§ SIR BROOK BRIDGESsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is the intention of the Government to recommend the appointment of a day for National Fast and Humiliation in consequence of the national calamity of the Cattle Plague?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYSir, the opinion of the Government on this subject is distinctly expressed in the letter which, in the name of the Government, I addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and which has been laid before Parliament. The Government still retain that opinion. If a day of humiliation were to be appointed by the authority of the Queen in Council, its observation must be enjoined on the whole kingdom, including Ireland. The course which appears to Her Majesty's 868 Government to be preferable is that which is being adopted in various parts of the country where the cattle disease is severely felt of voluntarily setting apart a day either throughout a diocese, at the suggestion of the bishop, or parochially, for holding a special service to pray for the blessing of God on the means used for arresting the progress of the disease.