84 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. II. 



Sir C. Blagden wrote to Sir Joseph Banks: 



Paris, October 15, 1802. 



As a good occasion of making the journey to Paris pre- 

 sented itself, I left Munich about a week sooner than I 

 originally intended, and have now been some days in this 

 capital. 



Count Rumford was in very good health, and proposed 

 to spend the winter at Munich ; he was going into a mag- 

 nificent house, or rather palace, lent him by one of the no- 

 bility, an old friend, in which he meant to give concerts as 

 he used to do. The Elector continued to treat him with 

 the most marked distinction, but he did not seem to be 

 engaging in any public business. Indeed, the country was 

 rather in a state of alarm, on account of the menacing ap- 

 pearances of the Emperor, who evidently wants part of 

 Bavaria as a further compensation to the Grand Duke. 

 The Count's opinion when I quitted him was that he should 

 be in Paris next spring, and thence return to England. 



Two months later Sir C. Blagden said : ' The Count 

 finds the climate of Mannheim much milder and more 

 suitable to his constitution than that of Munich, which 

 is really sharp and trying.' And afterwards he wrote 

 regarding the French Institute : 



s 



Count Rumford has been removed from the third class to 

 the first, a change which I believe he very much desired. In 

 consequence there is now only one vacancy to be filled up in 

 the first class, and I think that Volta will be the man chosen 

 at the next election. 



Unless we are all sent away by the war, I shall probably 

 stay near a fortnight longer than the 5th of April. 



The Count expects to be in England some time in the 

 summer. He is very busy making experiments on heat, 

 and says his new-invented instruments have already put 

 him in possession of several new and interesting facts. 



