The Labour Question. 323 



separation into various breadstufFs remained at the choice of 

 the miller and mealman, it was impossible that any form of 

 loaf save that made out of the whole fruit of the wheat plant 

 could be controlable by an Assize. The legislature, therefore, 

 by 13 Geo, III. c. 62, once more "naturalized " under the 

 appellation of " Standard "Wheaten Bread," and under the 

 distinction of the letters S W, the old traditional English loaf, 

 which, though absolutely prohibited by all the other G-eorgian 

 Acts, had originally been the standard food of that section of 

 the public which consumed this variety of cereals.^ 



But at the time of this remedial legislation many authorities 

 would have preferred some measure which brought under its 

 purview the operations of both miller and mealman, and 

 Grovernor Pownall, in 1788, was so far successful in this direc- 

 tion, that he managed to get passed through the Commons 

 a biU regulating the making and selling of flour, though 

 it failed to find favour with the Lords.^ Another defect in 

 this class of legislation was that it was not compulsory. Two 

 or more justices were empowered, if they chose, to set an 

 Assize within their jurisdiction, and after ascertaining from 

 the clerks of the neighbouring markets the prices of grain, 

 meal, or flour, might fix any money value they thought fit. 

 The bakers possessed the apparently worthless privilege of 

 scrutinising the returns, but no alteration in the Assize was 

 permissible unless the price of wheat as set forth in the re- 

 turns could have been shown to have varied threepence in 

 the bushel. 



That this principle of meddling with " the staff of life " was 

 generally regarded a failure, is evident from a speech of Lord 

 Hawkesbury's on the 18th of February, 1796, in which he 

 moved for leave to bring in a fresh bill to regulate the Assize, 

 pointing out that the number of consumers of wheaten bread 

 depended upon the abundance of the crop and the consequent 

 price of that bread, and that not more than two-thirds of 

 the community could afford to consume it. 



Turning to the legislation dealing with the work of the 



' Annals of Agriculture, vol. xxi. pp. 557, etc. 

 ^ Id. Ibid., vol. ix. p. 557. 



