340 Life of Count Rumford. 



diplomatic office, but lived as a private person. He 

 acted, however, as the agent of Charles Theodore, the 

 Elector, and when another minister was appointed 

 >n most intimate terms with him. The Bavarian 

 army, then in the interest of Austria, was in the pay 

 igland. I shall have occasion by and by to quote 

 the statement of the daughter that her father felt deeply 

 chagrined at the foiling of his passion for official dis- 

 tinction experienced in his respectful rejection as the 

 Bavarian ambassador. That he soon found full occupa- 

 tion in an enterprise which, if for the time it attached 

 to him less of personal distinction, was to insure a 

 permanent honor to his name, may have decided him 

 to remain in England and bear his disappointment. 

 Probably he learned even before his arrival that there 

 was an obstacle to his reception in the character in 

 which he came, for, as will appear from a letter of his, 

 soon to be given, he proposed at this time to make 

 another effort to visit America. 



The following letters were addressed to him by Colo- 

 nel Baldwin on dates previous to his leaving Munich. 



" WOBURN, July 31, 1798. 



" MY DEAR COUNT, Mr. Welsh, a son of Dr. Welsh of 

 Boston, sets out to-morrow morning for Newburyport, from 



whence he expects to embark for , in order to proceed 



to Berlin, the capital of the Prussian dominions, where he is 

 to officiate as secretary to the Hon. Mr. Adams, the American 

 Minister at that court. 



' The young gentleman is of a very respectable family and 

 sustains an exceedingly good character. He will be the bearer 

 of a number of letters to you and the Countess, your daughter, 

 to whose attention I beg leave to recommend him, and any 

 civility with which you may please to notice him will add to the 



