CHAPTER. IV.

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