PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. 
665 
The magistrates considered it a very bad case indeed, and should there¬ 
fore inflict the full penalty of £5 and costs, or in default, one month’s 
hard labour. 
PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. 
AMERICAN CATTLE IMPORTATION. 
House of Commons, August Qth. 
At the Evening Sitting, on going into Supply, 
Mr. Arnold called attention to the restrictions upon the import of 
foreign animals and the action of the Privy Council under the Act of 
1878. Addressing himself specially to the supply of animals from the 
Western States of America, he contended that no contagious disease 
existed there to justify the requirement of compulsory slaughter at the 
port of landing, and he moved a resolution calling for the modification 
or removal of the restrictions. 
Mr. J. Howard opposed any such relaxation, at least until the United 
States Government had adopted effectual measures to prevent the 
spread of disease, and pointed to the increase in the trade as a proof 
that the restrictions had not injured it. He ridiculed the suggestion 
that the removal of them would increase the breeding of cattle in the 
United States, and he read from the recently-published Blue Book 
numerous extracts proving the existence of disease in the States. 
Sir IV. Barttelot referred to the ravages of the rinderpest as an illus¬ 
tration of the necessity of restrictions ; while Mr. Jacob Bright insisted 
that these restrictions increased the price of the food of the people. 
Colonel Harcourt showed from the reports of our Consuls that disease 
abounded in the States, from which he said our cattle could only obtain 
immunity by restrictions. 
Mr. J. Barclay pointed out that there was one class of farmers who bred 
cattle while another class bought store cattle for the purpose of fattening 
them. The interests of these two classes were in some respects very 
distinct indeed. The breeders desired that very few cattle should be 
imported into this country, whereas the farmers who fattened store 
cattle wanted a good supply of them, so that they might purchase them 
cheap and make a good profit by the fattening of them. He had himself 
visited the Western States of America, and his inquiries went to show 
that disease was practically unknown among the cattle there. Those 
States were better adapted for breeding than for fattening cattle, and he 
believed that, were all vexatious and unnecessary restrictions on tran¬ 
sport removed, animals could be imported into this country and 
fattened by the English farmer at a profit. This was a vital question, 
not only for the farmer, but for the consumer, and he hoped it would 
not be allowed to rest. No doubt there was a considerable amount of 
pleuro-pneumonia in the Eastern States, but to say that no cattle should 
be imported from any part of America because disease existed in certain 
States was like saying that no cattle should be imported from Denmark 
because disease existed in Spain. The truth was that cattle would be 
brought hither from the West without coming within 500 miles ol any 
infected State. He believed sufficient evidence had been adduced to 
justify the Privy Council in, at all events, making inquiry into the pro¬ 
priety of removing the restrictions to which he had referred. It was 
far from his intention to relax those restrictions to any dangerous extent, 
but it was very important, alike to the farmer and consumer in this 
