Biographical Memoir of Count Rumford. 33 



him the most marked favor : he made him successively his aid-de- 

 camp, his chamberlain, member of his council of state, and lieuten- 

 ant-general of his armies. He procured for him the decorations of 

 the two orders of Poland, because the statutes of those of Bavaria 

 did not then permit his admission to them. Lastly, in the interval 

 between the death of the Emperor Joseph and the coronation of 

 Leopold IL, the Elector took advantage of the right which his func- 

 tions, as vicar of the empire, gave him, to raise Sir Benjamin to (he 

 dignity of Count, by the name of the district of New Hampshire in 

 which he was born. 



Count Rumford has sometimes been blamed for the importance 

 which he seems to have attached to distinctions, to which his real 

 merit might have rendered him indifferent. They who have done 

 so, however have not sufficiently considered this situation. For- 

 merly, a title without birth was of no estimation among us ; but it is 

 not so in England, where the title, as it were, metamorphoses the 

 man, or in Germany, where one seldom receives a great office with- 

 out at the same time, receiving a corresponding title. Count Rum- 

 ford, therefore, might think this custom necessary for the mainten- 

 ance of a respect which he knew how to render so useful. We have 

 besides seen, by a recent experiment made on the great scale, that 

 some not being philosophers enough to refuse titles when chance of- 

 fered them and others being apparently too much so to think that ti- 

 tles were worth the trouble of being refused, every body accepted 

 them. We do not therefore condemn Count Rumford for having 

 done like all the world ; we even pardon beforehand those who may 

 imitate him in this respect, provided they imitate him in other res- 

 pects also. 



His new master not only procured honorable distinctions for him, 

 but also confided to him a real and very extensive power, by uniting 

 in his person the administration of war and the direction of the police ; 

 and his reputation, besides, soon gave him a great influence over all 

 parts of the government. 



Most of those who have been led to power by the course of events, 

 arrive there already misled by public opinion ; they know dial they 

 will infaUibly be called men of genius, and that they will be celebra- 

 ted in prose and verse, if they succeed in changing in some point the 

 lorms of the government, or extending a few leagues the territory in 

 which this government is exercised. Is it therefore surprising, that 

 internal commotions and external wars incessantly disturb the repose 



Vol. XIX.— No. 1. 5 • 



