PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. 
515 
it had been placed upon the permanent civil list with, he supposed, a claim 
to pension and compensation in the event of their office being abolished. 
Now, he asked, what had this department done for the kingdom ? It had 
not made a single suggestion for getting rid of the cattle plague, except the 
rude ones of isolation and slaughter. It had certainly prepared one report 
in three years, but it had not even solved the problem of inoculation as a 
remedy. The maximum inconvenience was inflicted upon the owners of stock 
with the minimum of good results. They had to collect the statistics of the 
metropolitan markets, but that was done already by the clerks of the market, 
and appeared weekly in The Times. They had also to record the landing of 
foreign stock, but that was already done by the Customs, to whom, and not 
to this department of the Privy Council, was due the credit of keeping out 
the rinderpest, if it had been kept out. They had certainly sent out to the 
local authorities forms to be filled up where any cases of pleuro-pneumonia, 
foot-and-mouth disease, or scab had occurred ; but if he might judge by his 
own experience last year, when he moved for a return of these cases, they 
did not appear even to be tabulated by the department, though they occasioned 
the country great expense. Now he had heard, and he hoped it was not 
true, that the law officer of the Crown had received 1000/. a year for drawing 
up these orders. If that were so the duties must be pretty well a 
sinecure. [Mr. Porster was understood to intimate that no such pay- 
ment was made.] Last evening they voted in Committee 12,000/. 
towards the expenses of this department, which, exclusive of law, stationery, 
and printing, had cost something like 75,000/., or about 100,000/. in all. 
The secretary was stated in the Estimates to receive 800/. a year, but a foot- 
note would show that he really received 1000/., 200/. additional being given 
him for “ personal allowance.” The chief clerk, who a short time since had 
been in receipt of 200/., rising by 20/. a year, had made a sudden jump to 
600/. Of this he did not complain, for the gentleman, as he knew, was a 
very good fellow, and one who, having married a relative of his, he was 
glad to be able to congratulate upon the possession of a good berth. (A 
laugh.) But he maintained that Professor Simonds at the head of the 
office, and with a staff of ten clerks under him, would have done the work 
much better, and have commanded the confidence of the public. His right 
hon. friend had, no doubt, made the best he could with the establishment, 
but he was astonished that the Chancellor of the Exchequer of an economical 
Government had not laid his hand upon it, and saved 5000/. or 6000/. a year 
out of the sum voted for the expenses — a thing he might easily have done 
without impairing its efficiency. It was, he contended, utterly absurd to 
have included the foot-and-mouth disease in the Contagious Diseases 
(Animals) Act. Such a course would never, he felt sure, have been recom- 
mended by Professor Simonds, and it could only have been done by the 
department, for had it not been included, their occupation would have been 
gone. After the cessation of the cattle plague the Veterinary Department 
sent out complex forms to the different inspectors, accompanied by books 
full of instructions, but they did not take the trouble, and they had not the 
courtesy, to tell the local authorities what they had done. Eor some four 
weeks the veterinary surgeons worked away and incurred expense in search- 
ing for cases of foot-and-mouth disease, but to this day they had never been 
paid, for the first act of the quarter sessions was to cancel their appoint- 
ments, and to send them for their remuneration to the department that had 
sent the instructions. The veterinary surgeons, however, had never received 
anything for what they had done. There could be no doubt that the foot- 
and-mouth disease had been a costly thing to the nation, and ruinous to the 
farmer. For two or three years after the disappearance of the cattle plague 
we saw none of it, and we began to hope that we should manage to keep 
