MOTION FOR LEAVE. (Hansard, 9 February 1882)

§ MR. WARTON

said, he hoped the House would not give its permission for the introduction of this Bill. Hon. Members would be aware that a great number of the Bills which were brought forward in that House were shrouded in mystery, and that designs of the most revolutionary character were sometimes concealed under a very innocent title. The measure, however, now sought to be introduced by the hon. Member for Leicester (Mr. P. A. Taylor) was not open to this charge, for its design was perfectly clear upon the face of it. It was nothing else than a Bill for promoting the spread of small-pox. A distinguished official of the Government, the exact Office filled by whom he had forgotten, but whose name was associated with a measure for the Prevention of Floods, had stated some time ago that he was prepared to bring in a Bill very much of the same character as the present. It was a noticeable circumstance that the hon. Gentleman referred to was not in his place on the present occasion to support the hon. Member opposite in his attempt to bring in the Bill. He would remind hon. Members that the whole Medical Profession of the country, with a few unimportant exceptions, had long established the fact that vaccination was, to a very considerable extent, a protection against small-pox; and when the fearful nature of that disorder was regarded, he thought it the duty of hon. Members, as civilized Englishmen, to accept the conclusions of science, and 329 oppose to the utmost the introduction of such a Bill as this. Under the present law the number of children who fell victims to small-pox having escaped vaccination varied from 1 to 4 percent; but the proposed measure would permit all parents to allow their children to remain unvaccinated, and would unquestionably lead to a considerable increase of the disease in question. ["Divide!"] Hon. Members opposite, he trusted, were sincere in their cries of "Divide!" and, remembering the motto sanitas sanitation, and that the health of the people throughout the country was of the greatest consequence, he asked them to divide with him in his endeavour to prevent the introduction of this Bill.