Correspondence between the Dewsbury Board of Guardians and the Local Government Board, in reference to the mode of carrying out the compulsory clauses of the Vaccination Acts.

  • Dewsbury Board of Guardians.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Correspondence between the Dewsbury Board of Guardians and the Local Government Board, in reference to the mode of carrying out the compulsory clauses of the Vaccination Acts. 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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    PREFACE. :o: The object in publishing this correspondence is, 1st, to awaken the attention of members of Parliament and Boards of Guardians, Magistrates, and public Officials, to the anom- alous and unsatisfactory state of the Laws of Compulsory Vac- cination ; and, secondly, that the Electors of this Union may be fully apprised of the position of their representatives, whom they have from year to year elected to serve them and protect their interests and true liberties. The various interpretations of the powers of Guard- ians under the Vaccination Acts, which year after year have been propounded as official and correct, have reached a stage, which, if legally sound, tramples upon the great principle of Taxation and Representation, and reduces the exercise of electing representatives as Guardians to a mere sham : and the manner adopted and pursued by a majority of the magistracy of this country, in dealing with conscientious defaulters under these Acts, discloses an advent of vindictiveness and a thirst for prosecution unparalleled in the history of our Criminal Courts during the present century. On behalf of the poor especially, whom Guardians should protect and not oppress, and of those who have suffered the loss of their little ones, or contracted loathsome diseases from this unnatural operation, we especially appeal for help and consideration,—as members of this section are driven to the pub- lic Vaccination Stations, under coercion and dread of fine or imprisonment, while the higher orders of Society care little for their money, and the less scrupulous can purchase their immunity from publicity in the Law Courts in a wholesale fashion.