a fair price. More positively, a number of local initiatives are reported, especially in the provision of fuel at reasonable prices for poor parishioners; and more complex support such as the Speenhamland system. National discussion turned on a number of questions, such as of diet: could the poor be persuaded to subsist on cheaper brown breads and dispense with their use of tea? It appeared that they could not. Deliberations were made into the desirability of pegging minimum wages to the cost of provisions such as by Edmund Burke (against) and Arthur Young (for); a number of magistrates benches and quarter sessions had made such a recommendation. Samuel Whitbread introduced a minimum wage bill into Parliament late in 1795, winning support from Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Charles Grey and Charles James Fox; but the bill was opposed by William Pitt the Younger, and failed to pass a second reading. The government also undertook to bring in grains from abroad from Canada, Europe, and even Bengal. Notes References 1795 Riots 1795 in England