tional fatisfaction from reflecting that these advantages will be combined with many other national objects of the greateft magnitude. They, therefore, proceed to recommend thofe meafures which in their judgement appear beft adapted to produce an immediate extenfion of the fishery, and to provide for the fupply being generally diftributed as expeditiously as poffible over different parts of the kingdom. A very material advantage will be fecured to the adventurers by allowing them the ufe of duty-free falt, for curing herrings in bulk as well as in barrel, in fuch limited quantities as not to occafion the danger of confiderable fraud on the revenue. With refpect to the quantity proper to be allowed, your committee have examined fome of the officers of revenue moft converfant with the fubject, and from their teftimony, fupported by the evidence given to former committees, it refults, that fixty-five pounds of falt are fufficient to preferve a cran of herrings during the voyage from the Forth to any part of the coaft of England, and for fome weeks after their arrival, and to allow in ordinary cafes for fuch waste as is unavoidable. This allowance your committee therefore recommend as proper to be granted by the exprefs provifions of an act of parliament. An additional encouragement will be given, by relieving perfons difpofed to engage in this adventure, from the apprehenfion of being preffed into his majefty's naval fer vice. Your committee therefore think it highly expedient that perfons willing to proceed to the Firth of Forth hould be protected against the im prefs during their paffage to the Forth, their employment in the fifhery, and their return, if effected within a reafonable time. An order to this effect has been already given. by the board of admiralty, but your committee think it may be advifable to eftablish this protection by act of parliament. In order to encourage the greateft number of adventurers to repair to the Forth, directions have been given by the treafury to the officers of the cuftoms on the eastern coaft of the island, to give notice to all fifhers, or other perfons owning boats capable of being fo employed, of the great profit to be derived from that fishery, and of the indulgencies propofed to be granted to them, and to procure conveyance to Leith for fuch as are willing to engage in it; and two officers in the revenue, particularly converfant in this bufinefs, have been dipatched to thofe parts of the coaft for the fame purpofes, with directions to purchase and fend to Leith the nets of fuch fishermen as they may not be able to induce to repair there. But the obtaining from the fea as large a stock of filh as can by any means be procured, though an ef fential, is by no means the only object requiring the attention of parliament in this branch of the inquiries of your committee. The most abundant fupply may, to a great degree, be rendered ufelefs, to far as the internal provifion of the country is concerned, unless proper means are employed to regulate its diftribution. and arrangement, and to remove the prejudices which at firft ufually oppole the introduction of a new article of food. This your committee think will be beft effected by the activity of voluntary affociations of individuals, who who may provide a fupply fuited to the wants of their refpective diftri&ts, and promote its confumption by their perfuafion and example. In all confiderable towns a weekly fupply may be provided and retailed to the inhabitants in general, as well as diftributed to the poor by the overfeers, in a certain proportion to their parochial relief. It is more peculiarly defirable that fuch focieties fhould be formed in the metropolis, and fuch other places as are fituated at the mouths of great rivers, and form the centres of extenfive inland navigations, fuch as Liverpool, Briftol, Hull, and Lynn. what can reafonably be expected from the voluntary efforts of individuals, even where they have a fair prospect of being ultimately repaid, your committee think it essential, in order that the public may reap from them all the advantages which they appear capable of affording, that public aid, by a temporary advance of money, fhould be furnished in fuch places as are moft convenient for the formation of large depofits. There is also a fishery carried on in the western parts of the kingdom, from which fome fupply of pilchards may be expected to a limited ex. tent. The fealon for this fishery is at prefent over; and you committee are informed that about ten thousand barrels of this fish are now cured, and ready for exportation. As they have been prepared in expectation By forming confiderable ftores in each of thofe places, and fuch others as may be found most convenient for general communication, and by acorrefpondence eftablished between the focieties at each of thofe central places, and thofe of the furround- of the bounties granted by former ing district, the demands of every part of the country may be regularly upplied. And your committee have the fatisfaction to find that, even previous to their inquiries into this ubject, an affociation formed for other ufeful purpofes, the "Society for bettering the Condition of the Poor," had undertaken in London the execution of a plan fimilar to what is here recommended; and that as far as