754 Proposals for Forming 



their friends, and others whom they thought likely to 

 countenance the scheme, accompanied by a printed copy 

 of the foregoing resolution, with a request that those 

 who were willing to allow their names to be put down 

 among the original subscribers and proprietors of the 

 Institution would be so good as to communicate their 

 intentions by a letter addressed to Thomas Bernard, 

 Esq., at the Foundling. 



The proposals that were circulated in this manner 

 met with so much approbation that fifty-eight of the 

 most respectable names were sent in before measures 

 could be taken for holding a meeting ; and these suc- 

 cessful beginnings encouraged those who were prin- 

 cipally concerned in forming and bringing forward 

 this plan to make some alterations in it, and particu- 

 larly in respect to the time and manner of choosing the 

 first set of managers, and in regard to an application for 

 a charter for the Institution, which it has been deter- 

 mined to make, in order to place the establishment on 

 a more solid and more respectable foundation, and to 

 give full security to the subscribers against all future 

 claims upon them. 



In this stage of the business, and especially as a 

 meeting of the subscribers is to be held in a few days 

 for the purpose of determining what other steps shall 

 be taken for carrying the proposed plan into execution, 

 I have thought it to be my duty to lay all these partic- 

 ulars before the subscribers, and at the same time to 

 state to them at length the general outline of the plan 

 I have taken the liberty to propose, and in the execution 

 of which, if it should be adopted, I am ready to take 

 any part that the subscribers may wish me to take. 



RUMFORD. 



Brompton Row, 4th March, 1799. 



