BARON cuvjiai. 201 



them to be carefully guarded by day only : he 

 was but too happy when he was informed, that 

 this apparent caution had induced depredation 

 by night. He then obtained from the king of 

 France the favour of wearing a bunch of potato 

 blossoms in tlie button-hole of his coat, at a 

 solemn fete ; and nothing more was required to 

 cause some of the great lords of the kingdom to 

 order its cultivation on their estates. Not, how- 

 ever, till the last years of his life, was he com- 

 pletely successful ; and during the great Revo- 

 lution he was rejected as a magistrate, because 

 lie had invented potatoes. 



Benjamin Thomson, Count Rumford, was an 

 American by birth, and served as a royalist in 

 the war between Amei'ica and England. After 

 the peace he came to the latter country, where 

 he was knighted by George III., and recom- 

 mended by that sovereign to the protection of 

 the Elector of Bavaria, at whose court he rose 

 to the highest dignities. It was then that he 

 turned his attention to the state of the poor, and, 

 in trying to find means for ameliorating their 

 condition, he made those beautiful discoveries 

 which have benefited all classes. 



The labours and character of the oriental tra- 

 veller, Olivier, are then noticed, and the history 



