5. Your Committee have great satisfaction in stating, that a considerable supply of rice and Indian corn may be obtained from Ame rica; that, mixed in certain proportions with wheat, they make a most wholesome and nutritious bread; and that the most damaged wheat may not only be used, but rendered palatable by a mixture of rice, which, by repeated experiments has been found to correct the defects of it. This consideration, that much damaged wheat and grain, otherwise unser viceable, may be made into wholesome and palatable bread, by being mixed with rice, suggests the importance of extending to this latter article the same economy as that which is recommended in the use of wheat, and of reserving it as much as possible for the above important purpose.

as took place in the year 1796, your Commit. tee are apprehensive that merchants will not be induced to speculate, unless they receive some encouragement from parliament; they therefore suggest, how far it may be proper to offer such a conditional bounty as may be likely to secure the merchants against any probable losses they might incur in importing wheat or flour from the Mediterranean or America before the month of October. The prices of wheat in the Mediterranean are stated to be from about 50s. to 60s. per quarter; the prices of flour in America are about 60s. the English sack; the insurance, freight, and other mercantile charges, may, in either case, amount to about 338. per quarter, or 30s. per sack. If parliament should therefore think proper to provide, that in case the average price of wheat throughout the kingdom, as stated in the Gazette, should fall below 90s. per quarter, and the average price of flour should fall below 90s. per sack, the difference between the market price and 90s. should be made up by a bounty to the importer, it might afford a very considerable encouragement to foreign supply, consistent with the reduction of the prices in the home market.

2.2. Your Committe have great satisfaction in being able to state, that many individuals, in different classes of life, have already effectually reduced the consumption of bread and flour in their families; and that the saving which has been made in consequence is very considerable, in many instances amounting to one fourth, and in some even to one third, of their usual consumption. If such a practice should become general, it would produce the most beneficial effects. Your Committee recommend, therefore, to every housekeeper, to reduce the quantity of bread used in his family to one quartern loaf per week for each person, which has been found, by experiment, to be sufficient; and likewise, to abstain, as far as possible, from the use of flour for all other purposes.

3. Your Committee have been informed, that considerable inconvenience has been felt, from millers refusing to grind the sorts of flour necessary for making the brown bread; and they are of opinion, that, to remedy this inconvenience, it may be expedient to subject millers to some new regulations.

4. For reasons given in their former Report, your Committee cannot recommend any compulsory law for the use of only one sort of bread, or the grinding of only one sort of flour; but, strongly impressed with the advantage that might result from the use and consumption of bread made of the whole meal or of a great proportion thereof, they think proper to observe, that by the manner in which the assize is now set, the profit of the baker is far more considerable upon the fine wheaten bread, than on that of a coarser quality; and your Committee recommend, therefore, that a new table of assize should be framed, to remedy this inconvenience, and to promote the use of coarser meal.

Your Committee, sensible of the important use of rice at the present moment, are induced to recommend, upon a comparative view of the prices of that article in this country and the other countries in Europe, that a bounty should be given, on the same principle as that with respect to corn, on the importation of rice, which should secure to the importer the price of 11. 15s. per cwt. if the market price should fall below that sum. And your Committee likewise submit, whether it may not be expedient that some bounty should also be given, on the same principle, on the importation of Indian corn,

6. Your Committee are of opinion, that its is probable that considerable relief may be af forded, if proper encouragement is given to the growth of potatoes, and other nutritive vegetables; and they recommend therefore to landlords, tu permit and encourage their tenants to break up a limited quantity of land, according to the circumstances of the estate, for the cultivation of potatoes and pease: And your Committee suggest, that it may be expedient that provision should be made by law, for a given time, to enable lords of manors, or individuals, or parish officers on behalf of the parish, with the consent of the lord of the manor, to break up a quantity of common land, and to cultivate it with potatoes.

