belonging to it, and to bury them ten Foot
deep in the Ground near the House.

So far the former Preface.

I think it now proper to take Notice, that an =Act of Parliament= (as
above mentioned in this Preface) formed upon the Precepts here
delivered, having been passed on =December 8, 1720.= the two last
=Clauses= in the said Act, relating to the =removing= of Sick Persons
from their Habitations, and the making of =Lines= about Places infected,
were on =October 19= of the following Year, repealed.

THIS looks as if the Rules prescribed were not right and just: I must
therefore observe, in Justification of myself, that this was not the
Case. Nothing was urged in that Repeal against the Reasonableness of
the Directions in themselves, more than in these Words: =That the
Execution of them might be very grievous to the Subjects of this
Kingdom=. But this I have proved to be quite otherwise.

THE Truth of the Matter is this: Some great Men, both of the Lords and
Commons, who were in the =Opposition to the Court=, objected that the
=Ministry= were not to be intrusted with such =Powers=, lest they should
abuse them; since they might, upon Occasion, by their Officers, either
remove or confine Persons not favoured by the Government, on Pretence
that their Houses were infected.

VAIN and groundless as these Fears were, yet the Clamours industriously
raised from them were so strong, that a great Officer in the State
thought fit to oblige his Enemies by giving way to them: and tho' a
=Motion= made in the House of Commons for repealing these two Clauses had
just been rejected; yet upon making the same in the House of Lords, with
his Consent, the thing was done.

WHETHER private or public Considerations had the greater Share in
bringing about this Compliance, I will not determine. Such
=Counter-Steps= will happen in a Government, where there is too much of
=Faction=, and too little of a =Public Spirit=. This I very well
remember, that a learned Prelate, now dead, who had more of =Political=
than of =Christian= Zeal, and was one who made the loudest Noise about
the =Quarantaine= Bill, frankly owned to me in Conversation, that tho'
the Directions were good, yet he and his Friends had resolved to take
that Opportunity of shewing their Disaffection to the =Ministry=.

BUT after all, it contributed not a little to the carrying this Point,
that the Plague was now ceased at =Marseilles=, and a Stop put to its
Progress in the =Prov