with them against the plague; as if the plague was not the hand of God, but a kind of a possession of an evil spirit; and that it was to be kept off with crossings, signs of the zodiac, papers tied up with so many knots, and certain words or figures written on them, as particularly the word Abracadabra formed in triangle, or pyramid, thus:

I might spend a great deal of time in my exclamations against the follies, and indeed the wickedness of those things, in a time of such danger, in a matter of such consequence as this, of a national infection. But my memorandums of these things relate rather to take notice only of the fact, and mention only that it was so how the poor people found the insufficiency of those things, and how many of them were afterwards carried away in the dead carts, and thrown into the common graves of every parish, with these hellish charms and trumpery hanging about their necks, remains to be spoken of as we go along.

All this was the effect of the hurry the people were in, after the first notion of the plague being at hand was among them, and which may be said to be from about Michaelmas 1664, but

the whole College, and, as it was particularly calculated for the use of the poor, and for cheap medicines, it was made public, so that everybody might see it, and copies were given, gratis, to all that desired it; but as it is public, and to be seen on all occasions, I need not give the reader of this the trouble of it.

I shall not be supposed to lessen the authority or capacity of the physicians, when, I say, that the violence of the distemper, when it came to its extremity, was like the fire the next year; the fire, which consumed what the plague could not touch, defied all the application of remedies; the fire-engines were broken, the buckets thrown away, and the power of man was baffled and brought to an end; so the plague defied all medicines; the very physicians were seized with it, with their preservatives in their mouths; and men went about prescribing to others, and telling them what to do, till the tokens were upon them, and they dropt down dead-destroyed by that very enemy they directed others to oppose. This was the case of several physicians, even some of them the most eminent, and of several of the most skilful surgeons; abundance of quacks too died, who had the folly to trust to their own medicines, which they must needs be conscious to themselves were good for nothing; and who rather ought, like other sorts of thieves, to have run away, sensible of their guilt, from the justice that they could not but expect should punish them, as they knew they had deserved.

Not that it is any derogation from the labour or application of the physicians to say they fell in the common calamity; nor is it so intended by me it rather is to their praise, that they ventured their lives so far as even to lose them in the service of mankind; they endeavoured to do good and to save the lives of others. But we were not to expect that the physicians could

stop God's judgments, or prevent a distemper eminently armed from Heaven, from executing the errand it was sent about.

Doubtless the physicians assisted many by their skill, and by their prudence and applications, to the saving of their lives and restoring their health; but it is no lessening their character, or their skill, to say, they could not cure those that had the tokens upon them, or those who were mortally infected before the physicians were sent for, as was frequently the case.

It remains to mention now what public measures were taken by the magistrates for the general safety, and to prevent the spreading of the distemper when it first broke out: I shall have frequent occasion to speak of the prudence of the magistrates, their charity, their vigilance for the poor, and for preserving good order, furnishing provisions, and the like, when the plague was increased as it afterwards was. But I am now upon the order and regulations they published for the government of infected families.

I mentioned above, shutting of houses up and it is needful to say something particularly to that, for this part of the history of the plague is very melancholy; but the most grievous story must be told.

About June, the Lord Mayor of London and the Court of Aldermen, as I have said, began more particularly to concern themselves for the regulation of the city.

The Justices of Peace for Middlesex, by direction of the Secretary of State, had begun to shut up houses in the parishes of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, St. Martin's, St. Clement Danes, &c., and it was with good success; for in several streets, where the plague broke out, upon strict guarding the houses that were infected, and taking care to bury those that died immediately after they were known to be dead, the plague ceased

in those streets. It was also observed, that the plague decreased sooner in those parishes, after they had been visited to the full, than it did in the parishes of Bishopsgate, Shoreditch, Aldgate, Whitechapel, Stepney, and others: the early care taken in that manner being a great means to the putting a check to it..

This shutting up of houses was a method first taken, as I understand, in the plague which happened in 1603, at the coming of King James I. to the crown; and the power of shutting people up in their own houses was granted by Act of Parliament, entitled,-"An act for the charitable Relief and Ordering of Persons infected with the Plague:" on which Act of Parliament the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London founded the order they made at this time, and which took place on the 1st. of July 1665, when the numbers infected, within the city, were but few, the last bill for the 92 parishes being but four; and some houses having been shut up in the city, and some sick people being removed to the Pest-house, beyond Bunhill-Fields, in the way to Islington; I say, by these means, when there died near one thousand a week in the whole, the number in the city was but 28, and the city was preserved, more healthy in proportion, than any other places all the time of the infection.

These orders of my Lord Mayor's were published, as I have said, the latter end of June, and took place from the 1st. of July, and were as follows; viz.

Orders conceived and published by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London, concerning the Infection of the Plague, 1665.

"Whereas, in the reign of our late sovereign, King James, of happy memory, an Act was made for the charitable relief and

ordering of persons infected with the plague; whereby authority was given to justices of the peace, mayors, bailiffs, and other head officers, to appoint within their several limits, examiners, searchers, watchmen, keepers, and buriers, for the persons and places infected, and to minister unto them oaths for the performance of their offices. And the same statute did also authorize the giving of other directions, as unto them, for the present necessity, should seem good in their discretions. It is now upon special consideration, thought very expedient for preventing and avoiding of infection of sickness (if it shall so please Almighty God), that these officers following be appointed, and these orders hereafter duly observed."

Examiners to be appointed in every parish.

First, it is thought requisite, and so ordered, that in every parish there be one, two, or more persons of good sort and credit, chosen and appointed by the alderman, his deputy, and common council of every ward, by the name of examiners, to continue in that office the space of two months at least: and if any fit person, so appointed, shall refuse to undertake the same, the said parties, so refusing, to be committed to prison until they shall conform themselves accordingly."

The Examiners Office.

"That these examiners be sworn by the aldermen, to inquire and learn from time to time what houses in every parish be visited, and what persons be sick, and of what diseases, as near as they can inform themselves; and upon doubt in that case, to command restraint of access, until it appear what the disease shall prove; and if they find any person sick of the infection, to