Chapter II (2)

I find myself relieved from an almost insupportable burden. I
cannot repeat too much how happy I am, gaining every day in
health, which, from vexations, had become seriously deranged. I am
persuaded it is all for the best. After the scenes which I have
recently passed through I realise, as never before, the sweets of
quiet, liberty, and independence. My household consists of the
most faithful, honest people, attached to me, without dissension,
bribery, or malice. And, above all, that eternal contradiction. Oh!
happy, thrice happy, am I to be my own man again!

Later he wrote:

Madame de Rumford is well. I see her sometimes, though very seldom.
After what is past a reconciliation is impossible. She now repents
of her conduct, but it is too late. The less I see her the better.
I now enjoy peace and tranquillity, and my health improves every
day.

Again:

Auteuil, October 24, 1809.

DEAR SALLY,--The ‘Mentor’ arrived some weeks since, when I was
expecting you. Without doubt the reason you did not come was owing
to your not finding proper protection, and in these terrible times
of war you cannot be too particular. This unfortunate war chains me
to the spot, for I am so situated between three governments that I
am obliged almost to turn into a cypher. It is to England I want
to go, but dare not risk it. And it is there I should much prefer
receiving you than here.

By the date of this letter you will perceive it to be the
anniversary of my wedding-day with Madame Lavoisier to-day four
years. I own I make choice of this day to write to you, in reality
to testify joy, but joy that I am away from her, as has been the
case for the last six months. It would be difficult to describe
what I suffered there for the last year. I often wished for you,
but am now exceedingly glad you did not come, as it would have made
you unhappy and perhaps have done me no good. I was made quite
ill at last, but now, thank Heaven, I am recovering my health and
spirits fast. I am like one risen from the dead. Adieu, my dear
child. You will hear from me soon again, and I hope to see you
soon. I have some pretty rooms prepared for you. I had one of the
Aichners to come and wait upon you, but she did not exactly please
me, and I sent her back again. My old servants, her father and
mother, are nicely established, owing to mine and the Elector’s
kindness, at Munich, and are very happy.

Auteuil, November 12, 1809.

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,--Here is another month past, and you do not come.
I know all the difficulties of travelling either by sea or by land,
so do not blame you; am only sorry. Sorry on several accounts--on
one account that I want to see you. For do you recollect, my dear,
that it is many years since we saw each other? We will not say how
many, lest the time should seem longer. And little did I think,
when you quitted me at Brompton, it would have been for such a
length of time, nor would it have been but for this unfortunate
marriage. Never were there two more distinct beings than this
woman (for I cannot call her a lady) before and after marriage.
But undoubtedly she was pushed on by those looking forward to her
fortune, fearing some of it would light on me. She is the most
avaricious woman I ever saw, and the most cunning--things which I
could not possibly know before marriage.

I suffered more for the last fourteen months--indeed, the whole
three years and a half that I lived with her--than I had an idea I
could have gone through. Luckily I have money enough of my own, but
war and these terrible times prevent me from receiving money from
Bavaria, or my half-pay from England. Yet I am obliged to keep up a
certain consequence, besides being disgusted with everything. I am
afraid you will have to quit the world if you stay with me.

Auteuil, January 10, 1810.

Here month after month arrives, but you do not come. I am very
impatient to see you, but I am more anxious lest something should
happen to you on the way, for discord reigns everywhere.

Later he said:

I am absolutely obliged to set out for Munich, so if you come in
the time you must make yourself comfortable. If I find you here on
my return, it will give me much pleasure.

The King has been in Paris, and invited me so kindly I thought it
my duty to go; but he assures me I shall not be detained there on
any business of importance.

On his arrival in Munich he wrote:

My reception here has been most kind and flattering. The whole town
is in expectation of seeing me again fixed here and employed in the
public affairs of the country. But I know positively, and it is my
greatest consolation, that I shall be permitted to return quietly
to my retreat at Auteuil.

