ZRITAIN'S COAL CELLARS. 8/ 



manner, it would seem that, apart from the limits set 

 by nature to the extension of our population, it need 

 by no means be assumed that if our commerce showed 

 signs of approaching a limit, the downfall of England's 

 power would be at hand. 



In fact, we cannot accept Mr. Jevons's figures for 

 distant epochs without first inquiring whether it is 

 likely that at those epochs the circumstances on which 

 the consumption of our coal depends will be correspond- 

 ingly changed. Supposing that 120 millions of tons o 

 coals suffice for the requirements of our present popula- 

 tion, we can scarcely believe that 1,440 millions will be 

 needed in 1950, unless we suppose that the population 

 of Britain will be twelve times greater than at present ; 

 or that the population will be even greater than this, 

 since the consumption of coal upon our railways could 

 scarcely be expected to increase in proportion to the 

 population. Now no one believes that Britain will 

 number 300 millions of inhabitants in 1950, or in 2950 ; 

 the country could not maintain half that number, even 

 though all her available stores of coal and iron, and 

 other sources of commercial wealth were increased a 

 hundredfold. 



It is a mistake, indeed, to extend the results of sta- 

 tistical research very far beyond the time to which the 

 facts and figures belong. It would be easy to multiply 

 instances of the incorrectness of such a process. To 

 take a single case. When cholera has been extending 

 its ravages in this country, the statistics of mortality 

 from that cause, if studied with reference to four or five 



