6 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB I90I 
instance, those in the north-west of Canada are of Creta- 
ceous age, and their commercial value is inferior to the 
coal of Carboniferous age. 
Some coalfields in other parts of the world, the United 
States, for instance, are, itis true, of the same age as ours. 
But if coal has to be brought to this country there is the 
cost of transit to be reckoned with, and with dear coal how 
shall we maintain our commercial supremacy? We are, 
indeed, at the present time getting a lesson in what we 
may expect. Coal has been dear, and one result is the 
increased cost of manufacture: in consequence rails are 
now being sent to this country at a less cost than they can 
be produced here. The same thing may apply to other 
articles: the sequel is a prospect of less prosperity in 
trade, and a falling-off in demand for labour, which mean 
reduced wages. 
But before pursuing the commercial aspect of the ques- 
tion further, let us glance at our knowledge of this natural 
deposit of carbon called coal, to which so much of the 
industrial prosperity of the nineteenth century was due. 
Early in the last century very little interest was taken 
in coal at all. It was little used; people did not realise 
its value, nor had they got over the prejudices of former 
generations. Instances of these prejudices may be of 
interest. 
In the reign of Edward I. Parliament petitioned the King 
against the use of coal, and his Majesty issued a Procla- 
mation prohibiting its use except by smiths. Authority 
was given to pull down dwellings out of which coal smoke 
issued’. The Rev. Thomas Wiltshire mentions’ a tradi- 
tion that an unfortunate coal consumer was put to the 
torture in the Tower because he was said to have wilfully 
produced an epidemic by his very inferior fuel. 
1 Stow’s Annals, p. 210, by E. Homes; 1615. 2 History of Coal, 1879, p. 22. 
