Those who now extort their subsistence by begging and stealing, are, in fact, already maintained by the Public. But this is not all; they are maintained in a manner the most expensive and troublesome, to themselves and the Public, that can be conceived; and this may be said of all the Poor in general. A poor person, who lives in poverty and misery, and merely from hand to mouth, has not the power of availing himself of any of those economical arrangements, in procuring the necessaries of life, which other, in more affluent circumstances, may employ; and which may be employed with peculiar advantage in a public Establishment.--Added to this, the greater part of the Poor, as well those who make a profession of begging, as other who do not, might be usefully employed in various kinds of labour; and supposing them, one with another, to be capable of earning ONLY HALF as much as is necessary to their subsistence, this would reduce the present expence to the Public for their maintenance at least one half; and this half might be reduced still much lower, by a proper attention to order and economy in providing for their subsistence. Were the inhabitants of a large town where mendicity is prevalent, to subscribe only half the sums annually, which are extorted from them by beggars, I am confident it would be quite sufficient, with a proper arrangement, for the comfortable support of the Poor of all denominations. Not only those who were formerly common street-beggars, but all others, without exception, who receive alms, in the city of Munich and its suburbs, amounting at this time to more than 1800 persons, are supported almost entirely by voluntary subscriptions from the inhabitants; and I have been assured by numbers of the most opulent and respectable citizens, that the sums annually extorted from them formerly by beggars alone, exclusive of private charities, amounted to more than three times the sums now given by them to the support of the new institution. I insist the more upon this point, as I know that the great expence which has been supposed to be indispensably necessary to carry into execution any scheme for effectually providing for the Poor, and putting an end to mendicity, has deterred many well-disposed persons from engaging in so useful an enterprise. I have only to add my most earnest wishes, that what I have said and done, may remove every doubt, and re-animate the zeal of the Public, in a cause in which the dearest interests of humanity are so nearly concerned.