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.