Means were adopted for giving relief to those who never were beggars, but who, from poverty and inability to provide the necessaries of life, were involved in distresses and difficulties which they bore in silence.
Persons of distinguished birth even sent to the House of Industry at Munich for flax, or wool, or linen, which they manufactured into goods, and received the usual amount of wages; and some who had been accustomed to sumptuous fare took the soup furnished gratis from the public kitchen to the poor.
The warming, lighting, clothing, feeding, occupying the poor, seemed the sole object of all Sir B. Thompson thought and of all he did. His success must be told in his own words.
My hopes of engaging others to follow my example are chiefly founded upon my success in the enterprise. Then why should I not mention even the marks of affectionate regard and respect which I received from the poor people for whose happiness I interested myself? And will it be reckoned vanity if I mention the concern which the poor of Munich expressed in so affecting a manner when I was dangerously ill? That they went publicly in a body in procession to the cathedral church, where they had divine service performed, and put up public prayers for my delivery. That four years afterwards, on hearing that I was again dangerously ill 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 me.
Let the reader, if he can, picture my situation. Sick in bed, worn out by intense application, and dying, as everybody thought, a martyr in the cause to which I had devoted myself, let him imagine, I say, my feelings upon hearing the confused noise of the prayers of a multitude of people, who were passing by in the streets, upon being told that it was the poor of Munich, many hundreds in number, who were going in procession to the church to put up public prayers for me; public prayers for me! for a private person, a stranger, a Protestant! I believe it is the first instance of the kind that ever happened; and I dare venture to affirm that no proof could well be stronger than this that the measures adopted for making these poor people happy were really successful; and let it be remembered that this fact is what I am most anxious to make appear IN THE CLEAREST AND MOST SATISFACTORY MANNER.
Cuvier says: ‘Il convient lui-même que cet acte spontané de reconnaissance religieuse en faveur d’un homme d’une autre communion lui parut la plus touchante des récompenses; mais il ne se dissimulait pas qu’il en avait obtenu une autre qui sera plus durable. En effet, c’est en travaillant pour les pauvres qu’il a fait ses plus belles découvertes....
‘Chacun sait que dans ses plus belles espérances on eut pour objet la nature de la chaleur et de la lumière, ainsi que les lois de leur propagation; et c’était là effectivement ce qu’il importait le plus de bien connaître pour nourrir, vêtir, chauffer et éclairer avec économie un grand rassemblement d’hommes.’
Other measures for the benefit of the country were carried out at the same time.
A Military Academy was formed, principally with a view to bring forward extraordinary talents and employ them in the civil or military public service. Anyone was admissible. The children of the meanest mechanics and day-labourers, provided they had very extraordinary natural genius, a healthy constitution, and a good character, were educated. It was an establishment designed for the encouragement of genius, and for calling forth into public utility talents which would otherwise remain buried and lost in obscurity.
Measures were adopted for improving the breed of horses and horned cattle in Bavaria and the Palatinate. An attempt was made to put an end to usury in Munich and to improve the highways and public roads, by employing the soldiery in repairing them and preserving order and public tranquillity on them.
A new English Garden was formed, beginning upon the ramparts of the town. It was nearly six English miles in circumference. Within the Garden was a fine and very valuable farm, with thirty of the finest cows procured from Switzerland, Flanders, the Tyrol, and other places. There was a public coffee-house in the middle of the Garden for refreshment and public resort.