1866. ] Our Coal Supply and our Prosperity. 479 
and if we are unable at present to effect any material reduction in 
its amount, it may at least serve as a warning to our people, not to 
increase it by allowing themselves to be led into the quarrels of 
their neighbours! 
We cannot agree with Mr. Jevons in the closing remarks of 
his volume (which we admire though we have submitted his views 
to sharp criticism), that “we have to make the momentous choice 
between brief greatness and longer mediocrity.” 
Great Britain may, if she please, remain Great Britain to the 
end. That her monarch will be the Emperor or Empress of India, 
and that she will send out governors to Australia for ever, we do 
not for a moment contend ; but whether she shall be peopled with 
a happy and respected community for ages, long after her “coal 
supply ” is really exhausted, depends not upon any single source of 
her material wealth, but upon the use which the nation makes of 
that wealth, and of the mental resources which haye been so 
lavishly bestowed upon it by Providence. 
Rome fell because she had become luxurious and effeminate, and 
wild, hardy hordes overran her possessions whilst her rulers, armies, 
and citizens revelled in luxury and licentiousness. Spain was 
ruined through the mineral resources of her colonies, and her 
“influx of gold” has become a bye-word to nations. 
The life of a people is the reflex of that of an individual. 
Great Britain harbours within herself all the elements of a 
long life, by the side of the most dangerous materials of corruption 
and premature decay, and it depends upon herself which ghall 
predominate. Will her labouring population become more sober ; 
or will they, with increasing means, indulge more freely in the 
enervating cup of intoxication? Will her middle classes allow 
their thoughts to be absorbed by trade, or by objects of petty 
ambition ; or will they cultivate the arts, the sciences, literature, 
and true religion? Will her nobles cease to consider themselves 
differently constituted to their inferiors, and, neglecting their own 
education, endeavour to maintain their position in society by keeping 
down those below them; or will they avail themselves of their 
wealth, leisure, and opportunities to become the shining lights of 
the nation? These are questions in relation to our continued 
greatness, of far higher moment than our “coal resources,” and it 
should be the aim of our people, not solely to accumulate wealth ; 
not only to maintain the supremacy of our navy, or of our army, 
or to secure the possession of our colonies; but also to prepare by 
a temperate and peaceful manhood, by setting a good example 
to our more impetuous neighbours in the vigorous period of our 
national existence, to pave the way for a peaceable and respected old 
age, and for what few great nations, if any, have yet experienced, 
the “ decline,” without the “ fall” of our empire. 
