state of dull
but frantic tumult, and the wild crowds as they came and went in the
perpetration of their melancholy outrages, were worn down by such
starling evidences of general poverty and suffering, as were enough
to fill the heart with fear as well as pity, even to look upon. Their
cadaverous and emaciated aspects had something in them so wild and
wolfish, and the fire of famine blazed so savagely in their hollow eyes,
that many of them looked like creatures changed from their very humanity
by some judicial plague, that had been sent down from Heaven to punish
and desolate the land. And in truth there is no doubt whatsoever, that
the intensity of their sufferings, and the natural panic which was
occasioned by the united ravages of disease and famine, had weakened
the powers of their understanding, and impressed upon their bearing
and features an expression which seemed partly the wild excitement of
temporary frenzy, and partly the dull, hopeless apathy of fatuity--a
state to which it is well known that misery, sickness, and hunger,
all together, had brought down the strong intellect and reason of
the wretched and famishing multitudes. Nor was this state of feeling
confined to those who were goaded by the frightful sufferings that
prevailed. On the contrary, thousands became victims of a quick and
powerful contagion which spread the insane spirit of violence at a rapid
rate, affecting many during the course of the day, who in the early part
of the morning had not partaken of its influence. To no other principle
than this can we attribute the wanton and irrational outrages of many of
the people. Every one acquainted with such awful visitations must know
that their terrific realities cause them, by wild influences that run
through the whole masses, to forget all the decencies and restraints of
ordinary life, until fear and shame, and becoming respect for order,
all of which constitute the moral safety of society--are thrown aside or
resolved into the great tyrannical instinct of self-preservation,
which, when thus stimulated, becomes what may be termed the insanity
of desolation. We know that the most savage animals as well as the most
timid will, when impelled by its ravenous clamors, alike forget every
other appetite but that which is necessary for the sustainment of
life. Urged by it alone, they will sometimes approach and assail the
habitations of man, and, in the fury of the moment, expose themselves to
his power,