably severe.
    It were a falsehood if I said that I think his present situation
    most calculated of all others to foster either his genius or the
    clearness and uncorruptness of his opinions and moral feelings. I
    see two serpents at the cradle of his genius--dissipation with a
    perpetual increase of acquaintances and the constant presence of
    inferiors and devotees, with that too great facility of attaining
    admiration which degrades ambition into vanity; but the Hercules
    will strangle both the reptile monsters. I have thought it possible
    to exert talents with perseverance, and to attain true greatness
    wholly pure even from the impulses of ambition, but on this subject
    Davy and I always differed.... My book is not, strictly speaking,
    metaphysical, but historical. It, perhaps, will merit the title of
    a history of metaphysics in England, from Lord Bacon to Mr. Hume
    inclusive. I confine myself to facts in every part of the work,
    excepting that which treats of Mr. Hume; _him_ I have assuredly
    besprinkled copiously from the fountains of bitterness and
    contempt. As to this and the other works which you have mentioned,
    ‘have patience, lord, and I will pay thee all.’

    Mr. T. Wedgwood goes to Italy in the first days of May. Whether I
    accompany him is uncertain; he is apprehensive that my health may
    incapacitate me. If I do not go with him, I shall go off myself in
    the first week of April if possible.

Davy himself wrote, on May 5, to his friend Mr. Thomas Poole:

    Be not alarmed, my dear friend, as to the effect of worldly society
    on my mind. The age of danger has passed away; there are in the
    intellectual being of all men permanent elements, certain habits
    and passions that cannot change. I am a lover of nature with an
    ungratified imagination; I shall continue to search for untasted
    charms, for hidden beauties.

    My _real_, my _waking_ existence is amongst the objects of
    scientific research; common amusements and enjoyments are necessary
    to me only as dreams to interrupt the flow of thoughts too nearly
    analogous to enlighten and to vivify. Coleridge has left London
    for Keswick. During his stay in town I saw him seldomer than
    usual; when I did see him it was generally in the midst of large
    companies, where he is the image of power and activity. His
    eloquence is unimpaired; perhaps it is softer and stronger. His
    will is probably less than ever commensurate with his ability.
    Brilliant images of greatness float upon his mind like the images
    of the morning clouds upon the waters: their forms are changed by
    the motions of the waves, they are agitated by every breeze, and
    modified by every sunbeam. He talked in the course of one hour of
    beginning three works, and he recited the poem of ‘Christabel’
    unfinished and as I had before heard it. What talent does he not
    waste in forming visions sublime, but unconnected with the real
    world! I have looked to his efforts as the efforts of a creating
    being, but as yet he has not even laid the foundation for the new
    world of intellectual forms.

    When my agricultural lectures are finished I propose to visit
    Paris, and perhaps Geneva.

On May 10 the first lecture was given before the Board of Agriculture,
and five others on succeeding Fridays and Tuesdays. They were corrected
and published in 1813.

Later he wrote again to Mr. Poole:

    Often, very often, in the midst of the tumults of the multitude
    in this great city has my spirit turned in quietness and solitude
    towards you.

    I hope soon to see you in Somersetshire, where we may worship
    nature and the Spirit that dwells in nature in your green fields
    and under your tranquil sky. My communications with you, and
    Coleridge, and Southey, and other ornaments of the great existing
    Being have excited feelings which cheer me in the apathy of London,
    and which make me love human nature.

In December 1803 Dr. Dalton gave a course of lectures at the Royal
Institution. Early in January he wrote to a friend from the Royal
Institution:

    I was introduced to Mr. Davy, who has rooms adjoining mine;
    he is a very agreeable and intelligent young man, and we have
    interesting conversations in the evening; the principal failing in
    his character as a philosopher is that he does not smoke. Mr. Davy
    advised me to labour at my first lecture; he told me the people
    here would be inclined to form their opinion from it. Accordingly
    I resolved to _write_ my first lecture wholly; to _do_ nothing,
    but to tell them what I would do and enlarge upon the importance
    and utility of science. I studied and wrote for near two days,
    then calculated to a minute how long it would take me reading,
    endeavouring to make my discourse about fifty minutes. The evening
    before the lecture Davy and I went into the theatre; he made me
    read the whole of it, and he went into the farthest corner. Then he
    read it, and I was the audience. We criticised each other’s method.
    Next day I read it to an audience of about 150 or 200 people, which
    was more than were expected. They gave a very general plaudit at
    the conclusion, and several came up to compliment me upon the
    excellence of the introduction. Since that I have scarcely written
    anything; all has been experiment and verbal explanation. In
    general my experiments have uniformly succeeded, and I have never
    once faltered in the elucidation of them; in fact, I can now enter
    the lecture room with as little emotion nearly as I can smoke a
    pipe with you on Sunday or Wednesday evening.

Before Coleridge left for Malta Davy wrote to him:

                          Twelve o’clock, Monday (probably March 1804).

    MY DEAR COLERIDGE,--My mind is disturbed and my body harassed
    by many labours, yet I cannot suffer you to depart without
    endeavouring to express to you some of the unbroken higher feelings
    of my spirit, which have you at once as their cause and object.

    Years have passed away since we first met, and your presence, and
    recollections with regard to you have afforded me continued sources
    of enjoyment.

    Some of the better feelings of my nature have been elevated by your
    converse, and thoughts which you have nursed have been to me an
    eternal source of consolation.

    In whatever part of the world you are you will often live with me,
    not as a fleeting idea, but as a recollection possessed of creative
    energy, as an imagination winged with fire, inspiring and rejoicing.

    You must not live much longer without giving to all men the proof
    of power which those who know you feel in admiration. Perhaps, at
    a distance from the applauding and censuring murmurs of the world,
    you will be best able to execute those great works which are justly
    expected from you; you are to be the historian of the philosophy of
    feeling. Do not in any way dissipate your noble nature. Do not give
    up your birthright. May you soon recover perfect health, the health
    of strength and happiness! may you soon return to us confirmed
    in all the powers essential to the exertion of genius! You were
    born for your country, and your native land must be the scene of
    your activity. I shall expect the time when your spirit, bursting
    through the clouds of ill-health, will appear to all men, not
    as an uncertain and brilliant flame, but as a fair and permanent
    light, fixed, though constantly in motion, as a sun which gives its
    fire not only to its attendant planets, but which sends beams from
    all its parts into all worlds.

    May blessings attend you, my dear friend! Do not forget me; we live
    for different ends and with different habits and pursuits, but our
    feelings with regard to each other have, I believe, never altered.
    They must continue; they can have no natural death. I trust they
    can never be destroyed by fortune, chance, or accident.

                                                               H. DAVY.

In October Davy thus wrote to a friend on the death of Gregory Watt,
the son of James Watt:

    We are deceived, my dear Clayfield, if we suppose that the human
    being who has formed himself for action, but who has been unable
    to act, is lost in the mass of being. There is some arrangement of
    things which we can never comprehend, but in which his faculties
    will be applied.

    The caterpillar, in being converted into an inert scaly mass, does
    not appear to be fitting itself for an inhabitant of the air, and
    can have no consciousness of the brilliancy of its future being.
    We are masters of the earth, but perhaps we are the slaves of some
    great but unknown beings. The fly that we crush with our finger or
    feed with our viands, has no knowledge of man and no consciousness
    of his superiority. We suppose that we are acquainted with matter
    and with all its elements, and yet we cannot even guess at the
    cause of electricity or explain the laws of the formation of the
    stones which fall from meteors.

    There may be beings--thinking beings--near us, surrounding us,
    which we do not perceive, which we can never imagine. We know
    very little, but, in my opinion, we know enough to hope for the
    immortality--the _individual immortality_--_of the better part of
    man_.

    I have been led into all this speculation, which you may well think
    wild, in reflecting upon the fate of Gregory; my feeling has given
    erring wings to my mind. He was a noble fellow and would have been
    a great man.

    His letters to me only three or four months ago were full of
    spirit, and spoke not of any infirmity of body, but of an
    increasing strength of mind. Why is this in the order of nature,
    that there is such a difference in the duration and destruction
    of her works? If the mere stone decays, it is to produce a soil
    which is capable of nourishing the moss and the lichen; when the
    moss and the lichen die and decompose, they produce a mould which
    becomes the bed of life to grass and to a more exalted species of
    vegetables. Vegetables are the food of animals, the less perfect
    animals of the more perfect, but in man the faculties and intellect
    are perfected; he rises, exists for a little while in disease and
    misery, and then would seem to disappear without an end and without
    producing any effect.

Another mention of Coleridge occurs in February, when Davy wrote to Mr.
Poole:

    There has been no news lately from Coleridge; the last accounts
    state that he was well in the autumn and in Sicily. On that poetic
    ground we may hope and trust that his genius will call forth some
    new creations, and that he may bring back to us some garlands of
    never-dying verse. I have written to urge him strongly to give a
    course of lectures on Poetry at the Royal Institution, where his
    feeling would strongly impress and his eloquence greatly delight.

In January 1805 Davy presented his collection of minerals to the Royal
Institution. They were valued at one hundred guineas.

On February 4, as Director of the Laboratory, he received an addition
of 100_l._ to his salary.

He had two papers read at the Royal Society, one on a ‘New Mineral,
consisting of Alumine and Water,’ and the other on a ‘New Mode of
Analysing Minerals containing Fixed Alkali by Boracic Acid,’ and for
these and his other papers he received the Copley medal.

In September he thus wrote to Davies Gilbert:

    I came from Ireland by the Western Road about a fortnight ago.

    The Irish are a noble race degraded by slavery and bearing
    the insignia of persecution--extreme savageness or the lowest
    servility. Yet they are ingenious and active, and seem to me to
    possess all the elements of power and usefulness; but amongst the
    lower orders there is a most unfortunate equality, destructive of
    all great and efficient exertion, and amongst the higher classes
    the greatest degree of activity is awakened only by the desire of
    imitating the English, and that not so much in their virtues as in
    their luxuries and follies.

And to his friend Poole he wrote, October 9:

    I have very much to say about Ireland. It is an island that might
    be made a new and a great country. It now boasts a fertile soil,
    an ingenious and robust peasantry, and a rich aristocracy, but the
    bane of the nation is the equality of poverty amongst the lower
    orders. All are slaves without the probability of becoming free.
    They are in the state of equality which the sans-culottes wished
    for in France, and until emulation and riches and the love of
    clothes and neat houses are introduced amongst them there will be
    no permanent improvement.

    Changes in political institutions can at first do little towards
    serving them; it must be by altering their habits, by diffusing
    manufactures, by destroying middle men, by dividing farms, and by
    promoting industry, by making the pay proportioned to the work.
    But I ought not to attempt to say anything on the subject when my
    limits are so narrow.

Up to 1806 the lectures given by Davy had brought to him repute and to
the Royal Institution success. To his high reputation as a lecturer he
was now about to add that of a great original discoverer. As early as
July 3, 1800, he wrote to Davies Gilbert, ‘We have been repeating the
galvanic experiments with success.’ (See p. 316.) These experiments
led him to think that all chemical decompositions might be polar. He
electrised different compounds at the different poles of the battery,
but he made no great discovery for five years. The assertion that acid
and alkali were generated by the action of the voltaic pile in the
decomposition of water led him to undertake fresh galvanic experiments
in 1806. Before long he was rewarded by his great discoveries regarding
chemical electricity, the decomposition of the alkalies, and the
composition of chlorine.

It appears from the Laboratory Books that in September he first made
experiments on phosphorus with the galvanic spark, and in the last week
of October he ‘tried to decompose phosphorus by the galvanic fluid.’ He
fused the phosphorus into a tube through which a platinum wire passed.
This was the form of the experiment which he made a year afterwards to
compel potash to give up its oxygen.

On November 20 his first Bakerian lecture was given at the Royal
Society. It had this long title: On the ‘Chemical Agencies of
Electricity;’ on the ‘Changes Produced in Water by Electricity;’
on the ‘Agencies of Electricity;’ on the ‘Decomposition of various
Compound Bodies;’ on the ‘Transfer of certain Constituent Parts of
Bodies by the Action of Electricity;’ on the ‘Passage of Acids,
Alkalies, and other Substances through various Attracting Chemical
Menstrua by Means of Electricity;’ ‘Some General Observations on these
Phenomena, and on the Mode of Decomposition and Transition;’ on the
‘General Principles of the Chemical Changes Produced by Electricity;’
on the ‘Relations between the Electrical Energies of Bodies and their
Chemical Affinities;’ on the ‘Mode of Action of the Pile of Volta,
with Experimental Elucidations;’ on ‘Some General Illustrations and
Applications of the Foregoing Facts and Principles.’

This was the first dawn of light regarding the inseparable union
between chemical and electrical motions. The two ends of the pile
of metals gave in quantity and quality different chemical results,
and the chemical products varied with the variations of the liquid
into which the poles were put. The identity of chemical affinity and
electricity was imagined, and a new division of elements was made into
electro-positive and electro-negative, according as the one or other
end of the pile attracted them. The kind of polarity of each matter was
thought to determine the electrical and chemical actions shown by it.

Napoleon had founded a prize of 2,400_l._ for a discovery comparable
to that of Franklin or Volta, and at the same time he founded with
the interest a medal, of 120_l._ value yearly, for the best experiment
on the galvanic fluid. This medal for the year 1807 was given to Davy
for this paper, which was then printed. Davy wrote to Mr. Poole,
‘Some people say I ought not to accept this prize, and there have
been foolish paragraphs in the papers to that effect; but if the two
countries or governments are at war, the men of science are not. That
would indeed be a civil war of the worst description; we should rather,
through the instrumentality of men of science, soften the asperities of
national hostility.’

On January 22, 1807, Davy was elected secretary of the Royal Society.

Dr. Young wrote to a friend:

    I believe your pheasants have assisted in bringing my friend Davy
    into a hundred a year and the office of secretary of the Royal
    Society. It had never occurred to him to offer himself till I
    suggested it to him one day when he dined with me. The next day he
    heard of poor Gray’s death, and, upon applying to the President,
    he was, after some deliberation, approved, although another person
    had before been encouraged. If I had not been a member of an
    _illiberal_ profession I should have liked the situation myself,
    but perhaps the public is right in discouraging a divided attention.

At the end of August Davy wrote to Mr. Poole:

    I am obliged to be in the neighbourhood of town during the greater
    part of the summer for the purpose of correcting the proofs for the
    ‘Philosophical Transactions.’

    If Coleridge is still with you, be kind enough to say to him that
    I wrote nearly a week ago two letters about lectures, and, not
    knowing where he was, I addressed them to him at different places.
    I wish very much he would seriously determine on this point. The
    managers of the Royal Institution are very anxious to engage him,
    and I think he might be of material service to the public and
    of benefit to his own mind, to say nothing of the benefit his
    purse might also receive. In the present condition of society his
    opinions in matters of taste, literature, and metaphysics must have
    a healthy influence; and, unless he soon becomes an active member
    of the living world, he must expect to be hereafter brought to
    judgment for hiding his light.

Seven months afterwards Davy again wrote to Mr. Poole:

    Coleridge, after disappointing his audience twice from illness,
    is announced to lecture again this week. He has suffered greatly
    from excessive sensibility, the disease of genius. His mind is
    a wilderness in which the cedar and the oak, which might aspire
    to the skies, are stunted in their growth by underwood, thorns,
    briars, and other parasitical plants. With the most exalted
    genius, enlarged views, sensitive heart, and enlightened mind he
    will be the victim of want of order, precision, and regularity. I
    cannot think of him without experiencing the mingled feelings of
    admiration, regard, and pity.

    Why do you not come to London? Many would be happy to see you, but
    no one more so than your very sincere Friend, my dear Poole,

                                                               H. DAVY.

The Laboratory Books show that the last week in September 1807 he
exposed magnesia upon a glass plate at the positive pole with distilled
water. Four days afterwards he put oxide of zinc in a coagulated state
round the positive pole.

On October 6 he began ‘a new series of experiments on polarity.’

From the account he gives of one experiment, it appears that he exposed
different substances on a glass plate to the action of the platinum
wires from a galvanic battery of 100 plates of 6 inches.

He tried the following substances: oxalic acid, dry; succinic acid;
oxalic acid; soap; alcohol; water; carbonate of ammonia; nitrate of
potash. He wrote, ‘Pure potash, as dry as it can be made, discharges
the negative in a remarkable degree and insulates the positive.’

‘_Remarkable Phenomena with Potash._ It soon--’ Here the laboratory
note ends, but his paper in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’
says--‘fused, became a conductor, and gave brilliant light with
the appearance of flame at the negative wire. When it was slightly
moistened, to make it a better conductor, the potash began to fuse
at both its points of electrisation; there was a violent effusion at
its upper or positive surface, while at the lower or negative surface
there was no liberation of an elastic fluid, but a formation of
small granules resembling quicksilver, which occasionally burst with
explosion.’

He then tried carbonate of ammonia, sulphuric acid and water, soap, and
the flame of a candle.

The following day carbonate of ammonia and oxalic acid were tried,
sulphuric acid, water, and alcohol.

From the 7th to the 16th no experiments were entered in the Laboratory
Book; but to the substance that produced the gas and globules he
gave the name first of alkaligen; for on the 16th he says, ‘Gas from
alkaligen in alcohol;’ also ‘gas from ether and gas from oil of
turpentine.’

On the 17th he again experimented on this gas from the alkaligen in
ether and turpentine, and says, ‘The gas which had been collected from
the globules under oil of turpentine by the action of water burnt in
contact with the air. Does it (the matter of the globules) not form
gaseous compounds with ether, alcohol, and the oils?’

Then he notes the action of the alkaligen on mercury. ‘Forms with it
a solid amalgam, which soon loses its alkaligen in the air.’ ‘This
amalgam amalgamates with platina and iron, but soon flies off on
exposure to the air.’ ‘Query, Does it amalgamate with phosphorus?’

‘Probably whenever it meets with hydrogen it dissolves in it.’
‘Probably forms an æriform compound with ether.’

[Illustration]

On October 19 he made his famous experiment by which he showed
beyond question that potash can give up its oxygen. ‘When potash
was introduced into a tube having a platina wire attached to it, so
(fig.), and fused into the tube so as to be a conductor--_i.e._ so as
to contain just water enough, though solid--and inserted over mercury,
when the platina was made negative, no gas was formed and the mercury
became oxydated, and a small quantity of the alkaligen was produced
round the platina wire, as was evident from its quick inflammation by
the action of water. When the mercury was made the negative, gas was
developed in great quantities from the positive wire, and none from
the negative mercury, and this gas proved to be pure oxygen--a capital
experiment, proving the decomposition of potash.’ ‘A small quantity of
alkaligen was produced round the platina wire.’

‘The gas produced from alkaligen confined under mercury by the contact
of water seemed to be hydrogen nearly pure. Soda decomposed with
different phenomena.’

Davy made no more notes on that day.

On the 20th he worked on the gas obtained from sodagen and potagen, and
writes, ‘Barytes gave at the oxygen side, when touched with the wire,
an appearance like combustion--a bright rose-coloured light. Mem.: To
try what effect the hydrogen side will have upon it.’

On the 21st he again worked on the gas, and says the gas from ether,
when properly washed, seemed to be pure hydrogen.

He then says, ‘Examined the effect of heat this day and last night
of the peculiar substance.’ Then he notes the results, and then
he continues, ‘what can be the reason if the metallic globule is
composed of A and H (alkaligen and hydrogen)--What is the reason that
water and ether and alcohol saturated with potash still act on it so
energetically?’

On the 24th he tried the substance with sulphur and phosphorus.

On the 25th, 26th, and 27th he worked on barytes, &c.

On the 27th barytes heated to whiteness did not become a conductor.

On October 30 he was still at work on the gas.

On October 31 he says, ‘When the substance amalgamated with mercury,
was distilled in a glass retort, and the contents received over
mercury, no air was generated; nor over water till the sublimed
substance came in contact with the water, when hydrogen was evolved.’

On November 2 he was still working on potagen.

‘Probably this substance combines with oxygen in two proportions, the
_red colour_ owing to this; and it is owing to this that it acts upon
plate-glass.’

‘The first oxide a peculiar substance capable of being procured with
much difficulty, the second potash.’

In the midst of his discovery the condition of the laboratory made him
write in the book ‘some regulations with regard to the state of the
laboratory.’

‘1. Everything is to be put in its proper place in the evening, and
everything to be arranged for the next day’s operations.

‘2. The fire to be lighted at eight o’clock, and the apparatus for the
experiments to be prepared by nine.’

On November 4 he writes, ‘The result of the distillation of as pure a
piece (of potagen) as I could obtain seemed to be hydrogene nearly pure.

‘The gas given out from an amalgam of it with mercury likewise
hydrogene.’

On November 5 many experiments were made.

On November 6 he still worked on the gas. His notes say ‘on the
combustion of sodagen and potagen with oxygen.’

‘Potagen certainly sublimes unaltered at a temperature below red heat.
It is twenty times lighter than mercury.’

On November 13 he wrote to his friend Mr. Pepys:

    I have decomposed and recomposed the fixed alkalies and discovered
    their bases to be two new inflammable substitutes very like
    metals, but one of them lighter than ether and infinitely [more]
    combustible; so that there are two bodies decomposed and two new
    elementary bodies found.

The Bakerian lecture was read on November 19, only four days before
Davy was obliged to take to his bed by illness. The first sketch of
this famous paper was thus made in the Laboratory Book:

‘The substance is analogous to some of those imagined to exist by the
alchemical visionaries.

‘Possessing all the physical properties of metals except high specific
gravity, it seems to combine with all of them, and form with them truly
metallic amalgams; but in all cases it is capable of being separated
from them by its greater facility of oxidation.’

Then he gives the action on water and ice.

The theory of its operation upon water is extremely simple.

3. ‘When,’ he says, ‘the peculiar substance was brought in contact with
a thin piece of phosphorus and pressed upon, there is a considerable
action.’

