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Memoirs of

that he was a poor Piper, and that he was carried away as above I am fully ſatisfied of the Truth of.

It is to be noted here, that the Dead Carts in the City were not not confin’d to particular Pariſhes, but one Cart went thro’ ſeveral Pariſhes, according as the Numbers of Dead preſented; nor were they ty’d to carry the Dead to their reſpective Pariſhes, but many of the Dead, taken up in the City, were carried to the Burying-Ground in the Out-parts, for want of Room.

I have already mentioned the Surprize, that this Judgment was at firſt among the People, I muſt be allowed to give ſome of my Obſervations on the more ſerious and religious Part. Surely never City, at leaſt, of this Bulk and Magnitude, was taken in a Condition ſo perfectly unprepar’d for ſuch a dreadful Viſitation, whether I am to ſpeak of the Civil Preparations, or Religious; they were indeed, as if they had had no Warning, no Expectation, no Apprehenſions, and conſequently the leaſt Proviſion imaginable, was made for it in a publick Way; for Example,

The Lord Mayor and Sheriffs had made no Proviſion as Magiftrates, for the Regulations which were to be obſerved; they had gone into no Meaſures for Relief of the Poor.

The Citizens had no publick Magazines, or Store-Houſes for Corn, or Meal, for the Subſiſtence of the Poor; which, if they had provided themſelves, as in ſuch Caſes is done abroad, many miſerable Families, who were now reduc’d to the utmoſt Diſtreſs, would have been reliev’d, and that in a better Manner, than now could be done.

The Stock of the City’s Money, I can ſay but little to, the Chamber of London was ſaid to be exceeding rich; and it may be concluded, that they were ſo, by the vaſt Sums of Money iſſued from thence, in the re-building the publick Edifices after the Fire of London, and in Building new Works, ſuch as, for a