Goods liable to quarantine shall be opened and aired, as directed by order in council. Sec. 29, 31.
Forging certificates is felony without benefit of clergy. Sec. 30.
In case it shall happen that any part of Great Britain, Ireland, or the Isles of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark or Man, France, Spain, or Portugal, or the Low Countries, shall at any time be infected with the plague or any other such infectious disease or distemper as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for his Majesty to prohibit and restrain all small boats and vessels under twenty tons, from sailing out of any port until security be first given by the Master in a bond of three hundred pounds, conditioned not to touch at such places; penalty for sailing without giving such security, forfeiture and twenty pounds per man. Sec. 32.
Publication in the London Gazette to be sufficient notice. Sec. 33.
Offences, not being felonies or subject to specific punishments, may be determined before two Justices, who may fine not exceeding fifty pounds, or imprison not exceeding three months. Sec. 38. Offences may be tried in any county. Sec. 42. The general issue may be pleaded to actions brought against persons for any thing done in execution of this act, which action must be commenced within two months, and treble cost shall be recovered on judgment for the defendant. Sec. 43.
For other points see the act itself, which is further extended by the 44th Geo. 3. c. 98; by this act the signal for the plague being actually on board, is appointed to be a flag of eight breadths, divided quarterly of black and yellow by day and two large lanthorns one over the other at the main-topmast-head by night. Sec. 1.
The Privy Council may order ships coming from America or the West Indies when the Yellow Fever, &c. prevails there, to go to certain places without being liable to quarantine, unless it shall be afterwards specially ordered. Sec. 6. For other regulations, see the Stat.
In Ireland the system of quarantine is regulated by the 40th Geo. 3. c. 79, the general outline of which is the same as in the English acts, but with some additional severity towards health officers neglecting their duty, the infliction of which may occasionally be necessary.[[215]]
It now only remains for us to offer a few remarks upon the practical question to which all our preceeding researches have naturally tended: Whether the regulations of Quarantine might not be relaxed and modified without increasing the hazard of infection? Before this subject can be seriously entertained, or any concessions safely granted in favour of the mercantile interests, it must be upon the perfect understanding, and unreserved admission, that the maladies against which they are directed, are in the most extensive signification of the term, Contagious. No claim to indulgence or exemption can be admitted, on the ground of professional scepticism, as it relates to the subject of infection, for notwithstanding the remarks of Dr. Adams,[[216]] and the male sedula nutrix of Ovid, of which he so sarcastically reminds us, we are still unphilosophical enough to maintain that “one cannot be too cautious.”
To those who consider our long immunity from plague a sufficient guarantee for our future security, it may be observed, that although the Island of Malta is, from many causes, much more exposed to this infection than Great Britain, yet it was free from plague for one hundred and thirty-eight years, a period which we must remember has been exceeded in our own case by only sixteen years; at the same time we are ready to admit with a periodical writer, that Quarantine regulations might be amended, and rendered less inconvenient to commerce; they might for instance be modified as to the required period of segregation. Dr. Harrison, in his examination before the select committee of the house, stated a fact in connection with this subject, that deserves particular notice: that while passengers, who have made a long voyage, are liable to perform quarantine, couriers, who come in the least possible time, are not under such restrictions.