The Price of Meat and Restrictions on the Cattle Trade 



177 



the wants of England. It is true their opera- 

 tion had well-nigh been fatal to the best in- 

 terests of the country. The destruction of 

 cattle in England during the cattle plague 

 cannot be repaired by years' importation of 

 foreign stock. Had Ireland fallen a victim 

 to that calamity, she would have been the 

 most prostrate country in the world ; but 

 these laws have been made and cannot or 

 ought not to be changed: they form but a 

 link in the great chain of Free Trade policy, 

 which, promulgated in the sense of justice, 

 and accepted in the spirit of reciprocity, ex- 

 tends the commerce and increases the wealth 

 of the nation. Yet the loss of 2,000,000 

 annually in Ireland demands not the less 

 serious consideration. The Government has 

 made great efforts to stay the spread of dis- 

 ease, and has wisely put on restrictions, to 

 control abuses. I am not one of those persons 

 who, looking from a narrow, interested view 

 of this question, would seek to sweep away 

 all restrictions. I am of opinion that most 

 of these restrictions are wisely and prudently 

 made. The slaughter of foreign animals on 

 their arrival was a great measure to save the 

 stock of this country ; while it gives the 

 people the benefit of the supply. The check 

 to the exhibiting of diseased cattle in fairs 

 and markets, and a reasonable control over 

 their being travelled on highways, promote 

 confidence, and carry with them a conviction 

 of their justice as well as their necessity. 

 The requirement of giving notice to the 

 authorities of the existence of disease in any 

 herd or flock is right, and ought to be en- 

 forced. It is not my intention here to re- 

 view such Orders of Council as I may think 

 useful, or such as I may deem oppressive. 

 It is my object to shew the total defect in 

 the system which makes laws, in view of the 

 general good, regardless of individual losses, 

 and rendering penal any infringement of 

 those laws, while the origin of that in- 

 fringement does not rest upon the party 

 punished. The offence is consequent upon 

 causes over which the offender has no con- 

 trol ; yet no means of escape is even hinted 

 at in any of those Council Orders. If the 

 stock-owner detects the appearance of disease 



VOL. III. 



in one of his largest herds, what is he to do ? 

 The animal at this stage may be worth ;^2o 

 or £z°- The owner is bound to give notice 

 to the authorities, and is soon informed that 

 he cannot remove or isolate that animal, 

 lest the disease should be spread during its 

 removal along a road, or to any place ; and 

 each removal will cost him a fine of ;^2o. It 

 naturally suggests itself to him, if the removal 

 of the animal infects the air, and spreads dis- 

 ease to cattle in remote places, what must 

 be the consequence in the herd with which 

 this animal is in contact, and is not destruc- 

 tion inevitable ? Yet not one of these Council 

 Orders suggests a remedy ; but assuming such 

 a relaxation of these Orders as would enable 

 the owner to remove a diseased animal for 

 the purpose of isolation, this animal, in the 

 early stage of attack, may be of the best 

 human food, but no power rests with the 

 owner to dispose of it. He may try 

 treatment, unskilled treatment, which is 

 usually fatal, and the animal after some days' 

 trouble, cost, and inconvenience, yields 

 to the disease, and is rendered wholly 

 useless. Thus the losses referred to 

 by Mr Baldwin are incurred. Men are para- 

 lyzed in the free action of the trade — high 

 prices for meat exist ; yet the effects of these 

 high prices are not felt, as they should, by 

 stock-owners. Beef at this moment is £,1 per 

 cwt. above the average price of some years past. 

 Yet the whole of that increase has been given 

 to the increased price of lean animals. The 

 effort of stock-owners to produce an increased 

 supply of meat is not wanting, as is apparent 

 from the fact that the entire increase in the 

 price of beef is given in the case of calves, 

 £z tO;^4 being now given, while los. to 15s. 

 was formerly the price. There is one effort 

 more to increase the supply of stock in this 

 country, and I believe it is capable of great 

 expansion, and that is the production of 

 calves, which involves another and distinct 

 branch of the cattle trade, which is known as 

 the dairy business. One may naturally ask, 

 with ;^3 or ;£^ for a calf to begin with, and 

 IS. 4d. to IS. Sd. per lb. for butter, why this 

 mode of occupation is not mimensely ex- 

 tended ? The true answer is, that dairy 



M 



