Punch (74.1878)

[June 8, 1878.

PUNCH'S ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

" ' Conference or Congress coming !' I cry—
' A full and fair one—by-and-by.'
If you ask me when, and where,
It's to meet—I answer ' There !'—
Where 'tis best for Bismakck's bile,
For ' when'—well, not this yet awhile."

Such is the upshot of the week's rumours. A little more confident
and couleur de rose to-day, a little more dashed with doubt and
darker to-morrow, but on the whole indicating-, as the Marquis of
Salisbtjby (Monday, May 27) told Lord Cabdwell, in the Lords,
"That the prospects of a Congress being held have materially
improved." Still, it is only a case of prospects and pour-parlers.
When it comes to meeting, of course " poor parlours " (as an aban-
doned correspondent dares to suggest to us) " will be exchanged
for sumptuous drawing-rooms " suited for the sittings of Plenipo-
tentiaries who are setting about the most important act of diplomatic
cuisinerie since the Congress of Vienna re-arranged the menu of
Europe. Such acts should not be rapid acts, or it will be the worse
for the actors, as witness the Treaty of San Stefano—ominously
named from the protomartyr, as we see now that all Europe has
taken to throw stones at it. So delay is not dangerous.

Does the Duke of Richmond's Cattle Bill go farther than is neces-
sary for stamping out the plagues of rinderpest, pleuro-pneumonia,

and foot-and-mouth disease ? Does it aim at stamping out a quite
different plague—that which plagues protectionist home cattle-
breeders and dealers—the importation of foreign cattle ? There is
such a suspicion, and perhaps at least a shadow of a shade of a
ground for it. As the Bill stands, all fat cattle coming from
certain regions of Europe are to be pitilessly slaughtered on land-
ing. It vests in the Privy Council a discretion in the case of cattle
home-bred, or imported from Canada and the United States. The
Marquis of Eipon deprecates this distinction as invidious. What's
sauce for foreign beef should, he thinks, be sauce for British; the
discretion which can deal with British and American stock may
be trusted to deal also with Swedish, Norwegian, Spanish, and
Portuguese.

Norway has had no disease ; yet the fat Norse ox must be slam
as soon as he sets foot on British ground. It is all very well to say
not many Norse oxen are imported. But the effect on price of such
restrictions is not to be calculated by a rule of proportion. The
Bill savours of protection. It is openly charged with tending
to raise the price of meat, to the gain of the British breeder,
and the loss of the British feeder. The Marquis moved a Clause
giving the Privy Council a general discretion to relax the rule of
slaughter on landing.

The Duke, as President of the Council, best knows how far its