"This explanation should be a warning to those who are so improvident, as to pawn their Sunday cloaths, every Monday morning, or 52 times a year, a custom which too frequently prevails, without reflecting that the Interest paid the Pawnbroker would, probably, purchase two or three coats, gowns, or silk cloaks, in the course of the year."—(Times, Mar. 20, 1797.)
"ON PUBLIC-HOUSES. (Condensed.)
"In the City of London, and within the Bills of Mortality, there are at present 5,204 licensed Public Houses, and it is calculated that the Beer, and Spirits, which are consumed in these receptacles of idleness, and profligacy, by the labouring people, only, is little short of three millions sterling a year. It has been lately discovered, that clubs of apprentice boys are harboured in Public Houses, for the purpose of supporting their brethren who run away from their masters, and of indulging themselves early, in scenes of lewdness, and drunkenness, which they generally do, by pilfering their masters property, and disposing of it at the old iron shops.
| "In a recent publication, the consumption of Ale, and Porter, annually, in the metropolis, and its environs, is stated to be 1,132,147 barrels, equal to 36,625,145 gallons, making 158,400,580 pots at 3-1/2d. | £2,311,466 15 10 |
| "And, by another calculation, the average consumption of Gin, and Compounds, in Public Houses, previous to the stoppage of the distillery, was about 3,000,000 of Gallons | 975,000 0 0 |
| ———————— | |
| £3,286,466 15 10 |
John Bull and the Income Tax.
"If a conclusion may be drawn from the apparent greater degree of sobriety, which is manifested, at present, by the labouring people, and evinced by the number of quarrels, and assaults, being very considerably diminished, and the pressure, with respect to the means of living, apparently less than in the spring of 1795, notwithstanding no charities have been distributed, and bread is considerably higher, it would seem reasonable to attribute this favourable change, to the high price of Gin, which, being in a great measure inaccessible, the lower ranks have it now in their power, to apply the money, formerly spent in this way, to the purchase of provisions, perhaps to the extent of some hundred thousands of Pounds a year, in the metropolis, alone!"—(Times, Oct. 4. 1797.)
FOOD.
The years 1795-6 were years of great scarcity, and the graphic daily accounts of the want of food, and of the various substitutes for bread—the abstinence of all classes, from the King, to the labourer, bring very vividly to our minds, a state of things, which has never since obtained in England—
"In consequence of the scarcity of Wheat, arising partly from such quantities of it being used for hair-powder, several regiments have, very patriotically, discontinued the use of hair-powder, which, in these instances, was generally nothing but flour."—(Times, Feb. 10, 1795.)