There was, however, one black shadow in this fair picture:  in 1865 England was invaded by the rinderpest, which spread with alarming rapidity, killing 2,000 cows in a month from its first appearance, and within six months infecting thirty-six counties.[657] The alarm was general, and town and country meetings were held in the various districts where the disease appeared to concert measures of defence.  The Privy Council issued an order empowering Justices to appoint inspectors authorized to seize and slaughter any animal labouring under such diseases; but, in spite of this, the plague raged with redoubled fury throughout September.  There was gross mismanagement in combating it, for the inspectors were often ignorant men, and no compensation was paid for slaughter, so that farmers often sold off most of their diseased stock before hoisting the black flag.  The ravages of the disease in the London cow-houses was fearful, as might be expected, and they are said to have been left empty; by no means an unmixed evil, as the keeping of cow-houses in towns was a glaring defiance of the most obvious sanitary laws.  In October a Commission was appointed to investigate the origin and nature of the disease, and the first return showed a total of 17,673 animals attacked.  By March 9, 1866, 117,664 animals had died from the plague, and 26,135 been killed in the attempt to stay it.  By the end of August the disease had been brought within very narrow limits, and was eventually stamped out by the resolute slaughter of all infected animals.  By November 24 the number of diseased animals that had died or been killed was 209,332,[658] and the loss to the nation was reckoned at L3,000,000.  The disease was brought by animals exported from Russia, who came from Revel, via the Baltic, to Hull.  In 1872, cattle brought to the same port infected the cattle of the East Riding of Yorkshire, but this outbreak was checked before much damage had been done, and since 1877 there has been no trace of this dreaded disease in the kingdom.  The cattle plague, rinderpest, or steppe murrain, is said[659] to have first appeared in England in 1665, the year of the Great Plague, and reappeared in 1714, when it came from Holland, but did little damage, being chiefly confined to the neighbourhood of London.  The next outbreak was in 1745, and lasted for twelve years, undoubtedly coming from Holland; it is said to have caused such destruction among the cattle, that much of the grass land in England was ploughed up and planted with corn, so that the exports of grain increased largely.  In 1769 it came again, but only affected a few localities, and disappeared in 1771, not to return till 1865.