114 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



the baker was far more considerable 

 upon the fine wheaten bread than 

 upon that of a coarser sort, the act 

 has proved ineffectual. The use of 

 bread made of wheat, from which 

 only 5lbs. of the bran had been ex- 

 eluded, was one of the means of 

 reducing the consumption of wheat 

 specified in the engagement which 

 was entered into by the house in 

 December, 1795, for that purpose; 

 and an act was then passed for allow- 

 ing bakers to make such bread (as 

 well as bread made of different spe- 

 cies of grain) without being subject 

 to the regulations of assize. The 

 committee, which sat in the begin- 

 ning of the present year, employed 

 much time and labour in the inves- 

 tigation of this matter. But al- 

 though the result of their delibera- 

 tions, as stated in their first report, 

 was, that they were not satisfied 

 that any saving would arise propor- 

 tionate to the disadvantages which 

 would in the first instance attend 

 prohibiting the millers from making 

 any sort of flour, except one which 

 contained a larger proportion of the 

 grain than is now in use; yet they 

 state in a subsequent report, that 

 they are strongly impressed with the 

 advantage which might result from 

 the consumption of bread made of 

 the whole meal, and recommend 

 that an assize should be framed so as 

 to promote the use thereof. A bill 

 was brought in for that and other 

 purposes in the last session ; but as 

 the subject required great length of 

 examination, and as many difficul- 

 ties occurred in parts of it, the bill 

 was at that time relinquished. 



From the failure of the measures 

 of permission and recommendation 

 which have been adopted upon for- 

 mer occasions, in order to introduce 

 the consuiiiption of a more econo- 



mical species of bread, it appears 

 e\'ident to your committee, that no 

 sufficient reliance can be placed upon 

 the repetition of similar measures, 

 as adequate to afford material relief 

 in the present emergency; and they 

 are deeply impressed with the per- 

 suasion, that a degree of advantage 

 which was not thought upon those 

 occasions a sufficient inducement to 

 adopt any particular measure, may 

 become so upon the present ; and 

 that difficulties, which then deserv- 

 ed to have considerable weight, are 

 now entitled to much less attention. 

 This observation applies still more 

 forcibly to the species 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 expect- 

 ed from adopting that species of 

 bread, of which the last-mentioned J 

 committee declined to recommend ^ 

 that the consumption should be 

 enforced by any positive law. 



Your committee, under these 

 circumstance;?, have thought it their 

 duty both to refer to the evidence 

 collected by former committees, and 

 to institute such farther inquiries as 

 the time would allow, and as ap- 

 peared necessary to enable them to 

 form such an opinion as they could 

 presume to submit to the judge- 

 ment of the house. 



The advantage to be procured by 

 dressing wheat in a manner differ- 

 ent from that which is practised for 

 the supply of London, and of other 

 places where the fine household 

 bread is consumed, appears to be 

 of two kinds. It arises 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. 