4. ‘When it was brought in contact with sulphur in fusion in tubes
filled with the vapour of naphtha, they combine with varied ignition.’

5. ‘The new substance produces some beautiful results with mercury.’

Then he describes the alloys.

‘The basis of potash, when thrown into the strong mineral acids,
inflames and burns on the surface.’

Then he describes the effects with sulphuric acid, and nitrous acid.

‘The action of the basis of potash on fat and volatile oils, and on
various bodies, is less violent than on any other class of compound
substances containing oxygen, as might have been expected from the
small quantity of this principle which they hold in combination.

‘The application of naphtha to its preservation I have already
mentioned. On the colourless and perfectly transparent naphtha
distilled from petroleum or from brown naphtha at a low heat, and
defended from air, it has scarcely any action at common temperatures.’

Then he describes the further action on naphtha.

‘The fat and volatile oils closely related to naphtha in composition
resemble it likewise in their habitudes with the basis of potash.
The lightest naphtha that I have been able to procure by double
distillation was of spec. gr. 770, water being 1,000, and was almost
colourless. In this fluid, confined in close vessels, the globules swam
for hours without apparently affecting it, but by degrees a yellow film
formed upon them, the naphtha became brown at its point of contact,
and the globules sank to the bottom of the vessel. After some days the
fluid surrounding the globule appeared black and turbid.

‘The fat and volatile oils approach to naphtha in their habitudes with
respect to the basis of potash.

‘The fat oils follow naphtha in the order of bodies that slightly act
upon it; and the volatile oils, the fat oils; but they all contain
sufficient oxygen to render the basis of potash alkaline, if it is
exposed to them for a sufficient time and in proper quantities,
and that more or less rapidly, according to the circumstances.
When naphtha or the oils are exposed to air they soon alkalise the
basis. Oxygen is absorbed from the air, and a soap is formed, brown
from the decomposition of the compound fluid during the time of the
alkalisation. If air be excluded the process is a much longer time in
taking place; no gas is emitted in the fixed oils or in naphtha; but
in the volatile oils hydrocarbonate is produced in small quantities,
and in all these cases charcoal is deposited. In oil of turpentine the
process is more rapid than in any other oil I have tried, and this oil
contains either water or the elements of water, and perhaps a larger
proportion of oxygen to its inflammable matter.

‘Nor ought we to be surprised that these substances have never been
produced in nature. Their strong attraction for oxygen renders it
impossible.’

‘The division into two poles:

‘The basis of potash, by its strong attraction for oxygen, decomposes
all the metallic oxides which I _have_ exposed to it by a gentle heat.

‘The oxides of lead it instantly acts upon, and the metal is revived
and alkali formed. In consequence of this operation it cannot be
preserved in tubes of flint glass.

‘Are the bases of the fixed alkalies simple bodies? I perhaps shall be
asked.

‘But are these singular bodies themselves compounds? Have we reached
the limits of our analysis--More capable of combining with oxygene than
the basis of water?

‘The basis of potash serves almost as an accurate indication of the
proportion of oxygene in bodies and exactly in proportion--camphor,
spermaceti, wax, volatile oils.

‘In the course of my inquiries many circumstances arose at first
anomalous, but which soon were capable of being explained, and which,
when understood, seemed to extend the general facts which had been
detailed.’

A long break here occurs in the Laboratory Notes. On November 23, 1807,
Davy was taken ill with fever.

On December 7 the Managers’ Minutes say, ‘Mr. Davy having been confined
to his bed for the last fortnight by a severe illness, the managers are
under the painful necessity of giving notice that the lectures will not
commence until the first week in January next.’

On January 18 the managers of the Royal Institution ordered 500 copies
of the following paper to be printed:

                      NEW DISCOVERY IN CHEMISTRY.

                                                      January 18, 1808.

    For the satisfaction of those proprietors who were not present
    at the opening of the Rev. Mr. Dibden’s introductory lecture on
    Wednesday last the managers have obtained and printed the following
    note of it:

    ‘Before I solicit your attention to the opening of those lectures
    which I shall have the honour of delivering in the course of the
    season, permit me to trespass upon it for a few minutes by stating
    the peculiar circumstances under which this Institution is now
    again opened, and how it comes to pass that it has fallen to me
    rather than to a more deserving lecturer to be the first to address
    you.

    ‘The managers of this Institution have directed me to impart to you
    that intelligence which no one who is alive to the best feelings
    of human nature can hear without the mixed emotions of sorrow and
    delight.

    ‘Mr. Davy, whose frequent and powerful addresses from this place,
    supported by his ingenious experiments, have been so long and so
    well known to you, has for the last five weeks been struggling
    between life and death. The effects of those experiments recently
    made in illustration of his late splendid discovery, added to
    consequent bodily weakness, brought on a fever so violent as to
    threaten the extinction of life. Over him it might emphatically be
    said, in the language of the immortal Milton, that--

    Death his dart shook, but delayed to strike.

    If it had pleased Providence to deprive the world of all _further_
    benefit from his original talents and intense application there
    has certainly been sufficient _already_ effected by him to entitle
    him to be classed among the brightest scientific luminaries of
    his country. That this may not appear to be unfounded eulogium I
    shall proceed, at the particular request of the managers, to give
    you an outline of the splendid discovery just alluded to, and I do
    so with the greater pleasure as that outline has been drawn in a
    very masterly manner by a gentleman of all others perhaps the best
    qualified to do it effectually (Cavendish?)

    ‘In the course of the last twenty-five or thirty years the science
    of chemistry has undergone great changes and has been astonishingly
    augmented by various important discoveries, amongst which the most
    remarkable have been the decomposition and recomposition of water
    and of nitric acid, discovered by Mr. Cavendish, and the consequent
    knowledge of the nature of metallic calces (now called oxides) with
    that of acids in general.

    ‘But although the two fixed alkalies called soda and potash were
    attacked by the most eminent chemists with every known chemical
    agent and by every method which the improved state of science
    could suggest, not the smallest effect could be produced on
    them; so that the nature of these two common substances remained
    totally unascertained and became a grand desideratum of chemical
    science. When, however, M. Volta had communicated to the Royal
    Society his great discovery of the galvanic pile, and when this
    had been modified into the more convenient form of troughs by
    Crookshank of Woolwich, the electro-galvanic power was found by
    various philosophers to produce surprising effects when applied
    to different substances, and Mr. Davy in particular distinguished
    himself in these researches and made a number of valuable
    experiments and observations, some of the more remarkable of which
    he communicated to the Royal Society in the Bakerian lecture read
    in November 1806. Mr. Davy conceived, however, from what he had
    then accomplished, that much more might be done; and with equal
    skill and perseverance he performed a new series of experiments, in
    the course of which, by various means, he again tried the effect of
    the powerful galvanic batteries belonging to the laboratory of the
    Royal Institution, and particularly devoted his attention to the
    two fixed alkalies (soda and potash), with the view of effecting
    their decomposition and of ascertaining the nature of them by means
    of that powerful agent galvanism.

    ‘This great discovery he at length effected; and, to the high
    gratification of all men of science, he proved that soda and potash
    are compound bodies, each consisting of a peculiar metal, which
    has so great a tendency to combine with oxygen that no agent but
    galvanism can separate them. The two metals, therefore, of soda
    and potash have always hitherto been presented to us in this state
    of combination with oxygen, forming the two alkalies. But some of
    the primitive earths (as they are called), such as barytes and
    strontites, have many alkaline properties, which induced Mr. Davy
    to subject them to similar experiments; and in like manner he
    discovered that these consisted of metallic bases united to oxygen,
    forming compound bodies analogous to the two fixed alkalies. These
    may justly be placed amongst the most brilliant and valuable
    discoveries which have ever been made in chemistry, for a great
    chasm in the chemical system has been filled up; a blaze of light
    has been diffused over that part which before was utterly dark;
    and new views have been opened so numerous and interesting that
    the more any man who is versed in chemistry reflects on them,
    the more he finds to admire and to heighten his expectation of
    future important results. Mr. Davy’s name, in consequence of these
    discoveries, will be always recorded in the annals of science
    amongst those of the most illustrious philosophers of his time.
    His country, with reason, will be proud of him; and it is no small
    honour to the Royal Institution that these great discoveries
    have been made within its walls, in that laboratory and by those
    instruments which, from the zeal of promoting useful knowledge,
    have with so much propriety been placed at the disposal and for the
    use of the Professor of Chemistry.

    ‘This recital [said Dr. Dibden] will be sufficient to convince
    those who hear of the celebrity which the author of such a
    discovery has a right to attach to himself; and yet no one, I am
    confident, has less inclination to challenge it. To us and to every
    enlightened Englishman it will be a matter of just congratulation
    that the country which has produced the two Bacons and Boyle has in
    these days shown itself worthy of its former renown by the labours
    of Cavendish and Davy.

    ‘The illness of the latter, severe as it has been, is now beginning
    to abate,[35] and we may reasonably hope, from present appearances
    at least, that the period of convalescence is not very remote.’[36]

The recovery of Davy was slow.

On February 22 he attended at the request of the Committee of Managers,
and informed them that he should be able to commence his course of
lectures on Electro-Chemical Science on Saturday, March 12, at two
o’clock, and those on Geology on Wednesday evening, the sixteenth of
that month. In his opening lecture he thus spoke of electro-chemistry
and its power of analysis: ‘In this it will be seen that Volta has
presented to us a key which promises to lay open some of the most
mysterious recesses of nature. Till this discovery our means were
limited; the field of pneumatic research had been exhausted, and little
remained for the experimentalist except minute and laborious processes.
There is now before us a boundless prospect of novelty in science, a
country unexplored but noble and fertile in aspect, a land of promise
in philosophy.’

In the Laboratory Book, probably about this time, he wrote, ‘An
instrument for procuring those metals that have not yet been
reduced--_for decomposing muriatic acid gas_, fluoric, &c., and
_boracic acid gas_.’

On April 19 and 20 Davy was again at work with the battery of 520 pair
of plates.

He began thus: ‘Indications of the decomposition of muriatic acid. To
use every effort to ensure accuracy in the results.’

‘A given quantity of muriatic acid gas was acted upon by dry charcoal;
there was continued vivid light in the galvanic circuit. The action was
continued for ten minutes; when a little water was added no absorption
took place, so that all the muriatic acid gas was decomposed. Some
other experiments were made with dry muriate of lime and mercury and
with a solution of muriate of lime, strontium, and soda.’

On June 30 he had a paper read at the Royal Society on the
‘Decomposition of the Earths Strontia, Lime, Magnesia, by Means of Iron
at the Negative End of the Battery.’ Berzelius having mentioned in a
letter that he had succeeded by using mercury as the negative pole,
Davy repeated Berzelius’s experiment, and decomposed alumina and silica
by an amalgam of mercury and potassium at the negative end of the
battery.

On July 11 he laid before the managers of the Royal Institution the
following paper:

    A new path of discovery having been opened in the agencies of
    the electrical battery of Volta, which promises to lead to the
    greatest improvements in chemistry and natural philosophy and the
    useful arts connected with them; and since the increase of the
    size of the apparatus is absolutely necessary for pursuing it to
    its full extent, it is proposed to raise a fund by subscription
    for constructing a powerful battery, worthy of a national
    establishment and capable of promoting the great objects of science.

    Already in other countries public and ample means have been
    provided for pursuing these investigations. They have had their
    origin in this country, and it would be dishonourable to a nation
    so great, so powerful, and so rich if, from the want of pecuniary
    resources, they should be completed abroad.

    An appeal to enlightened individuals on this subject can scarcely
    be made in vain. It is proposed that the instrument and apparatus
    be erected in the laboratory of the Royal Institution, where it
    shall be employed in the advancement of this new department of
    science.

The Managers’ Minutes then say:

    The above paper having been laid before the board of managers, they
    felt it their indispensable duty instantly to communicate the same
    to every member of the Institution, lest the slightest delay might
    furnish an opportunity to other countries for accomplishing this
    great work, which originated in the brilliant discoveries recently
    made at the Royal Institution.

    Lord Dundas, W. Watson, Thomas Bernard, and C. Hatchett, the
    managers present, agreed to subscribe to this undertaking, and
    ordered that a book be opened at the steward’s office for the
    purpose of entering the names of all those who may wish to
    contribute towards this important national object.[37]

The sum wanted was soon raised, and Davy thus described the battery:

‘It consists of 200 instruments, connected together in regular order,
each composed of ten double plates, arranged in cells of porcelain, and
containing in each plate thirty-two square inches; so that the whole
number of double plates is 2,000, and the whole surface 128,000 square
inches. This battery was charged with sixty parts water and one part of
nitric acid. It gave a spark from charcoal points through four inches
of air.’

On July 12 the Laboratory Notes say, ‘Tried the experiments upon the
decomposition of the earths by iron wire with the happiest results.’
These were obtained with the battery of only twenty pair.

On July 18 he wrote, ‘In pursuit of the researches on the deoxygenation
of diamond and charcoal.

‘Is not diamond the 2-oxide of carbon, charcoal the 1-oxide, the
gaseous oxide of carbon a triple compound of hydrogen, nitrogen, and
charcoal?’

On September 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 experiments were tried on the
production of cold by induced electricity. He tried the decomposition
of sulphur ‘with success.’ He tried to decompose mercury in the
Torricellian vacuum ‘with success apparently.’

‘Sulphur, after giving out hydrogen by electricity, had lost its
yellow colour and _was became brownish_, but still non-conducting,
crystalline, and transparent.’

Numberless experiments were made on the action of potassium on ammonia
and on nitrogen.

In November he must have injured his right hand, for his notes are made
with his left hand on the 19th and 20th of this month.

On December 15 he gave another Bakerian lecture on New Analytical
Researches on Alkalies, Phosphorus, Sulphur, &c. In this paper he says
his chief object was to show that there was oxygen in ammonia, and
that potassium was not a compound of the metal and hydrogen. He made
further experiments also on the decomposition of boracic, fluoric, and
muriatic acids.

On December 27, 1808, Davy wrote to Coleridge:

    Alas, poor Beddoes is dead! He died on Christmas Eve. He wrote to
    me two letters on two successive days--22nd and 23rd. From the
    first, which was full of affection and new feeling, I anticipated
    his state. He is gone at the moment when his mind was purified and
    exalted for noble affections and great works.

    My heart is heavy. I would talk to you of your own plans, which I
    shall endeavour in every way to promote; I would talk to you of
    my own labours, which have been incessant since I saw you and not
    without result; but I am interrupted by very melancholy feelings,
    which, when you see this, I know you will partake of. Ever, my dear
    Coleridge, very affectionately yours,

                                                               H. DAVY.

On December 28 he wrote in the Laboratory Book, ‘We have tried a number
of experiments within the last few days on the muriatic and fluoric
acids, heating them with potassium.’

Early in 1809 Davy sent an appendix to his last Bakerian lecture to the
Royal Society. In it he spoke ‘of the general results being decisive
with regard to a decomposition of nitrogen having been effected.’

In a letter at this time he told his friend Mr. Children ‘he hoped to
show him nitrogen as a complete wreck, torn to pieces in different
ways.’

On January 18 he wrote, ‘Capital result from the action of potassium
on ammonia. Nitrogen was lost. If the nitrogen is to be considered as
converted into oxygen and hydrogen, it must be regarded as containing
much more oxygen than water; and if we do not adopt this supposition,
the only alternative is that water is the ponderable matter which,
under different modifications of electro-chemical existence,
constitutes oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and the nitrous compounds.’

On February 15 he wrote in the Laboratory Book, ‘Were a description,
indeed, to be given of all the experiments I have made, of all the
difficulties I have encountered, of the doubts that have occurred, and
the hypotheses formed--’ The sentence was not finished, and more time
was lost on the investigation.

Throughout the spring and summer more experiments were made on ammonia
and nitrogen.

He ignited potassium by the voltaic spark in nitrogen, and found
that some hydrogen was evolved and some nitrogen lost; but when the
potassium was free from potash this did not occur, and at last he gave
up trying to show that nitrogen was a compound of oxygen and a metallic
basis.

At the end of August he was working on tellurium and made telluretted
hydrogen.

To his mother he wrote in August:

    At present, except when I resolve to be idle for health’s sake,
    I devote every moment to labours which I hope will not be wholly
    ineffectual in benefiting society, and which will not be wholly
    inglorious for my country hereafter; and the feeling of this is the
    reward which will continue to keep me employed.

On September 13 he wrote in the Laboratory Book this verbal picture of
his laboratory:

    Objects much wanted in the laboratory of the Royal Institution:
    Cleanliness, neatness, and regularity.

    The laboratory must be cleaned every morning when operations are
    going on before ten o’clock.

    It is the business of W. Payne[38] to do this, and it is the duty
    of Mr. E. Davy to see that it is done and to take care of and keep
    in order the apparatus.

    There must be in the laboratory pen, ink, paper, and wafers, and
    these must not be kept in the slovenly manner in which they usually
    are kept. I am now writing with a pen and ink such as was never
    used in any other place.

    There are wanting small graduated glass tubes blown here and
    measured to ten grains of mercury.

    There are wanting four new stopcocks fitted to our air-pump.

    There are wanting twelve green glass retorts.

    There are wanting most of the common metallic and saline solutions,
    such as acetate of copper, nitrate of silver, nitrate of
    barytes--most of these made in the laboratory.

    All the wine-glasses should be cleaned.

    And, as all operation ceases at six o’clock in the evening, there
    is plenty of time for getting things in order before night; but if
    they are not got into order the same night, they must be by ten
    o’clock the next day.

    The laboratory is constantly in a state of dirt and confusion.

    There must be a roller with a coarse towel for washing the hands
    and a basin of water and soap, and every week at least a whole
    morning must be devoted to the inspection and ordering of the
    voltaic battery.

    For Thursday--_i.e._ to-morrow--the experiments in the morning
    are on the excitation of radiant heat and electricity in different
    gases. For the experiments on Friday, which will be on tellurium,
    there are wanting very pure hydrogen; two bottles of _new_, very
    pure oxymuriatic gas; two new stopcocks cemented into retorts,
    with stoppers, either green or white; some tubes of this bore
    [Illustration] or near it, closed at one end and six inches long;
    a spirit lamp made from a phial of large bore and the tube larger
    than that at present used.

    [Illustration]

On September 14 he tried various experiments on the excitation of
electricity. The Laboratory Book says, ‘Present in these and the former
experiments, Mr. Cavendish, Dr. Herschel, Mr. Herschel, Sir Charles
Blagden (not in the second set on electricity); Dr. Wollaston, Mr.
Warburton.’

The repulsion of the machine was compared to the repulsion in a partial
vacuum, in hydrogen, in carbonic acid, and in rarefied carbonic acid.
The former experiments the same day were on the rise of a thermometer
heated by a coil of platinum wire in different gases.

On September 21 the Note-Book says:

    _An Experiment to Decompose Muriatic Acid Gas._--A balloon
    having three openings, to one of which a stopcock was cemented,
    and in the other two were corks containing wires, so adapted to
    each other that a contact might be made. Pieces of well-burnt
    charcoal were fastened to the ends of the wires. The apparatus,
    being air-tight, was exhausted and filled with hydrogen; another
    exhaustion being made, the balloon was filled with oxymuriatic
    gas from a gas-holder, with which it was connected by means of a
    stopcock. The two wires being joined to the voltaic apparatus and
    a contact of the charcoal made, the ignition was brilliant without
    any apparent combustion; white fumes were presently produced, which
    in a short time disappeared again, and were afterwards, during the
    remaining time the experiment was in hand, only formed when two new
    points of charcoal came in contact, or when the flame played on the
    copper wire which fastened the charcoal. The light emitted was a
    brilliant yellowish colour, frequently assuming a fine lake. After
    an hour’s time the gas appeared unaltered, of its original colour.
    The higher parts of the pieces of charcoal were covered with a fine
    greenish-yellow powder, otherwise unaltered.

    Tin-leaf thrown in through one of the openings began immediately to
    form with the oxymuriatic acid gas the fuming liquor of Libavius.
    When shook it inflamed.

On September 23, 1809, in a letter to Mr. Children, he mentions
this experiment, and says ‘it is as difficult to decompose as
nitrogen, except when all its elements can be made to enter into new
combinations.’

On October 3, among ‘the hints for experiments’ in the Note-Book is
this, to detonate together hydrogen and oxymuriatic acid.

Another Bakerian lecture was given, and then he continued his
researches on ammonia.

On November 24 ‘experiments to be in progress’ are thus entered in the
Laboratory Book:

    1. To decompose sulphuretted hydrogen by electricity in an
    apparatus by which the results can be accurately known.

    2. To pass potassium through ignited powdered quartz.

    3. To decompose muriatic acid gas by potassium, so as to ascertain
    the quantity of hydrogen formed.

    4. To weigh ammonia, hydrogen, and nitrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen
    and gaseous fluoric acid, nitrous oxide, and oxymuriatic acid gas.

    5. To make a series of experiments upon the ores and products of
    cast iron.

    6. To ascertain with greater precision than has been yet obtained
    the nature of the acid matter formed in pure water, oxygenated or
    not.

    7. To decompose fluoric acid gas, and to ascertain the source of
    the hydrogen which it gives by the operation of potassium.

    8. To make various experiments on the amalgamation of ammonia,
    using different amalgams of mercury and different modes of
    excluding water.

    9. To endeavour to bring the ὑδὼρ theory to a test of producing
    oxygen from water without hydrogen.

    10. To decompose muriate of soda and litharge and other bodies that
    contain no water by electricity, and to see what happens.

In the early part of 1810 the experiments were chiefly on the action of
potassium on sulphur and phosphorus.

From analogy oxygen had been considered as the acidifying principle of
the muriatic acid, or spirit of salt. It was thought to combine with
more oxygen, and then was called oxygenated muriatic acid, although
its powers as an acid were weakened and it became more volatile and
bleached.

