nt political work had tried
me and I was mistaken. That tramp was a drunken, or perhaps a crazy
creature, afflicted with some skin disease such as are common among his
class. Why did I allow the incident to trouble me?

I went home and washed out my mouth, and sprinkled my clothes with a
strong solution of permanganate of potash, for, although my own folly
was evident, it is always as well to be careful, especially in hot
weather. Still I could not help wondering what might happen if by
any chance smallpox were to get a hold of a population like that of
Dunchester, or indeed of a hundred other places in England.

Since the passing of the famous Conscience Clause many years before, as
was anticipated would be the case, and as the anti-vaccinators intended
should be the case, vaccination had become a dead letter amongst at
least seventy-five per cent. of the people.[*] Our various societies
and agents were not content to let things take their course and to allow
parents to vaccinate their children, or to leave them unvaccinated
as they might think fit. On the contrary, we had instituted a
house-to-house canvass, and our visitors took with them forms of
conscientious objection, to be filled in by parents or guardians, and
legally witnessed.

[*] Since the above was written the author has read in the
press that in Yorkshire a single bench of magistrates out of
the hundreds in England has already granted orders on the
ground of "conscientious objection," under which some 2000
children are exempted from the scope of the Vaccination
Acts. So far as he has seen this statement has not been
contradicted. At Ipswich also about 700 applications,
affecting many children, have been filed. To deal with these
the Bench is holding special sessions, sitting at seven
o'clock in the evening.

At first the magistrates refused to accept these forms, but after
a while, when they found how impossible it was to dive into a man's
conscience and to decide what was or what was not "conscientious
objection," they received them as sufficient evidence, provided only
that they were sworn before some one entitled to administer oaths. Many
of the objectors did not even take the trouble to do as much as this,
for within five years of the passing of the Act, in practice the
vaccination laws ceased to exist. The burden of prosecution rested with
Boards of Guardians, popularly elected bodies, and what b