Chapter I · LIFE OF RUMFORD BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTION. 1753 to 1799. (continued 2)

The defeat of Jourdan on the Lower Rhine obliged Moreau to retreat. The Bavarian territory was evacuated, and the Elector returned to Munich. He made Rumford head of the General Police of Bavaria, and about 200l. of the pension which had been granted to him was settled on his daughter for her life. She was also received at Court as a Countess of the Empire.

In December 1797 Rumford wrote to his friend Baldwin from Munich:

My daughter never ceases her solicitations to engage me to pay a visit to my friends in America, and her wishes are so powerfully seconded by my own feelings and longing desires to breathe once more my native air, that I have come to the resolution to make the journey as soon as the restoration of peace and the arrangement of my concerns in this country will permit it. If the public affairs of Europe and of America take the turn I expect, and if no unforeseen event should happen to prevent my carrying my schemes into execution, I think you will see us in America in fifteen or sixteen months from this time.

Meanwhile his daughter amused herself at Munich.

The Elector was old and had married a young wife, so that there was gaiety at Court during this winter, and the attentions of one of the aides-de-camp of her father made rides, and dinners, and balls pleasant to the Count’s daughter; but she says ‘all her fine castles were demolished by one blow from her father, and Count Taxis was ordered to join his regiment in the country.’ Ill health followed, and change of air and scene was advised. ‘My father appeared to try how agreeable he could make himself, as if wishing to wear off by it some of the disagreeable impressions of his late conduct in drawing so many tears from my poor eyes.... When quiet and happy himself he was, like others, agreeable; but when perplexed with cares and business, or much occupied, there was no living with him.’

In the autumn of 1798, partly on account of his health, he determined to return to England with his daughter. The Elector of Bavaria, to show his esteem for Rumford, appointed him Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of St. James.

On September 14, 1798, Lord Grenville sent a despatch to the Hon. Arthur Paget at Munich, saying, ‘It is, I apprehend, a thing if not wholly unprecedented, at least extremely unusual, to appoint a subject of the country to reside at the Court of his natural sovereign in the character of minister from a foreign prince. I am to direct you in the last resort to state in distinct terms that his Majesty will by no means consent to receive Count Rumford in the character which has been assigned to him. You will observe that the circumstance of Count Rumford having heretofore filled a confidential situation (that of Under-Secretary of State in the American Department) under his Majesty’s Government, makes the appointment in his person peculiarly improper and objectionable.’

On Count Rumford’s arrival on September 19 he wrote to Lord Grenville to say that, notwithstanding the information and the intimation which had been communicated to him by Mr. Canning, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, he considered it his duty formally to notify that, having been appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, he had come to England in consequence of that appointment, and was charged with a letter to the King, which he ought to endeavour to obtain permission to deliver with his own hands. He therefore asked an audience or personal interview with the minister, to state the objects of his mission, and to receive such information as would enable him to give a clear, authentic, and satisfactory account to the sovereign who had entrusted him with the management of his affairs.

The day but one after, Lord Grenville shortly answers that ‘he conceives it will be more agreeable to Count Rumford that the substance of the representation with which Mr. Paget was charged should be transmitted by Count Rumford to the Elector rather than through any other channel.’

The same day a despatch to this effect was written to the Hon. Arthur Paget at Munich.

No other notice was taken of Count Rumford’s appointment. He did not return to Munich, and the following year his master, the Elector Charles Theodore, died.

The thoughts of Rumford, when rejected as minister of Bavaria, were directed to his native land. He thus wrote to his friend Baldwin in America:

London, September 28, 1798.

I arrived in this city last week from Germany, and I expect to be able to remain here several months. I have, indeed, some hopes of being able to pay you a visit in America in the spring. But these hopes, though apparently well founded, may easily be disappointed, for there are several events, none of which are very improbable, that would render it impossible for me to be absent from Europe next year. It is, however, my fixed intention to pay a visit to my friends in America as soon as ever it shall be in my power, which most probably will be in the course of a year or two. I have even a scheme of forming for myself a little quiet retreat in that country, to which I can retire at some future period and spend the evening of my life. Perhaps you may be so good as to assist me in carrying this plan into execution. As I am not wealthy, and prefer comfort to splendour, I shall not want anything magnificent. From forty to one hundred acres of good land, with wood and water belonging to it, if possible in a retired situation, from one to four miles from Cambridge, with or without a neat, comfortable house upon it, would satisfy all my wishes.

Among his friends in England was the Honourable Rufus King, the American minister.

Mr. King wrote to Colonel Pickering, the Secretary of State in America:

London, December 8, 1798.

Count Rumford, late Sir Benjamin Thompson, whose name and history are probably known to you, and whose talents and services have procured the most beneficial establishments and reforms in Bavaria, was lately named by the Elector to be his minister at this Court. On his arrival he has been informed that, being a British subject, it was contrary to usage to receive him, and that therefore he could not be acknowledged. The intrigues and opposition against which he had for some years made head in Bavaria probably made him desire the mission to England. The refusal he has here met with has decided him to return and settle himself in America. He proposes to establish himself at or near Cambridge, to live there in the character of a German count, to renounce all political expectations, and devote himself to literary pursuits. His connexions in this country are strictly literary, and his knowledge, particularly in the military department, may be of great use to us. The Count is well acquainted with and has had much experience in the establishment of cannon foundries; that which he established in Bavaria is spoken of in very high terms, as well as certain improvements that he has introduced in the mounting of flying artillery.

