538 PROSPECTIVE VIEW TO THE USES OF MAN. 
of their deposition in the strata of the Earth, an 
ulterior prospective view to the future uses of 
Man, formed part of the design, with which they 
were, ages ago, disposed in a manner so admi- 
rably adapted to the benefit of the Human Race. 
mines of silver or of gold. From these sustaining sources of 
industry and wealth let us help ourselves abundantly, and liberally 
enjoy these precious gifts of the Creator; but let us not abuse 
them, or by wilful neglect and wanton waste, destroy the found- 
ations of the Industry of future Generations. 
Might not an easy remedy for this evil be found in a Legis- 
lative enactment, that all Coals from the Ports of Northumber- 
land and Durham, should be shipped in the state in which they 
come from the Pit, and forbidding by high penalties the 
screening of any Sea-borne Coals before they leave the Port at 
which they are embarked. A Law of this kind would at once 
terminate that ruinous competition among the Coal owners, 
which has urged them to vie with each other in the wasteful 
destruction of small Coal, in order to increase the Profits of 
the Coal Merchants, and gratify the preference for large Coals 
on the part of rich consumers ; and would also afford the Public 
a supply of Coals of every price and quality, which the use of 
the screen would enable him to accommodate to the demands of 
the various Classes of the Community. 
A farther consideration of national Policy should prompt us to 
consider, how far the duty of supporting our commercial inte- 
rests, and of husbanding the resources of posterity should per- 
mit us to allow any extensive exportation of Coal, from a densely 
peopled manufacturing country like our own ; a large proportion 
of whose present wealth is founded on machinery, which can be 
kept in action only by the produce of our native Coal Mines, 
and whose prosperity can never survive the period of their ex- 
haustion. 
