Folios 156-159. Letter from William Goldson, Mayor of Portsmouth [Hampshire], reporting...

Folios 156-159. Letter from William Goldson, Mayor of Portsmouth [Hampshire], reporting the extreme scarcity of wheat and flour in Portsmouth and Portsea and enclosing a letter from its bakers proposing a remedy. Goldson stresses the difficulty of maintaining the peace in a seaport town in times of want and urges the Home Secretary to take such steps as he considers advisable.

Enclosed is a letter of 7 June to the Mayor and Aldermen of the Borough of Portsmouth from the Committee of the Bakers setting out the 'present alarming situation' in which they have only enough flour for a few days. They acknowledge that the failure of the corn harvest applied countrywide but in the neighbourhood the Government held immense supplies of wheat flour and biscuit, sufficient to meet the normal demands from that depot for the army and navy for six months. Accordingly the bakers urge the Corporation to petition Government to suspend the manufacture of biscuit at the port until a more abundant supply can be procured.

Annotated: 'copies of this letter and its inclosure sent to the Treasury.'