1801. Mi. 48.] COUNT EUMFORD. 71 



workmen, from my being thought to be at Harrogate, 

 and to be allowed quietly to fill this sheet. You can form 

 no idea of the bustle in which I live since I have taken up 

 my residence in this place. In short, the Royal Institution 

 is not only the fashion but the rage. I am very busy in- 

 deed in striving to turn the disposition of the moment to a 

 good account for the permanent benefit of society. 



I have the unspeakable satisfaction to find that my labours 

 have not been in vain. In this moment of scarcity and 

 general alarm the measures I have recommended in my 

 writings for relieving the distresses of the poor are very 

 generally adopted, and public kitchens have been erected in 

 all the great towns in England and Scotland. Upwards of 

 sixty thousand persons are fed daily from the different 

 public kitchens in London. 



The plan has lately been adopted in France, and a very 

 large public kitchen for feeding the poor was opened in 

 Paris three weeks since. A gentleman present tells me 

 that the founders of the institution did me the honour to put 

 my name at the head of the tickets given to the poor 

 authorising them to receive soup at the public kitchens. 

 At Geneva they have done still more to show me respect. 

 They have marked their tickets with a stamp on which my 

 portrait and my name are engraved. 



I am not vain, my dear Sally, but it is utterly impossible 

 not to feel deeply affected at these distinguished marks of 

 honour conferred on me by nations at war with Great 

 Britain, and in countries where I have never been, or know 

 little of the inhabitants. But my greatest delight arises 

 from the silent contemplation of having succeeded in 

 schemes and labours for the benefit of mankind. 



Sir C. Blagden wrote to Kumford's daughter, Sep- 

 tember 10, 1801: 



Your father is indeed going to Munich, and talks of 

 setting out in a fortnight. I had at one time almost settled 



