The same Day it being taken into Consideration, that the Arrêt issued by the Chamber of Vacations, having interdicted all Communication between the Inhabitants of the Province, and those of _Marseilles_; if Things should remain at this Pass, and no Body should bring in Corn, and other Provisions, we should soon be reduced to the Extremity of Famine, the Sheriffs resolve to have Recourse to the First President. Accordingly they send to intreat him to establish, as had been done formerly, Markets, and Barriers for Conference, at certain proper Places, whither Strangers, without being exposed to any Risque, might bring us Provisions: At the same time they write to the Procurators of the Country of _Provence_, to be pleas'd to concur therein. It is impossible, certainly, to exert more Compassion to the Miseries of an afflicted City, than they did; and particularly the Consuls of the several Towns: _Marseilles_ will never forget the Services done her in this Calamity, nor the Kindness, Zeal and Readiness with which they were done. The same Day, the Sheriffs considering the Disorders which often happen in a Time of Contagion, the Necessity of using speedy Means to suppress them, and of making Examples of Malefactors and Rebels; and that as often as this City has been visited with the Plague, as in 1580, 1630, 1649, and 1650, our Kings have constantly granted to their Predecessors in the Magistracy, by Letters Patents, the Power of judging all Crimes finally, and without Appeal; they write again to the First President, desiring him to procure for them from his Majesty the like Letters Patents. The 5th, they repeat their Instances to him, to get them supplied with Corn: They write likewise to the same purpose, to the Consuls of _Toulon_, and to those of all the Maritime Towns of the Coasts of _Languedoc_ and _Provence_; proposing to go to receive the Corn at any Place distant from the Town which they shall chuse to land it at; and they desire those of the Town of _Martignes_ to send Vessels to _Arles_, to fetch Corn from thence. The 6th, an Ordinance is publish'd at my Instance, forbidding all Persons to remove from one House to another the Moveables and Apparel of the Sick or Dead, or to touch them, or make any use of them, on Pain of Death. Another Ordinance fixes the Rates of Victuals and necessary Commodities, to restrain the excessive Price to which, because of the Scarcity, those who would make Advantage of the Publick Misery, would raise them.