As^riailtural Piece- Work and Cattle Disease Legislation 



419 



it gives a total loss of ;z^95,ooo in the 

 first instance to owners of stock, and 

 in the second place to the consumers. 

 Yet some people say that the Act is no sort 

 of hardship or oppression to the owners of 

 stock ! Some of you, however, must have 

 found that it is so. How curious and per- 

 verse is the Act with regard to pleuro-pneu- 

 monia ! You may take a bullock in the last 

 stage of disease and walk him to the nearest 

 slaughter-house ; but bullocks that have been 

 herded with the unfortunate animal, that are 

 perishing in a marsh, and that may be per- 

 fectly sound, cannot according to the strict 

 letter of the law be moved. Then take the 

 case of foot-and-mouth disease. Mr Veter- 

 inary-Surgeon Smith, when he sees going 

 upon the hill two or three cattle affected 

 with it, immediately stops and removes them, 

 but he cannot detain the remainder. Is there 

 any act so stupid as this ? It really dissemi- 

 nates the disease, and does nothing that I 

 can see towards preventing it, except that it 

 imposes certain fines and penalties upon a 

 few unfortunate owners of stock. With a law 

 like this those Avho have to administer it 

 really do not know what to do. Now and 

 then a man is brought up and convicted in a 

 very heavy penalty — and for what ? We find 

 that one gentleman who had not given notice 

 that his cattle were suffering from foot-and- 

 mouth disease was fined ;^5i, that another 

 for not giving notice respecting two diseased 



bullocks was fined ;^i5, that another for 

 not returning 78 sheep that were diseased 

 was fined ^26, and that another who neg- 

 lected to give notice of six affected cattle was 

 fined £,10. A man in North Norfolk, who 

 had a large flock that were starving, moved 

 them for some distance along the road, as he 

 was almost bound to do, was fined ;^40. It 

 is all very well for gentlemen at the Quarter 

 Sessions — as a noble lord did —to say that 

 if you do not enforce the Act rigorously, you 

 cannot expect it to do any good. But the 

 cases I have quoted shew excessive severit)^ 

 It would be much better to inflict a nominal 

 fine for an offence which, after all, if it is an 

 offence, is so slight a one that it might almost 

 be passed over, because when notice is given 

 to the police, the policeman tells the inspector, 

 and there it ends, for no further action is 

 taken. Instead of that, in my opinion, the 

 man who has disease upon his farm ought to 

 give notice of it to his neighbours, who are 

 the people most interested. If there had 

 been a clause passed, as I suggested, provid- 

 ing that a man should tell his neighbours,, 

 and not the policeman or inspector, it would 

 have done a great deal of good. I therefore 

 think that you will agree with me that the 

 time has arrived when we want at least an 

 inquiry into the action of this Act of Parlia- 

 ment, and also as to whether the whole of 

 our legislation, as far as regards our cattle, 

 cannot be improved and modified. 



GERM A N A GRICUL TURA L LABO URER S. 



A CORRESPONDENT of the Scotsman 

 gives an account of the condition 

 of the agricultural labourers in Germany. 

 He says : — 



A very large proportion of the German 

 peasantry are indeed in a much better con- 

 dition than those in Britain are, or are likely 

 to be, for a great part of the land is pos- 

 sessed and cultivated by the peasantry them- 

 selves. In the meantime I will speak more 



particularly in reference to those known in Eng- 

 land as agricultural labourers, those that are 

 dependent upon other people for employment. 

 In many respects they are farin advance of the 

 British agricultural labourers, alike politically 

 and socially. There is here no obnoxious 

 distinction of rights and privileges between 

 country and town. The same universal 

 suffrage exists in both. But aright which lie 

 values more than that of a voice in tlie 