Davy sent two papers to the Royal Society, on this subject. The first
was on July 12, ‘Researches on Oxymuriatic Acid and the Elements of
Muriatic Acid; with Experiments on Sulphur and Phosphorus,’ and the
second, on November 15, was the ‘Bakerian Lecture on Some of the
Combinations of Oxymuriatic Gas and Oxygen, and on the Chemical
Relations of these Principles to Inflammable Bodies.’

In the first paper he says, ‘Scheele considered oxymuriatic acid as
more simple than muriatic acid, and that it became muriatic acid by
union with phlogiston. Berthollet said it contained oxygen. The vivid
combustion of many bodies in this gas has favoured the presumption
that it contained oxygen very loosely combined, and ready to exert its
utmost power of affinity; but it is mere presumption, since heat and
light result also from the intense agency of any other combination
without the presence of oxygen.’

On July 3 he wrote, ‘Equal parts of oxymuriatic acid and hydrogene,
both dried, were detonated. There was a diminution equal to about 1/12,
and muriatic gas was formed; and this was over mercury, and some of
the oxymuriatic acid burnt the mercury, and there was an excess of 1/4
hydrogene. Equal parts of oxymuriatic acid and sulphuretted hydrogene,
diminution about 1/12. Muriatic gas formed; sulphuretted hydrogene
apparently in excess.’

A most important experiment had been made on September 21, 1809, on the
resistance of oxymuriatic acid to galvanic decomposition; and as long
previously as April 19, 1808, he had decomposed muriatic acid with a
battery of 520 pair of plates.[39]

The experiments which were detailed in the Bakerian lecture read during
the absence of Davy on November 15, were made in July and August.

On August 30, after entering things wanted, he wrote in the Laboratory
Book:

‘No experiments are to be made or carried on in the laboratory without
the consent and approbation of the Professor of Chemistry. The attempt
at original experiment, unless preceded by knowledge, merely interferes
with the progress of discovery. There are a sufficient number of new
and interesting objects which a modest student would wish to pursue,
and in which the path is marked and distinct.’

On September 8 he was again experimenting on the decomposition of
nitrogen. He wrote, ‘And if it be said that no air and no water were
present (in the potassium, boracic acid, and ammonia), the experiment
is decisive as to the destruction of nitrogen and its containing the
same kind of elementary matter as water.’

To the like experiment, September 13, he wrote, ‘This experiment seems
almost decisive on the decomposition of nitrogen.’

Soon after he wrote, ‘Query, Does not the general tenor of the last
experiments lead to the suspicion of the decomposition of nitrogen?’

On September 16 he made this note: ‘Objects to be attempted during the
next week: To-morrow, oxymuriatic acid pure, to try absorption by two
grains of different metals--tin, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, copper,
platina, lead, zinc.’

On October 4, when he was about to start for Dublin, he wrote in the
Laboratory Book, ‘The principal thing, the laboratory in complete
order.’ He was absent from October 4 to the middle of December. No
experiments were entered until October 27; then there are some on
oxymuriatic acid by E. Davy.

On November 15 the action of oxymuriatic gas on dried nitrous gas was
repeated.

The next experiment was on November 24. ‘Two grains of silver were
entirely converted into horn-silver; the absorption of chlorine gas was
9/10 of a cubic inch.’ This was the first use of the word CHLORINE in
the Note-Book; it occurs daily afterwards. Oxymuriatic gas continued
the chief subject of the experiments in the laboratory up to the end of
February in the following year.

This year Davy was invited to deliver a course of lectures on
Electro-Chemical Science, and another course of six lectures on the
Application of Chemistry to Agriculture, in the new laboratory of the
Dublin Society. Having obtained permission as secretary to be absent
from the meetings of the Royal Society, he commenced his course on
November 8 and finished it on the 29th, and the Society requested his
acceptance of 500 guineas.

In 1811 he again delivered two courses, one on the Elements of
Chemical Philosophy and the other on Geology. For these he received
750_l._, and Trinity College made him a Doctor of Laws. Such
consideration for lectures on this side of the Atlantic sounds fabulous.

He wrote to his mother:

                  Balina, Ireland, October 24, 1811.

    The laboratory in Dublin, which has been enlarged, so as to hold
    550 people, will not hold half the persons who desire to hear my
    lectures. The 550 tickets issued for the course by the Dublin
    Society at two guineas each were all disposed of the first week,
    and I am told now that from ten to twenty guineas are offered for a
    ticket.

    This is merely for your eye; it may please you to know that your
    son is not unpopular or useless. Every person here, from the
    highest to the lowest, shows me every attention and kindness.

    I shall come to see you as soon as I can. I hear with infinite
    delight of your health, and I hope Heaven will continue to preserve
    and bless a mother who deserves so well of her children.

                   I am, your very affectionate Son,
                                                               H. DAVY.

During 1811 he made the acquaintance of Mrs. Appreece, the daughter
and heiress of Charles Carr, of Kelso, and about the end of the year
probably he wrote to his mother:

    MY DEAR MOTHER,--You possibly may have heard reports of my intended
    marriage. Till within the last few days it was mere report. It is,
    I trust, now a settled arrangement. I am the happiest of men in the
    hope of a union with a woman equally distinguished for virtues,
    talent, and accomplishments.

       *       *       *       *       *

    You, I am sure, will sympathise in my happiness. I believe I should
    never have married but for this charming woman, whose views and
    whose tastes coincide with my own, and who is eminently qualified
    to promote my best efforts and objects in life.

                     I am, your affectionate Son,
                                                               H. DAVY.

He wrote to his brother, at that time a medical student at Edinburgh:

    MY DEAR JOHN,--Many thanks for your last letter. I have been
    very miserable. The lady whom I love best of any human being has
    been very ill. She is now well and I am happy. Mrs. Appreece has
    consented to marry me, and when the event takes place I shall not
    envy kings, princes, or potentates.

    I am, my dear Brother, ever most affectionately yours,

                                                               H. DAVY.

The Laboratory Note-Book at this time contains very little work.

On February 21, 1811, he had a paper read to the Royal Society on a
‘Combination of Oxymuriatic Gas and Oxygen Gas, called Euchlorine.’

In July the action of chlorine on carbonic oxide, exposed for hours to
bright sunshine, was examined. He wrote, ‘The new gas seems to consist
of equal volumes of chlorine and carbonic oxide condensed to one
volume.’

On August 7 Davy wrote in the Laboratory Book, ‘To get nitrous oxide,
nitrous gas, and very pure chlorine for experiments. To try to
decompose nitrogen or to combine it with _chlorine_.’

On the 10th the exposure to the light had been continued two days
without result.

In the middle of August he experimented on the action of potassium on
silicated fluoric gas.

From September 2 to December 20 there are no entries in the Laboratory
Book. That day--the first after his return from Ireland--there are
experiments on the electrolization of water.

Early in the following year Sir Joseph Banks wrote to Sir George
Staunton (in China):

       *       *       *       *       *

    We are going on here as usual, but I think the taste for science
    is on the increase. The Royal Society has been well supplied with
    papers, and continues to be so. Davy, our secretary, is said to be
    on the point of marrying a rich and handsome widow, who has fallen
    in love with science and marries him in order to obtain a footing
    in the academic groves; her name is Apreece, the daughter of Mr.
    Carr, who made a fortune in India, and the niece of Dr. Carr, of
    Northampton. If this takes place, it will give to science a kind of
    new éclat; we want nothing so much as the countenance of the ladies
    to increase our popularity.

Very little laboratory work was done in 1812. It appears from Davy’s
notes that a few experiments on euchlorine were made in January. In
February he was again working on sulphur and phosphorus and chlorine.
In March he was experimenting on borum with oxygen, and with chlorine.

In August an experiment was made to ascertain whether there is,
according to the received belief, a neutral part in the voltaic circle.

The battery consisted of forty double plates, thus arranged: Each
trough, excepting the end ones, was separately connected with a
glassful of mercury by polished copper wire, and each pair of glasses
was connected by very fine polished iron wire.

The effects took place at the moment of contact at all the wires, so
that there could have been no _neutral point_.

For the last time, after innumerable failures, he returned to the
decomposition of nitrogen.

On August 13 ‘experiment very cautiously made of the action of
potassium on nitrogene. Light green when mercury is employed, red when
potassium.’

On October 23 the Laboratory Book says:

‘A series of experiments to attempt to decompose hydrofluoric acid, and
to ascertain the constitution of the _fluoric combinations_.

‘1. To obtain pure hydrofluoric acid.

‘2. To obtain silicofluoric acid gas, and to decompose it by potassium
and by potash, and to ascertain the quantity of fluate of lime they
will give.

‘3. To make pure prussic acid.

‘4. To act upon pure prussic acid by chlorine.’

On November 5 a new detonating compound was formed; this was the
chloride of nitrogen.

This year Davy gave his last course of lectures on Chemical Philosophy
at the Royal Institution.

An account of four of these lectures ‘was taken off from notes by
Mr. Faraday.’ The subjects were Radiant Matter, Chlorine, Simple
Inflammables, and Metals. After the report of each lecture he gave the
experiments as a sequel, illustrated with drawings; the whole made a
small quarto of 386 pages, with an index of twenty-five pages. The
volume was bound by Mr. Faraday, and was sent to Davy as an evidence
of Faraday’s ‘knowledge, diligence, and order,’ when he asked for an
engagement at the Royal Institution.

Davy gave the lecture on Radiant Matter on February 29. He said, ‘With
respect to radiant or ethereal substances all our knowledge of it is
obtained from the effect it produces on us and terrestrial bodies when
in motion.

‘In our consideration of this subject it will be essentially necessary
that we distinguish between knowledge and speculation. These terms in
their meaning are palpably different, but yet have been intermixed and
_combined_ together in a very singular manner. The French chemists
in particular speak of the materiality of heat, and of the nature of
the compounds it forms, as confidently and as fluently as if they had
undeniably proved it to be a body. They have blended their knowledge
with speculation, and formed a theory that is very possibly untrue. The
most eminent phenomena of radiation are to be observed in light.’

And then he passed on to the laws of light and dwelt on Herschel’s
discovery that the heating power of red rays was to the green as
fifty-five to sixteen, and that he had himself found the thermometer
rose still higher beyond the red, and that heating rays are less
refrangible than light rays; then he showed a wire heated by the
voltaic battery in air and in vacuo, and said that he had proved ‘that
the radiating power is three times as strong in an exhausted receiver
as in the open air,’ and, ‘fully proves that radiation is not caused
by undulations in the atmosphere. It is strongest when no atmosphere
is present.’ He ends his account of the effects of radiant heat thus:
‘Were it not for this terrestrial radiation of earthly bodies, the heat
would accumulate from the rays of the sun until at last the whole world
would be uninhabitable.

‘But, besides the effects produced by the two species of
radiant matter--radiant light and radiant heat--there are other
effects--chemical effects--that take place caused by the action of
some radiant matter that comes to us from the sun, perhaps a single
substance that, independent of light and heat, causes effects by its
own power.’ And then he showed an experiment of chlorine and hydrogen
exposed to light.

He says, ‘There is a very singular analogy that exists between the
rays at the violet end of the spectrum, hydrogen gas, and the negative
pole of the voltaic battery; and opposed to it stands the analogy of
the rays at the red end of the spectrum to positive electricity; they
produce opposite effects to the first-mentioned arrangement, but act
similar to each other.

‘If that sublime idea of the ancients that there is only one species
of matter in the universe, and that its different properties depend on
the difference of size, shape and other qualities should be confirmed,
it would simplify the science in a most eminent degree, and at the same
time it would raise it to the acme of perfection.’

Opposing the view that oxygen gas contained light combined with it, and
gave light out in oxidation, he contrasted slowly oxidised iron with an
iron turning burnt in oxygen.

‘When the laws which govern in chemical science are fully known, there
is no doubt it will become a much more simple science. It cannot fail
to be so, since then it will be complete. Already it is one of the
most useful of the whole circle to man, and when in its utmost state
of improvement it will be one of the most sublime. It will, I have
no doubt, connect mechanical and chemical sciences together; it will
concentrate them into one and in that one comprehend the whole universe.

‘The first step to truth is the confession of ignorance. No man could
have made the immortal discoveries of Newton unless he had first thrown
up the ridiculous doctrines of Des Cartes. To attend to our errors and
own them, to sacrifice all selfishness to the science, not to support
errors for the sake of vanity, ought to be the leading precepts of a
philosopher. He should turn his endeavour to the advancement of science
and not to the increase of his reputation. Let him fix steps for others
to rise on, and he does more real good to science than if he had spent
years in controversy on an equivocal point. Let him turn his thoughts
to general views and try to contain the whole science in his grasp; he
will then be calculated to arrange it, improve it, and reform it and
place it in that order which tends so materially to its advancement.’

His lecture on Chlorine was given on Saturday, March 14; the previous
week he had given a lecture on Oxygen, which was not reported by
Faraday.

‘I will demonstrate what I affirm in a positive and satisfactory manner.

‘Accustomed for years to consider the chemical principles of the French
School of Physical Sciences as correct, I had adopted them and put
faith in them until they became prejudices, and I even felt unwilling
to give them up when my judgment was fully convinced by experiment
that they were erroneous. I know that this is the case in some degree
with almost every person; he is unwilling to believe that he is wrong,
and therefore feels averse to adopt what is right when it opposes his
principles.

‘Pelletier died from inhaling this gas (chlorine). It supports
combustion of a taper [experiment]; it does not contain oxygen.’
He showed by experiment that pure dry chlorine and hydrogen, when
exploded, caused no moisture; no water was formed. This was the
synthetical proof. Decomposition of muriatic acid gas by potassium was
shown as the analytical proof. Compounds with phosphorus, ammonia, and
sulphur all free from oxygen. ‘Oxygen does combine with chlorine. I
have ventured to name the compound euchlorine; it is of a very bright
yellow green colour. Names should represent things, not opinions, for
in the last case they often tend to misrepresent and mislead.

‘As chlorine contained no oxygen, it became an inquiry well worth
investigation to ascertain the part which chlorine acted in bleaching.
It decomposes water and forms hydrochloric acid.’

‘Had Mr. Berthollet obtained oxygen from chlorine there would have
been no error in his theory, but by not attending to the minute
circumstances of his experiment, by not ascertaining that the water
present acted no part and was not decomposed, he fell into an error,
and of course all the conclusions he drew were false and erroneous.
Nothing should be allowed but what can be proved by experiment, and
nothing should be taken for granted upon analogy or supposition.’

Faraday concludes this lecture thus: ‘Mr. Davy now proceeded to comment
and make observations on the former theory of chlorine gas. Here I
was unable to follow him. The plan which I pursue in taking of notes
is convenient and sufficient with respect to the theoretical and also
the practical part of the lecture, but for the embellishments and
ornaments of it it will not answer. Mr. Davy’s language at those times
is so superior (and indeed throughout the whole course of the lecture)
that then I am infinitely below him and am incapable of following him
even in an humble style. Therefore I shall not attempt it; it will be
sufficient to give a kind of contents of it.

‘He said that hypotheses should not be considered as facts and built
upon accordingly. Nevertheless, if cautiously pursued, they might
lead to mature fruit. That nothing should be taken for granted unless
proved. By considering oxygen as contained in chlorine the whole
chemical world had been wrapped in error respecting that body for more
than one-third of a century.

‘He noticed that all the truly great scientific men were possessed
of great humility and diffidence of their own opinions and powers.
He spoke of Scheele, the discoverer of chlorine; observed that he
possessed a truly philosophical spirit, gave up his opinions when he
supposed them to be erroneous, and without hesitation or reluctance
adopted those of others which he considered more correct; admired his
spirit and recommended it to all philosophers; compared it to corn,
which looked but simple and insignificant in blossom and asked for
little praise, yet was the support of man.’

In this lecture Faraday gives the details of twenty experiments.

On April 8 Professor Davy lectured on Simple Inflammable Bodies. ‘Their
number, excepting the metals, is six, which unite with oxygen and
chlorine, the subjects of the two last lectures.’ He showed a jet of
oxygen burning in hydrogen, and said, ‘In the burning of tallow, wax,
oil, and wood it is the hydrogen of their bodies that causes the flame;
though in most cases it is also combined with carbon, yet it is the
hydrogen that produces the flame....

‘I have here a bladder filled with nitrous oxide gas; I will breathe
it once or twice, but not so far as to incapacitate me from continuing
the lecture. It produces a very pleasing sensation (far superior to
the most exquisite liquors, such as champagne), and I have no doubt
that if I were to continue it a few minutes longer I should make a very
interesting exhibition to the company; but I would rather be excused....

‘If we suppose that the diamond is pure carbon, and is therefore
the same as charcoal, we have a very strong presumptive reason to
suppose that all matter is alike in all substances. If substances so
opposite and so different as charcoal and diamond are in reality the
same kind of matter, then the difference in other bodies is no proof
that they also are not of the same kind of matter; and this would lead
us to suppose that there is but one matter in nature, and that the
difference in different bodies is owing to variety in the distance of
the particles, to shape, and to size....

‘In conclusion several of these six simple combustibles I suspect to be
compounds, and perhaps their nature may shortly be discovered....

‘What gives a strong colour to the idea of the compound nature of
nitrogen is the quantity of it that can be obtained from animal bodies,
whereas they imbibe none, they combine with none.

‘Sulphur and phosphorus both appear to be compound bodies when they
are subjected to the power of a voltaic battery. A great quantity of
hydrogen gas is evolved, so that it appears hydrogen is one of their
constituent parts....

‘Whether these bodies are compound or not, they are objects of new
research; they present new fields for the great, the industrious, the
scientific, and the penetrating mind. Our horizon extends the higher we
rise. The result of future inquiries will probably lay a foundation on
which future ages and future generations may erect an edifice that will
reach from earth to heaven.’

In this lecture Faraday noted twenty-two experiments.

The next day, April 9, Davy was knighted by the Prince Regent.

On April 10 Sir Humphry Davy gave his last lecture at the Royal
Institution; it was on the Metals.

‘All the volatile metals burn with flame, and all those that are not
volatile with sparks....

‘These, with the metals of the alkalies and the alkaline earths which
I have had the good fortune to discover, make up the number to about
forty.’

He shewed the mode of obtaining alkaline metals by voltaic
decomposition; and earths by potassium.

The mode of obtaining the alkaline metals by chemical action alone was
shown, but the experiment was not made. A quantity of potassium from
common potash by iron was on the table.

‘The combustion of metals is according to their electricity, those
containing the most electricity burning with the most energy. All those
metals that are positive to others are also more inflammable than those
others, and burn more readily....

‘That the metals of the earths and alkalies cannot exist at the surface
of our globe we are well assured, but they may exist in the interior,
and if so they will offer a very complete and a very probable solution
of the phenomena of earthquakes and volcanoes; and perhaps, considered
thus, they may lay the foundation of a new and perfect system of
geology.

‘We have here a small volcano formed of clay, &c., in the shape of
a mountain, and having two or three pieces of the alkaline metals
introduced here and there. Now by adding a little water to this volcano
I shall be able to inflame it and cause it to burn briskly....

‘Meteors consist of alkaline metals and iron; the iron burns last if it
be burnt at all.

‘What I conceive is, that there are certain bodies that revolve round
our earth--a kind of satellites--and are the same with respect to our
globe that comets are to the sun. Their orbits are ellipses, whose
longer diameters, like those of the comets, far exceed their shorter
ones. They must move with very great velocity to counteract the
attraction of the earth....’

Regarding transmutation of metals he said ‘the beginning was deceit,
the progress falsehood, and the end beggary, said Lemery.’

‘It was supposed till lately that the fixed alkalies were simple
bodies, but I have had the good fortune to prove them compounds; and
that pure potash should contain a metal, oxygen, and water is not
more probable than that the metals are compounds, yet it not only is
probable but it is possible, and in reality is so....

‘From the mercurial amalgam and from the quantity of hydrogen given out
by metals when exposed to the action of a vigorous voltaic battery,
either this hydrogen is combined with the metal or it is one of its
constituent parts....

‘If, then, we suppose that hydrogen constitutes a part of all metals,
they will be compounds of it and a base. The hydrogen will give them
their genuine characters and make them metals, and their base will
bestow on them their own peculiar properties.

‘I should wish particularly on this point to be understood rightly.
I am not an advocate for alchemy and its attendant frauds; that will
appear from the tenor of my discourse; but I conceive it to be a noble
and glorious object to follow up the paths trod by those chemists who
wish for the improvement of science to ascertain the compound nature
of metals. It is a subject well worthy of pursuit, and whenever the
discovery is made it will confer immortal honour on the discoverer, the
age, and the country that it is made in.’

Faraday then says, ‘Having thus given the general character of the
metals, Sir H. Davy proceeded to make a few observations on the
connection of science with the other parts of polished and social life.
Here it would be improper for me to follow him. I should merely injure
and destroy the beautiful, the sublime observations that fell from
his lips. He spoke in the most energetic and luminous manner of the
advancement of the arts and sciences, of the connection that had always
existed between them and other parts of a nation’s economy. He noticed
the peculiar congeries of great men in all departments of life that
generally appeared together, noticed Anaximander, Anaximenes, Socrates,
Newton, Bacon, Elizabeth, &c., but, by an unaccountable omission,
forgot himself, though I will venture to say no one else present did.

‘During the whole of these observations his delivery was easy, his
diction elegant, his tone good, and his sentiments sublime.’

Faraday ends his volume with the notes of eighteen experiments that
were made in this lecture.

The same day Davy wrote to his brother. It was the eve of his wedding.

                                                Friday, April 10, 1812.

    MY DEAR BROTHER,--You will have excused me for not writing to
    you on subjects of science. I have been absorbed by arrangements
    on which the happiness of my future life depends. Before you
    receive this these arrangements will, I trust, be settled, and in
    a few weeks I shall be able to return to my habits of study and
    scientific research. I am going to be married to-morrow, and I have
    a fair prospect of happiness with the most amiable and intellectual
    woman I have ever known.

    The Prince Regent, unsolicited by me or by any of my intimate
    friends, was pleased to confer the honour of knighthood on me at
    the last levée. This distinction has not often been bestowed on
    scientific men, but I am proud of it, as the greatest of human
    geniuses bore it; and it is at least a proof that the world has not
    overlooked my humble efforts in the cause of science.

       *       *       *       *       *

           I am, my dear Brother, most affectionately yours,
                                                               H. DAVY.

On June 12 he published his ‘Elements of Chemical Philosophy.’ It is
dedicated to Lady Davy, ‘as a pledge that he shall continue to pursue
science with unabated ardour.’

Dr. Thomas Young, in the ‘Quarterly Review’ for September 1812, enables
us to see what was thought of Sir H. Davy and of his book at this time.

‘In attempting a review of this work we cannot avoid professing
that we are far from entertaining the impression of sitting down as
competent judges to decide upon the merits or demerits of the author;
on this point the public voice, not only within our own islands, but
wherever science is cultivated, has already pronounced too definite a
sentence to be weakened or confirmed by anything that we can suggest
of exception or approbation. Our humble labours on such an occasion
must be much more analytical and historical than critical; at the
same time we are too well acquainted with the author’s candour to
suppress any remark which may occur to us as tending to correction
or improvement. It has most assuredly fallen to the lot of no one
individual to contribute to the progress of chemical knowledge by
discoveries so numerous and important as those which have been made by
Sir Humphry Davy; and, with regard to mere experimental investigation,
we do not hesitate to rank his researches as more splendidly successful
than any which have ever before illustrated the physical sciences in
any of their departments. We are aware that the “Optics” of Newton
will immediately occur to our readers as an exception; but, without
attempting to convince those who may differ from us on this point, we
are disposed to abide by the opinion that for a series of well-devised
experiments and brilliant discoveries the contents of Davy’s “Bakerian
Lectures” are as much superior to those of Newton’s “Optics” as the
“Principia” are to those or to any other human work for the accurate
and refined application of a sublime and simple theory to the most
intricate and apparently anomalous results derived from previous
observation.

       *       *       *       *       *

‘Until the year 1806 Sir Humphry Davy had been remarkable for the
industrious and ingenious application of those means of experiment only
which had been long known to chemists. He had acquired at a very early
period of his life a well-established celebrity among men of science
throughout Europe by the originality and accuracy of his researches,
and at the same time the fluent and impressive delivery of his lectures
had obtained him the most flattering marks of approbation from the
public of the metropolis. But it was in the summer of that year that,
in repeating some electro-chemical experiments of very doubtful
authority (the production of acid and alkali by the decomposition of
water), he was led into a new train of reasoning and investigation,
which enabled him to demonstrate the important laws of the connection
between the electrical affections of bodies and their chemical powers.
This was his first great discovery.... Our author’s next great step was
the decomposition of the alkalies, which he effected the succeeding
year; and this, though less interesting and important with regard to
the fundamental theory of the science, was more brilliant and imposing
from its capability of being exhibited in a visible, tangible form. The
third striking feature which distinguishes the system advanced in the
present work is the assertion of the existence of at least two empyreal
principles--oxygen and the elastic fluid called the oxymuriatic acid
gas (chlorine)....

‘A fourth peculiarity, which, however, is less exclusively and
originally a doctrine of Sir Humphry Davy, is the theory of the
simplicity of the proportions in which all bodies combine--a theory the
explicit illustration and general and minute application of which the
science is principally indebted to our countryman Mr. Dalton.’

How far later discoveries have advanced our knowledge can be seen in
the strange words, as they now sound, which Dr. Young uses when he
mentions the first researches of Davy.

‘Certain bodies which attract each other chemically, and combine when
their particles have freedom of motion, when brought into contact still
preserving their aggregation, exhibit what may be called electrical
polarities, and by certain combinations these polarities may be
highly exalted; and in this case they become subservient to chemical
decompositions, and, by means of chemical arrangements, the constituent
parts of bodies are separated in uniform order and in definite
proportions.’

       *       *       *       *       *

The review then gives the account of the discovery of potassium,
sodium, barium, strontium, magnesium, aluminum, glycinium, zirconium,
silicium, and itrium and boron.

On the subject of oxymuriatic acid gas Dr. Young says ‘we cannot help
thinking his tone somewhat more decisive than the present state of the
investigation altogether authorises,’ and he strongly objects to Davy’s
terminology; which never was adopted by chemists.

As no table of the proportional weights of chemical substances entering
into combination is to be found in Sir H. Davy’s work, Dr. Young says
he took the liberty of inserting one formed from Davy’s numbers and
from the experiments of Berzelius and Richter.

He thus ended his review, ‘The character of Sir Humphry Davy’s
researches has always been that of the most interesting originality,
and we have certainly no reason to complain that he has in his
experiments very commonly forsaken the beaten path.

       *       *       *       *       *

‘With all its excellences this work must be allowed to bear no
inconsiderable marks of haste, and we would easily have conjectured,
even if the author had not expressly told us so in his dedication, that
the period employed on it “has been the happiest of his life.” In that
and in every other happiness which may have befallen him we shall ever
most sincerely rejoice; nor shall we think the public will have any
reason to reproach him with having done too little for science, even if
he should fail at any future time in his avowed resolution of pursuing
it “with unabated ardour;” that he has not yet so failed is become from
a late accident a matter of public notoriety, and if we may expect
perseverance to be at all commensurate to success, we have no reason to
be apprehensive of his passing any part of his life in inactivity.

‘The style and manner of this work are nearly the same with those
of the author’s lectures delivered in the theatre of the Royal
Institution. They have been much admired by some of the most competent
judges of good language and good taste, and it has been remarked
that Davy was born a poet, and has only become a chemist by accident.
Certainly the situation in which he was placed induced him to cultivate
an ornamented and popular style of expression and embellishment, and
what was encouraged by temporary motives has become natural to him from
habit. Hence have arisen a multitude of sentimental reflections and
appeals to the feelings, which many will think beauties and some only
prettinesses; nor is it necessary for us to decide in which of the two
classes of readers we wish ourselves to be arranged, conceiving that
in matters so indifferent to the immediate object of the work a great
latitude may be allowed to the diversity of taste and opinion.’

On June 18 Davy sent a paper to the Royal Society on ‘Some Combinations
of Phosphorus and Sulphur,’ and in July two other papers--‘Further
Observations on Chloride of Nitrogen; and on Fluorine and Hydrofluoric
Acid.’

Late in August he wrote to a friend, ‘I have just published a volume
of the ‘Elements of Chemistry,’ and I hope to publish another in the
course of the spring. Having given up lecturing, I shall be able to
devote my whole time to the pursuit of discovery.’

On October 14, from Edinburgh, he wrote to Mr. Children:

‘I have received a very interesting letter from Ampère. He says that a
combination of chlorine and azote has been discovered at Paris, which
is a fluid and explodes by the heat of the hand, the discovery of
which cost an eye and a finger to the author. He gives no details as to
the mode of combining them. I have tried in my little apparatus with
ammonia cooled very low and chlorine, but without success.’

On October 24 he writes, ‘On Wednesday we are to have a meeting at the
Institution, to try to make this compound of azote and chlorine.’

On November 5 a letter was read at the Royal Society from Davy to
Sir Joseph Banks on this compound, which had been formed by exposing
chlorine to a solution of nitrate of ammonia. During his investigation
the substance exploded in a tube, and he received a severe wound in the
eye.

On November 16 he wrote to his brother, ‘It is not safe to experiment
upon a globule larger than a pin’s head. I have been severely wounded
by a piece scarcely bigger.’

In January 1813 he had another severe attack of inflammation in the
wounded eye, and it was not perfectly well till April.

On April 4 he wrote to his brother, ‘I am now quite recovered, and Jane
is very well, and we have both enjoyed the last month in London. I have
been hard at work (on fluorine). We have now a triad of supporters of
combustion.

‘I have just finished printing my “Agricultural Lectures.”’

Soon after he again wrote to his brother:

    I communicated to you in a former letter my plans as far as they
    were matured. I have neither given up the Institution nor am I
    going to France, and, wherever I am, I shall continue to labour
    in the cause of science with a zeal not diminished by increase of
    happiness and (with respect to the world) increased independence.

    I have just finished the first part of my ‘Chemistry’ to my own
    satisfaction, and I am going to publish my ‘Agricultural Lectures,’
    for which I am to get 1,000 guineas for the copyright and fifty
    guineas for each edition, which seems a fair price. As I shall see
    you so soon I shall not write about any matters of science.

    I was appointed professor (honorary) to the Institution at the last
    meeting (April 5). I do not pledge myself to give lectures. Brande
    gives twelve.

    If I lecture it will be on some new series of discoveries, should
    it be my fortune to make them, and I give up the routine of
    lecturing merely that I may have more time to pursue original
    inquiries and forward more the great objects of science. This has
    been for some time my intention, and it has been hastened by my
    marriage.

    I shall have great pleasure in making you acquainted with Lady D.
    She is a noble creature (if I may be permitted so to speak of a
    wife) and every day adds to my contentment by the powers of her
    understanding and her amiable and delightful tones of feeling. God
    bless you!

              Believe me to be your affectionate brother,
                                                               H. DAVY.

In the minutes of the monthly meetings of members of the Royal
Institution, April 5, 1813, it is stated that Sir H. Davy rose and
begged leave to resign his situation of Professor of Chemistry;
‘but he by no means wished to give up his connection with the Royal
Institution, as he should ever be happy to communicate his researches
in the first instance to the Institution in the way he did in the
presence of the members last Wednesday (on hydrofluoric acid), and
to do all in his power to promote the interest and success of this
Institution.’

Earl Spencer moved ‘that the thanks of this meeting be returned to
Sir H. Davy for the inestimable services rendered by him to the Royal
Institution, and that, in order more strongly to mark the high sense
entertained by this meeting of the merits of Sir H. Davy, he be elected
Honorary Professor of Chemistry.’

Mr. Brande was then nominated Professor of Chemistry, with a salary of
200_l._ per annum.

In October Sir H. Davy went abroad with Mr. Faraday.

In May 1815 he came back, and Faraday was re-engaged as the assistant
in the laboratory of the Royal Institution. Whilst abroad he had
sent as many as seven papers to the Royal Society--on ‘Fluoric Acid
Compounds and Hydrogen Acids.’ Two papers on ‘Iodine,’ on ‘Combustion
of the Diamond,’ on ‘Ancient Colours,’ on a ‘Solid Compound of Iodine
and Oxygen,’ on ‘Hyperoxy-Muriates.’

When he returned he probably intended to make greater discoveries in
chemistry during the following ten years than he had made during the
fifteen years that he had been at the Institution. He was in the prime
of life. He had won the highest rank as an original inquirer. He had
a love of research which, in spite of his marriage, his wealth, and
ultimately his ill health, never ceased until his early death. He had
Faraday as his assistant, and he soon found a subject more fruitful
than the composition of nitrogen, which had so long baffled his genius.

Many of the details of his work in the laboratory until his last
experiment on the diffusion of gases, in February 1826, are to be
found in the ‘Life of Faraday.’ It will be sufficient to give here a
statement of the original researches which he communicated to the Royal
Society.

In November 1815 and January 1816 his papers on Fire-damp were read.
He then worked upon flame, and in January 1817 his researches on flame
and his splendid invention of the Davy Lamp were laid before the Royal
Society. At this time the popular reputation of Davy reached its
climax, and, looking back, we can now see that his life should have
ended here; he was then only 38 years old. He was presented with a
service of plate as a token of his invaluable invention by the coal
owners of the Tyne and Wear. He bequeathed this to the Royal Society
for the foundation of a medal, to be given yearly to the chemist who
made the greatest discovery. This prize should be looked on as a
lasting memorial of the countless lives which Davy and other chemists,
by the application of their scientific researches, have preserved.

Year after year, from 1817 to 1826, Davy communicated new investigations
to the Royal Society. He worked on chlorine, on phosphorus, on
mists. He went abroad again, and he tried chemically to unfold the
Herculanean papyri. He returned in 1820, and was elected President of
the Royal Society after the death of Sir Joseph Banks. Then he worked
on magnetic phenomena produced by electricity, on electric phenomena
in vacuo, on water in the cavities of crystals, on new phenomena of
electro-magnetism. He became jealous of the discoveries of Faraday,
and he sent a paper to the Royal Society on the ‘Application of Liquids
Formed by the Condensation of Gases as Mechanical Agents.’

In 1823 he began to work on the defence of the copper sheathing of
ships, and in 1824 he had two papers published on this subject. He
went in a Government steamboat to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark for
the purpose of trying the influence of motion on his protectors. He
had already suffered for a year at this time from ill health. In
1825 his paper on the ‘Preservation of Metals by Electrochemistry’
was published. In practice his plan failed, and he was too ill to
bear lightly the disappointment of his expectations. In 1826 he had
a paper read on the ‘Relations of Electrical and Chemical Changes.’
It contained but little new matter. On November 30 he was elected
President of the Royal Society for the last time. He was dangerously
ill on the day of election.

In the middle of December 1826 he was struck with paralysis of the
right side.

With the restlessness of disease on January 22, about a month after his
attack, he set out for Italy. He had the worst possible journey across
Mont Cenis, and, after being three weeks at Ravenna, in the middle of
March he wrote to Mr. Poole:

    I am, thank God, better, but still very weak and wholly unfit for
    any kind of business and study. I have, however, considerably
    recovered the use of all the limbs that were affected, and, as
    my amendment has been slow and gradual, I hope in time it may be
    complete. But I am leading the life of an anchorite, obliged to
    abstain from flesh, wine, business, study, experiments, and all
    things that I love; but this discipline is salutary, and, for the
    sake of being able to do something more for science, and I hope
    for humanity, I submit to it, believing that the Great Source of
    intellectual being so wills it for good.

One of the last thoughts in his note-book, written at Ravenna, shows
his mind:

‘Our _real knowledge_ is but to be sure that we know nothing, and I
can but doubt if this be a curse or blessing. Those who hope, trust,
and believe are surely happier far than those who doubt; and the
submissive child, who of his father’s goodness is secure, is far more
blessed than the froward one, who sets himself against his powerful
will, which, after all his struggles and vain efforts, he must at last
obey, rebelling against the love which would have made him happy. Is
not this the history of man?--of that bright and beauteous garden where
in innocence and ignorance he lived and loved till the false taste of
knowledge made him wretched and he knew that he must die. And is not
this the glory and the consummation of the Christian faith, which gives
him back his innocence, his hopes, his confidence in God, which through
his life still gilds the future with a golden blessing of an expected
immortality? Man fell in Adam; knowledge was his bane; man rose in
Christ, recovering his ignorance or substituting hope for what was
doubt.’

Four or five days before he left Ravenna he wrote, April 6, ‘Did not
shoot, but returned thanks to the Great Cause of all being for all
His mercies to me, an undeserving and often ungrateful creature, but
now most grateful. May I become better and more grateful and more
humble-minded every day!’

‘Valde miserabilis’ is not an unfrequent expression at this time,
commonly accompanied with mention of diminished power of limbs and
general feebleness, with pain and numbness. Sometimes he was in despair
of recovery and resigned to his fate, at other times indulging in hope,
thankful for feeling better, and expressing thanks (and he does it very
often) by the use of letters; as G. G. D. (Thanks and glory to God); O.
O. O.; or more fully thus, G. O. O. O. D.

On July 1 he wrote to his friend Mr. Davies Gilbert, who was on the
council of the Royal Society. He says that the expectations of his
complete and rapid recovery have not been realised.

    Under these circumstances I feel it would be highly imprudent,
    and perhaps fatal, for me to return and to attempt to perform the
    official duties of President of the Royal Society; and as I had
    no other feeling for that high and honourable situation except
    the hope of being useful to the society, so I would not keep it
    a moment without the security of being able to devote myself to
    the labour and attention it demands. I beg, therefore, you will
    be so good as to communicate my resignation to the council and
    to the Society at their first meeting in November, stating the
    circumstances of my severe and long-continued illness as the cause.
    At the same time I beg you will express to them how grateful I
    feel for the high honour they have done me in placing me in the
    chair for so many successive years. Assure them that I shall
    always take the same interest in the progress of the grand objects
    of the Society, and throughout the whole of my life endeavour to
    contribute to their advancement and to the prosperity of the body.

He continued his notes thus:

‘_September 2._--I took my exercise well with less fatigue, and
certainly feel better. Offered up my thanksgiving to the O. O. O. with
tears of gratitude and feelings of intense adoration,

‘_September 27_, ST. GOAR.--A very beautiful and glorious evening.
I thought I was going to be quite well, as the weakness of the left
wrist, which put an end to my shooting at Spiers, is quite gone; but I
found my stiff leg as bad as ever. Yet I can hardly be lower or live
lower. Dubito fortissime restaurationem meam.

‘As I have so often alluded to the possibility of my dying suddenly,
I think it right to mention that I am too intense a believer in the
Supreme Intelligence, and have too strong a faith in the optimism of
the system of the universe, ever to accelerate my dissolution. The
laurel-water and laudanum and opium that are in my dressing-case are
medicines. I have been and am taking a care of my health which I fear
it is not worth, but which, hoping it may please Providence to preserve
me for wise purposes, I think my duty. G. O. O. O.’

He arrived in London on October 6. Not finding his health improve, on
March 29, 1828, he left England again. Before he went he sent a paper
on Volcanoes to the Royal Society.

In his ‘Consolations in Travel’ he says, ‘I was desirous of again
passing some time in Southern Austria and Italy, in the hope of
re-establishing a broken constitution, and though this hope was a
feeble one, yet at least I expected to spend a few of the last days
of life more tranquilly and more agreeably than in the metropolis of
my own country. Nature never deceives us. The rocks, the mountains,
the streams, always speak the same language. A shower of snow may hide
the verdant woods in spring, a thunder-storm may render the blue,
limpid streams foul and turbulent; but these effects are rare and
transient; in a few hours, or at least days, all the sources of beauty
are renovated; and Nature affords no continued trains of misfortunes
and miseries, such as depend upon the constitution of humanity, no
hopes for ever blighted in the bud, no beings full of life, beauty, and
promise taken from us in the prime of youth. Her fruits are all balmy,
bright, and sweet; she affords none of those blighted ones so common in
the life of man and so like the fabled apples of the Dead Sea, fresh
and beautiful to the sight, but when tasted full of bitterness and
ashes.’

On May 22 he writes, ‘To my old haunt, Wurzen, which is sublime in
the majesty of Alpine grandeur. The snowy peaks of the Noric Alps
rising above thunder-clouds, whilst spring in all its bloom and beauty
blooms below, its buds and blossoms adorning the face of nature under
a frowning canopy of dark clouds, like some Judith beauty of Italy--a
Transteverene brow and eye and a mouth of Venus and the Graces.’

On June 3 he wrote to his brother, Dr. Davy:

                                                     Aussee, in Styria.

    Notwithstanding the long, severe, and depressing malady under
    which I still labour I am not entirely without hope of ultimate
    recovery, and the few pleasures which I retain in this my state of
    earthly purgatory have principally reference to the enjoyments and
    prospects of my friends; and I indulge in the idea that you are
    well and happy and enjoying a life which I can say I only support,
    supposing that it pleases Omniscience to preserve me for some ends
    which I cannot understand, but which I trust belong to the great
    plan of goodness and mercy belonging to the Divine mind.

    It suits me better to write away my days in this solitary state of
    existence in the contemplation of nature than to attempt to enter
    into London society, where recollections call up the idea of what
    I was, and the want of bodily power teaches me what a shadow I am.
    I make notes in natural history, fish, and prepare for another
    edition of my ‘Salmonia;’ ride amongst the lakes and mountains; and
    attach the loose fringe of hope as much as possible to my tattered
    garments. I am now going to Ischel, where there are warm salt
    baths, to try if they will renovate the muscular power of my leg
    and arm.

    I wish to go to Trieste in October, to make the experiments I have
    long projected on the torpedo. God bless you, my dear John!

                 Your affectionate Friend and Brother,
                                                               H. DAVY.

On June 24 he says:

    I have used the baths. I have nearly recovered the flexibility of
    the affected limbs, but not their former strength, and this I can
    hardly hope to do as long as I am obliged to live so low and to use
    so much medicine; but I shall go on. Speranza!

In November he sent his last paper to the Royal Society. It was on the
Torpedo.

On December 21 he wrote to his brother:

                                                                  Rome.

    Perhaps in the spring you could see me in Illyria. I would then
    show you my kind little nurse, to whom I owe most of the little
    happiness I have enjoyed since my illness.

He had stopped his treatment for four months and had lived rather more
freely, but in ‘every respect I have continued extremely temperate.’

On January 30, 1829, he was still at Rome. He said, ‘The palpitation of
the heart has increased almost alarmingly, and I do not think I have
gained any strength in the weak limbs.’

On February 1 he wrote in his journal, ‘Finished the dialogues fifth
and sixth’ (these ended the ‘Consolations in Travel’). ‘Si moro, spero
che ho fatto il mio dovere, e che la mia vita non e stata vana ed
inutile.’

On February 6 he wrote to his friend Poole from Rome:

    Would I were better, I would then write to you an agreeable letter
    from this curious city; but I am here wearing away the winter, a
    ruin amongst ruins.

    I write and philosophise a good deal, and have nearly finished a
    work with a higher aim than the little ‘Salmonia,’ which I shall
    dedicate to you. It contains the essence of my philosophical
    opinions and some of my poetical reveries. I sometimes think of the
    lines of Waller:

        The soul’s dark cottage, battered and decayed,
        Lets in new light through chinks that time has made.

    I have, notwithstanding my infirmities, attended to scientific
    objects whenever it was in my power, and I have sent to the
    Royal Society a paper, which they will publish, on the ‘Peculiar
    Electricity of the Torpedo,’ which I think bears remotely on the
    functions of life. I attend a good deal to natural history.

