+----------------------------+-----------------------+--------------+ | Quantity of Food. | Carbonaceous | Nitrogenous. | +----------------------------+-----------------------+--------------+ |BREAKFAST AND SUPPER--TEA, | | | | BREAD, AND BUTTER. | oz. | oz. | |10 oz. Bread | 5½ | ¾ | |½ oz. Butter | ½ | -- | |½ oz. Sugar | ½ | -- | |⅛ pint Milk | less than ¼ | -- | | | | | |DINNER--MEAT AND POTATOES. | | | |4 oz. Meat (cooked) | 1 | 1 | |8 oz. Potatoes | 1¼ | ¼ | |2 oz. Bread. | 1 | ¼ | | +-----------------------+--------------+ | Total | 10½ | 2¼ | +----------------------------+-----------------------+--------------+ Here we see that the total allowance comes only to 10½ oz. of carbonaceous food and 2¼ oz. of nitrogenous food, against the estimated quantity of 16 oz. carbonaceous and 4 oz. nitrogenous, which is the necessary allowance for ordinary people, and against the 25 oz. carbonaceous and 5 oz. nitrogenous, which is the regulation diet of the Royal Engineers during peace. It is true that these old folk do not need so much food, for their bodies have ceased to grow and develop, and in aged persons the wear of the frame does not require such replenishment as is the case with young and middle-aged people; but even with this partial diet we find that the cost of maintaining each of these old people is, for food alone, 3_s._ 11_d._ per head per week. Here, then, we have a fact on which a calculation is easy to make, and which, when made, forces us to see that the workman cannot keep his family as well as the pauper is kept. Even on this simple fare it would cost him close on 8_s._ a week to support himself so as to give him the strength to earn his daily bread; while, if we imagine his family to consist of a wife and six children, we find that his weekly food-bills would amount to 1_l._ 8_s._, calculating his requirements on the same basis as in the previous instances. If we take, therefore, the case of a skilled workman earning his 2_l._ a week, we still find that, even when adequately fed (and keep in mind the plainness and unattractiveness of the diet), he has only 12_s._ a week to supply all other necessaries and out of which to lay by, not only against old age and sickness, but against that ‘rainy day’ and ‘out of work from slackness’ which so often occur for weeks together in the weather chart of our artisan population.