The Supply of Meat to Large Towns. 529 



country -killed meat did not look so well as that wliich was slaughtered 

 in London, lie would observe that the "look" was not everything. 

 " The proof of the pudding was in the eating ; " and he questioned 

 much whether the London polished meat — that was to say, moat 

 that was polished up with warm water, grease, and other stuff, just 

 as an old apple-woman at a stall polished her fruit every morning — 

 was really as good as the country meat. But there was no doubt 

 that the system of polishing, and other niceties and refinements which 

 were so well understood in London, would also become familiar in the 

 country, as soon as it was discovered that it was worth while to 

 resort to it. 



In alluding to the difficulty there was in regulating prices, Mr. 

 Herbert had left out of accoimt the service which the telegraph might 

 render. It was hardly possible to overrate the importance of its 

 agency in reference to this matter, and a practical man had informed 

 him that they were perpetually telegraphing from Newgate Market 

 with regard to the supply of dead meat. A telegram was sent down, say, 

 to Aberdeen ; and the cattle, which were there ready for slaughtering, 

 were at once despatched and sent oif by railway. There was a ciu'ious 

 circumstance connected with the London market and the subject of 

 offal. It was that beef-fat was regularly sent on its travels into other 

 lands, and when it came back it was not in its original shape, but as 

 tallow. 



Mr. Herbeet remarked that it was purchased in London by the 

 Dutch ; and being carried into Holland, it was there converted into 

 butter and tallow, and in that form was retm-ned to London. 



Earl Cathcakt said that was an agreeable piece of information to 

 impart to the consumers of butter. Moreover, if they knew how the 

 " roast beef of old England " was poured into Newgate Market, he did 

 not think they would relish it as they did now. Mr. Herbert had 

 referred to the subject of competition ; and he believed that all autho- 

 rities were agreed that a central metropolitan market must be esta- 

 blished, because of the necessity for having the means of regulating 

 prices. If there were many meat markets, prices might greatly vary, 

 and the competition which was essential for the regulation of the 

 prices of meat be reduced. All authorities, then, were pretty well 

 agreed as to the necessity for having a central metrojiolitan market 

 for dead meat ; but he spoke with all deference in the hearing of 

 Mr. Herbert, who, of course, possessed better information than he 

 could be expected to have. Here he woidd refer to the rei)ort of the 

 Commission of Inquiry which sat in the year 1850, on the subject 

 of meat-markets in the City of London ; and he thought the evidence 

 he was about to quote fi'om that report was of particular importance, 

 because it was given at a period when a cattle plague panic was not 

 even dreamt of. They said that the supply to the City of London 

 was more in summer and less in winter ; and that the number of 

 carcases sent to Newgate Market in 1849, according to Mr. Giblett's 

 estimate, supposed by the Commissioners to be imder the mark, was 

 of beasts 12,000, sheep 5,250, calves 800, and pigs 400. In hot 

 weather, they said the dead-meat sales fell off, and those of the live 



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