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THE

EUROPEAN MAGAZINE,

A ND

LONDON REVIEW;
For FEBRUARY 1797.

SIR BENJAMIN THOMPSON, KNT.

COUNT OF RUMFORD, KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF THE WHITE EAGLE AND ST. STANISLAUS, &c.

(WITH A PORTRAIT.)

IN the progrefs of our labours there is

no circumftance which has afforded us more fatisfaction than the opportunity we have had of making known to the world, and celebrating the virtuous efforts of individuals employed for the good of the Public. To relieve diftrefs, to footh affliction, to alleviate pain, to furnish the means of existence for humble induftry, to obviate temptation to the breach of the laws of fociety, are employments which entitle the agent to the refpect, to the love, even to the veneration, of every good citizen. The merits of Jonas Hanway and John Howard have been already amply detailed in the courfe of our Magazine; we now proceed to do justice to another gentleman, whofe exertions feem not lefs deferving applause than thofe of either of the former, regretting, at the fame time, that our materials for a life chequered," as he fays, "by a great variety of incidents," should be fo fcanty.

Count Rumford's name is Thompfon; and he is, if we are rightly informed, a native of a town of the fame name as his prefent title in the province of Maflachufets. During the late unhappy war between the Colonies and the mother country, he raifed a regiment of Aine. rican Dragoons, and fignalized himself on many occafions during the heat of that to-be-lamented contest. At one period he was, we are told, employed under Lord George Germaine, Secretary of State for the American Department; and about February 1784 received from his Majefty the honour of knighthood.

In the fame year, by his Majesty's permiffion, he engaged himfelf in the fervice of his Serene Highness the Elector Palatine, Reigning Duke of Bavaria, and was employed in various public services, particularly in arranging his military af fairs, and introducing a new fyftem of order, difcipline, and economy among his troops. But these were not the most important fervices rendered to the Elector by Count Rumford: he formed elablifhments for the relief of the poor at Munich; furnished them with employment ; exceedingly prevalent; and, by establishput a complete ftop to mendicity, then ing good regulations, brought the whole vagrant tribe to prefer industry to idleneis, and cleanliness and decency to filth and rags. He fuggested many plans for providing the poor with food, wholefome, agreeable, and nourishing, at a fmall expence; and by various experiments, was enabled to fave in the article before had been incurred in the article of of fuel a great part of the expence which dreffing the provifion for the table. In purfuing these enquiries he made many valuable difcoveries in the construction of chimneys; and was enabled to point out the means, which have since been fuccefsfully employed, of increafing the heat, and at the fame time decreasing the quantity of fuel. In many parts of the three kingdoms, thefe experiments have been tried, and found to answer the propofed end; and, at the time we are writing this Memoir, numbers are employed in adapting the chimneys of many noblemen and gentlemen to receive the be

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nefit

nefit of the plan. He was the means of introducing into Germany the use of that wholefome vegetable the potatoe; of familiarizing the ufe of it to the people in general; and of conquering the national prejudice against it. He introduced manufactures, until then unknown, into Munich; and before he left that place to come to England, had the pleasure to affift in packing up, and fending off over the Alps, by the Tyrol, fix hundred articles of clothing of different kinds, for the poor of Verona. At that juncture he had hope foon to fee the poor of Bayaria grow rich by manufacturing clothing for the poor of Italy. -How far this expectation has been defeated by the calamities of war, which has fince raged in the place where his improvements were introduced, we are afraid to enquire,

Services fuch as thefe, though originally intended for particular places, are

not to be confined to them; but are calculated for every fituation not forbidden by climate or inveterate prejudice. Much of Count Rumford's plans might be adopted in thefe kingdoms, to the benefit of every class; and fome of them have already met with a cordial reception. Where fo much has been done as at Munich, it may well be concluded that the Author has not gone unrewarded. He has received honours from his new mafter, the Elector (we hope more than honours), and now ftiles himself Count of Rumford, Knight of the Crders of the White Eagle and St. Staniflaus, Chamberlain, Privy Counsellor of State, and Lieutenant General in the fervice of the Duke of Bavaria, Colonel of his Regiment of Artillery, and Com mander in Chief of the General Staff of his Army, F. R. S. Acad. R. Hiber. Berol. Elec. Boico, Palat. et Amer. Soc.

FOR THE EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.

THE following is the Copy of a Manufcript found among the Papers of the late Francis Cotes, Efq. the celebrated Crayon Painter. It cannot fail to afford plea fure to fuch of your Readers as amufe themselves in the study and practice of this elegant branch of the Fine Arts.

CRAYON

CRAYON Pictures are in their nature more delicate, and confequently more liable to injury, than almost every other kind of painting: they are ufually executed upon a paper ground, pafted over the finest linen, and are often painted upon blue, but most commonly upon paper prepared with a fize ground, rendered of a middle teint for the fake of expedition, and fometimes upon paper perfectly white. It must not be concluded that becaufe Crayon pictures are easily injured, that they cannot with care be preterved a great length of time; nay, for many centuries; but it will always be neceffary to keep them with attention, and above all things to take care that they are not left in damp rooms, or in moit places, for the paste which is ufed in preparing the grounds will inevitably produce a mildew, and black and the darkeft colours be covered with spots.