    I fight against sickness and fate, believing I have still duties to
    perform, and that even my illness is connected in some way with my
    being made useful to my fellow-creatures. I have this conviction
    full on my mind, that intellectual beings spring from the same
    breath of Infinite Intelligence, and return to it again, but by
    different courses, like rivers born amidst the clouds of heaven
    and lost in the deep and eternal ocean; some in youth rapid and
    short-lived torrents, some in manhood powerful and copious rivers,
    and some in age by a winding and slow course, half lost in their
    career and making their exit by many sandy and shallow mouths. [And
    then he asks him if he will come and travel with him.] But I write
    as if I were a strong man, when I am like a pendulum, as it were,
    swinging between death and life. God bless you, my dear Poole!

                Your grateful and affectionate Friend,
                                                               H. DAVY.

A fortnight afterwards he had another severe attack of paralysis of the
right side.

On February 23, three days after the attack, he dictated a letter to
his brother.

    MY DEAR JOHN,--Notwithstanding all my care and discipline and
    ascetic living I am dying from a severe attack of palsy, which has
    seized the whole of the body with the exception of the intellectual
    organ. I am under the usual severe discipline of bleeding and
    blistering, but the weakness increases, and a few hours or days
    will finish my mortal existence. I shall leave my bones in the
    Eternal City. I bless God that I have been able to finish all my
    philosophical labours....

    God bless you, my dear brother! may you be happy and prosperous!

                 Your affectionate Friend and Brother,
                                                               H. DAVY.

The 25th he dictated another letter, chiefly on the torpedo; it ends:

    Pray do not neglect this subject, which I leave to you as another
    legacy. God bless you, my dear brother!

                       Your affectionate Friend,
                                                               H. DAVY.

He tried to write a postscript, and he did write ‘My dear John;’ then
he dictated, ‘I am dying; come as quickly as you can. You will not see
me alive, I am afraid. God bless you!’

On March 16 Dr. Davy reached him. ‘Never shall I forget,’ he says, ‘the
manner in which he received me, the joy which lighted up his pale and
emaciated countenance, his cheerful words and extreme kindness, and his
endeavours to soothe a grief which I had not the power of controlling
on finding him so ill, or rather at hearing him speak as if he were
a dying man, who had only a few hours to live, and who wished to use
every moment of such precious time. With a most cheerful voice, a smile
on his countenance, and most warm pressure of the hand, he bade me not
be grieved, but consider the event as a philosopher. He expressed his
pleasure at seeing me so soon and in having me with him in his last
hours, and firmly rejected all expectation and hope of recovery. He had
lost all the irritable feeling to which he was very liable, and which
generally accompanies paralytic complaints. His own conviction that he
was a dying man almost persuaded me that the brilliancy of his mind was
a lightening before death.’

The next day he was not only amused but interested deeply with the
dissection of a torpedo made by Dr. Davy in an adjoining room.

On the night of March 31, having gradually got worse, he told Dr. Davy
he was sure he should die. ‘He took leave of me most tenderly, kissed
my cheek, and bade God bless me. I believed that now indeed I was about
to lose him and that I should never again hear his voice of kindness.
During the night when I went to him he still breathed. The following
morning, when I drew back his curtains, he expressed great astonishment
at being alive. He said that he had gone through the whole process of
dying, and that when he awoke he had difficulty in convincing himself
by experiments that he was in his earthly existence. He added that
his being alive was quite miraculous, and that he now began to think
his recovery not impossible, and that it might be intended by Divine
Providence that his life should be prolonged for purposes of usefulness.

‘From this day he pretty rapidly improved; as he mended the sentiment
of gratitude to Divine Providence was overflowing.’ On April 20 he
wrote his last note at the end of a letter of Dr. Davy’s.

‘MY DEAR SISTER,--I am very ill, but, thanks to my dearest John, still
alive. God bless you all!--H. DAVY.’ ‘He would have said more, but his
feeble hand failed him.’

On April 30 he was able to leave Rome for Switzerland. He stayed a
week at Genoa and on May 28 he reached Geneva, and there first heard
of the death of Dr. Young, ‘which affected him in a manner almost
unaccountable.’ He dined early and was read to afterwards; at half-past
nine he wished to be left alone, ‘and I took leave of him,’ says Dr.
Davy, ‘for the night. At half-past two his servant called me. He was
insensible, and in a few minutes he expired.’

For the last half-century general opinion has been so charmed by the
simple greatness of Faraday, that even the genius of Davy with his love
of original research has been partially eclipsed. But, as time lessens
the effect of the contrast, the reputation of Davy will recover its
former brightness, and the picture drawn of him by Mr. Poole will not
be looked on as due to the partiality of his oldest and most attached
friend.

‘Although the most friendly intercourse existed between us for thirty
years, I fear I have little else to communicate than to bear testimony
to his general intellectual elevation and to the warmth, sincerity, and
simplicity of his heart. I was first introduced to him at the Medical
Pneumatic Institution at Clifton in, I think, 1799, where I inhaled his
nitrous oxide with the usual extraordinary and transitory sensations;
but the interesting conversation, manners, and appearance of the
youthful operator were not transitory--nay, riveted my attention--and
we soon became friends.

‘From that time to his death no interruption of the most cordial
goodwill and affection occurred between us. Neither the importance of
his discoveries nor the attentions of the exalted in rank or science,
whether as individuals or bodies, nor the honour conferred on him by
his sovereign, made the least alteration in his personal demeanour or
in the tone of his correspondence. No man was ever less spoiled by the
world. The truth is, though he conformed to the world and paid due
deference to those men and things which are deferred to by the world,
his delight was in his intellectual being. He felt that he had the
power of investigating the laws of nature beyond that entrusted to the
generality of men, and the success with which he acted on this impulse
increased his confidence. During his last visit to me in November 1827,
when in a very weak state of health, he more than once said, “I do not
wish to live as far as I am personally concerned; but I have views
which I could develope, if it please God to save my life, which would
be useful to science and to mankind.” Indeed, to be useful to science
and to mankind was that in which he gloried, to use a favourite word of
his. He was enthusiastically attached to science and to men of science,
and his heart yearned to be useful to mankind, and particularly to
the humblest of mankind. How often have I heard him express the
satisfaction which the discovery of the safety lamp gave him. “I value
it,” he said, “more than anything I ever did.”

‘However his circumstances and situation in society altered, his
labours and zeal in the pursuit of science were throughout his life
undiminished.

‘What from my earliest knowledge of my admirable friend I considered
his most striking characteristic was the quickness and truth of his
apprehension. It was a power of reasoning so rapid when applied to any
subject, that he could hardly himself be conscious of the process,
and it must, I think, have been felt by him as it appeared to me pure
intuition. I used to say to him, “You understand me before I half
understand myself.”

‘If his mind had been given in that direction he would probably have
ranked high among our poets. I recollect hearing perhaps the greatest
living poetic genius (Coleridge) say, “Had not Davy been the first
chemist, he probably would have been the first poet of his age.”

‘No man was less a sectarian, if I may use the expression, in religion,
in politics, or in science. He regarded with benevolence the sincere
convictions of any class on the subject of religion, however they might
vary from his own. In politics he was the ardent friend of rational
liberty; he gloried in the institutions of his country and was anxious
to see them maintained in their purity by timely and temperate reform.
Men of science, wherever situated, he considered fellow-subjects of one
great republic spread over the world. As to his amusements he would
say, “It is not the sport only, though there is a great pleasure in
successful dexterity, but it is the ardour of the pursuit, the pure
air, the contemplation of the fine country, the exercise, all which
invigorate the body and excite the mind to its best efforts.”

‘When he made his last visit to me in 1827, on his arrival he said,
“Here I am, the ruin of what I was.” But nevertheless the same activity
and ardour of mind continued, though directed to different objects.

‘He was not only one of the greatest but one of the most benevolent and
amiable of men.’




APPENDIX I.

CONTAINING ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS IN THE LIBRARY OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION
REGARDING THE SERVICE OF COUNT RUMFORD IN THE AMERICAN WAR.


As early as 1782 Sir Guy Carleton had requested permission to
return home ‘in consequence of his repugnance to a situation merely
defensive.’ The King’s ministers had just determined that active
operations should be carried on under his command in the West Indies
against the French, and the King had appointed him to the chief
command of the army destined to act there on the day he asked for
his dismissal. Late in the autumn the Right Hon. T. Townsend, then
Secretary of State, directed that 1,500 British troops should be sent
to reinforce the islands, but Sir Guy Carleton considered this would be
attended with such serious consequences that he determined ‘to deviate
from a measure so explicitly directed to be carried into execution.’
The Secretary suggested that a number of provincials and foreign troops
should be sent, and he authorised that every provincial corps embarking
for the West Indies should immediately be put upon the British
establishment.

On March 14, 1783, Colonel Thompson sent a memorial for himself,
brother officers, and men to Sir Guy Carleton. He said

‘That the officers were chiefly young men of the first families and
connections, and that except the adjutant they were all Americans,
and had suffered very considerably by the Rebellion, that in the
event of peace and the independency of the provinces all their hopes
of returning to their former situations will be at an end, and they
will be reduced to the greatest distress. That they are ready to
go anywhere. That the regiment is completely appointed to the fall
establishment of six troops of sixty men each, together with four
field-pieces, with their harness, &c., complete for a troop of flying
artillery.’

The memorial then begs for employment in the West Indies, or in any
other part of his Majesty’s dominions, and states, that in case more
troops should be wanted Colonel Thompson undertakes to raise a very
fine battalion of light infantry from amongst the men then serving in
his Majesty’s provincial forces.

On the 21st of March Sir Guy Carleton authorised and empowered Colonel
Thompson to raise four companies of light infantry, consisting of one
captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, three sergeants, three corporals,
two drummers, and fifty-two privates each, to be attached to the King’s
American Dragoons, the whole to be put on the British establishment
upon their embarking for the West Indies.

He said, ‘All officers, civil and military, particularly the officers
commanding provincial corps, and all others his Majesty’s liege
subjects are hereby required to be aiding and assisting to you and all
concerned in the execution of the above services, for which this shall
be to you and to them a sufficient warrant and authority.’

       *       *       *       *       *

The following paper is in Rumford’s writing:


    _Proposed Establishment of a Corps of Light Troops to be raised
    for his Majesty’s Service, to be commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel
    Thompson, Commandant of the King’s American Dragoons._

        Key to table columns:

        A  Majors
        B  Captains
        C  Capt.-Lieutenant
        D  Lieutenants
        E  Cornets
        F  Ensigns
        G  Chaplain
        H  Adjutant
        I  Qr.-Masters
        J  Surgeon
        K  Mate
        L  Sergeants
        M  Corporals
        N  Trumpeters
        O  Drummers
        P  Fifers
        Q  Privates
        R  Total
        S  Total Officers and Men

        Key to table rows:

        X Dismounted Cavalry: King’s American Dragoons, 6 troops of 60
            men each
        Y Light Infantry: 4 companies of 60 men each
        Z Artillery: 1 company of 60 men each

 +-----+-----------------++--------------++----------------------++---+
 |     |   Commission    ||    Staff     ||   Non-Commissioned   ||   |
 |     |    Officers     ||   Officers   || Officers and Privates|| S |
 |     +--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+---+---++   |
 |     |A |B |C |D |E |F ||G |H |I |J |K ||L |M |N |O |P | Q | R ||   |
 +-----+--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+---+---++---+
 |  X  | 2| 3| 1| 5| 6|  || 1| 1| 6| 1| 1||18|18| 6|  |  |318|360||388|
 |  Y  |  | 4|  | 4|  | 4||  |  |  |  |  ||12|12|  | 4| 4|208|240||252|
 |  Z  |  |  |  |  |  |  ||  |  |  |  |  || 4| 4|  | 2|  | 50| 60|| 60|
 |     +--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+---+---++---+
 |Total| 2| 7| 1| 9| 6| 4|| 1| 1| 6| 1| 1||34|34| 6| 6| 4|576|660||700|
 +-----+--+--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--++--+--+--+--+--+---+---++---+

    ‘Distribution of the six quarter-masters, two to remain with
    the six troops of dragoons, one to act as adjutant and one as
    quarter-master to the four companies of light infantry, two to
    serve with the company of artillery.

    ‘The four pieces of cannon to be on the flank of the battalion, two
    on the right and two on the left, and the company of artillery to
    be formed in two divisions. Each division to be under the command
    of a quarter-master.

    ‘The privates of the company of artillery to be _blacks_. To have
    no other arms but swords, and to be accoutred for drawing the guns.
    The non-commissioned officers to be _whites_, and to be armed with
    muskets and bayonets. The whole to have infantry pay. Permission
    to be granted to take one private from each troop of dragoons for
    a drummer to receive pay as a private. As the trumpeters of the
    King’s American Dragoons are _blacks_, permission to be granted for
    the drummers and the fifers to be _blacks_ also.

    ‘The officers of the four companies of light infantry to be
    Americans, and to be all taken from the Provincial Line, and the
    men to be volunteers from the different provincial regiments.’

Peace with France put an end to all these plans, and also to another
proposal to raise two regiments of infantry complete to the present
establishment of the British regiments of foot; viz. ten companies, 595
officers and men. On April 4 Colonel Thompson wrote to Sir Guy Carleton
to return his unfeigned thanks for all the distinguished marks of his
Excellency’s goodness to him, particularly for the last most flattering
proof of his Excellency’s approbation in appointing him to the command
of light troops, which were to have served in the West Indies had not
peace taken place. He begs that the King’s American Dragoons may go to
some part of Nova Scotia, there to do duty or to be discharged if any
wish it, and that he may go to England, there to solicit, in behalf of
himself and the corps, that they may be employed in the East Indies or
in some other part of his Majesty’s dominions where their services may
be wanted.

       *       *       *       *       *

Extract of a letter from an officer of rank in the Provincial Line to
Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson, dated April 2, 1783:

    ‘If our petition for half-pay, which I understand is strongly
    recommended by Sir Guy Carleton, should be disregarded, or, what
    would be still more grievous to us, if the applications of the
    refugees in London should be brought into Parliament, and ours
    and all our faithful services should be neglected! But I will not
    suppose a case so painful to my feelings, and which I trust is so
    very unlikely to happen. Sir Guy Carleton has repeatedly said that
    he has not a doubt but we shall be taken care of; indeed, it would
    be the height of cruelty as well as injustice in Great Britain to
    forsake us in this hour of our distress. We have shed our blood in
    her cause. She surely does not mean to make us the sacrifice of
    peace. She will not leave us to perish for want, now that she has
    no longer any occasion for our services; nor will she insult our
    misfortunes by referring us to the mercy of our enemies. Be assured
    we must expect no mercy from them.

    ‘I flatter myself before you reach England our petition will have
    been taken into consideration and our request granted. If this
    should not be the case, we must depend upon you to solicit for
    us. You know the ways of office, and can get access to ministers,
    while others less acquainted with public business and less known,
    though equally zealous in our cause, would have it much less in
    their power to assist us. You know our services and our sufferings,
    and can give every information that can be wanted relative to our
    present situation.’

As soon as Colonel Thompson arrived in England he sent the following
letter to Lord North:

                                        ‘Pall Mall Court, June 8, 1783.

    ‘MY LORD,--Having assisted in drawing up the representation and
    petition of the commanding officers of his Majesty’s provincial
    regiments in North America, and having been desired by them to
    solicit for them in this country, that the prayer of their petition
    be granted, I take the liberty of troubling your Lordship upon that
    subject.

    ‘The situation of the provincial officers, particularly such of
    them as are natives or were formerly inhabitants of the American
    colonies, is truly distressing. Having sacrificed their property
    and all their expectations from their rank and connections in civil
    society, and being now cut off from all hope of returning to their
    former homes by the articles of the peace, they have no hope left
    but in the justice and the humanity of the British nation.

    ‘I will not trouble your Lordship with an account either of
    their services or their sufferings; their merit, as well as their
    misfortunes, are known to the whole world, and I believe their
    claim upon the humanity and upon the justice of this country will
    not be disputed.

    ‘They have stated their situation in a strong but at the same
    time in a most respectful manner in their representation, which
    I am informed has been transmitted to his Majesty’s Secretary of
    State by Sir Guy Carleton, and strongly recommended. As they are
    extremely anxious to know their fate, I am to request of your
    Lordship that I may be informed whether any and what resolutions
    have been taken relative to their petition, and whether their
    claims of permanent rank in America and half-pay upon the reduction
    of their regiments will meet with the countenance and support of
    his Majesty’s ministers.

    ‘I know your Lordship will excuse the liberty I take in troubling
    you upon this occasion, particularly as you will see by the
    enclosed extract of a letter I have just received from New York how
    anxious the provincial officers are, and how much they expect that
    I should exert myself in their behalf.

    ‘If your Lordship should wish for any further information
    respecting the provincial troops, I will do myself the honour of
    attending you at any time you may appoint.

    ‘Enclosed I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship two
    memorials, one from the Muster-Master General of his Majesty’s
    Provincial Forces in North America, the other from his deputy. I
    know them both to be very deserving of the favour and protection
    of Government. The former, Colonel Winslow, signed the general
    representation in behalf of the Provincial Line, and of course was
    included in Sir Guy Carleton’s recommendation. As his is a military
    appointment by commission from the Commander-in-Chief in America,
    as well as that of the Inspector General of the Provincial Forces,
    I should suppose they would both be included with their deputies,
    should half-pay be given to the provincial officers in general.

    ‘I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, my Lord, your
    Lordship’s most obedient and most humble servant,

                                                         ‘B. THOMPSON.’

In three days Lord North wrote to Sir Guy Carleton to approve of his
recommendation (made nine months previously) of permanent rank and
half-pay for the officers of the King’s American Dragoons, and in a
week he wrote another despatch, to say that his Majesty was extremely
disposed to show every possible attention to the remaining provincial
corps, although they may not have literally complied with the
engagements which entitled them to rank and half-pay, and he made known
his Majesty’s gracious intention that all the provincial regiments
should be disbanded at Halifax. On the 27th of June Parliament voted
half-pay to the officers of the different corps which in the course of
the year had been raised in America. Colonel Thompson then wrote to Sir
Guy Carleton:

                                        ‘Pall Mall Court, July 6, 1783.

    ‘SIR,--I beg leave to congratulate with your Excellency upon an
    event which I am confident will afford you great satisfaction--the
    resolution of Parliament to give half-pay to the provincial
    officers. We all feel ourselves under infinite obligations to
    your Excellency upon this occasion. As you have had the goodness
    to interest yourself so much in our behalf, I think it my duty to
    acquaint your Excellency with all the steps I have taken in this
    country relative to the provincial business since my arrival from
    New York.

    ‘Soon after my arrival in London, finding the session of Parliament
    drawing near to a conclusion, and that no resolution had been
    taken by his Majesty’s ministers relative to the memorial of the
    provincial officers recommended by your Excellency, I took the
    liberty of writing a letter to Lord North upon the subject (copy
    of which is enclosed) and made personal applications to General
    Conway, Lord Sheffield, and other gentlemen of the House of
    Commons, who assisted in bringing the business forward.

    ‘I then, at Lord North’s desire, set about to prepare estimates
    of the expense of half-pay for the provincial officers with other
    information relative to that matter, copies of which I put into the
    hands of General Conway and Lord Sheffield, who both interested
    themselves very warmly in our behalf.

    ‘Enclosed I have the honour to transmit to your Excellency for
    your information copies of all the papers I took the liberty of
    laying before Lord North. I earnestly hope they will meet with your
    approbation, but if I have made any mistakes, your Excellency,
    being fully acquainted with what I have done, will have it in your
    power to rectify them.

    ‘The paper No. 1 contains copies of all the letters between
    the Secretary of State and the Commander-in-Chief in North
    America relative the provincial corps; to which are added a few
    observations and a copy of the memorial of commanding officers of
    provincial regiments. No. 2 is a list of the provincial corps in
    North America, which was made out from your Excellency’s return
    of the army under your command, dated New York, April 11, 1783.
    The establishment of the officers of the different corps were
    taken principally from the printed list of the provincial army
    published at New York this year. Your Excellency will observe that
    in this list, as well as in the list No. 3, there is a colonel and
    a lieutenant-colonel put down to the King’s American Dragoons.
    This was done with the knowledge and consent of Lord North and
    General Conway, and upon this ground: Being disappointed of
    getting my regiment put upon the British establishment, I took the
    liberty of soliciting the rank of Colonel of the King’s American
    Dragoons, and that Major Murray might be promoted to the rank of
    lieutenant-colonel of the same; which request I flattered myself
    would not be thought unreasonable, as it was originally intended
    that there should be a colonel and a lieutenant-colonel to the
    regiment, and as your Excellency had given me reason to hope that
    you would have honoured me with the provincial rank of colonel had
    I embarked for the West Indies with the corps to the command of
    which you had appointed me.

    ‘I took the liberty of writing to your Excellency upon the subject
    by the last packet, since which his Majesty has been graciously
    pleased to approve of the King’s American Dragoons having the
    full establishment of field officers, as was originally intended,
    and that I should be promoted to the rank of colonel. I cannot
    help flattering myself that this arrangement will be agreeable to
    your Excellency, and that I shall be returned in your list of the
    provincial officers for half-pay as colonel.

    ‘The rank to me is of infinite importance, as I am going abroad in
    a short time with a view to foreign service; but the half-pay is
    also an object, as I have little else left to depend on except my
    industry.

    ‘The paper No. 3 will explain itself. I wished much that the House
    of Commons would have voted the full or complete establishment
    of the different corps, but Lord North seemed very desirous of
    bringing the sum wanted for the provincial staff pay as low as
    possible, that it might pass the easier. With that view the
    calculation of the savings of part of the chaplain’s half-pay,
    the adjutants, quarter-masters, &c., were made. But all these
    regulations will depend entirely upon your Excellency. Whatever
    you think right I am confident will be done without any kind of
    objection or difficulty.

