1802.] THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 199 



In the works of Peter Pindar (Dr. Walcot) (vol. v. p. 

 458) there is an epistle to Count Rumford containing 

 these lines and this note: 



' But what an insolence in me to prate, 

 Pretend to him to open Wisdom's gate, 

 Who spurns advice, like weeds, where'er it springs, 

 Disdaining counsel, 1 though it comes from kings.' 



1 ' Here I must beg leave to differ from the Count. Although a man 

 may, like the Count, possess extraordinary intellect, and though a man 

 may be the best judge of himself, nevertheless it is indecorous to treat 

 the opinions of others with contempt. The Count's constant assertion is, 

 ' I never was yet in the wrong ; I know everything.' Granting this to 

 be true, the declaration nevertheless is arrogant and supercilious.' 



In the ' Monthly Magazine, or British Eegister ' for 

 May 1815, in a memoir of Count Eumford, speaking of 

 his connexion with the Royal Institution, and of the 

 quarrels which arose among the managers, this passage 

 occurs : 



We feel it proper to state that the Count assumed the 

 character of absolute controller, as well as the projector, of 

 this establishment, and conducted himself with a degree of 

 hauteur which disgusted its patrons, and almost broke the 

 heart of our amiable friend and its first professor, Dr. 

 Garnett. 



And in Dr. Thomas Thompson's ' Annals of Philosophy ' 

 for April 1815 a biographical account of Count Rumford 

 is given, and the following inaccurate statement is made : 



I pass over his quarrel with the managers of the Royal 

 Institution, about the nature of which I am not fully in- 

 formed, though I suppose it was an attempt on the part of 

 the Count to retain in his own hands the entire manage- 

 ment of that Institution. Be that as it may, the result of 

 the dispute induced him to leave London, to which he never 

 again returned. 



