quantity of such rye shall exceed 100,000 quarters; and also that a bounty of six shillings per quarter should be given for every quarter of rye which shall be imported into Great Britain before the 30th day of September, 1795, exceeding the quantity to which the beforementioned bounty is limited.

Your committee are also inclined to recommend an extension of the period for which the several bounties on grain and flour are proposed to be granted. They observe, from the weekly returns of the price of wheat in the whole kingdom, and of the price and quantity in the London market, since January last, that the highest price and the greatest scarcity took place during the months of July and August, and particularly in the latter. These, therefore, are the months for which it is most important to provide; and they are led to fear, that if the bounty is confined to such corn as may arrive before the 31st of August, merchants may be discouraged from sending supplies to this country during that month, by the apprehension that they may not arrive in time to be entitled to the bounty. They beg leave therefore to sug. gest an extension of the time to the 30th of September; and they sub. mit, whether it might not also be expedient to place, in proper hands, a discretionary power of allowing the bounties to such ships as may arrive before the 15th of October, upon proof of their having actually set sail from Great Britain, from their respective ports, at such time that they might, in the ordinary course of their voyage, have arriv. ed before the 30th of September.

Your committee have also re-
VOL. XXXVIII.

ceived a suggestion from merchants trading to the southern parts of Europe and to Africa, that it would be advisable to enlarge the quantity to which the highest bounty upon corn, brought from those quarters, was proposed to be limitei: they do not state an expectation, that the whole of that quantity can be procured; but they are apprehensive that the original limitation may tend to check speculation, by the fear of exceeding the quantity specified-and they propose, therefore, that the highest bounty should be extended to 400,000 quarters.

Your committee have also examined several merchants, respecting the proportion which the bounty upon flour ought to bear to that upon wheat: they have been satisfied by this examination that, in consideration of the various sizes and weight of the barrels used in different countries, it would be more advisable to grant a bounty on the hundred-weight of flour thin on the barrel, as had been at first suggested; that it is expedient to adopt, on the importation of wheat and wheat flour, the same proportion of bounties which has been already established by the legislature on the exportation of the same (i. e.) 14. 6d. per hundred weight of wheat flour, as equiva lent to 5s. per quarter of wheat; and that the same rule ought to be applied to Indian corn and meal.

In suggesting, in their former report, that the bounty given on wheat ought to be limited to such as weighed not less than at the rate of 55 pounds per bushel, your committee proceeded on informa tion then received, that wheat of a lower weight was usually of so Ee inferior

inferior a quality, as to be unfit for the use of man; and under a full persuasion of the necessity of fixing some limit, in order to prevent the object, for which the bounty is given, from being de. feated by the importation of corn inapplicable to the subsistence of the people. They have since received further information, which has satisfied them, that wheat, naturally of somewhat a lower weight, may produce wholesome food; and that cargoes, not fre. quently, arrive out of condition, in consequence of which, the weight is for the time diminished, though it soon recovers; and that it might prove an inconvenient restraint on speculation, if the merchant were exposed to lose the whole of the bounty, by a slight inattention of his agents abroad, or by a temporary and accidental deterioration of the article imported: they are, therefore of opinion, that a bounty, equal to four-fifths of the proposed bounty, should be given on all wheat weighing not less than at the rate of fifty-three pounds per bushel.

Your committee having stated such further observations as they have thought necessary, respecting the amount of the bounties, and the limitations as to weight, and quantity, and time, beg leave to recommend, for the prevention of fraud, that all corn and flour imported for bounty should be subject, in addition to the inspection of the proper officers of the customs, to the examination of persons qualified to judge thereof; that with out the certificate of such persons, stating that the article is merchantable and fit for making bread, no bounty should be paid; and that

the importation of corn and flour for bounty should be confined to such ports in which it is probable that persons so qualified may be found.

Your committee have also receiv. ed information, that there are ships now in the ports of this country laden with corn, which are intend ed to be reported for exportation, and that other ships may arrive, the consignees of which may send their cargoes to foreign ports, unless tempted by the bounty to unload them here; and they beg leave, therefore, to submit the expediency of extending the bounty to the cargoes of all ships which may now be in the ports of this country, or may arrive here previous to the passing of the act by which it is to be granted.

Third Report from the Select Commit tee appointed to take into consideration the present high price of Cora.

