Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/236

 Loads; and who, if they had fled from the Danger, had, I believe, been ſafe from the Diſaſter; at leaſt 'tis probable they had been ſafe.

And were this very Fundamental only duly conſider’d by the People, on any future occaſion of this, or the like Nature, I am perſuaded it would put them upon quite different Meaſures for managing the People, from thoſe that they took in 1665, or than any that have been taken Abroad that I have heard of; in a Word, they would conſider of ſeperating the People into ſmaller Bodies, and removing them in Time farther from one another, and not let ſuch a Contagion as this, which is indeed chiefly dangerous, to collected Bodies of People, find a Million of People in a Body together, as was very near the Caſe before, and would certainly be the Caſe, if it ſhould ever appear again.

The Plague like a great Fire, if a few Houſes only are contiguous where it happens, can only burn a few Houſes, of if it begins in a ſingle, or as we call it a loan Houſe, can only burn that loan Houſe where it begins: But if it begins in a cloſe built Town, or City, and gets a Head, there its Fury encreaſes, it rages over the whole Place, and conſumes all it can reach.

I could propoſe many Schemes, on the foot of which, the Government of this City, if ever they ſhould be under the Apprehenſions of ſuch another Enemy, (God forbid they ſhould) might eaſe themſelves of the greateſt Part of the dangerous People that belong to them; I mean ſuch as the begging, ſtarving, labouring Poor, and among them chiefly thoſe who in Caſe of a Siege, are call’d the uſeleſs Mouths; who being then prudently, and to their own Advantage diſpos’d of, and the wealthy Inhabitants diſpoſing of themſelves, and of their Servants, and Children, the City, and its adjacent Parts would be ſo effectually evacuated, that there