Life of Count Rumford. 175 



to make use of these reformed soldiers in grappling 

 with and suppressing the enormous evils connected 

 with mendicity in Bavaria. This was, at the time, a 

 stupendous and organized system of abuses, which, 

 gradually growing upon the tolerance of the govern- 

 ment and the people, had reached such proportions, and 

 had established itself with such a vigorous power of 

 mischief, as to be acquiesced in as irremediable. There 

 were, indeed, laws in each community which provided 

 for the support of the poor, but they were utterly in- 

 effective. 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, enter- 

 ing 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 importunity. These swarms of mendicants and 

 freebooters were in the main composed of stout, strong, 

 healthy, and able-bodied persons, who preferred an easy 

 life of indolence to any kind of industry. They had 

 become the terror and the scourge of the country. 

 " These detestable vermin had recourse to the most 

 diabolical arts and the most horrid crimes in the prose- 

 cution of their infamous trade." They would steal, 

 maim, and expose little children, and compel them to 

 extort by their piteous appeals a fixed sum for a day's 

 gatherings, with the threat of an inhuman punishment 

 if they failed. Every attempt to suppress this system 

 of outrages having been thwarted, the community had 

 learned to submit and conform to it as admitting of no 



