710 



ENGLAND. 



Iron. 



LtwL 



Tin. 



Copper. 



Produce. 



f'un>.ump- 

 tion of 

 coals. 



east of these i omities; so tliat, besides the counties enu- 

 miT.ited in these directions, Huntingdonshire, Cam- 

 bridgesliire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, Kent, 

 Surrey, Sussex, Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Huckinu- 

 hiunshirc. Bedfordshire, and Berkshire, are destitute of 

 coal. As we incline to the west, it is also wanting in 

 Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, 

 Devonshire, (with the exception of the bovey coal), 

 and Cornwall ; ( iioucestershire, Somersetshire, and Mon- 

 mouthshire, beyig the only counties that possess coal 

 mines in this portion of England. With respect to 

 North Wales, coal is found in Flintshire and Denbigh- 

 shire ; and in South Wales, in Pembrokeshire, Caermar- 

 thenshire, and Glamorganshire. Iron is found in Corn- 

 wall, Cumberland, Derbyshire, Devonshire, Durham, 

 Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Lancashire, Mon- 

 mouthshire, Northumberland, Shropshire, Somerset- 

 shire, Staffordshire, Sussex, Warwickshire, and Wilt- 

 shire ; but it is most abundant in Shropshire, Glouces- 

 tershire, Derbyshire, the north of Lancashire, and 

 Wales. Lead is found principally in Derbyshire, Cum- 

 berland, Northumberland, Somersetshire, Devonshire, 

 Yorkshire, Durham, Westmoreland, Cardigan, Flint, 

 and Montgomery. Tin is confined to Cornwall and 

 the adjoining parts of Devonshire ; and black lead to a 

 small district in Cumberland. Mines of copper are 

 wrought in Cornwall, Devonshire, Derbyshire, and 

 Anglesey, and partially in Yorkshire, Staffordshire, &c. 

 zinc is met with in Derbyshire, Cornwall, &c. : man- 

 ganese on the Mendip hills in Somersetshire : rock 

 salt in Cheshire and Worcestershire: alum slate in 

 Yorkshire : gypsum or alabaster in Derbyshire and 

 Nottinghamshire : fuller's earth in Berkshire, Bedford- 

 shire, and Surrey : potter's clay principally in Dorset- 

 shire : and the stone quarries the most celebrated for 

 the abundance and excellence of their stone, are those 

 of Portland, Purbeck, Bath, Yorkshire, Northampton- 

 shire, &c. The most extensive quarries of slate, (as 

 has been already mentioned), are in Westmoreland, 

 Yorkshire, Leicestershire, North Wales, Cornwall, and 

 Devonshire. 



III. It is extremely difficult to form an estimate of 

 the quantity produced, of the most important of these 

 minerals, of the value of the produce, or of the num- 

 ber of people employed. The consumption of coals in 

 the kingdom must be enormous : in private families, it 

 of course depends on the nature of the climate, the con- 

 dition of the family, and the price of the coals. The fol- 

 lowing facts mayperhaps supply data, by means of which 

 we may arrive near the truth, respecting the consump- 

 tion of coals for domestic uses. In London, the con- 

 sumption is nearly about a ton annually for each indi- 

 vidual, or perhaps more correctly about three chal- 

 drons (Winton measure, or 28 cwt.) for each house. 

 This appears from the amount of the quantity brought 

 into London from Newcastle, and by means of the Pad- 

 tlington canal. In Manchester, where the climate is 

 colder, and the coals cheaper, it is calculated that each 

 individual uses two tons annually ; or, supposing each 

 i'amily to consist of 4.5 individuals, this will give 10 

 tons for each house, or about seven chaldron, Winton 

 measure. In Newcastle, where the weather is still 

 colder, and the. coals' cheaper, the mean consumption 

 is one third of a Newcastle chaldron (nearly 18 cwt.) per 

 month for every constant fire, equalizing the kitchen 

 fire with the rest, which is as much for every fire as 

 is consumed by each family in Manchester ; and rec- 

 koning one and a half fire through the year, will give 

 10.5 chaldrons as the annual consumption. This per- 

 haps may be taken as the extreme consumption of cml> 



in families in the kingdom ; and .snppo.Miig the con- ? 

