BEGGAR, a person who solicits charitable aid from the public at large. The word is supposed to have some connection with the fraternity known as Beghards. See BEGUIN. The actual begging or solicitation of temporal aid became, however, so conspicuous a feature among these mendicant orders, that the term originally applied to their sacred duties seems at a very early- period to have acquired its modern vulgar acceptation. There is no class of men who have had their lot and condition so varied by ethnical and social conditions as beggars. Iu a civilized industrious country, the B., to have any chance of relief, must manage to get it believed, whether it be true or false, that he is on the verge of want, and requires the solicited alms to keep him from starvation. Among oriental nations, on the other hand, beggars have often been a potent class, who may be rather considered as endowed with the privilege of taxing their fellow-creatures, than as objects of compassion. It has sometimes been supposed that a residue of this feeling of superiority characterizes the mental physiology even of the mendicant of civilization, and that, abject as he seems, he considers himself to some extent a privi leged person, entitled to support from his fellows, without being amenable to the slavish drudgery by which tile working-classes live. In Europe, during the middle ages, those doctrines of Christianity which are intended to teach us to abjure selfishness and worldly-mindedness, were exaggerated into a profession of total abstraction from worldly cares and pursuits. IIence arose the large Lody of religionists who, as hermits or mem bers of the mendicant orders, lived on the contributions of others. In later times. the mendicant orders became the proudest and the richest of the clergy; but while the chiefs lived in affluence, the practices of the lower adherents fostered throughout Europe a system of mendicancy very inimical to civilization and industrial progress. In Great Britain its evil results have been long felt, in the inveterate establishment of practices naturally out of harmony with the independent, industrious character of the British people. Ever since the reformation, the British laws have had a death-struggle with the 13.; but neither by the kindness of a liberal poo•-law, nor by the severity of a merciless criminal code, have they been able to suppress him. IN hen a country provides. as Britain does, that no one shall be permitted to starve, i would naturally be expected that the springs of miscellaneous charity would he dried. But it is not so, and it is
indeed often plausibly urged, that entirely to supersede all acts of kindly generosity between man and man, through rigid legal provisions, must lower the standard of human character, by depriving it of all opportunity for the exercise of the generous emotious. It is clear that,' in the light of political economy, promiscuous charity is the most costly and most corrupting way of administering relief to indigence. No one will maintain that the idle B. on the street deserves such a luxurious table as the industrious inechanie cannot afford to himself. But, at the same time, no one who drops a coin in a beggar's hat can say how many others may be deposited there during the day, and whether the 13. is merely drawing a wretched pittance, or deriving a good income. Beg ging being a trade, it is not always those who are the poorest, but those who are the most expert, who will practice it to the best results. The great object is to seize on and appropriate any characteristic calculated, whether permanently or temporarily, to excite compassion. Ilence periods of general distress are often the harvest of the B., and his trade rises and falls in an inverse ratio with that of the working community. Times of prosperity are not favorable to him, because he is then told that there is plenty of work for him. But when workmen are dismissed in thousands, and their families turned on the road to seek alms, the professional beggars, by their superior skill and experience. will be sure to draw the prizes in the distribution. Many surprising statements have been made of the large incomes made by skillful professional beggars, especially in London. The most remarkable anecdotes on the subject will be found in Grose's Olio, whence they have often been repeated. Attempts have been made, but with question able success, to set forth an average statement of the earnings in different departments of the B. trade. A good deal of information of this kind will be found in the Report of the Constabulary Force Commission of 1889 (see p. 60, et seq.). It does not appear, how ever. that this trade is, like others, dependent on the -law of supply and demand. The B. generally is so constitutionally, whether hereditary or other physical causes. He has aloathing, even to horror, of steady systematic labor, and he will rather submit to all the hardships and privations of the wanderer's lot, than endure this dreaded evil.