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EXHAUSTION OF COAL IN ENGLAND. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE PERIOD WHEN THE COAL MINES IN 

 ENGLAND WILL BE EXHAUSTED. 



Coal was known, and partially used, at a very early period of our 

 history. I was informed by the late Marquis of Hastings, that stone 

 hammers and stone tools were found in some of the old workings in 

 his mines at Ashby Wolds ; and his lordship informed me also, that 

 similar stone tools had been discovered in the old workings in the coal 

 mines in the north of Ireland. Hence we may infer, that these coal 

 mines were worked at a very remote period, when the use of metallic 

 tools was not general. The burning of coal was prohibited in London 

 in the year 1308, by the royal proclamation of Edward the First. In 

 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the burning of coal was again prohibited 

 in London during the sitting of parliament, lest the health of the 

 knights of the shire should suffer injury during their abode in the me- 

 tropolis. In the year 1643, the use of coal had become so general, 

 and the price being then very high, many of the poor are said to have 

 perished for want of fuel. At the present day, when the consumption 

 of coal, in our iron furnaces and manufactories, and for domestic use, 

 is immense, we cannot but regard the exhaustion of our coal beds as 

 involving the destruction of a great portion of our private comfort and 

 national prosperity. Nor is the period very remote when the coal 

 districts, which at present supply the metropolis with fuel, will cease 

 to yield any more. The annual quantity of coal shipped in the rivers 

 Tyne and Wear, according to Mr. Bailey, exceeds thrpe millions of 

 tons. A cubic yard of coal weighs nearly one ton ; and the number 

 of tons contained in a bed of coal one square mile in extent, and one 

 yard in thickness, is about four millions. The number and extent of 

 all the principal coal-beds in Northumberland and Durham are known; 

 and from these data it has been calculated, that the coal in these coun- 

 ties will last 360 years. Mr. Bailey, in his Survey of Durham, states, 

 that one third of the coal being already got, the coal districts will be 

 exhausted in 200 years. It is probable that many beds of inferior 

 coal, which are now neglected, may in future be worked ; but the con- 

 sumption of coal being greatly increased since Mr. Bailey published 

 his Survey of Durham, we may admit his calculation to be an approxi- 

 mation to the truth, and that the coal of Northumberland and Durham 

 will be exhausted in a period not greatly exceeding 200 years. Dr. 

 Thomson, in the Annals of Philosophy, has calculated that the coal of 

 these districts, at the present rate of consumption, will last 1000 years; 

 but his calculations are founded on data manifestly erroneous, and at 

 a variance with his own statements ; for he assumes the annual con- 

 sumption of coal to be only two million eight hundred thousar;id tons, 

 and the waste to be one third more, — making three million seven hun- 

 dred thousand tons, equal to as many square yards ; whereas, he has 

 just before informed us, that two million chaldrons of coal, of two 

 tons and a quarter each chaldron, are exported, making four million 

 five hundred thousand tons, beside inland consumption, and waste in 



