With the rise of prices the agitation against forestallers and engrossers revived, and at least one preacher in the Manchester district took as the text of his sermon: “He that withholdeth corn the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it,”[276] but more than admonition was considered necessary. In 1762 a riot took place in Manchester in which people from Oldham, Saddleworth, Ashton, etc., joined, which was regarded as so serious that the King offered his pardon to any two persons who would turn informers.[277] Early in 1764 Parliament instituted an inquiry regarding the high price of provisions, when the conclusion was arrived at, that the evil was due to forestallers and engrossers. Apparently, however, it was not easy to find a remedy, as a few months later the King, by the advice of the Privy Council, offered a reward of £100 for the discovery of any unlawful combination to raise prices, and in Derbyshire, the miners, finding wheat at 8s. 4d. a bushel, decided to take matters into their own hands, and fixed a price of 5s., at which they cleared the market.[278] [Footnote 276: _Manchester Mercury_, 9th January 1762.] [Footnote 277: _Ibid._, 1st September 1762.] [Footnote 278: Macpherson, _ibid._, pp. 391, 406-407.] At the beginning of 1766 Parliament again took action by allowing the import of prohibited cereals, and prohibiting the export of others. In September, in answer to the numerous petitions which had been presented, three proclamations were issued: one, which enforced the sixteenth-century laws against forestallers and engrossers; another, which laid an embargo on all vessels loaded with wheat and flour in any port of Great Britain and prohibited distillation from wheat; while another prolonged the embargo and extended it to vessels having on board barley or malt.[279] In November of the same year, an Assize of Bread began to be issued in Manchester, and was continued weekly for some months.[280] [Footnote 279: Macpherson, _ibid._, pp 438, 452.] [Footnote 280: Regarding this Assize the following notice, based upon 31 Geo. II., c. 29., was issued in _The Manchester Mercury_, 18th Nov. 1766:--“In every Assize of Bread respect shall he had to the Market Price of Grain and Meal and Flour making reasonable allowance to the Baker for his Labour and Profit. In order to know the Price of Meal and Flour in proportion to the Price of Wheat, the Magistrates and Justices of Peace are to take notice that the Peck loaf of each sort of Bread is to weigh, when well baken, 17 lbs. 6 ozs. avoirdupois, and the rest in proportion; and that every sack of Meal or Flour is to weigh 2 cwt. 2 qrs. (not 280 lbs.) and that from every sack of Meal or Flour there ought to be produced 20 such Peck loaves of Bread.”