LONDON. 



«ommerce. For tVie particulars of this important period, 

 we refer our' readers to Clarendon's Hidory of the Great 

 ' Rebelhon. 



The year i56j became memorable in London by the 

 dreadful ravages of the fjreat Plxgtie, which firft, made 

 its appearance in December 1664, and had not entirely 

 ceafed till January 1666. Its progrefs, the firft two or 

 three montlis, was comparatively fmall, but continued to 

 advance, notwithftandintf every precaution was ufed to 

 abate its fury : from May to October 1665, it raged with 

 the greateft violence ; the deaths progreifively increafed 

 from five hundred to eight thoufand weekly. The pefti- 

 lence was now at its height : its ravages, which commenced 

 in Wellminfter and the weflern fuburbs, extended through 

 the city to Soiithwark, and to all the parifhcs eaftward of 

 the Tower. The digging of fingle graves had long been 

 difcontinued, and large pits had been excavated, in which 

 the dead were depofited with fome little regularity and 

 decent attention : but now all regard to ceremony became 

 impofTible. Deeper and more extenfive pits were dug, and 

 the rich and the poor, the young and" the aged, the adult 

 and the infant, were all proniifcuoufly thrown together into 

 one common receptacle. Whole families, and even whole 

 ftreets of families, were fwept away together. By day, the 

 ftreets prefented a moft frightful afpeft of defolation and 

 inifcry ; and at night the dead carls, moving with flow pace 

 by torch-light, and with the appalling cry, " Bring out 

 yonr Dead," thrilled horror through every heart that was 

 not by fufferiug hardened to calamity. The ftcppage ot 

 pubHc bufinefs was fo complete, that grafs grew within the 

 area of the Royal Exchange, and even in the principal ftreets 

 of the city : all the inns of court were ftiut up, and all law 

 proceedings fufpended. The entire number returned in the 

 bills of mortality, as having died of the plague within the 

 year, was 68,950 ; yet there can be no doubc that this total 

 fell fliort, by many thoufands, of thofe who actually fell by 

 the infeiftion, but whofe deaths were not officially recorded. 

 The aggregate is eftimated at about 100,000. The whole 

 rumber of deaths within that year, as given in the bills, was 

 «7,?o6. Since this dreadful period, the plague has entirely 

 ceafed in London : a circumftance that muft be regarded 

 SE the more remarkable, when it is confidered how frequent 

 had been its ravages for ages part, and when reference is had 

 to the bills of ir.ortality for the preceding part of this very 

 centurj', when fcarcely a year paffed without fome perfons 

 falling vifiims to the infeftion. For further particulars, 

 fee Plagu^. 



.The moft important event that ever happened in this me- 

 iropolis, .whether it be confidered in reference to its imme- 

 diate efFefts, or to its remote confequences, was the great 

 Fire, which broke out in the morning of Sunday, September 

 2, [666, and, being impelled by ftrong winds, raged with 

 irrefiftible fury nearly four days and nights, nor was it 

 entirely maftered till the fifth morning. The dellruftive 

 extent of this conflagration was, perhaps, never exceeded in 

 any part of the worM, by any lire originating in accident. 

 Within the walls it confiimed almoft five-fixths of the whole 

 city ; and without the walls, it cleared a fpace nearly as 

 extenfive as the one-fixth part left unburnt within. Scarcely 

 a fingle building, that came within the range of the flames, 

 was left ftanding. Public buildings, churches, and dwelling- 

 "lioufes were alike involved in one common fate ; and, making 

 a proper allowance for irregularities, it may fairly be ftated, 

 •that the fire extended its ravages over a fpace of ground 

 .equal to an oblong fqtiare, meafiiring upwards of a mile in 

 •Jength, and half a mile in breadth. In the fummary ac- 



count of this vaft deraRation givtn In one of the infqrip. 