7. It has appeared in evidence before your Committee, that in some parts of Scotland, and in Cornwall, the lower orders of people are consuming at this time great quantities of fish, which make no inconsiderable part of their sustenance; and your Committee understand that a large quantity of Swedish herrings may be obtained from Gottenburgh and the neighbouring ports, at a very reasonable price; they recommend, therefore, that the Swedish herrings should, for a limited time, be imported duty-free, And as an encouragement to our own fisheries, and to increase the supply at the present moment, they suggest the propriety of giving a bounty equivalent to 2s. 8d. per barrel (if proper regulations can be adopted to provide against fraud) on the cure of mackarel, or of other fish caught in the mackarel fishery, for home consumption;

and your Committee, under the present circumstances, strongly recommend the distribution of fish as an article of parochial relief, which may be obtained in many parts of the country, in great quantities, at a very moderate price.

8. An opinion being prevalent in many parts of the country, and particularly in Scotland and Wales, that a great increase of food for man might be obtained from stopping the distilleries in England, your Committee thought it their duty thoroughly to investigate this subject. The quantity of barley consumed in the distilleries has been stated by several of the persons engaged in the trade, whose evidence is completely corroborated by that of one of the commissioners of excise, who has delivered in to your Committee calculations on the subject, so nearly agreeing with the accounts given by the distillers, as to satisfy your Committee that they are sufficiently accurate for the purpose of forming their opinion.

It appears that the whole quantity of barley consumed in the English distilleries, amounts only to between 220 and 250,000 quarters annually'; that in consequence of the distillers having been allowed the use of sugar at the low duties, the consumption of grain has been very much diminished; that the distillers continue working from the month of November until the middle or end of May; that all that can be wanting to complete their works in the present year cannot exceed 53 or 55,000 quarters; that the distillers were prohibited the use of wheat, the only grain used in the English distilleries besides barley, by an act passed in the month of October last; and that in consequence of the deficiency of the crops in the last harvest, and to remove all dissatisfaction on account of their trade, they entered into an agreement to make use of no barley in their distilleries but what was damaged, or of inferior quality; to which agreement, by the evidence before your Committee, they appear to have strictly adhered. It appears, likewise, that very large numbers of swine and cattle are actually fed from the refuse of the distilleries; and that if they were prohibited from working, the supply of meat would be diminished, or the feeders of cattle and distillers in the neighbourhood of the metropolis would be under the necessity of using, at a great expense, a quantity of grain in feed ing their swine and cattle, which, perhaps, would not fall very far short of that which would in the first instance be consumed in the distilleries; and your Committee cannot avoid observing, that in either of these cases, the price of meat must be expected to rise considerably, so as very materially to affect the lower orders of the people, who are now deriving extensive relief in the metropolis, and in many parts of the country, from the establishment of soup shops, and to bear with still greater pressure upon those classes of the community which are immediately above

them.

Your Committee have purposely avoided stating the effect which the stopping of the distillery might produce on the revenue, being anxious that no consideration of revenue should interfere, provided the expected relief could really be obtained; but when they consider how small would be the quantity, and how inferior the quality of the barley that could be saved, and the effect likely to be pro duced on the prices of other articles, and the course of other trades, they cannot see any advantage that would result from it, sufficient to justify your Committee in recommending it to the House.

Your Committee have omitted to subjoin any proposal for prohibiting the use of wheat in the manufacture of starch, conceiving it to be a very inconsiderable object; and being farther informed that measures have been taken to procure a supply of this article by importation from abroad, and that the principal manufacturers have voluntarily relinquished the use of it: they, however, think, that, in justice to them, the disuse should be made general by a prohibition.

