duty paid. From the 1st of March, 1831, these duties were repealed; and in the following year, (1832) the total quantity of the above descriptions of fuel imported at London, was 1,677,708 chaldrons, or 2,139,078 tons, the amount of the preceding twelvemonths. In 1833, the quantity of coals stated to have been sold in the London coal market, was 2,006,653 tons, of which the proportion of Stewart's Hetton, and Lambton's Wallsend-the sorts considered best for ordinary purposes-was about 504,695 tons. The price of delivering these sorts at the cellar of the consumer, seems to have been 26s. per ton. Another account makes the amount much larger. According to a return lately made to the House of Commons, the quantity of coals brought coastwise and by inland navigation into the port of London, in 1833 was 2,014,804 tons, and 1834, 2,080,547 tons. Of these, there came from Newcastle, in 1833, 1,060,839 tons; in 1834, 1,142,903 tons; from Sunderland, in 1833, 666,787 tons; in 1834, 559,105 tons. From Stockton, in 1833, 170,690 tons, in 1834, 64,268. From Hull, Goole, Gainsbrough and other places in Yorkshire, in 1835, 17,751 tons. At present, the current London prices are-best Stewart's Hetton, or Lambton's Wallsend, 29s. per ton; best Newcastle, 27s., second, from 25s. to 27s. CHAPTER XX. IRISH, SCOTCH, AND WELSH COAL Importation of Coals into Ireland-Dublin supplied from Whitehaven-Various Coal ports-Legislative Regulations-Sales by Weight and by MeasureCoals allowed to be imported duty free, for certain Manufactories-Scotland behind England in the methods of working Collieries-Coal taken to Scotland duty free-Sold by Weight-Scotch Coal sent coastwise-South Welsh Trade-Newport-Small Coal, or Culm-Coal Balls. IRELAND, although containing within itself strata of bituminous coal, and, especially, a vast deposit of anthracite at Kilkenny, imports a large quantity of the former description of fuel from various parts of Great Britain. The principal sources of supply are Whitehaven, in Cumberland; Ayrshire, in Scotland; and South Wales. The city of Dublin is chiefly supplied from Whitehaven; the exports from the latter place to Ireland having been, in the year 1828, upwards of 186,000 imperial chaldrons; in addition to 16,328 chaldrons from Newcastle; 44,856 tons from Liverpool; and 13,250 tons from Lancaster. The importation from Scotland during the same year, was 105,933 chaldrons. The Welsh coals are shipped for Ireland mostly from Newport, Cardiff, and Chester; and amounted in 1828, to 142,738 tons, exclusive of upwards of 20,000 tons of culm. In addition to the consumption in Dublin, great quantities of coal are brought to the Irish ports of Cork, Belfast, Waterford, Newry, Wexford, Drogheda, Dundalk, Limerick, Londonderry, Sligo, Galway, Westport, Coleraine, and Baltimore; the relative importance of these places, in regard to the coal-trade of Ireland being according to the above order of enumeration. The total amount of coals imported into Ireland, in the year 1828, was 777,575 tons. Coals for the above ports from Wales have long been put on board by weight: to ascertain this exactly, the waggons, previously weighed while empty, and marked, are, when full, run upon a machine placed in the line of the railway for the purpose, so that the weight of the contents of each can be immediately ascertained. Considerable inconvenience having formerly arisen from the manner in which the coal trade was carried on in Ireland, and particularly in Dublin, a succession of statutes, commencing with the reign of Queen Anne, had been obtained for more effectually preventing the engrossing and regrating of coals, and also for preventing abuses in consequence of combinations to raise the price of the commodity. These statutes were repealed by an Act passed in 1832, with the exception, that the impost of one shilling per ton, upon all coal and culm landed within the city of Cork, is continued. As one great source of fraud and litigation had been the substitution of a superior denomination in SALE OF COALS IN DUBLIN. 391 lieu of the proper name, upon inferior descriptions of coal, especially in reference to that taken from Whitehaven, the last Act requires, that on a conspicuous part of every vessel, in which coals shall be publicly offered for sale in any port, harbour, or river in Ireland, there shall be affixed a board or label painted with the reputed name, or commonly received denomination of the coals; and also the name of the port from which the cargo has been brought, together with the prices at which the coals are offered for sale; in default of a compliance with which regulation, a penalty of ten pounds is incurred. Coals, which were formerly sold in Dublin by measure, as latterly in England, and under the superintendence of authorised meters, as well for the protection of the public, as to facilitate the collection of certain dues, have for many years been mostly sold, and the city duty of 1s. 9d. per ton, charged by weight; a small steelyard being for this purpose placed on the deck of the ship. The validity of sales, however, was made to depend upon the presence of the officer, until the passing of the Act of 2 Will. IV. rendered the employment of licensed meters and weigh-masters optional on the part of buyers and sellers, who were declared to be at liberty to employ whomsoever they might think fit, in connexion with sale, measurement, weighing, delivery, or storage. Six months after the passing of the above-mentioned Act, another was passed, giving compensation to the coal-meters according to certain specified terms; for which object, fourpence per ton is levied upon all coals, not Irish, brought into the city of Dublin, and no vessel is allowed to discharge her cargo until the duty is paid. These duties which are but tempo rary, may be reduced as the annuitant meters die off, or accept certain situations of emolument; and they are finally to determine and cease altogether, when there shall remain no longer any claimant according to the statute. But, pending that issue, there is a clause exempting from the aforesaid duty of fourpence per ton, all coals imported into Dublin, for the bona fide use of the glass, sugar, and salt manufacturers, and for the use of distillers, brewers, calico-printers, iron, brass, and metal founders; paper, woollen, and linen manufacturers; dyers, chemical workers, and all other coals required for the use of manufactories. For these purposes, the consumption is very considerable, while in private houses, especially in situations remote from the capital, this valuable fuel is much too expensive to become common. It will, however, be recollected, that in addition to native and imported coal, Ireland is abundantly supplied with peat, which, not only is the common fuel of the poor, and indeed of all classes, in some districts, but it is also brought in barges by the grand canal, and consumed to a great amount, along with, or instead of coal in the capital itself. Scotland, as already stated, contains vast deposits of various kinds of coal; but, notwithstanding this fuel has been worked in that country for a period of five or six hundred years, the drawing and pumping machines, no less than the underground arrangements, were until lately in every respect much behind those of our English collieries: even the system of tubbing back the water by the erection of a sheathing of tim * The first mention of coal that occurs in any charter relative to Scotland, occurs in a grant, executed in the year 1291, in favour of the Abbot and Convent of Dunfermline, and the privilege of digging coal in the lands of Pittencrieff, in the county of Fife. |