Star.
London, England, 1813-08-20 00:00:00

!WAD AND PLottict

MR. r.Ditcate-The Lonn MAYOR'S notice resptct-
ing Flour, inserted in your Paper of Wednesday, re-
calls to my attention a most important little Tract,
entitled, " Hints to all Classes," from which I hope
you will admit the following extract. A YEOMAN.
" Not to embarrass the statement with a long detail or a va-
riety of estimates, it may be best to give I calculation /Minded
on the latest returns, which are as follow :
April 4, 1812, wheat on the average Was 119 s. 4d. the quarter.
line flour ditto 107 e. the sack..
the quartern loaf Is. Oft!. 41b. 502.
Now, as wheat is the raw material, die ?RIC& of bread, if fixed ,
by that standard, would be, for the QUAITERN LOAF, If. lid.
a The mode of calculating is this:—A quarter of wheat pro-
I duces 120 loaves: the price of baking is 19s ; so that we should
add 19s. to 1154.4 d. making 1284. 4d ; which sum divided by
1120, the number of loaves, gives Is. lid. or 130. that Is
less than the actual price. 1 his was the proportion always pre-
served till the year 1760, whed it gradually rose to the present
enormous price. The way that this is managed is as follows:
Flour used to be two-thirds of the price of wheat; or, according
to the old proportion. it ought now to be 80s. the sack at melt ;
to which add ISs. for baking, and we have 935. for 80 loaves
which the sack produces, at Is. lid. but say is. 2d. The Loan
lefavoit, however, takes the flour, not at 80s. as it ought to be,
but at 107 s. as returned to him. Now to 107 s. add i.e, and we
have 120, which, divided by 80, gives Is. 6d.:—there is a small
frac:ion ; but as no fraction less than is admitted, and as the
advantapt is, as it ought to be, giveu to the baker, it makes
Is. 614.
" Experience and accurate experiments made by Lord Bo-
wles-31.LE, gave given the calculation very correctly, and prove
that, as the bran and pollard pay for the grinding, the price of
the sack of wheat ought to be exactly two-thirds of the price as
the qrarter of wheat. In confirmation of his 1 ordship s very
correct statements, the price was *Mary and regularly so till
1700. How ale dealers in flour have contrived to produce such
returns latejy, is in Ala question. It must either be by collu-
sion and fake returns, or by ext. avagaot profits to Eaters and
dealers in flour, or by both. These statements are accurate
sad may nerdy Ise verified, and the disproportion might be reme-
died; if the Legislature would attend to the subject. By th.s
impo.iticin, for such it Is, about X L 6,G00 a week, or 1'832,000 a
year, is taken from the packets of individuals within the Bali of
Mortality—a great part of which is lion' persons in straitened
circumstances, and a considei able portion ut it floe thole who ere
liierelly distremcd for bread!
" I here is not one Baker in ten, situ is not in the power of
his Flour-nut-chant, as the Teblicans are in that of their Brewer
and Distiller • they therefore dare not dispute either the price or
.5 se quality of what Is delivered to them, lest immediate arrest
and probable ruin should be the consequence.
" When the price of bread was high, about 1798-9 (I speak
only from recollection), the I.cglilature refused to interfere; Dr.
Adam Smith was quoted to prove that trade of every kind should
be left to itself; arid that all commodities would, like water, find
their true level; but when, in 1806, the quartern lost fell below
10d. Impelled by the landed intereset, Parliament immediately ix-
terferesl, by altering the price at which the importation and ex-
portation of grain are permitted. The quarter of wheat rose Ina.
the following week, and has been rising ever since that time: !
Charity induces me to hope, that those who interfered in 1827,
forgot what was said when he poor cried for help in 1800, and
were refused upon a pretended principle of right.
•

