Life of Count Rumford. 117 



settling it. He is said to have owned a hundred thou- 

 sand acres in Maine. Being in close social intimacy 

 with the royal party in Boston at the opening of hos- 

 tilities, he was regarded as unfriendly to the cause of 

 liberty. Still he wished to remain here and share the for- 

 tunes of his countrymen. He would have done so, had 

 not a young wife persuaded him, at nearly the age of 

 seventy, to go off with the British forces to Halifax at 

 the evacuation. This was, of course, the ruin of his 

 fortunes by confiscation. When he came back to Bos- 

 ton, in 1785, to try to reclaim something from the 

 wreck by a petition to the Legislature, he alleged that 

 on his forsaking the town he had intentionally left for 

 the benefit of his countrymen in their need a very full 

 storehouse of drugs and. medicines. These Washing- 

 ton had tried to appropriate for the army, but the sheriff 

 of Suffolk got the start of him. 



Doubtless Dr. Gardiner and Mr. Thompson had 

 been acquainted with each other here. In the following 

 reply which the Under-Secretary of State addressed to 

 this impoverished refugee, the "plan" referred to may 

 concern either some suggestion for the conduct of the 

 war, or for providing for the clamorous demands of 

 the loyalists, who had to take the Secretary's office on 

 their way to the Treasury. 



" PALI. MALL COURT, Feby. 24, 1780. 



" DEAR SIR, I return you many thanks for the excellent plan 

 you have been so good as to send me. I have shown it to my 

 Lord George Germaine, who approves of it very much. And I 

 am directed by his Lordship to return you his thanks for the 

 trouble you have had in preparing it. He is fully convinced of 

 its utility, and would be very glad to see it carried into execu- 

 tion. 



