§ Lord Althorpmoved the order of the day for the House to resolve itself into a Committee on the Reform of Parliament (England) Bill.
§ Mr. Robinson,seeing the Vice President of the Board of Trade in his place, was anxious to know whether any relaxation had taken place in the practice of not giving clean bills of health for ships sailing to foreign ports or the colonies. Doubts existed in the City whether the Cholera had really appeared in London at all, and, if it had not, he trusted that the obstructions in the way of trade, which necessarily followed from the late orders of Government on the subject, would be removed. In the ports of Holland, under the impression that Cholera existed in the metropolis, no vessel sailing to that country, was allowed to enter without performing forty days' quarantine. In the French ports, the period of required quarantine was not so long; nevertheless, there were considerable obstructions in the commercial transactions between the two countries. Considering it had been asserted, that, during the last week the Cholera had reached the metropolis, and yet that it had made no progress whatever, there having scarcely been a fatal case, and also that great doubts existed among the medical men, not only whether the Cholera had actually appeared, but whether it was a contagious disease, he thought that some facility should be afforded at the Customhouse in giving bills of health to vessels quitting the port of London.
§ Mr. Poulett Thomsonsaid, that no one regretted more than he did the circumstances which had given rise to the orders alluded to by the hon. Gentleman; but, unless his Majesty's Ministers were fully assured that the Cholera did not exist in London, it would be a breach of good 533 faith with other countries to furnish clean bills of health from the Custom House to vessels leaving this port. He begged to state to the House, what had been done by Government on the disease first reaching this country. Foreign governments were much alarmed at the circumstance, for the cases were publicly stated and commented upon in the newspapers, and those governments were meditating measures which would have had the effect of fettering commerce greatly. Strong assurances were made, on the part of Ministers, that every thing connected with the disease should be made public, and that no concealment should be practised. It was, at the same time, stated, that all which we had thought it necessary to do was, to place the northern part of the island under quarantine with respect to the southern part. On these assurances France and other countries allowed ships from our southern ports to enter their ports. It became, therefore, doubly the duty of the Government to avow the fact, and withhold clean bills of health the instant the disease appeared. A great many comments, he knew, had been made on the conduct of Government, upon what it had done, and what it had not done, but, all that it had done was, to follow up the line of conduct of which he had just laid down the principle. It had taken every possible precaution both against the disease and to prevent injury to trade. Nothing could be more unfair nor unjust than the charges which had been brought against Government respecting what had been done to prevent the spread of Cholera. It had been said, that no such thing as the Cholera existed in London. He could not take upon himself to state, whether that was the factor not; but this he would say, that every mode of obtaining an accurate judgment upon the subject, by taking the opinions of men qualified to form correct opinions thereupon, had been resorted to. The opinions of the Central Board of Health, as well as that of the District Board, had been taken, and upon these Government had acted. The opinions of medical men, who had watched the progress of the disease in various countries, were, in his opinion, of more value than the opinions of those who had never seen the disease; and who maintained, that it was not in the metropolis at all. If it should turn out that the disease had not reached the metropolis, he should 534 rejoice at the fact. In the mean time it would not be acting with good faith towards other countries, nor in accordance with those assurances to which he had alluded, if clean bills of health were afforded in the way suggested.
Mr. Humethought that his Majesty's Ministers ought to have members constituting the Board of Health entertaining different opinions as to whether the disease was contagious or non-contagious; whereas, as at present constituted, he understood the members of the Board all equally believed the disease to be of a contagious character. From the numerous communications he had received, he was led to believe that the people of the city of London had no confidence in this Board of Health. Many persons thought they had unnecessarily caused an alarm to be spread, without a full inquiry into the facts. He also thought that some additional members ought to be placed to the Board.
§ Mr. Poulett Thomsonsaid, that with respect to one of the gentlemen of the Board, he had not always entertained the opinion he now did with regard to the Cholera; he meant Dr. Russel, who went to St. Petersburg to make inquiries into the nature of the disease. When he went there he was an anti-contagionist, but, after witnessing the cases he there saw, he became a convert to an opposite opinion.
Sir Robert Peelthought the objections of the hon. member for Middlesex, as to the opinions of the members of the Board of Health, entitled to but little consideration, for the inquiry was not whether the disease was contagious or not, but whether it was the spasmodic Cholera. He was aware that differences of opinion among medical men upon that subject existed, and he knew that against a physician of Sunderland considerable prejudice was raised, because he, at the first breaking out of the Cholera at that place, declared it to be contagious. That gentleman, however, was right, as the facts unfortunately proved. He would venture to express a hope that the members of the Board of Health would honestly state their opinions upon the subject, as to the existence, or otherwise, of the disease in London.
Lord Allhorpsaid, that, from the best inquiries Ministers had been able to make, it appeared that the disease which had shown itself in London was similar in character to that which had appeared in 535 Sunderland; and therefore, he considered, they were fully justified in taking the steps they had done. Ministers had proceeded straightforward, and could bear the blame that might be thrown upon them by those who wereexcusably impatient,as they were necessarily suffering from the restrictions. Till experience had thrown more light upon the subject, it would be very wrong to issue clean bills of health.
Mr. Warburtonobserved, that if any disposition to conceal the truth were observed, every foreign government would distrust the statements of the English Government, and then, whether the ships had clean bills of health or not, would make no difference in their favour; on the contrary, they would then suffer from greater trammels with clean bills of health than they did now from foul bills. He hoped the Government would persevere in the course they had adopted, and act upon the opinion of the Board of Health, nor change it till the Board of Health had given an opinion, settling the question of danger at rest.