    ‘As it was impossible to lay correct estimates before the House
    at the time, none of the corps have been voted specifically, but
    their claim to half-pay in general is substantiated by the vote of
    a certain sum _on account of half-pay_, and so the matter must rest
    till your Excellency can furnish his Majesty’s ministers with such
    returns of the different provincial regiments and corps as may be
    proper to lay before Parliament.

    ‘I hope your Excellency will approve of my having made no separate
    claim or interest between the three provincial corps that are
    established with permanent rank (of which the King’s American
    Dragoons is one) and the rest. I thought it would have a better
    appearance if we were all unanimous, and would be more pleasing to
    the rest of the corps that we should take our chance in common with
    them and stand or fall together. At the end of the paper No. 3 your
    Excellency will observe that Major Rooke is returned for half-pay
    as Deputy Inspector General of Provincial Forces. This was done at
    the desire of Colonel Innes, who arrived in London after all the
    papers were prepared. I know nothing of Major Rookes’ pretensions,
    and therefore cannot answer for the propriety of his being
    included for half-pay, but, as it is a matter that must finally
    be determined by your Excellency, I am sure nothing but what is
    perfectly right will be done respecting it.

    ‘In the vote of the House of Commons no mention is made of half-pay
    for the Muster-Master General or his deputies; but it is by no
    means intended to exclude them, and, if your Excellency returns
    their names, the vote for their half-pay will pass of course.
    I have spoken to Lord North upon the subject, and he thinks it
    perfectly right that they should be included, as also Mr. Bridgham,
    Colonel Innes’ deputy.

    ‘With regard to the _seconded_ provincial officers who are
    mentioned in the memorandums contained in the papers No. 4 both
    General Conway and Lord Sheffield strongly advised against
    bringing their claims before Parliament at the same time with
    the application of the officers of the provincial corps, as the
    largeness of the sum wanted for the whole might prevent our
    success, whereas, if what we then asked should be granted, it
    would strengthen the claim of the _seconded_ officers, and their
    application would afterwards be brought before Parliament with
    greater propriety and with a much better prospect of success. I
    conceal no part of the transaction from your Excellency, and I hope
    what I have done will meet with your approbation. I am certain that
    the motives which induced me to take the steps I have followed
    in the prosecution of this business are such as cannot fail to
    be approved by your Excellency. I have been indefatigable in my
    endeavours to carry what I thought your wishes respecting the
    provincials into execution, and if what I have done meets with your
    approbation and with the approbation of my deserving countrymen,
    in whose behalf you have so generously and so nobly interested
    yourself, I shall amply be repaid for all the trouble and anxiety I
    have had in the course of my solicitations.

    ‘I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, and with
    unfeigned gratitude for all your goodness to me, Sir, your
    Excellency’s most obedient and most faithful Servant,

                                                          ‘B. THOMPSON.

    ‘His Excellency Sir Guy Carleton, K.B.’

On the 8th of August, 1783, Lord North wrote to Sir Guy Carleton:

    ‘Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson having been particularly distinguished
    by you in the appointment to the command of the corps of provincial
    troops intended to be sent upon service in the West Indies (which
    corps, had it embarked, would, agreeably to the King’s commands
    signified by the late Secretary of State in his letter of the 3rd
    of January last, have been placed upon the British establishment),
    and as it appears by your letter of the 15th of June that his
    conduct has met with your full approbation, and that you consider
    him to be an officer possessing an uncommon share of merit in his
    profession, the King for these reasons has consented to his being
    appointed by commission from you Colonel of the King’s American
    Dragoons upon the American provincial establishment.’

Sir Guy Carleton wrote to Colonel Thompson:

                                           ‘New York, October 10, 1783.

    ‘SIR,--I have received your letter of July 6, with the several
    enclosures therein mentioned, and you may be assured that the
    resolution of Parliament to give the British-American officers
    half-pay (with which also I find they will all have permanent rank
    in America) affords me a very sincere satisfaction. Your zeal and
    assiduity on this occasion appear to have been such as your friends
    might have expected, and I am sensible of your attention to me in
    writing so fully on the subject.

    ‘The American officers have, in my opinion, so fair a claim to
    half-pay that I hope the grant will finally be made for the
    full establishment of their several regiments without the least
    exception.’




APPENDIX II.

CONTAINING A LETTER FROM DR. YOUNG TO COUNT RUMFORD, WHEN THE OFFER OF
THE PROFESSORSHIP AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION WAS MADE TO HIM; AND TWO
LETTERS TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS ON THE INVENTION OF A MICROMETER TO BE USED
FOR MEASURING WOOL. THE ORIGINALS OF THESE LETTERS ARE AMONGST THE
PAPERS OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS.


DR. YOUNG TO COUNT RUMFORD.

                                Welbeck Street, Thursday, July 9, 1801.

SIR,--I have received your obliging letter, and beg leave to return you
and the managers thanks for the honour you do me.

I am willing to undertake the various charges which you have the
goodness to detail, and I flatter myself that you will have no reason
to complain of any want of zeal on my part in the service of the Royal
Institution.

But I confess I think it would be in some measure degrading both
to me and to the Institution that the salary, which appears to me
to have been no more than moderate before, should now be reduced
one-fourth,[40] at the same time that the labour and responsibility of
the employment are rather increased than lessened. For, whatever might
have been expected of the late professor respecting the Journals and
the superintendence of the house, I do not apprehend that any specific
stipulation was made on the subject; and, as I am determined to devote
a greater share of attention to the Institution than he ever appears
to have done, I do not see that my education and opportunities of
literary acquirement have been such as to render me less worthy than
he was of a salary which, when compared with the emoluments of other
situations of a similar nature, is by no means exorbitant.

It would not be my wish, and the duties of the professorship would
certainly render it impossible for me, to attempt any extent of medical
practice; but I should be sorry to bind myself to reject the little
that might accidentally fall in my way, I do not mention this as a
matter of any consequence, but to avoid having it understood, from the
conversation I had with you, that I should be obliged to refuse my
advice to a friend who might consult me.

As to the Journals, I should not much object to engage that a sheet or
more should be ready for publication every week; but I conceive that it
would give them additional importance if it were left to the direction
of the professor, with the approbation of the committee, with proper
notice, to publish a number at the end of a fortnight, instead of a
week, whenever there might appear to be a real deficiency of matter to
fill it. And I think I should want little or no assistance, either in
translating or in transcribing, except what Mr. Davy might have the
goodness to give me.

I hope that, when you have reconsidered what I have stated, you will
not much differ from me in opinion, and that you will favour me with a
further communication of your sentiments on the subject.

I am, Sir, your obliged and obedient humble Servant,

                                                          THOMAS YOUNG.

Count Rumford, Royal Institution.


DR. THOMAS YOUNG TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS.

                                          Worthing, September 10, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Observing from the papers that you have been interesting
yourself respecting the arrangement of a micrometer for the purpose
of measuring the diameter of the fibres of different kinds of wool,
I beg leave to trouble you with the description of a very simple
instrument which I invented some time ago for a similar purpose, and
which I propose to call an agricultural micrometer. I should imagine
it to be sufficiently accurate for all practical purposes, and the
great facility and cheapness of its construction may perhaps render
it useful to a class of persons who would object to the expense of
providing themselves with a more complicated apparatus. If it appear
to you in the same point of view, you will be pleased to make any use
that you may think proper of this communication. When we look at a
distant candle through a lock of wool it appears surrounded by rings
of colours, and these rings are invariably so much the larger as the
wool is the finer. The cause of these appearances I have endeavoured to
explain in my lectures and elsewhere; but for the present purpose the
principal object is to ascertain their comparative magnitude. In order
to perform this I take a card blackened on one side, describe on it two
concentric circles, the outer exactly one inch in diameter, the inner
11/20, make at the centre a hole about 1/20 of an inch in diameter, and
pierce the card at the circumference of the inner circle, in 10 or 12
points at equal distances, with a small pin, and at that of the larger
in 7 or 8 points, at unequal distances, with a large one. I then take
a small rod of wood about a yard long and divide it into half-inches,
numbering them from one end, at which I fix two or three pins side by
side and wind round it a piece of wire--for instance a common knitting
needle--in such a form as to hold the card upright between its ends and
to slide on the rod. This is the whole apparatus. It is to be used by
candle-light in this manner: Attach to the fixed pins a small lock of
the wool to be examined, containing 20 or 30 single fibres, and look
through them and through the central hole at a candle not very remote
from the card, the blackened side of the card being turned towards the
eye. The hole will appear to be surrounded by a bright surface, reddish
at the margin, by a dark circle or ring, and again by a brighter ring,
bluish-green within and red without. If the colours are not seen
distinctly, we may conclude that the wool is mixed and not perfectly
fit for examination; but in this case we may generally form an estimate
of its quality by means of the bright surface only, moving the card
along the rod until the holes of the inner circle appear exactly at
the extreme margin of that surface, where it is of a reddish hue, the
place of the card as indicated by the scale showing the number which
characterises the wool. It will also be most convenient to begin by
producing this coincidence of the inner circle in other cases where the
outer ring of colours is more distinctly seen, and then to adjust the
card more accurately; so that the holes in the circumference of the
outer circle may appear to coincide with the middle of the coloured
ring at the common limit of the red and greenish portions. If the
holes be seen in the red ring, the card must be brought nearer to the
edge; if in the blue, it must be moved farther off, and the number of
the scale must be observed as before. It will require very attentive
observation, and perhaps some practice, to obtain always precisely the
same number for the same substance, but by taking the mean of several
trials we may be perfectly certain of coming within a unit of the true
place of the slider, and perhaps even of avoiding any error at all.

I have not yet had an opportunity of examining any great variety of
substances, but I send you the result of such observations as I have
made, which will be sufficient to enable you to judge of the accuracy
of the instrument.

Fibres of coarse wool from green baize, 52. Southdown, 35. Anglo-merino
from a flock of Mr. Henty Tarring, 27. A lock taken from a Paular ewe
by Mr. Sheppard, 25 (varying from 24 to 30). Another specimen from the
same flock brought by another gentleman as a test of the instrument,
25. Cotton, mixed but about, 19. Vigonia from the Rev. P. Wood, very
distinct 14½. Beaver from a hat, 11. Blood diluted with saliva and
rubbed on glass, beautifully distinct 5. Milk diluted with water, very
indistinct 3. I have sometimes thought of employing the instrument as a
nosological test of the state of the blood, of pus, and of other animal
fluids.

It is of little consequence to the farmer to know the actual dimensions
indicated by these numbers, nor can I at present ascertain them with
perfect accuracy. They express, however, very nearly the diameters
of the fibres in the 45,000th of an inch. Thus Mr. Henty’s wool,
standing at No. 27, must measure about 27/45000 or 1/1667 of an inch
in diameter, and the globules of the blood reduced to spheres about
1/9000. Probably these results are a little too small, and especially
the latter, but by a comparison of a few measurements, made by means
of other micrometers with these numbers, it would be easy to form a
correct table of their true value, and it may safely be asserted that
this instrument will enable us in some cases to be secure of avoiding
any error amounting to the hundred-thousandth of an inch, and almost in
all of being far within one ten-thousandth of the truth, without the
use of any microscope, simple or compound.

In order to render the instrument still more portable we may employ
a piece of tape as a measure, fixing to one end of it a double piece
of card with an aperture, and with some pins projecting from its edge
for holding the wool either between its folds or on the pins, and to
the other end a small weight, serving to draw the tape tight through a
hole in the blackened card. I enclose you the whole apparatus arranged
in this manner, together with a few fibres of the Vigonia wool, which
exhibit the colours in great perfection, constantly giving 14½ as the
characteristic number. The directions for the use of the instrument
might be engraved and printed on the card if it were thought desirable.

I also take the liberty of forwarding to you a letter which I have just
received from a French gentleman, who claims the protection of the
Royal Society. You will best judge whether the case requires or admits
any exertion of your well-known liberality and kindness.

Believe me, dear Sir, with the highest respect and esteem, your
faithful and obedient Servant.


DR. THOMAS YOUNG TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS.

                                             Worthing, October 6, 1810.

MY DEAR SIR,--I shall be most happy in assisting you to form a judgment
from your own observation of the utility of my little instrument; but
I cannot forbear to trouble you with a few specimens of wool, which
I imagine will exhibit the appearances so obviously as at least to
convince you of the perfect practicability of the method. You will
observe, by merely looking through them at a candle, that there is
a manifest difference in the size of the rings, and if the colours
are not sufficiently conspicuous when the card is used, the central
hole may be made a little larger with a bodkin; and a common pair of
spectacles, such as you would use in mending a pen, will be amply
sufficient for remedying the flatness of the eye.

I do not apprehend that the different magnitude of the different fibres
of the same fleeces is any _objection_ to the use of the instrument;
on the contrary, it possesses the singular advantage of detecting at
once the inequality where it exists, and of giving the mean dimensions
of the whole at the same time where the difference is not too great. I
have mixed together, for example, two small specimens, which measured
separately 21 and 31. The mixture, though evidently irregular, gave the
dimensions of about 24, varying from 23 to 27, according to the part of
the lock which was to be examined, and this is surely a much greater
inequality than can ever exist in any _contiguous_ part of the same
fleece. But, however this may be, the fact is that the circumstance
does not actually destroy the validity of the indications of my
micrometer, as I shall further exemplify to you by an account of my
examinations of some specimens of the finest wool, with which I have
been favoured by Mr. H. Sheppard, an ingenious manufacturer at Frome,
Somersetshire. You are, perhaps, better acquainted than I am with the
history of Mr. Western’s flock, which stands in so elevated a situation
between the Saxon and the Spanish productions.


_Specimens of Wool from Mr. Sheppard, as measured by the Agricultural
Thermometer._

 Grey beaver wool         No. 11½ to 12
 Angola                        about 14
 Prime Vigonia                       14½
 Foreign coney                       15
 American rabbits                    15
 Yellow rabbits                      15
 Scotch hares                        15
 Siberian hares                      15, 16
 British coney                       16
 Finest seal                   about 18
 Alpaca (a single long hair)         18½-20
 Goats                               19
 Saxon                               20
 Peruvian black                      21, 22
 Mr. Western’s Southdown, ‘reckoned
   the finest in the kingdom’        23½
 Lioneza                             24-29
 Peruvian light brown                29
 Peruvian dark brown                 31
 Dust of the puff-ball (_Lycoperdon
   borista_) rubbed on glass,
   very distinct, giving about
   1/12000 inch diameter              3½




APPENDIX III.

TABLE OF THE INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION TO 1814,
_OMITTING SHILLINGS AND PENCE_.


 +------------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                             INCOME.                              |
 +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------------+------+
 |        |           |           |           |Miscellaneous |      |
 |        |           |Life       |Annual     |Ground Rents, |Grand |
 | Year   |Proprietors|Subscribers|Subscribers|Dividends, &c.|Total |
 +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------------+------+
 |        |     £     |    £      |    £      |      £       |  £   |
 |1799    |   5,827   |    514    |     37    |      --      | 6,379|
 |1800    |   8,047   |  2,280    |    719    |      --      |11,047|
 |1801    |   2,323   |    363    |    456    |      331     | 3,474|
 |1802    |   1,417   |    503    |  1,003    |       75     | 2,999|
 |1803    |   1,134   |    245    |  1,624    |      512     | 3,516|
 |1804    |     808   |    437    |  2,271    |      248     | 3,765|
 |1805    |   1,837   |    387    |  3,845    |      434     | 6,504|
 |1806    |   1,134   |    126    |  2,691    |      190     | 4,141|
 |1807    |    --     |    --     |  1,426    |       13     | 1,560|
 |1808    |    --     |    126    |  1,615    |      138     | 1,880|
 |1809[41]|    --     |    279    |  1,778    |      289     | 2,347|
 |1810    |    --     |    812    |  1,723    |    2,334     | 4,869|
 |1811    |    --     |  1,731    |  1,869    |      719     | 4,319|
 |1812    |    --     |    913    |  2,172    |      244     | 3,329|
 |1813    |    --     |    584    |  1,978    |      542     | 3,104|
 |1814    |    --     |    710    |  1,763    |    1,937     | 4,410|
 +--------+-----------+-----------+-----------+--------------+------+

 +------------------------------------------------------------------+
 |                         EXPENDITURE.                             |
 +----+-----+--------+-------+--------+--------+-------------+------+
 |    |     |        |       |        |        | Surplus,    |      |
 |    |     |        |       |        |        | Funds,      |      |
 |    |     |        |       |        |        | Exchequer   |      |
 |    |     |        |       |        |        | Bills,      |      |
 |    |     |        |       |        |        | Given to the| Grand|
 |Year|House|Lectures|Library|Printing|Workshop| Library, &c.| Total|
 +----+-----+--------+-------+--------+--------+-------------+------+
 |    |  £  |    £   |  £    |   £    |  £     |      £      |  £   |
 |1799|5,147|   --   |  15   |  184   | --     |     --      | 5,777|
 |1800|4,193|   802  | 174   |  216   |   1    |    4,471    |10,115|
 |1801|4,868|   812  | 269   |  376   | 708    |     --      | 7,078|
 |1802|5,113|   844  | 255   |  344   | 502    |     --      | 7,059|
 |1803|1,667| 1,014  | 250   |  478   | 326    |      157    | 3,894|
 |1804|1,777|   872  | 210   |  181   | 118    |      420    | 3,579|
 |1805|1,999| 1,096  | 287   |  193   | 320    |      813    | 4,710|
 |1806|1,739| 1,493  | 464   |  384   |  47[42]|    1,805    | 5,935|
 |1807|1,816| 1,451  | 440   |  258   | --     |     --      | 3,967|
 |1808|1,834| 1,128  | 422   |   99   | --     |     --      | 3,484|
 |1809|1,905| 1,326  | 420   |  375   | --     |        Debts, 2,068|
 |1810|  562|   499  | 220   |  375   | --     |    2,524    | 4,180|
 |1811|1,796|   886  | 322   |  157   | --     |    1,784    | 4,945|
 |1812|1,080|   533  | 190   |  172   | --     |    1,165    | 3,140|
 |1813|  872|   783  | 222   |  150   | --     |    1,175    | 3,202|
 |1814|1,322|   727  | 352   |  180   | --     |    1,870    | 4,451|
 +----+-----+--------+-------+--------+--------+-------------+------+


FOOTNOTES:

[1] The following unpublished letter from General Howe to General
Washington, written from Philadelphia in 1776, shows what the tyranny
of the committees and people was:

‘You are not ignorant that numbers even of the most respectable
gentlemen in America have been torn from their families, confined in
gaols, and their property confiscated; that many of those in this city,
whose religious tenets secured them from suspicion of entertaining
designs of hostility, have been ignominiously imprisoned, and without
even the colour of a judicial proceeding, banished from their tenderest
connections into the remotest part of another province. Nor can it be
unknown to you that many have suffered death from tortures inflicted
by the unrelenting populace under the eye of usurped yet passive
authority; that some have been dragged to trial for their loyalty
and, in cruel mockery of law, condemned and executed; that others are
now perishing in loathsome dungeons, and that penal edicts are daily
issuing against all who hesitate to disavow, by a solemn oath, the
allegiance they owe and wish to pay to their sovereign.’

General Howe shows the exasperation of the Royalists also. He says:

‘Members of committees, collectors of arbitrary fines, &c., oppressors
of the peaceable inhabitants, have been seized by the exasperated
inhabitants of different parts of the country and delivered into my
hands.’

[2] The pamphlet here referred to was Lord Sheffield’s ‘Observations on
the Commerce of the American States.’

[3] So great was the economy practised that the daily expense for
fire-wood in the kitchen, where dinner was provided for 1,000 people,
was only twelve Kreutzers, or fourpence halfpenny. Sometimes 1,500 were
fed in one day.

[4] The great mistake which has been committed in most of the attempts
to introduce a spirit of industry where habits of idleness have
prevailed, has been the too frequent use of coercive measures. Force
will not do. It is address which must be used on those occasions.
The children in the House of Industry at Munich who, being placed on
elevated seats round the hall where other children worked, were made
to be idle spectators of that amusing scene, cried most bitterly when
their request to descend from their seats and mix in that busy crowd
was refused; but they would most probably have cried still more had
they been taken abruptly from their play and forced to work. Men are
but children of a larger growth, and those who undertake to direct them
ought ever to bear in mind that important truth.

[5] This was the prospectus of the Royal Institution.

[6] This was a model one quarter of the full size of the new Bavarian
six-pounder with its ammunition waggon. The Elector permitted him to
present it to the United States.

[7] The President wrote to Secretary McHenry: ‘I should not scruple to
give him any of the appointments you mention, and leave it with you to
make such proposals to him through Mr. King within the limits you have
drawn in your letter as you should think fit.’

[8] Notwithstanding this his daughter said her father objected to her
marrying Sir C. Blagden.

[9] Probably the caricature by Gilray of the Royal Institution and Sir
John Hippesley, published on May 23. Count Rumford was caricatured on
June 12, 1800.

[10] Blagden himself had just been accused of being a spy.

[11] It was not until May 1, 1807, that King Maximilian Joseph, ‘having
extended the bounds of his kingdom, gave a new constitution to the
Bavarian Academy, proportioned to the existing state of science and to
his new empire.’ The first public meeting was held on July 27.

[12] The gentlemen chosen were the Earl of Winchelsea, Mr. Wilberforce,
the Rev. Dr. Glasse, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Richard Sulivan, Mr. Colquhoun,
Mr. Parry, and Mr. Bernard.

[13] If any other season should be thought more convenient for these
elections, it will of course be chosen instead of that here proposed.

[14] No notice of workshops exists in the first number of the Journal,
dated April 1800. In the second number, containing the report to the
managers on May 25, 1801, it is said that eighteen or twenty young men
are to be boarded and lodged in the house (p. 27, Journal).

[15] This gallery staircase has left its mark in the Institution, and
is drawn in the old plans of the house. There was originally no door
into the theatre under the gallery.

[16] Sir J. Hippesley, elected May 19.

[17] Now the anteroom.

[18] Now the lecturers’ room.

[19] This was part of the front area.

