the effect upon theirs. He did not believe there were ten shopkeepers in Bury maintaining themselves by their business. One shopkeeper told him the other day that, out of 168 customers who had entered his shop, they had spent only the miserable sum of between £2 and £3.
Mr. Whitehead, of Leeds, stood before him (Sir Robert Peel) as a shopkeeper of that town, the inhabitants of which, together with those of every other in the West Biding of Yorkshire, were on the brink of ruin. Within the last six months, a great number of the principal shops in Leeds had been closed. Mr. Whitehead was proceeding with details of the wide-spread and awful suffering, when
Sir Robert Peel inquired whether the consumption of tea and sugar had decreased?
Mr. Whitehead believed the consumption of these articles had not been so much affected.
Sir R. Peel: Suppose it should have increased.
Mr. Whitehead said that the food of the poorer classes of the population generally consisted of bread, milk, meat, potatoes, cheese, and butter. The male part of them did not, except when obliged, take tea and coffee. What was used of those articles was of the worst quality and the lowest price, so much so indeed that the revenue was scarcely benefited by the consumption. But another fact might account for an increase, if such there was in the consumption of the two articles to which he (Sir R. Peel) had alluded. The men who still went to the factories had tea and coffee dinners. From the low rate of remuneration, they were reduced to subsist upon those fluids, instead of food of a more substantial kind, and the consequence was that they were becoming extremely haggard and emaciated. Vast numbers of them were dying gradually for want of food. One fact would speak volumes. A mill, which a short tune ago had been worth £50,000 or £60,000, on being sold the other day, fetched only £18,000, and that was considered in the trade too dear. The
