290 
ON THE EXHAUSTION OF OUE COAL. 
BY LEONARD LEMORAN, M.E., 
COLLIERY VIEWER. 
T HE impulsive way in which sometimes one, and then 
another, kind of question is seized upon by the public, is 
a very unfavourable illustration of the amount of thinking 
power which moves the masses. It is not, perhaps, quite 
right to lay this charge of impulsive action upon the large 
section of society generally comprehended within the term, 
the masses, as though they alone were guilty of those feverish 
manifestations of unguided energy, seeing that the educated 
members of our Legislature are no less liable to the disease. 
Of late we have had a striking example of this in the way in 
which “ The Coal Question ” has suddenly claimed the atten- 
tion of the People, the Senate, and the Government. From 
time to time thinking men have asked themselves the ques- 
tion, “How long will our coal last V 3 and they have occa- 
sionally put the question before the public. Usually the reply 
which they have received has been a pitying smile, that any 
one should trouble his head with so absurd a problem. At 
length the question is put in a new form. It is consequently 
considered from an unusual point of view, and a certain degree 
of alarm is manifested, on all sides, lest, on some ccfld win- 
ters morning, at no very remote period, we should awake to 
the fact that the coal-cellar of Great Britain was empty. 
Feeling that the subject is one of great national importance, 
we are not surprised that there is a stir at the present time 
about it. We are rather disposed to examine into the causes of 
that manifest indifference which has prevailed so long, notwith- 
standing that the question has been several times very forcibly 
put forward, by men whose standing amongst the thinkers of 
their day would, we should have thought, have commanded 
attention. It will be instructive to select a few examples 
in confirmation of this. In 1789, John Williams, in his 
“ Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom,-” deals very fully 