Adieu, my dear Sally. I shall write to you again, I think, before
leaving Munich; but you had better not write me, lest I should be
already set out on my return.

My health is perfectly good, and I am very happy. All my late
sufferings are forgotten. I feel as if just relieved from an
insupportable weight. God be thanked for my delivery! All your
friends here have desired to be remembered to you. Adieu, my dear
Sally; make yourself as comfortable and happy as you can, and be
assured that I have at length quite recovered my reason, and that
I am now persuaded that all that has happened to me has been most
fortunate for me. I am now a free man.

Munich, October 24, 1810.

You will perceive that this is the anniversary of my marriage.
I am happy to call it to mind, that I may compare my present
situation with the three and a half horrible years I was living
with that tyrannical, avaricious, unfeeling woman. You can have no
idea, my dear Sally, what I had to suffer during the last fourteen
months--indeed, during the whole three years and a half I lived in
that house--but the closing six months was a purgatory sufficiently
painful to do away the sins of a thousand years.

The Prince Royal was married on the 12th, and we have had continued
_fêtes_ and rejoicings. The English Garden is in high beauty; no
expense is spared upon it. I am allowed to dine with the King
pretty much as often as I wish, but to-morrow I take leave of him,
of Munich, and the rest of my friends; so you will soon, my dear
Sally, see me at Auteuil.

In December 1811 his daughter arrived at Auteuil, and found him in excellent health. She writes:

I had not been many days at Auteuil before we had a visit from his
separated lady, for they seemed to be on good terms--at least on
visiting terms. The lady was gracious to me, and I was charmed with
her, nor did I ever after find reason to be otherwise, for she was
truly an admirable character. Their disagreements must have arisen
from their independence of character and means; being used always
to having their own ways. Their pursuits in some particulars were
different. He was fond of his experiments, and she of company.

A picture of Madame de Rumford was thus drawn by M. Guizot in 1841, five years after her death:

Soit affection pour son mari, soit disposition naturelle, Madame
Lavoisier s’associa à ses travaux comme un compagnon ou un
disciple. Ceux-là même qui ne l’ont connue que bien loin de la
jeunesse ont pu démêler que sous une apparence un peu froide et
rude, et presque uniquement préoccoupée de sa vie de société,
c’était une personne capable d’être fortement saisie par un
sentiment, par une idée, et de s’y adonner avec passion. Elle
vivait dans le laboratoire de M. Lavoisier, l’aidait dans ses
expériences, écrivait ses observations sous sa dictée, traduisait,
définait pour lui. Elle apprit à graver, pour qu’il fût sûr d’un
ouvrier exact jusqu’au scrupule, et les planches du ‘Traité de
Chimie’ furent bien réellement l’œuvre de ses mains. Elle publia,
parce qu’il le désirait, la traduction d’un ouvrage du chimiste
anglais Kirwan sur ‘la Force des Acides et la Proportion des
Substances qui composent les Sels neutres,’ et elle avait acquis,
de la science qu’ils cultivaient ensemble, une intelligence si
complète que lorsqu’en 1805, onze ans après la mort de Lavoisier,
elle voulut réunir et publier ses mémoires scientifiques, elle
put se charger seule de ce travail et l’accomplit en effet, en y
joignant une préface parfaitement simple, où ne se laisse entrevoir
aucune ombre de prétention.

Un intérieur aussi animé par affection réciproque et des
occupations favorites, une grande fortune, beaucoup de
considération, une bonne maison à l’Arsenal, recherchée par les
hommes les plus distingués, tous les plaisirs de l’esprit, de la
richesse, de la jeunesse, c’était là, à coup sûr, une existence
brillante et douce. Cette existence fut frappée, foudroyée par la
Révolution, comme toutes celles qui l’entouraient. En 1794 Mdme.
Lavoisier vit monter le même jour sur l’échafaud son père et son
mari, et elle n’échappa elle-même, apres un emprisonnement assez
court, qu’en plongeant avec la patience la plus persévérante dans
la plus complète et silencieuse obscurité.

