3. The impolicy, if not injuftice, of reftraining, by compulfive means, the fale of an article, which, however indifpenfable in itself, has as fair a claim as any other article of trade to a free and voluntary mode of fale; especially an article of which the growth is optional on the part of the feller.

4. The abfolute impoffibility of fecuring a conftant uniform fupply on every market day, fufficient for the confumption of the diftrict dependant on that market, till the next market day.

The above are my doubts as to the practicability or even the poffibility of carrying a plan of this kind into effect. My opinion is, that it can do but little good, and may do a great deal of harm; and I take the liberty of fupporting that opinion by the following reafons.

The prefent, and indeed every fcarcity of corn, arifes chiefly from a failure of crops.

That failure must be compenfated to the grower (who is obliged to pay the fame rent in all feafons) by an increased price.-That price is always regulated by the demand. -The great defideratum is to keep the demand and the supply as nearly regular as poffible. The propofal now made to the committee has that end for its object. I have, with all deference, to prove that it is inadequate.

I live in a fituation moft likely to furnish me with the means of in

formation; viz. at the junction of the country which produces corn, with the country which confumes it, within five miles of the great corn market of Warminster.

From Warminster, for near forty miles eastward, through Wilts and Hants, is a country which does not confume one fourth part of the corn it grows.-From Warminster, for near forty miles weftward, through a great part of Somersetfhire, and including Bath and Bristol, is a country which does not produce one fourth part of the corn it confumes.

The other three-fourths of corn confumed in the latter diftrict is brought chiefly from the former (for the increafed population of the north has deprived Bristol of the refource it once had down the Severn). Warminster and Devizes are the principal markets by which this quantity is fupplied. From thefe towns, to Bristol and Bridgewater, there is not a market where corn is expofed for fale in bulk. But would it be politic to compel the growers of this one-fourth part of the confumption of Somerfetfhire to bring it to Warminster or Devizes, or to Bridgewater or Bristol, to fell it, to be carried back again to be confumed by the manufacturing towns of Frome or Shepton Mallett, poffibly within a few miles of the place of its growth, at an advanced price, occafioned by this ufelefs carriage.** I may be

VOL. XXXVIII.

afked,

price at which it would bear the additional expence of carriage ten miles farther, there is an end of the combination; and if it was poffible the whole kingdom could combine, an importation from any country where it could be got cheaper would inftantly knock it up. In fact, these very men, though dealing at all times under fufpicions, and this year frequently in danger of their lives, are the very hands that transfer the plenty of one country to relieve the diftreffes of another; and though at former periods, as well as now, they have, in times of dearth, been pointed at as the cause of it, they have to my knowledge this year more than once fa ed whole towns from famine. In fact, times of fcarcity are favourable to this fet of men. They are then (against their will, I allow) particularly ufeful to all countries who do not grow corn enough for their confumption. In times of plenty they cannot exift to answer their own purpose-in thofe times they are not wanted.

But the great evil which we in this country feel, and which our great corn markets rather encourage than prevent, is the inequality of measures by which corn, and particularly wheat, is fold; I do not fpeak of the various provincial measures It is immaterial to a country whether eight, nine, or twelve gallons are fold for a bufhel, provided all parties understand what the measure is.

wheat; a few farmers, who happen to have extraordinary good wheat, make a point of adding two or three quarts to the meafure. This fack of corn, fo much better and bigger than the average of the market, will frequently fell for one fifth more than inferior fam ples of fair measure in the fame market. This high price, and which it is the intereft of the buyer to give, forms a standard of price of bread and flour for the enfuing week.-No exifting laws are adequate to the remedy of this, evil, for as neither buyer nor felfer complain, who is to re-measure this corn, though fold in a public market? Befides, there is fo much art in measuring corn, that two people may make feveral quarts difference in a fack, and yet both appear to measure fair.-If any remedy can be applied to this evil, it must be a compulfion to fell corn by weight;-this is done by choice at Manchester and Liverpool, and in this country the buyer always afks the weight, though he does not buy by it:-in fact, weight determines the quality as well as the quantity. If weight was adopted, the price would be nearly equal, and it would then be poffible to frame a fair aflize table, which in my opinion is impoffible to do from measure, efpecially in fuch a year as this, when the difference in the price of good and bad wheat is full one third.

But in this country, in all villages and fmall towns where there is no affize of bread, the baker fells his bread and his flour at his own price, for which he always quotes the higheft market price of

Copy of a letter from Sir Francis Baffet, Bart. to the Chairman of the Corn Committee.

Upper Grosvenor-ftreet, SIR, Dec. 22, 1795: MANY complaints having been made in different parts of England, of the hardships fuffered by the poor from the prefent mode of payment for grinding corn, and alfo of the difficulty of obtaining redrefs, whenever there is a fufpicion that frauds are practifed by the millers; I beg leave, through you, to fubmit to the corn committee a plan for remedying those fuppofed grievances.

