claims. He rapidly became a favorite with the governor, and on his proposing, soon after his appointment, to make a survey of the White Mountains, Wentworth not only fell in with the idea, but promised, if his public duties permitted, to take part in the survey himself. At the time when he exercised this influence, Thompson was not quite twenty years old. In Concord, at the time of Thompson's | Wentworth at once commissioned Thomparrival, there dwelt the widow of a Colo- son to fill it; " thus placing him over the nel Rolfe with her infant son. Her hus- heads of veterans with infinitely stronger band had died in December, 1771, leaving a large estate behind him. Rumford was indebted to Mrs. Rolfe's father, the Rev. Timothy Walker, for counsel, and to her brother for civility and hospitality. There the widow and teacher met, and their meeting was a prelude to their marriage. Rumford, somewhat ungallantly, told his friend Pictet in after years that she married him rather than he her. She was obviously a woman of decision. As soon as they were engaged, an old curricle, left by her father, was fished up, and, therein mounted, she carried her betrothed to Boston, and committed him to the care of the tailor and hairdresser. This journey involved a drive of sixty miles. On the return they called at the house of Thomp-requisite data for forming a clear judgson's mother, who, when she saw him, is reported to have exclaimed, “Why, Ben, my son, how could you go and lay out all your winter's earnings in finery?" Thompson was nineteen when he married, his wife being thirty-three. Through official unwisdom, unhappily not confined to that age, the ferment of discontent with the legislation of the mother country had spread in 1774 throughout the colony. Clubs and committees were formed which often compelled men to take sides before the ment had been obtained. "Our candor," says Dr. Ellis, "must persuade us to allow that there were reasons, or at least prejudices and apprehensions which might lead honest and right-hearted men, lovers and friends of their birthland, to oppose the rising spirit of independence as inflamed by demagogues, and as foreboding discomfiture and mischief." Thompson on friendly terms with Governor Wentworth; but then the governor, when he gave Thompson his commission, was highly popular in the province. Prior to his accession to office Wentworth had strongly opposed every measure of Great Britain which was regarded as encroach On two critical occasions in the life of this extraordinary man his appearance on horseback apparently determined the is sues of that life. As he rode at a review | became "suspect." He was known to be of the British soldiers at Dover, New Hampshire, on the 13th of November, 1772, his figure attracted the attention of Governor Wentworth, and on the day following he was the great man's guest. So impressed was Wentworth with his conversation that he at once made up his mind to attach him to the public service. | ing upon the liberties of the colonists. To secure this wise end he adopted unwise means. "A vacancy having occurred in a majorship in the Second Provincial Regiment of New Hampshire, Governor "Where once the embattled farmers stood, He thought himself, nevertheless, in duty bound to stand by the royal authority when it was openly defied; and this nat urally rendered him obnoxious. "There was something," says Dr. Ellis, "exceedingly humiliating and degrading And fired the shot heard round the world." to a man of an independent and selfWe were afterwards driven by Emerson to Lexington, talking on the way of poets and poetry, and putting respecting spirit in the conditions imposed science for the time under a bushel. We halted near at times by the Sons of Liberty,' in the the Common, so as to enable me to inspect the monuprocess of cleansing himself from the ment The inscription contained some strong expressions regarding British aggression. On returning, I taint of Toryism." Human nature is remarked that they were all Britons at the time-the everywhere the same, and to protect a colonists being truer Britons than their assailants. It cherished cause these "sons of liberty" was, in fact, Essex against Essex; and when I spoke of the undesirability of embalming in bitter words the sometimes adopted the tactics of the memory of a family quarrel, Emerson smilingly assented. Papal Inquisition. Sullen defiance was the attitude of Thompson, and public | own vine and under his own fig-tree, and feeling grew day by day more exasperated have none to make him afraid." On Ocagainst him. In the summer of 1774, he tober 13th, 1775, he quitted Woburn, foiled his accusers before a committee ap- reached the shore of Narragansett Bay pointed to inquire into his conduct. The where he went on board a British frigate. acquittal, however, gave him but little re- In this vessel he was conveyed to Boston, lief, and extra-judicial plots were formed where he remained until the town was against him. The Concord mob resolved evacuated by the British troops. The at length to take the matter into their own news of this catastrophe was carried by hands. One day they collected round his him to England. Thenceforward, till house, and with hoots and yells demanded the close of the war, he was on the Enthat he should be delivered up to them. glish side. Having got wind of the matter, he es- One of the most remarkable charactercaped in time; and on the assurance of istics of Thompson was the readiness with Mrs. Thompson and her brother Colonel which he caught the manners and fell into Walker that he had quitted