Biographical Memoir of Count Rwnford. 225 



tions. Thus he founded two prizes, which were to be annually 

 assigned by the Royal Society of London, and the Philosophical 

 Society of Philadelphia, to the author of the most important ex- 

 periments on heat and light ; an endowment by which, in evinc- 

 ing his zeal for natural philosophy, he also testified his respect 

 for his native and for his adopted country, and proved, that, by 

 having served the one, he had not quarrelled with the other. 



He was the principal founder of the Royal Institution of 

 London, one of the best contrived establishments for hastening 

 the progi'ess of science and its application to the arts. In a 

 country where every individual prides himself on encouraging 

 whatever can be of service to the community, the mere distri- 

 bution of his Prospectus brought him considerable funds, and 

 his activity would soon have led to its execution. The pro- 

 spectus itself was already a sort of description, for he spoke in 

 it of what he proposed as of a thing in a great measure realized : 

 A vast house presented all kinds of trades and machines in ac- 

 tion ; a library was formed in it ; a beautiful amphitheatre was 

 constructed, in which were delivered lectures on chemistry, me- 

 chanics, and political economy. Heat and light, the two fa- 

 vourite subjects of Count Rumford, and the mysterious process 

 of combustion, which puts them at the disposal of man, were 

 to be continually submitted to examination. 



This Prospectus is dated at London the 21st January 1800, 

 and the foundation of the Royal Institution was the work of 

 fifteen succeeding months which Count Rumford passed in Eng- 

 land, with the hope of settling there. 



After having been loaded, during fourteen years, by the 

 Elector Chai-les Theodore, with proofs of an always increasing 

 favour, after having received from him, at the period of the 

 famous campaign of 1796, the difficult trust of commanding 

 his army, and of maintaining the neutrality of his capital against 

 the two great powers that seemed equally anxious to attack it, 

 Count Rumford obtained from him as a final recompence, in 

 1798, the post which he most desired, tliat of Minister Plenipo- 

 tentiary at the Court of Great Britain. 



There could be nothing more flattering to him in fact than 

 to be enabled to return among his countrymen, and, according 



JANUARY — MAUCil 1830. P 



