BENJAMIN THOMPSON, COUNT RUMFORD 21 



and finding that there was to be no war against the Turks, he 

 returned to England to get the permission necessary for a British 

 officer to enter a foreign service. George the Third not only 

 granted this, but also conferred upon him the honor of knighthood 

 on February 23, 1784. 



Karl Theodor, Elector Palatine, had, by succeeding to Bavaria, 

 become the greatest prince in Germany, except the Emperor 

 and the King of Prussia. Sir Benjamin Thompson entered his 

 service as general aide-de-camp and colonel of a calvary regi- 

 ment. He was assigned a palace in Munich with a military staff 

 and servants. 



For eleven years he served the Elector in a great variety of 

 capacities, military and civil, and carried on scientific work in 

 lines suggested by his occupations. Honors, titles and decorations 

 to which he was not indifferent, he received in abundance from 

 rulers and academies of science. The laws of Bavaria did not 

 permit a foreigner to receive one of the orders of that country, but, 

 at the request of the Elector, the King of Poland in 1786 conferred 

 upon him the Order of St. Stanislaus. Two years later he was 

 made major-general and Privy Councilor and Minister of War 

 of Bavaria. In 1791 the Elector made him a Count of the Holy 

 Roman Empire with the Order of the White Eagle. He chose as 

 his new name, Rumford, from the New Hampshire town which he 

 had entered as a poor schoolmaster and left as a political refugee. 



The city of Munich was not ungrateful for what Count Rum- 

 ford did there. While he was in England the people erected a 

 monument in his honor in the park still known as "the English 

 Garden," which he had reclaimed from a waste hunting-ground 

 and made into a public pleasure resort. The inscription reads: 



"To Him who rooted out the most scandalous of public evils, 

 Idleness and Mendicity; who gave to the poor help, occupation 

 and morals, and to the youth of the Fatherland so many schools 

 of culture. Go, Passer-by, try to emulate him in thought and 

 deed, and us in gratitude." 



A bronze statue of Count Rumford was erected in Munich by 

 King Maximilian II and a replica of it costing $7,500 has been 



