Various remedies were proposed to counteract the evils of such high prices, and Parliament ultimately enacted that a bounty of from 16_s._ to 20_s._ per quarter (according to the quality of the corn), and of 6_s._ per barrel on flour from the south of Europe, should be paid till the quantity in store amounted to four hundred thousand quarters. This law was to be in force till the 30th of September, 1796. Indeed such was the state of alarm at the probable scarcity of food that the members of both Houses of Parliament bound themselves[240] to reduce the consumption of bread in their houses by one third, and to recommend, as far as possible, a similar reduction in the daily food of their friends and neighbours. By great exertions eight hundred thousand quarters of foreign wheat were brought into the kingdom during 1796; but even this extra quantity would have been insufficient to meet the wants of the people had not an abundant harvest at home during that year happily restored the balance of supply and demand, so that prices once more declined to their ordinary range. [Sidenote: Declaration of Russia, A.D. 1780.] But though saved from the calamities of famine at home, England had still to contend against the leading European powers. In 1780 Russia, roused from the lethargy of ages by an unusually energetic monarch, made great efforts to extend her power and commerce, not without a manifest desire to grasp as much as she could of that more justly belonging to other nations. With this view the Empress Catherine issued her famous “Declaration to the Courts of St. James, Versailles, and Madrid,” which is well worthy of consideration. In this celebrated document, which however remained for some years in abeyance, the Empress asserted that she had “fully manifested her sentiments of moderation, and, further, that she had supported against the Ottoman Empire the rights of neutrality and the liberty of universal commerce.” She also expressed her surprise that her subjects were not permitted “peaceably to enjoy the fruits of their industry, and the rights belonging to a neutral nation;” and as she considered these principles to be coincident with the primitive law of nations which every people may claim, and even the belligerent powers cannot invalidate without violating the laws of neutrality, she had declared:— 1. That all neutral ships may freely navigate from port to port and along the coasts of nations at war. 2. That effects belonging to the subjects of the said warring powers shall be free in all neutral vessels, not carrying goods contraband of war. 3. That all such merchandise be included as is mentioned in the 10th and 11th articles of her treaty of commerce with Great Britain, and similar obligations extended to all the powers at war. 4. That a blockaded port means one so well watched by the ships of the attacking power, that it is dangerous either to enter or leave it.[241]