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be a great national loss and misfortune, and replete with 
future evils to this country. I cannot, then, think that I 
can be wrong in recommending a Government Commission 
on this subject, through the medium of which the whole 
state, condition, and position of the huge mining interests 
of this country would be constantly placed before the 
Government and the country. 
But lacking that power, in the meantime, if there are any 
gentlemen who are willing to combine for the purpose of 
experimentalising, or attempting a practical trial of this 
scheme of mine, or of any other, I am sure I would be 
glad to co-operate with them, if I could bring the smallest 
suggestion to bear upon the subject usefully. 
The Davy lamp, scientific and ingenious as it is, has one 
practical disadvantage, and that is, its dependence upon the 
men themselves for its constant application and use. Now, 
if possible, the remedy should be one acting in entire 
independence of the miners ; for experience fully shows that 
the constant exposure to danger renders them indifferent to 
it, and that in this respect they are unfit to be entrusted with 
the safe keeping of their own lives. 
Now, as money constitutes the sinews of war, we cannot 
contend with the evils in question without it. The community 
at large ought to find the means for ensuring the safety of 
the lives of the miners, to whom they are so largely indebted. 
A small tax upon coal at the pit's mouth would, of course, be 
a tax upon the whole community, who are the consumers, 
and it would be an equal and fair tax, inasmuch as wealth 
would pay it in the exact proportion to its amount or extent. 
The man who lives in a cottage would pay but little ; the 
occupant of an extensive mansion would contribute largely, 
according to his wealth. Thus, I think, a moderate tax 
upon coals would fulfil all the great requirements of the 
first principles of taxation, which are, that ^all should con- 
