The Marquis of Lansdown, in moving the second reading of the Cholera Morbus Prevention Bill, said, that he did not deem it necessary to trouble their Lordships with any lengthened observations as to the measure in question. It had been brought forward for the purpose of putting an end to all doubts with regard to the powers possessed by the Privy Council, and though he had the satisfaction to state that in those places most likely to be affected by the disorder, the greatest readiness had 442 been evinced on the part of the Overseers, the parochial authorities, and the inhabitants generally, to comply with the regulations and instructions issued by the Privy Council, even where they might be considered as overstepping the limits of the law, yet it was deemed right to vest the specific powers which this Bill contained, in the Privy Council, in order that it might enforce the adoption of its regulations in any parish that might refuse to do so—a case which he hoped would not arise. He would take this opportunity to say, that it had been the object of his Majesty's Government not to excite any unnecessary alarm abroad on the subject of this disorder, feeling as the Ministers did, and as he was sure their Lordships felt, that it would be most desirable to avoid, as much as possible, exciting any alarm, not merely on account of the bad effects which it would produce to individuals, but also on account of the diminution of labour, the interruption of commerce, and the variety of other evil consequences that would arise, and which would be in themselves calculated much to aggravate and increase all the evils of the disease. Those considerations constituted a sufficient motive for the Government, and for their Lordships, not to go a single step beyond the adoption of such measures as were really necessary to meet the emergency. Such, too, had been the motives which had restrained Government from calling the attention of Parliament to this subject at an earlier period. While, therefore, it was the determination of his Majesty's Government that there should be no deception on the subject—that not a single fact should he concealed, and that every thing that occurred should be fully known, both in this and in other countries—he was sure that their Lordships would quite concur with them in thinking that all unnecessary alarm ought to be carefully discountenanced, and that nothing should be done calculated to produce those consequences to which he had already alluded, and which would constitute a greater evil te the country than even the spreading of the Cholera itself.
Bill read a second time, and, on the motion of the noble Marquis, the standing orders were suspended, and the House went into Committee on the Bill.
On the motion of the Marquis of Lansdown, the Amendment suggested by Lord Ellenborough last night, for enabling Parliament to alter or amend the Bill in the present Session, was agreed to.
443 The various clauses in the Bill having been passed through,
The Bishop of London rose to propose an Amendment in the preamble. The object of that Amendment was, to render the preamble of this Bill conformable to that of another Bill relating to the Cholera in Scotland, which would be immediately before their Lordships, and in which there was a direct acknowledgment that it was by the providence of Almighty God that this disease had come amongst us. Though he was not of opinion that it was expedient, or conducive to the interests of true religion, repeatedly to refer to the providence of God in Acts of the Legislature relating to ordinary matters; yet there were occasions when the Legislature was called upon to do so; and he would state to their Lordships two instances, neither of them at a very distant period, and one of them connected with an emergency not altogether dissimilar from the present, in which such a course had been adopted. In the preamble to the Act which was passed for the rebuilding of the city of London after the great fire, there was a devout acknowledgment that that calamity had been caused by the providence of God; and, in the other instance, that of the Act constituting the late Regency, the illness which then affected our revered Monarch (George 3rd), was, in the same devout spirit, attributed to Divine Providence. It did not, he was sure, require any arguments on his part to persuade their Lordships to adopt this Amendment. As he had said already, he did not think that reference of this kind should be made upon ordinary questions of policy: but, on such an occasion as the present, it was decorous and proper to acknowledge the dispensations of the Divine Will. Moreover the introduction of this Amendment was necessary, in order to render this Bill conformable to the Bill that related to Scotland. He would take that opportunity, however, to say a few words with regard to the prevalence of unnecessary alarm on the subject of this disease, principally in relation to the city of London, with which he was so intimately connected, and for the interest and welfare of whose inhabitants he was so deeply concerned. With all the praise which was justly due to the exertions of the Central Board of the metropolis—he did not mean the Central Board of Health appointed by the Government, but a local Board that had been established in the city—it had been too active in exciting alarm; and that one 444 of the measures which it had recommended for the purpose of meeting the malady was exceedingly injudicious, and very much to be deprecated. The measure to which he alluded was this: it had been recommended by that Board, that all the children should be dismissed from the national parochial schools in the city of London, that the schools should be shut up, and that preparations should be made for the purpose of converting them into Cholera hospitals. An emergency might undoubtedly arise, when it would be necessary to take measures of that extensive description, and when even buildings of a more sacred character must be appropriated to such a purpose; but until such an occasion did arise, the religious education of the poor ought not to be suspended. He was afraid that such a suspension would not be of a temporary nature, but Would be likely to continue for several years; for, if all the schools were converted into Cholera hospitals, the poor would have a great and a natural unwillingness to send their children back to them again. The consequence would be—a consequence that was much to be deprecated—that the religious education of the children of the poor might be thus suspended for a considerable period. He would suggest to those from whom the recommendation for appropriating those places to the purpose of Cholera hospitals had proceeded, that there were other buildings in the city of London—buildings which were used principally for the purposes of festivity, and the conversion of which to such an object, whenever the emergency called for it, would be much more suitable and proper. He alluded to the halls belonging to the different companies forming the corporation of that great city. It would be much more fitting in the Magistracy of the City that they should appropriate those buildings before they shut up the schools consecrated to the education of the people. It would be far better to suspend for some time civic festivities, than suspend for a long period the religious education of the people. The right rev. Prelate concluded by moving the insertion, in the preamble of the Bill, of the words—"it having pleased Divine Providence to visit this kingdom with this disease."
The Marquis of Lansdown had no objection whatever to the amendment; but, on the contrary, it met with his cordial approbation. Under ordinary circumstances, however, he very much doubted the propriety of introducing a reference of this 445 kind into an Act of Parliament, as, possibly, the inference might be drawn from it, that all other events, as well as the particular event in question, were not equally under the disposal and control of an all-seeing and all-ruling Providence, which accomplished its ends and its objects in great, as well as in small events, through the medium of secondary causes. In this instance, however, as he had said already, he approved of the introduction of such words. With regard to the other point to which the right rev. Prelate had alluded, he entirely concurred with him in thinking, that the progress of education ought not to be interrupted. It was probably known to their Lordships, that in the city of London the Lord Mayor had set a most praiseworthy example, in appropriating his own warehouse for the purposes of a Cholera hospital, if a necessity should arise for using it, and thus proving that he should have no fear of returning to it after it had been so occupied. He believed, that in all the various districts the citizens of London would make all the arrangements to meet the exigency which were necessary; and under such circumstances, there would be no reason for the conversion of school-houses into Cholera hospitals.
Bill went through the Committee, the House having resumed, it was read a third time and passed.