334 Life of Count. Riimford. 



motives too obvious, took great pains to render abor- 

 tive every public undertaking , in which I have been 

 engaged." But the confidence, esteem, and gratitude 

 of the Elector never failed him. While desirous that 

 he should not succumb under such severe work, nor be 

 crossed and irritated by opposition, the Elector was 

 intent upon securing for him the rest and relief of which 

 he had need without depriving himself entirely of the 

 Count's services. The latter, as we have seen, taking 

 his daughter with him, went to England, arriving in 

 London near the end of September, 1798, in the full 

 belief that he would be received in his high diplomatic 

 office. But the fact of his birth as a British subject, 

 which had heretofore been so signal a condition of his 

 advancement, now withstood the gratification of his am- 

 bition. Usage did not permit that a native subject of 

 the king of England should be accredited as a foreign 

 minister. 



It had proved a severe trial of English magnanimity 

 to accept that arch-rebel John Adams ^in his diplomatic 

 capacity from the new American people. But the 

 inevitable condition was that the United States could 

 have no representative at the British Court, at least for 

 a generation to come, unless the mother country would 

 receive as such a born subject of the realm. 



It would have presented a yet more curious problem 

 for the British government, if Rumford, on a tempo- 

 rary visit to his native country, had been recognized as 

 a citizen, and then sent in a diplomatic capacity to the 

 Court of St. James. 



As this diplomatic appointment was of itself a proud 

 distinction, and one of the most interesting incidents in 

 Count Rumford's singularly eminent career; and as the 



