273 
Contagious Diseases of Live Stock. 
In giving my evidence before the Select Committee of the 
House of Commons which sat in 1873 I submitted the details of 
that estimate, and, comparing the numbers of cattle, sheep, and 
swine in the county with the statistical returns of their numbers 
in Great Britain, showed that the comparative estimate of loss 
sustained by the nation amounted to 13,071,392?. During the 
same year the value of the cattle, sheep, and swine imported into 
Great Britain from foreign countries, according to the returns of 
the Board of Trade, was 4,006,582?., being only slightly in excess 
of one-third of the estimated losses sustained in Great Britain, 
independent of those in Ireland. 
The Committee in their report said : — “ Evidence of much 
weight, both by agriculturists and professional witnesses, was 
given, tending to show that such enactments as would be re- 
quired to exterminate foot-and-mouth disease would meet with 
such strong opposition that they would be difficult, if not im- 
possible, to carry out.” They therefore recommended “ that the 
Privy Council should cease to issue orders for the check of this 
disease.” 
The late Mr. James Howard, in his evidence before the Select 
Committee of the House of Commons which sat in 1877, on 
being questioned respecting the 1872 visitation of foot-and- 
mouth disease in Bedfordshire, said, “at the lowest estimate it 
entailed a loss of 60,000?. upon his county.” As the area of 
Bedfordshire is only a trifle more than half that of Hereford- 
shire, and as the number of cattle in that county are considerably 
less than half, and the sheep only about half of those in Here- 
fordshire, his estimated losses strikingly confirmed the estimate 
which I submitted, and which at the time was considered by 
the Committee to be too high. 
Although the evidence given before the several Committees 
was very conflicting, it tended to educate the country. The 
evils arising from the numerous local authorities appointed to 
administer the Acts of 1869 and 1870 were clearly shown. 
The action of the ninety-two county authorities, who were 
more conversant with the losses imposed upon the nation by 
the diseases, was frustrated by the 330 borough authorities, 
who were induced to look with a jealous eye upon any measure 
calculated to interfere with the trade of the country, and all 
who were connected with the foreign cattle trade were eager 
in their endeavour to show that any interference with their 
trade would enhance the cost of meat to the consumer. Poli- 
ticians, too, who had struggled to obtain Free Trade in meat and 
corn, stoutly maintained that the object was Protection by a 
side wind, not giving themselves time to consider the evils 
