We fear that the Government are playing fast and loose
with the Vivisection Bill. Unfortunately, Lord Carnarvon, whose heart was evidently in it, was called away from town by the illness and death of his mother, and the Bill was left in the hands of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, whose chief idea of statesmanship is somewhat helpless compromise. On Monday night, when the Bill was fixed for Committee, the Duke suddenly announced that he had received representations which made it necessary for the Government to reconsider some of the clauses of the Bill, and that for that purpose he must defer the Committee till after the Whitsuntide recess. We must warn the Government that they might just as well withdraw the Bill altogether, as think to .remove the public agitation on the subject by a Bill in any very material point_ weaker than the one brought in by Lord Carnarvon. One of our medical con- temporaries has said,—no doubt without reference to the Com- misioners' Report,—that the investigations of the Royal Commis- sion brought to light no abuses in this matter in the United Kingdom. That was not the view of the Commissioners, who, while they stated that they refrained from pronouncing an opinion on the extent of' the abuses, did pronounce this unanimous opinion, that "besides the cases in which inhumanity exists, we
are satisfied that there are others in which carelessness and in- difference prevail to an extent sufficient to form a ground for legislative intesfarenesi,"—and no one who studies the evidence can doubt that a good deal more than this can be made out, to the complete satisfaction, (*rather dissatisfaction, of the public. It is confidence in the humane intentions of the Government which has held back the opponents of Vivisection hitherto. If that confidence fails, the physiologists will find, too late, that they have missed their best opportunity of a reasonable compromise.