I would propofe, in the firft place, to alter the prefent cuftom of taking toll, into a uniform payment in money, to be fettled by the juftices, with refpect to all mills where fuch alterations would not interfere with peculiar rights, eftablifhed by the courts of law. I further propofe to enable thofe perfons who may in future think themfelves aggrieved by millers, to obtain redress by a fummary proceeding before two juftices of the peace, inftead of being obliged to have recourse to fo expenfive and fo tedious a process as an indictment. As the law ftands at prefent, the proprietor of an old mill may take his accuftomed toll; but as that toll is known only to himfelf (for it is rarely avowed to his cuftomer) this gives him a confiderable latitude, and is a constant and never-failing fource of jealoufy to thofe who employ him. I have just said that the customer seldom knows what he pays; but in the few cafes which have come to my knowledge, where the miller profelles to take a fixed toll, it varies

from three to fix pounds per Winchefter bufhel, befides the allowance from a pound to a pound and half for waftage. In taking toll, the miller, by uniform cuftom, helps himself from the top, which confifts of the best and finest flour. It appears then, that the proprietor of an old mill may take fuch toll as is juftified by cuftom; but the owner of a new mill may take what toll he chufes, according to the opinion of lord Holt, in the cafe of the king and Burdett: this, probably, is the only exifting cafe in which a tradesman arbitrarily fixes the price of his own labour, without acquainting his employer what his terms are.

The millers, of course, profess to take a fair price for their labour, and could not therefore, I prefume, reasonably object to a regulation, obliging them to receive a fixed payment in money, inftead of an arbitrary and uncertain toll in grain; indeed, if they are convinced that the complaints alledged against them are unfounded (as in many cafes they probably are) they would rather rejoice to fee a mode of payment adopted, by which all jealoufies will be avoided in future, and by which they would receive an adequate compenfation for the labour performed, and the capital employed. The toll, as now taken, is certainly extremely oppreffive to the poor, who pay the moft when they can the least afford it; and if frauds are ever practised by millers, they are most likely to take place when there is the greatest temptation, that is when corn bears a high price.

It will not be necessary to say much refpe&ting the preference which a fummary proceeding muft

haye

have over an indictment. An indictment is attended with a great certain expence, with confiderable delay, is liable to much evation and uncertainty as to the iffue; the expence of an indictment, if traversed, amounts to at least seven pounds this circumftance alone, would make it impoffible for a poor man to have recourse to it; and, indeed, would render it imprudence even for a wealthy perfon, as in moft cafes he would find the remedy worse than the disease. But the delay is another main objection to proceeding by indictment, for if traversed, it cannot be tried till the feffions after it is laid; but, after all, if neither expence nor delay are confidered as fufficient objections, it must be observed, that when the cause is brought to iffue, though the complainant may prove that the miller has taken exorbitant toll, the indictment muft fall to the ground, provided it appears that the predeceffors of the miller have taken the fame toll, or that he is the proprietor of a new mill.

The measure I have in view, contains fome other regulations, but they are chiefly fubordinate, and connected with the two objects I have stated. If the plan I propofe fhould be adopted, I think few difputes could hereafter arise between millers and those who employ them, as the chief fubjects of their ufual differences, namely, the exorbitancy and uncertainty of the toll, would no longer remain. But if, contrary to my expectation, there should be any complaints in future, they would be fettled at a fmall expence, and without any delay, before two juftices of the peace, probably well known to both

the contending parties. I propofe that the decifion of the juftices fhould be final, for the purpose of avoiding expence and delay; but if this power is thought too great to be lodged in the hands of these magiftrates, an appeal may be al lowed to the quarter feffions.

I beg pardon for taking up fo much of your time on this subject which really appears to me important, and therefore to deferve the ferious confideration of the corn ommittee.

I have the honour to be, &c.
FRANGIS BASSET.

The Select Committee have come to the following Refolutions refpecting the making of mixed Bread.

Refolved, March 24, 1796.1. That it is the opinion of this committee, that it is expedient that magiftrates fhould, in times of fcarcity and high price of corn, have power to make certain regulations relative to the manufacture and fale of certain forts of meal and bread; which they do not now by law poffefs.

2. That it is the opinion of this committee, that whenever the average price of middling British wheat fhall be above a certain sum, magiftrates, at their general quarter feffions, or at any feffions to be fpecially appointed for that purpose, fhall be empowered, within their refpective jurifdictions, to prohibit, for a limited time, the feparation at the mill of more than five pounds of bran from every fixty pounds of wheat; and also to prohibit the sale of any wheaten meal from which a greater proportion of bran fhall have been feparated.

3. That it is the opinion of this Ff3 committee,