Holland is beginning to complain of a cattle disease like
ours, which of course it considers imported, as there is always an allevia- tion in regarding one's calamities as the fault of another. Every additional week, however, convinces cool observers more com- pletely that the Rinderpest is not contagious, but only epidemic, or "epizootic," as an ingenious gentleman, who objects to the im- plied compliment to cattle as a demos, has magnificently termed it. The graziers must feel it a melancholy satisfaction in the midst of their anxieties to inquire of each other whether the epizootic has yet appeared among them. Though the disease is "epizootic," and not infectious, the Ministry were nevertheless compelled to give way about Ireland, and issued an Order in Council yesterday week prohibiting all import of cattle thither. Indeed as no one can be absolutely certain concerning the nature and limits of contagion, it might be thought advisable to avoid even a very infinitesimal risk of a spread of the disease through that cause to so pastoral and poor a country as Ireland.
