A HARD-WORKING DIET. 421 



time when they are most abundant, the men give up 

 in a degree their employment for the season, and an 

 immense amount of palatable and nutritious food is 

 thereby annually withheld from the inhabitants of the 

 metropolis. 



On the 1 5th June, 1812, upward of 17,000 mackerel 

 were purchased by Mr. Hall at $ the thousand, and 

 sold to the working weavers at the original cost, one 

 penny each. They were purchased with great avidity 

 not merely for immediate consumption, but also put 

 into small pots with vinegar to keep ; they continued 

 good for some time and eat like pickled salmon. 



Five hundred thousand mackerel arrived and were 

 sold in one day. They were purchased at six and 

 even nine for one shilling. They brought down the 

 price of meat, as butchers sold at twopence a pound 

 under the usual price. 



Improvements in agriculture and economy in the 

 use of food are remedies usually prescribed for excess 

 of population. There are acres of water around our 

 coasts inexhaustible in nutritive and palatable food. 

 These fields are perpetually white with harvest, and 

 we have only to reap the harvest which Providence 

 benignly supplies. 



An objection is made to fish diet for the labouring 

 class as being passed lightly by digestion, it is therefore 

 unfit to support labour. But, first, the labouring poor 

 in fishing ports who make it their principal diet are 

 stout, hardy and strong. 



