264 Coal Duly, and Coal Trickery. [[MARCH, 



fourths of the country, while the remainder is covered with a dense mass 

 of people, that threatens, on every occasion of excitement, a popular 

 commotion. But for this destructive tax, we repeat, our manufactures 

 would have been more equally diffused, every district would have 

 shared in the beneficial results that spring up in the confines of acti- 

 vity, and none would have been drained to supply demands at a dis- 

 tance, at the cost of its own prosperity. Norwich, once a flourishing 

 seat of manufactures, has been materially affected by this very tax. As 

 long as yarn was spun by hand, all that was used in the town was spun 

 on the spot : but when machinery was employed, Norwich lost wholly 

 this branch of her industry, not because her people were less indus- 

 trious, or less disposed to adopt the use of machinery, but simply 

 because the heavy duty on coal forbade their competing with the 

 machinery of the north. The export duty to Ireland, too, though less 

 than the home duty, has long been one of the most effective hindrances 

 to the prosecution of manufactures in that forsaken country. 



This six-shilling duty, however, is not the only grievance that sur- 

 charges coals they are encumbered with others, and those also, 

 most of them, originating in the busy-body spirit of interference, which 

 has characterised the government of England, more especially, for a 

 century past. The government,indeed,'never stirs voluntarily it is always 

 set in motion by interested parties, and interest is never at rest ; and 

 thus it is, that we see law after law passed for the sake and benefit of 

 particular " interests," as they are rightly enough termed, while those of 

 the community are wholly overlooked. Coals, even withdrawing the 

 six-shilling duty, are at enormous prices "Oh, all of course/' is the 

 common cry, " the results of monopoly on the part of the coal pro- 

 prietors." The assertion is false in fact, and fatal in its effects. It has 

 silenced inquiry for years. Yet one plain fact is enough to repel the 

 charge the coals which cost the consumer 50s. are sold by the owner 

 at 12s. or 14s. What becomes of the difference? We shall see pre- 

 sently. 



But first, we have a word or two with respect to this 12s. or 14s., 

 the price which the owner receives. Monopoly, as we have said, we do 

 not believe, for coal owners are a numerous body, and the trade is 

 accessible to capitalists we do not believe it exists to any extent worth 

 insisting upon ; but this 12s. or 14s. were it not for legislative inter- 

 ference, might itself be reduced at least a fourth. Nothing but LARGE 

 coals are shipped for London and the coast. The coals are screened, 

 that is, before they are shipped, they are thrown over a grating, which 

 lets the small pieces through ; and this smaller coal, amounting to a fifth 

 and often a fourth of the whole, though it costs just as much to bring it 

 from the pit, is burnt upon the spot in utter waste. The owners of 

 course are obliged to throw the loss upon the coals that are shipped 

 which, together with the labour of screening, and the damage done by 

 the fires to the crops of the neighbourhood, swells the price from what 

 on the average might be 9s. or 10s. to 12s. or 13s. Nor should it be 

 overlooked, that this refuse coal is not nearly so small as every body, 

 especially in London, finds the coal he daily burns to be ; and that, 

 but for some particular interests, it would be shipped along with the 

 large, without discrimination. 



Now what particular interests are these ? Those of the shippers. 

 And how is it their interest to reject the small and insist upon the large ? 

 Because the laws interpose and direct coals to be retailed not by weight 

 but by measure ; and the retailer finds that coal in a small state measures 



