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. CHAPTER. V. The different kinds of employment given to the beggars upon their being assembled in the house of industry. Their great awkwardness at first. Their docility, and their progress in useful industry. The manner in which they were treated. The manner in which they were fed. The Precautions used to prevent Abuses in the Public Kitchen from which they were fed. As by far the greater part of these poor creatures were totally unacquainted with every kind of useful labour, it was necessary to give them such work, at first, as was very easy to be performed, and in which the raw materials were of little value; and then, by degrees, as they became more adroit, to employ them in manufacturing more valuable articles. As hemp is a very cheap commodity, and as the spinning of hemp is easily learned, particularly when it is designed for very coarse and ordinary manufactures, 15,000 pounds of that article were purchased in the palatinate, and transported to Munich; and several hundred spinning wheels, proper for spinning it, were provided; and several good spinners, as instructors, were engaged, and in readiness, when this house of industry was opened for the reception of the poor.