ANTI-COMPULSORY VACCINATION DEMONSTRATION AT LEICESTER.

Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 108, 30 May 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

ANTI-COMPULSORY VACCINATION DEMONSTRATION AT LEICESTER.

The borough of Leicester was, on 23rd March, the scene of an extraordinary demonstration against the Vaccination Acts. The proceedings commenced with a procession. The market-place, spacious as it was, was crowded to excess, and scores of thousands more found it impossible to obtain admission, and had accordingly to content themselves with thronging the route. The first detachment wore rosettes, and was made up solely of those who had suffered terms of imprisonment, varying from seven to thirty days, the second of parents who had had their goods seized for vaccination fines, the third of those who had paid conscience fines, the fourth of members of the Board of Guardians who had opposed the enforcement of the Acts, and the fifth of unvaccinated children, on ponies and in carriages, with bannerets, &c. Then followed the delegates from the various towns. Then followed detachments of anti-vaccina-tors. The procession was accompanied by four bands, and was enlivened by the most extraordinary display of flags, bannerets, devices, &c., ever seen in Leicester. The devices included one of Dr. Jenner suspended from a gibbet, and being repeatedly executed and inscribed " Child Slayer." Another consisted of a complete " funeral cortege of a victim of vaccination," a real coffin for a child, covered with wreaths, &c, being placed on a carriage bier, and followed by mourners. Another was a waggon load of doctor's carboys, inscribed "horse grease," "cow lymph," &c. Another aerie* of exhibits, entitled "Varieties oi Vaccine Imposture," consisted of a miserable-looking horse and cow, and a moke. The mottoes, on the

other hand, included '• Who would bo free themselves must striko the blow." "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance," " They that nro whole need not a physician," "Bachels aro weeping all over tho world because their children are not," "The Three Pillars of Vaccination — Fraud, Force, and Folly," " A Dead Swindle — the Vaccination Death Certificate," "We no longer beg but demand the control of our children." "Health without adulteration," &c. Tho procession marched through the principal streets and back to the Market Place, where about fifty thousand took part in a demonstration against the Acts. A resolution condemning the Acts as subversive of parental liberty, destructive of personal rights, nnd tyrannical and unjust, and ought to be resisted by every constitutional means, was adopted with enthusiasm, as was another petitioning for the abolition of the Acts. A copy of the Acts was then publicly burnt amid cheers, and proceedings terminated by the singing of an anti-vaccination song entitled " Cause that is True." Other meetings were held before the demonstration concluded.