at least, four times the quantity of coal in making even pig-metal, and the extraordinary consumption in smelting the ores of the Cornish mines-3,000,000 tons. These items taken collectively give the amount consumed in Great Britain, as 14,880,000 tons; to which if we add, as exported to Ireland, 700,000 tons, the total consumption of the United Kingdom is 15,580,000 tons.

Mr. Perkins, a colliery owner of Northumberland, during his examination before the Lords' Committee in 1829, presented a table, shewing the real import of coals for each year during the twenty-eight years, commencing with 1801; also the mean annual rate of increase for two periods of fourteen years, and one of twenty-eight years; computed from the actual imports according to which respective rates of increase a calculated import is apportioned. From this table it appears, that the real import during the years enumerated was 32,580,515 chaldrons; and the mean annual rate of increase for twenty-eight years, say from 1801 to 1828 inclusive, was 22,507 chaldrons, apportioning the entire import. The mean annual rate of increase for fourteen years, viz. from 1801 to 1814 inclusive, was 21,293 chaldrons; and the mean annual increase for the next fourteen years, viz. from 1815 to 1828 inclusive, was 32,616 chaldrons.

In 1801, the population of London and its

The population increased 1.65g per annum for the ten years.

The whole average increase of import was 15.52g.

The population increased 2.33% per annum.

The whole average increase of import was 19.61g.

It appears the import of coal did not in these latter ten years retain the same rateable proportion of increase as the preceding ten years :

1.65: 15.52::2.33: 21.91

19.61

2.30 abated per centage of increased import.

On the whole, Mr. Perkins assigns about nine chaldrons annually for the use of eight persons in the metropolis before the general extension of gasworks, and ten chaldrons since. In 1829, the quantity of coals imported in the port of London was 1,583,511 chaldrons 1 vat.

Certain of the northern coal owners, in order to relieve themselves of the heavy dues which encumbered sea-borne coal, at one time proposed taxing the commodity generally. Mr. Buddle recommended the alternative of two plans-taxing all collieries, or imposing a tax on every fire-place: the latter mode, reckoning 3s. per annum to be laid upon each hearth, would, he calculated, produce about a million a-year. Captain Cochrane, of Hetton Colliery, recommended a repeal of the duty, and in lieu thereof the imposition of 1s. a ton on all coals consumed over Great Britain, which he believed amounts to 15,000,000 of chaldrons, which would increase the revenue at least £100,000 annually; moreover, it would, he contended, “give additional employment to 375 sail of vessels of 180 tons burthen, 300 sailors, and 6,000 colliers; besides the increase of men which the ma

WASTE OF COAL.

433

nufactories benefited by such a measure would naturally require."

It may not be improper, in closing this Chapter, to advert to what may be regarded as an important item in the home consumption of our coal,-namely, its waste. Those who have not paid some attention to the subject, will probably be but little prepared to learn how large a quantity of this valuable commodity has been constantly destroyed, in one way or other, instead of being sent to market. The value of the article thus profitlessly abstracted from the common stock of our national fuel, depends in part upon its quality in the mine, and in part also upon the price it would fetch either alone, or as mixed with the better sorts of coal.

The Staffordshire collieries produce abundantly a soft sort of coal, considered by Dr. Thompson to be of the same species with the cherry coal, of a velvetblack appearance, which constitutes the greater part of the upper seams of the Glasgow fields, and which is so abundant in Fifeshire. He adds, that in the coal fields on the north, and north-west of Birmingham, the loss in mining, owing to the tender nature of the substance itself, and the comparatively trifling demand for small coal, amounts to about two-thirds of the entire seam! In allusion to this statement, and the efforts of a celebrated philosopher to economize the application of fuel, Mr. Tredgold exclaims, "the waste, which Count Rumford lamented so much, dwindles to nothing, in comparison with the wholesale destruction of a valuable material. Are you a manufacturer? Look around, and see what generates the power which enables you to compete with other nations. Are you a philanthropist? Consider that a

substance is destroyed, which would add comfort to millions of your fellow-creatures: consider the risk at which it is procured, the number of lives that are lost by explosions, and the misery these catastrophies create surely, some means of rendering that portion useful, which is now wasted, may be devised!"*

A still more lamentable waste of excellent coal takes place in the South Welsh, and more particularly in the northern collieries, at the pit mouth, in consequence of the practice of screening, described in a former Chapter. This is done to meet the taste for round coals so generally prevalent in the metropolis, and also to meet the circumstances of a demand which, before the trade imposts were reduced, and weight substituted for measure, required the coals to be shipped of a large size, however they might be comminuted before reaching the consumer's cellar. In 1829, Mr. Buddle stated before a Committee of the House of Commons, that, taking the small coal which was not worth bringing to bank, and that which was produced in rendering the remainder merchantable together, the waste was from one-fourth to onethird of the whole. Of this amount, a trifling proportion is used by the colliers, who have grates adapted for burning it, and a little is sold, at about one-tenth of the price of the screened coal: the remainder is carted away to mend the roads; or, as a more ready method of getting rid of it, is consumed near the spot where it has been produced: at one colliery as many as from ninety to one hundred chaldrons a day have been destroyed.

* Annals of Philosophy, vol. viii. p. 169.

CHAPTER XXIII.

FOREIGN COAL TRADE.

Early Notices of Exportation of Coal-During the Reigns of Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth— Charles the First-Act of Trade, 1663—Lord North's Reasons for taxing the Coal Trade to Foreign Ports-Produce of our Coal Fields essentially different from that of our Manufactories— Considerations relative to Free Trade-Politic Objections to an unrestricted Foreign Vend-Opinions of Mr. Brandling and Mr. Buddle—Professor Sedgwick and Dr. Buckland-Scale of Duties on Coals imported, in 1831-Reduced in 1834Duties on Coals sent abroad abolished in 1835Impost levied on Coals at Foreign Ports-Remarks on the Policy of the Duties in the Ports of France.

As might naturally be expected, the earliest notices of the exportation of coal from this country, occur in the records of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and in the Royal Proclamations and other State Papers relative to that town. The first mention of the subject directly is in the rolls of Parliament, A.D. 1325, 19 Ed. II., at which time, as we have already seen, a vessel, the property of one Thomas Rente, of Pontoise, a town