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Population and wealth advanced by leaps and bounds; but with them came the nineteenth-century problems of widening class distinctions and uncertainty of employment. The food-supply was often inadequate, and in 1801 the price of wheat in the London market ranged from £6 to £8 the quarter; the quartern loaf selling at times for as much as 1s. 10-1/2d. The state of the sister island was even worse.
"Yonder is the enchanted manor, and the dragon, and the lady, all at thy service, if thou darest venture on them." "Why, so I would for a quartern of sack," said the soldier "or stay: I am foully out of linen wilt thou bet a piece of Hollands against these five angels, that I go not up to the Hall to-morrow and force Tony Foster to introduce me to his fair guest?"
Darius spoke sharply. "Your honour, there's naught on Mr. Calhoun's estate that's got the taint, and he's not the man to go hunting for it. Drink well, suppose a gentleman does take his quartern, is it a crime? I ask your honour, is that a crime in Jamaica?" "It's no crime, Boland; nevertheless, your Mr.
Burnworth loaded his pistol under the table, and having primed it, goes with it ready cocked into the room where Jonathan's foreman was, with a quartern of brandy and a glass before him. Hark ye, says Edward, you fellow, who have served your time to a thief-taker; what business might you have with me or my company? Do you think to gain a hundred or two by swearing our lives away?
Here the window did duty for a table, we breathed the fresh air, we could see the neighbourhood and the people passing by, and though on the fourth story, could look down into the street as we ate. Who shall describe, who shall feel the charms of those meals, consisting of a coarse quartern loaf, some cherries, a tiny morsel of cheese, and a pint of wine which we drank between us?
Add to all this the knowledge which a savage is obliged to gain of the properties of plants, of the characters and habits of animals, and of the minute indications by which their course is discoverable: consider that even an Australian can make excellent baskets and nets, and neatly fitted and beautifully balanced spears; that he learns to use these so as to be able to transfix a quartern loaf at sixty yards; and that very often, as in the case of the American Indians, the language of a savage exhibits complexities which a well-trained European finds it difficult to master: consider that every time a savage tracks his game he employs a minuteness of observation, and an accuracy of inductive and deductive reasoning which, applied to other matters, would assure some reputation to a man of science, and I think we need ask no further why he possesses such a fair supply of brains.
Then he had gone to the Hospital Barracks, was there iniquitously called a lousy toad, and had been driven off with his quartern loaf, muttering through the dough the island proverb "While the mariner swigs the tide rises."
On March 5, 1801, the price of the quartern loaf stood as high as 1s. 10½d. On July 23 it was still 1s. 8d. The harvest of this year was, however, an excellent one. The price fell rapidly during August, and by November 12 was as low as 10½d. Cornwallis, Correspondence, iii., 382-487. Malmesbury, Diaries, iv., 60, 62. Lecky, History Of Ireland, v., 465.
Benett, of Pyt-house, in this county, was let for 400l. a-year; at the present time this farm, the property of Mr. John Benett, of Pyt-house, is let for 1,260l. a-year. Thus it clearly appears in this parish, within the last 30 years, labour has risen from 6s. to 8s. per week, 33 per cent., the quartern loaf from 5d. to 10-1/2d., 105 per cent., the rent of land from 400l. to 1,260l., 212 per cent.
During this year, the price of bread and all sorts of provisions had been remarkably high; at one period the quartern loaf sold for one shilling and tenpence halfpenny, and the poor suffered very much throughout the country.
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