244 Public Establishment for 



this submission are easy to be conceived. The beggars, 

 encouraged by their success, were attached still more 

 strongly to their infamous profession ; and others, allured 

 by their indolent lives, encouraged by their successful 

 frauds, and emboldened by their impunity, joined them. 

 The habit of submission on the part of the public gave 

 them a sort of right to pursue their depredations, 

 their growing numbers and their success gave a kind of 

 eclat to their profession ; and the habit of begging be- 

 came so general that it ceased to be considered as infa- 

 mous, and was, by degrees, in a manner interwoven with 

 the internal regulations of society. Herdsmen and 

 shepherds, who attended their flocks by the road-side, 

 were known to derive considerable advantage from the 

 contributions which their situation enabled them to levy 

 from passengers ; and I have been assured that the 

 wages they received from their employers were often 

 regulated accordingly. The children in every country 

 village, and those even of the best farmers, made a con- 

 stant practice of begging from all strangers who passed ; 

 and one hardly ever met a person on foot upon the 

 road, particularly a woman, who did not hold out her 

 hand and ask for charity. 



In the great towns, besides the children of the poorer 

 sort, who almost all made a custom of begging, the pro- 

 fessional beggars formed a distinct class or caste among 

 the inhabitants, and in general a very numerous one. 

 There was even a kind of political connection between 

 the members of this formidable body ; and certain gen- 

 eral maxims were adopted and regulations observed in 

 the warfare they carried on against the public. Each 

 beggar had his particular beat or district, in the posses- 

 sion of which it was not thought lawful to disturb 



