Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/257

Rh importunity. These swarms of mendicants and freebooters were in the main composed of strong, healthy, and able-bodied persons, who preferred an easy life of indolence to any kind of industry. They had become the terror and scourge of the country. They would steal, maim, and expose little children, and compel them to extort, by their piteous appeals, a fixed sum for a day's gatherings, with the threat of an inhuman punishment if they failed. Every attempt to suppress this system of outrages having been thwarted, the community had learned to submit and conform to it as admitting of no relief; and this wretched tolerance seemed to double the number of these vagabonds, while it raised beggary into a profession." So systematic and rooted had this state of things become that "the beggars formed a caste in the cities, with professional rules, assigning to them beats and districts, which were disposed of by regulations, in case of the death, promotion, or removal, of the proprietors.

Sir Benjamin resolved upon the extirpation of this system, and the conversion of this lazy and dissolute class into thrifty, self-sustaining laborers. His policy was cautious, deliberate, and wise. He knew exactly what he wished to do, made ample provision for it, and secured the coöperation of the influential classes in the execution of his plan. We cannot describe it here, but its success was complete. The beggars were swept from the streets, cared for, soon set to work, and raised to a condition of self-respecting industry. So effectual was the work that Sir Benjamin won the heart-felt gratitude of the very class upon which he had operated. This is beautifully illustrated by the fact that, "on one occasion, when he was dangerously ill, the poor of Munich went publicly in a body to the cathedral and put up public prayers for his recovery. And again, when, four years afterward, they learned that he was in a similar condition at Naples, they of their own accord set apart an hour each evening, after they had finished their work in the military workhouse, to pray for him."

For the valuable services rendered in Bavaria Sir Benjamin received many distinctions, and, among others, was made Count of the Holy Roman Empire. On receiving this dignity he chose a title in remembrance of the country of his nativity, and was henceforth known as Count of Rumford. His health failing from excessive labor, and what he considered the unfavorable climate, he came back to England in 1798, and had serious thoughts of returning to the United States, having received from the American Government the compliment of a formal invitation to revisit his native land. While in England, Count Rumford organized the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1800, which was designed for the promotion of original discovery and the diffusion of a taste for science among the educated classes. Its success has more than vindicated the sagacity of its founder. He afterward returned to the Continent, and, while frequently visiting Munich, took up his residence in Paris. In 1805 he married the widow of the