their operations have yet extended, they have met with all the fuccefs which could be reafon ably hoped for, and have obtained a degree of public countenance and approbation which ftrongly marks a general difpofition to forward defigns of this nature, as well as others of active benevolence. But as the, execution of fuch plans on the extenfive feale here pointed out will neceffarily in the firft inftance require an advance of capital beyond acts of parliament, your committee do not think it would be juft to the adventurers, to deprive them of this bounty, by prohibiting the exportation; but in order to remove the temptation of carrying to a foreign market fuch proportion of the fish fo cured as may find any demand at home, they beg leave to recommend to the house, that the bounty to which the adventurers are now entitled, upon the exportation of the pilchards actually prepared for that purpose, fhould be paid to them, notwithstanding fuch pilchards fhould not be exported. This measure will bring no additional charge upon the public, as the money is already due; but it may operate in retaining for the fubfiftence of thofe parts of the kingdom which are fartheft removed from the herring fifhery a fupply of cheap and wholefome food of the fame nature. Your Your committee have received in formation, that at the period when the herring fishery must be expected to end, the mackerel fishery begins on the western and fouthern coafts of England; and they have every reafon to believe that a very confiderable fupply of mackerel may be obtained in fucceffion to the her rings. Your committee will proceed to investigate the fubject more particularly; and if their prefent expecta tion fhall appear to be well founded, they will fuggeft to the houfe the expediency of affording the fame encouragement and advantage to this fishery as they propofe to the houfe now to give to the herring fishery. Refolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that an act made in the 36th year of his prefent majefty, intituled, "An Act to permit Bakers to make and fell certain Sorts of Bread," fhould be repealed. Refolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that, in order to make more effectual provifion for that purpole, it is expedient to allow mixed bread, and every fpecies of wheaten bread, except the bread made of fine household flour, to be made and fold without affize. Refolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that the provifions, of an act made in the laft feffion of parliament, intituled, "An VOL. XLII, Act to prohibit, until the Expiration of fix Weeks after the Commencement of the next Seffion of Parlia ment, any Perfon or Perfons from felling any Bread which fhall not have been baked a certain Time," fhould be continued with fuch amendments as may make the fame more effectual. Refolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that it is expedient to allow the ufe of falt dutyfree, for the purpose of preferving pilchards, mackerel, and every other kind and fpecies of wholefome fill, either in bulk or in barrels, for a limited time. Fourth Report of the fame Committee. They have farther proceeded in the matters to them referred, and have agreed upon the following report, viz. One of the most important objects which has engaged the attention of your committee, has been the confideration of the different modes of dreffing wheat, with a view to afcertain whether, by any alteration in the fame, any confiderable addition could be made to that proportion of the produce which is now applied to the immediate fubfiftence of the people. This fubject has been at various times under the confideration of committees of this houfe, and of the legiflature. An act was paffed in the 13th year of his majefty's reign, by which magiftrates were empowered, at their difcretion, to fet the affize upon ftandard wheaten bread alone, and thereby to prohibit the making of all other forts of bread; but as the affize-tables contained in that act were fo drawn that the profit to I the mical fpecies of bread, it appears evident to your committee, that no fufficient reliance can be placed upon the repetition of fimilar measures, as adequate to afford material relief in the prefent emergency; and they are deeply impreffed with the perfuafion, that a degree of advantage which was not thought upon those occafions a fufficient inducement to adopt any particular meafure, may become fo upon the prefent; and that difficulties, which then deferved to have confiderable weight, are now entitled to much less attention. This obfervation applies ftill more forcibly to the fpecies of bread which your committee now propose to recommend; as the degree of advantage to be derived from it, is much greater than could be expected from adopting that fpecies of bread, of which the laft-mentioned committee declined to recommend that the confumption should be enforced by any politive law. the baker was far more confiderable upon the fine wheaten bread than upon that of a coarfer fort, the act has proved ineffectual. The tife of bread made of wheat, from which only 5lbs. of the bran had been excluded, was one of the means of reducing the consumption of wheat fpecified in the engagement which was entered into by the house in December, 1793, for that purpofe; and an act was