PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. 233 
of the most tremendous scourges which could affect a thickly 
populated land like ours ? 
Mr.Loive said that, in the absence of notice of the honorable 
gentleman’s intention to put this question, he could only 
say that the Board of Trade had put themselves in com- 
munication with the Foreign Office in order to obtain from 
our consuls all possible information on this subject, and had 
also communicated with the Board of Customs, from which 
they had received assurances that they were perfectly awake 
to the danger which threatened the cattle of this country. 
As a proof of that, they had stopped one animal and had 
had it killed on suspicion of its being affected with this 
disease. 
Lord Naas thought that the answer of the right honorable 
gentleman was most unsatisfactory. In 1744, this murrain 
was introduced into England by two calves from Holland, 
and the consequence was the destruction of 40,000 head of 
cattle in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, and almost as 
many in Cheshire. The disease raged with scarcely any 
intermission for eight years, and visited nearly every part of 
the grazing districts of England. The disease was of a 
most contagious character. It had been known to be carried 
in the clothes of persons who attended upon the cattle, and 
there had never been a case in which contact had occurred 
without the disease being communicated. The permitting a 
cargo of cattle to land, one of which was affected with this 
disorder, must have resulted from the grossest ignorance, or 
from want of instructions on the part of the officials. The 
practice of every State in Europe was at once to prohibit the 
importation of cattle from countries where disease had 
broken out, and all who had studied the subject were of 
opinion that it was the duty of our Government to adopt 
the same system. He sincerely hoped, therefore, that mea- 
sures would be taken without delay to prevent the extension 
of this dreadful scourge. 
Mr . Pache said this was a subject which concerned every 
consumer of meat in this country as well as the graziers 
and breeders of cattle, and the answers given on that even- 
ing and the evening before by the Vice-President of the 
Board of Trade were most unsatisfactory. Since live cattle 
had been admitted duty free under Sir R. Peel’s measures 
there had been a very considerable increase in the fatal dis- 
eases to which cattle were liable, and the agricultural interest 
had been extremely patient under the losses to which it was 
thereby exposed. They knew that a shipload of diseased 
cattle had been dispersed over the country, causing great 
