Every one knows what bread properly should be. It is made of flour ground from sound corn, with a little yeast for fermentation, a very little salt for relish, and as much water as will bring it to a paste; this, baked to a due hardness, is bread-the most wholesome of all foods.

The adulterations of it have begun early; but they are of late increased to a degree that is altogether intolerable; and, if not prevented, will entail diseases and misery on ourselves and our descendants. Two sets of men concur in them, millers and bakers; the former add all they can to increase the quantity of the flour, and improve its colour; and the latter, receiving it from them in this condition, charge it higher with new mixtures. The miller adulterates it, because the ingredients are cheap, and add to the quantity; and the baker, because he finds the same tempting profit.

If the miller could be pardoned, who used harmless ingredients to recover flour which he bought as good, but found otherwise; or even if the baker, in time of scarcity, added, to increase the quantity, the meal of innocent_vegetables, they might be in some degree excused; but the crime at present admits of no apology or mitigation. There is such an abundant quantity of corn in the kingdom, that an honest man must wonder where it is lodged, or how the price is kept up. We know the crops have been very good, and none have been lawfully exported or consumed by the distillers: therefore the plenty is absolute and certain, however it may be engrossed and withheld from the poor. The miller has his price in proportion to what he pays the engrosser; and the baker is allowed the same fair profit, whether he give more or less for it at the market, This cuts off all apology from these persons, as well as all necessity for the practice, and should arouse the compassionate great against them.

The ingredients they add to flour are in general six:-1, Bean meal; 2, chalk; 3, whiting; 4, slaked lime; 5, alum; and, 6, ashes of bones. All these may be discovered

in the bread now commonly sold; and every miller and baker knows how to use them; but let them from this time forward fear a discovery and proof: this may be made easily; and the laws are open and severe, There is, besides these, a seventh ingredient used, of a more mischievous quality than any of them, and not so easily discovered: the physician will know what is meant when told that its quality is suffocation. To this may be attributed the many sudden deaths after eating; but we shall be well excused from naming it, lest we teach those who, with sufficient wickedness, are deficient in knowledge.

All these ingredients answer the mealman's dishonest purpose, as they increase the quantity; and they doubly answer the purpose of the fraudulent bakers, for they not only make the less flour serve, but the burnt bones in particular take in more water than flour would; thus the bread is rendered heavier, and the baker boasts in his own mind that he has got the better of the magistrates' care, not considering the healths and lives of his customers.

In consequence of this, bread, which has well been called the staff of life, becomes an arrow in the band of death; men pine with diseases from it, or perish instantly; and infants are an universal sacrifice.

There was no ingredient originally added to flour for the making of bread that had a purgative quality; but the bakers, more attentive to the consequences of their unjust prac 'tice than those who felt the effects of them, soon found that chalk and alum, burnt bones and the rest, gave an astringent quality to their bread, It cannot be supposed that humanity influenced them upon this occasion, for that would have made them for bear the practice. The fear of being discovered by this accident, set them upon their guard; and this gave rise to a set of men more dangerous to the public than themselves, called Bread Doctors.

These, who had gained their knowledge, perhaps, from the sweepings of an apothecary's shop, or more probably behind the counter of a retail chemist, engaged themselves, to pre

vent all apparent ill effects, by adding medicines of another quality. Hence jalap has become an ingredient in our daily food; and as those indifferent judges compute the quantity, or as the careless servant to the baker mixes the ingredients, our bread becomes purgative or astringent, or approaches more or less to the middle quality.

That these ingredients are used in making bread, is certain, for all of them have been separated from it. The consequences are terrible, and it cannot be doubted but the legislature will take the public cause into consideration. The offence deserves no mercy, because it admits no excuse of accident; nor any temptation, except the highwayman's cause, the plunder of the people.

If bread be browner than it ought, hard and crumbly, there is bean flour mixed with the wheat, and probably no other ingredient. This is, perhaps, the most desirable bread that can be had in a time of general adulteration.

If it be white and crumbly, there is, probably, bean flour, whiting, and alum.

If it be white and heavy, there is reason to suspect slaked lime.

If it be white, brittle, and close, mouldering into crumbs as it is touched, probably there are slaked lime and bone ashes in it.

If it be heavy and brittle, whiting is most likely to be the principal ingredient. There is bread so loaded with this, that it will sink like a stone in water.

If it be heavy, rough, and solid, there is reason to suspect jalap; for it is the quality of that drug to prevent lightness.

These are the obvious marks of bad bread, and, according to these, the mistress of a family, the housekeeper, or common servant, may judge of it: but this, though a rational conjecture, is no more than a conjecture. There are ways by which those who are accustomed to the analysis of mixed bodies may more certainly discover the fraud.

The regular method to detect the fraud is this: cut off the crust from a loaf, and, setting that aside, cut the

crumb into very thin slices; break these, but not very small, and put them into a glass cucurbit, with a large quantity of water. Set this, without shaking, in a sand furnace, and let it stand, with a moderate warmth, four and twenty hours. The crumb of the bread will in this time, soften in all its parts, and the ingre dients will separate from it. The alum will dissolve in the water, and may be extracted from it in the usual way. The jalap, if any have been used, will swim upon the top in a coarse film, and the other ingredients, being heavy, will sink quite to the bottom. These are the principal; and the pap being poured off, there will remain the chalk, bone ashes, or whatsoever else was used, in a white powder at the bottom.

