Churches

and meeting

houses not

Courage of the people in attending the

service of the Divine

King.

of the infection being thus carried on by persons apparently in health, the churches and meeting-houses were much thinner of people than at other times before that they used to be; for this closed during the is to be said of the people of London, that during the whole pestilence. time of the pestilence, the churches or meetings were never wholly shut up, nor did the people decline coming out to the public worship of God, except only in some parishes when the violence of the distemper was more particularly in that parish at that time, and even then no longer than it continued to be so. Indeed nothing was more strange than to see with what courage the people went to the public service of God, even at that time when they were afraid to stir out of their own houses upon any other occasion; this I mean before the time of desperation, which I have mentioned already; this was a proof of the exceeding populousness of the city at the time of the infection, notwithstanding the great numbers that were gone into the country at the first alarm, and that fled out into the forests and woods when they were farther terrified with the extraordinary increase of it. For when we came to see the crowds and throngs of people which appeared on the Sabbath-days at the churches, and especially in those parts of the town where the plague was abated, or where it was not yet come to its height, it was amazing. But of this I shall speak again presently. I return, in the meantime, to the article of infecting one another at first. Before people came to right notions of the infection, and of infecting one another, people were only shy of those that were really sick a man with a cap upon his head, or with clothes round his neck, which was the case of those that had swellings there, such was indeed frightful; but when we saw a gentleman dressed, with his band on, and his gloves in his hand, his hat upon his head, and his hair combed, of such we had not the least apprehensions, and people conversed a great while freely, especially with their neighbours and such as they knew. But when the physicians assured us that the danger was as well from the sound, that is, the seemingly sound, as the sick, and that those people who thought themselves entirely free, were oftentimes the most fatal; sick people. and that it came to be generally understood that people were

Physicians decide there is danger in seemingly sound as well as the

sensible of it, and of the reason of it; then, I say, they began to be jealous of everybody, and a vast number of people locked themselves up, so as not to come abroad into any company at all, nor suffer any that had been abroad in promiscuous company to come into their houses, or near them; at least, not so near them

as to be within the reach of their breath, or of any smell from them; and when they were obliged to converse at a distance with strangers, they would always have preservatives in their mouths, and about their clothes, to repel and keep off the infection.

It must be acknowledged that when people began to use these cautions, they were less exposed to danger, and the infection did not break into such houses so furiously as it did into others before, and thousands of families were preserved (speaking with due reserve to the direction of divine Providence) by that means. But it was impossible to beat anything into the heads of the poor; they went on with the usual impetuosity of their tempers, full of outcries and lamentations when taken, but madly careless of themselves, fool-hardy and obstinate, while they were well. Where they could get employment they pushed into any kind of business, the most dangerous and the most liable to infection; and if they were spoken to, their answer would be,-"I must trust to God for that: if I am taken, then I am provided for, and there is an end of me;" and the like; or thus," Why, what must I do? I cannot starve; I had as good have the plague as perish for want. I have no work; what could I do? I must do this or beg." Suppose it was burying the dead, or attending the sick, or watching infected houses, which were all terrible hazards; but their tale was generally the same. It is true, necessity was a justifiable, warrantable plea, and nothing could be better; but their way of talk was much the same where the necessities were not the same. This adventurous conduct of the poor was that which brought the plague among them in a most furious manner, and this, joined to the distress of their circumstances, when taken, was the reason why they died so by heaps; for I cannot say I could observe one jot of better husbandry among them-I mean the labouring poor-while they were all well and getting money, than there was before, but as lavish, as extravagant, and as thoughtless for to-morrow as ever; so that when they came to be taken sick, they were immediately in the utmost distress, as well for want as for sickness, as well for lack of food as lack of health.

The miscry of the poor I had many occasions to be an eyewitness of, and sometimes also of the charitable assistance that some pious people daily gave to such, sending them relief and supplies both of food, physic, and other help, as they found they wanted; and indeed it is a debt of justice due to the temper of

Poor people cult to deal

very diffi

with.

Private

people distribute

&c., to the

distressed.

the people of that day, to take notice here, that not only great sums, very great sums of money, were charitably sent to the much alms, Lord Mayor and aldermen for the assistance and support of the poor distempered people, but abundance of private people daily distributed large sums of money for their relief, and sent people about to inquire into the condition of particular distressed and visited families, and relieved them; nay, some pious ladies were so transported with zeal in so good a work, and so confident in the protection of Providence in discharge of the great duty of charity, that they went about in person distributing alms to the poor, and even visiting poor families, though sick and infected, in their very houses, appointing nurses to attend those that wanted attending, and ordering apothecaries and surgeons, the first to supply them with drugs or plasters, and such things as they wanted, and the last to lance and dress the swellings and tumours, where such were wanting; giving their blessing to the poor in substantial relief to them, as well as hearty prayers for them.

A prodigious

number of people

saved from perishing.

