On the failure of the Contagious Diseases Acts : as proved by the official evidence submitted to the Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1879, 1880 and 1881 / James Stansfeld.

  • Stansfeld, James, 1820-1898.
Date:
[1881]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the failure of the Contagious Diseases Acts : as proved by the official evidence submitted to the Select Committee of the House of Commons, 1879, 1880 and 1881 / James Stansfeld. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    It was re-appointed in January, 1881, but did not meet until February 23rd. Previously it bad met sometimes twice a week, and often only once a week; but owing to pressure which I put upon the Committee during the last session, it sat generally twice a week. It adjourned on July 28th (although Parliament sat for nearly two months longer), upon the motion of Mr. Osborne Morgan, the Judge Advocate-General and the representative of Her Majesty’s Government upon that Committee, supported by the pro-Acts members of the Committee, against the objections of myself and of the Kepeal members who sat with me on that Committee. If it had not been for this action on the part of the representative of Her Majesty’s Government we might have made much more progress in the discussion. This brings me to the question of the changes of persons on the Committee, but I do not think I need refer to more than one of those changes specifically. When the present Government was formed we lost one very intelligent and earnest friend in Mr. Shaw Lefevre ; a man full of energy, with a large capacity for usefulness upon our subject; he felt, no doubt, that upon taking office under a new Government, he would wish to have his hands free from laborious and painful duty in connection with a subject of such great responsibility as ours. His place was taken by Mr. Osborne Morgan, the New Judge Advocate- General. Now I am about to speak to you with perfect frankness. I desire to.have no secresy, no affected, dishonest courtesy in this matter. In exchanging Mr. Lefevre for Mr. Qsborne Morgan we have lost a trustworthy and intelligent friend, and have gained an opponent ; and the mischief, and the bitterness (for the Liberals amongst us) lies in the fact that this opponent is the nominee on the Committee of Her Majesty’s Government. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Osborne Morgan has, in my opinion, played the part on that Committee of a partisan advocate. (Hear, hear.) He has defended every official down to the meanest policeman engaged in the administration of the Acts. (Hear, hear.) There is nothing which—according to Mr. Osborne Morgan—is not beneficial in the operation of these detestable Acts, and above all in their moral influences. If any one will take the trouble to read through his examinations and cross-examinations of witnesses befoi'e that Committee they will recognise the truth of what I say. (Cheers.) Mr. Osborne Morgan has so played his part as to outrage Members of