132 COUNT KUMFOED. 



ing the following lengthy title : 6 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 Mechani- 

 cal Inventions and Improvements, and for teaching, by 

 courses of Philosophical Lectures and Experiments, the 

 Application of Science to the Common Purposes of Life.' 

 The introduction to this pamphlet is dated from Eum- 

 ford's residence in Brompton Eow, March 4, 1799. 

 His aim, he alleges, is to cause science and art to work 

 together ; to establish relations between philosophers 

 and workmen ; to bring their united efforts to bear in 

 the improvement of agriculture, manufactures, com- 

 merce, and the augmentation of domestic comforts. 

 He specially dwells on the management of fire, it 

 "being, as he thinks, a subject of peculiar interest to 

 mankind. Fuel, he asserted, costs the kingdom more 

 than ten millions sterling annually, which was much 

 more than twice what it ought to cost. Kumford knew 

 human nature well, and for the greater portion of his 

 life knew how to appeal to it with effect. In fact, the 

 knowledge never failed him, though towards the end 

 irritability, due to ill-health and crosses of various kinds, 

 rendered him less able to apply the knowledge than 

 when he was in the blossom of his prime. As regards 

 the success of his new scheme, he urged upon those 

 with whom he acted the necessity of making the indo- 

 lent and luxurious take an interest in it. Such persons, 

 he says, ' must either be allured or shamed into action.' 

 Hence, he urges, the necessity of making benevolence 

 ' fashionable.' 



It ought to be mentioned that Kumford, at this 

 time, could count on the sympathy and active support 

 of a number of excellent men, who, in advance of him, 

 had founded a ' Society for Bettering the Condition and 



