ROYAL INSTITUTION, ALBEMARLE STREET, _October 27, 1871_. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. THE LIFE OF COUNT RUMFORD BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTION 1 II. HIS LIFE AFTER THE FOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTION 69 III. THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTION, 1799-1800; WITH THE LIFE OF PROFESSOR GARNETT, 1766-1802 114 IV. THE PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION TO THE RESIGNATION OF PROFESSOR YOUNG, 1801-3; WITH THE LIFE OF DR. THOMAS YOUNG, 1773-1829 180 V. THE FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION TO THE TIME OF FARADAY, 1804-14 258 VI. THE LIFE OF SIR HUMPHRY DAVY, 1788-1829 312 APPENDIX I. ORIGINAL PAPERS REGARDING THE AMERICAN WAR 405 II. ORIGINAL LETTERS FROM DR. THOMAS YOUNG 417 III. INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION TO 1814 425 THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. CHAPTER I. LIFE OF RUMFORD BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE INSTITUTION. 1753 to 1799. At Charlestown, Massachusetts, in the year 1630, James Thompson was among Winthrop’s company. He settled about ten miles inland, and the place was called Woburn. In 1752 Benjamin Thompson was there with his father, Captain Ebenezer Thompson, and he married Ruth Simonds, of that place. Their child, the future Count Rumford, was born in his grandfathers farmhouse, on March 26, 1753. The house is still to be seen near the meeting-house in North Woburn. When the child was a year old his father died, and when he was three years old his mother married again. ‘To the close of her life Rumford wrote to her full of affection, and by the munificent provision which he made for her he showed his tender, grateful regard for her.’