Quand les proscriptions cessèrent, quand l’ordre et la justice
revinrent apaiser et ranimer en même temps la société, Mdme.
Lavoisier reprit sa place dans le monde, entourée de toute une
génération de savants illustres, les amis, les disciples, les
successeurs de Lavoisier, Lagrange, Laplace, Berthollet, Cuvier,
Prony, Humboldt, Arago, charmés en honorant sa veuve de trouver
dans sa maison, en retour de l’éclat qu’ils y répandaient, les
agréments d’une hospitalité élégante. M. de Rumford arriva parmi
eux. Il était alors au service du roi de Bavière et jouissait dans
le public d’une grande popularité scientifique; son esprit était
élevé, sa conversation pleine d’intérêt, ses manières empreintes
de bonté. Il plut à Mdme. Lavoisier; il s’accordait avec ses
habitudes, ses goûts, on pourrait presque dire avec ses souvenirs.
Elle espéra recommencer en quelque sorte son bonheur. Elle l’épousa
le 22 October, 1805, heureuse d’offrir à un homme distingué une
grande fortune et la plus agréable existence.

Leurs caractères ne se convinrent point. A la jeunesse seule
il est facile d’oublier au sein d’un tendre bonheur la perte
de l’indépendence. Des questions délicates furent élevées, des
susceptibilités s’éveillèrent. Mdme. de Rumford en se remariant
avait formellement stipulé dans son contrat qu’elle se ferait
appeler Madame Lavoisier de Rumford. M. de Rumford, qui y avait
consenti, finit par le trouver mauvais. Elle persista. ‘J’ai
regardé comme un devoir, comme une religion,’ écrivait-elle en
1808, ‘de ne point quitter le nom de Lavoisier.... Comptant sur
la parole de M. de Rumford je n’en aurais pas fait un article de
mes engagements civils avec lui, si je n’avais voulu laisser un
acte public de mon respect pour M. Lavoisier et une preuve de la
générosité de M. de Rumford. C’est un devoir pour moi de tenir à
une détermination qui a toujours été une des conditions de notre
union; et j’ai dans le fond de mon âme l’intime conviction que M.
de Rumford ne me désapprouvera pas et qu’après avoir pris le temps
d’y réfléchir ... il me permettra de continuer à remplir un devoir
que je regarde comme sacré.’

Ce fut encore là une espérance trompée. Après des agitations
domestiques, que M. de Rumford avec plus de tact eût rendues moins
bruyantes, la séparation devint nécessaire, et elle eut lieu à
l’aimable le 30 juin, 1809.

Depuis cette époque et pendant vingt-sept ans aucun événement, on
pourrait dire aucun incident, ne dérangea plus Mdme. de Rumford
dans sa noble et agréable façon de vivre. Elle n’appartint plus
qu’à ses amis et à la société, tantôt étendue, tantôt resserrée,
qu’elle recevait avec un mélange assez singulier de rudesse et
de politesse, toujours de très-bonne compagnie et d’une grande
intelligence du monde même dans ses brusqueries de langage et ses
fantaisies d’autorité.

In February 1812 Count Rumford gave his mother 10,000 dollars in 3½ per cent. stock as a free gift, and he wrote to her:

I desire that you will accept of it as a token of my dutiful
affection for you, and of my gratitude for the kind care you
took of me in the early part of my life. I have the greatest
satisfaction in being able to show my gratitude for all your
goodness to me, and to contribute to your ease and comfort. I
request that you will consider this donation as being perfectly
free and unconditional, and that you would enjoy and dispose of
what is now your property just as you shall think best and most
conducive to your happiness and to your satisfaction, without any
regard to any former arrangements you have made at my request.

My health continues to be good, and I yet feel none of those
infirmities of age which sometimes render the evening of life
painful. I have the satisfaction to think that I have done my duty
through life, and that is a great consolation to me as I approach
the end of my course. I shall never cease to be, my dear mother,
your dutiful and affectionate child,

BENJAMIN.

