On August 1 he published his last essay, the eighteenth, of the ‘Excellent Qualities of Coffee and the Art of Making it in the Highest Perfection.’
In 1813 the founder of the Royal Institution once more met Davy, then the great discoverer who by his eloquence and genius had saved the Rumford Institution from an early death.
In the ‘Life of Davy,’ by Dr. Paris, it is said, probably on the authority of Mr. Underwood, ‘On November 10 they (Underwood and Davy) dined at Auteuil with Count Rumford, at this time a prisoner in France, who showed his laboratory to Davy. This was exactly eight months before the poor, broken-hearted Count sank into the grave, the victim of domestic torment and of the persecutions of the French savans, instigated by his wife, the widow of the celebrated Lavoisier.’
The following account of Count Rumford’s life at Auteuil was probably also written by his friend Mr. Underwood. It was published in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ in 1814:
After the death of his worthy friend, the illustrious Lagrange, he saw only his next-door neighbour, the Senator Leconteux Caneleux; Mr. Underwood, a member of the Royal Institution, who assisted him in his experiments; and an old friend, Mr. Parker, a learned American, who possesses a splendid mansion in Paris and a very fine landed estate and agricultural establishment in its environs. He ceased to attend the sittings of the National Institute; but for the perpetual secretary, Cuvier, a man as morally estimable as his talents are superior to his French fellow-members, he always preserved the highest admiration and esteem.
One object of his later occupations was a work—not yet finished, though it has been constantly going on for more than twenty years—on the ‘Nature and Effects of Order,’ which, had he been spared to finish it, would probably have been one of the most valuable presents ever made to domestic society. No man in all his habits had more the spirit of order; everything was classed; no object was ever allowed to remain an instant out of its place the moment he had done with it, and he was never behind his time in an appointment a single instant.
He was also latterly employed on a series of experiments on the propagation of heat in solids. He had by him several unpublished works, particularly one of considerable interest on Meteorolites, in which he demonstrated that they came from regions beyond the atmosphere of the earth. He has left several memoirs in French (of which he had a few copies printed for the use of his friends) on the quantity of heat obtained by the combustion of various substances and the relative quantity of light from others, with a description of different improvements in the construction of lamps, which he had the satisfaction of seeing very generally adopted in Paris. His admirable paper on the ‘Advantages of Broad Wheels to Carriages’ is well known. He put this in practice in his own chariot; but, though there could be no doubt of their advantages, they were not used by others, the Count’s being the only carriage in Paris that had them. Nor did anyone follow (which is not to be wondered at) his whimsical winter dress, which was entirely white, even his hat. This he adopted agreeably to the law of nature, that more heated rays are thrown from a dark body than from a light one. I do not know whether his very simple, and I may add perfect, calorimeter is known in England. The apparatus with which he was making a series of experiments on the relative conducting powers of different solid bodies for heat, and which death prevented his completing, is of the greatest beauty. It consists of a cylindrical vessel of cork (which is a perfect non-conductor of heat), in the centre of the bottom of which the small solid cylinder of the substance to be experimented upon is fitted into an aperture of exactly the same diameter as the cylindrical vessel, which is then filled with water, and heat from the flame of a spirit-lamp is applied to the lower extremity of the substance; the time the heat takes to pass through and raise the temperature of the water indicates the relative conducting powers of the different substances through which it is made to pass. He has repeatedly declared to me it was his decided opinion that heat and light were the result of vibrations in bodies, and were not bodies themselves. He had lately brought to the greatest perfection a lamp for burning spirits of wine, and by which all explosion was rendered impossible. This in France is of the greatest convenience, where, from the low price of alcohol, it is nearly as economical as any other fuel for heating water.
The Count met with considerable plague in his pursuits from the malignant disposition and jealousies of his fellow-members of the National Institute, in consequence of having differed in opinion on capillary attraction from their despotic leader, Laplace. He often used to exclaim that no one who had not lived a considerable time in France could imagine how contemptible a nation they are, and how void of honour and even honesty. Whenever he ordered any instrument at a mathematical instrument maker’s a similar one was instantly made for some one of the Great Nation, though of the intended use they were at the moment ignorant; but the hope of supplanting a foreigner and of arrogating to themselves a discovery (a common practice with them) incited them to adopt this dishonourable practice. This forced him to send for a workman from Germany, whom he constantly employed, and who lived in his house. I was one day with the Count at a sitting of the first class of the Institute, when we heard one of the leading members declare that they would set their faces against any discovery which did not originate among themselves.
The Count displayed extraordinary spirited conduct and firmness in refusing the French the passage of the city of Munich. He used often to dwell with much pleasure on having been the means of bringing forward two celebrated characters, the Bavarian general Wieden and Sir Humphry Davy—the former originally a lawyer, or a land steward, and possessing great military dispositions; Count Rumford, then Minister of War to the Elector of Bavaria, gave him a commission: and the latter was recommended to him when he had the direction of the Royal Institution by Mr. Underwood, and was made Lecturer on Chemistry.
The climate of France agreeing with him far better than that of Bavaria, he received permission of the King of Bavaria to reside there; and his half-pay as lieutenant-general in his service and pension of retreat as minister of his late father [uncle] were regularly paid him, amounting to about twelve hundred pounds sterling per annum. It was this which prevented his return to England, as Bonaparte would not, in that case, have allowed his vassal, the King of Bavaria, to have paid the Count.
