is come to my hands, fince the following fheets were finifhed; and therefore too late to be made use of in its proper place: for which reafon I fhall give it here entire. This paper contains the methods taken by his late Majefty, when the plague, in the year 17 12, had entered his dominions in Germany. It was delivered to me from Mr Backmeifter, the fecretary at Hanover to his Majefty for the German affairs, who was the person that iffued out the orders that were given. This relation I requested from the fecretary, being defirous to know how far the measures then taken, agreed with my directions; becaufe I had been informed, that they were very fuccefsful. And I have the fatisfaction to find them very conformable to my precepts; and that they had fo much the defired effect, as to stop the plague from spreading beyond the fmall number of towns and villages recited at the beginning of the paper. IN 17 HANOVER, Feb. 10. N. S. 1722. N 1712 and 1713, the plague raged in thefe parts, at the following places. Lunenbourg, Zell, Haarbourg, twice. VILLAGE S. In the last place, three labouring men, who had made their escape from Hamburg, got into a barn in the night, and were found dead there the next morning, morning, with marks of the plague upon them but the progrefs of the infection was ftopt by burning the barn. : As foon as any village was infected, the first thing done was to make a line round it, thereby to hinder the inhabitants from communicating with others. Those who were thus fhut up, were immediately furnished with provifions: a physician was fent to them; and especially fome furgeons; a minister to officiate particularly to perfons infected; a nurse, buriers, &c. The principal management of this whole affair con fifted in two things: 1. In feparating the fick from the found; and, 2. In cleaning well the houses which had been infected. When any perfon was taken ill, he was obliged to leave his lodging, and retire into a lazaretto, or hofpital, built for that purpose. The other perfons who appeared to be well in the fame houfe, were obliged, when it was practicable, to ftrip themfelves in the night quite naked, to put on other cloaths, which were provided for them, and to go to perform quarantine in a house appointed for it, after having burnt the cloaths they had put off. Perfons were made to change their cloaths, and thofe they put off were burnt, as often as was judged neceffary: for example, this was done when those who had recovered their health, came out of the lazaretto and went into quarantine; and likewife, when (after the dif feafe was eased) the women who attended the fick, the buriers, and furgeons, went into quarantine. In fummer, ordinary barracks (or huts) were made for thofe of the common people, who were obliged VOL. II. Ꭰ to to quit infected houfes: which barracks were afterwards burnt, when they had been made use of. As foon as the people were come out of an infected houfe, it was nailed up, and centinels were pofted there, that nothing might be ftolen out of it. In the country, when fuch a houfe was not of very great value, and it might be done without danger, it was burnt, and the lofs was made good to the owner, at the expenfe of the public. 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 fufceptible of contagion, and there burn them: but to prevent the fright which this might raife among the neighbours, fuch goods were fometimes put into the cart ufed to carry off dead bodics, and fo conveyed out of the town and burnt. At first the method taken, was only to bury fuch goods deep in the ground: but it was found by feveral 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 fome of their goods out of the way, and that the contagion was fpread by them but after they came to be paid what was reafonable, by, the public, they willingly let all be burnt, without concealing any thing. : In fummer, 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 found perfons were obliged, before they left an infected houfe, to kill the cattle belonging to it, and to bury : them them ten feet 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 paffed on December 8. 1720, the two laft claufes in the faid act, relating to the removing of fick perfons 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 prefcribed were not right and just: I must therefore obferve, in juftification of myself, that this was not the cafe. Nothing was urged in that repeal against the reafonablenefs of the directions in themfelves, more than in thefe words: "That the execution of them might be very grie"vous to the fubjects 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 oppofition to the court, objected that the ministry were not to be intrufted with fuch powers, left they should abuse them; fince they might, upon occafion, by their officers, either remove or confine perfons not favoured by the government, on pretence that their houfes were infected. Vain and groundlefs as thefe fears were, yet the clamours induftrioufly raised from them were fo Arong, that a great officer in the state thought fit to oblige his enemies by giving way to them: and though a motion made in the houfe of Commons for repealing thefe two claufes had juft been rejected; yet, upon making D 2 making the fame in the houfe of Lords, with his confent, the thing was done. Whether private or public confiderations had the greater fhare in bringing about this compliance, I will not determine. Such counter-fteps will happen in a government, where there is too much of faction, and too little of a public fpirit. 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 loudeft noife about the quarantinebill, frankly owned to me in converfation, that though the directions were good, yet he and his friends had refolved to take that opportunity of fhewing their difaffection to the ministry. But, after all, it contributed not a little to the carrying this point, that the plague was now ceafed at Marseilles, and a ftop put to its progrefs in the provinces. And I cannot but take notice, that this laft good fervice was done by the fame method, which, though in a more moderate way, I have here propofed. For it is well known, that the regent of France did at laft fet bounds to the contagion by lines and barriers guarded. by foldiers: which wife refolution faved not only his own but other countries from the fpreading of a difeafe, which feems to have been of as violent a kind as ever was brought into Europe. However, if there were any severity in orders of this kind, every man ought to confider himfelf as a member of the fociety; by the laws of which as he receives many advantages, fo he gives up fomewhat of his own private rights to the public and muft therefore be perfectly satisfied with whatever is found neceffary for the common good; although it may, : on |