Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/386

 350 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

impressed with his evident ability and superiority, warmly advised him to make Munich the field of his labors. How he labored there, and of the abundant re^vards of his labors, history tells us in a lofty strain. He became the guiding spirit of the government, and introduced beneficial changes in all directions. The wide spread system of mendicancy that had been an incubus for years to the Bavarian government, he attacked and overthrew, returning the multitude of beggars to it as valuable and accomplished workmen. He remodeled the army, introduced improved artillery, founded a military academy, and improved the breed of cattle.

Near Munich was an extensive tract of wild land that was inclosed as a hunting ground for the King and his nobles. In it now stands an elegant shaft which recites how his " genius, taste, and love," changed this " once desert place " into a lovely pkasure ground for the enjoyment of the people ; and how, beside, he " rooted out the greatest ot public evils, idleness and men- dicity, relieved and instructed the poor, and founded many institutions for the education of our youth." In the public garden of Bavaria his statue stands, of heroic size, as the patron genius of the place. The Elector also honored him by conferring upon him several of the highest offices in the Empire. He was a member of the Council of State ; major general ; knight of Poland ; commander-in-chief of the army ; minister of war ; chief of the Regency in the Elector's absence ; and count of the Holy Roman Empire. To this latter title he added Rumford, in honor of his old home in America. He left Bavaria only as minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary to the court of St. James, with a pension for life of nearly two thousand dollars a year.

Count Rumford had never ceased his interest in philosophical investigations, and while in England engaged in experiments whose fruits came home to every man's kitchen and fireside. The improvement of smoky chimneys and the best methods of employing heat, particularly occupied his mind. The results of his study were the first improved grates and fire-places, and the first cooking stoves. Many of our most indispensable conveniences are due to his thought- fulness and investigation, to which the world, while enjoying the blessing daily, gives no recognition.

In the project of starting the Royal Institution of London, for the patronage of art and science, he was a forward agitator, and instituted several prizes for the encouragement of research. And all the time he kept busy. He experi- mented on light and illuminations, greatly improving our lamps and candles, and he made the first steps in the discoveries in relation to the corrosion of silver by light, upon which rests the art of photography. Another homely benefit grew out of his experiments upon the capabilities of fabrics to absorb moisture, from which the superiority of woolens, as conserving health and comfort, re- sulted. We can hardly glance at the interior of our houses without noticing something in which this ingenious man has added to our enjoyment and felicity.

Lady Sarah Thompson, his wife, died in 1792. He marrried again, late in life, the widow of Lavoisier, the famous French sciendst and savan, and retired to her beautiful seat at Auteuil, near Paris, where he died, August 21, 18 14, in the sixty-second year of his age. In the height of his career the American government invited him to return to his native country and engage in her ser- vice ; but, though he could not comply with the invitation, it must have been peculiarly gratifying to him, as it placed him right upon the record of his country.

Mrs. Thompson's son, by her first marriage, Paul Rolfe, by inheritance, became the owner of the house and estate in Concord. The blood of the

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