Life of Count Rumford. 403 



to be even mentioned, and no themes are to be intro- 

 duced but such as are connected with the objects of the 

 Institution. The payment for proprietorship from 

 May i, 1800, to May i, 1801, was fixed at sixty guin- 

 eas, and ten guineas were to be added each year for all 

 newly elected proprietors, up to the ist of May, 1804, 

 when the fee, then one hundred guineas, should be the 

 qualification for admission till further order. 



Only foreigners were to be eligible as honorary mem- 

 bers of the Institution, and they only when distin- 

 guished for knowledge in science or in some useful 

 art. This rule was subject to exceptions for members 

 of the Royal Family, foreign sovereign princes, and 

 resident ambassadors. Ladies were admissible as life 

 or as annual subscribers. Any subscriber might, for 

 cause, be ejected, and then should be forever after 

 ineligible. Occasional scientific and experimental lec- 

 tures might be given through permission of the mana- 

 gers by qualified men of eminence. Any number of 

 committees might be appointed for specific scientific 

 and experimental investigation. 



The funds were to be disposed of as provided for in 

 the plan. No presents, or occasional or special re- 

 wards or gratuities, were allowed, either to inventors 

 and discoverers or to the salaried employes of the 

 Institution. 



The list of proprietors, which steadily lengthened 

 with each progressive step for initiating and organ- 

 izing the Institution, bears the names of the highest 

 of the nobility, of many of the prelates, members of 

 Parliament, scientific men, and distinguished common- 

 ers, in number, two hundred and eighty- one. There 

 were two hundred and sixty-seven life subscribers, two 



