The Express.
London, England, 1857-07-16 00:00:00

interference with the freedom of trade in cattle at

home. The same conclusion holds good, they think,
in the case of the importation of live stock from
foreign countries. They therefore advise that the
Murrain Bill should be dropped, accompanying this
advice with serious exhortations to all concerned to
watch very closely the health of all animals sold in
the country, or brought into it from abroad. No-
thing can be graver than the tone of this exhorta-
tion, which is in itself a mere matter of course.
Advice and entreaties of that sort arc never of any
practical use. The mistakes made are by persons
who do not believe in the danger generally, nor
perceive it in the cue of their own bargains;
and the chances are that they have not been reached
by the warning at all. Those who have known any
of the wildest specimens of Yorkshire graziers can

judge whether the country should depend for its
meat supply on the foresight and prudence of such
men—any one of whom may do more mischief than
Queen, Lords, and Commons can repair ; and no ono
who has witnessed the arrival and landing of cattle
in our eastern ports will have much faith in the
effect of mere verbal cautions—though they may be
as solemn in their tone as the impressions and ex-
pressions of tho Committee. We are aware, how-
ever, that the difficulties of the case arc very great,
especially in the control of the home traffic. If it
is the fact that foreign cattle supply no more
than from ono to two _ per cent of our con-

gumption, we should hive thought it prac-
ticable to hold a check over the method
of importation till the danger im completely over,
that danger being nothing less than the loss of 90
per cent. of all the live stock in the country, if the
murrain is once introduced. Whether such a mur-
rain is to be apprehended at all is another question.
The Bill was brought in and the Committee was ap-
pointed on the supposition that there was ground for
alarm. We are not going to discuss that question
of evidence here, nor even to remark farther on the
Report of the Committee ; but to draw attention to
the reasons which warrant the gravity with which
the Committee press their recommendations.
It is a perplexing and a very serious question,
why the natural demand foe animal food in this
country is not met by • doe supply. We are
sot aware that any other article of prime neces•
silty is so slow to increase under so strong • demand.
It is really affecting top among the haymakers this
year, ea it was to go among the harvest labourers
lest year, and set the importance to them of the
extra wagerer gifts they receive, saying that now
they ean7get • bit of meat—that they must live
well while undergoing their extra toil, and yet
have not been able to afford a bit of meat ever since''
it became so dear. This will never do. We can-
not prosper in our farming if our labourers are not
well fed. If happily we are perMtted to escape
the famine which ensues upon a murrain, certain
dames oft us are still very much underfed, and it
is of the utmost importance to discover why this is,
and why, with all our agricultural and grazing im-
provements, meat is not brought within the reach
el every hard-working man. While looking for the
same, we should be trying whether we cannot
remedy the mischief, by new production, and by
economy of our actual resources. We are aware that
the same evil exists in several other countries. In
France, the extraordinary interference of the Go-
vernment with the butchers, and the continuance of
the experiment of establishing a horseflesh diet, cor-
roborate the complaints of all housekeepers of the
dearness of meat. But the greater the deficiency in
other countries, the more mast we depend on our.
selves for increasing the supply of animal food in
our own markets. When we consider that in our
western colonies, and throughout the great American
valleys, where our countrymen are settled by hun-
dreds of thousands, every working man has, unless
he refuses it, beefsteak or pork three times a day,
while our mowers, toiling for fifteen hours a day
this last week, see no meat till they have got their
extra pay, we shall feel that it is our most pressing
business to find out what can be done.
It seems impossible that our improvements in root
cultivation, artificial grasses, irrigation, /ix., should
not bring more meat to market, in some fair proper-
ties is the increase of our population ; but the thing
has set happened yet. Throughout the country, it
ems beef and mutton are ninepencc per pound.
Hessen cannot pay this. The first substitute that
preneahr itself is fish. Now is the time to push this
kind of aliment on rural classes who have never
taken to it while they could get even bacon. The
conditions of the fish supply of the whole country
are much changed. Thirty years ago, it was only
maritime counties (and there only in par-
seasons) that a labourer's family could get
three good fish dinners for sixpence. Farther

in the to
titular sei
111 two or th