HC Deb 11 June 1863 vol 171 c700
SIR ANDREW AGNEW

said, he wished to ask Mr. Attorney General, Whether officials of Railway and Steam Boat Companies may lawfully remove from carriages or vessels under their supervision persons who are obviously labouring under smallpox; and whether individuals thus wilfully travelling from place to place at the risk of spreading so dreadful a scourge through a whole community are subject to any penalty on conviction before a magistrate? He (Sir A. Agnew) was aware of two cases in which patients, labouring under the disease in an aggravated form, were admitted as passengers in a railway carriage where there were other persons travelling.

MR. HENRY SEYMOUR

said, he should like to know from the Secretary of State for the Home Department if there was no remedy in this matter. A case had come under his (Mr. H. Seymour's) own observation. He had seen a woman afflicted with small-pox placed in a second-class carriage which was filled with passengers?

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

said, he understood the hon. Baronet to mean, by the first part of his Question, that the persons described were those who were being conveyed in the course of a journey, the railway or other companies having undertaken to carry them. It appeared to him that by the Common Law the Officials of the company would not be justified in removing them. In respect of the Question of the hon. Gentleman (Mr. H. Seymour), he was not aware of any Act of Parliament having reference to the subject.