[CHAPTER II.]
LIFE OF RUMFORD AFTER THE FOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTION.
1799 to 1814.
The history of the life of Count Rumford in 1799, 1800, 1801 to May 1802 is chiefly the history of the Royal Institution. The foundation of it forms an episode which must be separated from the rest of his career. But some of the letters and events of these years which are more closely related to his future life will be recorded here.
Before he began the Institution he had almost determined to go to America, and before the building was finished he wrote to his daughter regarding the time ‘when I shall be at liberty,’ and soon after he spoke of going to Munich, but before his plans for the Institution were carried out he went to Paris, where new attractions put an end to all he intended to do in America and in England, and he never revisited his native or his adopted country.
On June 9, 1800, Sir C. Blagden wrote to Rumford’s daughter in America:
It will give me great pleasure to see you again either here or in America. Do not depend upon the Count’s going to visit you there. It is indeed possible that the fancy may suddenly strike him, and then he will set off in an instant, almost without giving notice. But his favourite child, the Institution, cannot yet walk alone, and, if he quits it at the time he talks of, will be a helpless cripple, even if it should continue to exist at all. I still see with regret his time and powers wasted on an object so inferior, in my opinion, to those which presented themselves to him in America. But he views the thing in a different light, and I suspect will be led on to stay here one year after another, till you are worn out with expecting him, and the opportunity of distinguishing himself in a rising country will be past.
Count Rumford thus wrote to his daughter:
Royal Institution, London, March 2, 1801.
My dear Child,—I am still established at the Institution. I have been exceedingly busy, but desire to be thankful that all is now nearly completed, when I shall be at liberty. We have found a nice able man for this place as lecturer—Humphry Davy. Lectures are given, frequented by crowds of the first people. Lady Palmerston and her two daughters, Frances and Elizabeth, are pretty constant attendants.
They would not receive me as minister here, but seem disposed now to make it up to me by the respect they show the Institution—originally and chiefly my work. Bernard says they are crazy about it. It was certainly gratifying to me to see the honourable list of lords, dukes, &c., as fifty-guinea subscribers. It is a very extensive establishment, and will cost a great deal of money; but I hope it will be an equal advantage to the world, as the expense and labour of forming it have been great. To strive for good things I view as a laudable ambition, as I hope you do, my dear Sally. But I hope, above all, to hear of your being well and happy, not doubting the rest.
I hope to be undisturbed by visitors this morning, or workmen, from my being thought to be at Harrogate, and to be allowed quietly to fill this sheet. You can form no idea of the bustle in which I live since I have taken up my residence in this place. In short, the Royal Institution is not only the fashion but the rage. I am very busy indeed in striving to turn the disposition of the moment to a good account for the permanent benefit of society.
I have the unspeakable satisfaction to find that my labours have not been in vain. In this moment of scarcity and general alarm the measures I have recommended in my writings for relieving the distresses of the poor are very generally adopted, and public kitchens have been erected in all the great towns in England and Scotland. Upwards of sixty thousand persons are fed daily from the different public kitchens in London.
The plan has lately been adopted in France, and a very large public kitchen for feeding the poor was opened in Paris three weeks since. A gentleman present tells me that the founders of the institution did me the honour to put my name at the head of the tickets given to the poor authorising them to receive soup at the public kitchens. At Geneva they have done still more to show me respect. They have marked their tickets with a stamp on which my portrait and my name are engraved.
I am not vain, my dear Sally, but it is utterly impossible not to feel deeply affected at these distinguished marks of honour conferred on me by nations at war with Great Britain, and in countries where I have never been, or know little of the inhabitants. But my greatest delight arises from the silent contemplation of having succeeded in schemes and labours for the benefit of mankind.
Sir C. Blagden wrote to Rumford’s daughter, September 10, 1801:
Your father is indeed going to Munich, and talks of setting out in a fortnight. I had at one time almost settled to go with him, but he then proposed to stay there all this winter and next summer. Two or three weeks ago he changed his plan, and determined to make this only a preparatory visit, and to return hither within three months. For my own part I sincerely wish that he had found it expedient to make a voyage to America instead of this journey on the Continent. I would then certainly have accompanied him across the Atlantic, notwithstanding the unsettled state of affairs here. He every day talks more and more coolly about going to America, and though I really think that he means to make you a visit there some time or other, yet it does not seem as if he promised himself much satisfaction besides.
As to his health, it is nearly the same as usual, except that he is rather thinner, having lived long upon a very spare diet. The constant agitation of his mind, and the irritable constitution with which it is connected, will necessarily prevent him from enjoying a regular state of good health.