“Here is a whole group assembled under the hospitable roof of an umbrella, whilst the exterior circle, for the advantage of having one shoulder dry, is content to receive its dripping contents on the other. The antiquated virgin laments the hour in which, more fearful of a speckle than a wetting, she preferred the dwarfish parasol to the capacious umbrella. The lover regrets there is no shady bower to which he might lead his mistress, ‘nothing loath.’ Happy she who, following fast, finds in the crowd a pretence for closer pressure. Alas! were there but a few grottos, a few caverns, how many Didos—how many Æneas’? Such was the state of the spectators. That of the troops was still worse—to lay exposed to a pelting rain; their arms had changed their mirror-like brilliancy[7] to a dirty brown; their new clothes lost all their gloss, the smoke of a whole campaign could not have more discoloured them. Where the ground was hard they slipped; where soft, they sunk up to the knee. The water ran out at their cuffs as from a spout, and, filling their half-boots, a squash at every step proclaimed that the Austrian buckets could contain no more.”
CHAPTER III.
High price of gold—Scarcity of food—Difference in cost of living 1773-1800—Forestalling and Regrating—Food riots in the country—Riot in London at the Corn Market—Forestalling in meat.
THE PEOPLE were uneasy. Gold was scarce—so scarce, indeed, that instead of being the normal £3 17s. 6d. per oz., it had risen to £4 5s., at which price it was a temptation, almost overpowering, to melt guineas. Food, too, was scarce and dear; and, as very few people starve in silence, riots were the natural consequence. The Acts against “Forestalling and Regrating”—or, in other words, anticipating the market, or purchasing before others, in order to raise the price—were put in force. Acts were also passed giving bounties on the importation of oats and rye, and also permitting beer to be made from sugar. The House of Commons had a Committee on the subject of bread, corn, &c., and they reported on the scarcity of corn, but of course could not point out any practical method of remedying the grievance. The cost of living, too, had much increased, as will appear from the following table of expenses of house-keeping between 1773 and 1800, by an inhabitant of Bury St. Edmunds:[8]
| 1773. | 1793. | 1799. | 1800. | |||||||||
| £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | |
| Comb of Malt[9] | 0 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Chaldron of Coals | 1 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 0 |
| Comb of Oats | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Load of Hay | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Meat | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Butter | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Sugar (loaf) | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Soap | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 9½ | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| Window lights, 30 windows | 3 | 10 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 12 | 0 |
| Candles | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 9½ | 0 | 0 | 10½ |
| Poor’s Rates, per quarter | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Income Tax on £200 | ··· | ··· | 20 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 8 | 4 | 0 | 16 | 2 | 8 | 42 | 9 | 4 | 45 | 14 | 1½ | |
With everything advancing at this amazing rate of progression, it is not to be wondered at that the price of the staff of life was watched very narrowly, and that if there were any law by which any one who enhanced it, artificially, could be punished, he would get full benefit of it, both from judge and jury. Of this there is an instance given in the Annual Register, July 4, 1800: