Star.
London, England, 1818-10-09 00:00:00

VIOLATION OF QUARANTINE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.

Sett—l am not bog returned from the Mediterra-i
nean, and am anal through the medium of your
excellent Paper, to call the attention of one at least
'of the Government Departments, to what has re-
cently passed there.
It is well known at Valetta, the capital of Malta,
that the laws of quarantine have been recently in-
fringed there in two instances, and that, in another
case, ready pratique, where it ought not either to have
been given or accepted, was procured. This I con-
sider to have been as bad, if not worse, than a direct
infraction. In the first instance to which I have al-
luded, a vessel entered the harbour of Valletta from
Tunis, then infected by plague, and, a distinguished
individual having been kneed from her, she was in-
stantly put under quarantine. In the case of ready
pratique—the same vessel having prdteeded to Alex-
andria, in Egypt, where the plague then raged vior.
lently, had a short passage back to the harbour of
Valletta, notwithstanding there was a deviation to
procure pratique at one of the lonian Islands.
Now, Mr. Editor, the brig by which the islands of
Malta tn 1 Gozo were infected in 1813, had a long.
passage from Vexandria in Egypt, and the symp-,
toms of plague were not manifested on a part of the
crew until she was near reaching her destined port,
Valletta. It is known that in the port of a place in-
fected it is utterly impossible to answer for seamou
ever anxious to procure drink, and many of them
excellent swimmers; —so that between their address,
and the cunning of the natives, who could have as-
sured himself, in the case of the vessel in question,
that there had not been, either in the city or port of
APexandria, contact of persons, or the smuggling on
board of effects called by us susceptible, and by fo-
reigners contumacious? The crew, therefore, com-
municating freely with Valletta and the interior of
the island, might .....—From plague, good ....
deliver us, whether British or Maltese! These events
having passed, it happened shortly after- at Malta.,
that the Master of an Italian vessel in quarantine,
was very Foperly shot by a tontine], for violating
the quarantine laws. He had taken his boat to visit
one or several of his friends; and it is evident that
if this were to be permitted, where some may have
just entered on their quarantine, and others may be
on the eve of obtaining pratique, the quarantine it-
' self would be indefinite. Well! Sir, what beside the
shooting resulted from this ? A copy of the Maltese
Gamut was laid on the table at the Commercial
Rooms, Valletta, with the following epigram written
in the margin in a disguised hand:

lien, In Death's icy breed@
Lies Gavin Capaecto,
And the Court* says he merits his doom!
Bat he desered shooting,
As he did, past disputing,
Pray what fate is resoled for
This epigram says more in six lines than I could
say in six hundred: so I have done with that. But
about the Levant Plague—it is a subject on which I
could fill your paper ; but I beg to address only a few
words to you, Sir, and to your Readers. The plague
has recently visited the shores bordering on the Italian
States, and has now extended itself westward along
the African coast to Tangiers; but when I talk with
my dear countrymen about the possibility, nay pro-
bability even, of its being introduced into Great Bri-
tain, what do they reply / It would not spread here.
It would no sooner be lighted up than extinguished ;
for consider our habits, our mode of living, our clean-
liness, &c. &c.—Now I do assert, not without having
well reflected on the subject, that the inhabitants of
Malta were as well, if not better protected by their
habits, mode of living, cleanliness, &c. &c. in the
year 1813, at the same time that they had great ad-
vantages of ventilation and pure r.ir, as are at present
the inhabitants of Great Britain. But they have been
so subject to plague, and we have remained so long
without it. Consider 1665 !—Dear Sir, the latest
visitation of plague the Maltese knew on their island
up to 1813, was only about fourteen years after the
date of 1665 you mention; and what are fourteen
years, or nineteen even, reckoning up to the present
time, when compared with a century and a half?--

But we are so careful at our Lazarettoes.—So was
the Maltese Government in 1813 ; and consider, said

I, what a trifle will do the mischief: the fur of a cat,
or a pigeon's feather.—But can the latter fly all the
way from Alexandria, in Egypt, from Tunis, in
Africa, or from elsewhere, to Great Britain P—No—
but something else may, in a sailor's pocket. Do
but reflect for a moment how the plague was wafted
over from Malta, some months after it had ceased there,
to Gov+, in the pocket of a Priest. This may be
Greek (a language which the Maltese Priests under-
stand so well) to some people; so I'll say a word or
two about the Greeks at Valletta in 1813. During
the continuance of the plague, they not only took the
usual precautions of removing from their apartments
table-cloths, napkins, baize coverings, and, in shot,
whatever was most susceptible, but they sat at re-
mote corners from each other, although not one had
stirr d abroad since its commencement. Why
did they so P—l will tell you : a scrap of paper—a
pigeon's feather, might have been wafted into the
apartment by the wind, and have touched the gar-
ment of one of them. As strange a thing happened
at Valetta about the same time; another pestilence,
called the small pox, was communicated from the
Naval Hospital to the Bagnio, in which the prisoners
of war were confined, by a bit of linen—a rag.
VIATOR, ET CEMPER VIATOR.
• The Court Ossett&

Yesterday an Inquest was held at the Horse Shoe
and Magpie, Saffron-hill, on the body of S. Wright.
Mary Lennard had known the deceased about two
months, he went about the streets picking up bones
to sell, he used to lie on some hampers ; she fre-
quently gave him scraps of victuals, as he seemed
',very feeble. On Friday he said he was very ill
about his limbs, and could not get up when he sat
down ; she made him some tea, and offered him bread
and butter, which he refused, saying, his appetite
would not take it ; but he appeared to stifle his ma
lady as much as possible, for fear of being sent to
the workhouse, as he had been threatened. Witness
saw him sitting on a hamper on Friday night, where
he had lately slept, and on Saturday morning she
found him dead in the same place and posture.—
Verdict, Found dead; his death having beta 4cca.
tended by the inclemency of the weather.