any other of other parishes, or out of any parish within the said county, for the purposes aforesaid, as in their discretion shall seem fit."

This clause, when acted upon, as it has been in some instances, is understood to have led to great litigation between parishes, and to have failed of much of its intended effect; and the mode of carrying it into execution, appears to your Committee to be particularly ill calculated to provide a remedy for the evil which they have described. Though it affords a clear proof of the general intention of the legislature in this respect, it shows, that it was not the purpose of parliament that parishes burthened in a particular manner with the poor, should be so far insulated from all others, as never to call upon them for relief; and that even whole counties were considered as liable, if necessary, to be charged with additional poor rates, in order to ease contiguous parishes which were alike burthened. But in respect to the manner of apportioning the new burthen, it gives much more discretion to the magistrates than they can be supposed desirous of exercising; while also (leaving evidently out of its contemplation the case of a few adjacent parishes, all equally disabled from supporting their poor, through their contiguity to the metropolis) it directs the levying of the auxiliary rate only in a part of that particular hundred, which comprehends the parish or parishes in distress; except, indeed, that when such whole hundred shall have been rendered in the same degree incapable of affording further support of the poor, direction is then given to raise the whole sum that is necessary, arbitrarily, in any part of the same county. But, however defective this clause in the act of Elizabeth may be, the general principle of it is so equitable in itself, and is so easily rendered applicable to the case of over-burthened parishes adjoining to London, that your Committee are induced to express their very clear opinion of the expediency of so far following it, as to authorise the raising of some local fund for the purpose of easing the three parishes, of whose distress complaints have been made. The sum wanted, in order both to discharge a chief part of their present very oppressive debts, to relieve some of the more indigent housekeepers, now charged to the rates, and to provide, until the season of the next harvest, a fund for the support of the poor, that shall bear some proportion to the funds for that purpose, which are within the power of other parishes, will probably be between 20,000l. and 30,000l. a sum so light when levied on the whole metropolis, and so evidently called for by the necessity of the case, that your Committee trust the propriety of such a measure, as they now propose, will be generally felt. Whether this sum may best be raised by a small addition to the present poor-rates, subject possibly to some general as well as particular exemptions, or by a per-centage,

calculated on certain of the assessed taxes paid by persons in the metropolis, or by any other local fund, must be a subject for the consideration of the House.

Your Committee, in the mean time, from the pressing exigency of the case, think it necessary to recommend that, with a view to the immediate ease of the parishes in question, the House should address his majesty, that he would be graciously pleased to advance for their use, out of the civil list, such sum as may be deemed necessary, assuring his majesty that the House will proceed to make good the same; and your Committee beg leave to express their opinion, that it ought to be made good out of such local fund, as shall be provided by parliament for that purpose.

Your Committee have only further to observe, that they trust the levying of a local tax through the metropolis, with the view which has been stated, will not be considered as opening the way to any invasion of that general principle of the Poor laws, by which parishes, which have sufficient means of maintaining their poor, are exclusively charged with their support; a principle which they deem highly conducive to the good management of the poor, and respecting the preservation of which, the House can scarcely be too jealous.

Your Committee conceive that the measure now proposed, being founded in the principle laid down in one of the clauses of that act from which the Poor laws of this country took their rise; and being also called for by the singular circumstances of the district which they have described, as well as by the extraordinary pressure of the present time, will form no precedent that can be pleaded, except in some case of similar emergency, and in a like period of dearness of provisions, and consequent distress.

Dec. 19. The House took into consideration the preceding Report, and came to the following Resolutions: 1. "That an humble Address be presented to his majesty, to lay before his majesty a copy of the Fifth Report made from the Committee, to whom it was referred to consider of the present high price of provisions; and humbly to desire that his majesty will be graciously pleased to advance out of the civil list such sum as his majesty may think necessary for the immediate relief of the poor in the parishes of Saint Matthew Bethnal Green, Mile End New Town, and Christ Church Spital Fields; and to assure his majesty 2. That, for the purpose of giving temthat this House will make good the same. porary relief to such parishes within the Bills of Mortality, and adjacent thereunto, as may be incapable of supporting

their own poor, it is necessary that a local fund should be raised, by some general tax or rate upon the inhabitants of the parishes within the said district, and adjacent thereunto, under such regulations, and with such exemptions, as may be thought expedient; and that such sums as his majesty may think proper to advance, in pursuance of the said Address, should be made good out of the produce of such local fund.”

