the moft beneficial effects. Your committee recommend, therefore, to every housekeeper, to reduce the quantity of bread ufed in his family to one quartern loaf per week for each perfon, which has been found, by experiment, to be fufficient; and likewife to abstain, as far as poffible, from the ufe of flour for all other purposes. 3. Your committee have been informed that confiderable inconvenience has been felt from millers refufing to grind the forts of flour neceflary for making the brown bread; and they are of opinion, that, to remedy this inconvenience, it be expedient to fubject millers to fome new regulations. may 4. For reasons given in their former report, your committee cannot recommend any compulfory law for the ufe of only one fort of bread, or the grinding of only one fort of flour; but, ftrongly impreffed with the advantage that might refult from the ufe and confumption of bread made of the whole meal, or of a great proportion thereof, they think proper to obferve, that, by the manner in which the affize is now fet, the profit of the baker is far more confiderable on the fine wheaten bread than on that of a coarser lity; and your committee recommend, therefore, that a new table of affize fhould be framed to remedy this inconvenience, and to promote the use of coarfer meal. palatable by a mixture of rice, which,: by repeated experiments, has been found to correct the defects of it. This confideration, that much damaged wheat and grain, otherwise unferviceable, may be made into wholefome and palatable bread, by being mixed with rice, fuggefts the importance of extending to this latter article the fame economy as that which is recommended in the use of wheat, and of referving it as much as poffible for the above important purpose. Your committee, fenfible of the important ufe 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 fhould be given, on the fame principle as that with refpect to corn, on the importation of rice, which fhould fecure to the importer the price of 11. 15s. per cwt. if the market price fhould fall below that fum. And your committee likewife fubmit, whether it may not be expedient that fome bounty fhould alfo be given, on the fame principle, on the importation of Indian corn. 6. Your committee are of opinion, that it is probable that confiderable relief quamay be afforded, if proper encouragement is given to the growth of potatoes and other nutritive vegetables; and they recommend therefore to landlords, to permit and encourage their tenants to break up a limited quantity of land, according to the circumstances of the eftate, for the cultivation of potatoes and peafe. And your committee fuggeft, that it may be expedient that provifion fhould be made by law, for a given time, to enable lords of manors or individuals, or parish officers on behalf of the parish, 5. Your committee have great fatisfaction in ftating, that a confiderable supply of rice and Indian corn may be obtained from America; that, mixed in a certain proportion with wheat, they make a most wholesome and nutritious bread; and that the most damaged wheat may not only be used, but rendered H 2 with with the confent 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 fome parts of Scotland and in Cornwall the lower orders of people are confuming at this time great quantities of fish, which make no inconfider able part of their fuftenance; and your committee underftand that a large quantity of Swedish herrings may be obtained from Gottenburgh and the neighbouring ports, at a very reafonable price; they recommend, therefore, that the Swedish herrings fhould, for a limited time, be imported duty free. And as an encouragement to our own fifleries, and to increase the fupply at the prefent moment, they fuggeft 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 mackerel, or of other fish caught in the mackerel fishery, for home confumption; and your committee, under the prefent circumftances, ftrongly recommend the diftribution 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 increafe of food for man might be obtained from flopping the diftilleries in England, your comnittée thought it their duty thoroughly to investigate this fubject. The quantity of barley confumed in the diftilleries has been flated by feveral perfons engaged in the trade, whofe evidence is completely corro borated by that of one of the commif fioners of excife, who has delivered into your committee calculations on the fubject fo nearly agreeing with the accounts given by the diftillers, as to fatisfy your committee that they are fufficiently accurate for the purpofe of forming their opinion. It appears that the whole quantity of barley confumed in the Englifh diftilleries amounts only to be tween two hundred and twenty, and two hundred and fifty thousand quarters annually; that in confequence of the diftillers having been allowed the ufe of fugar at the low duties, the confumption of grain has been very much diminished; that the diftillers 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 fifty-three or fifty-five thou fand quarters; that the difullers were prohibited the ufe of wheat, the