then passed for allow ing bakers to make fuch bread (as well as bread made of different fpecies of grain) without being fubject to the regulations of affize. The committee, which fat in the beginning of the prefent year, employed much time and labour in the inveftigation of this matter. But al though the refult of their deliberations, as ftated in their first report, was, that they were not fatisfied that any faving would arife proportionate to the difadvantages which would in the firft inftance attend prohibiting the millers from making. Your committee, under thefe cirany fort of flour, except one which contained a larger proportion of the grain than is now in ufe; yet they ftate, in a fubfequent report, that they are ftrongly impreffed with the advantage which might refult from the confumption of bread made of the whole meal, and recommend that an affize should be framed fo as to promote the ufe thereof. A bill. was brought in for that and other purpofes in the laft feffion; but as the fubject required great length of examination, and as many difficulties occurred in parts of it, the bill was at that time relinquished. From the failure of the meafures of permiffion and recommendation which have been adopted upon former occafions, in order to introduce the confumption of a more econo cumftances, have thought it their duty both to refer to the evidence collected by former committees, and to inftitute fuch farther inquiries as the time would allow, and as appeared neceffary to enable them to form fuch an opinion as they could prefume to fubmit to the judgement of the house. The advantage to be procured by drefling wheat in a manner different from that which is practised for the fupply of London, and of other places where the fine household bread is confumed, appears to be of two kinds. It arifes from the production of a greater quantity of materials for bread from a given measure of wheat, and of a greater quantity of bread from a given weight of materials. Both Both these causes operate moft powerfully in the coarleft of all wheaten bread, that which is made of the whole produce of the grain without any feparation. Specimens of this bread have been produced to your committee, and appeared palatable, wholefome, and nutritious. But though bread of this fort may be introduced with great advantage, where the wheat is well harvested and of good quality, and in fuch cases the faving may be computed at not lefs than one-third, yet your committee are induced, by feveral confiderations, not to recommend this as the only mode of preparing that fpecies of grain. They are informed, that in fome cafes where wheat has been very ill harvested, or is much damaged, it can only be made fit for ufe by a feparation of the outward coat or hufk; the coarse bran which is retained in this kind of bread, contains lefs nutriment than the other parts of the grain, and may render the food not only lefs palatable, but less likely to agree for a time with perfons unaccustomed to it, than the bread now recommended, from which the coarfe bran is excluded. It may alfo be apprehended, that if no flour or meal of a finer fort than the whole meal were allowed to be made, it would prove a confiderable difcouragement to one of the most useful methods of economy, the ufe of bread made of other kinds of grain mixed in different proportions with wheat; fuch mixtures, though capable of producing excellent bread when the grain has been fo dreffed as to exclude the broad bran only, are rendered lefs palatable by the introduction of that article. It is, however, of the greatest importance, that as large a portion of the grain should be introduced into food, as is confiftent with the use of wheat of different qualities, and with the mixture of wheat with other grain. This appears to be effected by the ule of what is called an 8s. 6d. feamed cloth, or a patent cloth No. 2, which excludes only the broad bran, weighing about 5lbs., or 6lbs. in a bufhel of wheat. Bread of this defcription includes all the finer parts of the wheat, and excludes the outward hufk. It is little inferior, except in colour, to the white bread, and is far fuperior in every respect to the bread containing none of the finer parts, which forms the food of thofe countries from whence London is fupplied with flour. In point of economy, this fpecies of bread comes nearest to that which is made of the whole meal, producing an addition of fomewhat more than one-fifth to the bread which would be made in the ordinary mode from an equal quantity of wheat. This calculation is made on a fuppofition, that, in the ordinary mode of dividing the grain, the whole of what is called weigh ing ftuff, comprising the feconds, thirds, and middlings, as well as the fine flour, is made into bread or bifcuit. Suppofing the quantity of various kinds of grain confumed in bread in England to amount to nine millions of quarters, and that one-third of this quantity is made into fine bread, the faving which will be made in nine months, by the use of the kind of bread here propofed, will be no lefs than 450,000 quarters, or about three weeks confumption of that part of the kingdom. When the reality as well as the neceffity of this faving is made apparent to the people, it may be expected that their good fenfe will easily reconcile I 2 them |