u6 Life of Count Rumford. 



mote my views ; this, my first, will be my last attempt to gain 

 advantages from a courtier of whom I never entertained favor- 

 able impressions." 



The Judge, in a letter to a friend, dated November 

 25, 1781, writes: "Our townsman, Mr. Fisher, holds 

 a quartered precarious office, at, I fancy, less than half 

 its real income, under, and returnable to, Mr. Thomp- 

 son, when he shall come back, which I doubt not will 

 be in the spring or summer following." The absence 

 of Mr. Thompson here alluded to was doubtless on 

 occasion of his military errand to America, soon to be 

 related. Had Judge Curwen been the only applicant 

 for such intercessory help as his favored young country- 

 man was known to be able to extend, no doubt he would 

 have left this " courtier " in better humor. But the 

 Under-Secretary was so often called upon for similar 

 favors that he learned to put his handsome features in 

 fitting expression, and to frame avowals and promises 

 which had their fullest meaning for the eye and the ear. 

 It was, however, a trying experience for the venerable 

 Salem magistrate thus to stand before the " shop-lad " 

 of wJiom he may once have purchased soap or shoe- 

 buckles. 



Another of the more distinguished refugees in Lon- 

 don who was very intimate with Mr. Thompson was 

 Dr. Sylvester Gardiner, of Boston. Having studied 

 medicine in London and Paris, he was established here 

 before the war as a physician and druggist. He had 

 acquired immense wealth, and was honored as a noble, 

 public-spirited, and popular man. As one of the part- 

 ners in the " Plymouth Purchase," so called, on the 

 Kennebec, he owned one twelfth of the property, and 

 had been assiduous and enterprising in improving and 



