mendation of General Carlton, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel of the King's American Dragoons.

Peace having been concluded between the United States and Great Britain, Colonel Thompson, shortly after his return, obtained leave of absence, in order that he might travel on the continent. Passing through France on his way to Vienna, he had reached Strasbourg on the German frontier, when an incident occurred which changed his prospects, and gave a direction to his life different from what he intended or could have anticipated. A review of the garrison of Strasbourg being held, he presented himself on the field as a spectator, mounted on a superb English horse, and in the full uniform of his rank as colonel of dragoons.' The French officers were eager to make the acquaintance of the conspicuous stranger, the more so that his attendance at a review of French troops in full English uniform was regarded as an act of courtesy, which deserved a return. Among those who entered into conversation with him was Prince Maximilian, nephew and presumptive heir of the Elector of Bavaria, and who had served as the commander of a French regiment in the American war. So agreeable was the impression which Thompson made on the Prince, that on learning his circumstances and inten- : tions, the latter offered him an introduction to his uncle, the Bavarian Elector, in case he should be inclined to alter his design of proceeding to Vienna, and make trial of the Bavarian service. The proposal pleased Thompson, and, furnished with the Prince's letter of introduction, he set out for Munich. Wherever he went, he seems to have had the art, almost in spite of himself, of conciliating favor; and on his very first audience with the Elector of Bavaria, he was offered an important situation at court. Still clinging, however, to his resolution of visiting Vienna, he did not accept the offer; but after spending some time at Munich, during which the Elector's esteem for him increased more and more, he set out for the Austrian capital. The Elector, however, continued to send him pressing invitations to enter his service; and learning at Vienna that the Turkish war was likely to be brought to a speedy conclusion, Colonel Thompson at length promised that, provided he could obtain the consent of his British Majesty, he would take up his residence at Munich. Proceeding to London, in order to obtain the consent which was required, he was received with great kindness by George III., who conferred on him the honor of knighthood, and gave him permission, while resigning the command of his regiment, to retain the title of lieutenant-colonel, and the half-pay attached to it. He left England as SIR BENJAMIN THOMPSON.

RESIDENCE AND WORK IN BAVARIA, 1784-94.

At the close of the year 1784, Sir Benjamin Thompson took up his residence in Munich, filling the post of Aid-de-Camp and Chamberlain to the Elector-with functions at once military and civil. Disconnected by any ties of blood, or interest, with the people of Bavaria, he was charged with duties of the most delicate and difficult character-the reorganization of the entire military system, and the introduction of order, efficiency, and economy, into the whole internal administration. We shall confine our brief notice of his beneficent labors in Bavaria to certain sanitary, industrial, and educational measures connected with the army and the poor.

Military Academy at Munich.

One of his earliest measures was the establishment of a Military Academy at Munich, of which he gives an account after it had been in operation six years.

This Academy, which consists of 180 éléves or pupils, is divided into three classes. The first class, which is designed for the education of orphans and other children of the poorer classes of Military Officers, and those employed in the Civil Departments of the State, consists of thirty pupils, who are received gratis, from the age of eleven to thirteen years, and who remain in the Academy four years. The second class, which is designed to assist the poorer nobility and less opulent among the merchants, citizens, and servants of government, in giving their sons a good general education, consists of sixty pupils, who are received from the age of eleven to fifteen years, and who pay to the Academy twelve florins a month; for which sum they are fed, clothed, and instructed. The third class, consisting of ninety pupils, from the age of fifteen to twenty years, who are all admitted gratis, is designed principally to bring forward such youths among the lower classes of the people as show evident signs of uncom mon talents and genius, joined to a sound constitution of body, and a good moral character.

All Commanding Officers of regiments, and Public Officers in Civil Departments, and all Civil Magistrates, are authorized and invited to recommend subjects for this class of the Academy, and they are not confined in their choice to any particular ranks of society, but they are allowed to recommend persons of the lowest extraction, and most obscure origin. Private soldiers, and the children of soldiers, and even the children of the poorest mechanics and day-laborers, are admissible, provided they possess the necessary requisites; namely, very extraordinary natural genius, a healthy constitution, and a good character; but if the subject recommended should be found wanting in any of these requisite qualifications, he would not only be refused admittance into the Academy, but the person who recommended him would be very severely reprimanded.

The greatest severity is necessary upon these occasions, otherwise it would be impossible to prevent abuses. An establishment, designed for the encouragement of genius, and for calling forth into public utility talents which would otherwise remain buried and lost in obscurity, would soon become a job for providing for relations and dependents.

One circumstance, relative to the internal arrangement of this Academy, may, perhaps, be thought not unworthy of being particularly mentioned, and that is the very moderate expense at which this institution is maintained. By a calcu lation, founded upon the experience of four years, I find that the whole Academy, consisting of 180 pupils, with professors and masters of every kind, servants, clothing, board, lodging, firewood, light, repairs, and every other article, house-rent alone excepted, amounts to no more than 28,000 florins a year, which is no more than 155 florins, or about fourteen pounds sterling a

year for each pupil; a small sum indeed, considering the manner in which they are kept, and the education they receive.

