The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1831-1858, 1832-07-25

ehcHi. OtneIS, ndVlHp nlTeu OOaIS or OLnel
vessels, into which they laid up provision
thought, or at least hoped, so to elude the
power ofthe infection, but the destroying an.
gel, like that in the Revelations, had one
loot upon the waters as well as on the land
Tor alas! the very air they breathed being
tainted, they drew in death together with
lite itself. The horror of these things made
others to lock themselves up in their houses,
gardens, and sweet retired places but the
evils they intended to exclude pursued them
through all their defences, and they had
THIS only difference, to die without the COM
Pany OF any that might serve or pity them.
NO physciaa conld tell the cause, or pre-
scribe cure; and even what was saving
to one was no less than fatal to another
NO astrologer could divine how or when it
would cease; the only way left was to be
prepared to receive it, and the most comfor-
tanle resolution to expect it without fear.
The pestilence extended into Wales.
where 1t ragged violently; and soon after
wards, passing into ireland, it made great
havoc among the English settled in that ISL
and. Bat it was remarked that the native
Irish were little affected, particularly those
that dwelt in billy districts.
AS to the Scots they are said to have
brought the nala'iy upon themselves. TAX
ing advantage of the defenceless state of
England, they made hostile irruptlon, with
large force, into the country. But they
had not proceeded far, when the calamity
which they courted, and SO we'll deserved
from their ungenerous conduct, overlook
them. They persisted in thousands; and,
III attempting 10 return home, they were
oVertaken, before they could reach the bor
der, by strong body of English, who rout-
ed them with great slaughter. The rem
nant carried the disease into Scotland.
where Its ravages were soon as destructive
as IN the southern parts oc the island
Scotland" says the writer whom we have
already quoted, "partook of the universal
contaglon in as high degree and in the
same manner, as other countries had done
before; only in this was there difference,
that whereas other nations sat still and
waited for it, the Scots did seem ambitious
to fetch it in among themselves :" Howey-
er much Scotland may have had to complain
OF the oppression and tyranny of England,
under the Edwards, it was ungenerous and
unworthy OF a brave people to attempt to
retalIate on nation laid PROSTATE by the
hand OF Heaven. At the same time, there
is no reason to doubt that the general cause,
whatever it was, of the pestilence. would at
any rate have soon extended 10 Scotland,
rs well as Wales and Ireland.
Early in the year l349, the plague bepan
to abate in England, and by the month of
August it had entirely disappeared. It's
consequences, however, continued for some
time to be severely felt. During the preva-
lence Of the disease, the cattle, for want of
men to tend them, were allowed to wander
about the fields at random, and persisted in
such numbers as to occasion great search
ty. Though the fields, too, were covered
with plentiful crop of corn, much of it was
lost for want of hands to reap it and gather
it in. The scarcity of hands naturally pro-
duced excessively high wages. A reaper
was not to be had under eight pence day,
nor mower under twelve pence, besides
vlctuals; and every sort of labor was paid
in proportions This gave occasion to the
act of the 25th of Edward III, known by
the name of the Statute of Laborers which.
on account of " the insolence of the SER
wants, who endeavored to raise on their
masters" ordained that they should be con-
tented with the same wages and liYeries
which they nad been accustomed to receive
IN the goth year of the king. In spite of
this statute, high wages continued to be CIV
en- by the people who preferred doing so to
losing the grain and other fruits of the earth,
till Edward enforced obedience to it by Sc
we're measures both against masters and
laborers. The enforcement of this statute
is said by old writer's to have prevented a
famine from raging In England, similar to
the one which afflicted other countries that
had undergone the visitation OF the pesti-
lence. How far it could have produced so
salutary an effect, however, may we'll be
questioned.
The last dregs of the calamity were drain
ed by that unfortunate race, the Jews. A
belief spread over several countries that
they had prodHced the pestilence by poison
ing the wells and fountains and in many
places they were massacred in thousands
by the infatuated populace. Inseveral parts
of Germany, where this persecution chiefly
ragged, the Jews were literally exterminated.
Twelve thousand of them were murdered
in the single city of Mentz and multitudes
of them, in this extremity of their despair
shut themselves up in their houses, and con.
sumed themselves, and their families ant
property, with fire. The extent of such
atrocities, in barbaroas age, may well be
imagined, when we remember the outrage.
which were produced by the cholera panic
only few months ago, in some parts of thu
continent.
Though the pestilence ceased in England
in l349, yet the destroying angel continue,
his progress through other regions for sew
eral years longer, marks of his presence re
naming on record down to the year 1865
The world has suffered no similar visitatio
since; nor does its older history afford an
instance of calamity of the same kline
equally extensive and destructive. Eve
the pestlence, SO eloquently described b
Gibbon, which rayaged great part of tn
Roman empire, seems to have been inferic
in magnitude; and the famous plague
Athens was confined in a still narrowe
compass. In almost every other memorabl
instance Of the plague, it has been limite
10 particular district, or even TO particl
lar city.
In the time Of Edtcard III ten pence contain,
half an ounce Of siiper and tcas consequently, egu
to half erotcn of our present money. The abo
todges, therefore, tcere equivalent TO tico shla,
of our money At the time the quarter of tphe
,ras then sir shillings and eight pence or ttcen
! shillings Of modern money.
Wealth Of Nations, book J, chap. H.
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