[20] Now the chemical laboratory, 1871.

[21] This and a line below are the only traces of praise of Count
Rumford that are to be found in the records of the Institution.

[22] _Edinburgh Review_, Nos. II. and IX., 1803, 1804.

[23] See Appendix II.

[24] See p. 205.

[25] See p. 210.

[26] Hippesleys and Bernards.

[27] Where Mr. Sharpe, Sydney Smith’s friend, lived.

[28] Mr. E. Davy, his cousin.

[29] See below, p. 350, _Life of Professor Davy_.

[30] This lecture was given. In it Mr. Coleridge made a violent
personal attack on Mr. Joseph Lancaster, and a year afterwards, at the
annual meeting of proprietors, a resolution was carried unanimously
that ‘this attack was in direct violation of a known and established
rule of the Royal Institution, prohibiting any personal animadversions
in the lectures there delivered.’

[31] Probably Mr. Boulton of Birmingham.

[32] Present, Sir Joseph Banks, Earl of Morton, Count Rumford, and
Richard Clark, Esq.

[33] The substance of these lectures was published in the fourth number
of the Journals of the Royal Institution, p. 49, edited by Dr. Young.
The paper is called _Outlines of a View of Galvanism_. It is dated
September 1801.

[34] This was the first memoir on the _Theory of Light and Colours_,
read Nov. 12, 1801.

[35] Davy always thought he caught the fever during an experiment for
disinfecting Newgate Prison.

[36] Some time after his recovery it was said in the Institution that
his laboratory experiments caused his illness.

    ‘Says Davy to Baryt, “I’ve a strong inclination
    To try to effect your deoxidation;”
    But Baryt replied, “Have a care of your mirth,
    Lest I should retaliate and change you to earth.”’

[37] The voltaic subscriptions amounted to 520_l._

[38] The predecessor of Mr. Faraday.

[39] The discovery of the simplicity of chlorine was claimed by the
French chemists; Davy afterwards said of Gay-Lussac’s paper in the
_Annales de Chimie_ for July 1814, ‘The historical notes attached to
it are of a nature not to be passed over without animadversion. M.
Gay-Lussac states that he and M. Thénard were the first to advance the
hypothesis that chlorine was a simple body, and he quotes M. Ampère
as having entertained that opinion before me. On the subject of the
originality of the idea of chlorine being a simple body I have always
vindicated the claims of Scheele, but I must assume for myself the
labour of having demonstrated its properties and combinations and
of having explained the chemical phenomena it produces, and I am in
possession of a letter from M. Ampère that shows he has no claims of
this kind to make.’

[40] Count Rumford must have proposed a salary of 225_l._ (p. 238).

[41] Expenditure to June 12.

[42] Abolished in August.




INDEX.


 Academy, American, of Arts and Sciences, 53;
   Bavarian, of Arts and Sciences, 89

 Accounts of the Royal Institution, 180, 203, 304, 425

 Agriculture, Board of, 201, 202, 215

 Alkalies, decomposition of, 279

 Alloys, experiments on, proposed, 192

 Astle, T., his library bought, 259


 Baldwin, Loammi, 6, 8, 41, 59, 62, 65, 67, 68

 Banks, Sir Joseph, 3, 29, 73, 75, 77, 78, 80, 134, 153, 215, 261, 263,
  275, 369

 Bavaria, Elector of, his introduction to Rumford, 28;
   made Fellow of Royal Society, 29

 Beggars at Munich, 31, 32

 Bernard, Thomas (afterwards Sir Thomas), 46, 115, 138;
   report on the Institution, 203, 301;
   death, 302

 Blagden, Sir C., 42, 69, 71, 77, 81, 84, 93

 Böekman, Mr., 181

 Brande, Mr., 308, 309, 389


 Carleton, Sir Guy, 24, 25, 260, 405

 Chemical operator, 172

 Clinton, Sir Henry, 15, 19

 Coleridge, Mr., his lectures, 277, 284, 342

 Committee of Science, 215, 302, 309;
   committees for investigation, 154, 186, 138, 192, 280

 Concord, formerly Rumford, 3, 113

 Cooper, Astley, 259

 Crotch, Dr., 260

 Curwen, Judge, his sketch of Thompson, 18

 Cuvier, Baron, his éloge on Rumford, 13, 29, 36, 109


 Dalton, Mr., 216, 290

 Dartmouth, Lord, 12

 Davy, Sir H., 70, 83, 113, 176, 180, 281, 300, 304, 307, 310;
   his birth, 312;
   at Bristol with Dr. Beddoes, 313;
   his first work, 314;
   opinion of by Southey, 315;
   his first galvanic experiments, 316;
   first interview with Rumford, 317;
   his engagement at the Institution, 318, 320;
   his first lectures, 321, 323;
   his second year’s lectures, 326;
   his success as a lecturer, 328;
   his lectures on Agriculture, 329;
   edited the Journal, 331;
   made F.R.S., 331;
   opinion of him by Coleridge, 332;
   his own opinion, 333;
   Dr. Dalton’s account of him, 334;
   his letter to Coleridge, who was leaving England, 335;
   his letter on the death of G. Watt, 337;
   received the Copley medal, 338;
   his picture of Ireland, 338;
   his electrical discoveries, 339;
   his first Bakerian lecture, 340;
   secretary of the Royal Society, 341;
   his account of Coleridge’s lectures, 342;
   his laboratory notes of the decomposition of the alkalies, 343, 344,
     345, 346;
   his first sketch of the Bakerian lecture on the New Metals, 347,
     348, 349;
   his illness, 350;
   Mr. Dibden’s account of his discoveries, 351, 352;
   his lectures after his illness, 354;
   his work, 355;
   his new electric battery, 356;
   tries to decompose nitrogen, 358;
   his picture of the laboratory, 360;
   his work on Chlorine, 363, 364;
   his lectures at Dublin, 366;
   his marriage, 367, 368, 369, 381;
   his last lectures at the Royal Institution, 370;
   on Radiant Matter, 371;
   on Chlorine, 374;
   on Simple Inflammable Bodies, 376;
   on the Metals, 378;
   his ‘Elements of Chemical Philosophy,’ 381;
     reviewed by Dr. Young, 382, 384, 386;
   his agricultural lectures, 387;
   his work on Fluorine, 388;
   elected honorary professor, 389;
   his researches on flame, 390;
   President of Royal Society, 390;
   on the protection of ships, 391;
   his first attack of paralysis, 391;
   resignation of the presidentship, 393;
   his last paper on the Torpedo, 396;
   his last illness, 398;
   his death, 400;
   his picture by his friend Mr. Poole, 401, 403

 Dibden, Mr., 213, 273, 283, 351, 352

 Dragoons, King’s American, regiment, 16, 25, 26, 407


 Elector of Bavaria, Theodore, 28, 29, 40, 41, 59, 60, 62;
   Maximilian, 72, 77, 82, 97

 Essays, Count Rumford’s, 43, 49, 76


 Faraday, Michael, 307, 308, 310, 311, 389, 391

 Fluoric principle, Davy on, 307, 308


 Gage, Governor, 6, 11

 Garden, English, at Munich, 37

 Garnett, Dr., 141, 148, 157;
   his life, 163 _et seq._

 Germain, Lord George, 12, 17, 18;
   introduces Thompson to Sir. H. Clinton, 19;
   praises Thompson to General Leslie, 21

 Gibbon, his account of Rumford, 27

 Gilray, caricature of Rumford and Royal Institution, 78

 Guizot, M., his éloge on Madame de Rumford, 101


 Harris, Mr., first librarian, 213

 Hatchett, Mr., 154, 159, 204, 213

 Heat, on the source of, 49;
   motion, 51

 Hippesley, Sir John, 146, 148, 152, 156, 180

 Howe, General, 10, 11, 13

 Huntingdon, barracks at Long Island, 25


 Industry, House of, at Munich, 33

 Institution, London, the, 274, 275

 Institution, Royal, the, germ of, 44;
   Proposals, 66;
   caricature of, 78;
   foundation, 114;
   objects, 121;
   funds, 125;
   privileges of proprietors, 126;
   subscribers, 128;
   government, 129;
   managers, 130;
   visitors, 132;
   first meeting of proprietors, 134;
   first meeting of managers, 136;
   charter, 138;
   new prospectus, 147;
   new theatre, 148;
   abstract of the accounts, 180;
   report of, in 1801, 181;
   Davy appointed assistant lecturer at, 181;
   lecturer, 186;
   Young appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at, 188;
   report on in 1802, 195;
   Rumford’s last report on, 197;
   committee on the state of, 201;
   the first report of the committee on, 203;
   description of by Young, 206;
   progress of, 258 _et seq._;
   compared with the London Institution, 275;
   difficulties of, 281;
   value of the property, 282;
   described by Davy, 280, 292 _et seq._;
   income and expenditure of, from the commencement to 1814, 425


 Jenner, Dr., 303

 Journal of the Royal Institution, 153, 155, 181, 187, 188, 197, 210


 King Rufus, 63, 66

 Kitchens, 151


 Laboratory, 152, 155, 159, 160, 204, 269

 Landseer, Mr., 272, 273

 Lavoisier, Madame, 83, 88, 92, 97, 101, 113, 189

 Lawrence, Mr., 277, 303

 Lectures, first, at the Institution, 167, 170;
   of Davy and Young, 191;
   of Dalton, 219

 Leslie, General, 21, 23

 Library, foundation of, 204, 212

 Light, experiments on, 40

 Long Island, 25


 Magneto-electricity, discovery of, 279

 Marion, General, defeated by Thompson, 22

 Master of the Workshops, 181

 Mechanics’ School, 142, 162

 Mellish, his house bought, 138

 Military Academy, Munich, 36

 Mineralogical collection, 266, 267, 268, 270

 Model room, 155

 Motion heat, 51

 Munich, 28, 31, 34, 39, 50, 59, 82, 99, 113


 Napoleon, First Consul, description of, 73, 79

 National Institute, 75

 Nova Scotia, 25, 26


 Parliament, Act of, 288, 291

 Payne, William, 281, 305, 306

 Pictet, Professor, his account of Rumford, 27, 145

 Printing press, 153, 189, 260

 Proposals for founding the Royal Institution, 114, 121

 Proprietors, 271, 273, 285, 287, 296, 303

 Pupils in the laboratory, 269


 Resignation of Dr. Garnett, 177

 Report on the Institution, 181

 Repository, 152

 Rolfe, Mrs. Colonel, the first wife of Rumford, 4

 Rumford, Benjamin Thompson, Count, 1;
   his education, 2;
   his first note-book, 3;
   his first marriage, 4;
   major of militia, 5;
   persecuted as Royalist, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10;
   leaves his wife, child, and country, 11;
   made Secretary of Georgia, 13;
   volunteer in British fleet, 14;
   Fellow of the Royal Society, 15;
   Under Secretary of State, 17;
   Deputy Inspector General of Provincial Forces, 17;
   Lieut.-Colonel of King’s American Dragoons, 19;
   embarks for New York, 20;
   arrives in Carolina, 21;
   commands the cavalry there, 21;
   his action on the Santee river, 22;
   mentioned in the general orders by General Leslie, 23;
   arrives at New York, 24;
   consulted by Sir H. Clinton, 24;
   commands at Huntingdon, Long Island, 25;
   volunteers to serve in West Indies, 26;
   returns to London, 26;
   leaves England for the Austrian service, 27;
   meets the nephew of the Elector of Bavaria, 28;
   goes to Munich, 28;
   knighted and enters Bavarian service, 28;
   aide-de-camp and colonel in Bavaria, 29;
   his reforms in Bavaria, 30-37;
   experiments on conduction of heat, 38;
   experiments on light, 40;
   his honours, 41;
   his essays, 43, 49;
   on Heat, 50;
   his medals in America, 53;
     in England, 54;
   awarded the first Rumford medal, 54;
   his work and honours in Ireland, 55;
   his picture by his daughter, 57;
   saves Munich, 59;
   Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to England, 61;
   not received, 62;
   invited to America, 64;
   founds the Royal Institution, 69;
   revisits Munich, 71;
   first visits Paris, 73;
   leaves England, 77;
   returns to Munich, 81;
   his engagement to Madame Lavoisier, 87;
   his marriage, 90;
   further scientific researches, 93;
   his wretched married life, 94;
   goes to Auteuil, 96;
   his separation, 97;
   returns to Munich, 99;
   further researches, 104;
   visited by Davy, 105;
   his life at Auteuil, 106;
   his death, 109;
   his will, 112;
   his bequest to Harvard College, 112;
   to Davy, 113;
   founds the Royal Institution, 114 _et seq._;
   his last report on the Institution, 197;
   causes of his departure from England, 200;
   state of the funds when he left the Institution, 201;
   original documents regarding his service in the American war, 405
     _et seq._


 Savage, Mr., 155, 189

 Simonds, Miss, Rumford’s mother, 1

 Smith, Sir James, 259

 Smith, Sydney, 260, 264, 265, 272, 273, 277

 Society for bettering the condition of the poor, 46, 118, 138, 147

 Subscribers to lectures only, 193;
   ladies recommending subscribers, 209

 Subscription for Dr. Garnett’s children, 179


 Tanning, Davy to lecture on, 186, 190

 Theatre of Institution, 149, 152

 Thompson, Benjamin, Ebenezer and James, ancestors of Count Rumford, 1


 Underwood, Mr., 105


 Ventilation, 273

 Verona, hospitals at, 42

 Volta, experiments on animal electricity, 43, 73, 74, 84, 156, 278


 Walker, Rev. T., the father-in-law of Rumford, 3, 7

 Webster, Mr., 138, 141, 148, 172, 185, 193, 195

 Wentworth, Governor, 4

 Winchelsea, Earl of, first president, 141

 Woburn, Massachusetts, the birthplace of Rumford, 1, 8

 Wollaston, Dr., 300, 303

 Workhouse at Munich, 31

 Workshops at the Institution, 198


 Young, Dr. Thomas, 112;
   made Professor, 188;
   his lectures, 191, 205, 240, 244;
   his preface to the second volume of the Journal of the Institution,
     206, 246;
   his reply to the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ 211;
   his early history, 223 _et seq._;
   made F.R.S., 225;
   at Edinburgh, 226;
   ceased to be a Quaker, 227;
   his Highland tour, 228;
   at Göttingen, 229;
   at Cambridge, 232;
   his discoveries on light, 235;
   reviewed by Lord Brougham, 236;
   his reply, 237;
   professor at the Royal Institution, 238;
   his editing of the Journals, 239;
   his introductory lecture on the objects of the Institution, 242;
   foreign secretary of the Royal Society, 246;
   leaves the Royal Institution, 246;
   elected a life subscriber, 246;
   published his lectures on Natural Philosophy, 247;
   physician of St. George’s Hospital, 248;
   began his hieroglyphical researches, 249;
   his articles in the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ 250;
   his article on Egypt, 250;
   superintendent of the ‘Nautical Almanac,’ 250;
   comparison of Young and Fresnel, 251;
   his interviews with Champollion, 253;
   abuse for the ‘Nautical Almanac,’ 254;
   his death, 255;
   his character drawn by Sir H. Davy, 256;
     by Davies Gilbert, 257;
   his answer to Rumford when offered the professorship at Royal
     Institution, 417;
   his invention of a micrometer, 419 _et seq._


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 =LIFE of JOHN GIBSON, R.A. SCULPTOR.= Edited by Lady EASTLAKE. 8vo.
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 =MATERIALS for a HISTORY of OIL PAINTING.= By Sir CHARLES LOCKE
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 =ALBERT DURER, HIS LIFE and WORKS=; including Autobiographical Papers
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 =SIX LECTURES on HARMONY=, delivered at the Royal Institution of
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 =SACRED and LEGENDARY ART.= By Mrs. JAMESON.

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_The Useful Arts_, _Manufactures_, &c.

 =HISTORY of the GOTHIC REVIVAL=; an Attempt to shew how far the taste
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 =A MANUAL of ARCHITECTURE=: being a Concise History and Explanation of
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 =LATHES and TURNING, Simple, Mechanical, and ORNAMENTAL.= By W. HENRY
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 =URE’S DICTIONARY of ARTS, MANUFACTURES, and MINES.= Sixth Edition,
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 =HANDBOOK of PRACTICAL TELEGRAPHY.= By R. S. CULLEY, Memb. Inst. C.E.
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 =The APPLICATION of CAST and WROUGHT IRON to Building Purposes.= By
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 =OLD TESTAMENT SYNONYMS, their BEARING on CHRISTIAN FAITH and
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 =FUNDAMENTALS=; or, Bases of Belief concerning MAN and GOD: a Handbook
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 =The BIBLE and POPULAR THEOLOGY=; a Re-statement of Truths and
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 =The TRUTH of the BIBLE=: Evidence from the Mosaic and other Records
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 =CONSIDERATIONS on the REVISION of the ENGLISH NEW TESTAMENT.= By C.
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 =An EXPOSITION of the 39 ARTICLES=, Historical and Doctrinal. By E.
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 =The LIFE and EPISTLES of ST. PAUL=. By the Rev. W. J. CONYBEARE,
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 =EVIDENCE of the TRUTH of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION= derived from the
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 =An INTRODUCTION to the STUDY of the NEW TESTAMENT=, Critical,
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 =HARTWELL HORNE’S INTRODUCTION to the CRITICAL STUDY= and Knowledge of
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 =EWALD’S HISTORY of ISRAEL to the DEATH of MOSES.= Translated from
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 =The HISTORY and LITERATURE of the ISRAELITES=, according to the
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 =The SEE of ROME in the MIDDLE AGES.= By the Rev. OSWALD J. REICHEL,
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 =The TREASURY of BIBLE KNOWLEDGE=; being a Dictionary of the Books,
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 =SINGERS and SONGS of the CHURCH=: being Biographical Sketches of the
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    FIRST SERIES, Hymns for the Sundays and Chief Festivals. SECOND
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 =‘SPIRITUAL SONGS’ for the SUNDAYS and HOLIDAYS throughout the Year.=
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 =The BEATITUDES=: Abasement before God; Sorrow for Sin; Meekness of
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 =His PRESENCE--not his MEMORY, 1855.= By the same Author, in Memory of
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 =WHATELY’S INTRODUCTORY LESSONS on the CHRISTIAN Evidences.= 18mo.
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 =BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR’S ENTIRE WORKS.= With Life by BISHOP HEBER.
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 =HOW to SEE NORWAY.= By Captain J. R. CAMPBELL. With Map and 5
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 =PAU and the PYRENEES.= By Count HENRY RUSSELL, Member of the Alpine
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 =SCENES in the SUNNY SOUTH=; including the Atlas Mountains and the
    Oases of the Sahara in Algeria. By Lieut.-Col. the Hon. C. S.
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    post 8vo. price 21_s._

 =The PLAYGROUND of EUROPE.= By LESLIE STEPHEN, late President of the
    Alpine Club. With 4 Illustrations engraved on Wood by E. WHYMPER.
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 =CADORE; or, TITIAN’S COUNTRY.= By JOSIAH GILBERT, one of the
    Authors of ‘The Dolomite Mountains.’ With Map, Facsimile, and 40
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 =HOURS of EXERCISE in the ALPS.= By JOHN TYNDALL, LL.D. F.R.S. Second
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 =TRAVELS in the CENTRAL CAUCASUS and BASHAN.= Including Visits to
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 =PICTURES in TYROL and Elsewhere.= From a Family Sketch-Book. By the
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 =ZIGZAGGING AMONGST DOLOMITES.= By the Author of ‘How we Spent the
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 =VISITS to REMARKABLE PLACES=: Old Halls, Battle-Fields, and Stones
    Illustrative of Striking Passages in English History and Poetry. By
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 =The RURAL LIFE of ENGLAND.= By the same Author. With Woodcuts by
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 =PILGRIMAGES in the PYRENEES and LANDES.= By DENYS SHYNE LAWLOR. Crown
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      HENRIETTA TEMPLE, 6_s._
      CONTARINI FLEMING, &c. 6_s._
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      GERTRUDE, 2_s._ 6_d._
      _The_ EARL’S DAUGHTER, 2_s._ 6_d._
      EXPERIENCE _of_ LIFE, 2_s._ 6_d._
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      IVORS, 3_s._ 6_d._
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      MARGARET PERCIVAL, 5_s._
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      URSULA, 4_s._ 6_d._

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 =A Glimpse of the World.= By the Author of ‘Amy Herbert.’ Fcp. 7_s._
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 =The Journal of a Home Life.= By the same Author. Post 8vo. 9_s._ 6_d._

 =After Life=; a Sequel to ‘The Journal of a Home Life.’ Price 10_s._
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 =UNCLE PETER’S FAIRY TALE for the NINETEENTH CENTURY.= Edited by E. M.
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 =THE GIANT=; A Witch’s Story for English Boys. By the same Author and
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 =A VISIT to MY DISCONTENTED COUSIN.= Reprinted, with some Additions,
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 =BECKER’S GALLUS=; or, Roman Scenes of the Time of Augustus: with
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      DIGBY GRAND, 5_s._
      KATE COVENTRY, 5_s._
      GENERAL BOUNCE, 5_s._
      HOLMBY HOUSE, 5_s._
      GOOD _for_ NOTHING, 6_s._
      _The_ QUEEN’S MARIES, 6_s._
      _The_ INTERPRETER, 5_s._

 =TALES of ANCIENT GREECE.= By GEORGE W. COX, M.A. late Scholar of
    Trin. Coll. Oxon. Crown 8vo. price 6_s._ 6_d._

 =A MANUAL of MYTHOLOGY=, in the form of Question and Answer. By the
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 =OUR CHILDREN’S STORY=, by one of their Gossips. By the Author of
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 =THOMAS MOORE’S POETICAL WORKS=, the only Editions containing the
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 =LAYS of ANCIENT ROME=; with _Ivry_ and the _Armada_. By the Right
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 =The MAD WAR PLANET, and other POEMS.= By WILLIAM HOWITT, Author of
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 =MOPSA the FAIRY.= By JEAN INGELOW. Pp. 256, with Eight Illustrations
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 =A STORY of DOOM, and other Poems.= By JEAN INGELOW. Third Edition.
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 =WORKS by EDWARD YARDLEY=:--

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      HORACE’S ODES, _translated into_ English Verse. Crown 8vo. 6_s._
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 =The ÆNEID of VIRGIL= Translated into English Verse. By JOHN
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 =The DEAD SHOT=, or Sportsman’s Complete Guide; a Treatise on the Use
    of the Gun, Dog-breaking, Pigeon-shooting, &c. By MARKSMAN. Revised
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 =The FLY-FISHER’S ENTOMOLOGY.= By ALFRED RONALDS. With coloured
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 =A BOOK on ANGLING=; a complete Treatise on the Art of Angling in
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 =The BOOK of the ROACH.= By GREVILLE FENNELL, of ‘The Field.’ Fcp.
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 =The HORSE’S FOOT, and HOW to KEEP IT SOUND.= By W. MILES, Esq. Ninth
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 =A PLAIN TREATISE on HORSE-SHOEING.= By the same Author. Sixth
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 =The HORSE=: with a Treatise on Draught. By WILLIAM YOUATT. New
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 =The DOG in HEALTH and DISEASE.= By STONEHENGE. With 70 Wood
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_Works_ of _Utility_ and _General Information_.