Though this Academy is called a Military Academy, it is by no means confined to the education of those who are destined for the army; but it is rather an establishment of general education, where the youth are instructed in every science, and taught every bodily exercise, and personal accomplishment, which constitute a liberal education; and which fits them equally for the station of a private gentleman,-for the study of any of the learned professions,—or for any employment, civil or military, under the government.

As this institution is principally designed as a nursery for genius,—as a gymnasium for the formation of men,-for the formation of real men, possessed of strength and character, as well as talents and accomplishments, and capable of rendering essential service to the State; at all public examinations of the pupils, the heads of all the public departments are invited to be present, in order to witness the progress of the pupils, and to mark those who discover talents peculiarly useful in any particular department of public employment.

Improvement in Military Education and Organization.

Omitting all the miscellaneous improvements of a minor or mechanical nature which were effected by Thompson in matters connected with the military service -as, for instance, in the construction of cannon, in the uniform of the soldiers, their drill, &c.-let us attend to the moral principle which ruled all his proceedings with regard to the organization of the army. 'I have endeavored,' he says, in all my operations, to unite the interest of the soldier with the interest of civil society, and to render the military force, even in time of peace, subservient to the public good. To facilitate and promote these important objects, to establish a respectable standing army, which should do the least possible harm to the population, morals, manufactures, and agriculture of the country, it was necessary to make soldiers citizens, and citizens soldiers.' To this principie, or at least to the precise form in which it is here stated, different persons will make different objections, according as their sympathies are civil or military; but Rumford's general view, that soldiers should be treated as men, can not be impugned. The army being essentially the offspring of an age of physical force, it is certainly difficult to organize it conformably to the spirit of an age which repudiates physical force. To do this-in other words, to make the army, as such, a moral agent-is impossible; but it is quite possible to render a large general culture and much individual freedom compatible with strict discipline; and, at all events, the modern maxim is, that the army is a part of society, employed, it is true, in services of a peculiar nature, which require a peculiar organization, but not on that account cut off from the general mass of the community. Such was the maxim of the Bavarian minister. Besides what he did to increase the physical comfort of the soldier by superior food, clothing, and accommodation, he adopted means for the intellectual and moral improvement of all connected with the military service. 'Schools were established in all the regiments for instructing the soldiers and their children in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Besides these schools of instruction, others, called schools of industry, were established in the regiments, where the soldiers and their children were taught various kinds of work, and from whence they were supplied with raw materials to work for their own emolument. As nothing is so certainly fatal to morals as habitual idleness, every possible means was adopted that could be devised to introduce a spirit of industry among the troops. Every encouragement was given to the soldiers to employ their leisure time when they were off duty in working for their own emolument; and among other encouragements, the most efficacious of all, that of allowing them full liberty to dispose of the money acquired by their labor in any way they should think proper, without being obliged to give any account of it to any body.' Besides working at their various trades for such as chose to employ them, the soldiers were employed as laborers 'in all public works, such as making and repairing highways, draining marshes, repairing the banks of rivers, &c.; and in all such cases the greatest care was taken to provide for their comfortable subsistence, and even for their amusement. To preserve good order and harmony among those who were detached upon these working parties, a certain propor

tion of officers and non-commissioned officers were always sent with them, and these commonly served as overseers of the works, and as such were paid.'

The particular plan, however, which enabled Thompson, while he was improving the personal condition of the soldier, and turning the peace establishment to greater account than before for the general good of the country, at the same time to diminish greatly the expense of its support, was that of permanent garrisons. The whole army was distributed through the various cities of the electorate, each city being garrisoned by troops drawn from the surrounding district. This plan possessed many advantages. A peasant would more readily consent to his son engaging himself to serve as a soldier in a regiment permanently stationed in his neighborhood, than in one at a great distance, or whose destination was uncertain; and when the station of a regiment is permanent, and it receives its recruits from the district of country immediately surrounding its headquarters, the men who go home on furlough have but a short journey to make, and are easily assembled in case of an emergency.' Every encouragement was given to all who could be spared from garrison duty to go home on furlough; an arrangement which was both agreeable to the men-who, during their absence, might be cultivating their little family farms, or otherwise employing themselves at any trade-and economical for the state, because, while the men were on furlough, they received no pay, but only their rations. Thus, while in every garrison town there remained a sufficient nucleus of men to do garrison duty, and who, while receiving full military pay, were at liberty to earn additional money during their leisure time by extra work, the greater part of the army were distributed through the community, pursuing the ordinary occupations of citizens, but ready to assemble at a few hours' notice, and bound to be in the field at least six weeks every year. The assumed necessity for such a state of military preparation gives one a striking idea of the condition of the continent at this epoch.

