[97] Six Centuries of Work and Wages, pp. 398-415.
[98] Gentleman’s Magazine, 1766.
[99] Short.
[100] Clifton Wintringham, M.D., Commentarium nosologicum, morbos epidemicos et aeris variationes in urbe Eboracensi locisque vicinis ab anno 1715 usque ad finem anni 1725 grassantes, complectens. Londini, 1727.
[101] W. White, M.D., Phil. Trans. LXXII. (1782), p. 35. The annual deaths under the old régime exceeded by a good deal the annual births: in the seven years 1728-35, according to the figures from the parish registers in Drake’s Eboracum, the burials from all causes were 3488, and the baptisms 2803, an annual excess of 98 deaths over the births in an estimated population of 10,800 (birth-rate 37 per 1000, death-rate 46 per 1000). But in the seven years, 1770-76, the balance was the other way: the population had increased by two thousand (to 12,800), and the births were on an average 20 in the year more than the deaths (474 births, 454 deaths), the birth-rate being still 37 per 1000, and the death-rate fallen to 35 per 1000. But the correctness of these rates depends on the population being exactly given.
[102] “There has been very great mobbing by the weavers of this town, as they pretend, because they are starved for want of trade; and they pull the calico cloaths off women’s backs wherever they see them. The Trainbands have been up since last Friday, and they were forced to fire at the mobb in Moor Fields before they would disperse, and four or five were shott and as many wounded.” (Benjamin Browne to his father, 16 June, 1719: Mr Browne’s MSS. Hist. MSS. Com. X. pt. 4, p. 351.) The calicoes which the London weavers tore from the backs of women were doubtless the Indian fabrics brought home by the ships of the East India Company. These imports were so injurious to home manufactures that an Act had been passed in 1700 prohibiting (with some exceptions) the use in England of printed or dyed calicoes or any other printed or dyed cotton goods. This prohibition was re-enacted in 1721, two years after the rioting at Moorfields. (7 Geo. I. cap. 7). Blomefield (Hist. of Norfolk, III. 437) says that at Norwich also there was tearing of calicoes, “as pernicious to the trade” of that city. On the 20th of September, 1720, a great riot arose there, the rabble cutting several gowns in pieces on women’s backs, entering shops to seize all calicoes found there, beating the constables, and opposing the sheriff’s power to such a degree that the company of artillery had to be called out.
[103] Ambrose Warren to Sir P. Gell, 16 Sept. 1718, Hist. MSS. Com. IX. pt. 2, p. 400 b.
[104] The sudden rise was due to influenza; but the fever mortality was high for weeks before and after.
[105] John Arbuthnot, M.D., Essay concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies. Lond. 1733, p. 187.
[106] Edward Strother, M.D., Practical Observations on the Epidemical Fever which hath reigned so violently these two years past and still rages at the present time, with some incidental remarks shewing wherein this fatal Distemper differs from Common fevers; and more particularly why the Bark has so often failed: and methods prescribed to render its use more effectual. In which is contained a very remarkable History of a Spotted Fever. London, 1729. This book was written before the influenza of the end of 1729. At p. 126 the author was writing on the 24th of May, 1728. The preface is undated.