Our Government is evidently inclined to protect the home meat
trade, and with it the rents of the owners of land. The Special Committee appointed to inquire into the prevalence of cattle plague and other similar diseases has reported in favour of the total prohibition of the import of cattle from Russia, Germany, and Belgium, the almost total prohibition of the import from Holland, and the concentration of all control over the matter in the Committee of Privy Council. The farmers, of course, approve this highly, and delegates from the Farmers' Club and the Central Chamber of Agriculture waited on Thum- day on the Duke of Richmond, to say so. The Duke was de- lighted to see them, quite agreed with them, and stated that 'Government would embody the report of the Special Committee 'in a Bill. It had much better prohibit the import of live cattle at once. Then there would be no trouble, the farmers would `have a monopoly, and science would avenge the consumer by devising means by which the whole world could send us its surplus ,of dead meat at sixpence a pound. Moreover, the entrance of epidemic disease, which it was stated positively diminishes the stock in the country from year to year, would be prevented, without making invidious distinctions between one country and another.
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