parliamentary intelligence, 227 
there were any minutes relating thereto; and, if so, whether he 
would lay copies thereof upon the table of the House; and 
whether the Government had any, and, if so, what proof that 
the animals in the Ontario’s cargo which were affected were 
American and not Canadian cattle. 
Mr. Chaplin asked the noble lord whether Her Majesty’s 
Government had received any information as to the outbreak of 
disease among cattle in the United States of America ; how far 
and to what extent it was true as reported that contagious 
pleuro-pneumonia was prevalent at the present time in that 
country; whether Her Majesty’s Government were satisfied that 
the general sanitary condition of cattle therein was such as to 
afford reasonable security against the importation of diseased 
animals therefrom into this country; and, if not, whether he 
would explain why the Order in Council exempting American 
cattle from the operation of the provisions of the fifth schedule 
of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act relating to foreign 
animals—viz. “They are not to be moved alive out of the 
wharf,”—was not suspended immediately, instead of remaining in 
force till the 3rd of March. 
Mr. Mundella also asked whether the noble lord would state 
the number of live cattle, sheep, and pigs imported from Canada 
and the United States respectively in the first and second half 
years of 1878, with the number found suffering from contagious 
disease; whether he would also state the circumstances under 
which the recent Order in Council was issued requiring the 
slaughter of all American cattle at the port of debarkation, and 
whether there was any probability of such Order being speedily 
withdrawn; and whether he would lay all the correspondence re¬ 
flating thereto upon the table of the House. 
Lord G. Hamilton —The facts upon which the Order in Council 
was made are very simple. Dor some time past the Privy Council 
have from different quarters received intimations that there was 
in the United States a considerable amount of disease among 
cattle and other domestic animals. I have in my hand a report, 
or rather a message, from the President of the United States 
communicating to the Senate in February, 1878, information in 
relation to the diseases prevailing among domestic animals. In 
the Appendix, page 144, of this Report, are the opinions of the 
different men of authority and experience upon the subject. I 
will read a few lines from Professor James Law, one of the most 
eminent of those consulted. He says, page 144:— 
“ Lung Fever.—This is the most insidious of all plagues, and 
this malady we harbour on our eastern sea-board, where it is 
gradually, but almost imperceptibly, invading new territory. . . . 
There is abundant evidence of the existence of this affection in 
Eastern New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, 
Virginia, and the district of Columbia. (See ‘Government Report 
on Diseases of Cattle,’ 1871, and many instances in current agri¬ 
cultural journals.) Within the last year I have been advised in 
