The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-10 00:00:00

cheaper than before the doctrines of Free Trade
received the legislative sanction. The public should
long since have had the benefit of some part of the

profit on the reduced prices, but the cattle- dealers and

the butchers have cleverly continued to absorb it all.

That ever-grumbling, always dissatisfied individual,
" the father of a family," appealed to the community

- 1
some years since on this subject, so peculiarly inter-
esting to every person in a similar position, who had
" many mouths" for which to provide ; and it was
hoped that the exposure which then took place, the
indignant comments then made, and the angry feeling
then expressed, would have shamed dealers and butch-
ers into something like fair play. But the hope
was vain, for, although a temporary improvement was
perceptible, matters have been gradually, but steadily,
returning to their former position, and we continue
to pay at least three half-pence per pound more than

we ought to do for butchers' meat. Where there is
anything like good family consumption of this article
of primary necessity, the difference in the price makes
a very serious item in the amount of the weekly bilis
for housekeeping, and there are few families of the

middle class who are not mulcted in far more than

the amount of the Income-tax, and, we might perhaps
add, of the poor-rates, to enhance the inordinate
profits of the blue-coated gentry, and to enable them,
as a morning contemporary expressed it, " to maintain
smart trotting horses," and gratify their professional
pride.

Corn, in like manner, has fallen in price. It is
now at one-half the cost of seven years ago. The
products of corn have not, however, fallen in anything
like a just proportion. There have been some reduc-
tions in the cost of bread and beer, but not at all what

we should have had. Porter and ale are at the same
prices for which they have respectively been sold
during the last twenty years. There is this peculiarity
in the brewing trade ;—when the price of grain rises,
there is a rise in the price of malt liquors ; but let
the price tumble down as it may, the BARCLAYS
and PERXINSES, the BUXTONS, the MEUXES, the
REIDS, &c., &c., do not let the price of their
brewage get below the particular prices charged
when the cost of the raw material was high. So we
have corn which is cheap, and malt liquor which is

very dear.
The same way with bread, but we readily admit
not to the same extent. The time has passed by, we
trust for ever, when the quartern loaf cost tenpence
or a shilling. It now averages about 6d. or 7d.
The price, however, varies in different parts of the
metropolis. In Lambeth, for instance, the quartern
is from a penny to three-halfpence cheaper than in the
more fashionable districts, where, according to the
proverb, " fools and their money are soon parted,"
and it would be considered mean and unaristocratic
to scrutinize the tradesman's charges too closely.
They may neglect paying the debt when incurred,
but they must not cavil at the exorbitant profits that
would be realized if all were as punctual as them-
selves.

The public justly complain of this want of un
formity of price. Why should there be so great a
difference, or any difference, in the price of such a
necessary of life ? The bread on the Surrey side of
the river is just as good as at the West End, and the
Surrey baker pays as much for the material to the
flour factor as his more aristocratic brother. But
even at the Surrey side you will find a " dear"
within a dozen doors of a " cheap" baker. If you ask
the former why his charges are so high, be answers
with some degree of pride, as if it was highly meri-
torious, and entitled him to your approbation and
custom, that he is " a full-priced baker." In other
words, he belongs to a union or congregation of
bakers, who fix among themselves what the price
shall be, and allow much larger margins of profit
than the non-unionists look for. We might be con-
tented ourselves with cheap and wholesome bread,
and would eat it in silence, but that our duty as jour-
nalists compels us to raise the question pro bono
pullico. The Corn-laws were not abrogated for the
sole benefit of the " full-priced baker !"
There is an obvious remedy for this palpable
grievance, which must be resorted to, unless " the
full-priced" gentry exhibit some degree of conscience.
The assize of bread must be re-established, which
would periodically regulate, according to the current
price of wheat, the price of the quartern and half-
quartern. Thus the bakers, whether full-priced
or low priced, unionists or non-unionists, should
hc. prevented from giving less than a full
and fair quantity of " the staff of life," but
may be permitted to give as much more as in
their liberality they may please to bestow. This may
in some degree appear to militate against the doc-
trines of Free Trade ; hut we are compelled to interfere
in many transactions, and the grievance has gone to
such a height that no one will pretend to assert that
such interference is uncalled for. If we regulate the
fares in public conveyances, why should we not also
regulate the price of bread, to insure to the corn-
munity at large the benefits of the Free-trade legisla-
tion of late years.
A legal assize of food is no new thing—not only
bread, but all (mind that, Sir EDWARD 1313X70N)
fuel and other ordinary necessaries have been thus
dealt with, when it was deemed expedient to protect
the purchaser against the rapacity of the vendor.
The earliest known regulation of this kind in England
related to bread, and was made in the reign of King
Joust (A.D. 1203), when a proclamation was made
throughout the kingdom, enforcing the observance of
the legal assize of bread. The Statute 51 HENRY 111.
for the assisa panis et cerevisice (for the assize of
bread and ale) subsequently established a scale of
prices varying with the price of wheat, and was en-
forced from time to time by the Privy Council until
the reign of Queen ANNE. In cities and towns col'•
porate the local authorities frequently had the right,
by charter, of regulating the assize of bread and ale.
The Statute 8 ANNE (cap. 19) repealed that of .51
HENRY 111., and imposed a new assize of bread.
Subsequent enactments dealt with the subject,
but by the 55 GEORGE 111., cap. 99, the practice
was expressly abolished in London and its neighbour-
en
thet o
believe,o disuse.d
ppractice
itehbeei There es
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g plaCork,ces
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owever,
assize of bread regularly struck by the local autho-
rities. Precedent, on which some people so strongly
rely, is therefore in favour of regulating the price of
bread.
There will, of course, be this objection—" Leave
prices to general competition, and they will right
themselves." But in bread, they do not right them-
, selves; and in malt liquors, thanks to the practical
operation of the Malt-tax, they are in the bands of a
few great monopolists. Ale and bread are too dear.
The prices rest on the consciences of brewer and
baker. The law provides that the purchaser may
compel the baker to weigh the loaf ; but of what prac-
tical utility is this regulation, while it allows him to
put his own price on it ? What is wanted is a regu-
lation to fix the price of flour and bread, according to
the price of wheat, allowing the miller and the baker
fair, but not exorbitant, profits, and giving the com-
munity the advantage, whenever it may arise, of any
fall in the cost of wheat.
" They
manage these things better in France,"
said LAWRENCE STERNE a century ago, and the same
is true to this day. In Paris the price of bread is
fired and declared once a fortnight. Those who have
eaten it will not complain of the quality of the bread
in the French metropolis —no potatoes, alum, or
" white sharps," are added to increase the bulk or
this moment, when the quar-
ternimprove the colour. At
• to 6id. for the second, it is
5d
loaf varies in London from 6d. to Bd. for the
first quality, and from
41b. loaf of first quality, and 24 centimes (a fraction
in Paris 31 centimes (or a fraction over 3d.) for the
under 90.) for the 41b. loaf of second quality, and
this notwithstanding the octroi, which adds nearly
one-third to the price of flour, and that a further im-
post is levied for the benefit of the municipality,
Surely, then, bread should be at least as cheap in
London, where flour is untaxed, as it is in Paris,
where the flour is so very heavily charged, and where,
therefore, it must necessarily come dearer to the
bakers.

At the Manchester Meeting on the 2d, it was re-
presented as a pressing necessity that the House of
Commons should be made faithfully and promptly to
reflect the opinions of the community. The Edin-
burgh Reviewer, on the other hand, notes it as
among the things to be regretted, that constituencies
formerly elected competent persons as legislators)