The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-19 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sir.,—As Parliament will assemble in little more
than a fortnight I request the publication of the
annexed correspondence in your columns, in order
that the offer of her Majesty's Government may in
the interval receive due consideration.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
JAMES KAY-SIIUTTLEWORTIL
38, Glocester-square, llyde-park, W., Jan. 17.

" 38, Glocester-square, Hyde-park, W., Jan. 6.
" Sir,—l beg to submit to you, for your considera-
tion and that of her Majesty's Government, the en-
closed memoranda as to a scheme of national insur-
ance against losses from the cattle plague, which the
rapid increase of the ravages of this pest appears to
me to render expedient. _

" In the sketch of the details of a bill which I
submit the Government is asked to do no other
thing than to diffuse the burden of losses from the
cattle plague over the farming lands of the whole of
England, without taxing any other property, or
making any compensation from the public taxes or
incurring any subsidiary risk, and likewise to diffuse
this burden over a series of years.
" The principle on which the first part of the scheme
rests is that of a national insurance, whereby the
risk is transferred from a limited area to the whole
of England, and is thus equalised, being greatly
mitigated in counties in which it would otherwise
be an intolerable burden.

" The principle on which a loan is proposed is the
same as that on which loans are granted for great
municipal and other public works of permanent ad-
vantage. It is proposed to spread the loss arising
from a great national calamity over a series of years,
in the same way that the charge of some vast outlay
for waterworks, or the arterial drainage of a city is
diffused, lest it should be an insupportable burden
to the ratepayers who sanctioned the expenditure.
This principle was applied to the relief of the cotton
districts during the recent American War, with
great benefit, in giving a stimulus to the outlay of
capital and the employment of labour. This inter-
ference of the Government is gratefully remembered
by all classes in Lancashire.

" The measure is submitted in consequence of a
growing conviction of the inadequacy of all private
efforts within a limited area to provide by a system
of mutual assurance against extensive ruin among
farmers, and a consequent grievous public embar-
rassment.—l am, &c., J
" J. P. KAY-SHUTTLEIVORTH.
" The Right Hon. Sir G. Grey."

" Whitehall, Jan. 16.
" Sir,—l am directed by Secretary Sir George
Grey to inform you that, having referred your letter
of the 6th inst. and its enclosure, as to a scheme of
national insurances against losses from cattle plague
for the consideration of the Lords Commissioners
of her Majesty's Treasury, he has received in reply
the letter of which a copy is enclosed.
" With reference to the first part of your proposal
—namely, that the burden of the loss incurred by
the cattle plague should be diffused over the whole
of England, her Majesty's Government are of opinion
that even were this expedient very serious practical
difficulties would be found in attempting to give
effect to the proposal ; nor if the attempt were made
is there any sufficient reason why the scheme should
be limited to England, and not include other parts
of the United Kingdom.
" The Government could not properly undertake.
to superintend or control the machinery which would
be required for the management of a National In-
surance Association. They think, moreover, that
the necessary result of such a scheme would be an
injurious interference with country and other local
associations, which are far better adapted than a
national association to insure vigilance and efficiency
in the administration of the funds applicable to the
purpose of such association, combined with a stronger
interest in the adoption of the most effectual means
for checking the disease. Tier Majesty's Govern.

PRICE.... 4d.
STAMPED sd.

meat, however, are of opinion that the :sound part
of your proposal—namely, that the loss should be
diffused over a series of years, is well entitled to
favourable consideration. If they should have reason
to believe that such a proposal would be generally
acceptable to the interests specially concerned, her
Majesty's Government would be prepared to ask the
sanction of Parliament to a bill authorising, under
certain conditions, the advance of money from the
public funds by way of loan upon adequate security
to county or other local associations, with a view to
spread the charge in respect of losses from the cattle
plague over a short term of years, in cases where the
amount of such loss has been considerable.
" The same principle might be applied to indivi-
dual landowners, if they desire to avail themselves
of it in respect of losses incurred on their estates,
either by themselves or their tenants.—l have the
honour to be, sir, your obedientservant,

" " Sir J. Kay-Shuttleworth. H. WADDINGTON."