I will not undertake to say, as some do, that none of those charitable people were suffered to fall under the calamity itself; but this I may say, that I never knew any one of them that miscarried, which I mention for the encouragement of others in case of the like distress; and doubtless, if they that give to the poor lend to the Lord, and he will repay them; those that hazard their lives to give to the poor, and to comfort and assist the poor in such misery as this, may hope to be protected in the work.

Nor was this charity so extraordinarily eminent only in a few ; but (for I cannot lightly quit this point) the charity of the rich, as well in the city and suburbs as from the country, was so great, that, in a word, a prodigious number of people, who must otherwise have perished for want as well as sickness, were supported and subsisted by it; and though I could never, nor I believe any one else, come to a full knowledge of what was so contributed, yet I do believe that, as I heard one say that was a critical observer of that part, there was not only many thousand pounds contributed, but many hundred thousand pounds, to the relief of the poor of this distressed afflicted city; nay, one man affirmed. to me that he could reckon up above one hundred thousand pounds a week, which was distributed by the churchwardens at the several parish vestries, by the Lord Mayor and the aldermen in the several wards and precincts, and by the particular direction

of the court and of the justices respectively in the parts where they resided; over and above the private charity distributed by pious hands in the manner I speak of; and this continued for many weeks together.

I confess this is a very great sum; but if it be true that there was distributed in the parish of Cripplegate only, seventeen thousand eight hundred pounds in one week to the relief of the poor, as I heard reported, and which I really believe was true, the other may not be improbable.

It was doubtless to be reckoned among the many signal good providences which attended this great city, and of which there were many other worth recording; I say this was a very remarkable one, that it pleased God thus to move the hearts of the people in all parts of the kingdom so cheerfully to contribute to the relief and support of the poor at London; the good consequences of which were felt many ways, and particularly in preserving the lives and recovering the health of so many thousands, and keeping so many thousands of families from perishing and starving.

of the

And now I am talking of the merciful disposition of Providence Merciful in this time of calamity, I cannot but mention again, though I disposition have spoken several times of it already on other accounts, I mean Great King. that of the progression of the distemper; how it began at one end of the town, and proceeded gradually and slowly from one part to another, and like a dark cloud that passes over our heads, which, as it thickens and overcasts the air at one end, clears up at the other end: so, while the plague went on raging from west to east, as it went forwards east it abated in the west, by which means those parts of the town which were not seized, or who were left, and where it had spent its fury, were (as it were) spared to help and assist the other; whereas, had the distemper spread itself over the whole city and suburbs at once, raging in all places alike, as it has done since in some places abroad, the whole body of the people must have been overwhelmed, and there would have died twenty thousand a day, as they say there did at Naples, nor would the people have been able to have helped or assisted one another.

For it must be observed, that where the plague was in its full force, there indeed the people were very miserable, and the consternation was inexpressible. But a little before it reached even to that place, or presently after it was gone, they were quite another sort of people, and I cannot but acknowledge that there

Foreign

nations afraid of England.

Mercantile affairs

was too much of that common temper of mankind to be found among us all at that time, namely, to forget the deliverance when the danger is past; but I shall come to speak of that part again.

It must not be forgot here to take some notice of the state of trade during the time of this common calamity, and this with respect to foreign trade, as also to our home trade.

As to foreign trade, there needs little to be said; the trading nations of Europe were all afraid of us; no port of France, or Holland, or Spain, or Italy, would admit our ships or correspond with us; indeed we stood on ill terms with the Dutch, and were in a furious war with them, though but in a bad condition to fight abroad, who had such dreadful enemies to struggle with at home.

Our merchants were accordingly at a full stop, their ships could go nowhere, that is to say, to no place abroad: their brought to a full stop. manufactures and merchandise, that is to say, of our growth, would not be touched abroad, they were as much afraid of our goods as they were of our people; and indeed they had reason, for our woollen manufactures are as retentive of infection as human bodies, and, if packed up by persons infected, would receive the infection and be as dangerous to the touch as a man would be that was infected; and, therefore, when any English vessel arrived in foreign countries, if they did take the goods on shore, they always caused the bales to be opened and aired in places appointed for that purpose; but from London they would not suffer them to come into port, much less to unload their goods, upon any terms whatever; and this strictness was especially used with them in Spain and Italy; in Turkey, and the islands of the Arches indeed, as they are called, as well those belonging to the Turks as to the Venetians, they were not so very rigid; in the first there was no obstruction at all, and four ships which were then in the river loading for Italy, that is for Leghorn and Naples, being denied pratique, as they call it, went on to Turkey, and were freely admitted to unlade their cargo without any difficulty, only that when they arrived there some of their cargo was not fit for sale in that country, and other parts of it being consigned to merchants at Leghorn, the captains of the ships had no right nor any orders to dispose of the goods, so that great inconveniences followed to the merchants. But this was nothing but what the necessity of affairs required, and the merchants of Leghorn and Naples having notice