have been confumed in that manufacture, will remain applicable to the fubfiftence of the people: but as it may be fuppofed that eleven bufhels of barley are not more than equivalent to one quarter of wheat, this can only be stated at about 360,000 quarters. Having ftated to the house the best estimate they have been able to form, of the direct fupply which may be derived from the fources to which they have here adverted, (of which the fupply from paft importation, and from the ftoppage of the manufactures of fpirits and ftarch, may be confidered as actually realized,) your committee will proceed to take fome view of that important and extensive resource which may be furnished by the moft economical ufe and application of the produce of the country. The faving to be derived from the introduction of a larger proportion of the produce of grain into bread than is at prefent ufed, was stated by your committee, in a former report, as equal to an addition of 450,000 quarters. This was calculated upon a confumption of nine months in that part of the country which at prefent confumes either bread made of the fine flour, or of the remaining produce of the grain after the fine flour has been extracted. As this meafure will not take full effect till the beginning of February, the faving muft now be calculated upon eight months only. Your committee have not thought the experiments, which it was poffible in fo fhort a time to make upon that fubject, fufficiently exact to juftify an altera tion in the table of aflize, and were defirous, for obvious reafons, to afford, in the first infiance, an en couragement to the bakers, at leaft equal, if not fuperior to the profit they could make in manufacturing bread from fine flour: yet they fee no reafon for departing from their former opinion, that a larger quantity of bread will be produced from coarfe meal than from fine flour; and they have, therefore, continued to eftimate the faving upon that principle. By this mode of dreffing, a larger quantity of materials for bread will be produced from all other fpecies of grain as well as wheat; and it is alfo probable, that in many parts of the country where the wheat has been of good quality and well harvested, the whole meal, including the bran, will be made into bread. Your committee will not, however, attempt to eftimate the additional faving which may be produced by thefe circumftances, and will only state the increafed fupply of food which may be derived from the adoption of the measure above referred to, as equal to about 400,000 quarters. It is ftill more difficult to estimate the advantages to be expected from the economy introduced into the confumption of private families, in confequence of the high price of grain, and of his majefty's procla mation. Your committee have feon with fatisfaction, the zeal and activity with which the execution of the falutary fyftem therein recommended, appears to have been undertaken by various claffes of the community. Even if the operation of this measure should extend only to perfons in fome degree of affluence, the diminished confumption of their families could not fail to produce confiderable effect. Suppofing this reduction to take place only in 120,000 families, containing ten ten perfons in each family, and fup. pofing that each perfon confumed in ordinary times the large allowance of a quarter of wheat annually, the faving, by the reduction of onethird of their confumption, (which has been practifed with the greatest facility by families where other food is ufed,) would, in nine months, amount to 300,000 quarters. The prohibition of the ufe of new bread, which parliament has thought proper to enforce by additional regulations, muft allo be productive of fome farther economy. -Although it cannot be expected to make any difference in the confumption of those families whofe means of obtaining other food may enable them to ftint their allowance of bread; yet amongst thofe numerous claffes of the community, whofe principal fubfiftence is derived from this article, and who can therefore make no direct retrenchment, its effects muft ftill be confiderable. The faving to be expected in the confumption of oats, is equally conjectural! but it may reasonably be hoped, that the fame motives which will induce his majefty's fubjeas to reftrict the confumption of wheat in their families, will operate still more forcibly in reducing the expenditure of oats for the fubfiftence of horses; and that no mall quantity of this fpecies of grain will in confequence be applicable to more uteful purposes. It has been farther ftated to your committee, that, by bruifing oats, a greater quantity of food for horfes, in the proportion of at least 4 to 3, may be produced from a given quantity of grain. By this, and by other economical expedients, fuch as fuch as mixing oats with chaff and bran, beans, or chopped ftraw, the confumption of that article may be much diminished. It fhould be farther obferved, that the crop of barley this year has been upon the whole good, and that more of it than ufual may, from the excellence of its quality, be applicable to bread; fome proportion of that grain may therefore probably be transferred to the ufe of thofe parts of the kingdom which ufually fubfifted upon wheat alone, but which have of late returned to the confumption of barley. Your committee have no means of eftimating the extent to which this refource may be carried; but it must evidently afford, in addition to the quantity above stated, some farther affiftance towards fupplying the deficiency of wheat. Your committee have, in their former reports, directed the attention of the house to the great fupply of excellent food which may be derived from the fisheries, and may render practicable a still farther faving in the confumption of grain, as well as of other articles of fubfiftence; every encouragement which has been fuggefted by thofe beft acquainted with the fubject, has been granted by the liberality of parliament, and the moft beneficial effects may be expected from the exertions which that encouragement is likely to excite. From the eagernefs with which the fmall fupply of herrings which has hitherto reached the metropolis has been fought after, and from the number of orders which have been received from different parts of the country, your committee entertain no doubt, that, as foon as that fupply can be increated in quantity, and more widely diffufed, this fpecies of food will be rapidly introduced into general confumption. In order to accelerate and facilitate this fupply, advances have been made by government to perfous at the different ports of depot, fuch as Liverpool, Brifiol, Hull, Lynn, Southampton, and Exeter, in addition to the amount of private fubfcriptions at thele places; and directions have been given to the refpective collectors of the cuftoms to attend to fuch applications as they may receive from other places, which may be defirous of procuring confignments of fifh. The extent and importance of the herring fithery has been already fully detailed to the houfe; and there feems no reason to doubt that it will anfwer, in a very confiderable degree, the expectations which were formed of it. The fisheries of mackerel and pilchards, which follow in fucceffion, appear capable of almoft equal extenfion; and