On January 23 he had a paper read before the Royal Society which he published as his seventeenth essay. It was an ‘Inquiry Concerning the Source of the Light which is Manifested in the Combustion of Inflammable Bodies.’

His object was to prove by decisive experiments that the light which accompanies the complete combustion of any given quantity of pure inflammable matter is variable, and therefore light cannot be one of the chemical products of combustion.

If light were a substance, as has been supposed, it seems highly
probable that means would long since have been found to discover
where and how it exists; but if it be nothing more than a blow
given to the eye by the repercussion of an ethereal fluid which
touches that organ and at the same time every other body in the
universe, it is evident that all attempts to discover it in a state
of combination must be vain.

Nobody, I imagine, ever thought of searching for sound in a
fulminating powder. Is it more reasonable to search there for the
light that accompanies the combustion of substances?

The greatest light may be obtained by preserving the heat of the
flame. Thus several flat flames placed together, in order that
they may mutually cover and defend each other against the powerful
cooling influence of surrounding bodies, form a lamp that has
answered far beyond my most sanguine expectation.

I lose no time in giving an account of the principles on which it
is constructed, in hopes that others may be induced to assist in
improving it.

So far from being jealous of their success I shall rejoice in it,
and shall ever be most ready to contribute to it by all the means
in my power.

On February 24 he had a paper read before the French Institute on the ‘Heat Manifested in the Combustion of Inflammable Substances.’

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.’

Dr. Young, who, whilst Professor at the Royal Institution, knew Rumford well, said of him in the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica:’

Count Rumford certainly possessed considerable facility of
conversation, and there was a very laudable spirit of originality
in his views and mode of reasoning, although he had never leisure
to acquire profound learning in any department of study. In person
he was above the middle size, with a dignified and pleasing
expression of countenance and a mildness in his manner and tone of
voice. He was ambitious of fame and distinction, and had too great
a propensity to dictate without sufficiently regarding the opinions
of those who were of equal authority with himself. His mode of life
was abstemious, and his health was even supposed to have suffered
from too great abstinence, though his regimen was much more the
result of medical opinion regarding his health than of his own
peculiar taste for temperance.

By his will, of which Lafayette was a witness, he made a bequest to his daughter, and another to Harvard College

for the purpose of founding, under the direction and government
of the corporation, overseers, and governors of that university,
a new institution and professorship, in order to teach by regular
courses of academical and public lectures, accompanied with proper
experiments, the utility of the physical and mathematical sciences
for the improvement of the useful arts, and for the extension of
the industry, prosperity, happiness, and well-being of society.

He left all his military books and papers to the Government of the United States, and the snuff-box given to him by the Emperor of Austria to Baron Delessert, and his gold enamelled watch to his friend Mr. Parker. He thus showed his regard for Davy:

I give to Sir Humphry Davy, Knight, Professor of Chemistry in the
Royal Institution of Great Britain, my plain gold watch, as a token
of my esteem.

Madame de Rumford gave up her interest in the lease of the Count’s house at Brompton to his daughter, who went to London in May 1815 and lived there for twenty years, during which period she returned to Paris for three years. In 1835 she went to America, and then she returned to Paris until 1844, when she revisited America. In the room in which she was born she died, when seventy-eight years of age, December 21, 1852. She left her property chiefly to form the Rolfe and Rumford Asylum for the Poor and Needy at Concord.

The memory of Count Rumford is preserved in Munich by a stone monument in the English Garden, erected by public subscription in 1795, and by a bronze statue placed in 1867 by the present King in the finest street in the city.

In Paris a street once bore his name, and his gravestone in the cemetery at Auteuil is the only material mark of his residence in France.

In America the Rumford medals which he founded, and the institutions he originated, form his enduring monuments.

In England the highest scientific reward which the Royal Society can bestow, and the place where the greatest scientific discoveries of this century have been made, should both in gratitude be inseparably united with the name of Rumford.