216 Biographical Memoir of Count Rumford. 



introduced. He found means of removing the soldier from the 

 ill-treatment of officers, and of adding to his comfort at the same 

 time that he diminished the expenses of the state. The equip- 

 ment of the troops, their clothing and head-dress, became more 

 suitable and more convenient. Each regiment had a garden, 

 where the soldiers themselves reared the vegetables which they 

 required, and a school in which their children received the ele- 

 ments of education. The mihtary discipline was simplified ; the 

 soldier was brought nearer to the citizen ; the privates had more 

 facilities afforded them of becoming officers ; and a school was 

 at the same time established, in which young men of family 

 might receive the most extensive military education. The ar- 

 tillery, as being more connected with the sciences, chiefly at- 

 tracted the regard of Count Rumford, who made numerous 

 experiments for its improvement. Lastly, he established a 

 workhouse, in which were manufactured, with regularity, all 

 the articles necessary for the troops — a house which, at the same 

 time, became in his hands a source of improvement in the police 

 still more important than those which he had introduced in the 

 army. 



After what we have said of the state of Bavaria, it will easily 

 be conceived that mendicity must there have become excessive ; 

 and it was in fact asserted, that, next to Rome, Munich had the 

 greatest number of beggars of any city in Europe. They ob- 

 structed the streets, divided the stations among each other, sold 

 or inherited them as one does a house or a farm. Sometimes 

 they were even seen to fight for the possession of a post or 

 church-door ; and, when opportunity presented, they did not 

 refuse to commit the most revolting crimes. 



It were easy to find by calculation that the regular support of 

 this mass of wretches would cost the public less than the pre- 

 tended charities which they extorted from it. Count Rumford 

 had no difficulty in perceiving this ; but he saw, at the same time, 

 that to extirpate mendicity, something more was necessary than 

 to prohibit it ; that but half of the work would be done by arrest- 

 ing the mendicants and feeding them, unless their habits were 

 changed, unless they were formed to industry and order, and 

 unless there were inspired into the people a horror of idleness, 

 and of the lamentable consequences which it induces. 



