The bill is one of pure coercion, making no allowance for those who are brought under its scope. It must not be forgotten that the poor mother is not able to do much within the month after her confinement. The period of three months specified within which Vaccination must be effected will press very severely upon the lower orders. We are told that no district of less than 5,000 inhabitants will work successfully, and that 10,000 is a better number. If country districts are to comprise 5,000, how many miles will poor folk have to travel to reach a vaccination station? Consider the inconvenience it will be to a woman to drag her child two or three miles for vaccination, and be obliged to go a second time for inspection! The medical authorities insist that four punctures at least ought to be made on the unfortunate children. Not only are those four wounds to be inflicted, but the children are to be brought in all weathers to have their wounds opened and matter extracted for the benefit of others, thus prolonging their sufferings and the cares of their mothers. If we are to act upon the principle of doing as we should be done by, I would ask how you would like to be compelled to carry your children to a vaccination station and have them mixed up with all and sundry, and inoculated at a hazard with you know not what? For myself I see no difficulty in having the children of the poor vaccinated at their own homes. It would be far better to pay more and work discriminately than let the people think there is one law for the rich and another for the poor. If you simply try to drive you will find the people apt to kick, and still more ready to evade the restrictions you put upon them.
Mr. Kendall confirmed Mr. Henley, saying—
As Chairman of a large Union, I have seen great inconvenience from the crowding of children at vaccination stations. They are taken to those stations whether wet or dry, and cold and shivering are kept huddled together in a manner most likely to breed illness and diffuse infection.
Mr. Lowe sneered at Mr. Henley’s concern for the poor, reminding him that the wounds he deplored would save them from a loathsome disease. Mr. Henley did not dispute the salvation, as he might have done, but pleaded for its more considerate performance. Spite, too, of his assumption, there is one law for the rich and another for the poor. Compulsory vaccination as applied to the majority would never be tolerated by the upper and middle class minority; nor would a plutocratic Parliament have entertained so profane a project. Nor (it must be said) would working men show themselves much more enduring in their own persons. The victims of the law are their wives and children; and it is surprising how much indignity and cruelty they will endure in these helpless dependents. Mr. Henley was more chivalrous for them than they are for themselves.
An argument for fresh legislation was the failure of the Act of 1853. Mr. Brady said—
As a medical man I can testify that medical men are almost unanimous in favour of Compulsory Vaccination; but in order to give the public the full benefit of the system it must be fairly paid for. We shall be penny wise and pound foolish unless the persons employed to carry out this measure are liberally remunerated. When the bill of 1853 was before the House, I said the remuneration was inadequate, and that the Act would be a failure, and that prediction has proved true.
That the Act of 1853 was a failure, in the sense of not securing the vaccination of the people, was untrue—though necessarily true as concerned the prevention of smallpox. The assertion of failure in 1867 was an artifice to overcome the apathy of Parliament. It was assumed that there was a population to be vaccinated, and vaccinated in a new and superior fashion, if only better pay were provided. More money was wanted to work the Vaccination Mill. In the words of Lord Robert Montagu—
On the birth of a child being registered, the Registrar is bound to give notice to the parent, and to supply him with proper forms, whether for public or private Vaccination. He will enter in a book the name of the child, with the means of identification. After Vaccination, the Public Vaccinator will send the certificate of successful Vaccination to the Registrar, who will enter it in his book. Thus the Registrar will know which children have been registered in his district and which have not; which children are liable to Smallpox and which are not liable. [O Credulitas!] Then it is made the interest of all concerned to work the system and enforce its checks. It is the interest of every Local Registrar to hunt up every birth, because for every entry he has 1s. It is his interest to obtain the certificate of successful Vaccination, for entering which he has 3d. It is the interest of the Public Vaccinator to operate on as many children as possible, because for each successful operation he has at least 1s. 6d., and for first class work an extra 1s. It is the interest of the parent to have his child vaccinated, for he is otherwise subject to legal proceedings and a penalty of 20s.
Colonel Barttelot objected, saying—