Supplement to the First Report of the Commons' Committee on the High Price of Provisions.] Mr. Ryder brought up the following

SUPPLEMENT TO THE FIRST REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO CONSIDER OF THE HIGH PRICE OF PROVISIONS. Your Committee beg leave to lay before the House, as a Supplement to their First Report, a statement of some of the various modes in which rice has been used; which afford the strongest confirmation of the opinion expressed in that Report, that the quantity of food to be derived from equal quantities of rice and wheat, is, in a very great proportion, in favour of the former. They think it necessary also to observe, that the extreme utility of this article, particularly as the food of children, renders it highly desirable that it should in no degree be applied to unnecessary consumption; and that those families which make up for the retrenchment of a certain quantity of bread and flour by the use of rice, in any thing near an equal quantity, instead of forwarding the object of his majesty's proclamation, directly counteract it.

It appears from the evidence of Mr. Bernard, treasurer of the Foundling-hospital, that the use of rice has been adopted in that charity, in a very considerable extent, ever since July 1795; and that it has been found a wholesome and nutritious food. It has been given to the children for their dinner, two days in the week, in the room of pudding made of flour and suet; 21 lbs. of rice, soaked in water over night, and baked with eighteen gallons of milk and 6 lbs. of treacle, have been found to be a sufficient meal for 170 children, and fully equivalent to their former food, consisting of 168 lbs. of flour, with 20 gallons of milk, 20 lbs. of suet, and some other ingredients. The saving to the hospital (when flour was 34d. per lb. or 75s. per sack, and rice 24d per lb. or about 23s. per cwt.) was 5l. 16s. 1d. out of 7l. 12s. 10d. the cost of two weekly meals) or above 300l. per annum, being more than 35s. per head; and the diminution of the annual consumption of flour was above 17,000 lbs. Since the time at which this calculation was made, the price of rice has risen in a greater proportion than the price of flour; yet the amount of the greater

increase upon a small quantity of rice, is so much less than that of the smaller increase upon a large quantity of flour; that the pecuniary saving to the hospital would, upon the same number of children, be much greater at the present moment than what has been above stated. The advance upon flour, from 758. per sack to 120s. adds about 278. to the cost of each weekly meal for 170 children; the advance of rice from about 23s. per cwt, to 46s. adds only 5s. 44d to the same. that time the number of children has increased to 220; and they have now also rice

Since

porridge for their breakfast three days a week; the saving in money and in flour is therefore proportionably increased.

Your Committee have submitted this minute detail to the attention of the House, for the purpose of obviating the impression, that the present dearness of rice nearly precludes all saving of expense, by the substitution of that article in the place of flour. When the great supplies, which are expected, arrive, the price must undoubtedly fall, and the advantage in that respect will increase in a very large proportion. But, at the present rates of rice and flour, it is still so considerable as to be, even in that point of view alone, an object of great importance. After an experiment, carried on to such an extent, for such a length of time, and upon such a number of children of all ages from the age of four to fourteen, without the least detriment to their health, under the care of a gentleman whose exemplary attention to the concerns of this charity entitles his evidence to the greatest credit, it cannot be doubted that the use of this article, as a part of the food of children, will be attended with the greatest advantages, by diminishing both the expense of their maintenance and the consumption of flour.

It is also stated by Mr. Bernard, that, to dress the rice to advantage, it should be boiled gently for three hours (or if in soft water for a less time) over a small fire, not larger than what cottages usually have; and that it requires no more attendance than the woman of the family can give consistently with her ordinary employments.

Mr. Bernard also informed your Committee, that rice had been used extensively and bene ficially, by the directions of the bishop of Durham, in the subsistence of labourers at Durham, Bishops Auckland, and Mongewell, and various other places, according to a receipt (inserted in the Appendix), by which from 6 to 8 lbs. of food were produced from one pound of rice boiled in three quarts of water, with the addition of one ounce of hog's lard or hog's fat, and a little salt and all-spice.

