270 Public Establishment for 



ing permitted to be made upon any occasion, or under 

 any pretence whatever. 



When the inhabitants had subscribed liberally to the 

 support of the institution, it was but just to secure them 

 from all further importunity in behalf of the poor. 

 This was promised, and it was most effectually done, 

 though not without some difficulty, and a very consider- 

 able expense to the establishment. 



The poor students in the Latin and German schools, 

 the sisters of the religious order of charity, the direc- 

 tors of the hospital of lepers, and some other public 

 establishments, had been so long in the habit of mak- 

 ing collections, by going round among the inhabitants 

 from house to house at stated periods, asking alms, 

 that they had acquired a sort of right to levy those 

 periodical contributions, of which it was not thought 

 prudent to dispossess them without giving them an 

 equivalent. And, in order that this equivalent might 

 not appear to be taken from the sums subscribed by 

 the inhabitants for the support of the poor, it was 

 paid out of the monthly allowance which the institu- 

 tion received from the chamber of finances, or public 

 treasury of the state. 



Besides these periodical collections, there were others, 

 still more troublesome to the inhabitants, from which 

 it was necessary to free them ; and some of these last 

 were even sanctioned by legal authority. It is the 

 custom in Germany for apprentices in most of the me- 

 chanical trades, as soon as they have finished their 

 apprenticeships with their masters, to travel during 

 three or four years in the neighbouring countries and 

 provinces, to perfect themselves in their professions by 

 working as journeymen wherever they can find employ- 