Concord the the ways of great people. This quality mob dispersed. "To have tarried at probably connects itself with that" overConcord," he writes to his father-in-law love of splendor" which his friend Bald. at this time, "and have stood another win ascribes to him. On the English side trial at the bar of the populace would the American War was begun, continued, doubtless have been attended with un- and ended, in ignorance. Blunder folhappy consequences, as my innocence lowed blunder, and defeat followed defeat, would have stood me in no stead against until knowledge which ought to have been the prejudices of an enraged infatuated ready at the outset came too late. Thompmultitude and much less against the son for a time was the vehicle of such bedetermined villany of my inveterate ene- lated knowledge. He was immediately mies, who strive to raise their popularity | attached to the Colonial Office, then ruled on the ruins of my character." over by Lord George Germain. Cuvier, in his "Eloge," thus described his first interview with that minister. "On this occasion by the clearness of his details and the gracefulness of his manners, he insinuated himself so far into the graces of Lord George Germain that he took him into his employment." With Lord George he frequently breakfasted, dined, and supped, and was occasionally his guest in the country. At Stoneland Lodge, the residence of Lord George, his celebrated experiments on gunpowder began. He was a born experimentalist, handy, ingen. ious, full of devices to meet practical needs. He turned his attention to improvements in military matters; devised and procured the adoption of bayonets for the fusees of the Horse Guards, to be used in fighting on foot. The results of his experiments on gunpowder were communicated to Sir Joseph Banks. He soon became intimate with Sir Joseph, and in 1779, he was elected fellow of the Royal Society. He returned to his mother's house in Woburn, where he was joined by his wife and child. While they were with him, shots were exchanged and blood was shed at Concord and Lexington. Thompson was at length arrested, and confined in Woburn. A "committee of correspondence" was formed to inquire into his conduct. He conducted his own defence, and was again acquitted. The committee, however, refused to make the acquittal a public one, lest, it was alleged, it should offend those who had sought for a conviction. Despair and disgust took possession of him more and more. In a long letter addressed to his father-in-law from Woburn, he defends his entire course of conduct. His principal offence was probably negative; for silence at the time was deemed tantamount to antagonism. Dur ing a brief period of farming, he had had working for him some deserters from the British army in Boston. These he persuaded to go back, and this was urged as a crime against him. He defended himself with spirit, declaring, after he had explained his motives, that if this action were a crime, he gloried in being a criminal. He had made up his mind to quit a country which had treated him so ill; devoutly wishing," that the happy time may soon come when I may return to my family in peace and safety, and when every individual in America may sit down under his When the war had become hopeless, many of the exiles who had been true to the royalist cause came to England, where Thompson's official position imposed on him the duty of assuaging their miseries and adjusting their claims. Though no evidence exists" that he failed to do in any case what duty and friendli ness required of him," he did not entirely escape the censure of his outlawed fellow countrymen. One of them in particular | for active service, he resolved to try his awkward than the whole journey. The triumvirate of this memorable embarka tion will consist of the grand Gibbon, Henry Laurens, Esq., President of Congress; and Mr. Secretary, Colonel, Admiral, Philosopher Thompson, attended by three horses, who are not the most agreeable fellow-passengers. If we survive, I will finish and seal my letter at Calais. Our salvation shall be ascribed to the prayers of my lady and aunt, for I do believe they both pray." The "grand Gibbon " is reported to have been terribly frightened by the plunging of his fellowpassengers, the three blood horses. As the prospects of the war darkened, Thompson's patron became more and more the object of attack. The people had been taxed in vain. England was entangled in Continental war, and it became gradually recognized that the subjugation of the colony was impossible. To Thompson's credit, be it recorded, he showed no tendency to desert the cause he had espoused, when he found it to be a failing one. In 1782, his chief was driven from power, and at this critical Pushing on to Strasburg, where Prince time he accepted the commission of lieu- Maximilian of Bavaria, then a field-martenant colonel in the British army, and shal in the service of France, was in the returned to America with a view of rally-garrison, Thompson, mounted on one of ing for a final stand such forces as he his chargers, appeared on the parade might find capable of organization. He ground. He attracted the attention of took with him four pieces of artillery, the prince, who spoke to him, and, on with which he made experiments during the voyage. His destination was Long Island, New York, but stress of weather carried him to Charleston, South Carolina, where the influence of his presence was soon felt. "Obliged to pass the winter there, he was made commander of the remains of the cavalry in the royal army, which was then under