Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/184

 to be drawn with Hooks from the Houſe-Door and burnt in the Street. The poor diſtreſs’d Man upon this fetch’d the Goods again, but with grievous Cries and Lamentations at the hardſhip of his Caſe, But there was no Remedy; Self-preſervation oblig’d the People to thoſe Severities, which they wou’d not otherwiſe have been concern’d in: Whether this poor Man liv’d or dy’d I cannot tell, but it was reported that he had the Plague upon him at that time; and perhaps the People might report that to juſtify their Uſage of him; but it was not unlikely, that either he or his Goods, or both, were dangerous, when his whole Family had been dead of the Diſtemper ſo little a while before.

I kno’ that the Inhabitants of the Towns adjacent to London, were much blamed for Cruelty to the poor People that ran from the Contagion in their Diſtreſs; and many very ſevere things were done, as maybe ſeen from what has been ſaid; but I cannot but ſay alſo that where there was room for Charity and Aſſiſtance to the People, without apparent Danger to themſelves, they were willing enough to help and relieve them. But as every Town were indeed Judges in their own Caſe, ſo the poor People who ran a-broad in their Extremities, were often ill-uſed and driven back again into the Town; and this cauſed infinite Exclamations and Out-cries againſt the Country Towns, and made the Clamour very popular. And yet more or leſs, maugre all their Caution, there was not a Town of any Note within ten (or I believe twenty) Miles of the City, but what was more or leſs Infected, and had ſome died among them. I have heard the Accounts of ſeyeral; ſuch as they were reckon’d up as follows.