 tions on the monument, and which was drawn up from the 

 reports of the furveyors appointed after the fire, it is ftated, 

 that " the ruins of the city were 4^6 acres, viz. ^yj acres 

 within the walls, and 6_? in the lihL-rties of the city ; that of 

 the fix-and-twcnty wards it utterly deftroyed fifteen, and 

 left eight others fliattered and half burnt ; and that it con- 

 fumed 400 ftreets, 13,200 dwelling-honfes, 89 churches, be- 

 fides chapels ; four of the city gates, Guildhall, many pub- 

 lic ftruftures, hofpitalsi, fchools, libraries, and a vaft number 

 of ftately edifices." The immenfe property deftroyed in 

 this dreadful conflagration could never be calculated with 

 any tolerable degree of exaiSnefs ; but according to the 

 bell eflimations that have been made, the total value muft 

 have amounted to the immenfe fum of ten millions of pounds 

 fterhng. As foon as the general confternation had fubfided, 

 the rebuilding of the city became l-he firft objcft of conli- 

 deration ; an a6t of parhament was paflcd for that purpofe ; 

 and theugh all was not done that might have been, the city 

 was principally rebuilt within little more than four years, and 

 that in a ftyle of far greater expence and regularity, and 

 infinitely more commodious and healthful, than the ancient 

 capital. In the fyftem of tyranny and opprefilon whiih 

 marked the reign of Charles II. the city largely partici- 

 pated ; having its ancient liberties and privileges invaded, 

 and magiftrates arbitrarily forced on the citizen at the plca- 

 fure of the king. Every principle of law and juftice was 

 violated ; and in this humiliating ftate London continued 

 till the revolution. 



Annals of London from the Revolution In t688, to the prflnt 

 Time. — In the firft year of WiOiam. and Mary, an act was 

 pafled, by which all proceedings of former reigns againft 

 the city charters were reverfed, and all the rights and pri- 

 vileges «f the citizens were fully re-eftabliftied. In 1692, 

 during the kiiig'.^ abfence in Holland, the queen borrowed 

 200,000/. of the city for the exigencies of government. 

 In 1694, an infamous fyftem of bribery was inveftigated bv 

 the houfe of commons, when it wa." proved, that a thouHmd 

 guineas had been demanded and taken from the chamberlain 

 of London by fir John Trevor the I'peaker, for forwarding 

 the Orphan bill ; in confequcnce of which he was expelled 

 the houfe. In 1697, an acl: of parliament was pafTed for 

 the fupprefllon of the much abufed privilege of fanftuary, 

 heretofore attached to the following places, ii/'s. the fanc- 

 tuary in the Mlnories, Sali(bury-court, White-friars, Ram- 

 alley, and Mitre-court in Fleet-ftreet ; FuKvoods-rents in 

 Ho!born ; Baldwin'.s-gardens in Gray's-inn-lane ; the .Savoy 

 in the Strand ; and Montague-cloi'e, Deadman's-place, the 

 Clink, and the Mint, in Southwark. The year 1703 was 

 remarkable for a dreadful Itorm of wind, which raged 

 through the night of the 26th of November. The damage 

 fiiftained by the city alone was eftimated at two millions 

 fterling ; and in the fuburbs the damage was proportionably 

 great : the lead on the tops of feveral churches was rolled 

 up like (kins of parchment ; and at Weftminfter-abbey, 

 Chrift's-hofpital, St. Andrew's Holborn, and many other 

 places, it was carried off from the buildings. The ftiips in 

 the river were driven from their moorings ; four hundred 

 wherries were loft ; more than fixty barges were driven foul 

 of London-bridge, and aS many more were funk or ftaved 

 above the bridge. At fea the deftruftion was immenfe ; 

 twelve men of war, with more than eighteen hundred meft 

 on board, were loft within fight of their own fliore. The 

 year 1709 was marked by a circumftance highly creditable 

 to the humanity of the nation. The cruel depredatiorrs o'f 

 the French in the palatinate eompelled lite inhabitants to 



iLfcrt 



