142 THE EARLY HISTOftY OF [CHAP. III. 



Bumford on the formation of an industrial school for 

 mechanics at the Institution. 



A letter written by Mr. Webster to Dr. Grarnett in 

 August 1800, and another in 1801 to a friend, give 

 an explanation of this proposal. 



Probably August 1800. 



The original object of the Institution was certainly to dis- 

 seminate knowledge in the most effectual way possible; 

 and for this purpose, while the higher ranks of society 

 were amused and instructed by lecturers on science and its 

 too much neglected applications to the purposes of common 

 life, it was conceived necessary to do somewhat in order to 

 enlighten the minds of that class which had not enjoyed 

 the advantages of a liberal education, and yet whose im- 

 provement was necessarily connected with the progress of 

 the useful arts. 



This was always considered as an object of so much 

 importance by Count Rumford, who has certainly had the 

 greatest share in establishing the Institution, that he re- 

 peatedly declared to me when I first knew him that it was 

 his intention to do everything in his power to establish a 

 school for science under the auspices of the Institution and 

 particularly calculated for working mechanics, a class of 

 men whose deficiency in knowledge proves one of the 

 greatest drawbacks to the progress of art. It was through 

 the prospect of being employed in this way, which 

 would have been as agreeable to my habits of thinking as 

 useful to my interest, that I was induced to give up the 

 school which I then kept and the other business in which 

 I was engaged, and to accept of a situation and salary in 

 the Institution by no means equivalent to what I should 

 have considered myself as entitled to under other circum- 

 stances. 



Later Mr. Webster wrote to a friend : 