He possesses an extensive military library, and assures me that he wishes nothing more than to be useful to our country. I make this communication by his desire, and my wish is that he may be well received, as I am persuaded that his principles are good, and his talents and information uncommonly extensive. It is possible that attempts may be made to misrepresent his political opinions; from the inquiry that I have made on this head, I am convinced that his political sentiments are correct.

Be good enough to communicate this letter to the President.

Count Rumford soon after wrote to Mr. King:

I send you herewith a small pamphlet,[5] which will explain to you the causes which have rendered it impossible for me to go to America this spring, as I had intended. I have not, however, given over all ideas of visiting that country at some future period; very far from it, I really hope and expect to be able to go there next spring, and will most certainly do so, if it should be possible, provided you should continue to advise it, and to encourage me with the hope of a kind reception.

The model of a field-piece[6] on a new, and I believe on an improved construction, which I have destined as a present to the United States, I shall pack up and send to you, in order to its being shipped for America as soon as I shall get it from his Royal Highness the Duke of York, who has desired to have a copy of it.

You will recollect that in a conversation we had at your house on the great importance to the United States of the speedy establishment of a military school or academy, I took the liberty to say that to assist in the establishment of so useful an institution I should be happy to be permitted to make a present to the academy of my collection of military books, plans, drawings, and models. I now repeat this offer, and with a request to you that you would make it known to the Executive Government of the United States, and that you would let me know as soon as may be convenient whether this offer will be accepted.

Another letter written the following day to his friend Colonel Baldwin also gives the reason why Rumford stayed in England.

March 14, 1799.

I will not attempt to describe the painful disappointment I feel at being obliged to give up all hopes of seeing you and the rest of my dear friends in America this year. A small pamphlet which you will receive with this letter will acquaint you with the reasons which have induced me to postpone my intended voyage; and you will, I am confident, agree with me in opinion that I have done right in sacrificing the pleasure that voyage would have afforded me to the more important objects to which my attention has been called. I beg you would be so kind as to give my dear mother the earliest notice of this change in my plans, and that you would at the same time endeavour to give her just ideas of the very great importance of the undertaking in which I have been called upon to give my assistance, and show her how impossible it was for me to refuse that assistance, especially as it was asked in a manner so honourable to myself. And as the success of the undertaking will be productive of so much good, and will place me in so distinguished a situation in the eyes of the world and of posterity, you will, I am persuaded, find little difficulty in persuading her that I have done perfectly right, and in reconciling her to the disappointment she will naturally feel at not seeing me arrive in America at the time appointed.

The undertaking was the Royal Institution, and the pamphlet was the ‘Proposals’ for its foundation.

On September 8 Mr. King again wrote to Count Rumford:

London, September 8, 1799.

I have more than once expressed to you a wish that you might find leisure, as well as inclination, to revisit your native country, where I have been persuaded you would meet with a friendly and cordial reception, and by your presence and advice might be of great advantage to our public institutions, the establishment of which, upon approved principles, is an object of the highest consequence. I am happy that I have it in my power to assure you that I have not been mistaken in these sentiments, and it affords me peculiar satisfaction to execute the order that I have lately received from my Government to invite you in its name to return and reside among us, and to propose to you to enter into the American service.[7]

Count Rumford answered:

Brompton, September 12, 1799.

I am deeply sensible of the honour that has been conferred upon me by the Government of the United States, by the kind invitation they have sent me to come and reside in my native country, and also by the other distinguished and most flattering proofs of their confidence and esteem with which that invitation has been accompanied.

Nothing could have afforded me so much satisfaction as to have had it in my power to have given to my liberal and generous countrymen such proof of my sentiments as would in the most public and ostensible manner have evinced, not only my gratitude for the kind attentions I have received from them, but also the ardent desire I feel to assist in promoting the prosperity of my native country.

His affection for his mother, his daughter, and his friend is seen in the following letter to Colonel Baldwin, which he wrote the day before his daughter sailed for America:

Brompton, near London, August 24, 1799.

I cannot permit my daughter to return to America without charging her with a few lines for my oldest friend and schoolfellow, the companion of my earliest youth. In straining my recollection as much as possible, in order to look back into that dark cloud that covers the early period of my life, I can remember no person distinctly, longer than yourself, except it be my mother. I must therefore consider you as one of my oldest acquaintances, and I have never ceased to regard you and to love you as one of my best friends. A few months ago I flattered myself with the hope of soon seeing you, but events happened to frustrate those hopes. But though my voyage to America is postponed, it is by no means abandoned. On the contrary, I really think it very likely that I shall pay you a visit next spring.

My daughter will tell you what I am doing in this country, and will acquaint you with my plans and wishes respecting her establishment in America. If you can further the execution of my schemes, I have no doubt but you will do it. There is nothing I have so much at heart as to make my dear mother perfectly comfortable and happy during the remainder of her life.

And a year later he wrote to Colonel Baldwin:

Royal Institution, June 9, 1800.

I must begin my letter with a subject which is ever uppermost in my mind. My daughter and my dear mother will probably be in your neighbourhood when this letter reaches you. I most earnestly recommend them both to your kind attentions. I have one wish, and one only, respecting them, which is, that they may be as happy as possible. As I am at so great a distance from them, I am but ill qualified to judge of their wants and their wishes. Pray assist them in every way in which your friendly assistance can be of use to them, or make them comfortable and contented.

Perhaps my daughter may marry (which she has my leave to do whenever she pleases, and with whom she pleases).[8] This may greatly alter her relative situation with me and with my mother. She may perhaps wish at some future period to make me another visit in Europe, and even in this scheme I shall not oppose her inclinations, if her heart should be set on the gratification of them. I do not mean to be an indulgent father in theory only.

Tell me how I must act to make two persons who are very dear to me as happy as possible.