§ MAJOR WALKERsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, in view of the great decrease of the cattle plague in Scotland, and of the very extensive interests concerned, it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government so to modify the restrictions imposed upon the transit of sheep in Scotland as to permit the holding of the annual sheep and lamb fairs during the ensuing autumn?
§ MR. WALPOLE,in reply, said, the question was a very important one. There were no orders of regulations to prohibit the holding of fairs, but there were to prevent the moving of sheep in different parts of Scotland. It would just at this moment, when the cattle plague was spreading in one or two counties, be 1164 highly injudicious to make any great change in the regulations. It was very important, before any greater facilities were given for the movement of sheep from one place to another, that the disease should be watched, and that would be done. There was every desire on the part of the Government to relax the regulations, provided it could be done consistently with checking the disease.