almost every district where coal and ironstone abounded; and thus were laid the foundations of that immense and lucrative trade in the smelting, casting, and working of iron, which in this country gives employment to so large a portion of the industrious population.

As might be expected from what has been stated, "the history of our iron trade during what may be considered the era of transition from the use of charcoal to pit-coke, abounds with disastrous notices of the men who embarked on that sea of adventure, the confessedly hidden riches of which appeared perpetually to tantalise one and another with the hopes of discovering, under the form of charred pit-coal, a product more precious than the philosopher's stone; unless, indeed, we could imagine that, under so specious an appellation, the Rosycrusian experimenters really meant nothing more than ‘metallum martis,' the iron and steel of modern times." "The names of Dudley, Ravenson, Sturtevant, Wildman, and others, stand on record, soon after the interregnum, as speculators in the wide field of coke-iron working; and the number of patents which they obtained, the money they spent, and the mortification or ruin they severally experienced, collectively tend to prove that we are much indebted to them for having cleared the ground to such an extent."*

Various causes have at different times tended to influence the coal trade since the use of the commodity became general; but notwithstanding the competition of the places afterwards mentioned, as well as that of numerous inland collieries, the increase of the trade at its most ancient northern seat may be

* Cab. Cyclop. Manufactures in Metal, vol. i. p. 31.

said to have been, with some exceptions, progressive. To instance a single period: in 1800 the entire vend from the Tyne was 685,280 Newcastle chaldrons, and in 1826 it was 844,965 chaldrons; there was, however, a falling off in the next two years, the aggregate vend in 1828 having been 785,407 chaldrons. In 1830 the aggregate capital employed by the coal owners on the river Tyne was estimated at about a million and a half, exclusive of craft on the river.

The early history of the coal trade on the Durham side of the river Tyne, is so completely identified with that on the Northumberland side, both parties loading at Newcastle, that it is impossible to note the earliest progress of the Wear collieries in reference to the navigation of the last-named water. Surtees* supposes it to have been towards the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth, or in that of James, that the coal trade began to find its way into the port of Sunderland, which, in consequence, gradually rose into importance; whilst Hartlepool, the ancient port of the palatinate of Durham, dwindled in an inverse proportion into a mere fishing town. The burgesses of Sunderland, anciently known as "Weremouth," were incorporated by Morton, Bishop of Durham, in 1634 the export articles specified in the charter were, "sea-coals, grindstones, rubstones, and whetstones." During the civil wars, in consequence of Newcastle being stoutly defended for the King, the collieries on the Wear and the port of Sunderland became objects of vital importance; and it seems that the latter, in 1642, received a garrison for the Parliament.

Hist. Durham, vol. i. p. 256.

About the middle of the seventeenth century (1654), we find the "Port of Sunderland by the Sea" mentioned, as beginning to be of importance; since that period, its commercial prosperity has gone on increasing, and it has long shared with Newcastle the advantages of the coal trade. It may be mentioned that the highest price ever obtained in the market, is for the best coal from the Wear. In 1800, the quantity of coals sent from the port of Sunderland, including the coastwise and foreign transit, was 303,459 chaldrons: in 1828, it had reached 532,508, the whole exportation during the 28 years having been something short of 12,000,000 chaldrons. About the time last mentioned, there were nine or ten large collieries on the Wear, in connection with which, capital to the amount of £600,000 to £700,000 is stated to have been sunk: about 700 colliers were employed; and in 1807, 7,518 ships, together of 102,454 tonnage, cleared with coals from the port of Sunderland. Coals raised from the Wear collieries, as well as from those upon the Tyne, are put into waggons at the pits' mouth, from whence they are conveyed, sometimes a distance of ten miles, to the staithes or spouts, and are either put directly into ships from the staiths, or placed in tubs to be conveyed thereto, or in bulk, in keels, to be cast on board by manual labour. And, as the Custom-house and other dues are collected upon the Newcastle chaldron, a Commission issued, 1 Geo. IV., for "the admeasuring and marking all and every the keels, pan-keels, and pan-boats and other boats, and wains and carts, used or in any time thereafter to be used for the carriage of coals for the port of Newcastleupon-Tyne, and Sunderland upon the river Wear,

STOCKTON ON TEES.

329

Cullercoates, Seaton Sluice, Blythnook, and all other places within the counties of Northumberland and Durham, and all and every the members, havens, rivers, creeks, and places whatsoever to the counties aforesaid belonging."

Not only has the port of Sunderland for many years shared with Newcastle the advantages and regulations of the northern coal trade, but Stockton, also, since about 1820, has established a sort of rivalry in this important traffic. The great coal owners on the Tyne and Wear appear to make common cause, especially in agreements as to the vend, &c. from which those on the Tees are excluded, apparently as being unwelcome interlopers in the field of business. There are about twelve collieries, which send their produce mostly by rail-roads-in one instance for the distance of twenty-five miles to the Tees, the water of which, however, not being sufficiently deep at Stockton to allow of the lading of large ships, the trade to London is less pushed (in 1830 it was upwards of 1,200 Newcastle chaldrons), than it is to the outports-vessels of 200 tons readily running up the smaller rivers. Some of the coal is of excellent quality, little inferior to the better sorts of the Tyne or Wear, especially the Old Etherley Wallsend: it is, however, tender, and therefore cannot be sent to market so large as some of the prime sorts whose name it bears, and which in this, as in some other cases, is arbitrarily affixed, because, as a Stockton coal merchant explained before the Committee of the House of Commons, the London purchasers "hardly consider they are coals unless they bear that name.'

CHAPTER XVII.

VARIETIES OF COAL.

Composition of Coal-Gradations of Fossil Character Mineral Arrangement - Brown Coal-Black Coal-Glance Coal-Sub-species of each kind— Varieties in the Trade-Difficult to identify several sorts-Qualities of Coal-English, Welsh, and Scotch Coals-Evolution of unconsumed matters during combustion-Burning of Smoke-Stone Coal.

IN the earlier Chapters of this Volume, we have entered somewhat at length into the natural history, fossil relations, and geological position of coal; having subsequently described the operations connected with raising it from the mine, we now come to notice those varieties which have been described by Mineralogists, and also to advert to the different qualities of this important fuel recognised in the market, as well as "It has been customary,' by the general consumer. says Dr. Mac Culloch, "to regard coal as a combination of carbon and bitumen; but as the latter is itself composed of carbon and hydrogen, it is more accordant to nature, to regard coal as a bitumen, varying in its proportion of carbon, from the fattest