their land, at the instigation of philosophers.
They were well off, and did not want any
change. Wheat was at one hundred and
fifteen shillings and eleven-pence per quarter :
why should they want any change ? There
was the tradesman in the town, however, who
was beginning to wonder what would become
of his children, if some change did not come.
He was paying one shilling and tenpence each
for quartern loaves ; and ninepence per pound
for meat ; and every great article of his
expenditure was two, three, four, or five
times as high as when he married. Then,
there was the housewife, trying to make good
bread with only half the quantity of flour,
and the rest potatoes, or other vegetable
matter, which may be very good under their
own names, but are disagreeable when they
make our bread clammy or heavy. The flour
itself was often very bad. There was not
enough wheat brought in from distant
countries to mix with our own ; and in such
bad seasons as had followed each other from
1795 to 1800, our own wheat was wretched
stuff. It was so desperately wanted that it
was ground and eaten damp and new. We
never see such bread now as even the upper
classes had to eat then. Some of the work-
people gave up bread, and made into porridge
such flour as they could still get. Many got
none at all. Many went out into the lanes,
and along the ditches for nettles, and any
roots, and berries, and herbs, that they could
eat. But what are herbs—the best herbs—
without salt ?  and upon salt there was a duty
of fifteen shillings per bushel. What would
the people of Birmingham have said, at that
time, if they had been told that in half a
century the population of their town would
have more than trebled, while the price of
wheat would have fallen to one-third of what
they were paying then ?

We pick out Birmingham from among the
suffering towns, and that period from the
mournful course of years of the war, because
there and then arose an establishment suited
to the popular need, which is sufficiently
remarkable to be put upon record. This
establishment has been imitated at Birmingham;
but, at this day, there is (as far as we
can learn) nothing like it in any other town
in England. In 1795, when wheat was damp
and mouldy, and flour was sour, and the
inside of the loaf was a loathsome mess of
grey sticky paste, a company was formed at
Birmingham, for the purpose of supplying the
town with good flour and good bread. The
millers and bakers did not like the scheme, of
course; but the inhabitants did; at least
during the years of scarcity which followed
the opening of the Union Mills. We are told
that it was a pleasant sight,—in those days
before we were born,—the vans laden with
wholesome bread, going through the streets
in the morning, and dropping the loaves as
they went. The establishment was hated, was
persecuted, was mobbed, was reduced to a very
low point of adversity ; and, in 1809, it was
prosecuted in the name of the king, on the
plea that it was illegal, and injurious to the
interests of the millers and bakers of
Birmingham. The finding of the jury was looked
to with great and wide-spread curiosity ; the
whole affair was such a novelty. The jury
found that the object of the company was
laudable ; that the town had been much the
better for the good flour and bread which
they had provided, and which had often been
really out of the reach of single millers and
bakers, or small firms; and, finally, that the
interests of the millers and bakers had
suffered in the competition with the aggregate
capitalists of the company.

The company fell so low at one time that
its one pound shares were to be had in
abundance for half-a-crown each. They wisely
bought up most of the depreciated shares,
knowing their town well enough to be sure
that their concern must, sooner or later,
answer well there, though no one could say
as much of any other place. Their confidence
was justified. As their profits increased—
slowly and quietly—they were allowed to lay
them by; for the shares were so small that
the profits were hardly worth looking after
by the scattered holders. Last year, their
capital (exclusive of their mills and apparatus)
amounted to twenty-four thousand pounds;
and a division of profits has recommenced. In
the course of their ascent to prosperity, they
sold more and more flour, as well as bread;
and their spreading trade began to invade
that of millers within a considerable range of
country. Among others, the Lucys of
Stratford-upon-Avon (a name and place for
ever associated in men's minds) found their
business injured by this great Birmingham
company. Instead of grumbling and growling,
and going to law, the Messrs. Lucy, father and
sons, bravely stepped into Birmingham, and set
up mills of their own—fairly trying to divide
the custom of the growing town with the original
association. In this they succeeded. Others
have followed their example; and there are
now four mill establishments in Birmingham
belonging to private firms, besides two which
are the property of companies. There are
peculiarities about Mr. Lucy's establishment,
and his methods, which mark it out for
observation, in preference to others. We have
surveyed the whole of it, and have found
some curious things there which are to be
seen nowhere else.

Before we tell what we have seen, however,
we must explain why it is that these
establishments are confined to Birmingham—why
the same reasons which maintain them there,
do not call up similar works in other towns.

The fact is, the working-classes of
Birmingham have a remarkable fancy for buying
what they want at the small hucksters'
shops, of which there are an infinity in
the town. One would like to know how
many of these hucksters' shops there are in