UNION HALL.—Yesterday Arm Smith, 70 years of
age, was charged by. Mr. Parber, a pawnbroker, with
having stolen six cotton gowns, and'several other ar-
ticles, his property. It appeared that the prisoner
had been a frequenter of Mr. Barber's shop, and went
there on Monday lag to pledge something, but had
not lett it many minutes before he missed a cotton
gown ; and from something in the cooduct of the
prisoner, his suspicion rested on her: On ,Wednes-
day she came again to pledge something more, and
as soon as she was gone another gown disappeared ;
Mr. Barber then followed her, and found it in her
possession. He, therefore, detained her, and sent for
an officer, who, on searching her, found a number of
duplicates of articles pledged at different pawnbro-
kers in her possession, amongst them were the six
gowns above mentioned. On further investigation,
it appeared that she, for some time past, carried on
most successfully, the plan of robbing one pawnbro-
ker to pledge with another. In defence She said, the
fault lay with the pawnbrokers themselves, who, by
exposing their articles at the doors of their shops in a
careless manner, tempted persons to become thieva.
She was fully committed tor trial.
LIMERICK A SSl7M—These Assizes terminated on
the 12th inst. Among the prisoners capitally con-
victed, was Patrick Welan, charged with maiming
Timothy Leary with a scythe, with intent to murder
him. On being brought up for sentence, Judge DAY
thus addressed him :-44 Prisoner at the bar ! you
have been found guilty of an inhuman and savage
crime,.of deliberately and maliciously maiming with
a scythe one Timothy Leary, with intent to murder
him ; a crime winch forfeits your life to the von-
geance of the law, giving you very justly full credit •
for the murder which you intended. This crime so
barbarous in its nature, stands greatly aggrava;ed by
the deep and Icl-Ig-harboured malignity which engen-
dered it ; foi, the provocation was, that Leary, seve-
ral years ago, had assisted in bringing you to justice
for levying contributions on the peasantry for sup-
port of the insurgents and rebels of that day. For
that offence you were brought to trial and acquitted ;
but instead of devoting your future life in gratitude
to a long suffering GOD for your unexpected escape
to repentance and atonement, you became more
hardened and daring from impunity ; and those ma.
lignant and vindictive passions which time assuages
in human breasts, in yours became only the more in-
flamed and the fiercer for delay. You and your
brother-in-law way-laid the man, armed with scythes,
a mortal and murderous weapon, which bespoke the
bloody purpose for which you came ; you sprang
upon bins with the ferocity of tygers, and, white de-
fending his head, you cut awry, and, in two sweeps,
mowed down, all the fingers of his right hand. His
bat w•a> cut in several place', so that it was by dm
special interference of Prtovi ozNer. that his bead was
not swept away, and his life preserved to bring so
hardened and persevering an offender to justice. His
inoffensive sister, too, came in forher share of youriAn.
tality ; for, in her virtuous struggles to protect her
brother, you released your self from her grasp by the
sunim :ry process of snapping and fracturing one of
her tingets. Prepare yourself, therefore, enfortunate
man,'lor a speedy and infamous death. Do not flat-
ter yourself with any hope of mitigation. Your fate
is inevitable. The lawless and turbulent gate of the
country (where scythes and fire-arms have superce-
ded the old Irish cudgel) as well as the enormity of
your crime, call aloud for severe examples.. Resign
yourself for the few short days you have yet to live to
(Lep contrition ; and may tne Goo of mercy forgive
you all your sins." His Lordship then sentenced him
to beitanged, at Drtimculougher, on Saturday, Sep-
' tember 4.--Daniel Litment, convicted sheep-steal-
big, having made his escape, on his way from the
Court-house back to the jail, Judge DAY fined the
'Sheriff £lOO.

• therta
At Inverness, ea the eth inbtants Mrs. Captain Campbell, 714
Highland light infantry, of a a an:
Moodily ta.t, at Danbury, the Lady Of Captain Sayan, a tbe
asd Regimeetwof a amt.

MARRIED.
Tuesday, Aqui 17, the Rev. Stephen swlbey, of Lamherh
Terrace, to Charlene. eldest daughter of the late William Ward,
Esq of Canterbury.place, Lambeth.
AugOst 5, at Newport, Isle of Wight, Matthias, Eaq. of
the Royal Artillery, to Mia Earle, daughter of Captain Eatle, of
the Hon. East India Company's service.

Anew 18, Rear-Admiral Samuel Thompson, having on that
day concluded ble 94th-year.
August 14, at his father's house, in St. Sidweil's, Exeter, afire
a long illness, W.A. Couch*, E•q. Captain in t►e 82d Regimen..
In St. Vincent's, the ¢d March last, Cocain Wm. Barry, lati
of Margaret-street, Cork.
Near Edinburgh, on the 9th inst. Captsln Hugh Stevenson, of
the Royal Ayrshire regiment of militia, aged 68.