the orders of Lieutenant-General Leslie. This corps was broken, but he promptly restored it, and won the confidence and attachment of the commander. He led them often against the enemy, and was always successful in his enterprises." He quitted Charleston, and about the middle of April, 1782, reached New York, where he took command of the king's American Dragoons. But early in April, 1783, before the war was formally concluded, he obtained leave to return to England. Finding there no opportunity • This Dr. Ellis considers to be a delusion. learning that he had been serving in the American War, pointed to some of his officers, and remarked that they had been in the same war. An animated conversation immediately began, at the end of which the stranger was invited to dine with the prince. After dinner, it is said, he produced a portfolio containing plans of the principal engagements, and a collection of excellent maps of the seat of war. Eager for information, the prince again invited him for the next day, and when at length the traveller took leave, engaged him to pass through Munich, giving him a friendly letter to the elector of Bavaria. The elector, a sage ruler, saw in him immediately a man capable of rendering the State good service. He pressed his visitor to accept a post half military and half civil. The proposal was a welcome one to Thompson, and he came to England to obtain the king's permission to accept it. Not only was the permission granted, but on February 23, 1784, he was knighted | the prompting of those on furlough, little by the king. Dr. Ellis publishes the gardens sprang up everywhere over the "grant of arms to the new knight. The country. Bavaria was then infested with original parchment, perfect and unsullied, beggars, vagabonds, and thieves, native with all its seals, is in the possession of and foreign. These mendicant tramps Mrs. James F. Baldwin, of Boston, widow were in the main stout, healthy, and ableof the executor of Countess Sarah Rum- bodied fellows, who found a life of thievford. "The knight himself," observes ish indolence pleasanter than a life of his biographer, "must have furnished the honest work. "These detestable vermin information written on that flowery parch- had recourse to the most diabolical arts, ment." He returned to Munich, and on and the most horrid crimes in the proshis arrival the elector appointed him colo- ecution of their infamous trade." They nel of a regiment of cavalry and aide-de- robbed, they stole, maimed and exposed camp to himself. He was lodged in a little children, so as to extract money palace, which he shared with the Russian from the tender-hearted. All this must ambassador, and had a military staff and be put an end to. Four regiments of a corps of servants. He soon acquired a cavalry were so cantoned that every vil mastery over the German and French lage had its patrol. This disposition of languages: He made himself minutely the cavalry was antecedent to seizing, as acquainted with everything concerning a beginning, all the beggars in the capital. the dominions of the elector - their pop- The problem before him might well have ulation and employments, their resources daunted a courageous man, but he faced and means of development, and their re- it without misgiving. He brought his lations to other powers. Holding as he schemes to clear definition in his mind did the united offices of minister of war, before he attempted to realize them. Preminister of police, and chamberlain of cepts, he knew, were vain, so his aim was the elector, his influence and action ex- to establish habits. Reversing the maxim tended to all parts of the public service. that people must be virtuous to be happy, Four years of observation were, however, he resolved on making happiness a stepspent in Munich before he attempted any-ping-stone to virtue. He had learnt the thing practical. Then, as now, the armies importance of cleanliness through observ of the Continent were maintained by con- ing the habits of birds. Lawgivers and scription. Drawn away from their normal founders of religions never failed, he said, occupations, the rural population returned to recognize the influence of cleanliness after their term of service lazy and de-on man's moral nature. "Virtue never moralized. The pay of the soldiers was dwelt long with filth and nastiness, nor do miserable, their clothing bad, their quar-I believe there ever was a person scruputers dirty and mean; the expense being out of all proportion to the return. lously attentive to cleanliness who was a consummate villain." He had to deal with wretches covered with filth and vermin, to cleanse them, to teach them, and to give them the pleasure and stimulus of earning honest money. He did not waste his means on fine buildings, but taking a deserted manufactory, he repaired it, en Thompson aimed at making soldiers citizens and citizens soldiers. The situation of the soldier was to be rendered pleasant, his pay was to be increased, his clothing rendered comfortable and even elegant, while all liberty consistent with strict subordination was to be per-larged it, adding to it kitchen, bakehouse, mitted him. Within, the barracks were to and workshops for mechanics. Halls were be neat and clean; and without, attrac- provided for the spinners of flax, cotton, tive. Reading, writing, and arirhmetic and wool. Other halls were set up for were to be taught, not only to the soldiers weavers, clothiers, dyers, saddlers, wooland their children, but to the children of sorters, carders, combers, knitters, and the neighboring peasantry. He drained