HISTORY OF EUROPE. [137 



ministration could have assembled i t 

 pro re nata, if it had not been sit- 

 ting. And the measures, necessary 

 for the public tranquillity and well- 

 being, might have been adopted, 

 in due time, without the conven- 

 tion of parliament : yet it was not 

 till February, 1800, that any thing 

 was attempted for the relief of the 

 present, or the prevention of a 

 greater pressure. 



As it became the business of par- 

 liament, early in the present session, 

 to consider of means for preserving 

 the people from famine, so an in- 

 cident happened that reminded go- 

 vernment of the vigilance necessary 

 against the introduction of pesti- 

 lence. In the end of 1 799j three ships 

 arrived in the ports of this country, 

 from Mogadore, on the coast of Af- 

 rica, with what are called foul bills 

 of health, whichleft that place when 

 the plague raged there with the 

 greatestviolence. The goods of those 

 ships being found, on inquiry, to be 

 particularly susceptible of infection, 

 as well as put on board under the 

 most suspicious circumstances, his 

 majesty thought proper, by the ad- 

 vice of his privy council, to order 

 the ships and cargoes to be de- 

 stroyed, in conformity to what had 

 been the usage in former instances 

 of the same nature. This incident, 

 with the measures by which it had 

 been followed, was communicated, 

 by a message, to the house of com- 

 mons, on the eleventh of February ; 

 and his majesty recommended it to 

 the house to consider whether any, 

 and what allowance should be made 

 to the parties, for the losses they 

 might have sustained in consequence 

 of the destruction of the ships and 

 cargoes. Mr. Pitt moved that the 

 matter should be referred to the 

 consideration of a select committee: 



observing that a minute and critical 

 inquiry should be made into the 

 motives which induced those ships 

 to sail under so suspicious a charac- 

 ter : and that, after examining the 

 invoices, such reparation should be 

 made to the owners, if nothing ap- 

 peared to criminate their conduct 

 or intentions, as the justice of the 

 house should think proper and ade- 

 quate. The utmost care should, at 

 the same time, be employed to in- 

 quire into the motives which 

 prompted such hazardous specula- 

 tions. 



Sir W. Pulteney said, he was 

 credibly informed that no plague 

 raged at Mogadore when the goods 

 were shipped, nor was there any 

 reason to believe that any danger 

 could possibly arise from them. But 

 he would not, on that account, resist 

 the proposed inquiry : on the con- 

 trary, he approved of it, as it would 

 lead to a discovery whether there 

 were sufficient reasons for destroy- 

 ing the ships and goods, and that 

 with such precipitation. 



Mr. Pitt assured the worthy baro- 

 net, that his information was erro- 

 neous, both with regard to the haste 

 with which he supposed the ships 

 to have been destroyed, and to the 

 reasons for believing that there was 

 no well-grounded apprehension of 

 a plague having existed at the place 

 alluded to. The matter in ques- 

 tion had been the subject of a long 

 and repeated inquiry, and the most 

 eminent of the faculty had given it 

 as their opinion that the precaution 

 should be used that had been re- 

 sorted to : that the danger of a con- 

 tagion being spread from the open- 

 ing and exposing of those goods to 

 the air appeared to be imminent in 

 the extreme ; for it was well known 

 that two persons, who had been 



