232 Public Establishment for 



ent, not only fiom the prevalence of indolence, misery, 

 and beggary in almost all the countries of Europe, 

 but also from the great variety of opinion among those 

 who have taken the matter into serious consideration, 

 and have proposed methods for remedying those evils 

 so generally and so justly complained of. 



What I have to offer upon this subject being not 

 merely speculative opinion, but the genuine result of 

 actual experiments, — of experiments made upon a 

 very large scale, and under circumstances which render 

 them peculiarly interesting, — I cannot help flattering 

 myself that my readers will find both amusement and 

 useful information from the perusal of the following 

 sheets. 



As it may perhaps appear extraordinary that a mili- 

 tary man should undertake a work so foreign to his 

 profession as that of forming and executing a plan for 

 providing for the poor, I have thought it not improper 

 to preface the narrative of my operations by a short 

 account of the motives which induced me to engage 

 in this undertaking. And, in order to throw still more 

 light upon the whole transaction, I shall begin with a 

 few words of myself, of my situation in the country in 

 which I reside, and of the different objects which were 

 had in view in the various public measures in which 

 I have been concerned. This information is necessary, 

 in order to form a clear idea of the circumstances 

 under which the operations in question were under- 

 taken, and of the connection which subsisted between 

 the different public measures which were adopted at 

 the same time. 



Having in the year 1784, with His Majesty's gracious 

 permission, engaged myself in the service of His Most 



