Journal of the Plague Year

continued, by a Gentleman

It is ſayed among the honourable Members of the Free Maſqueleſs League of Claſsical Moderationers, that the Quantity of Deaths from the Woo Han Peſtilence hath in theſe paſt Weekes been much reduced. Of great Concern and Moment at the Meeting was the urgent Neceſsity of aſcertaining, whether the Quantity of Demiſement among the Populace hath been matched by a correſponding Decline of Quality. For as my Lord Swygffyne-Whtyewyne poynted out, between thoſe Attacks of the effluvial Flux which produce ſo pungent an Effect upon the Cadences of his manly Rhetorick, it would be a moſt inexcuſable Act of Remiſsneſs upon the Part of Her Majeſty's Government, ſhould it happen that our great Nation ſuffered its People, in the Hour of their Triumph over the fiendiſh Inſidiouſneſs of the Oriental Diſtemper, to ſubject the final Agony of their glorious victorious Throes to a mean ſubſtandard Inferiority. It was juſtly agreed at laſt, among alll who retained the requiſite Quorum of cerebral Conſciouſneſs, that the Realm muſt be induced to return incontinently to its Buſineſs, leſt we fall behind the beaſtlie French in that great Competition of the Races, in which the entrepreneurial Britiſhneſs of our invincibly ſuperior Engliſhneſs is the ſole Bulwark ſtanding to ſhelter us againſt the utter and entire Annihilation of the horrendouſly endangered Engliſhneſs of our pluckily patriotick, plain-ſpoken Britiſhneſs through the promiſcuous Perfidiouſneſs of traytorous Foreignneſs. It is to be hoped, that Her Majeſty's Government will heed the Call from theſe its moſt prominent and principled Well-wiſhers, and make haſte to reſpond in Language of equivalent Plainneſs and Beauty of Diction.