Reviews — Leif child — Coal at Home and Abroad. 39 



II. — On Coal at Home and Abroad with Relation to Consumption, 

 Cost, Demand, and Supply, etc., etc. By J. E. Leifchild, 

 M.A. 8vo. pp. 142. (London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1873.) 



ME. LEIFCHILD'S book " On Coal at Home and Abroad" con- 

 sists of three articles originally contributed to the " Edinburgh 

 Eeview" in 1860, '67, and '73; the first "On the Coal-fields of 

 North America and Great Britain," the second " On Fatal Accidents 

 in Coal-mines," and the third " On the Consumption and Cost of 

 Coal." 



Taking the last article first, the author inquires into the causes of 

 the increased consumption and consequent advanced price of this 

 important commodity. Mr. Leifchild shows that the great increase 

 is due to the rapid general extension of our national industries, the 

 return of prosperity after a weary interval of depression, and a 

 revival of some particular industries which require a large supply of 

 coal. 



The chief of these are the production of iron, copper, lead and 

 other metals ; our cotton and woollen manufactures also absorb a 

 considerable quantity ; • besides which the various forms of steam- 

 power now make a very large demand upon the extraction of coal ; 

 thirty millions of tons being the annual requisite for all steam pur- 

 poses in manufactures and navigation. 



The manufacture of gas for lighting probably consumes one-ninth 

 of all the coal raised, whilst the domestic consumption may amount 

 in round numbers to twenty millions of tons ; which, according to 

 the present increase of the population, would require an addition of 

 one million of tons every five years. 



"From the continual operation of these combined causes, the 

 reader will be prepared to credit the astonishing progress of coal 

 extraction in the last few years. If we begin with the sixty-five 

 millions of tons extracted in 1857, and pass to the seventy-two 

 (nearly) millions extracted in 1859, thence proceeding to the ninety- 

 eight millions of tons in 1865, we may advance at once to the one, 

 hundred and seventeen millions of tons raised in 1871. 



" It is therefore manifest that we have increased our coal extrac- 

 tion by about fifty-two millions of tons in fifteen years, and that the 

 increased extraction during that period approximates to the total 

 annual extraction of the first year. 



" Furthermore it seems highly probable that under present causes, 

 our total coal extraction will, in five years hence, be at least one 

 hundred and thirty millions of tons for the year, in which case the 

 entire coal production of Britain will have doubled itself within 

 twenty years." (p. 11.) 



"Not only are we called upon to meet the wants of our own busy 

 land, but several countries have made considerable calls upon our 

 coal-resources, and are continually increasing their demands, inso- 

 much that our present exports of coal are nearly four times as large 

 as they were twenty years ago. 



" France is the largest foreign consumer of our coal, and the 

 gradual growth of the exports to that country is truly remarkable. 