the cod and haddock fisheries, which continue during the greatest part of the year, may alfo furnish an additional fupply of food, to an extent which cannot be calculated, and (fince the ufe of falt duty free has been permitted) at a price not exceeding even in London for fome articles one penny, and for others two-pence per pound. The price of fuch fish is not only fo much lower than that of meat, as to recommend it as an ufeful fubstitute for that article; but as three or even five pounds of this wholefome and nutritious food can be afforded at a lefs rate than one pound of bread at its prefent price, it can hardly fail to meet with an extenfive demand, wherever it can be obtained in fufficient quantity; and 12 it will both cheapen and improve the fubfiftence of those claises of the community, who, from finding the whole of their earnings not more than adequate to procure the neceflary fupply of bread, have been reduced to fubfift upon that article alone. Your committee are fenfible, that even if any calculation could be formed of the amount of this refource, it would not be eafy to af certain the proportion which it might be fuppofed to bear to any given quantity of grain. But whether it is introduced into confumption as a fubftitute for vegetable or animal food, it is equally an addition of the utmoft importance to the means of fubfiftence. Your committee have omitted to take notice of the act pafled for diminithing the confumption of bread, and for making better provifion for the poor: because, whatever benefits may refult from that meafure, the diminution which it may occafion in the use of bread, chiefly depends upon the introduction (as fubftitutes) of other articles, for moft of which credit has been already taken. The amount of those refources to which your committee have adverted, which appeared in any degree capable of eftimate, (fubject to the obfervation with which they were at firft introduced as being in many points conjectural, and neceffarily deficient in precition,) would stand as follows: 30,000 650,000 40,000 360,000 2,510,000 In this enumeration no credit is taken for any quantity of barley which may be imported, exceeding the ufual importation of 50,000 quarters, (although more than 60,000 quarters are already arrived;) for fuch proportion of the crop of barley as may be trans ferred to the ufe of the confumers of wheat; for any importation of Indian corn; for any retrenchment in the article of oats; for the reduction of confumption by the ufe of ftale bread; nor for the great fupplies to be expected from the fisheries. committee to confider: but, fuppofing the fupply from thofe quarters to be, from any caufes, diminifhed or fufpended, or even (which feems under any circumftances impofiible) completely stopped; yet 400,000 your committee have the fatisfaction 300,000 of being perfuaded, that the refources enumerated in the preceding statement are adequate, upon a moderate calculation, to furnish a fufficient fupply for that period to which your committee has confidered them as applicable, and to relieve, by their gradual operation, the prefent exigency. Whatever may be drawn from the continent of Europe is an addition to thofe refources, certainly important, but by no means of abfolute neceflity, and, together with the great quantity of rice which may be expected from the Eaft Indies fubfequent to the next harvest, may be confidered as fupplying not our immediate wants, but that diminution of the ordinary flock of the country which took place previous to the harvest of 1801, in confequence of the great deficiency of the preceding year; a diminution, which is ove of the main caufes of the prefent infuflicient fupply and high prices, and which mult retard in its confequences, (whatever may be the abundance of the next harveft,) the return of cheapnefs and of plenty. It will also be observed, that your committee have taken no credit, in the precceding ftatement, for any farther importation of wheat from the continent of Europe. They fee, however, no ground for departing from the opinion exprefled in their firft report, that, as far as depends upon the exertions of individual merchants, both Britifh and foreign, the fupply of wheat to be drawn from thence may equal that of last year, and that the crops of barley and oats may furnish more than they did during that period; and the quantity already imported affords a ftrong confirmation of this opinion. What circumftances, of a different nature, may interfere with the effect of thofe exertions, it is not within the province of your The lords' committees to whom it was referred to confider fo much of his majesty's fpeech, at the opening of the prefent feffion, as relates to the high price of provifions, and to whom has fince been referred the confideration of a meffage from the house of commons, relative to the fame fubject:le Have agreed to report to the houfe, that fince their appointment they have proceeded with all poffible diligence to inquire into fuch particulars as they judged might be moft worthy of the attention and confideration of the house, with refpect to the matter referred to them. They have more particularly applied themselves to ascertain the actual state of the kingdom in refpect to the productiveness of the late harveft, and to the stock of grain which may be supposed to be now in hand; which inquiry they have purfued by the examination of perfons beft acquainted with the fituation of different parts of the country in this refpect; being fatisfied that any attempt at more minute investigation, or actual furvey, would be inconvenient in practice, and probably in its refult very little fatif factory. As this courfe of inquiry is as yet by no means completed, the lords' committees do not think it right for them to offer to the houfe any precife opinions as to the probable amount of the deficiency, grounded on fuch information as they have hitherto received. But the lords' committees do by no means think it advilable to delay any measures of immediate relief for the purpose of previously completing the inquiry in which they are engaged. Whatever judgement may ultimately be formed refpecting the amount of the deficiency of the last harveft; it is certain that the flock of old grain was almoft entirely exhaufted at the beginning of the autumn, and that the produce of the present year was therefore begun to be confumed almoft as foon as it was harvelted, and at least two or three months earlier than is ufual. This view of the fubject has therefore already fufficiently convinced the committee of the preffing neceflity both of giving due encou ragement to early importation, and of adopting all practicable economy in the confumption of grain during the prefent year; and they have unanimoufly agreed to recommend to this houfe, that, in addition to the bills which have already paffed, or are now in the course of pafling through the houfe; for reftraining the export, and encouraging the im port of the different forts of grain, and for preventing their being ap'plied to other purposes than thofe of food, this houfe thould alfo concur with the other house in their pro pofed addrefs to his majesty. The lords' committees truft that the proclamation which his majefty is there requested to iffue, may probably engage the ferious attention of |