The Litchfield County post., 1827-04-12

maintain, that it was not the plague" The increasing deaths which occurred in the mean CT ana closer quarters of the city, were de- clared toproceed from the I1yphus Carcerasn, or putrid jail fever. Cleanliness was recom- mended, and cheap antiseptic process about all houses, and charitable distribution of wine and food by the richer citizens among the needy. Separation of the infected peo- pie, from the sound, by removing them to distant hospitals, was, in few instances, ac- complished by force; and those who contra dlcted the official statement, or expressed their own alarm too obtrusively, were thrown into prison, here and there, as public agita- tors. But the truth, even by these expedients, was not long capable of being concealed.- Some ofthe offenders, who were sent to iail for clamorlng about the plague, died of it in con- hnenlent, without awaiting for the formalty oFa trial. The physicians, who had attended the sick in the city, began themselves to be attacked with illness; and hurried through their visits at the fever hospitals, in spite of their published certificates that nothing seri- ous was the matter. At length, Brother Gas paro Marcelli, a Monk of the Dominican Convent of Santa Croce, who had been slight ly indisposed on the night of the Feast of St. Michael, was found dead on his bed the next morning, and with appearances which admit ted of no equiyocation' The alarm quickly ran through the monastery the prior and several monks were seized with sickness The deceased had been one of the most pop uar confessors in Florence and three of his penitents who had never dreamed that fever might enter palaces, were dead-amost be- tween the next sunrise and sunset, in different directions of the city. Upon which, personal apprehensions among the higher class super oF >1Eo those who had most actively chastised the terrors of other persons, could now make no secret of their own. The rich began openly to provide for their safety: The seditious, always active in moments of danger, thun- dered against the government for its decep- ton. The executive power gave up it's doubts whether real or pretended: and it was open Iy confessed that THE PLAGUE WAS IN FLOR ENcE.
 The panic which spread through the city on this admission, became, as might have been expected, an evil scarcely second to the original calamity. Almost all parties had been vehement in desiring to have the deca- ration. It could do nothing but mischief to any. When it came, by a strange seeming anomaly in the ordering of mems minds, num- bers began directly to question or discredit it. While among the lower classes, (who had been the most anxious to get it,) doubt or be- lief made little difference, for few had any power to act upon it at all.
 Day and night, as soon as the proclamation came out, the streets and squares of Florence were filled-the gates of all the palaces sur rounded-with carriages and wagons, load ing up household furniture, pictures; and trea- sure, and carrying it away into the country. Long trains of mules and horses, and compa- nipS oven Of npraOns nn foof eaon poO wing, first at night, to avoid too open pubIici- ty, but very soon in broad day, without dis guise,. out of all the gates of the city. But still, these fugitives were chiefly from among the landed propriet0rs, and the small capital ists who had ready money at command; and the bulk of the population yet had ties, which, in spite of danger, confined them to the place. For the merchant was bankrupt if he gave up his trade. And the farmer paused where he had to leave ungathered crops behind him. The physician staid, for he hoped in some an tidote; and, if he could live, the sickness was his harvest. The monks staid most because their convent was their only home; some staid because they thought its privacy would shut out danger. Public officers staid to save the posts they had; or in the hope that their resolution would be the means of promoting them to better. The vast tribe that lived on- " Oy tHeir ually laDOr. Hau no cnOlce Oul to stay; for to want the days mea. was to starve, and they had no way of gaining it but by staying where they were, and going on to ex- ercise their calling. So that, upon the whole as soon as it became lawful to declare the ex- tent of the mischief, vast hordes became very unwilling to confess it; and it was the pro- gress of death itself, in the end rather than the assertions, numerous as they were, occa- stoned by the fear of it, which brought the greai crowd of the city of Florence, first to little, and then to nothing.
 For the evil in the future is no evil, and this it is that laughs theorists and legislators to scorn the reckoning which shall come here after ever is forgotten, against but little measure of advantage offered in the present. The vengeance of Heaven, is it sure ? we trust that it is far off. The axe, and tke gib- bit "Chance'' may save us from them ;- and, though that deliverance hangs on the one ace cast with two dies, every sinner believes that 1t will be his own The thief plans rob- bery-executes telescopes with the booty and the chance" that has saved him, brings an hundred to the gallows! The projectOr trades against probability-wins in the teeth of principle--l,is very blindness-which could not see the risk-passes for sagacity, and crowds are beggared who follow his exam ole This "chance" it is-this "hope''- which makes fools-and fools are villains-of
 Al.