An account of the taking up of the beggars at Munich.
The inhabitants are called upon for their assistance.
General subscription for the relief and support of the poor.
All other public and private collections for the poor abolished.
New-Year's-Day having, from time immemorial, been considered in
Bavaria as a day peculiarly set apart for giving alms; and the
beggars never failing to be all out upon that occasion; I chose
that moment as being the most favourable for beginning my
operations. Early in the morning of the first of January 1790,
the officers and non-commissioned officers of the three regiments
of infantry in garrison, were stationed in the different streets,
where they were directed to wait for further orders.
Having, in the mean time, assembled, at my lodgings, the
field-officers, and all the chief magistrates of the town, I made
them acquainted with my intention to proceed that very morning to
the execution of a plan I had formed for taking up the beggars,
and providing for the poor; and asked their immediate assistance.
To show the public that it was not my wish to carry this measure
into execution by military force alone, (which might have
rendered the measure odious,) but that I was disposed to show all
becoming deference to the civil authority, I begged the
magistrates to accompany me, and the field-officers of the
garrison, in the execution of the first and most difficult part
of the undertaking, that of arresting the beggars. This they
most readily consented to, and we immediately sallied out into
the street, myself accompanied by the chief magistrate of the
town, and each of the field-officers by an inferior magistrate.
We were hardly got into the street when we were accosted by a
beggar, who asked us for alms. I went up to him, and laying my
hand gently upon his shoulder, told him, that from thenceforwards
begging would not be permitted in Munich;--that if he really
stood in need of assistance, (which would immediately be enquired
into,) the necessary assistance should certainly be given him,
but that begging was forbidden; and if he was detected in it
again he would be severely punished. I then delivered him over
to an orderly serjeant who was following me, with directions to
conduct him to the Town-hall, and deliver him into the hands of
those he should find there to receive him; and then turning to
the officers and magistrates who accompanied me, I begged they
would take notice, that I had myself, WITH MY OWN HANDS, arrested
the first beggar we had met; and I requested them not only to
follow my example themselves, by arresting all the beggars they
should meet with, but that they would also endeavour to persuade
others, and particularly the officers, non-commissioned officers,
and soldiers of the garrison, that it was by no means derogatory
to their character as soldiers, or in anywise disgraceful to them,
to assist in so USEFUL and LAUDABLE an undertaking.
These gentlemen having cheerfully and unanimously promised to do
their utmost to second me in this business, dispersed into the
different parts of the town, and with the assistance of the
military, which they found every where waiting for orders,
the town was so thoroughly cleared of beggars IN LESS THAN AN HOUR,
that not one was to be found in the streets.
Those who were arrested were conducted to the Town-hall,
where their names were inscribed in printed lists provided for
that purpose, and they were then dismissed to their own lodgings,
with directions to repair the next day to the newly erected
"Military Work-house" in the Au; where they would find
comfortable warm rooms;--a good warm dinner every day; and work
for all those who were in a condition to labour. They were
likewise told that a commission should immediately be appointed
to enquire into their circumstances, and to grant them such
regular weekly allowances of money, in alms, as they should stand
in need of; which was accordingly done.
Orders were then issued to all the military guards in the
different parts of the town, to send out patroles frequently into
the streets in their neighbourhood, to arrest all the beggars
they should meet with, and a reward was offered for each beggar
they should arrest and deliver over to the civil magistrate.
The guard of the police was likewise directed to be vigilant;
and the inhabitants at large, of all ranks and denominations,
were earnestly called upon to assist in completing a work of so
much public utility, and which had been so happily begun[8].
In an address to the public, which was printed and distributed
gratis among the inhabitants, the fatal consequences arising
from the prevalence of mendicity were described in the most
lively and affecting colours,--and the manner pointed out in
which they could most effectually assist in putting an end to
an evil equally disgraceful and prejudicial to society.
As this address, (which was written with great sprit, by a man
well known in the literary world, Professor Babo,) gives a very
striking and a very just picture of the character, manners, and
customs, of the hords of idle and dissolute vagabonds which
infested Munich at the time the measure in question was adopted,
and of the various artifices they made use of in carrying on
their depredations; I have thought it might not be improper to
annex it, at full length, in the Appendix, No. I.
This address, which was presented to all the heads of families in
the city, and to many by myself, having gone round to the doors of
most of the principal citizens for that purpose, was accompanied
by printed lists, in which the inhabitants were requested to set
down their names;--places of abode;--and the sums they chose to
contribute monthly, for the support of the establishment. These
lists, (translations of which are also inserted in the Appendix,
No. II.) were delivered to the heads of families, with duplicates,
to the end that one copy being sent in to the committee,
the other might remain with the master of the family.