 =The THEORY and PRACTICE of BANKING.= By H. D. MACLEOD, M.A.
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 =A DICTIONARY=, Practical, Theoretical, and Historical, of Commerce
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 =NOTES on HOSPITALS.= By FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. Third Edition,
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 =A PRACTICAL TREATISE on BREWING=; with Formulæ for Public Brewers,
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 =MAUNDER’S TREASURY of KNOWLEDGE and LIBRARY of Reference=: comprising
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INDEX.


 ACTON’S Modern Cookery, 28

 ALCOCK’S Residence in Japan, 23

 ALLEN’S Four Discourses of Chrysostom, 22

 ALLIES on Formation of Christendom, 21

 Alpine Guide (The), 23

 ALTHAUS on Medical Electricity, 14

 ARNOLD’S Manual of English Literature, 7

 ARNOTT’S Elements of Physics, 11

 Arundines Cami, 26

 Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson, 8

 AYRE’S Treasury of Bible Knowledge, 20


 BACON’S Essays, by WHATELY, 6

 ---- Life and Letters, by SPEDDING, 6

 ---- Works, edited by SPEDDING, 6

 BAIN’S Logic, Deductive and Inductive, 10

 ---- Mental and Moral Science, 10

 ---- on the Senses and Intellect, 10

 BALL’S Alpine Guide, 23

 BAYLDON’S Rents and Tillages, 19

 Beaten Tracks, 23

 BECKER’S Charicles _and_ Gallus, 25

 BENFEY’S Sanskrit Dictionary, 8

 BERNARD on British Neutrality, 1

 BLACK’S Treatise on Brewing, 28

 BLACKLEY’S German-English Dictionary, 8

 BLAINE’S Rural Sports, 26

 ---- Veterinary Art, 27

 BOOTH’S Saint-Simon, 3

 BOULTBEE on 39 Articles, 19

 BOURNE on Screw Propeller, 18

 BOURNE’S Catechism of the Steam Engine, 18

 ---- Handbook of Steam Engine, 18

 ---- Improvements in the Steam Engine, 18

 ---- Treatise on the Steam Engine, 18

 ---- Examples of Modern Engines, 18

 BOWDLER’S Family SHAKSPEARE, 26

 BOYD’S Reminiscences, 4

 BRAMLEY-MOORE’S Six Sisters of the Valleys, 24

 BRANDE’S Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art, 13

 BRAY’S (C.) Education of the Feelings, 10

 ---- Philosophy of Necessity, 10

 ---- on Force, 10

 BROWNE’S Exposition of the 39 Articles, 19

 BRUNEL’S Life of BRUNEL, 4

 BUCKLE’S History of Civilization, 3

 BULL’S Hints to Mothers, 28

 ---- Maternal Management of Children, 28

 BUNSEN’S God in History, 3

 ---- Prayers, 19

 BURKE’S Vicissitudes of Families, 5

 BURTON’S Christian Church, 4


 Cabinet Lawyer, 28

 CAMPBELL’S Norway, 22

 CARNOTA’S Memoirs of Pombal, 4

 CATES’S Biographical Dictionary, 5

 CATS’ and FARLIE’S Moral Emblems, 16

 Changed Aspects of Unchanged Truths, 9

 CHESNEY’S Indian Polity, 3

 ---- Waterloo Campaign, 3

 ---- and REEVE’S Military Essays, 2

 Chorale Book for England, 16

 CLOUGH’S Lives from Plutarch, 2

 COLENSO (Bishop) on Pentateuch, 21

 Commonplace Philosopher, 8

 CONINGTON’S Translation of the _Æneid_, 25

 CONTANSEAU’S French-English Dictionaries, 8

 CONYBEARE and HOWSON’S St. Paul, 20

 COTTON’S (Bishop) Life, 5

 COOPER’S Surgical Dictionary, 15

 COPLAND’S Dictionary of Practical Medicine, 15

 Counsel and Comfort from a City Pulpit, 9

 COX’S Aryan Mythology, 3

 ---- Manual of Mythology, 25

 ---- Tale of the Great Persian War, 2

 ---- Tales of Ancient Greece, 25

 CRESY’S Encyclopædia of Civil Engineering, 18

 Critical Essays of a Country Parson, 8

 CROOKES on Beet-Root Sugar, 15

 ----’S Chemical Analysis, 14

 CULLEY’S Handbook of Telegraphy, 18

 CUSACK’S History of Ireland, 3


 D’AUBIGNE’S History of the Reformation in the time of CALVIN, 2

 DAVIDSON’S Introduction to New Testament, 26

 Dead Shot (The), by MARKSMAN, 27

 DE LA RIVE’S Treatise on Electricity, 12

 DENISON’S Vice-Regal Life, 1

 DE TOCQUEVILLE’S Democracy in America, 2

 DISRAELI’S Lothair, 24

 ---- Novels and Tales, 24

 DOBELL’S Medical Reports, 15

 DOBSON on the Ox, 27

 DOVE on Storms, 11

 DOYLE’S Fairyland, 15

 DYER’S City of Rome, 2


 EASTLAKE’S Hints on Household Taste, 17

 ---- History of Oil Painting, 16

 ---- Gothic Revival, 17

 ---- Life of Gibson, 16

 Elements of Botany, 13

 ELLICOTT on the Revision of the English New Testament, 19

 ---- Commentary on Ephesians, 20

 ---- Commentary on Galatians, 20

 ---- ---- -- Pastoral Epist., 20

 ---- ---- -- Philippians, &c., 20

 ---- ---- -- Thessalonians, 20

 ---- Lectures on the Life of Christ, 20

 Essays and Contributions of A. K. H. B, 8

 EWALD’S History of Israel, 20


 FAIRBAIRN on Iron Shipbuilding, 18

 ----’S Applications of Iron, 18

 ---- Information for Engineers, 18

 ---- Mills and Millwork, 18

 FARADAY’S Life and Letters, 4

 FARRAR’S Families of Speech, 9

 ---- Chapters on Language, 7

 FELKIN on Hosiery and Lace Manufactures, 18

 FENNELL’S Book of the Roach, 27

 FFOULKES’S Christendom’s Divisions, 21

 FITZWYGRAM on Horses and Stables, 27

 FOWLER’S Collieries and Colliers, 28

 FRANCIS’S Fishing Book, 27

 FRESHFIELD’S Travels in the Caucasus, 23

 FROUDE’S History of England, 1

 ---- Short Studies on Great Subjects, 9


 GANOT’S Elementary Physics, 11

 GILBERT’S Cadore, or Titian’s Country, 22

 GILBERT and CHURCHILL’S Dolomites, 23

 GIRDLESTONE’S Bible Synonymes, 19

 GLEDSTONE’S Life of WHITEFIELD, 5

 GODDARD’S Wonderful Stories, 25

 GOLDSMITH’S Poems, Illustrated, 28

 GRAHAM’S View of Literature and Art, 3

 GRANT’S Home Politics, 3

 ---- Ethics of Aristotle, 6

 Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson, 8

 GRAY’S Anatomy, 15

 GREENHOW on Bronchitis, 16

 GRIFFITH’S Fundamentals, 19

 GROVE on Correlation of Physical Forces, 12

 GURNEY’S Chapters of French History, 2

 GWILT’S Encyclopædia of Architecture, 17


 HAMPDEN’S (Bishop) Memorials, 4

 HARE on Election of Representatives, 7

 HARTWIG’S Harmonies of Nature, 13

 ---- Polar World, 13

 ---- Sea and its Living Wonders, 13

 ---- Subterranean World, 13

 ---- Tropical World, 13

 HAUGHTON’S Manual of Geology, 12

 HERSCHEL’S Outlines of Astronomy, 10

 HEWITT on Diseases of Women, 14

 HODGSON’S Theory of Practice, 10

 ---- Time and Space, 10

 HOLMES’S System of Surgery, 14

 ---- Surgical Diseases of Infancy, 14

 Home (The) at Heatherbrae, 24

 HORNE’S Introduction to the Scriptures, 20

 ---- Compendium of ditto, 20

 How we Spent the Summer, 23

 HOWITT’S Australian Discovery, 23

 ---- Mad War Planet, 26

 ---- Northern Heights of London, 23

 ---- Rural Life of England, 24

 ---- Visits to Remarkable Places, 24

 HÜBNER’S Memoir of Sixtus V., 2

 HUGHES’S (W.) Manual of Geography, 11

 HUME’S Essays, 10

 ---- Treatise on Human Nature, 10


 IHNE’S Roman History, 2

 INGELOW’S Poems, 26

 ---- Story of Doom, 26

 ---- Mopsa, 26


 JAMESON’S Saints and Martyrs, 17

 ---- Legends of the Madonna, 17

 ---- Monastic Orders, 17

 JAMESON and EASTLAKE’S Saviour, 17

 John Jerningham’s Journal, 26

 JOHNSTON’S Geographical Dictionary, 11


 KALISCH’S Commentary on the Bible, 7

 ---- Hebrew Grammar, 7

 KEITH on Fulfilment of Prophecy, 20

 ---- Destiny of the World, 20

 KERL’S Metallurgy, 18

 KIRBY and SPENCE’S Entomology, 13


 LATHAM’S English Dictionary

 LAWLOR’S Pilgrimages in the Pyrenees, 24

 LECKY’S History of European Morals, 3

 ---- ---- -- Rationalism, 3

 Leisure Hours in Town, 9

 Lessons of Middle Age, 9

 LEWES’ History of Philosophy, 3

 LIDDELL and SCOTT’S Two Lexicons, 8

 Life of Man Symbolised, 16

 LINDLEY and MOORE’S Treasury of Botany, 13

 LONGMAN’S Edward the Third, 2

 ---- Lectures on the History of England, 2

 ---- Chess Openings, 28

 LOUDON’S Agriculture, 19

 ---- Gardening, 19

 ---- Plants, 13

 LOWNDES’S Engineer’s Handbook, 17

 LUBBOCK on Origin of Civilisation, 12

 Lyra Eucharistica, 22

 ---- Germanica, 16, 21

 ---- Messianica, 22

 ---- Mystica, 22


 MACAULAY’S (Lord) Essays, 3

 ---- History of England, 1

 ---- Lays of Ancient Rome, 25

 ---- Miscellaneous Writings, 9

 ---- Speeches, 7

 ---- Complete Works, 1

 MACFARREN’S Lectures on Harmony, 16

 MACLEOD’S Elements of Political Economy, 7

 ---- Dictionary of Political Economy, 7

 ---- Theory and Practice of Banking, 27

 MCCULLOCH’S Dictionary of Commerce, 28

 MAGUIRE’S Life of Father Mathew, 5

 ---- Pope Pius IX, 5

 MALET’S Overthrow of the Germanic Confederation by Prussia, 2

 MANNING’S England and Christendom, 21

 MARCET on the Larynx, 15

 MARSHALL’S Canadian Dominion, 11

 ---- Physiology, 15

 MARSHMAN’S Life of Havelock, 5

 ---- History of India, 3

 MARTINEAU’S Christian Life, 22

 MASSINGBERD’S History of the Reformation, 4

 MAUNDEE’S Biographical Treasury, 5

 ---- Geographical Treasury, 11

 ---- Historical Treasury, 4

 ---- Scientific and Literary Treasury, 13

 ---- Treasury of Knowledge, 28

 ---- Treasury of Natural History, 13

 MAY’S Constitutional History of England, 1

 MELVILLE’S Novels and Tales, 24 & 25

 MENDELSSOHN’S Letters, 5

 MERIVALES’S Fall of the Roman Republic, 3

 ---- Romans under the Empire, 3

 MERRIFIELD and EVER’S Navigation, 11

 MILES on Horse’s Foot and Horseshoeing, 27

 ---- Horses’ Teeth and Stables, 27

 MILL (J.) on the Mind, 9

 MILL (J. S.) on Liberty, 6

 ---- on Representative Government, 6

 ---- on Utilitarianism, 6

 MILL’S (J. S.) Dissertations and Discussions, 6

 ---- Political Economy, 6

 ---- System of Logic, 6

 ---- Hamilton’s Philosophy, 6

 ---- Inaugural Address, 7

 ---- Subjection of Women, 8

 MILLER’S Elements of Chemistry, 14

 ---- Hymn-Writers, 21

 MITCHELL’S Manual of Architecture, 17

 ---- Manual of Assaying, 18

 MOSSELL’S Beatitudes, 22

 ---- His Presence not his Memory, 22

 ---- ‘Spiritual Songs’, 22

 MOORE’S Irish Melodies, 25

 ---- Lalla Rookh, 25

 ---- Poetical Works, 25

 MORELL’S Elements of Psychology, 9

 ---- Mental Philosophy, 9

 MULLER’S (MAX) Chips from a German Workshop, 9

 ---- Lectures on Language, 7

 ---- (K. O.) Literature of Ancient Greece, 3

 MURCHISON on Liver Complaints, 15

 MURE’S Language and Literature of Greece, 2


 NASH’S Compendium of the Prayer Book, 19

 New Testament, Illustrated Edition, 16

 NEWMAN’S History of his Religious Opinions, 5

 NIGHTINGALE’S Notes on Hospitals, 28

 ---- ---- -- Lying-In Institutions, 28

 NILSSON’S Scandinavia, 12

 NORTHCOTT’S Lathes and Turning 17


 ODLING’S Animal Chemistry, 14

 ---- Course of Practical Chemistry, 14

 ---- Manual of Chemistry, 14

 ---- Lectures on Carbon, 14

 ---- Outlines of Chemistry, 14

 O’DRISCOLL’S Memoirs of MACLISE, 4

 O’FLANAGAN’S Irish Chancellors, 5

 Our Children’s Story, 25

 OWEN’S Lectures on the Invertebrate, 12

 ---- Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of Vertebrate Animals, 12


 PACKE’S Guide to the Pyrenees, 23

 PAGET’S Lectures on Surgical Pathology, 15

 PEREIRA’S Manual of Materia Medica, 16

 PERKIN’S Italian and Tuscan Sculptors, 17

 PERRING’S Churches and Creeds, 19

 PEWTNER’S Comprehensive Specifier, 28

 Pictures in Tyrol, 22

 PIESSE’S Art of Perfumery, 19

 ---- Natural Magic, 19

 PONTON’S Beginning, 12

 PRATT’S Law of Building Societies 28

 PRENDERGAST’S Mastery of Languages, 8

 PRESCOTT’S Scripture Difficulties, 21

 Present-Day Thoughts, 9

 PROCTOR on Plurality of Worlds, 10

 ---- -- Saturn and its System, 10

 ---- -- The Sun, 10

 ----’S Scientific Essays, 12

 Public Schools Atlas (The), 11


 RAE’S Westward by Rail, 23

 Recreations of a Country Parson, 8

 REICHEL’S See of Rome, 20

 REILLY’S Map of Mont Blanc, 23

 REIMANN on Aniline Dyes, 15

 RIVERS’ Rose Amateur’s Guide, 13

 ROBBINS’S Cavalry Catechism, 27

 ROGERS’S Correspondence of Greyson, 9

 ---- Eclipse of Faith, 9

 ---- Defence of ditto, 9

 ROGET’S English Words and Phrases, 7

 RONALD’S Fly-Fisher’s Entomology, 27

 ROSE’S Ignatius Loyola, 2

 ROTHSCHILD’S Israelites, 20

 ROWTON’S Debater, 7

 RUSSELL’S Pau and the Pyrenees, 22


 SANDARS’S Justinian’s Institutes, 5

 SAVILE on the Truth of the Bible, 19

 SCHALLEN’S Spectrum Analysis, 11

 SCOTT’S Lectures on the Fine Arts, 15

 ---- Albert Durer, 16

 SEEBOHM’S Oxford Reformers of 1498, 2

 SEWELL’S After Life, 24

 ---- Amy Herbert, 24

 ---- Cleve Hall, 24

 ---- Earl’s Daughter, 24

 ---- Examination for Confirmation, 21

 ---- Experience of Life, 24

 ---- Gertrude, 24

 ---- Giant, 25

 ---- Glimpse of the World, 24

 ---- History of the Early Church, 3

 ---- Ivors, 24

 ---- Journal of a Home Life, 24

 ---- Katharine Ashton, 24

 ---- Laneton Parsonage, 24

 ---- Margaret Percival, 24

 ---- Passing Thoughts on Religion, 21

 ---- Poems of Bygone Years, 26

 ---- Preparations for Communion, 21

 ---- Principles of Education, 21

 ---- Readings for Confirmation, 21

 ---- Readings for Lent, 21

 ---- Tales and Stories, 21

 ---- Thoughts for the Age, 21

 ---- Ursula, 21

 ---- Thoughts for the Holy Week, 21

 SHIPLEY’S Four Cardinal Virtues, 21

 ---- Invocation of Saints, 22

 SHORT’S Church History, 4

 SMART’S WALKER’S Dictionary, 8

 SMITH’S (V.) Bible and Popular Theology, 19

 ---- (J.) Paul’s Voyage and Shipwreck, 20

 ---- (SYDNEY) Miscellaneous Works, 9

 ---- ---- Wit and Wisdom, 9

 ---- ---- Life and Letters, 4

 SOUTHEY’S Doctor, 7

 ---- Poetical Works, 25

 STANLEY’S History of British Birds, 13

 STATHAM’S Eucharis, 26

 STEBRING’S Analysis of MILL’S Logic, 6

 STEPHEN’S Ecclesiastical Biography, 5

 ---- Playground of Europe, 22

 STIRLING’S Secret of Hegel, 9

 ---- Sir WILLIAM HAMILTON, 10

 STONEHENGE on the Dog, 27

 ----- on the Greyhound, 27

 STRICKLAND’S Queens of England, 5

 ---- Sunday Afternoons at the Parish Church of  a Scottish University
   City (St. Andrews), 8


 TAYLOR’S History of India, 3

 ---- (Jeremy) Works, edited by EDEN, 22

 THIRLWALL’S History of Greece, 2

 THOMPSON’S (Archbishop) Laws of Thought, 6

 ---- (A.T.) Conspectus, 16

 TODD (A.) on Parliamentary Government, 1

 TODD and BOWMAN’S Anatomy and Physiology of Man, 15

 TRENCH’S Ierne, a Tale, 24

 TRENCH’S Realities of Irish Life, 3

 TROLLOPE’S Barchester Towers, 24

 ---- Warden, 24

 TWISS’S Law of Nations, 28

 TYNDALL on Diamagnetism, 11

 ---- -- Electricity, 12

 ---- -- on Heat, 11

 ---- -- Imagination in Science, 12

 ---- -- Sound, 11

 ----’S Faraday as a Discoverer, 4

 ---- Fragments of Science, 12

 ---- Hours of Exercise in the Alps, 22

 ---- Lectures on Light, 12


 UNBERWEG’S System of Logic, 9

 UNCLE PETER’S Fairy Tale, 24

 URE’S Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, 17


 VAN DER HOEVEN’S Handbook of Zoology, 12

 VEREKER’S Sunny South, 22

 Visit to my Discontented Cousin, 25


 WARBURTON’S Hunting Songs, 26

 WATSON’S Principles and Practice of Physic, 14

 WATTS’S Dictionary of Chemistry, 14

 WEBB’S Objects for Common Telescopes, 17

 WEBSTER and WILKINSON’S Greek Testament, 21

 WELLINGTON’S Life, by GLEIG, 5

 WEST on Children’s Diseases, 14

 ---- -- Nursing Sick Children, 28

 ----’S Lumleian Lectures, 14

 WHATELY’S English Synonymes, 6

 ---- Logic, 6

 ---- Rhetoric, 6

 WHATELY on a Future State, 21

 ---- -- Truth of Christianity, 2

 WHITE’S Latin-English Dictionaries, 7

 WILCOCK’S Sea Fisherman, 27

 WILLIAMS’S Aristotle’s Ethics, 6

 WILLIAMS on Climate of South of France, 15

 ---- -- Consumption, 15

 WILLICH’S Popular Tables, 28

 WILLIS’S Principles of Mechanism, 17

 WINSLOW on Light, 12

 WOOD’S Bible Animals, 12

 ---- Homes without Hands, 13

 ---- Insects at Home, 13

 ---- Strange Dwellings, 13

 WOODWARD and CATES’S Encyclopædia, 4


 YARDLEY’S Poetical Works, 26

 YONGE’S English-Greek Lexicons, 8

 ---- Two Editions of Horace, 26

 ---- History of England, 1

 YOUATT on the Dog, 27

 ---- on the Horse, 27


 ZELLER’S Socrates, 6

 ---- Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, 6

 Zigzagging amongst Dolomites, 23


      _Spottiswoode & Co., Printers, New-street Square, London._




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