Star.
London, England, 1822-09-20 00:00:00

'RICE OF BRAAD.

• When the attention of Parliament was first called
to the Agricultural Distress, the price of wheat was
about 60s. the quarter. The average price has re-
cently been given as ander 40s. If such the fall it%
wheat, it might be expected that bread would deg.
dine in proportion. But has the price of the guar-
tern loaf been diminished anything like one-third
within the period we have mentioned ? The lan
time that wheat was as low as it is now, was in the
year 1779. On Kennett being installed Lord Mayor
that year, the average price of the loaf was entered
on the 9th of November, at 5.' for the quartern.-::.
As three shillings a sacdt,has been added to the price
of baking since then, which is nearly a halfpenny the
loaf, it ought now to be std. the quarters. This
statement admits of no question or dispute,- and the
conclusion is, that bread is now one half dearer than
it ought to be. It landholders will not look into this, ,
they
_will deserve to go without their rents. All the
laws and regulations respe4ng provisions are be..
come -a dead letter and waste paper. The truth is,
there is a great deal of management between the
mealmen and the bakers to prevent that reduction- in
the price of bread, which, under existing circuits•
stances, the Public have a right to expect. When
the Assize was taken away, we remember a Coni-
mittee was to be appointed to regulate the affairs of
the baking trade. The business of this Committee _
was to determine at what rate bread should be sent
forth to the Public. They thus form a direct cod-
spiracy against that competition which it was the ob-
ject of the Legislature to excite. Almost the only
..
competition produced, arose from the occasional in-
troduction of strangers into a neighbourhood. These
persons, it can hardly be doubted, were merely paid
tools in the hands of the regulars. The part they had
'to act was very simple and straight forward. No
comedian has his task more completely before him.
The actor, who was to make his debut as a cheap
bread seller, was to enter, and offer the quartern and
other loaves for sale enormously under price. These
were to be made of all sorts of trash, that the Public
might be disgusted with the attempt. He was to sus-
tain several convictions for short weight, and finally
the tool pretended to be ruined, to shew that it was
impossible for a baker to get a living, who failed to
exact the price fixed upon by the Committee. The
Committee will of course be on the alert to defeat
whatever may have been intended. for the general
good, in the Act -which comes into operation before
the close of the present month. We trust their ope-
rations will be vigilantly attended to in the proper
quarter, and that due care will be taken to ensure
the Public generally the blessing of cheapness in the
article of bread, since the farmer cannot escape'the
inconvenience of it when parting with his corn. The
bounty of PROVIDENCE, felt as it ought to be by all
classes, would produce that largely-extended con-
sumption which must prove one of the most efficient
remedies for agricultural distress: but when wheat,
and good wheat, is at 38s. or 40s. we put it to the
candour of every man who understands the subject,
whether the quartern loaf is not too high- at nine-
pence? It does not belong to us to determine who it
is that gains an excessive profit—the mealman or the
baker. By one or the ether the Public is most no-
toriously wronged.

Ettrrarss.—Yesterday, John Leonard and Cathe-
rine Leonard, his wife, with two children about nine
years old, one of them so crippled as to be unable to
walk, were brought up to Hatton-Garden Office, by
Jennings, the Mendicity Society, charged with
begging at the west end of the town. The man
stated, that he. was born at Naples, which place he
left when only nine years old, and went out in one of
his Majesty's vessels, and was wounded at the siege
of Algiers in the shoulder, and whilst lying on the
deck his leg was broken; and now being wounded,
and entirely destitute, he was obliged to wander about
the streets. The Magistrate recommended Mr. Jen-
nings to report them to the Society.
Vraolin.—This great, ancient, and famous:Epis-
copal City, to be made still more famous by the ensu-
ing Congress of Sovereigns, formerly belonged to the
Venetians, and was placed by Bonaparte in the Dl-
partrneat of the Adige, in the kingdom of Italy. It
has three Castles and a College of Learned Men,
called Gli Pilarinonici. The Town-hall is a ruagni6-
cent building. Vei ona is the country of Catullus, Vi-
truvius, Pliny the elder, Frascator, Paul Veronese, itc.
Itstandi upon the Adige, which runs through the city,
and extends to the environs in the form of marshes.
In 1788 the Venetians dried up the marshes in a cir-
cumference of about 50 miles. It has 50,000 inhabi-
t darts. There are many silk factories, and the trade in
I olives is very valuable. The French took it in 1796
I and in 1805. It is eight leagues N.B. of Mantua, 1 d
tee 'aft: Venice,
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