This is the best and most regular method of finding the deceit; but as cucurbits and sand furnaces are not at hand in private families, there is a more familiar method.

Let the crumb of a loaf be sliced as before directed, and put with a great deal of water into a large earthen pipkin. Let this be set over a very gentle fire, and kept a long time moderately hot; and the pap being poured off, the bone ashes, or other ingredients, will be found at the bottom.

ECONOMY OF FIRE.

There is no part of domestic economy which every body professes to understand better than the manage ment of a fire, and yet there is no branch in the household arrangement where there is a greater proportional and unnecessary waste than arises from ignorance and mismanagement in this article. It is an old adage, that we must stir no man's fire until we have known him seven years; but we might find it equally prudent if we were equally careful as to the stirring of our own. Any body, indeed, can take up a poker and toss the coals about; but that is not stirring a fire!

In short, the use of a poker applies solely to two particular points-the opening of an expiring fire, so as to

admit the free passage of the air into it, and sometimes, but not always, through it; or else approximating the remains of a half-burned fire, so as to concentrate the heat, whilst the parts still ignited are opened to the atmosphere.

The same observation may apply to the use of the bellows, the mere blowing of which, at random, nine times out of ten will fail; the force of the current of air sometimes blowing out the fire too rapidly, and at others, directing the warmed current from the unignited fuel, instead of into it. To prove this, let any person sit down with a pair of bellows to a fire only partially ignited, or partially extinguished; let him blow, at first, not into the burning part, but into the dead coals close to it, so that the air may partly extend to the burning coal. After a few blasts let the bellows blow into the burning fuel, but directing the stream partly towards the dead coal: it will then be found that the ignition will extend much more rapidly than under the common method of blowing furiously into the flame at random.

With these principles in view, we may now proceed to a more practical illustration of the subject, the first point being the qualities of the material, of which there is a great choice in the London market, amounting to upwards of sixty species, from the mere bituminous slate, up to the brilliant Cannel coal. For common use, in London, we recommend the best of the sea-coal, which is generally supposed to be from the Wallsend collieries, which comes by the Newcastle ships, affording heat and possessing durability. According to the present system, indeed, the consumer is quite at the mercy of the coal-merchant, but a little management may remedy even that. If the consumer, instead of ordering a large supply at once, will, at first, content himself with a sample, he may, with very little trouble, ascertain who will deal fairly with him; and, if he wisely pays ready money, he will be independent of his coal-merchant-a situation which all families in genteel life should boast of. Indeed to deal

for ready money only, in all the departments of domestic arrangement, is the truest economy. He who gives credit, hopes to secure custom by having a hold upon you in his books, and continues always to make up for his advance, either by an advanced price, or an inferior article; whilst the ready-money dealer knows that your custom can only be secured by a fair article. On this point, however, every one's experience may convince him.

In dealing with an honest coalmerchant, there can be no reason to expect fraud; yet there may be tricks on the part of his people, or of the lighterman, which must be guarded against in respect to measure. To illustrate this it will be sufficient state, that coals measured into a lighter may be wonderfully increased in quantity, by a little management. What is called "a room" of coals, in a lighter, is calculated to contain five chaldrons and a quarter, and ought to fill no more than sixty-eight sacks precisely; yet out of this quantity ninety sacks may be produced with a little ingenuity: and the only way to prevent it, is to pass the coals from the "room" to a measure, and thence into the sack.

We must now call to the recollection of our readers, that chimneys often smoke, and that coals are often wasted, by throwing too much fuel at once upon a fire. To prove this observation, it is only necessary to remove the superfluous coal from the top of the grate, when the smoking instantly ceases: as to the waste, that evidently proceeds from the frequent intemperate and injudicious use of the poker, which not only throws a great portion of the small coals among the cinders, but often extinguishes the fire it was intended to foster.

Taking off the superabundant fuel has also the advantage of permitting a freer draught through the fire, and of course presents a greater quantity of atmospheric oxygen as food for combustion, rendering a poker always useless. In short, a few minutes' patience will do more for a fire than stirring and knocking the coals about

for half an hour. The true secret is, that stirring a fire is only necessary to keep the bottom clear, except when the top absolutely requires breaking, or rather perforation only.

Attention to these hints will save nearly one-third of the coal expenditure-certainly an important object not only in London house-keeping, but in all parts of the empire.

With a little care the expenditure of coals, even in a kitchen grate, ought not to exceed two bushels weekly per grate; but the summer months reducing the general average, five chaldron annually will be a very fair allowance for a moderate sized family.

[Having given our plans in a former Number, we extract the following from the Oracle of Health, in order to give our readers as much information on the point it treats on as -possible.-EDIT.

FAMILY EXPENSES AND ECONOMY. Who does the best his circumstance allows, Does well-acts nobly-Angels could

not more.

YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.

Those who are not in the habit of squaring their outlay to their income, by keeping regular accounts, and by laying down a rigid estimate of what they can afford to spend, for obtaining necessaries and comforts within their reach, are not aware how much they must infallibly lose in the enjoyment of life, and in ease of mind. A very small income laid out according to a regular estimate, will procure more real comfort and daily enjoyment, than the double of it expended at random and as the fancy of the moment suggests. Those who have a fixed income, ought, therefore, to parcel it carefully out, according to some judicious estimate, framed suitable to their taste for the several articles of necessity and comfort. This, if executed with prudence, and firmly followed up, would be the most certain guarantee of arriving at independence, even in the humblest sphere; while, without this, the

highest income, will melt insensibly

away.

We shall give one strong instance of this, as an illustration :-Those who have but a small, though a regular income, and who expend it at random as caprice or necessity suggests, soon come to feel the want of ready money for some indispensable article of food or clothing; and are accordingly forced to procure it on credit, or want it altogether. Now, tradesmen and shopkeepers, when they deal with you on credit, are obliged, for their own protection against bad debts, or lying long out of their money, to put a high price on their goods; and of course, when you buy in this way, it is always at rack price. Not only so, but you must deal exclusively with the tradesmen from whom you can procure credit; and as they are aware of this, they serve you with the worst and unsaleable articles in their shops, reserving the best for their ready-money You have thus not only

customers.

bad articles, but pay higher for them than you would for the best, if you had your ready money in your hand. Your income will by these means be reduced to many pounds below the sum which you actually receive; for a good part of it must be paid away in a high per-centage to the shopkeepers and tradesmen with whom you deal on credit.

Taking the low estimate of 10 per cent (though in reality it is oftener 15 or 20), a man who has a pound a week, must, on the credit system, pay away two shillings of it in percentage, which will reduce it to eighteen shillings a week: in many cases it will reduce it to 17, and even 16 shillings a week. A man with 300l. a year must on the credit system, be reduced to 270l., that is, he must pay about 11s. 6d. a week for per-centage, a sum which would go far to pay his rent. If the per-centage be 15, or 20, as is not unusual, his income would be reduced from 300l. to 2551. or 240l. a year, or a fifth of the whole sum.

This we hope, will give our readers, who have not already considered the matter, a clear view of the folly of

ROLLS.

To the Editor of The Economist. SIR;-The first scenic representation that I can remember enjoying, was a portable diorama, vulgarly called a puppet-show. The flag flying at the top, the squirrel wasting its little rage in the musical round-about, with the appropriate motto of "Let the ingeninis live," attracted the notice, and raised the curiosity of all the little multitude who surrounded the showman's-box; the moneyless, with anxious curiosity endeavouring slyly to steal a peep, whilst those in the possession of the spectacle zealously guarded their right: there was the grand view of the church of St. Peter's at Rome, the beautiful gardens of the Thuilleries, the great sea-fight off Camperdown, the inside of Solomon's Temple, all of solid gold, and the grand doge of Venice, proceeding in state in his gondola. But the last scene of all was the ne plus ultra of the dramatic art there was represented his satanic majesty in personal conflict with a roguish Knight of the Peel-the monotonous voice of the exhibitor, as much addressed to the crowd around him to attract customers as to the beholders of the exhibition-" There's the devil come to fetch the baker for making his rolls so small in the morning: pull devilpull baker. There, now you see the

:

devil put the baker in his basketthere's the devil running away with the baker. Now, if the size of the rolls could then be supposed to excite the ire of Old Nick, what is to be expected now?-I have a roll before me, weighing exactly four ounces; this is at the rate of 4d. per lb., or sixteen-pence the 4-lb. loaf. Now, when bread was at its present price at the time of the pantomimic struggle between Old Scratch and the Man of Dough, we had halfpenny rolls in common, one of which was very nearly as large as that now charged a penny for. I am desirous that the devil should neither have occasion to pay visits abroad, nor receive company at home; and taking a peculiar interest in the safety of the bakers, notwithstanding how black Mr. Maton has painted them, I trust they will take the hint in time, and thus escape the extended talons of Old Nick on the one hand, and the extensive talents of the projected Baking Company on the other. This, Mr. Editor, being the chief object of my present communication, I pray that your excellency may be preserved a thousand years,

And remain your's occasionally,
PETER PRY.

SUBSTITUTE FOR SOAP.

In a former Number we cautioned our readers against an article called East-India Soap sold cheap; we observe it now marked up in various parts of London: it is really useless. We now beg to suggest a mode of saving soap in washing linen, &c. Peel and boil potatoes until they are three parts done; soak the linen in cold water for an hour, then place it in a copper of boiling water; take it out, and rub it well with the potatoe in the same way as with soap; being thus well rubbed and wrung, plunge it a second time in the copper, into which place a quantity of potatoes in the same way as you boil soap with linen: let the whole boil for half an hour; rub it thoroughly again all over, and wring it; throw it again in the copper for a few minutes, then well riuse it in a large quantity of water twice over; let it then remain in