Present State of the Cattle Plague. 499 



1746, the second year of tlie great plague. Dr. Broldesby wi-ote : 

 " One beast goes — all sooner or later go. (The plague) will probably 



abate in a short time As an exotic plant, it will flourish, 



dwindle, and die." On the 12th of March an Order in Council says: 

 " If not timely prevented, it (the plague) will end in the destruction 

 of all cattle." In 1747, the third year of the great plague, the Council 

 say the same thing, and complain of the apathy of the local authorities, 

 and again it is said that the disease has lived through all the seasons. 

 In 1748, the fourth year of the great plague, the disease had broken 

 out afresh in several places — that is to say, it had returned to several 

 places. In 1749, the fifth year of the great plague, it is "all over 

 England." In December of that year the Council say: "It rages 

 with a malignity and violence little short of the first outbreak." In 

 1750, the sixth year of the great plague, in the month of November, 

 it is recorded that the justices have great difficulty in enforcing the 

 orders. They have also great difficulty from gentlemen who hope 

 all things, who fear all things, and who believe all things. How 

 curious is the tendency of history to repeat itself! " Grass is rotting 

 on the ground for want of mouths to eat it. No one will buy hay : 

 there are no rents ; stalls are fouled," and then comes this observa- 

 tion, "'Tis a great pity they had not killed each beast." In 1751, 

 the seventh year of the great plague, the disease showed itself in 

 Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Lancashire, Wilts, Monmouthshire, Glou- 

 cestershire, Dorset, Bristol, and again in London, as well as in other 

 places. In 1752, the eighth year of the great plague, the cattle are 

 being shot by order of Quarter Sessions, and paid for out of the 

 county stock (or rate) ; and so on to the very end. And at the very 

 end is this curious and suggestive record : " A never-failing remedy 

 has been discovered by E. Venables Vernon, Esq." 



We have also further important evidence in Mr. Barron's most 

 valuable and suggestive report on the cattle plague in Holland and 

 Belgium, to which I have already alluded. From that we learn 

 that the disease in Holland was imported from England in the month 

 of July, that it came from the Metropolitan Market, that they left 

 the matter too much to the local authorities, that they sent tainted 

 cattle to market, and that the disease spread far and wide. Holland 

 thus became completely overrun, whilst the population was impatient 

 of restrictions, and even resisted them by force. Tainted meat, or 

 meat repulsive to the eye, was openly sold. The coimtry was in 

 a deplorable condition ; the disease is not likely to be rooted out 

 for years to come, and the land has gone down to one-half its value — 

 that is, half its rental value, I presume. 



Contrast with this what has been done in the neighbouring country 

 of Belgium. The Belgians at once closed their frontier, and stamped 

 out the disease with signal success. They said the only way is to 

 kill the disease in the germ. They took an inventory of stock — 

 a thing which we ought to have done. They had recourse to the 

 system of home slaughter. All imports of ruminants were forbidden. 

 The thing is stifled in the germ. The Minister stimulates his subor- 

 dinates. He says : " In such a calamity as this every one must do his 



