Mr. Calvertrose to move for leave to bring in a bill to reduce into one act all the regulations respecting bakers and sellers of bread, within ten miles of the Royal Exchange. He observed that the last act on this subject had been found ineffectual in affording protection to the public; but he was of opinion that there were two ways in which perhaps, that object might be accomplished—the one by the sale of bread, like any other article, by the pound; and the other by the sale of it by the price, that is, in loaves of the value of 1s., 6d., 3d., and so on. The sale of it by the pound, however, would not prevent its adulteration, and a pamphlet had recently been put into his hand, from which it appeared that a great deal of marble powder was used by some of the London bakers in the composition of what they called bread. If bread were sold by the pound also, the public could not so immediately feel the benefit of a fall in the price of 1433 grain and flour, as if it were sold by the price, when the smallest advance or fall would have its effect upon the size of the loaf. Very few persons knew what the weight of a loaf should be, or how that weight came to be fixed upon; he therefore begged to explain, that a sack of flour weighed 2½ cwt., and it was supposed to produce 347lbs. of bread: that divided, and again subdivided, gave the precise weight of the peck, half peck and quartern loaf. At present nobody thought of weighing a loaf, and a fraudulent baker therefore escaped detection. He concluded by moving for leave to bring in his bill.
§ Leave was given to bring in the bill.