‘SIR,--I have received your letter of July 6, with the several enclosures therein mentioned, and you may be assured that the resolution of Parliament to give the British-American officers half-pay (with which also I find they will all have permanent rank in America) affords me a very sincere satisfaction. Your zeal and assiduity on this occasion appear to have been such as your friends might have expected, and I am sensible of your attention to me in writing so fully on the subject. ‘The American officers have, in my opinion, so fair a claim to half-pay that I hope the grant will finally be made for the full establishment of their several regiments without the least exception.’ APPENDIX II. CONTAINING A LETTER FROM DR. YOUNG TO COUNT RUMFORD, WHEN THE OFFER OF THE PROFESSORSHIP AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION WAS MADE TO HIM; AND TWO LETTERS TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS ON THE INVENTION OF A MICROMETER TO BE USED FOR MEASURING WOOL. THE ORIGINALS OF THESE LETTERS ARE AMONGST THE PAPERS OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS. DR. YOUNG TO COUNT RUMFORD. Welbeck Street, Thursday, July 9, 1801. SIR,--I have received your obliging letter, and beg leave to return you and the managers thanks for the honour you do me. I am willing to undertake the various charges which you have the goodness to detail, and I flatter myself that you will have no reason to complain of any want of zeal on my part in the service of the Royal Institution. But I confess I think it would be in some measure degrading both to me and to the Institution that the salary, which appears to me to have been no more than moderate before, should now be reduced one-fourth,[40] at the same time that the labour and responsibility of the employment are rather increased than lessened. For, whatever might have been expected of the late professor respecting the Journals and the superintendence of the house, I do not apprehend that any specific stipulation was made on the subject; and, as I am determined to devote a greater share of attention to the Institution than he ever appears to have done, I do not see that my education and opportunities of literary acquirement have been such as to render me less worthy than he was of a salary which, when compared with the emoluments of other situations of a similar nature, is by no means exorbitant. It would not be my wish, and the duties of the professorship would certainly render it impossible for me, to attempt any extent of medical practice; but I should be sorry to bind myself to reject the little that might accidentally fall in my way, I do not mention this as a matter of any consequence, but to avoid having it understood, from the conversation I had with you, that I should be obliged to refuse my advice to a friend who might consult me.