HC Deb 26 March 1867 vol 186 cc566-7
SIR JERVOISE JERVOISE

said, he wished to ask the Vice President of the Committee of Council for Education, Whether he has noticed in the weekly returns, Nos. 67, 68, 69, of the Cattle Plague Inquiry, "no cattle were slaughtered in consequence of being in contact with infected animals;" that upwards of 52,650 have been slaughtered healthy; while the First Report of the Commissioners, p. xvii., states that "the hope of thus arresting its march diminishes, the inevitable waste increases, and the sense of hardship tends to become insupportable;" and, whether the time has not come when this portion of the Report might be attended to without great danger?

LORD ROBERT MONTAGU

, in reply, said, he conceived that the object of the Question of the hon. Baronet was to insinuate that the killing of cattle should be put an end to; but he must call the attention of the House to the whole of the paragraph from the first Report of the Commissioners, of which the hon. Baronet had only read a portion. The Commissioners stated— This power is right and useful when the disease has appeared only at isolated spots and attacked a few animals; the public benefit is then very great and the private sacrifice small; but in proportion as it extends the hope of thus arresting its march much diminishes, the inevitable waste increases, and the sense of hardship tends to become insupportable. That was from the first Report; but, subsequently, in the third Report, the Commissioners said— We see no reason to doubt that the lessened rate of progress during the last two months is substantially due to the new repressive measures—namely, slaughter, stoppage of cattle, traffic, &c. … The very principle of stoppage by slaughter is to make the killing follow immediately on the attack, &c. Therefore, it appeared that the Commissioners, when they became better acquainted with the disease, thought it was necessary to slaughter such cattle as were diseased. Parliament endorsed that opinion by passing the Act of 1866; but, though the cattle plague was not extinct, he hoped that in a very short time measures might be taken by the Privy Council to relax a great many of the orders in force by means of a Bill which would be introduced.