Some further experiments, made by the same gentleman, on the use of rice mixed with flour in making bread, are also inserted in the Appendix; together with a letter from the Rev. Mr. Smith of Wendover, by which it appears, that when flour was 34d. per lb. and rice 4d. per lb. bread was made of an ex

cellent quality, at the rate of 1s. Old. per quartern loaf, by mixing 2lbs. of rice with 11lbs. of flour, and preparing it in the manner there stated. The flour used in this experiment was made from foreign wheat coarsely dressed, so that 46lbs. of flour were produced from a bushel of wheat weighing 56lbs.

It has also been stated to your Committee, by Mr. George Vansittart (member for the county of Berks), that he has found, by repeated trials, that 6 lbs. of flour with 1lb. of rice produced 11 lbs. 8oz. of very good bread, and that such bread has been used without complaint in his family, at the reduced allowance of ten ounces per day for each person: 7 lbs. of flour usually makes 8lbs. 11 oz. of bread. The increase of the quantity of bread, by using rice in that proportion instead of flour, is therefore 2 lbs. 13 oz.; and it appears from thence, that the additional bread produced by adding 1lb. of rice to 6 lbs. of flour, is above three times greater than what would have been produced by adding 1 lb. of flour to the same quantity.

Your Committee have also inserted in their Appendix, two receipts, communicated by Mr. Hugh Inglis, Chairman of the East-India Company; by which it appears that rice may be used with great advantage when boiled with beef dripping or salted mutton.

The result of a great many experiments upon a mixture of rice and Scotch barley boiled together, and sweatened with sugar, is detailed in a letter from Mr. Parish to the magistrates of Montrose, which was transmitted to your Committee by Mr. David Scott (an extract of which is inserted in the Appendix). It appears from this letter, that the use of this species of porridge, as a substitute for porridge made of oatmeal, has been carried to a considerable extent; and that the addition to the quantity of food, as well as the diminution of expense, prove it to be one of the most advantageous methods of preparing rice.

Sixth Report of the Commons' Committee on the High Price of Provisions.] Mr. Ryder also presented the following Report:

SIXTH REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO CONSIDER OF THE HIGH PRICE OF PROVISIONS. Your Committee have proceeded further in the matters to them referred; and have agreed upon the following Report:

Your Committee have stated, in their First Report, the reasons which induced them to direct their attention, in the first instance, to such measures as appeared best calculated to alleviate the present pressure, and as were capable of being carried into execution during the existence of this parliament, have submitted to the wisdom of the House, in that and in their subsequent Reports, such suggestions as have appeared to them to fall

within that description. They have been anxious to discharge with diligence the task which was imposed upon them, and have continued their sittings without intermission from day to day, from the period of their appointment to the present moment, when their proceedings are interrupted by the necessary termination of this session, in consequence of the Union with Ireland. Notwithstanding their best exertions, so much time has been unavoidably occupied by the consideration and discussion of matters connected, with the different measures above alluded to, which appeared to your Committee, in every point of view, the most important as well as the most urgent, that they have found it impossible to enter, so fully as they could wish, upon other parts of the extensive and complicated subject which the House has thought proper to refer to them.

The manner in which the commerce of grain is carried on, has however engaged no small proportion of their attention; but even upon this branch of the subject, the information which they have hitherto obtained, is far from being sufficient to enable your Committee to lay before the House any correct statement of facts, much less any well considered opinion resulting from them. To form such an opinion, requires the attentive consideration of a great body of existing laws, and a minute acquaintance with an extensive system of trade, together with all the variations which have taken place, either by the authority of the legislature, or by changes of practice arising from an alteration in the habits of the people, or from the growth of commerce, and the increase of wealth. The subject also is of a nature which requires peculiar caution, from the danger which might attend an erroneous judgment, misled on the one hand by popular prejudice, or on the other by plausible theories, formed without sufficient examination of facts.

Your Committee have also considered, that the interval will be very short between the conclusion of the present session and the meeting of the parliament of the United Kingdom, when the inquiry into this, and other parts of the subject may, and (as they humbly conceive) ought to be immediately resumed. They think it therefore more consistent with their duty, to leave whatever information they have collected as the groundwork of future and more: complete investigation, rather than to hazard any hasty suggestions or statements upon a matter of so much delicacy and difficulty; and they are persuaded that the delay which may be thus occasioned, will be amply compensated by more mature discussion, and a more deliberate decision.

Your Committee, upon reviewing the dif ferent measures which have been adopted during the present session, have thought that it might be satisfactory to the House, if, before they conclude, they were to take some