A Discourse on the Plague

by Richard Mead

IN Summer, ordinary Barracks (or Huts) were made for those of the common People, who were obliged to quit infected Houses: which Barracks were afterwards burnt, when they had been made Use of.

AS soon as the People were come out of an infected House, it was nailed up, and Centinels were posted there, that nothing might be stolen out of it. In the Country, when such a House was not of very great Value, and it might be done without Danger, it was burnt, and the Loss was made good to the Owner, at the Expence of the Publick. But in Towns, where this could not be done, without the Hazard of burning the Town, Men were hired to go into the Houses, and bring into the Court-Yard, or before the House, whatever Goods they found in it susceptible of Contagion, and there burn them: but to prevent the Fright which this might raise among the Neighbours, such Goods were sometimes put into the Cart, used to carry off dead Bodies, and so conveyed out of the Town and burnt. At first, the Method taken, was only to bury such Goods deep in the Ground: but it was found by several Examples, that they were dug up again, and that the Infection was thereby renewed. Before People were paid for their Houses and Effects, that were burnt, it was discovered, that they often laid some of their Goods out of the Way, and that the Contagion was spread by them: but after they came to be paid what was reasonable, by the Publick, they willingly let all be burnt, without concealing any thing.

IN Summer, the Cattle were left abroad, and the Inhabitants, who had not the Plague in their Houses were obliged to look after them: In Winter, the Sound Persons were obliged, before they left an infected House, to kill the Cattle belonging to it, and to bury them ten Foot deep in the Ground near the House.

So far the former Preface.

I think it now proper to take Notice, that an Act of Parliament (as above mentioned in this Preface) formed upon the Precepts here delivered, having been passed on December 8, 1720. the two last Clauses in the said Act, relating to the removing of Sick Persons from their Habitations, and the making of Lines about Places infected, were on October 19 of the following Year, repealed.

THIS looks as if the Rules prescribed were not right and just: I must therefore observe, in Justification of myself, that this was not the Case. Nothing was urged in that Repeal against the Reasonableness of the Directions in themselves, more than in these Words: That the Execution of them might be very grievous to the Subjects of this Kingdom. But this I have proved to be quite otherwise.

THE Truth of the Matter is this: Some great Men, both of the Lords and Commons, who were in the Opposition to the Court, objected that the Ministry were not to be intrusted with such Powers, lest they should abuse them; since they might, upon Occasion, by their Officers, either remove or confine Persons not favoured by the Government, on Pretence that their Houses were infected.

VAIN and groundless as these Fears were, yet the Clamours industriously raised from them were so strong, that a great Officer in the State thought fit to oblige his Enemies by giving way to them: and tho’ a Motion made in the House of Commons for repealing these two Clauses had just been rejected; yet upon making the same in the House of Lords, with his Consent, the thing was done.

WHETHER private or public Considerations had the greater Share in bringing about this Compliance, I will not determine. Such Counter-Steps will happen in a Government, where there is too much of Faction, and too little of a Public Spirit. This I very well remember, that a learned Prelate, now dead, who had more of Political than of Christian Zeal, and was one who made the loudest Noise about the Quarantaine Bill, frankly owned to me in Conversation, that tho’ the Directions were good, yet he and his Friends had resolved to take that Opportunity of shewing their Disaffection to the Ministry.

BUT after all, it contributed not a little to the carrying this Point, that the Plague was now ceased at Marseilles, and a Stop put to its Progress in the Provinces. And I cannot but take notice that this last good Service was done by the same Method, which, tho’ in a more moderate way, I have here proposed. For it is well known that the Regent of France did at last set Bounds to the Contagion by Lines and Barriers guarded by Soldiers: which wise Resolution saved not only his own but other Countries from the spreading of a Disease, which seems to have been of as violent a kind as ever was brought into Europe.