Not content with the mere negative achievement of organizing the army, so that it should do the least possible harm,' Thompson endeavored to make it an instrument of positive good. His plan of permanent garrisons and easy furloughs, by establishing a constant flux of men to and from a center, suggested the somewhat novel idea of making the army the medium for spreading useful improvements of all kinds through the country. Supposing, for instance, that pains were taken to teach the soldiers in garrison any useful art not then known in Bavaria, but which might be naturalized there, it is obvious that when these men were distributed over the country on furlough, they would carry with them not only their own superior industrial habits, but the art itself. The improvement of Bavarian agriculture by this means was one of Thompson's most anxious wishes. Very few of the recent improvements in that art, he says, such as the cultivation of clover and turnips, the regular succession of crops, &c., had then found their way into general practice; and, above all, the potato was almost unknown in Bavaria. With a view to introduce a better system of agriculture, and especially with a view to naturalize the potato among the Bavarians, Thompson devised the system of military gardens-that is, 'pieces of ground in or adjoining to the garrison towns, which were regularly laid out, and exclusively appropriated to the use of the non-commissioned officers and private soldiers belonging to the regiments in garrison. In these gardens every private soldier was assigned a piece of ground, about three hundred and sixtyfive square feet in extent. This piece of ground was to remain the sole property of that soldier so long as he served in the regiment; he was to be at liberty to cultivate it in any way, and to dispose of the produce in any way he chose; if, however, he did not choose to work in it, but wished rather to spend his pay in idleness, he might do so; but in that case the piece of ground was to be taken from him, and so also if he neglected it. Every means were used to attach the soldiers to their garden labor: seeds and manure were furnished them at a cheap rate; whatever instruction was necessary, was given them; and little huts or summer houses were erected in the gardens, to afford them shelter when it rained. The effect of the plan,' says Rumford, 'was much greater and more important than I could have expected. The soldiers, from being the most indolent of mortals, and from having very little knowledge of gardening, became industrious and skillful cultivators, and grew so fond of vegetables, particularly of potatoes, that these useful and wholesome productions began to

constitute a very essential part of their daily food. These improvements began also to spread among the farmers and peasants throughout the whole country. There was hardly a soldier that went on furlough that did not carry with him a few potatoes for planting, and a little collection of garden seeds; and I have already had the satisfaction to see little gardens here and there making their appearance in different parts of the country.'

In 1784, when he commenced his residence in Bavaria, Sir Benjamin Thompson was thirty-one years of age, and his titles and functions were those of Aid-de-Camp and Chamberlain to the Elector. Soon afterward, however, he received the appointments of Member of the Council of State and Major-General in the army, the Elector at the same time procuring him the decorations of two orders of Polish knighthood, in lieu of the Bavarian order, which the German knighthood prevented him from bestowing. The scientific part of the community also showed their esteem for him by electing him a member of the academies of Munich and Mannheim. All this took place not long after Thompson had settled in Munich. Every year of his subsequent stay brought him fresh honors. In 1787, when on a visit to Prussia, he was chosen a member of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin; in Bavaria, to follow the list of dignities given by his American biographer, 'he attained the military rank of Lieutenant-General, was Commander-in-Chief of the general Staff, Minister of War, and Superintendent of the Police of the Electorate; he was for some time Chief of the Regency that exercised sovereignty during the absence of the Elector; and in that interval between the death, in 1790, of the Emperor Joseph and the coronation of his successor Leopold, the Elector becoming Vicar of the Empire, availed himself of the prerogatives of that office to make him a Count of the Holy Roman Empire.' When this last dignity was conferred on him, Thompson chose the title of Count of Rumford, in memory of the American village where he had once officiated in the capacity of schoolmaster.

It would be interesting to follow Count Rumford in the details of his immense scheme for clearing the streets of cities and the public highways in Bavaria of the enormous, and apparently ineradicable evil of beggary. In his second Essay," the Count observes:

The number of itinerant beggars of both sexes and all ages, as well foreigners as natives, who strolled about the country in all directions, levying contri

Essays Political. Economical, and Philosophical, By Benjamin, Count Rumford, Knight of the Orders of the White Eagle and St. Stanislaus; Chamberlain, Privy-Councilor of State, and Lieutenant-General in the Service of his Most Serene Highness the Elector Palatine, reigning Duke of Bavaria, &c. 3 vols. Boston. 1798, from 3d London Edition. A fifth edition appeared in London in 1800, to which a fourth volume was added in 1802. His works were at once translated into German and French. The Essays on the Treatment of Pauperism were published separately in London in 1851, and again in 1855. Dr. Ellis, in his Life of Count Rumford, refers to Edward's Fuel in Cooking' (London, 1869), as evidence of a revival of interest in Rumford's devices which in the beginning of the century called forth so much enthusiasm and gratitude in great houses and humble homes. Wherever he traveled, in Italy, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland, and France, he left in the hospitals and other public institutions plans or models of his improvements.