only grain ufed in the English diftilleries befides barley, by an act patled in the month of October laft; and that in confequence of the deficiency of the crops in the laft harveft, and to remove all diffatisfaction on account of their trade, they entered into an agreement to make ufe of no barley in their diftilleries but what was damaged, or of inferior quality; to which agreement. by the evidence before your committee, they appear to have firictly adhered. It appears, likewife, that very large numbers of fwine and cattle are actually fed from the refuse of the difiilleries; and that if they were prohibited from working, the fupply of meat would be diminished, or the feeders of cattle and distillers in the neighbourhood of the metropolis would be under the neceffity of uling, at a great expenfe, a quan tity of grain in feeding their fwine the difufe fhould be made general by a prohibition. and cattle, which, perhaps, would not fall very far fhort of that which would in the firft inftance be confumed in the diftilleries; and your committee cannot avoid obferving, that in either of these cafes the price of meat must be expected to rife confiderably, fo as very materially to affect the lower orders of the people, who are now deriving extenfive relief in the metropolis, and in many parts of the country, from the eftablishment of foup-fhops, and to bear with ftill greater preflure upon thofe claffes of the community which are immediately above them. Your committee have purpofely avoided ftating the effect which the ftopping of the distillery might produce on the revenue, being anxious that no confideration of revenue fhould interfere, provided the expected relief could really be obtained; but when they confider how fmall would be the quantity, and how inferior the quality of the barley that could be faved, and the effect likely to be produced on the prices of other articles, and the courfe of other trades, they cannot fee any advantage that would refult from it fufficient to justify your committee in recommending it to the houfe. Your committee have omitted to fubjoin any propofal for prohibiting the ufe of wheat in the manufacture of ftarch, conceiving it to be a very inconfiderable object; and being farther informed that measures have been taken to procure a fupply of this article by importation from abroad, and that the principal manufacturers have voluntarily relinquifhed the ufe of it. They, however, think, that, in juftice to them, Your committee have great fatiffaction in ftating, that the measure adopted by the legiflature, for prohibiting the fale of any bread which had not been baked twenty-four hours, has already produced the moft beneficial effects. By the declaration of the mafter, wardens, and court of affiftants of the company bakers, annexed to this report, it appears that the confumption of bread in the metropolis is reduced, in confequence of it, at least one fixth part. of First Report of the Committee of the Houfe of Commons, on the prefent Scarcity of Corn. The committee appointed to confider of the prefent high price of provifions, and to whom fo much of his majefty's most gracious fpeech from the throne, to both houfes of parliament, as relates thereto, and allo the feveral petitions prefented to the houfe, complaining of the high price of provifions, were referred: Have, in proceeding to the confideration of the important and extenfive fubject referred to them, thought it their duty to direct their attention, in the firft inftance, to fuch meafures as might be propofed, for alleviating, as fpeedily as poffible, the prefent preffure; without entering at this moment into a detailed inquiry refpecting the various caufes which may have concurred in producing it. Your committee conceive that, by fo doing, they fhall beft execute the intentions of the houfe, which has already fhewn, by H 3 its its proceedings, that it confiders the deficiency of the ftock of grain at the commencement of the late harveft, and the high price which now prevails, as fufficient inducements for adopting, without lofs of time, the most obvious remedies. With this view, laws have already been brought forward for encou raging the importation of grain; for empowering his majefty to prohibit the exportation of every article of provifion; for permitting the importation thereof free from duty; for prohibiting all diftillation from grain, and the ufe of wheat in ftarch; for permitting the barley, which was damaged by wet, to be made into malt, without being fteeped during the time now required by law; for allowing fugar to be used, instead of malt, in the brewery; and for lowering the duty upon the importation of hops. Your committee were confirmed in their opinion of the propriety of this order of proceeding, by confidering that no minute inquiry into the state of the crop, or the ftock now in hand, could be made without great delay, even fuppofing that any mode had been fuggefted for conducting fuch an inquiry, which afforded a reasonable profpect of fufficient accuracy in the refult, and which would not be attended with great, if not infurmountable objections in the execution. Your