[24] A person writing from the West on the 15th of
April, says: "There has not been one day's rain in Connaught these two
months." The price of provisions continued to rise. Wheat, quoted
towards the end of January in the Dublin market at L2 1s. 6d. the
quarter, reached L2 15s. 6d. in April, L3 14s. in June, and L3 16s. 6d.
in August. About the end of May there was a very formidable bread riot
in the city. Several hundred persons banded themselves together, and,
proceeding to the bakers' shops and meal stores, took the bread and meal
into the streets, and sold them to the poor at low prices. Some gave the
proceeds to the owners, but others did not. They were evidently not
thieves, and at least a portion of them seem to have been even
respectable, yet they were punished with much severity, several having
been whipped, and one transported for seven years. Some days after the
riot the Lord Mayor issued a proclamation giving permission to "foreign
bakers and others" to bake bread in Dublin; he also sent to all the
churchwardens of the city to furnish him with information of any persons
who had concealed corn on their premises; he denounced "forestallers,"
who met in the suburbs the people coming in with provisions, in order to
buy them up before they reached the market; thus in a great measure
justifying the rioters who were whipped and transported.
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