536 COAL THE FOUNDATION OF STEAM POWER. 
foundation of increasing population, riches, and 
power, and of improvement in almost every Art 
which administers to the necessities and com- 
forts of Mankind. And, however remote may 
new purposes to which the steam engine is continually applied, 
its consumption is advancing at a rapidly accelerating rate; it is of 
most portentous interest to a nation, that has so large a portion of 
its inhabitants dependent for existence on machinery, kept in ac- 
tion only by the use of coal, to economize this precious fuel. I 
cannot, therefore, conclude this interesting subject without making 
some remarks upon a practice which can only be viewed in the light 
of a national calamity, demanding the attention of the legislature. 
We have, during many years witnessed the disgraceful and 
almost incredible fact, that more than a million chaldrons per 
annum, being nearly one third part of the best coals produced 
by the mines near Newcastle, have been condemned to wanton 
waste, on a fiery heap perpetually blazing near the mouth of 
almost every coal pit in that district. 
This destruction originated mainly in certain legislative enact- 
ments, providing that Coal in London should be sold, and the 
duty upon it be rated, by rneaswe, and not by weight. The 
smaller Coal is broken, the greater the space it fills ; it became, 
therefore, the interest of every dealer in Coal, to buy it of as large 
a size, and to sell it of as small a size as he was able. This com- 
pelled the Proprietors of the Coal-mines to send the large Coal 
only to market, and to consign the small Coal to destruction. 
In the year 1830, the attention of Parliament was called to 
these evils ; and pursuant to the Report of a Committee, the duty 
on Coal was repealed, and Coal directed to be sold by weight 
instead of measure. The effect of this change has been, that a 
considerable quantity of Coal is now shipped for the London 
Market, in the state in which it comes from the pit; that after 
landing the cargo, the small coal is separated by skreening from 
the rest, and answers as fuel for various ordinary purposes, as 
well as much of the Coal which was sold in London before the 
alteration of the law. 
