After September 14 Count Rumford was absent until February 3. During this time six meetings only of the managers were held, one in October, when Sir John Hippesley brought at great length the question of the arms of the Institution before the managers. Another meeting was on December 23, when the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor were granted a room for the committee meetings. The prospectus and charter were ordered to be printed in octavo, and Dr. Garnett laid before the managers the plan of his lectures for the following year. Thus, then, in 1799 the Rumford Institution began in the house of Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, and in the first year of its life it became the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street. It had its origin in the work which Count Rumford did for the poor in Munich, and its primary objects were models, workshops, and useful knowledge to benefit the poor; lectures, researches, and scientific experiments to amuse and interest the rich and to advance science were comparatively the secondary intentions of its founder. In 1800 a new and very long prospectus was written by Count Rumford. It was printed with the charter, bye-laws, and names of the proprietors and subscribers, and published on January 23. It again said, ‘the two chief purposes of the Institution were the speedy and general diffusion of the knowledge of all new and useful improvements, in whatever quarter of the world they may originate; the application of scientific discoveries to the improvement of arts and manufactures in this country, and to the increase of domestic comfort and convenience.’ There is a remarkable addition in May of two paragraphs to the edition in quarto of this publication. They read as if some one had pointed out the absence of all mention of attraction for the rich. These words were added: ‘But, in estimating the probable usefulness of this Institution, we must not forget the public advantages that will be derived from the general diffusion of a spirit of experimental investigation and improvement among the higher ranks of society. When the rich shall take pleasure in contemplating and encouraging such mechanical improvements as are really useful, good taste, with its inseparable companion good morals, will revive; rational economy will become fashionable; industry and ingenuity will be honoured and rewarded; and the pursuits of all the various classes of society will then tend to promote the public prosperity.’