not lightermen, do not enter into the business of conveying in lighters, barges, or other craft, for hire, any description of goods whatever, except only such coals as may be lightered by them in their trade of coal dealers. When the quantity of coal exceeds five hundred and sixty pounds, a ticket is given by the seller, specifying the sort of coal contracted for, the number of sacks, weight of each sack, &c. These sacks are required to contain either one hundred and twelve pounds, or two hundred and twenty-four pounds net-except when the coals are delivered by what is called "gang labour," when the quantity contained in the sacks is left undetermined. The late Act also authorises the delivery of coals in bulk, provided that the weight of the cart or other carriage, as well as that of the coals, be correctly ascertained, by a weighing machine erected for that purpose on the wharf, so that the carman can be made clearly responsible for the delivery of the specified weight, under a penalty, to be levied according to the amount of any deficiency that may be discovered. Every carman, taking out coals for sale, is required to have a weighing machine, (previously proved and marked at Guildhall), attached to his carriage,* and with it, the carman is required to weigh any sack or * In 1831, the large silver medal of the Society of Arts, was given to Mr. Braby, for a machine for weighing coals in sacks. This contrivance consisted simply of a horizontal bar of iron projecting behind the waggon, and parallel with the sides, to one of which it is fastened. Upon a hook at the end of this bar is suspended a steelyard, having at one end a scale which hangs by four chains from a top-board for the reception of the sack, and at the other end a pendant weight, which will counterpoise two hundred weight in the scale. But as a sack of coals weighs something more than two hundred weight, this excess is ascertained by means of a small moveable weight, which slides along the graduated lever-arm: it also serves, when the coals are poured out, to ascertain the weight of the empty sack-thus giving the exact weight of the commodity to a quarter of a pound. PROGRESSIVE INCREASE. 387 sacks upon delivery to his customers this weighing to take place in the presence of a constable, if the purchaser chooses to call one. Stationary weighing machines are also erected in convenient situations; and no quantity less than 560 pounds of coals is allowed to be sold and delivered without being weighed. While recognising the great improvement which has been effected in the London coal trade by the substitution of the steelyard for the bushel, it must not be imagined by persons little conversant with the subject, that the sale of coals by weight was, on the coming into operation of the Act so often adverted to, absolutely a new thing on the banks of the Thames; for the fact is, that the practices both of measuring and weighing obtained at once, early in the seventeenth century; and a charter of 12th James I. to the Corporation of London, recites that his Majesty had given to the Mayor, and Commonalty, and Citizens, and their successors, "the weighing of all and singular coals, called stone coals, pit coals, earth coals, and all other kinds weighable, of what kind, nature, and species soever." Some idea of the extent of this trade may be derived from the following statement:-In 1826, the amount of coal, culm, and cinders, imported into the port of London, was 1,600,229 chaldrons equal to 2,040,291 tons, 25 cwt. being reckoned a chaldron, as required by the late Act. At that time, the duty paid upon the coal and cinders, was six shillings per chaldron, and upon the culm sixpence;-the entire importation produced £467,852. In 1830, the importation was so nearly on a par with that of 1826, that there was only the difference of about £100, in the amount of 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 |