All the light teints of English Crayons are perfectly fafe and durable, and pictures of this defcription are to be seen that have been painted more than forty years, and which have been expofed to the climates of the Eaft and West Indies; and are, notwithstanding, in no reirect decayed. It must always be remembered, that as

PAINTING.

P,

Crayon pictures are dry, and have of courfe a powdery furface, they never thould be left uncovered with a glass; because whatever duft fettles upon them cannot be blown off or removed in any other manner. Crayon pictures, when finely painted, are fuperlatively beautiful, and decorative in a very high degree in apartments that are not too large; for, having their furface dry, they partake in appearance of the effect of Fresco, and by candle light are luminous and beautiful beyond all other pictures.

The finest examples that are known in this branch of painting are the pictures by the Caval. Mengs in the gallery at Drefden, the Seafons and other beautiful paintings by Rofalba, and certain portraits of Lietard, which are difperfed and to be found all over Europe, as he painted in almost every country; perhaps to thete may be added a few of my late matter's portraits; and finally, if it will not be deemed too much prefumption, my father's portrait and Mr. Knapton's, her Majefty with the Princess Royal fleeping, Mrs. Child, Mifs Jones, Mifs Wilton, and a few other portraits by myfelf,

Whatever fpots appear in the blacks and darkest colours are easily removed

with

with care by the point of a penknife; and if any pots fhould arife upon the Fight parts of the flesh, or other places, they fhould in like manner be scraped off and repainted in, a spot at a time, exactly

correfponding with the furrounding teints, till all the decayed parts are reitored, which has often been done with admira ble effect.

For the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.

Interdum vulgus rectum videt; THAT England poffeffes more freedom than any other part of the world, is the creed of almost every Briton; in which creed I moft heartily concur. That one Englishman can beat five Frenchmen, feems likewife to be a pofition among the lower ranks of people not eafily fhaken; and "the Honest Cobler," tays Lord Chesterfield," is fo firmly perfuaded of this truth, that he would by no means be averte to the trial." Now, though I am by no means fure that our Cobler would come off victorious in this unequal engagement, but rather imagine it would be Sutor ulira Crepidam; yet while prejudice holds her feat in the world (and it is likely to remain a long time), all we have to do is to endeavour to direct it to a proper object, in the attainment of which men will be fure to act with more force and energy, than by any effort refulting from the cool dictates of prudence and reason.

At the fame time, there are certain pounds beyond which this prejudice muft not extend; for daily obfervation will convince us, that from an immoderate love of liberty, our dear countrymen are too frequently guilty of intolerance and oppreffion; in defpiting the underftanding, and infulting the perfons of men, whole moderate difpofition they call fervile compliance, and whole love of order is conftrued into affection for abfolute monarchy.

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Others maintain, that it is owing to the wife and admirable form of our Conftitution, which carries not in ittelt, like other worldly ftructures, the principles of corruption and decay. Some philofophers, who maintain the existence of innate ideas, affert, that we are born with a propensity to freedom, and that we muit ever rife with an elaftic force from the preffure of tyranny and ufurpation: nor are there wanting many who afcribe our love of freedom to the temperature of the air and nature of the foil, a ipecies of Phyfico-freemen, who will doubtiels by teeling a man's pulte declare the degree of freedom that circulates in his veins.

This fort of prejudice is not however meant to apply to the freedom of our Iland, which is allowed by the most liberal and unprejudiced men to be ftable and uniform; though what is the caufe of this almoft uninterrupted continuance of liberty, and the question, how long is it likely to continue? is a point that has been frequently agitated, and is indeed adbuc jub judice. Some learned, pious, and enthufiaftic men, have deduced the bleifing of liberty from the immediate interpofition of Providence; and affert, that the fame power that keeps the planets in regular motion preferves the equilibrium at liberty in the island of Great Britain.

My friend Jack Ranter lately honoured me with a vifit; and, as he is a profeffed Orator, I asked his opinion of the origin of liberty; when he delivered himself as follows: Without deviating from the plain road of common fenfe into the wildernefs of abftract and metaphylical fpeculation, I think I have difcovered the cause of the continuance of freedom in this our highly-favoured Island to be no less than the rife, progrefs, and continuance of Debating Societies.-Nay do not laugh," added he; "let Philofophers puzzle their brains in fearching for a more remote caufe, their airy flights will be vain, and they will find the truth not in the clouds of conjecture but on terra firma, that is at the Weltmintter Forum, or Ciceronian School of Eloquence. There each man, as he enters, divefts himself (or is fuppofed to diveft himself) of every particle of prejudice, and deals out his portion of wildom with the fcales of justice in his hand. What a facred awe muft fuch an auguft affembly inspire! Surely in this temple dedicated to Liberty and Cicero, decency and impartiality must prefide. There each man brings his opinions to market, and vends them without interruption. Legiflators," continued Jack," may talk of one part of their nicely-balanced Conftitution being a check upon the other; I affirm, that a Debating Society is a check upon them all. It is biaffed by no interested motives; it

holds

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