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Dreadful Instances of the Plague, in Europe

Thucydides, lib. ii. gives an account of a dreadful plague which happened in Athens about B. C. 430, and with which he was himself infected, while the Peloponnesians under the command of Archidamus wasted all her territory abroad; but of these two enemies the plague was by far the most severe The most dreadful plague that ever raged at Rome, was in the reign of Titus, A. D. 80. The emperor left no remedy unattempted to abate the malignity of the distemper, acting during its continuance like a father to his people. The same fatal disease raged in all the provinces of the Roman empire in the reign of M. Aurelius, A. D. 167, and was followed by a dreadful famine, earthquakes, inundations, and other calamities. About A. D. 430, the plague visited Britain, just after the Picts and Scots had made a formidable invasion of the southern part of the island. It raged with uncommon fury, and swept away most of those whom the sword and famine had spared, so that the living were scarcely sufficient to bury the dead. About A. D. 1348, the plague became almost general over Europe. Many authors give an account of this plague, which is said to have appeared first in the kingdom of Kathay, in 1346, and to have proceeded gradually west to Constantinople and Egypt. From Constantinople it passed into Greece, Italy, France, and Africa, and by degrees along the coast of the ocean into Britain and Ireland, and afterwards into Germany, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, and the other northern kingdoms. According to Antonius, arch bishop of Florence, the distemper carried off 60,000 people in that city. In 1656, the plague was brought from Sardinia to Naples, being introduced into the city by a transport with soldiers on board. It raged with excessive violence, carrying off, in less than six months, 400,000 of the inhabitants. In 1720, the city of Marseilles was visited with this destructive uisease, brought in a ship from the Levant; and in seven months, during which time it continued, it carried off not less than 60,000 people. The ravages of this disease have been dreadful wherever it has made its appearance. On the first arrival of the Europeans at the island of Grand Canaria, it contained 14,000 fighting men; soon after which, two-thirds of these inhabitants fell a sacrifice to the plague. The destruction it has made in Turkey in Europe, and particularly in Constantinople, must be known to every reader; and its fatal effects have been particularly heightened there by that firm belief which prevails among the people of predestination, &c It is generally brought into European Turkey tom Egypt, where it is very frequent, especially at Grand Cairo. To give even a list of all the plagues which have desolated many flourishing countries, would extend this article beyond ali bounds, and minutely to describe them all is impossible. Respecting the plague which raged in Syria in 1760, we refer to the Abbe Mariti's Travels through Cyprus, Syria, and Palestine, volume i. pages 278, 296. This plague was one of the most malignant and fatal that Syria ever experienced; for it scarcely had made its appearance in any part of the body, before it carried off the patient.

Some particulars respecting THE GREAT FIRE OF LON DON.-The following is part of the inscription on the Monument, which records this calamitous event "The second day of September, 1666, at the distance of two hundred and two feet, the height of this column, a terrible fire broke out about midnight. It consumed in its progress eighty-nine churches, the city gates, Guildhall, many public structures, hospitals, schools, libraries, a vast number of stately edifices, thirteen thousand two hundred dwellinghouses, and four hundred streets. The ruins of the city were four hundred and thirty-six acres, from the Tower by the Thames side to the Temple church, and from the north-east gate along the city wall, to Holborn bridge. Three days after, when this fatal fire had baffled all human counsels and endeavours, it stopped, as it were by a command from Heaven. and was on every side extinguished."

VICAR OF BRAY.- Every one has frequently heard this reverend son of the church mentioned; probably his name may have outlived the recollection of his pious manœuvres: he was in his principles a Sixtus the Fifth. The vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, was a Papist under the reign of Henry the Eighth, and a Protestant under Edward the Sixth; he was a Papist again under Mary, and once more became a Protestant in the reign of Elizabeth. When this scandal to the gown was reproached for his versatility of religious creeds, and taxed for being a turn-coat and an inconstant changeling, as Fuller expresses it, he replied, "Not so, neither! for if I changed my religion, I am sure I kept true to my principle; which is, to live and die the Vicar of Bray!"

This vivacious and reverend hero has given birth to a proverb peculiar to his county, "The Vicar of Bray will be Vicar of Bray still" Fuller tells us, in his facetious chronicle of his Worthies, that this vicar had seen some martyrs burnt two miles off at Windsor, and found this fire too hot for his