" " Treasury Chambers, Jan. 11.
Sir,—The Lords Commissioners of her Ma-
jesty's Treasury have had before them your letter of
yesterday's date, enclosing one from Sir J. K. Shut-
tleworth, forwarding a memorandum as to a scheme
of national insurance against losses from the cattle
plague, and their lordships desire me to acquaint
you, for the information of Secretary Sir G. Grey,
that they conceive that the inquiry addressed to
them officially refers to the second part of Sir J. K.
Shuttleworth's proposal, and that it would perhaps
be going beyond their province were they to give an
opinion on the question as to whether the liability
for losses by cattle plague ought to be extended to
the whole farming lands of the country, or placed
on any other than a voluntary basis ; but their lord-
ships do not hesitate to say that in cases where any
machinery which may have the approval of her Ma-
jesty's Government shall have been put in action
for ascertaining, checking, and compensating, in
whole or in part, such losses, and where it shall ap-
pear that the amount of such losses is too great to
be reasonably expected to be at once discharged,
they are of opinion that public funds might properly
be made available by way of loan (in default of any
other means of meeting the emergency) upon ade-
quate security, with a view of spreading the charge
over a longer or shorter term of years.—l am, sir,
your obedient servant,

"IL Waddington, E" H. C. E. CHILDERS.
sq." •

" 38, Glocester-square, Hyde-park, Jan. 17.
" Sir,—l have the honour to acknowledge the re-
ceipt of your letter dated the 16th inst., conveying
to me the opinion of her Majesty's Government on
my proposals with respect to an Act of Parliament
and a loan, to enable agriculturists to aid each other
in sustaining the burden of losses from the cattle
plague, by diffusing those losses over all insurers,
and over a series of years.
" kshould not trouble you with any remark did
I not think it probable, from one passage in the
letter from the Secretary to the Treasury (' or placed
on any other than a voluntary basis'), that their
Lordships had, from an omission in my letter to Sir
George Grey, conceived that I had proposed a com-
pulsory distribution of the average loss from the
cattle plague over the farming lands of England.
" In my letter to Sir George Grey I ought to have
inserted the limitation, carefully provided in the
scheme of national insurance which I submitted—
viz., that this charge was intended to be distributed
only over the farming lands of owners who con-
sented to the insurance of their own or their tenant's
stock, and in proportion to the number of stock so
insured. The initiation of this insurance was to be
a voluntary act, done with the consent of the owner
of the land, and in no degree compulsory. The
stock-breeding districts, like Aberdeenshire, Craven,
Westmoreland, and the dales of the Pennine Chain,
might easily avoid the purchase of any store stock,
isolate themselves, and decline to insure on thepre-
sumption that their risk would continue to be below
the average rate, as the mortality in their herds now
is. Nor need such voluntary national insurance in-
terfere with any existing association, which may
have obtained sufficient confidence among farmers
to maintain an independent existence. But I should
be much astonished, considering the gravity and un-
certainty of the risk, and the general want of con-
fidence in such associations, if any oue of them
should prove to be so established that it would be
unwilling to merge itself in a well-ordered national
scheme.

"It was not until many counties had declared
that their efforts to found associations for mutual
assurance had failed that I ventured to submit to
^Wlfkif,--ilk au-AA-Dr" i-arrtafacCrerimuize,o4,
removing legal difficulties and disabilities and pro-
viding an administrative machinery) enable agricul-
turists more effectually to combine for the voluntary
distribution of the average loss from the cattle
plague over the farming lands of insurers, and like-
wise over a series of years by means of a loan
secured by a rentcharge, to be assessed like the
Property and Income-tax on the owner and occupier
in fixed proportions.
" I asked the Government to take no other re-
sponsibility than the passage through Parliament of
this Act, providing the requisite legal powers and
administrative machinery, which need not neces-
sarily be that of any existing department. But I
also sought, by the action of the Government and
the sanction of Parliament, to inspire confidence as
to the insurance of stock which the general failure
of cattle insurance associations through a long series
of years has undermined.

I did not enter into the details by which care-
lessness, waste, and fraud might be reduced to a
minimum. The safeguards would obviously consist
in a skilful adjustment of local interests in the Act
of Parliament, insuring the utmost vigilance, and
even, as in Aberdeenshire, extending to measures
for the suppression of the plague.
" I have only further to thank Sir George Grey
for the honour which he has done me in submitting
my proposals to the consideration of her Majesty's
Government and for the courtesy of the reply.—l
have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
"JAMES KAY-SHUTTLEWORTIL
"H. Waddington, Esq., Home-office."