committee also see no ground for believing that any refult, attainable by the moft detailed inquiry, could lead to any practical conclufion, applicable to the prefent emergency. At the fame time having many documents before them which could be examined without much delay, and which, checked by the very extenfive information of members from different parts of the country, appeared likely to enable them to form a general estimate of the crop, your committee have thought it right to avail themselves of thofe materials for that purpose. Thefe documents confift of very numerous returns to thofe inquiries which different departments of government have directed to be made by the receivers of the land-tax; by various officers under the boards of taxes, flamps and excife; and by thofe amongst the clergy to whom circular letters for that purpofe had been addreffed by the bithops in each diocefe. Though the returns are not complete from every county, yet the omiffions, on the whole, are neither numerous nor important. Your committee are fenfible, that upon the accuracy of accounts of this nature, taken feparately, no pofitive reliance can be placed; or, at leaft, that the weight to be given to them muft vary in each inftance, according to the opinion entertained of the dilligence and information of the perfons by whom they are made. Your committee obferve, however, that the general refult of the returns made by each defcription of perfons is nearly the fame; that refult is ftrongly canfirmed, upon the whole, by the information of members from almost every part of England, founded upon their local inquiries, obler: vation, and correfpondence. Whether the average is ftruck from the flatements of the crop in the feveral counties, without regard to their fize, population, and productivenefs, or by throwing them into different claffes with a view to those important important points, ftill the general conclufion is not materially affected. Your committee have not had the fame means of inquiry refpecting the produce of Scotland; but their information, as far as it reaches, is by no means lefs favourable. Your committee, therefore, think themfelves juftified in taking this general refult as a fufficient ground for thofe opinions and measures which they propofe to fubmit, without delay, to the judgement of the house. There appears, upon the whole of this information, reafon to believe, that the general deficiency of the crop of wheat, in England and Wales, below an average crop, does not amount to quite fe much as one fourth: and that the crops of barley and oats (though by no means uniformly good) have been very productive in many of thofe counties from which the principal fupply is ordinarily furnished; and therefore that the produce of the kingdom, in thofe articles, cannot, upon the whole, be confidered as materially inferior to an average. crop. It is also probable, that in forming an average under fuch circumftances as the prefent, where the harvest has been fo uncommonly various in different diftricts, and even in different parts of the fame diftrict, greater weight may have been given to inftances of deficiency than to thofe of abundance, and that the produce is more likely to be stated below than above the truth. It is also very material to obferve, that by all the accounts there is reafon to think, that the quality of every defcription of grain is, upon the whole, greatly fuperior to that of the laft year; and that, therefore, the increafed quantity, and fuperior quality of flour to be derived from a given quantity of grain, may be expected to com penfate, in fome degree, for the déficiency of the produce below the average, eftimated by the acre. The accounts of the ftock in hand, furnished by thefe returns, are neceffarily more uncertain; they are in fome degree various; but they do not, upon the whole, furnish any ground for doubting the prevailing opinion, confirmed by the general information of the members who have attended your committee, that the flock of Britith corn, at the harveft, was reduced far below its ufual amount, and was in most places nearly, in many abfolutely, exhausted. In addition to what has been ftated, refpecting the produce of the crop and the ftock in hand, it is to be obferved, with a view to the fate of the markets, in the time which has elapfed fince the harvest, that the farmers during that period have had a double demand to fupply out of the new crop for confumption and feed, and this at a feafon when moft of their hands were employed in the ordinary labours of the field. The quantity of grain ufed for feed corn is generally estimated at about fix weeks' confumption; and the increase of this quantity in the prefent year, from much more land being fown with wheat than ufual, during a featon particularly favourable (though it gives an encouraging profpect of future plenty) must have added for the time, to the difficulty of furnishing fufficient fupplies for the market, and thereby have contributed to increase the temporary diftrefs. This unufual demand for wheat, and other circumstances allo peculiar to the feafon, have contriH 4 buted, |