The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-04 00:00:00

4

SUPPLY OP FOOD TO TEE PEOPLX

The council of the Society of Arts have passed
the following resolution :—" That a committee be ap-
pointed to inquire and report respecting the food of the
people, especially, but not exclusively, the working claws
of the people ; and that having regard to the publications
of the Privy Council and other documents which illustrate
the defective amount of autriticius food available for the
population at large, the said coimnittes do report re-
specting the resources which are or might be rendered
available for the production, importation, and prefer-
V 1410,1 of substances suitable for food, and for improv-
ing the methods of cooking in use among the working
dares." In accordance with this resolution, •
committee has been appointed, consisting of the
followi gentlemen, who have consented to serve :
The Right Hon. 11. A. Bruce, M.P., chairman of the com-
mittee; the Right Hon. C. R. Adderley, M.P.. E.
Akroyd, M.P., Joha Bell, Professor Bentley; W. H.
Bodkin. easistamtejudge ; Harry Chester, Hugh C.
Childers, Rev. W. 1.. Clay, the Right Hon. W. F.
Cowper, M.P., Lord Be Lisle and Dudley, W. Ewart,
M.P., It. I 'idling II anbury. M.P.. C. W. Hastings, William
Hawes, John T. Hibbert, M.P.. Chandos Wren Hoskyns,
Lord Henry G. Lennox, M.P., W. H. Michael, Lord Robt.
Montagu, lif.P., W. NewmArcb, F. 11.8., F. Parish ; Sir
Thomas Phillips, Q.V., chairman of the council. F. S.
Powell. Read. M.P., G. Sclater-Booth, M.P.,
the Earl of Shaftesbury, Benjamin Shaw, Sir James Kay
Bhuttleworth, Bart., W. T. McCullagh Torrens, M.P.,
Thomas Twining, James Ware, Edward Wilson, C. F.
Wilson, F.R.S., Rev. C. Wright.
At the first meeting of this committee, which took place
recently, Mr. Hugh C. E. Childers, M.P. in the chair,
there were present Lord Robert Montagu, M.P.,
; Mr. W.
Ewart, M.P.; Mr. F. S. Powell, M.P.; Mr. Harry Chester;
Mr. Benjamin Shaw; Mr. John Bell ; Mr. G. P. Wilson.
F.R.S. ; Mr. F. Parish ; Mr. Edward Wilson ; Mr. W. H.
Michael ; Niel the Rev. C. Wright.
Mr. HARRY CHESTER, having been requested by the
chairmen to open the proceedings by an explanatory state-
ment, commenced by saying that when he moved in the
council of the Society of Arts for the appointment of
this committee, to investigate the very grave and dif-
ficult questions with which it was to deal. he was
well aware that they could not be satisfactorily dealt
with except by a committee selected with more than
ordinary care, and presided over by a chairman more
than ordinarily capable of guiding them by his ex•
perienee and wisdom. He was happy to s.y that the
composition of the committee left nothing to be desired ;
and that the chairman of the committee, the Right Hon.
Henry Austin Bruce, M.P., was singularly well fitted for
his post. The subject of the food of the people bad for
some time past occupied the attention of the council of
the society and the circumstances of the present day made
it more than usually expedient to take some more definite
action upon it. They were all aware that the Privy Coun-
cil and other public authorities had published statements
showing that the peopleof this country were insufficiently
fed ; that there was a great want of sufficiently nutritive
food. This was not merely a question of humanity and
charity ; it was a very grave national question, vitally
affecting " arts, manufactures. and commerce,"
and the very sources of national strength. The
tint thing was to see clearly in what directions
this committee could usefully act, and what it
must necessatily avoid. Nothing must be done to inter-
fere in any way with the operation of the laws of poli-
tical economy, nor with the natural action of trade ; but
the Society of Arts might in this, as in other matters, do
vod service by ventilating the eubject, by collecting and
distributing information, by repeatedly calling attention
to the principal needs and the best suggestions fur supply.
ing them, by offering medals and premiums for requisite
inventions of improved processes, and generally by bnng-
jag the resources of science to bear on the wants and
difficulties of those branches of arts, manufactures, and
commerce which are concerned in the production, im-
portation, preservation, and preparation of articles
suitable for food. His hope that this was a subject
with which the Society of Arts might usefully deal had
been greatly encouraged by the cordial manner in
which those noblemen and gentlemen who had beea
invited to serve on the committee had responded to the
invitation. The moot lively interest had been expressed ,•
and the two or three who bad declined to serve had
given sufficient reasons for so doing. It would no doubt
be observed that, with the single exception of Professor
Bentley, a member of the council, there were no medical
men on the committee. This arose from no inability
to appreciate the importance of medical knowledge and
experience in such a matter, nor from any unwilling.
ness on the part of the medical profession to assist the
committee. From many of the most distinguished
members of that profession the heartiest offer' of assist-
ance had been received ; but the troth waa, that the
medical experts were so numerous, and perhaps the dif-
ferences of opinion among them were so considerable,
that, if any were invited to serve on the committee, it
would be invidious to select a few, and not desirable to
appoint many, for this might give too professional a
character to the committee ; it was therefore resolved to
seek their assistance rather as witnesses than as judges ;
and to invite them to state in writing :or vimi voce the
results of their knowledge and experience. The committee
had been promised a great devil of very valuable assist-
ance of this kind by many distinguished members of the
profession. It would be very important .to give the