 sumption in London to be at the lowest rate, the me- "* "~Y~~" ' 

 tliinn will be 6.75 chaldrons for each house in the king- 

 dom in the course of the Mar : let us suppose it to be 

 six chaldrons, the number of houses in Kngland is 

 1,797, 50-1: the total consumption of coals, therefore, 

 for domestic u.-e, \vill be 1,797,504- x 6, or 10,782, (hit 

 chaldrons, or rather more than one chaldron for each 

 individual. This, it must be confessed, is mere con- 

 jecture ; but it is probably not far from the truth. 

 We shall not even offer a conjecture of the quantity of 

 coals used in our manufactories, but content ourselve* 

 with slating the following facts. If the medium of the 

 steam engines consist of :iO inch cylinders, they will 

 consume 18 bushels of coals per day, which is equal 

 to three chaldrons per week, or 150 chaldrons per an- 

 num. The salt-works in Cheshire consume 150,000 tons 

 of coals annually. The smelting of the copper ore of 

 Cornwall consumes nearly 200,000 tons of coals per 

 annum : and it is calculated, that in the brass and cop- 

 per manufactories, there are used nearly as many. In 

 the Coalbrooke-dale district of Shropshire, about 260,000 

 tons are raised annually a great proportion is used in 

 the iron works. The extensive iron works of Messrs 

 Ferraday in Staffordshire, are said to consume 1 000 tons 

 per week. In two blast furnaces in Sheffield, from 6'00 

 to 800 tons of coals are used per week : and in the large 

 iron works 1200. Indeed, when we consider that there 

 are nearly 200 furnaces in which coke alone is used, 

 the consumption of coal in the iron works of England 

 must be regarded as immense. 



In addition to these proofs of the very great supply 

 and consumption of coal, the following miscellaneous 

 facts may be stated : The quantity of coals raised year- 

 ly in Northumberland and Durham, is estimated by 

 Mr Bailey at 1,000,000 chaldrons, Newcastle measure, 

 (which contains 6'8 Winchester bushels, and weighs 

 53 cwt. ) and he supposes that in those counties there 

 are 200 square miles, or 128,000 acres of coal proper 

 for exportation. In the year ] 800, a committee was 

 appointed by Parliament to inquire into the state of the 

 inland coal trade ; and from the evidence adduced, it 

 was proved that in the neighbourhood of Dudley, very 

 thick and rich seams of coal were wrought ; that at 

 Swansea, upwards of 300 vessels were annually em- 

 ployed in the trade, besides that the copper works there 

 consumed from 1500 to 2000 tons per week ; that in 

 Leicestershire, there are many beds of coal very im- 

 perfectly and partially wrought ; that a supply of coal 

 to the amount of between 50,000 and 100,000 tons 

 might be brought from Newport in Wales to London 

 annually ; and that not less than from 1 50,000 to 

 200,000 acres of coal are found in the neighbourhood 

 of Leeds, Wakefield, &c. Besides our own consump- 

 tion, it is calculated, that in time of peace, nearly 

 150,000 Newcastle chaldron of coals are exported, prin- 

 cipally to Holland, Hamburgh, the Baltic, Spain, and 

 Portugal; and that between 300,000 and 400,000 chal- 

 drons (Winton measure) are sent from Whitehaven, 

 Workington, &c. in Cumberland. 



The number of people employed, either directly or 

 indirectly, in the coal trade, must also be very great : 

 In 1792, it was calculated, that on the rivers Tyne and 

 Wear, there were 64,724 men and boys employed : it 

 has also been estimated, on tolerably goml data, that 

 in Durham and Northumberland, the proportion of men 

 is as 10,650 to 1,4*0,080 chaldron of coals: in both 

 these estimates, however, it is proper to remark, that 

 the seamen who navigate the colliers are taken into tl.o 

 account. 



