There are about 750,000 births annually in this country, and the parents of the majority surely deserve some consideration. 250,000 of them can neither read or write, yet they are liable to a fine of 20s. if they do not comply with the printed forms of this Act. It would be much better to send doctors to the homes of the children than collect mothers and infants in crowds at vaccination stations.
Mr. Bruce replied that it was proposed to do nothing new—
Compulsory Vaccination on the same terms has been the law of the land since 1853. The present bill lays down no new principle. It merely collects the scattered provisions of the law, and supplies machinery found necessary after much experience.
The observation was, no doubt, ingenuous on the part of the speaker; but, misled himself, he assisted to mislead the House. The bill, Section 31, ran as follows—
If any Registrar, or any Officer appointed by the Guardians to enforce the provisions of this Act, shall give information in writing to a Justice of the Peace, that he has reason to believe that any child under the age of 14 years, being within the Union or Parish for which the informant acts, has not been successfully vaccinated, and that he has given notice to the parent or person having the custody of such child to procure its being vaccinated, and that this notice has been disregarded, the Justice may summon such parent or person to appear with the child before him at a certain time and place, and upon the appearance, if the Justice shall find, after such examination as he shall deem necessary, that the child has not been vaccinated, nor has already had the Smallpox, he may, if he see fit, make an order under his hand and seal directing such child to be vaccinated within a certain time; and if, at the expiration of such time, the child shall not have been so vaccinated, or shall not be shown to be then unfit to be vaccinated, or to be insusceptible of Vaccination, the person upon whom such an order shall have been made shall be proceeded against summarily, and, unless he can show some reasonable ground for his omission to carry the order into effect, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 20s.
Yet, said Mr. Bruce, it was proposed to do nothing new! Here was a development of compulsion subjecting a parent to prosecution during fourteen years of the life of his child, and it was nothing new! What resulted from this aggravation of the law, devised with craft and enacted with indifference, remains to be seen.
The bill was opposed by Sir J. Clarke Jervoise, Mr. Thomas Chambers, and Mr. Barrow. Mr. Chambers prophesied—
I am persuaded that when the bill is passed an agitation will commence which will never cease until the Act is repealed.
The carelessness and indifference of the House were, however, insuperable. It was legislation for “the lower orders,” and concerned “respectable folk” not at all. The bill was read a third time without opposition, slipped through the Lords unopposed, and received the Royal assent, 12th August, 1867, as 30 and 31 Victoriæ, Cap. 84—An Act to consolidate and amend the Laws relating to Vaccination.