COUNT RUMFORD. 107 



late. Thompson for a time was the vehicle of such be- 

 lated knowledge. He was immediately attached to the 

 Colonial Office, then ruled over by Lord George Ger- 

 main. Cuvier, in his " Eloge," thus describes his first 

 interview with that Minister: " On this occasion, by the 

 clearness of his details and the gracefulness of his man- 

 ners, he insinuated himself so far into the graces of 

 Lord George Germain that he took him into his em- 

 ployment," With Lord George he frequently break- 

 fasted, dined, and supped, and was occasionally his 

 guest in the country. But besides giving information 

 useful to his chiefs, he occupied himself with other 

 matters. He was a born experimentalist, handy, in- 

 genious, full of devices to meet practical needs. He 

 turned his attention to improvements in military mat- 

 ters ; " advised and procured the adoption of bayonets 

 for the fusees of the Horse Guards, to be used in fight- 

 ing on foot." He had previously been engaged with 

 experiments on gunpowder, which he now resumed. 

 The results of these experiments he communicated to 

 Sir Joseph Banks, then President of the Eoyal Society, 

 with whom he soon became intimate. In 1779 he was 

 elected a Fellow of the Koyal Society. 



When the war had become hopeless, many of the 

 exiles who had been true to the Eoyalist cause came to 

 England, where Thompson's official position imposed on 

 him the duty of assuaging their miseries and adjusting 

 their claims. In this connection, the testimony of Dr. 

 Ellis regarding him is that, " so far as the relations be- 

 tween these refugees and Mr. Thompson can be traced, 

 I find no evidence that he failed to do in any case what 

 duty and friendliness required of him." Still he did 

 not entirely escape the censure of his outlawed fellow- 

 countrymen. One of them in particular had been a 

 judge in Salem when Thompson was a shopboy in Ap- 

 8 