utmost possible publicity to the proceedings of the com-
mittee. and to the suggestions with which it might be
favoured. He hoped that henceforth for some months,
every number of the society's weekly journal would
contain some publications from the committee, so that
the subject might be kept constantly in view. The
society had more than 3,000 members, and a large num-
ber of institutions and local educational boards in
union with it. To all of these the journal was sent
regularly and it would also be sent to each member of this
committee, whether • member of the Society of Arts or
not. He suggested that the co-operation of the principal
medical journals, and of the press generally, should be
invited. Slips of what the committee proposed to pub-
lish in the society's journal might be sent simultaneously
to all such journals as might be willing to assist in venti-
lating the subject. The Board of Trade was in possession
of a vast amount of valuable information upon points into
which they would have to inquire ; and he was authorised
by Sir Emerson Tennant to say that all such information,
and all such assistance as that board could afford, would be
moat cordially afforded to the committee. The Secretaries
of State for Foreign Affairs, the Colonies, and India,
would doubtless assist the committee by circulating
queries among her Majesty's ministers and con-
suls, governors, and other functionaries, respecting
articles suitable for food, or modes of preparing
it, which might be useful to this country. The Acclima-
tization Society had already received some valuable infor-
mation of this kind through the Fomign-office, and he was
sure that that society would readily place it at the dis-
posal of this committee. The subjects of inquiry might be
said to be of almost unlimited extent, and it was desirable
to indicate at the outset afew great divisions of the subject
on which it might be most useful at first to enter. It
would not be well to enter upon such branches of the sub-
ject as we calculated to excite popular prejudices such,
for example, as the introduction of horseflesh as an 'article
of food for the lower classes The committee were aware
that this was a subject of great interest just now at Paris.
It might or might not hereafter become popular in this
country, but at present the mere mention of it would tend
to excite an uncontrollable prejudice against the
committee. There were four great subjects with
which be thought the committee might advanta-
geously begin to deal:—Meat, fish, milk, cook-
ing. The first great principle, he had almost said,
of Christianity as well as of political economy appeared to
be that all the world should be kin, that each part of the
world should contribute to supply the wants of the nest.
The home supply of meat for the population of these
islands was not nearly sufficient for the due sustenance of
one-half of the population. Tim supply of live cattle from
foreign parts could never be equal to the want. Fresh
meat in the natural condition could only be procured
from foreign countries to • limited extent, that is,
from neighbouring countries, and in favourable
weather. On the other hand, millions of tons of beef
and mutton were wasting in distant quarters of the
earth ; and science wail required to devise means for so
dealing with that beef and mutton that commercial
enterprise might he enabled to bring it to this country
in a condition suitable for food. This was an object of
enormous importance. It had long occupied the atten-
tion of the Society of Arts In 1853, when delivering the
centenary address, as chairman of the council, he (Mr.
('hester) had alluded to it, and asked why Australia
should export only the wool and tallow of the sheep, and
not the mutton itself to the hungry manes in this country.
Of late years no session had passed without the society
taking some measures to call public attention to this sub-
ject. Almost every patented and other invention for pre-
serving meat had been described, and many of them had
been exhibited in the society's great room. In 1863 the
society had offered a medal and a prize of 701., provided
by the liberality of Sir W. C'. Trevelyan, a member of the
society. Various claims had been submitted to the council,
bet no award had hitherto been made ; and he understood
that the council would be glad of the assistance of this
committee in making the award. To this important point,
then, their attention would be turned at once. They saw
daily advertised not fewer than three different kinds of
extraetsss rarni.s, all claiming to be Liehig's extrodels. He
believed that there was not much doubt as to which of the
three was the genuine article ; but the committee might
cause them all to be analysed, and mightgive the results to
the public. So much attention bad lately been given to the
importance of preserving and increasing the supplies of
fish, that be need merely to indicate that subject as one
which would abundantly reward inquiry. Mr. Evart, and
other members of the committee who flourished in the
ante-railway period, most remember the immense vans,
with high wheels, that used to bring fish daily to London
from the Kentish end Suffolk ports. They were thought
to travel at • wonderful rate, and they were called into ex-
istence by the Society of Arta, which had offered medals
and prMee, sea otherwise excited a spirit of enterprise "for
the better supplying of the metropolis with fish." The
better simply of milk was a vital question. He did not
now allude to that fearful source of mortality among the
infant poor, the deficiency of breast-milk. Me alluded to
the fact that, as a general rule, the working classes of this
country, even in dairy districts—and perhaps more there
than elsewhere—were unable to procure the milk diet
which was necessary to the growth of healthy bodies.
In some districts there was an absolute insufficiessy