132 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



of about three weeks, and that many 

 parts of the kingdom were at that 

 period wholly supplied with foreign 

 grain. 



Part Second. — Means of economiz- 

 ing Consumption. 

 In their first report, the lords' 

 committees ad vised your lordships to 

 concur in an address to his majesty, 

 as proposed by the house of com- 

 mons, humbly requesting that his 

 majesty would be graciously pleased 

 to issue a proclamation, strictly en- 

 joining and requiring the utmost 

 economy in the consumption of all 

 articles of grain. The lords' com- 

 mittees can entertain no doubt of 

 the disposition of their fellow-sub- 

 jects to concur in carrying into the 

 fullest effect the solemn cull which 

 his majesty has, in consequence 

 thereof, been pleased to make on 

 all classes of the community. But 

 they take the liberty to repeat to 

 your lordships their decided opinion, 

 that this can only be done by the 

 adoption of detailed measures for 

 the purpose, grounded on a deli- 

 berate conviction of that necessity, 

 the existence of which has, on the 

 fullest investigation, been clearly 

 proved to the committees of both 

 houses of parliament. 



With a view to bring more par- 

 ticularly before your lordships the 

 consideration of the different re- 

 sources to which recourse may be 

 had on this occasion, to economize 

 the consumption of wheat, the lords' 

 committees have entered very ex- 

 tensively into this branch of the 

 subject referred to them. 



The most natural and obvious 

 substitutes for wheat are the other 

 grains of the growth of this Idng- 

 dom, barley, oat.s, and rye. 



With respect to these, the lords' 



committeeshave been informed that 

 a much larger proportion than is 

 perhaps generally understood, of the 

 northern parts of England, has al- 

 ways continued in the habit of con- 

 suming oaten bread, and that in the 

 midland and western counties, bar- 

 ley enters largely into the food of 

 the labouringclasses; and they trust 

 that these facts, strongly urged and 

 impressed upon the public mind, 

 will tend to remove an ill-founded 

 prejudice which your committee are 

 informed still exists in this metro- 

 polis, and in its neighbourhood, 

 against the use of any other bread 

 than that made from the finest 

 wheaten flour. 



The lords' committeeshave found, 

 that in most parts of the kingdom, 

 where the inhabitants had formerly 

 been accustomed to the use of bread 

 made with a mixture of barley, or 

 with barley alone, and where, with- 

 in a few years, that diet had been 

 partially changed for wheaten bread, 

 recourse had almost universally been 

 had to their former food; and that, 

 in some parts of this kingdom, where 

 mixed bread had not before been 

 brought into general use, this mode 

 ( which your committee conceive to 

 be far the best) of economizing of 

 wheat, has recently been adopted. 



Barley. 



The testimonies from all the per- 

 sons from the different counties, 

 who have been examined on this 

 point, are uniformly in favour of 

 barley, as the most nourishing and 

 cheapest article of food, whether as 

 an entire substitute for the use of 

 wheaten bread, or in mixtures with 

 wheaten or other flour. 



It is stated to your committee, 

 that in a considerable part of Devon- 

 shire little else is used among the 



