38 The Coal Commissioner’s Report. [January,, 
IV. THE COAL COMMISSIONER’S REPORT. 
Yh HE question which gave rise to the appointment of the 
eu Royal Commission, whose Report* we are now about 
to review—namely, the probable duration of the coal 
resources of the United Kingdom—was, according to Mr. 
Jevons’s account,t first raised by one John Williams, a 
mineral surveyor, who, in a work published by him in 1789, 
entitled ‘‘ Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom,” gave 
a chapter to the consideration of ‘The Limited Quantity of 
Coal of Britain.” At that time the coal production of the 
United Kingdom amounted only to about 7,500,000 tons 
annually. This subject was also referred to by Sir John 
Sinclair, in his ‘‘ Statistical Account of Scotland,” and 
again in 1812, by Robert Bald, ‘‘in his ‘‘ General View of 
the Coal Trade of Scotland.” Later still, Dr. Buckland 
prominently brought it before the public, both in his 
evidence before the Parliamentary Committees of 1830 and 
1835, in his ‘‘ Bridgwater Treatise,’ and again in his 
address to the Geological Society, on the 1gth ef February, 
1841. Up to this time, however, the public generally 
did not express any great interest in the matter; and it was 
not until the publication of Mr. Hull’s workt on the 
subject, in 1861, that its real importance began to be better 
appreciated. This was shortly afterwards followed by 
Sir William Armstrong’s celebrated address as President of 
the British Association, at Newcastle, on the 26th of August, 
1863, in which he stated that “‘the entire quantity of 
available coal existing in these islands has been calculated 
to amount to about 80,000 millions of tons, which, at the 
present rate of consumption, would be exhausted in 930 
years; but, with a continued yearly increase of 2} millions 
of tons, would only last 212 years.” This announcement, 
by which the real importance of the question was put before 
the public in a pra¢tical shape, caused at the time consi- 
derable excitement throughout the country; and it soon 
became clear that some confirmation or refutation of the 
statistics first published by Mr. Hull in his work above 
referred to, and subsequently promulgated by Sir William 
* Report of the Commission to Inquire into tne several Matters relative to 
Coal in the United Kingdom, July 27, 1871. 
+ The Coal Question: an Inquiry concerning the Progress of the Nation, 
and the Probable Exhaustion of our Coal Mines. By W. STANLEY JEVONS, 
M.A., &c. 1866. 
+ The Coal Fields of Great Britain. By Epwarp Hutt, B.A. 1861. 
