to procure legal permission from the civil magistrates for the
celebration of these nuptials! The children were of course
trained up in the profession of their parents; and having the
advantage of an early education, were commonly great proficients
in their trade.

As there is no very essential difference between depriving a
person of his property by stealth, and extorting it from him
against his will, by dint of clamorous importunity, or under
false pretence of feigned distress and misfortune; so the
transition from begging to stealing is not only easy,
but perfectly natural. That total insensibility to shame,
and all those other qualifications which are necessary in the
profession of a beggar, are likewise essential to form an
accomplished thief; and both these professions derive very
considerable advantages from their union. A beggar who goes
about from house to house to ask for alms, has many opportunities
to steal, which another would not so easily find; and his
profession as a beggar gives him a great facility in disposing of
what he steals; for he can always say it was given him in
charity. No wonder then that thieving and robbing should be
prevalent where beggars are numerous.

That this was the case in Bavaria will not be doubted by those
who are informed that in the four years immediately succeeding
the introduction of the measures adopted for putting an end to
mendicity, and clearing the country of beggars, thieves, robbers,
etc. above TEN THOUSAND of these vagabonds, foreigners and
natives, were actually arrested and delivered over to the civil
magistrates; and that in taking up the beggars in Munich, and