WHAT BRITAIN MIGHT DO. III

the market as he finds it. And when his cattle
have suffered severely from the sea journey, he
cannot restore them to condition by grazing them
on this side of the water. Consequently the prohibition
 is bitterly felt in Canada, and there is no
little resentment occasioned by the refusal of the
Board of Agriculture to remove this serious bar to
the prosperity of an important branch of Canadian
industry.
The embargo originated in the very natural
determination to prevent the importation of pleuropneumonia.
 This horrible disease has cost our
farmers so much, and is so infectious, that it is the
duty of our Government to do all in its power to
stamp it out, and to prevent any fresh outbreak.
Canadian cattle were scheduled on what was not a
certainty, but a suspicion. An outbreak of pleuropneumonia
 in Scotland was dubiously traced to a
cargo from Canada, and there is still considerable
room for doubt as to the correct diagnosis of the
disease. But a suspicion based on the slenderest
evidence was sufficient to justify the action of the
responsible Minister. There our sympathy with
the restriction must end. The restriction has
been fortified by the Government which came
into office in 1895 by embodying it in an Act
of Parliament. The Board of Agriculture has
never treated the Canadian Government fairly.
Naturally anxious to clear their cattle of the
suspicion resting upon them, the Canadians eagerly
courted the most searching investigation. But to