§ EARL STANHOPEwished to call the attention of his noble Friend the President of the Council to the unsatisfactory nature of the information supplied by the Cattle Plague Returns issued by the Veterinary Department of the Privy Council; for, while these Returns seemed to announce a diminution at present in the number of cases, in one week 200 inspectors and in another 250 had failed to send in their Returns. The publication of imperfect Returns was calculated to give rise to erroneous impressions, and to hopes that might not be realized. Under these circumstances, it would be well either to make some rule which would secure weekly reports from all the inspectors, or to postpone the publication of the reports for a longer interval than a week.
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, the Returns which were wanting were those from the infected districts in Yorkshire and Cheshire, where the amount of work devolving upon the inspectors was at times so overwhelming as to prevent them, with all the will in the world, from forwarding the Returns in time. He feared that the course suggested by the noble Earl would hardly prove in practice any improvement upon the present system. But the completed Returns, he hoped, would be in their Lordships' hands before the end of the week.