1 62 Life of Count Rumford. 



I was also desirous of availing myself of the illustrious name of a 

 Sovereign eminently distinguished by his munificence in pro- 

 moting useful knowledge, and by his solicitude for the happiness 

 and prosperity of his subjects, to recommend the important ob- 

 jects I have undertaken to investigate to the attention of the 

 Great, the Wise, and the Benevolent. And lastly, I was 

 anxious to have an opportunity of testifying, in a public manner, 

 my gratitude to your most Serene Electoral Highness for all 

 your kindness to me ; and more especially for the distinguished 

 honour you have done me by selecting and employing me as an 

 instrument in your hands of doing good." 



I have thus anticipated the felicitous consummation 

 of great labors and enterprises of benevolence, and of 

 a devoted friendship founded upon the relations of 

 patron and agent in the doing of them, as a proper pref- 

 ace to a brief account of those labors in detail. 



On the arrival of Sir Benjamin, the Elector appointed 

 him colonel of a regiment of cavalry, and General Aide- 

 de-Camp, in order that he might be in immediate con- 

 tact with himself. A palatial edifice was furnished for 

 his residence in Munich, shared between himself and 

 the Russian Ambassador, with a military staff and a 

 proper corps of servants. Sir Benjamin especially 

 prided himself upon the blood horses which he had 

 brought with him from England. His fine appearance 

 when mounted on parade is frequently noticed. His 

 imposing figure, his manly and handsome countenance, 

 his dignity of bearing, and his courteous manners, not 

 only to the great, but equally to subordinates and 

 inferiors, made him exceedingly popular. This finished 

 courtier and favored child of fortune favored both by 

 native gifts and by opportunities needed no trans- 

 formation within or without to adapt himself to cir- 

 cumstances. He had not exactly, as Cuvier says of 



