1778. JET. 25.] COUNT RUMFORD. 15 



During a cruise which I made, as a volunteer, in the 

 ' Victory/ with the British fleet, under the command of my 

 late worthy friend Sir Charles Hardy, in the year 1779, I 

 had many opportunities of attending to the firing of heavy 

 cannon ; for though we were not fortunate enough to come 

 to a general action with the enemy, as is well known, 

 yet, as the men were frequently exercised at the great guns 

 and in firing at marks, and as some of my friends in the 

 fleet, then captains (since made admirals), as the Honour- 

 able Keith Stewart, who commanded the ' Berwick,' of 74 

 guns, Sir Charles Douglas, who commanded the * Duke,' 

 of 98 guns, and Admiral Macbride, who was then captain 

 of the ' Bienfaisant,' of 64 guns, were kind enough, at my 

 request, to make a number of experiments, and particularly 

 by firing a greater number of bullets at once from their 

 heavy guns than ever had been done before, and observing 

 the distances at which they fell in the sea, I had oppor- 

 tunities of making several very interesting observations, 

 which gave me much new light relative to the action of 

 fired gunpowder. 



In 1778 Mr. Thompson was elected a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society. 



Great must have been the trouble in his office this 

 year. In October 1778, Sir H. Clinton wrote to Lord 

 Gr. Grermain from New York that he was about to send, 

 as he was ordered, ten thousand men to the West Indies 

 and St. Augustine. c After a wound in my humble 

 opinion so fatal to the hopes of any future vigour in 

 this army, I trust, my Lord, you cannot wish to keep me 

 in the mortifying command of it.' ' You cannot, I 

 am confident, my Lord, desire that I should remain a 

 mournful witness of the debility of an army at whose 

 head, had I been unshackled by instructions, I might 



