236 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



proposition was favorably received, but, as Colonel Thompson was a 

 half-pay officer of the English crown, he needed to have the permission 

 of the king before making a Continental engagement. He therefore 

 returned to England in 1784, and received not only the king's per- 

 mission, but also the honor of knighthood and the continuance of his 

 half-pay, and he returned to Munich the same year as Sir Benjamin 

 Thompson. A splendid field was now before him, and he entered 

 upon a series of the most remarkable labors, to which he devoted him- 

 self with great assiduity. "These labors ranged from subjects of the 

 .homeliest nature in their bearings upon the thrift, economy, and com- 

 fort of life for the poorest classes, through enterprises of wide-extended 

 and radical reform, and compi*ehensive benevolence, up to the severest 

 tests and experiments in the interests of practical science." .... "The 

 elector was from first to last his constant friend, never thwarting him, 

 never holding back his aid ; but, on the contrary, ready always to 

 advance every plan of his, and to espouse his views when questioned 

 or opposed by other counselors." 



It is impossible, in this brief sketch, even to enumerate the ex- 

 tensive and important measures of public beneficence and social 

 amelioration which Sir Benjamin projected and successfully carried 

 out. He reorganized the entire military establishment of Bavaria, 

 introduced not only a simpler code of tactics and a new system 

 of order, discipline, and economy, among the troops and industrial 

 schools for the soldiers' children, but greatly improved the construc- 

 tion and modes of manufacture of arms and ordnance. He devoted 

 himself to various ameliorations, such as improving the construction 

 and arrangement of the dwellings of the working-classes, providing 

 for them a better education, organizing houses of industry, introducing 

 superior breeds of horses and cattle, and promoting landscape-garden- 

 ing, which he did by converting an old abandoned hunting-ground, 

 near Munich, into a park, where, after his departure, the inhabitants 

 erected a monument to his honor. He moreover suppressed the sys- 

 tem of beggary, which had grown into a recognized profession in Bava- 

 ria and become an enormous public evil one of the most remarkable 

 social reforms on record. Mendicity in Bavaria was at that time 

 "a stupendous and organized system of abuses, which, gradually 

 growing upon the tolerance of the government and people, had 

 reached such proportions and had established itself with such a vigor- 

 ous power of mischief as to be acquiesced in as irremediable. Beggars 

 and vagabonds, the larger part of whom were also thieves, swarmed 

 all over the country, especially in the cities. These were not only 

 natives, but foreigners. They were of both sexes and all ages ; they 

 strolled in all directions, lining the highways, levying contributions 

 with clamorous demands, entering houses, stores, and workshops, to 

 rob, interrupting the devotions of the churches with their exactions, 

 and extorting everywhere, through fear, what they failed to get by 



