204 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



tlie administration of war and the direction of the police, he applied himself, on 

 the one hand, to the melioration of the condition of the soldier, and, on the other,- 

 to the suppression of mendicity hy organizing a house of labor for the poor. lie 

 had never lost sight of the sciences, his earliest predilection. liescarches on the 

 cohesion of bodies and on the force of powder had procured his admission, in 1779, 

 into the Iloyal Society of London. In his new position he undertook experi- 

 ments on the nature of heat and light, as well as on the laws of their propaga- 

 tion, with a view to supplying large assemblages of persons with economical 

 nourishment, clothing, warmth, and artificial illumination. It is not within the 

 scope of this paper to discuss these researches of Count Rumford ; they will be 

 found detailed in his Essays* Suffice it to say that light and heat became the 

 engrossing subjects of his philoso{)hic attention. Thus we find him, in 179G, 

 establishing a ])rize at London " for new discoveries tending to the improvement 

 of the theories regarding fire, heat, light, and colors, and for the inventions mid 

 processes l)y which the production, preservation, and employment of heat and 

 light may be facilitated. "t 



In 1798 he proceeded to London as minister plenipotentiary of the elector 

 of Bavaria, but was held to be disqualified for fulfilling the functions of that 

 office by the fact of his being still regarded, in point of law, as a British subject, 

 and incapal)le, therefore, of representing a foreign power at the British court. 

 Soon afterwards he learned the death of tlie prince, his benefactor, and, fore- 

 seeing that he would have scarcely less difficulty in resuming his old than in 

 exercising his new functions,! he turned with habitual earnestness to other pur- 

 suits, and, in becoming the principal founder of the Iloyal Institution, of which 

 his favoiite ideas formed the basis, established one of his best claims to lasting 

 remembrance. 



The latter years of Count Rumford were passed in retirement. In 1802 he 

 transferred his residence to Paris, where he contracted a second marriage, with 

 the widow of Lavoisier. This union proved unhappy, and was terminated after 

 three yeare l)y a private separation. He then retired to a country house at 

 Auteuil, about four miles from Paris, and there devoted his time to the eml)el- 

 lishment of his domain, and to the cultivation of chemistry and experimental 

 philosophy. Here he died, August 21, 1814, at the age of sixty-one years. 



II. — The first prospectus or the royal institution. 



The first meeting of the founders and directors of the Institution took place 

 the 9th of March, 1799, at the mansion of Sir Joseph Banks, those present 

 being Sir Joseph, the earls of ]\Iorton and Spencer, Count Rumford, Richard 

 Clark and Thomas Bernard. Sir Joseph was named president, and Thomas 

 Bernard secretary. The prospectus of the establishment, for the preparation of 

 which Count Rumford was designated, bore the following title : '' Proposals for 

 forming, by subscription in the metropolis of the British empire, a public 

 institution for diffiising the knowledge and facilitating the general introduc- 

 tion of useful mechanical inventions and improvements ; and for teaching, by 

 courses of i)hilosophical lectures and experiments, the application of science 

 to the common purposes of life — l)y Benjamin, Count Rumford, F. R. S.," &c. ; 

 in octavo, 54 pp. ; Cadell & Davies, 1799. 



The folhnving extract from the prospectus, given by the BibJiothcque Brlkm- 

 iqm (sciences and. arts) of Geneva, for the year last mentioned, will convey an 

 idea of the objects of the new establishment: 



When the directors shall have chosen a site, there shall be prepared large and airy apart- 

 ments to receive and exhibit the mechanical inventions and improvements which seem to 



* See also the tllogc by the Baron Cuvier, already referred to. 



t See the History of the Royal Society of London. Count Rumford founded a similar prize 

 at Philadelphia, United States. 

 t The new elector, Maximilian Joseph, conferred on him a pension of 30,000 francs. 