seamstresses. In the prosecution of his the noisome marshes of Mannheim, and despotic scheme all men seemed to fall converted them into a garden for the use under his lead. To relieve it of the odium of the garrison. For the special purpose which might accrue if it were effected of introducing the culture of the potato, wholly by the military, he associated with he extended the plan of military gardens himself and his field officers the magisto other garrisons. They were tilled, and trates of Munich. They gave him willing their produce was owned by non-commis-sympathy and aid. On New Year's mornsioned officers and privates. The plan ing, 1790, he and the chief magistrate proved completely successful. Indolent walked out together. With extended soldiers became industrious, while through hand a beggar immediately accosted them. Thompson, setting the example to his | the power of organization. In him flexi companions, laid his hand gently upon ble wisdom formed an amalgam with the shoulder of the vagabond, and com- despotic strength. He held undoubtingly that "arrangement, method, provision for the minutest details, subordination, cooperation, and a careful system of statistics, will facilitate and make effective any undertaking, however burdensome and comprehensive." Pure love of humanity would at first sight seem to be the motive force of his action. Still, it has been affirmed by those who knew him that this was not the case. Fontenelle said of Dodard, that he turned his rigid observance of the fasts of the Church into a scientific experiment on the effects of abstinence, thereby taking the path which led at once to heaven and into the French Academy. In Rumford's case the pleasure of the administrator outweighed, it was said, that of the philanthropist. With his iron resolution was associated in those days a plastic tact which enabled him to avoid jealousies and collisions that a man of less self-restraint would infallibly have incurred. To the school for poor students, the Sisters of Charity, the hospital for lepers, and other institutions had been conceded the right of making periodic appeals from house to house: German apprentices had also been permitted to beg upon their travels; all of these had their claims adjusted. After he had swept his swarm of paupers into the quarters provided for them, his hardest work began. Here the inflexible order When he quitted America, he left his which had characterized him through life wife and infant daughter behind him, and came as a natural force to his aid. "He whether there were any communications encouraged a spirit of industry, pride, afterwards between him and them is not self-respect, and emulation, finding help known. In 1793, in a letter to his friend even in trifling distinctions of apparel." Baldwin, he expressed the desire to visit His pauper workhouse was self-support- his native country, and to become personing, while its inmates were given the ally acquainted with his daughter, who means of enjoying life. He constructed was then nineteen. With reference to and arranged a kitchen which provided daily a warm and nutritive dinner for a thousand or fifteen hundred persons; an incredibly small amount of fuel sufficing to cook a dinner for this multitude. The military workhouse was also remunerative; its profits for six years exceeding a hundred thousand dollars. He had the art of making himself loved and honored by the people whom he ruled in this arbitrary way. Under stress of work he once broke down at Munich, and fearing that he was dying, the poor of the city went in procession to the church to put up public prayers for him. In 1793 he went to Italy to restore his health. Had he known how to employ the sanative power of nature, he might have longer kept in working order his vigorous frame. But he was a man of the city. The mountains of Maggiore were to him less attractive than the streets of Verona, where he committed himself to the planning of soup-kitchens. He made similar plans for other cities, so that to call his absence a holiday would be a misnomer. He returned to Munich in August, 1794, slowly recovering, but not able to resume the management of his various institutions. this projected visit, he asks, "Should I be kindly received? Are the remains of party spirit and political persecution done away? Would it be necessary to ask leave of the State?" A year prior to the date of this letter, Rumford's wife had died, at the age of fifty-two. On January 29, 1796, his daughter, who was familiarly called "Sally Thompson," sailed for London to see her father. She "had heard him spoken of as an officer, and had attached to this an idea of the warrior with a martial look, possibly the sword, if not the gun by his side." All this disappeared when she saw him. He did not strike her as handsome, or even agreeable, a result in part due to the fact that he had been ill and was very thin and pale. She speaks, however, of his laughter "quite from the heart," while the expression of his mouth, with teeth of "the most finished pearls," was sweetness itself. She had little knowledge of the world, and her purchases in London he thought both extravagant and extraordinary. After having, by due discipline, learned how to make an English courtesy, to the horror of her father, almost the first use she made of her newly acquired accomplishment was to courtesy to a housekeeper. Men find pleasure in exercising the powers they possess, and Rumford pos- In 1796 Rumford founded the historic sessed, in its highest and strongest form, | medal which bears his name, and the same |