194 THE EARLY HISTORY OP [CHAP. IV. 



already gained for the Institution ' golden opinions,' was 

 doomed to be crushed by the timidity (for I shall forbear 

 to speak more harshly) of a few. I was asked rudely (by 

 an individual whom I shall not now name) what I meant 

 by instructing the lower classes in science. I was told like- 

 wise that it was resolved upon that the plan must be dropped 

 as quietly as possible. It was thought to have a dangerous 

 political tendency, and I was told that if I persisted I 

 would become a marked man ! It was in vain to argue 

 the time was unfavourable and I found the necessity of 

 yielding. No notice was ever given publicly that the idea 

 of instructing the mechanic was abandoned, and I have no 

 doubt but that in many parts of the kingdom the Institu- 

 tion got the credit of great liberality long after the mechanics' 

 school had become extinct. 



I have no wish to detail now a thousand circumstances 

 curious enough in a historical point of view connected with 

 my residence in the house of the Royal Institution ; suffice 

 it to say that, notwithstanding I became much known and 

 had many friends, yet my chief views being evidently 

 thwarted, and there being no prospect of my situation be- 

 coming valuable in a pecuniary way, I thought it was high 

 time to think of my own interest, and I determined on be- 

 coming a landscape painter, a profession which then offered 

 considerable prospects in a very agreeable and independent 

 occupation. Count Rumford left England about the same 

 time, certainly neither rewarded nor thanked in proportion 

 to the good he had done. 



The management of the Institution now fell into other 

 hands, and, from what appeared to me very erroneous 

 reasoning, my mechanics' stone staircase was pulled down 

 at a considerable expense. All the culinary and other con- 

 trivances which the Count and I had taken so much trouble 

 to fit up in the kitchen as an exhibition and many of them 

 were really good things were put away. The workmen 

 employed in the house to make models were discharged, 

 there being no one to direct them. The lecture room had 





