§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHasked the Secretary of the Local Government Board, Whether the Local Government Board addressed in April last a Letter to the Bridgwater Board of Guardians to the effect that "the Board are not prepared to say that it is open to the Guardians to act upon their own judgment" with respect to successive prosecutions of persons who persist in refusing to have their children vaccinated; whether the Law does not leave it open to the Guardians to act upon their own judgment in this matter; and, 1064 on what grounds the Letter of the Local Government Board suggested to the Guardians that, instead of acting on their own judgment, they should be guided by a recommendation of a Select Committee of this House, which was struck out of the Vaccination Act of 1871, and failed to receive the sanction of this House when proposed in the form of a Bill in 1872?
§ MR. HIBBERT,in reply, said, that the extract from the letter from the Local Government Board to the Bridgwater Board of Guardians was not accurate, it having omitted the important word "not." The extract should run, "the Board are not prepared to say that it is not open to the Guardians to act upon their own judgment."
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHsaid, he hoped the Local Government Board would in future use one affirmative instead of two negatives to express their meaning.