Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/15

 City or Liberties, and St. Andrews buried but 15, which was very low: 'Tis true, St. Giless buried two and thirty, but ſtill as there was but one of the Plague, People began to be eaſy, the whole Bill alſo was very low, for the Week before, the Bill was but 347, and the Week above-mentioned but 343: We continued in theſe Hopes for a few Days, But it was but for a few; for the People were no more to be deceived thus; they ſearcht the Houſes, and found that the Plague was really ſpread every way, and that many died of it every Day: So that now all our Extenuations abated, and it was no more to be concealed, nay it quickly appeared that the Infection had ſpread it ſelf beyond all Hopes of Abatement; that in the Pariſh of St. Giless, it was gotten into ſeveral Streets, and ſeveral Families lay all ſick together; And accordingly in the Weekly Bill for the next Week, the thing began to ſhew it ſelf; there was indeed but 14 ſet down of the Plague, but this was all Knavery and Colluſion, for in St. Giless Pariſh they buried 40 in all, whereof it was certain moſt of them died of the Plague, though they were ſet down of other Diſtempers; and though the Number of all the Burials were not increaſed above 32, and the whole Bill being but 385, yet there was 14 of the Spotted-Feaver, as well as 14 of the Plague; and we took it for granted upon the whole, that there was 50 died that Week of the Plague.

The next Bill was from the 23d of May to the 30th, when the Number of the Plague was 17: But the Burials in St. Giles's were 53, a frightful Number! of whom they ſet down but 9 of the Plague: But on an Examination more ſtrictly by the Juſtices of the Peace, and at the Lord Mayor's Requeſt, it was found there were 20 more, who were really dead of the Plague in that Pariſh, but