HL Deb 22 March 1866 vol 182 cc727-8
THE EARL OF LICHFIELD

asked his noble Friend the President of the Council, Whether it is true that the Cattle Plague has been re-introduced into several parts of the Metropolis by means of a cargo of animals imported from Holland?

EARL GRANVILLE

I am sorry to say there is no doubt whatever that within the last day or so a cargo of Dutch cattle arrived, affected as the noble Earl has stated. I am told that the disease was not sufficiently visible, being only in a state of incubation, and that the Custom House authorities did not detect its existence, but admitted the cattle into the metropolis. I may add that information having been received yesterday by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs that proper precautions were not taken in Holland for the prevention of diseased cattle coming to this country, Her Majesty's Ministers have asked Her Majesty to appoint a Council to be held this week with a view to the issue of an Order prohibiting the importation of Cattle from Holland until further notice.

LORD DENMAN

had been anxious to address a few words to their Lordships on this subject. He observed that the clause in the Cattle Plague Bill to prevent the removal of cattle by railway was the best part of it, for he was sure that the "Plague"— Mobilitate viget viresq: acquirit eundo. He had read, in the morning of the day on which he spoke, all the Orders in Council from 1745 to 1756, and he found that whenever the precautions taken were relaxed, that the disease broke out again. He thought the late Orders in Council inconsistent in varying the definition of the word animal, which, however, at the season of the year when it took place, was not of much importance. He hoped that the Government would have the firmness to establish a dead-meat market and a quarantine of fourteen days for store-stock, and immediate slaughter at the port of disembarkation for fat stock imported from abroad.