1823.} 



Mr. Luckcock on the Consumption oj Pit.Coah 



ever secure to us the superiority in 

 foreign markets ; but, by such indiscri- 

 minate and headlong' encouragement 

 of machinery, we are opening tlie door 

 to our rivals, and absolutely inviting 

 their entrance. America, for instance, 

 is compelled to give much higher 

 wages to her manufacturers than our- 

 selves ; but her machines can work as 

 fast, as correctly, as patiently, and as 

 cheaply, as our's ; and thus she is ena- 

 bled to turn our weapons against us. 

 She can rival us in invention, and her 

 mechanism will ctfect tliat in her fa- 

 vour which her labourers could not do. 

 We may thank our greediness for hav- 

 ing set them the example ; and this 

 example is operating throughout tlie 

 world. 



I have said nothing about the pro- 

 bability that Scotland may not contain 

 the same quantity of pit-coal, in com- 

 parison with England and Wales; and 

 have but slightly mentioned the in- 

 creased demand which (in spite of 

 these admonitions) will assuredly take 

 place to an incalculable extent. These 

 are however contingencies, which 

 must materially aft'ect the question in 

 its distant bearings. It is self-evident 

 that an increase of consumption would 

 employ a proportionate additional 

 number of hands: but why should our 

 best energies be directed towards this 

 gloomy channel? Why drive our 

 healthy and blooming peasantry into 

 the damp and dismal recesses of pits 

 a hundred fathoms below the reach of 

 the cheering rays of the sun, and 

 where the invigorating freshness of 

 the pure and vital air is never felt or 

 known? If mines must be wrought to 

 supply the artificial wants which so- 

 ciety has chiefly brought upon itself, 

 at least let us not be solicitous to pre- 

 fer such dreary and hazardous occupa- 

 tioni, but consider them rather as the 

 last resort of labour. 



The philanthropist would rather 

 witness a system, which should encou- 

 rage a plan for every acre of ground 

 to exhibit its cottage, and maintain its 

 family ; and let the mines and manu- 

 factories of the towns be a secondary 

 consideration. There will never want 

 workmen enow lor the purpose of the 

 most unfavourable employments, with- 

 out its being (he national study to 

 drive them to it. 'I'hc most feeble 

 a«lvanc(s towards so desirable an end, 

 would be an improvement in the pro- 

 spect of humuu airair.s, which would 

 1 



403 



leave us no cause to regret the loss of 

 an imaginary Paradise. 



But steam and gas seem predestined 

 to change the physical, and perhaps 

 the moral and intellectual, state of the 

 world. Every thing may be antici- 

 pated from their omnipotent dominion. 

 Soon may our coaches and waggons 

 traverse our innumerable rail-ways 

 without horses, without guides, and 

 without risque. Our churches and 

 palaces may, in time, be constructed 

 without human hands ; and our roads 

 be levelled, and our canals excavated, 

 without the degrading toil of sentient 

 beings. Our few remaining gardeners 

 may each provide himself with a pret- 

 ty little portable apparatus, of six or 

 eight man power, to plant our vegeta- 

 bles, or to turn up the soil. We may 

 prune our vines, cut our cabbages, 

 (see Dean Swill's Laputa,)and gather 

 our pease, by engines of exquisite 

 beauty, and which, as the sailor said 

 of his ship, "can do everything biit 

 speak." We may have perambulatory 

 machines to do our errands, and sta- 

 tionary ones to keep our accounts ; 

 and who shall say, that we may not 

 have our books not only printed and 

 bound, but even composed and writ- 

 ten (ibid), by this superhuman agency. 

 And, as even something may occasi- 

 onally be learnt from our less enlight- 

 ened and distant brethren, we maj', 

 like the Calmucks, employ our meclsa- 

 nical genius in the construction of im- 

 plements to offer up our devotions to 

 the Deity, to propitiate his favour on 

 our follies and our crimes. 



When all this incalculable good 

 shall be accomplished, and an increa- 

 sing and redundant population shall 

 be utterly destitute of employment,^ 

 then may some benevolent league, in 

 the shape of a future Holy Alliance, 

 provide for this little dilemma by the 

 completion of the plan suggested by 

 the Marquis of Worcester, by Napier, 

 or some other expansive mind, of a 

 machine which shall supersede the 

 use of armies, which shall raze citadels 

 at a blow, which may burn and destroy 

 our cities with the sweeping velocity of 

 a tornado, and which shall mow down 

 encampments w ithout the possibility of 

 escape, though millions ol human be- 

 ings should be assembled for the pur- 

 poses of nuitual destruction. And, 

 after all, a resource would still remain 

 for sullering humanity ; and the same 

 causes which produced such wonder- 

 ful 



