"By the Court.
Selby."
—(Times, July 9, 1795.)
"Yesterday, the Directors of the Bank of England sent £500 to the Lord Mayor, requesting he would apply that sum towards the relief of the industrious poor, in the article of BREAD. The Sun Fire Office sent £100, to the same worthy Magistrate, for the like purpose. The different Wards in the City have subscribed, very liberally, towards the relief of the poor in their present distress. Public subscriptions are about to be opened for the same benevolent purpose. Pastry, and puddings, have been abolished in a number of private houses. The Directors of the Bank yesterday came to a resolution to have no more public dinners, while the price of provisions continued so high. This laudable resolution will, we trust, be followed by all the corporate bodies in the kingdom."—(Times, July 11, 1795.)
"The Drapers Company voted the 200 guineas, for reducing the price of Bread, after the Court had been on a Survey, and, (to use a technical term) returned to dine upon a view. The following Epigram was put under the Master's plate:—
"In times so hard, how happy 'twere
If thousands, like to you,
Could glut their craving appetites
By dining on—a view.
But from your views such works of love
Such general good accrues,
That happier 'twere if each day brought
New dinners and new views."
—(Times, July 11, 1795.)
"At the General Quarter Session of the Peace of our Lord the King, holden in and for the County of Middlesex ... a Letter from his Grace the Duke of Portland, one of her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, was read, inclosing a copy of the following engagement, entered into by several of the Lords of his Majesty's most Hon. Privy Council, in the following words:
"In consideration of the present high Price of Wheat, and, in order to diminish the Consumption thereof, in our respective Families, so as to leave a larger Supply of this necessary Article of Food, for the People in general, until the Corn of the ensuing Harvest shall come into Consumption, and relieve them of their present difficulties: We, whose Names are hereto subscribed, being desirous of introducing into common use a wholesome Bread, at a lower price than must be paid for the sort of Bread now ordinarily used, do engage that we will not, ourselves, consume, nor suffer to be consumed, in any of our Families, until the First Day of October next, at any place where the sort of Bread undermentioned can be procured, any sort of Wheaten Bread finer than that which, in an Act of Parliament passed in the 13th year of his present Majesty's Reign, is called by the name of Standard Wheaten Bread: which is directed by the said Act to be made of the Flour of Wheat, which Flour, without any Mixture, or Division, shall be the whole Produce of the Grain, the Bran or Hull thereof only excepted, and which shall weigh three-fourths parts of the weight of the Wheat whereof it shall be made. We further engage to diminish, as much as possible, the use of Flour in other articles of Food consumed in our respective Families. And we earnestly recommend to all our Fellow Subjects, to adopt these Measures, and strictly adhere to the same.