360 Limits of onr Coal Supply. [July,. 



directed by coal. That wonderful mineral, of the pos- 

 session of which Englishmen have thought so little, but 

 wasted so much, is the modern realisation of the philo- 

 sopher's stone. This chemical result of primeval vegetation 

 has been the means by its abundance of raising this country 

 to an unprecedented height of prosperity, and its deficiency 

 might have the effect of lowering it to slow decline." 



* * "It raises up one people and casts down another; it 

 makes railways on land and paths on the sea. It founds 

 cities, it rules nations, it changes the course of empires." 



The fallacy of these customary attributions of social 

 potency to mere mineral matter is amply shown by facts 

 that are previously stated by the reviewer himself. He tells 

 us that " the coal fields of China extend over an area of 

 400,000 square miles ; and a good geologist, Baron Von 

 Richthofen, has reported that he himself has found a coal- 

 field in the province of Hunau covering an area of 21,700 

 square miles, which is nearly double our British coal area 

 of 12,000 square miles. In the province of Shansi, the 

 Baron discovered nearly 30,000 square miles of coal with 

 unrivalled facilities for mining. But all these vast coal 

 fields, capable of supplying the whole world for some 

 thousands of years to come, are lying unworked." 



If "the course of manufacturing supremacy of wealth 

 and of power" were directed by coal, then China, which 

 possesses 33*3 times more of this directive force than Great 

 Britain, and had had so early a start in life, should be the 

 supreme summit of the industrial world. If this solid 

 hydrocarbon " raises up one people and casts down 

 another," the Chinaman should be raised thirty-three times 

 and three-tenths higher than the Englishman ; if it " makes 

 railways on land and paths on the sea," the Chinese 

 railways should be 33*3 times longer than ours, and the 

 tonnage of their mercantile marine 33*3 times greater. 



Every addition to our knowledge of the mineral resources 

 of other parts of the world carries us nearer and nearer to 

 the conclusion that the old idea of the superlative abundance 

 of the natural mineral resources of England is a delusion. 

 We are gradually discovering that, with the one exception 

 of tin-stone, we have but little if any more than an average 

 supply of useful ores and mineral fuel. It is a curious fact, 

 and one upon which we may profitably ponder, that the 

 poorest and the worst iron ores that have ever been com- 

 mercially reduced, are those of South Staffordshire and the 

 Cleveland district, and these are the two greatest iron- 

 making centres of the world. There are no ores of copper, 



