Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/219

 ſay, they would have made them ſtark mad; whereas the Magiſtrates found it proper on ſeveral Accounts to treat them with Lenity and Compaſſion, and hot with Violence and Terror, ſuch as dragging the Sick out of their Houſes, or obliging them to remove themſelves would have been.

This leads me again to mention the Time, when the Plague firſt began, that is to ſay, when it became certain that it would ſpread over the whole Town, when, as I have ſaid, the better ſort of People firſt took the Alarm, and began to hurry themſelves out of Town: It was true, as I obſerv’d in its Place, that the Throng was ſo great, and the Coaches, Horſes, Waggons and Carts were ſo many, driving and dragging the People away, that it look’d as if all the City was running away; and had any Regulations been publiſh’d that had been terrifying at that time, eſpecially ſuch as would pretend to diſpoſe of the People, otherwiſe than they would diſpoſe of themſelves, it would have put both the City and Suburbs into the utmoſt Confuſion.

But the Magiſtrates wiſely caus’d the People to be encourag’d, made very good By-Laws for the regulating the Citizens, keeping good Order in the Streets, and making every thing as eligible as poſſible to all Sorts of People.

In the firſt Place, the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs, the Court of Aldermen, and a certain Number of the Common Council-Men, or their Deputies came to a Reſolution and publiſhed it, viz. "That they would not quit the City themſelves, but that they would be always at hand for the preſerving good Order in every Place, and for the doing Juſtice on all Occaſions; as alſo for the diſtributing the publick Charity to the Poor; and in a Word, for the doing the Duty, and diſcharging the Truſt repos’d in them by the Citizens to the utmoſt of their Power."