“The baker may be a little the more reluctant to come into this salutary proposal, as knowing that if he is to decline the use of alum, flour that is in any degree musty, or made of wheat that has grown or vegetated before gathered in, as sometimes happens, he cannot work it up so advantageously in the bread now proposed to be made, as in the wheaten bread.—Be this as it may, as soon as the baker finds this _standard_ flour is vendable in bread, he will buy it; and knowing what part of the wheat it ought to be, he will work it into bread with so much the more satisfaction; and being sensible that we mean to eat _genuine_ bread, he will cease to _whiten_ it by any hurtful art. We shall all understand what we eat, and the trade will be familiar to us; we shall be so much happier as we become so much the more honest, and more healthy than we were before. Such is the serious light in which I see the subject before me.” “Every occupation hath its mystery; and the professors are gratified in thinking themselves wiser than the rest of the world in their own way. Every professed _cook_ of the first rate can melt down a large ham into the contents of half a pint. The confectioner uses bitter almonds, which are poisonous; the oilman colours his pickles with _copper_, to render them green; and the baker uses alum to _whiten_ his bread, and make his flour imbibe the more water, by which he makes the more bread out of the same quantity of flour. This, and other _occasional_ mixtures of the flour of different grains, renders his bread husky, dry, and disagreeable the third day.—Are we the _better_ for any such mysteries?” “Whether the wheat be all of one kind, or _married_, which is the phrase for mixing of wheats of different kinds, it will be easy for people of condition, by experiment, or by the comparison with genuine bread made in their families, to know whether justice be done; though we may easily discover that the baker for the _public_, is generally a better master of his trade than most housewives are. The _mystery_ may be thus developed; our health and pleasure promoted; and our bread be as much cheaper than it is now, as the gain on the _flour_ will make it, by using _all_ that the wheat produces.” “Every one may try by grinding and bolting his own grain, and baking his own bread, and the manufacturers of bread may find nearly as good account in bread of all _the flour_, which can be so easily ascertained; as they do in the wheaten, which is involved in difficulties.” “The public have administered to their own delusion, their eyes are shut to their own advantage. If the wealthy will adopt the use of the bread in question, the labouring part of our fellow-subjects will certainly follow the example; and as to _paupers_, they will gladly comply.” “Common sense, in all ages, has achieved wonders.” Laws prohibiting the Adulteration of Bread and Bread Flour.