The Sun.
London, England, 1830-07-20 00:00:00

THE PLAGUE.

Now the cloud is very black, and the storm
comes down very sharp. Death rides trium-
phant on his pale horse through our streets, and
breaks into almost every house, where the inha-
bitants are to be found : people fall as thick as
leaves from the trees in autumn, when shaken
by a mighty wind. There is a dismal solitude
in London streets : every day looks with the
Bice of a Sabbath, observed with a greater so-
lemnity than it used to be in the city. Shops
are shut up; people rare; and few that walk
about, insomuch that grass begins to grow in
some places, and a deep silence in almost every
place, especially within the city walls. These
scenes of desolation and woe excited in the
mind of Pepys the following train of thought
and extraordinary moral reflection :—" Sept. 3d,
—Lord's day. Up ;' and put on my coloured
silk suit, very fine, and my new periwig, bought
a good while since, but durst not wear, because
the plague was in Westminster when I bought
it ; and it is a wonder what will be the fashion
after the plague is clone, as to periwigs, for no-
body will dare to buy any hair, for fear of the
infection, that it had been cut off the heads of
people dead of the plague."
Sydenharn concludes his chapter on the plague
in the following remarkable words It the
reader shall find that I have any where erred in
theory; I beg his pardon ; but us to practice I
declare I have faithfully related every thing, and
that I never proposed any plan of cure before 1
had thoroughly tried it. Indeed, when I tome
to die, I trust I shall have a cheerful witness in
my breast, that I have not only, with the greatest

diligence and honesty, attempted the recovery of
the health of all who committed themselves to
my care, of what condition soever they have been
(of whom' none was otherwise treated by me
than I desire to be, if I myself should happen to
suffer the same diseases), but that also I have
laboured to the utmost of my, power, if ,by, any
means it might be, that the cure of diseases may
be managed after I am dead with the greater cer-
tainty : for I esteem any progress in that kind of
knowledge (how small soever it be), though it
teach no more than the cure of the tooth-ache,
or of corns upon the feet, to be of more value
than the vain pert) of nice speculations."
From this treatise on the gout, which has
always been considered a masterpiece of descrip-
tion, we learn that he had suffered from the at-
tacks of that painful disease during the greatest
part of his life. In the dedication which is to
the learned Dr. Thomas Short, Fellow of the
College of Physicians, he mentions, that while
composing the treatise itself, he was so tormented
with the gout, that be was unable to hold a pen,
and was obliged to employ an amanuensis. It was
written in 1683, and begins thus Without
doubt men will suppose that either the nature of
the disease I now treat of is in a manner incom-
prehensible, or that I, who have been troubled with

it thirty-four
.years, am a very dull fellow, Seeing
my observations_about it and the Cure of it little
answer their expectations." With the graphic •
pen of one who has suffered the terrible martyr-
dom of this disease in, his Own person, he de-
scribes i••••"." Ilow the patient goes to bed and
sleeps well till about two o'clock in the-morn-
ing, when he .awakes with a pain seizing .his
great toe, heel, calf or his leg, or ankle it is at
first gentle, increases by degrees, and resembles
that of dislocated bones : towards the following
,night it reaches hs height; accommodates itself
nicely to the various forums of the bones of the,
instep, whose ligaments it seizes; resembling time
gnawing of a dog, and becoines, at length, so
exquisite, that the part affected cannot bear the
weight of time clothes upon it, nor the patient suf..
far any one to walk hastily across the chamber.:
The severity of this first attack continues for
.twenty-four hours, when the sufferer enjoys a
little ease, begins to perspire,• fills asleep, and
when lie awakes, finds the pain much abated,
hut the part swollen. The next day, and perhaps
for the two
evening, the torture returns, but =its towards
Pr three Mowing days, towards
the time of cock-crow. In a few days, the other
foot is destined to endure the same excruciating
agony." Sydenhain goes on to enumerate the
co4lpvie of complaints that afflict the gouty
perso6,--4f till gt last hp is worn out by the joint
attacks of age and of the disease, and the raise-
, rable wretch is so happy as to die."--,Familll
Library, No. XIV. . •

Sr'. JAMES'S meeting took place
yesterday forenoon of the inhallitant liousekeepert, of
Regent-street, to vote s loyal Address to his Ms:turY)
expressive of their,sineere thanks and gratitude, for having
so graciously ordered 4 passage to he opened •frotn that
seltle *tree; tro St? ,lantes'e 'ark,

SAFETY EItoll! SNATA•PDX.--irt cue.. ctf
.41MS:a note-books, of we And the following
anecdote :—" I know "oftto direct allu*ku to the diseite
in any ancient writer, yet tlui following wino not: very
distantly to heat upon
A upon it. When the Duchess. of
Cr.EvItLANp was taurttq;l by ner companions, MILL Davis-
(Lady AIaRY DAM.) and others, that sho might soon have
to deplore the loss of that beauty which was then her
boast, the small-pox at that time raging in London : she
made a reply to this elLet, that she had no fear about the
matter, for she had had a disorder which would prevent
her from ever catching the small-pox. This was lately
communicated by a gentleman in this county, but :infer-
- ~..pollect from what author he pined

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRENCH PAPERS.
From the Messaper des Chambres of Saturday.)

Some very singular reports are in circulation re-
specting M. de Villele. It is said that on his return
to Paris, he found, after several effo ts, that his
credit was entirely destroyed in high places, and
that exterior influence alone could aid him in de-
stroying, as he terms it, M. de Polignac, his eternal
rival and lukewarm coadjutor. To effect this he
would fain have deprived the Prince of the aid of
the English Journal, the Times, a great Champion
of the Ministry of the Bth of August, and khavti ob-
tained the good will of a certain Ambwitdor by
the most extraordinary confessions as to the
4termi-
nations which he would direct, or rather Iwou Piot
direct, to the war of Algiers preparations for hick
eT
were then making, if he should obtain an - vial
reinstatement, or if his counsel should be ask . ~ It
is added, that the correspondence of the ' me:
has been concocted in the office of the Gazette de.'
France for some time past, and as evidence ()phial
the praises which the Gazette has bestowed on the
correspondence are cited.
The Marquis de Rezende, the Brazilian Minister,
and the Baron de Reudufe, sent from the Regency
of Terceira, appear to have reason to be perfectly
satkfled with the reception which the Emperor,
Nicholas bestowed on them at Warsaw. They feel
assured that they will obtain from Russia the re-
cognition of the Regency of Terceira, The Em-
peror has authorised the commencement of con-
ferences between them and kis Ministers, and as a
token of his good will, has ordered that they should
be furnished with post-horses to St.. Petersburgh at
his expense.
A letter, found on a Turkish officer killed in the
affair of the 29th ult., has been translated 'by our
interpreter, which leaves no doubt as to the difficul-
ties the Deyi experienced in carrying on the war.
This letter is curious; it is from an Algerine emis-
sary,charged with recruiting from the Arab tribe. He
gives an account of his mission, and says that the
Bedouins will only march if they are well paid; that
they want the ducats of Hungary, the golden mah-
moudies of Constantinople, or at least the gold money
of Egypt.