Life of Count Rumford. 249 



entitled with Englishmen to be candidates for its award. 

 Sir Gilbert had neither restricted nor expressly extended 

 the terms of his bequest in that regard. Rumford, 

 in emphatic language, made the whole of Europe, 

 continent and islands, the field for such stimulation 

 of rivalry, and such recognition of desert, as might 

 attach to his premium of tenfold intrinsic value. It 

 will be seen from the list that has been given, that 

 ten of the twenty-four distinguished men who have 

 received his award from the Royal Society have been 

 foreigners, Mr. Wells being of America. The fact 



v O y & 



has a significance when taken in connection with the 



o 



well-known effort which is required of Englishmen, 

 whether men of science, or statesmen, or private per- 

 sons, to extend their impartiality beyond their own 

 country. 



It is remarkable that the Count, after having liber- 

 ally provided funds for medals in the award of two 

 learned bodies, 'should a few years afterwards, when 

 drawing his plan and publishing his proposals for his 

 own Royal Institution, have introduced into them an 

 express prohibition of all premiums and rewards. 



A new die for the Rumford Medal of the Royal 

 Society has since been adopted, from which Dr. H. 

 Bence Jones has kindly sent me a copy, as shown in the 

 engraving. The head of Rumford which is engraved 

 upon it is .copied from a portrait of him painted in 

 Munich, which hung in the Count's house at Bromp- 

 ton, and which was presented to the Society by his 

 daughter, in December, .1831. 



The Count's correspondence with reference to his 

 endowment in this country begins with the following 

 letter : 



J.;i I 



