A306] 
Copy of @ Letter from Sir Francis 
Basset, Bart. to the Chairman of 
the Cornu Committee. 
Upper Grosvenor-strect, 
Sir; Dec. 22, 1745. 
Many complaints having been 
made in different parts of England, 
of the hardships suffered by the 
poor from the present mode of pay- 
ment for grinding corn, and also 
of the difficulty of obtaining re- 
dress, whenever there is a suspicion 
that frauds are practised by the 
millers; I beg leave, through you, 
to submit to the corn cominittee a 
plan for remedying those supposed 
grievances. 
I would propose, in the first 
place, to alter the present custom of 
taking toll, into a uniform payment 
in money, to be settled by the jus- 
tices, with respec toall mills where 
such alterations would not interfere 
with peculiar rights established 
by the courts of Jaw. I further 
propose to enable those persons 
who may in future think themselves 
agerieved by millers, to obtain 
redress by a summary proceeding 
before two justices of the peace, 
instead of being obliged to have 
recourse to so expensive and so 
tedious a process as an indi. 
ment. As the law stands at present, 
the proprietor of an old mil] may 
take his accustomed toll; but as 
that toll is knowa only to him- 
self (fos, it is rarely avowed to 
his customer), this gives him a con- 
siderable latitude, and is a constant 
and never-failing source of jealousy 
to those who employ him. I have 
just said that the customer seidom 
knows what he pays; but in the 
few cases which have come to my 
knowledge, where the miiler pro. 
fesses to take a fixed toll, it varies 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1706. 
from three to six pounds per Wins 
chester bushel, besides the allow- 
ance from a pound to a pound and 
a half for wastage. In taking toll, 
the miller by uniform custom, 
helps himself from the top, which 
consists of the best and finest flour. 
}t appears then, that the proprie- 
tor of an old mill may take suck 
toll as is justified by custom; but 
the owner of a new mill may take 
what toll he chuses, according to: 
the opinion of lord Holt, in the 
case of the King and Burdett : thisy 
probably, is the only existing case 
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 
to take a fair price for their labour, 
and could not, therefore, I presume, 
reasonably obje& to a regulation, 
obliging them to receive a fixed 
payment in money, instead of an 
arbitrary and uncertain toll in 
grain; indeed, if they are con. 
vinced that the complaints alleged 
against them are unfounded (as in 
many cases they probably are), they 
would rather rejoice to see 2 mode _ 
of payment adopted, by which all 
jealousies will be avoided in future; - 
ahd by which they would receive 
an adequate compensation for the 
Jabour performed, and the capital 
F ) Pp 
employed. ‘Lhe toll, as now taken, 
is certainly extremely oppressive 
to the poor, who pay the most when 
they can the least afford it ; and 
if frauds are ever practised by mil-- 
lers, they afte most likely to take 
place when there is the greatest 
temptation, that is, when corn bears 
a high price. a 
It will not be necessary to say 
much respecting the preference 
which a summary proceeding must 
; have 
