Also they extended the time during which the parents and guardians were exempt from prosecution, and in various ways mitigated the rigour of the prevailing regulations.

The subject matter of this report was embodied in a short Bill to amend the law and laid before Parliament, which Bill went to a standing committee, and ultimately came up for the consideration of the House.
Then followed the great debate and the great surprise.

A member moved that it should be read that day six months, and others followed on the same side.

The President of the Local Government Board of the day, I remember, made a strong speech in favour of the Bill, after which other members spoke, including myself.

But although about ninety out of every hundred of the individuals who then constituted the House of Commons were strong believers in the merits of vaccination, hardly one of them rose in his place to support the Bill.