“In 1867 a letter from the Rev. W. Hume-Rothery against compulsory vaccination struck me, and he set to work at the question in the co-operative newspapers; and latterly in the Reporter, in which he has been ably helped by Mrs. Hume-Rothery, the daughter of the late Mr. Joseph Hume, M.P. The strength given to the bad law by Lord Robert Montagu’s Act in 1867 roused its enemies at the same time; and, feeling that my task was done, I left the contest to abler hands.
“I thus found that the Association I had inaugurated in order ‘to protect the health of poor children,’ was being made into an instrument to bind them through their mothers’ ignorance to the most wholesale plan for their degeneration, if not destruction, ever invented by the mind of man. It was in vain that I tried to get the ladies of the Sanitary Association to think over the matter. I was always met by the remark that it was a medical question and one which doctors alone could decide; and all I could obtain of them was to allow me to buy up the offending tract and to remain neutral in the question. When I left the Association a few years after, the tract was circulated again.
“The compulsory law seems to me well described in these words of Carlyle:—‘To decree injustice by a law—inspired prophets have long since seen, what every clear soul may still see, that of all Anarchies and Devil-worships there is none like this; that this is the “throne of iniquity” set up in the name of the Highest, the human apotheosis of Anarchy itself.’”
Dr. Ballard’s essay was of itself a notable achievement. Written in defence of vaccination, the difficulties, dangers and futility of the practice were so largely revealed, that any thoughtful reader was compelled to inquire, Where shall we find compensation for all this trouble, these risks, these sufferings? Dr. Ballard’s essay soon ran out of print, and the author was judiciously enlisted in the medical service of the Local Government Board.
In Dr. Garth Wilkinson the movement obtained the assistance not only of an able physician, but of one whom Emerson has described as “a philosophic critic, with a coequal vigour of understanding and imagination comparable only to Lord Bacon’s;” and “with a rhetoric like the armoury of the invincible knights of old.” Having asked Dr. Wilkinson how he came over to the side we identify with sound science and sound sense, he answered—
“The early History of my Opposition to Vaccination is, briefly, this—I had not considered Vaccination a question; but practised it when required. About 1865 the Countess de Noailles assailed my conscience on the subject, and her earnestness forced me to study it. She was backed by the late Mrs. Gibbs, then Miss Griffiths. Through Miss Griffiths I sent the following message to Madame de Noailles—‘Tell her Ladyship that the question is comparatively unimportant. Vaccination is an infinitesimal affair; its reform will come in with greater reforms.’ I also wrote to Madame that the only short way of getting rid of the Medical vested interest was by paying half a million or a million of money down to the Profession, and buying the slaves, the people, out, as the West Indian Blacks were bought out.
“After-studies extending over eighteen years have convinced me that I was wrong in my estimate of the smallness of the Vaccination question compared with other Evils. As forced upon every British Cradle, I see it as a Monster instead of a Poisonous Midge; a Devourer of Nations. As a Destroyer of the Honesty and Humanity of Medicine, which is through it a deeply-degraded Profession. As a Tyrant which is the Parent of a brood of Tyrants, and through Pasteur and his like a Universal Pollution Master. As a Ghoul which sits upon Parliament, and enforces Contamination by Law, and prepares the way for endless violations of personal liberty and sound sense at the bidding of cruel experts. Not denying other forms of Social Wickedness, I now, after careful study, regard Vaccination as one of the greatest and deepest forms, abolishing the last hope and resort of races, the new-born soundness of the Human Body.”
The agitation against compulsory vaccination prospered under the leadership of Mr. Gibbs. He sought help on all sides, and harmonised its various elements to the common purpose of the League. In his various labours he derived efficient assistance from his brother, Mr. G. S. Gibbs of Darlington, who displayed remarkable ability in the interpretation of vital statistics and in the exposure of their misapplications. Mr. Gibbs established branches of the League wherever there were adversaries of the practice, and was especially successful in the north of England. The relentless application of Sec. 31, Act ’67, in certain parts of the country did much to rouse public attention and sympathy. Parents were repeatedly fined for persistent refusal to have children vaccinated, and in default of payment had their property seized, or were committed to prison, sometimes with hard labour. Occasionally sentences were accompanied with gross insolence from the bench. For example, Mr. Bowman having pleaded at Newcastle his conscientious conviction that vaccination might prove injurious to his child, whilst it could never save him from smallpox, was compared to a thief by the magistrate, who said, “I once knew a man who had conscientious scruples against working so long as he could live by stealing; and I do not think conscience of that sort is entitled to respect.” Law on such terms naturally invites execration, and many who might hold by vaccination are thereby turned against it.
By some it was thought questionable whether Sec. 31, Act ’67, did afford warrant for repeated prosecutions. Mr. John Candlish, M.P. for Sunderland, who sat on the Committee of 1866 which dealt with the Bill which became law in 1867, maintained “that it was not intended that penalties should be repeated, but that one penalty should be a discharge from any obligation to submit a child to vaccination.” It is needless to say, an Act of Parliament is not to be interpreted by the intentions of its framers, but by its words. Moreover, if intentions are brought into question, it would be fair to set intentions against intentions. Several who were concerned in promoting the Act of ’67 had intentions more arbitrary than were conveyed in Sec. 31.
The question, was raised by the Rev. H. J. Allen, Primitive Methodist. He had been repeatedly before the bench at St. Neots, and was committed to prison for fourteen days, but, having paid the fine, £5, was liberated. In less than a month, he was summoned again, and fined £1 for each of his children, including costs. An appeal was made to the Court of Queen’s Bench in 1870, and judgment confirmed the severer interpretation of Sec. 31, Act ’67. Lord Chief Justice Cockburn held that a parent having been fined under the Act for disobeying an order to have his child vaccinated, may be proceeded against from time to time as long as the child remains unvaccinated. He declined to discuss whether vaccination was good or bad; the Legislature had treated it as a matter of great importance, and had passed Acts to ensure attention to it; that being so, he could not doubt that the intention of the Legislature was not merely to impose a penalty upon a person, once and for all, for having omitted to do that which the public health and safety required; but to enforce obedience to the requisitions of the law. He thought, therefore, the order to vaccinate might be renewed, and the penalties might be repeated until the order was obeyed. Mr. Justice Mellor and Mr. Justice Hannen concurred. The judgment in this case, known as Allen v. Worthy, has been repeatedly questioned and always reaffirmed.