Baxter, speaking of the state of London just before the fire, observes, that in the larger parishes--for example, St. Martin's, St. Giles' Cripplegate, and Stepney--there were 60,000 inhabitants each; that in others, as in St. Giles'-in-the-Fields and St. Sepulchre's, there were about 30,000, in others about 20,000. For these parishes the churches afforded insufficient accommodation; indeed, the fourth part of the people would not have found room in them had such a proportion been disposed to attend public worship. He speaks of a sixth or a tenth, as the proportion for which space in the parochial edifices was available.[512] The fire, by destroying so many buildings, deprived very many people of instruction and worship in the Establishment; and little was done immediately towards repairing the evil. Houses were restored, but churches were neglected. Burnet relates, that in 1669, "when the City was pretty well rebuilt, they began to take care of the churches, which had lain in ashes some years;"[513] and Baxter, writing in the year 1675, affirms that few of the churches burnt in the fire had been re-edified.[514] The Nonconformists exerted themselves in this emergency.[515] The parish Incumbents having left London for want of incomes and of dwelling-places, the ejected ministers came forward to occupy the deserted fields of labour, and resolved, that amidst the ruins they would preach until they were imprisoned. Dr. Manton opened his rooms in Covent Garden, and there gathered a congregation. Dr. Jacomb, for that purpose, used an apartment in the house of the Countess of Exeter. Dr. Annesley, Messrs. Vincent, Doolittle, and Franklin, and other Presbyterians, either occupied chapels, with pulpits, seats, and galleries, hastily erected, to supply the deficiency--"churches of boards," called "tabernacles,"[516]--or large rooms fitted up in some extempore fashion for a like purpose. What had been before done covertly was now done openly; and the Independents, allowing for their numbers, were not behind the Presbyterians in activity. Owen, Goodwin, Nye, Brooke, Caryl, and Griffiths, to mention no more, publicly engaged in religious ministrations wherever they were able, at a time when the parish churches were lying in ruins. [Sidenote: SCOTLAND.] Scarcely had the ashes grown cold when tidings came of a religious rising north of the Tweed. A Proclamation was issued at Edinburgh on the 11th of October, 1666, enforcing the laws against Papists and against Protestant Nonconformists, and requiring that masters, who were all held responsible for their families, and that landlords, who were all made accountable for their tenants, should abstain from repairing to Conventicles, and should attend the Established Church. Sir James Turner was despatched to execute the mandate, and he accomplished its execution with a severity which provoked most violent opposition.