604 Duration of Coal. 



work ' On the Coal Question,' showed that if the 

 increase of our population goes on as it has been doing 

 in years past, and if the productive industry of the 

 country keep pace with the population, the whole of 

 the coal now available in the country would be 

 exhausted in 110 years. Mr. John Stuart Mill, taking 

 alarm, in his place in Parliament urged upon the 

 nation to act as worthy trustees for their descendants, 

 to save money while there is yet time, and to pay off 

 as much as possible of the national debt ; and by-and-by, 

 at the instance of Mr. Vivian, a Coal Commission was 

 appointed to examine into this alarming state of 

 affairs. 



The result as regards the duration of coal was stated 

 in the three following hypotheses : the first is, that 

 the population and manufactures of the country have 

 nearly attained a maximum amount, or will merely 

 oscillate without advancing. In this case our coal may 

 last for about 1,273 years, an opinion to which Mr. Hunt 

 of the c Mining Eecord ' Office still adheres. The 

 second, according to Mr. Price Williams, is this : The 

 population of Great Britain in 1871 was 26,943,000. 

 According to a given law of increase, in the year 2231, 

 the population may be 1*31,700,000, in fact, near 

 1 32,000,000, or rather more than five times the present 

 number. It is hard to realise this crowded population 

 in our little country, but allowing the assumption to 

 be correct, in a hundred years from 1871 the popu- 

 lation of Britain would be very nearly 59,000,000, and 

 the home consumption of eoal 274,200,000 tons a 

 year, in which case our coal will only last about 360 

 years. A third view is that adding ' a constant 

 quantity equal to the annual increase (of consumption) 

 of the last 14 years, which we may take at 3,000,000 



