Biographical Memoir of Count Rumford. 31 



war of posts. Mr. Thomson reorganised their cavalry, led it in sev- 

 eral encounters, and had still such opportunities enough of distin- 

 guishing himself in the course of this campaign, that he was appoint- 

 ed to contribute to the defence of Jamaica, then threatened by the 

 combined fleets of France and Spain ; but the defeat of Count de 

 Grasse averted the danger, and soon after peace was proclaimed, 

 which put a close to Mr. Thomson's military career. 



Nothing could have happened to him so contrary to all his inclina- 

 tions and hopes of advancement. He was thirty years of age, held 

 the rank of colonel, enjoyed a high degree of reputation, and was ar- 

 dently attached to his profession. He considered war so peculiarly 

 suited to his genius, that seeing no appearance of it any where except- 

 ting between Austria and the Turks, he determined on offering his 

 services to the Emperor. But his good destiny had decided differ- 

 ently from his inclination. When at Munich, on his journey, he 

 found an opportunity of entering into a more advantageous although 

 more pacific service. The ideas of his earlier years revived, and he 

 was soon brought back to the sciences and the application of them, 

 as to his true vocation. 



He had never entirely forsaken them. In 1777, at the commence- 

 ment of his residence in London, he had made curious experiments 

 on the cohesion of bodies. In 1778, he had undertaken others on 

 the force of gunpowder, which procured him admittance into the 

 Royal Society; and in 1779, he had embarked in the English 

 fleet, chiefly with the view of repeating his experiments on a great 

 scale. But, perhaps, amid the distractions of his military station, 

 and even in the leisure of a private condition, he would only have 

 made isolated trials, without a constant object, and without great re- 

 sults. He looked upon the sciences from a new point of view, when 

 he required their assistance in a great military and civil administra- 

 tion. . The statesman remembered that he was a natural philosopher 

 and geometrican. His genius had assisted in establishing his credit; 

 he employed his reputation to second his genius ; and in this manner 

 each new service that he rendered to the country which had attach- 

 ed him to itself, produced some discovery, and each discovery that 

 he made enabled him to render some new service. 



It was the late king who gave Mr. Thomson to Bavaria. The 

 young colonel on his way to Vienna, passing through Strasburg, 

 where the Prince Maximilian de Deux-Ponts, afterwards King of 

 Bavaria, commanded a regiment, presented himself at pai'ade on 



