Page:Remarks on the British Quarantine Laws.djvu/27

23] Bathurst, North, and Grey. At length, in February 1722, an act did pass, repealing the aforesaid clauses of the act of the 7th of Geo. I., "in as much as" (according to the preamble of the bill,) "the powers and authorities mentioned in the said recited act might be very grievous to the subjects of this kingdom."

The arbitrary power of shutting sick people up in their houses, given by the act of James I., and that of removing them by compulsion from their habitations, conferred by the 7th of Geo. I., were equally a violation of the principles of public liberty, and of the British constitution, which would have been unjustifiable if contagion had been proved to exist, and these measures had been proved to be a remedy. Such a despotism no circumstances could justify. But, to enact laws so arbitrary, without previous proof of the existence of the alleged evil, or of the efficiency of the proposed remedy, must be admitted to be most extraordinary legislation.

Previous to 1665, several opportunities occurred of calling into action the obnoxious clauses of the act of James I.; but none since that period. By that law, it was made felony to be found abroad with an infectious (meaning a contagious) sore. What proof was required of a sore being contagious I know not. The constables were, I presume, in the first instance, to be the judges!

In 1805, a board of health was appointed, as has been already stated, in London. This board, agreeably to the instructions of the privy council, presented two reports, founded on the usual assumptions, dated the 30th of April, and 15th of May, consisting of an "outline of a plan to prevent the spreading of the plague, or other contagious diseases." The act of the 45th of Geo. III. cap. 10, and an order in council founded upon it, dated the 5th of April 1805, together with these two reports of the board of health, are the foundation of the regulations of sanitary police now in force in England. They are drawn up principally after the model of those established abroad, of which a description will be found in Howard's "Account of the Principal Lazarettos of Europe."

But neither in the act of the 45th of Geo. III., nor in the Order of council of the 5th of April 1805, nor in the two reports of the board of health, of the 30th of April, and 15th of May, of the same year, is it declared that persons shall be taken by compulsion from their homes, and shut up in pest houses. The clauses, conferring this unconstitutional power, as first introduced in the act of the 7th of Geo. I., were, as I have stated, repealed by an act of the following year; and the power only remained of shutting up persons affected in their own houses, as conferred by the act of James I. (1604.) The board of health of 1805, indeed, report,