THE select committee appointed to take into consideration the present high price of corn, and to col. lect evidence relative thereto, and to report the same from time to time, as it shall appear to them, to the house, with their observations thereupon, have received, since their first report, a considerable number of returns, made by the custodes rotulorum of the different counties, respecting the state of the last crop, together with much additional intelligence upon that subject communicated by many of their members. They find it how. ever, impossible as yet to draw, either from these returns, or from any other quarter, a precise conclusion. The returns are so in. complete in their number, and are founded upon so many different

principles, some stating the whole quantities of grain produced, others the number of acres sown, and others again the average produce of each acie; and drawing, in some instances, a comparison with the crop of last year, in others with that of certain preceding years, and in others with what is generally called a fair crop, that it is extremely difficult to combine and compare them, so as to state accurately the result of the whole.

Your committee would have endeavoured to render this investigation more complete, if they had not felt the great importance of suggesting, without further delay, such measures as have occurred to them for alleviating an evil which evidently exists to such an extent as to call for the most effectual remedy.

From the best consideration of such information as they have hitherto obtained, they should not feel themselves authorized in assuming as the ground of any opinion they may offer, that the deficiency of the crop of wheat is less than from one fifth to one sixth, compared with the crop of last year, and from one fourth to one fifth, compared with an average crop. The crop of rye, of which no great quantity is usually grown, may pro. bably be considered as equally de. ficient; but the crops of barley and oats are represented to be nearly double those of 1794, and at least one fifth better than an average crop.*

It appears also, from the concurrent testimony of intelligent persons, that the stock of wheat in hand at the commencement of the last harvest was much less than at the same period of the preceding

year, and there is also reason to believe that a larger quantity has been used for seed in the present seed time than in the last. One of the causes of the extreme high price which prevailed antecedent to the last harvest, was generally supposed to be the very exhausted state to which the stock of the country had then been reduced. In order to avoid a repetition of this evil, to the same or to a much greater extent (if the succeeding crop should, from unfavourable seasons, be later or less productive than usual) it is certainly extremely desirable that the stock remaining in the country at the commencement of the next harvest, should be more adequate to the demand than what remained this year at a similar period. Whatever is necessary for this purpose, ought therefore to be added to the amount of the deficiency.

Your committee have stated these circumstances to the house, in order to explain more fully the grounds of their opinion, that there will be no security against very considerable distress in the course of the ensuing year, unless the deficiency of wheat and rye can be supplied by importation, or unless other means can be found, by which, out of the stock of different sorts of grain in the country, a comfortable and wholesome subsistence can be furnished to the people during the whole of that period.

Upon the first part of this alternative, your committee have already humbly submitted their opinion; and though they flatter themselves, that from the adop tion of the measures now in contemplation for the encouragement

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to wheaten bread; that the conse. quence has been a considerable reduction of price to the labouring poor in such places; and that the use of it has not been found to be attended with any inconvenience. The variety of different species of mixed bread is such, as to offer a considerable number of alternatives to different parts of the country; and they will be naturally led to select those which are least foreign to their habits and prejudices, and of which, from local circumstances, they can most conveniently procure a supply.

That the sacrifice of some degree of indulgence, or of prejudice, is one, which, under the present cir. cumstances, can be made, and ought to be made, and that without such a sacrifice to a considerable extent, the country will be exposed to still greater difficulties than those with which it has so lately contended, is an opinion with which your committee are so strongly impressed, that they cannot too carnest. ly recommend it to the serious at tention of this house, and of the nation at large.

Deeply, however, as they feel this impression, they are far from proposing any legislative measure to enforce a compliance with this suggestion. They weil know that the people of this, and of every other country, are attached by habit to their accustomed species of food; and that however they may, by re. commendation and example, be induced to make a partial change, yet any sudden and compulsory al. teration might, perhaps, be more sensibly felt than the very grievance it was intended to remedy.

There are indeed many precedents in the statutes of this country, of the interposition of the legisla.. ture for this purpose, at times when, from the less advanced state of cultivation and commerce, distresses of this kind occurred much more frequently and severely than at later periods; and even in more recent times, an act passed* which authorizes magistrates, whenever they think the case requires, to set the assize upon standard wheaten bread alone, and thereby to prohibit the making of all other sorts of bread. Your committee, however, entertain great hopes, that without applying this principle to the present case, the general im pression produced by the late distress, and continued by the present scarcity, will incline men of all descriptions to unite voluntarily in the only measure which can give effectual and immediate relief; and they conceive, that if this house should give to such a measure the sanction of its example and recommendation, there could be little doubt of its being adopted by a proportion of the community sufficiently numerous to secure the attainment of the object in view.

Your committee beg leave ta submit this suggestion to the wis. dom of the house; and they hope it will not be thought beyond the line of their duty, if, upon an occasion so urgent in point of time, they presume also to suggest the principal points which such an engagement ought, in their humble opinion, to embrace.

To reduce the consumption of wheat in the families of the persons subscribing such engagement,