These subscriptions being PERFECTLY VOLUNTARY, might be augmented
or diminished at pleasure. When any person chose to alter his
subscription, he sent to the public office for two blank
subscription lists, and filling them up anew, with such
alterations as he thought proper to make, he took up his old list
at the office, and deposited the new one in its stead.
The subscription lists being all collected, they were sorted,
and regularly entered according to the numbers of the houses
of the subscribers, in sixteen general lists[9], answering to
the sixteen subdivisions or districts of the city; and a copy of
the general list of each district was given to the commissary
of the district.
These copies, which were properly authenticated, served for the
direction of the commissary in collecting the subscriptions in
his district, which was done regularly the last Sunday morning of
every month.
The amount of the collection was immediately delivered by the
commissary into the hands of the banker of the institution,
for which he received two receipts from the banker; one of which
he transmitted to the committee, with his report of the collection,
which he was directed to send in as soon as the collection was
made.
As there were some persons who, from modesty, or other motives,
did not choose to have it known publicly how much they gave in
alms to the poor, and on that account were not willing to have
put down to their names upon the list of the subscribers, the
whole sum they were desirous of appropriating to that purpose;
to accommodate matters to the peculiar delicacy of their feelings,
the following arrangement was made, and carried into execution
with great success.
Those who were desirous of contributing privately to the relief
of the poor, were notified by an advertisement published in the
news-papers, that they might send to the banker of the
institution any sums for that purpose they might think proper,
under any feigned name, or under any motto or other device;
and that not only a receipt would be given to the bearer, for the
amount, without and questions being asked him, but, for greater
security, a public acknowledgement of the receipt of the sum
would be published by the banker, with a mention of the feigned
name of device under which it came, IN THE NEXT MUNICH GAZETTE.
To accommodate those who might be disposed to give trifling sums
occasionally, for the relief of the poor, and who did not choose
to go, or to send to the banker, fixed poor-boxes were placed in
all the churches, and most of the inns; coffee-houses; and other
places of public resort; but nobody was ever called upon to put
any thing into these boxes, nor was any poor's-box carried round,
or any private collection or alms-gathering 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 considerable expence to the establishment.
The poor students in the Latin German schools;--the sisters of
the religious order of charity;--the directors of the hospital of
lepers;--and some other public establishments, had been so long
in the habit of making 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 institution 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 mechanical 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 employment. When one of those itinerant
journeymen-tradesmen comes into a town, and cannot find employment
in it, he is considered AS HAVING A RIGHT to beg the assistance
of the inhabitants, and particularly of those of the trade he
professes, to enable him to go to the next town; and this
assistance it was not thought just to refuse. This custom was
not only very troublesome to the inhabitants, but gave rife to
innumerable abuses. Great numbers of idle vagabonds were
continually strolling about the country under the name of
travelling journeymen-tradesmen; and though any person, who
presented himself as such in any strange place was obliged to
produce (for his legitimation) a certificate from his last
master, in whose service he had been employed, yet such
certificates were so easily counterfeited, or obtained by fraud,
that little reliance could be placed in them.
To remedy all these evils, the following arrangement was made:
those travelling journeymen-tradesmen who arrive at Munich, and
do not find employment, are obliged to quit the town immediately,
or to repair to the military work-house, where they are either
furnished with work, or a small sum is given them to enable them
to pursue their journey farther.
Another arrangement by which the inhabitants have been relieved
from much importunity, and by which a stop has been put to many
abuses, is the new regulation respecting those who suffer by
fire; such sufferers commonly obtain from government special
permission to make collections of charitable donations among the
inhabitants in certain districts, during a limited time. Instead
of the permission to make collections in the city of Munich,
the sufferers now receive certain sums from the funds of the
institution for the poor. By this arrangement, not only the
inhabitants are relieved from the importunity which always
attends public collections of alms, but the sufferers save a
great deal of time, which they formerly spent in going about from
house to house; and the sale of these permissions to undertakers,
and many other abuses, but too frequent before this arrangement
took place, are now prevented.
The detailed account published in the Appendix, No. III. of the
receipts and expenditures of the institution during five years,
will show the amount of the expense incurred in relieving the
inhabitants from the various periodical and other collections
before mentioned.
But not to lose sight too long of the most interesting object of
this establishment, we must follow the people who were arrested
in the streets, to the asylum which was prepared for them, but
which no doubt appeared to them at first a most odious prison.