When Bavaria joined in the coalition for the emancipation of Europe it was agitated in Bonaparte’s council to send the Count away. However, as it was proved that he scarcely ever stirred out of his house, he was allowed to remain.
The German, French, Spanish, and Italian languages were as familiar to the Count as the English, both in speaking and writing. His only recreations were playing at billiards against himself, for want of one to play with, and walking in his garden, of which he was very fond, though ignorant of botany and even of the common names of the commonest plants. He was very fond of chess, at which he played well, but rarely enjoyed this pleasure, as he said that after a few minutes’ play his feet became like ice and his head like fire. He drew with great skill the designs of his own inventions, but of painting and sculpture he had no knowledge and little feeling; nor had he any taste for poetry. He had, however, great taste for landscape-gardening.
His habits of life were latterly most abstemious, so much so that he had not sufficient vital strength to resist a nervous fever, which carried him off on the 21st of August, after three days’ illness, when he was on the eve of returning to England, to which as long as he lived he retained the most devoted attachment.
In the ‘Moniteur Universel’ of August 25, 1814, the death and burial of Count Rumford are mentioned. An address was pronounced over his grave by the Baron Benjamin Delessert, his friend and banker in Paris, on the 24th.
The news of Count Rumford’s illness and burial reached the French Academy at the same time, so that the members were unable to attend his funeral. On January 9, 1815, Baron Cuvier read his éloge to the Academy. In it he said:
Nous l’y avons vu, en effet, pendant dix ans honoré des Français et des étrangers, estimé des amis des sciences, partageant leurs travaux, aidant de ses avis jusqu’aux moindres artisans, gratifiant noblement le public de tout ce qu’il inventait chaque jour d’utile. Rien n’y aurait manqué à la douceur de son existence si l’aménité de son commerce avait égalé son ardeur pour l’utilité publique.
Mais il faut l’avouer, il perçait dans sa conversation et dans toute sa manière d’être un sentiment qui devait paraître fort extraordinaire dans un homme si constamment bien traité par les autres, et qui leur avait fait lui-même tant de bien: c’est que c’était sans les aimer et sans les estimer qu’il avait rendu tous ces services à ses semblables. Apparemment que les passions viles qu’il avait observées dans les misérables commis à ses soins ou ces autres passions non moins viles que sa fortune avait excitées parmi ses rivaux l’avaient ulcéré contre la nature humaine. Aussi ne pensait-il point que l’on doit confier au commun des hommes le soin de leur bien-être; ce besoin qui leur semble si naturel d’examiner comment ils sont régis n’était à ses yeux qu’un produit factice des fausses lumières. Il avait sur l’esclavage à peu près les idées d’un planteur, et il regardait le gouvernement de la Chine comme le plus voisin de la perfection, parce qu’en livrant le peuple au pouvoir absolu des seuls hommes instruits, et en élevant chacun de ceux-ci dans la hiérarchie selon le degré de son instruction, il fait en quelque sorte de tant de millions de bras les organes passifs de la volonté de quelques bonnes têtes—doctrine que nous exposons sans prétendre la justifier en rien et que nous savons de reste être peu propre à faire fortune chez nos nations européennes. M. de Rumford a éprouvé lui-même à plus d’une reprise qu’il n’est pas si aisé dans l’occident qu’en Chine d’engager les autres à n’être que des bras; et cependant personne ne s’était autant préparé que lui à bien se servir de bras qu’on lui aurait soumis. Un empire tel qu’il le concevait ne lui aurait pas été plus difficile à conduire que ses casernes et ses maisons de pauvres; il se confiait surtout pour cela à la puissance de l’ordre. Il appelait l’ordre l’auxiliaire nécessaire du génie, le seul instrument possible d’un véritable bien et presque une divinité subordonnée régulatrice de ce bas monde. Il se proposait d’en faire l’objet d’un ouvrage qu’il regardait comme devant être plus important que tous ceux qu’il a écrits; mais on n’en a trouvé dans ses papiers que quelques matériaux informes. Lui-même de sa personne était sur tous les points et sous tous les rapports imaginables le modèle de l’ordre; ses besoins, ses plaisirs, ses travaux, étaient calculés comme ses expériences. Il ne buvait que de l’eau: il ne mangeait que de la viande grillée ou rôtie, parce que la viande bouillie donne sous le même volume un peu moins d’aliment. Il ne se permettait enfin rien de superflu, pas même un pas ni une parole, et c’était dans le plus strict qu’il prenait le mot superflu.
C’était sans doute un moyen de consacrer plus sûrement toutes ses forces au bien, mais ce n’en était pas un d’être agréable dans la société de ses pareils; le monde veut un peu plus d’abandon, et il est tellement fait qu’une certaine hauteur de perfection lui paraît souvent un défaut quand on ne met pas autant d’efforts à la dissimuler qu’on en a mis à l’acquérir.
Quels que fussent au reste les sentiments de M. de Rumford pour les hommes, ils ne diminuaient en rien son respect pour la divinité. Il n’a négligé dans ses ouvrages aucune occasion d’exprimer sa religieuse admiration pour la Providence et d’y offrir à l’admiration des autres les précautions innombrables et variées par lesquelles elle a pourvu à la conservation de ses créatures; peut-être même son système politique venait-il de ce qu’il croyait que les princes doivent faire comme elle et prendre soin de nous sans nous en rendre compte.
Cuvier finished his éloge with this epitaph: ‘L’homme qui par l’heureux choix des sujets de ses travaux a su lui donner à la fois pour appui l’estime des savans et la reconnaissance des malheureux.’