514 
PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. 
in the shoeing question, it was proposed and seconded by Messrs. 
Greaves and Kenny respectively, that Messrs. Elam, Leather, Harwood, 
Ackroyd, and the Secretary, with power to add to their number, be 
requested to act as a Committee to investigate this subject, and 
report thereon at the next general meeting, which was carried. 
The twenty-ninth meeting of the Association will be held in the 
same place on Friday, 11th August, at 6 p.m. 
In concluding this report, I deeply regret to have to record, that 
the illness of the Essayist, Mr. Roger Charles Parke, terminated 
fatally two days after the meeting. Wm. C. Lawson, 
Honorary Secretary. 
PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. 
CONTAGIOUS DISEASES (ANIMALS) ACT. — June 2nd. 
Mr. Head rose to call attention to the operation of this Act and to the 
recent orders relating to foreign stock, and to move for a Select Committee 
to inquire into the cost, constitution, and working of the Veterinary Depart- 
ment of the Privy Council. Since he had given notice of his motion he had 
slightly altered its terms in consequence of the evidence given before the 
Sanitary Commissioners, and also in consequence of the returns moved for 
in February last by the hon. member for North Staffordshire- not having 
been presented to the House. He begged in the first place to offer an 
apology to Dr. Williams for having spoken of him as the secretary instead of 
the director of a defunct company, and to state his belief that he was a well 
educated gentleman who w r as well fitted to hold his present post, although 
he had received no special training for it. In August, 1865, the present 
Veterinary Department of the Privy Council was established under the 
name of the Cattle Plague Department, and Dr. Williams was appointed 
secretary to it. In its earlier days that department was renowned for its 
expensiveness and for its injustice in attempting to kill the cattle of the 
farmers without awarding them any compensation. In the same year Dr. 
Williams was replaced by Colonel Harness, and the business that the de- 
partment had to get through then was very heavy, there being 5000 or 
6000 cases of cattle plague weekly at that time. At the end of the year 
1866, Colonel Harness was promoted to some other office, and Dr. Williams 
again became the secretary of the department. For the next two or three 
years the office had very little to do, and of the 1500 letters a day, which 
Mr. Helps stated were received then, nearly 1000 contained “ nil” returns 
from inspectors. The Cattle Plague Report, which he knew had been 
nearly completed in 1867, was not presented to that House until 1870, by 
which time it had lost all interest, people having then almost forgotten the 
existence of the cattle plague. During that period but few cases of com- 
pensation had to be determined by the department, but an immense amount 
of trouble was occasioned by the difficulty of forcing a small modicum of 
justice from it. A certain number of statistical papers had been prepared 
by the Department at his suggestion for the use of the Metropolitan Cattle 
Markets Committee which sat in 1868, and since then the Cattle Diseases 
(Animals) Act had been passed, and it might now be taken that the depart- 
ment was a permanent Government office. Although it had been stated that 
the department was not to be regarded as a permanent one, it appeared that 
within the last few months the secretary and three or four of the clerks in 
