178 Life of Count Rumford. 



general pecuniary aid for it, and also to enlist in it 

 people of the highest rank. He organized a most 

 efficient bureau as a police over the poor, in order to 

 provide relief for the necessitous and the opportunities 

 of profitable industry for the well and strong. His 

 committee was constituted of the respective presidents 

 of the Council of War, the Council of the Supreme 

 Regency, the Ecclesiastical Council, and the Chamber 

 of Finances. To these was added one additional coun- 

 cillor from each of these departments, and offices were 

 provided for meetings, with a secretary, accountant, 

 and clerk, and the police guards were under the direc- 

 tion of the committee. The members were all without 

 pay, and the employees were remunerated from the 

 Treasury, so as not to draw upon the Poor Fund, 

 which was intrusted to a public banker .of the city, 

 Monsieur Dallarmi. 



The city was divided into sixteen districts, in which 

 every dwelling, palace or hovel, was numbered ; and a 

 committee of charity was appointed for each, headed by 

 a respectable citizen, assisted by a priest, a physician, a 

 surgeon, and an apothecary, all serving without pay, to 

 look after the worthy poor. A connection was estab- 

 lished by rotation between these district committees 

 and the central committee. There were many vested 

 funds, grants, and bequests which had for years been 

 nominally consecrated to charity, but as most of these 

 had been reduced, wasted, or misapplied, Thompson 

 determined wisely not to excite the opposition or 

 odium which he might incur by claiming them. He 

 looked for support from the Sovereign, from the Treas- 

 ury, from subscriptions, legacies, and small revenues. 



To provide raw material, help, oversight, interest, 



