Life of Count Rumford. 177 



stop at any peasant's house for victuals, or to demand 

 forage. Officers and subalterns stationed at centres in 



o 



the cantonments were so distributed that they could 

 inspect these patrolmen, and a general officer, after 

 visiting all the cantonments, was to have his head- 

 quarters at Munich. Printed instructions requiring 

 regular returns from the lowest up to the highest of the 

 ranks and the staff were furnished, and extreme care was 

 taken to prevent any collision or conflict between the 

 civil authorities and the military. The soldiers were 

 also to convey government messages, to guard the fron- 

 tiers, to prevent smuggling, to assist at conflagrations, 

 and to pursue and apprehend all malefactors. The in- 

 habitants of each district were to be at the expense of 

 providing simple quarters for the soldiers," but the cost 

 was so carefully restricted that the whole charge for the 

 whole country for one year was but 2,727. 



This cantonment of the cavalry was but one pre- 

 paratory measure planned for effecting what had been 

 resolved on, a general and simultaneous seizure of all 

 the beggars in the capital, to begin with. A distinc- 

 tion was to be made, from the first, between the dis- 

 posal and treatment of aged and infirm mendicants 

 and the restraints designed for the sturdy and able- 

 bodied beggars. Contributions of money voluntarily 

 made by the inhabitants were essential, to obtain which 

 they must be drawn to approve the plan and to trust 

 in its success. This condition it was not easy to se- 

 cure ; for though the inhabitants, tormented by men- 

 dicity, would most readily help any measure promising 

 to remove it surely, they had been over and over again 

 disappointed by fruitless essays to that end. Thomp- 

 son determined to carry out his scheme before asking 



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