Your Committee have great satisfaction in stating, that the measure adopted by the le gislature, for prohibiting the sale of any bread which had not been baked twenty-four hours, has already produced the most beneficial ef fects. By the declaration of the Master, Wardens, and Court of Assistants of the Company of Bakers, annexed to this Report, itap. pears that the consumption of bread in the metropolis is reduced, in consequence of it, at least one sixth part.******* Jhim sild of ban

Proceedings in the Commons relating to the Deficiency of the last Crop of Grain." March 6. itself into a committee of the whole House The House having resolved to consider further of the Report respectand the Deff. ing the Assize of Bread, a ciency of the last Crop of Grain, the following Resolutions were moved by lord Hawkesbury, and, after a short debate, agreed to: viz." Resolved, 1. That it is the opinion of this committee, that, whenever the average prices of wheat, and fine wheaten flour, ascertamed and lished in the London gazette, under the pub authority of any act or acts of parliament, shall be less than 90s. per quarter of wheat or sack of wheaten flour, respectively, there shall be given, on every quarter of wheat, and on every barrel of fine wheaten flour, which shall be imported into Great Britain, from any port of Europe, South of Cape Finesterre, or from any port the Mediterranean, or in Africa, or from any of his majesty's coloniesin America, or the United States, before the 1st of October 1800, a bounty equal to the difference between such average prices in the London

in

of. A mere general recommendation to economy would not, he feared have the effect of a resolution of a committee of the whole House. Something, undoubt edly, ought to be done on the subject, He meant to-morrow to move, that the House should go into a committee to consider of means for promoting an extended growth of potatoes. The general price of that article was now three times as much as in common years. What he meant to propose was, to give moderate premiums for the cultivation of this article. The Resolutions were agreed to.

gazette, and 90s, per quarter of wheat, or barrel of flour respectively. 2. That, whenever the current price of rice imported into this kingdom, to be ascertained by the prices in the London market, shall be less than 35s. per cwt., there shall be given on every cwt. of rice imported into Great Britain before the 1st October 1800, a bounty equal to the difference between such average price and 35s. 3. That the duties now payable on Swedish herrings, dried or cured, imported into this kingdom, do cease and determine. 4. That the chairman be directed to move the House, that leave be given to bring in a bill to encourage the cultivation of potatoes on waste lands, for a time to be limited: And also, 5. That leave be given to bring in a bill to explain and amend an act, made in the 36th of his majesty, intituled, an act for the better regulation of mills;" and also, 6. That leave be given to bring in a bill for better regulating the price and assize of bread: and also, 7. That leave be given to bring in a bill to prohibit for a time to be limited, the use of wheat in making starch.'

The Speaker commended the resolutions, and was happy to find, that one regulation was in their contemplation; namely, that when a certain quantity of corn was carried to the miller, he should be obliged to grind it as the person pleased It was his wish to remove the prejudice against brown bread. From the use of it the best prospect would be open to us. It was stated, that mixed bread was more subject to adulteration than white bread. This was an error: for it was easier to detect ingredients in brown than in white bread. Nothing was more injurious than to encourage an opinion, thatthe present distress arose from an artificial scarcity, and not from the dispensation of Providence. The public owed much to those who were styled monopolists: they aided the deficiency of the markets by keeping up a steady and regular supply,

1

Mr. Wilberforce said, that with regard to making use of the whole of the wheat except the coarse pollard, he was decidedly in favour of that measure; and as to a compulsory law, if it were proposed, he should give it his hearty support; for he could not suppose there could be any aversion in the people at large to partake of bread of the same quality. As to the agreement sent down from the Lords, it was not exactly such as he could approve

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Fa* 1% 3"" : March 7. The Resolutions being reported to the House, De adt no 200HARV Mr. Wilberforce rose and said, that when he assisted in forming these resolutions, he laid his account in being misrepresented, either through ignorance, inadvertency, or design. A friend had just put into his hands what was stated to be an account of what he had said in the House yesterday, and which had been grossly misrepresented. Mr. W. then read an extract from the newspaper alluded to, in which he was represented, in recommending the growth of potatoes, thus to have expressed himself: "Potatoes made men healthy, vigorous, and active; but, what is still more in their favour, they make men tall: more especially was he led to say so, as being rather under the common size, and he must lament that his guardians had not fostered him under that genial vegetable." He appealed to the House, whether the representative of a populous county ought not to be protected against such misstatements. He should not press any motion on the House, but he was anxious that his sentiments should not be misrepresented, as if he had treated with levity a subject connected with the distresses of the people.

The Resolutions were agreed to, and bills were ordered to be brought in pursuant thereto.