was encountered with several objections, and dropped for this session of
parliament.

INQUIRY INTO THE SCARCITY OF CORN.

The house of commons being desirous of preventing, for the future, such
distresses as the poor had lately undergone, appointed a committee to
consider of proper provisions to restrain the price of corn and bread
within due bounds for the future. For this purpose they were empowered
to send for persons, papers, and records; and it was resolved, that all
who attended the committee should have voices. Having inquired into the
causes of the late scarcity, they agreed to several resolutions, and
a bill was brought in to explain and amend the laws against regraters,
forestalled, and engrossers of corn. The committee also received
instructions to inquire into the abuses of millers, mealmen, and bakers,
with regard to bread, and to consider of proper methods to prevent
them in the sequel; but no further progress was made in this important
affair, which was the more interesting, as the lives of individuals, in
a great measure, depended upon a speedy reformation; for the millers and
bakers were said to have adulterated their flour with common whiting,
lime, bone ashes, alum, and other ingredients pernicious to the human
constitution; a consummation of villany for which no adequate punishment
could be inflicted. Among the measures proposed in parliament which did
not succeed, one of the most remarkable was a bill prepared by Mr. Rose
Fuller, Mr. Charles Townshend, and Mr. Banks, to explain, amend, and
render more effectual a law passed in the reign of king William the
Third, intituled,

"An act to punish governors of plantations, in this kingdom, for
crimes committed by them in the plantation." This bill was proposed in
consequence of some complaints, specifying acts of cruelty, folly,
and oppression, by which some British governors had been lately
distinguished; but, before the bill could be brought in, the parliament
was prorogued.

INVESTIGATION OF THE LOSS OF MINORCA.

But no step taken by the house of commons, in the course of this
session, was more interesting to the body of the people than the inquiry
into the loss of Minorca, which had excited such loud and universal
clamour. By addresses to the king, unanimously voted, the commons
requested that his majesty would give directions for laying before
them copies of all the letters and papers containing any intelligence
received by the sec