§ MR. DU CANEsaid, lie would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether his attention has been called to a Report in The Times of that day of what had taken place at the Middlesex Sessions held the previous day with regard to the cattle plague, at which a Mr. Glossop was reported to have said, in moving for a rate of 1d. in the pound to meet the compensation required under the Cattle Plague Act, that he regretted to have to state that in that county the cattle plague was increasing, and that great ravages of the disease had occurred m consequence of the introduction of diseased Dutch cattle by the ship Mars? These cattle were landed at Blackwall, and driven through the metropolis to the extreme verge of the count}- of Middlesex, having been smuggled in by the agents of Lord Granville and Lord Taunton, The animals made a hole in a hedge, and then proceeded to other farms. These cattle had since died, and the worst of the matter was that this loss would fall on the ratepayers. The committee had ordered prosecutions, but it was feared that the only persons who would be convicted would be the drovers, and not the persons who employed them, who were morally responsible He would, therefore, beg to ask, Whether the right hon. Gentleman will inquire into the accuracy of the above statement, and, in the event of its 1227 being confirmed, devise some remedy against the repetition of a similar practice?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, he had not seen the statement referred to up to within the last five minutes, when his attention was called to it by the lion. Member. He then informed the hon. Member that there must be some mis-statement in the report in question, and that if he would postpone his Question until Monday he would inquire into the matter. The hon. Member, however, declined to do so, and therefore he could only say now that he would make inquiries on the subject, accompanying that assurance with an expression of the belief that there must be some misapprehension in the matter.