Of the great Importance of making Soldiers eat together in regular Messes.--The Influence of such economical Arrangements extends even to the moral Character of those who are the Objects of them.--Of the Expence of feeding Soldiers in Messes.--Of the surprising Smallness of the Expence of feeding the Poor at Munich.-- Specific Proposals respecting the feeding of the Poor in Great Britain, with Calculations of the Expense, at the present Prices of Provisions.

Peace of mind, which is as essential to contentment and happiness as it is to virtue, depends much upon order and regularity in the common affairs of life; and in no case are order and method more necessary to happiness, (and consequently to virtue,) than in that, where the preservation of health is connected with the satisfying of hunger; an appetite whose cravings are sometimes as inordinate as they are insatiable.

Peace of mind depends likewise much upon economy, or the means used for preventing pecuniary embarrassments; and the savings to soldiers in providing Food, which arise from housekeeping in messes of ten or twelve persons who live together, is very great indeed.

But great as these savings now are, I think they might be made still more considerable; and I shall give my reasons for this opinion.

Though the Bavarian soldiers live at a very small expense, little more than two-pence sterling a-day, yet when I compare this sum, small as it is, with the expense of feeding the Poor in the House of Industry at Munich, which does not amount to more than two farthings a-day, even including the cost of the piece of dry rye-bread, weighing seven ounces Avoirdupois¹¹, which is given them in their hands, at dinner, but which they seldom eat at dinner, but commonly carry home in their pockets for their suppers;--when I compare, I say, this small sum, with the daily expence of the soldiers for their subsistence, I find reason to conclude, either that the soldiers might be fed cheaper, or that the Poor must be absolutely starved upon their allowance. That the latter is not the case, the healthy countenances of the Poor, and the air of placid contentment which always accompanies them, as well in the dining-hall as in their working- rooms, affords at the same time the most interesting and most satisfactory proof possible.

Were they to go home in the course of the day, it might be suspected that they got something at home to eat, in addition to what they receive from the public kitchen of the Establishment;--but this they seldom or ever do; and they come to the house so early in the morning, and leave it so late at night, that it does not seem probable that they could find time to cook any thing at their own lodgings.

Some of them, I known, make a constant practice of giving themselves a treat of a pint of beer at night, after they have finished their work; but I do not believe they have any thing else for their suppers, except it be the bread which they carry home from the House of Industry.

I must confess, however, very fairly, that it always appeared to me quite surprising, and that it is still a mystery which I do not clearly understand, how it is possible for these poor people to be so comfortably fed upon the small allowances which they receive.--The facts, however, are not only certain, but they are notorious. Many persons of the most respectable characters in this country, (Great Britain,) as well as upon the Continent, who have visited the House of Industry at Munich, can bear witness to their authenticity; and they are surely not the less interesting for being extraordinary.

It must however be remembered, that what formerly cost two farthings in Bavaria, at the mean price of provisions in that country, costs three farthings at this present moment; and would probably cost six