BRITAIN'S COAL CELLARS. 73 



unpleasant rival of the wood-log for household fires. 

 When Shakespeare put into the mouth of Faulconbridge 

 the words 



This England never did, nor never shall, 

 Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror, 

 But when it first did help to wound itself, 



he would have thought it a singular proviso that 

 England should be watchful of her coal stores if she 

 would preserve her position among the nations. And 

 jet there is a closer connection between the present 

 greatness of Britain and the mighty coal cellars under- 

 lying certain British counties than we are commonly 

 prepared to acknowledge. Saxon steadiness and Norman 

 energy have doubtless played their part in placing 

 Britain in the position she now holds ; but whatever 

 may have been the case in past ages of our history, it is 

 certain that at present there is much truth in Liebig's 

 assertion that England's power is in her coal. The 

 time may come again, as the time has been, when we 

 shall be less dependent on our coal stores, when 

 bituminous bankruptcy will not be equivalent to national 

 bankruptcy; but if all our coal mines were at this 

 moment rendered unworkable, the power of England 

 would receive a shock from which it would be ages in 

 recovering. 



I have quoted an assertion made many years since 

 by Baron Liebig. The assertion was accompanied by 

 another not less striking. ' Civilisation,' he said, ' is 

 the economy of power ; and English power is coal.' It is 

 on this text that I propose now to comment. There has 



