14 CATTLE DISEASES 



the wilful exposure of animals suffering from Foot and Mouth 

 Disease would get to-day. Nor can we now realise that it 

 was necessary to urge the Government Department in charge 

 of cattle diseases* to adopt such elementary precautions as 

 those set out in the resolutions. Yet it took the Chambers 

 many years to get these precautions adopted. 



On 18th June, 1867, it was agreed to circulate to all the 

 provincial Chambers a petition to Parliament, praying for 

 the immediate slaughter or effectual quarantine of imported 

 animals, with the result that a large number of petitions 

 were presented to the House of Commons before the third 

 reading of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Bill. The 

 petition urged that all fat stock should be killed at the pert 

 of debarkation, and that store stock should be subject to 

 sufficient quarantine before being moved inland. The 

 Council reiterated this opinion by a resolution on 5th Novem- 

 ber, 1867, and sent a deputation to the Home Secretary to 

 lay this resolution before him. The deputation was, however, 

 postponed in consequence of an intimation in the Queen's 

 Speech at the opening of Parliament, and of a declaration 

 by the Duke of Marlborough (Lord President of the Council) 

 as to the introduction of a Bill which promised to realise what 

 the Council had demanded. 



This measure (the Metropolitan Foreign Cattle Market 

 Bill) was not quite satisfactory, for it was criticised at the 

 second annual general meeting in December, 1867, and 

 witnesses were sent to give evidence in support of their views 

 before the Select Committee to which the Bill was referred. 

 The Annual Report, dated 9th December, 1868, says : 

 The Council '* hailed with satisfaction Lord Robert Montagu's 

 amendments providing that the regulations for cattle import- 

 ation should be made general." Efforts were made to support 

 the Bill, not as a satisfactory measure, but as one step toward 

 the attainment of security against imported disease. A 

 decisive Parliamentary majority was obtained in favour of 

 the principle, but weak and imperfect as it was, and too 



* The Diseases of Animals Acts were administered by the Privy 

 Council until 1 889 



