OF MINERAL COAL. 57 
S3. The ancient Britons and Romans must have been acquainted 
with coal as an inflammable substance, it being sometimes found 
at the surface, especially in the bottoms of ravines and the beds 
of rivers. But the whole country being shaded like our own by 
interminable forests, no use was made of it for fuel. It has been 
an article of commerce for seven hundred years. It is believed 
by those who have paid particular attention to the subject, that 
the mines will continue to supply the wants of the country at the 
present rate of demand for some centuries to come. Yet it is 
certain that they must eventually be exhausted, and the formation 
in which they are, be stripped altogether of its mineral treasures, 
and as there is no other carboniferous stratum to which recourse 
may be had, the people of England must be driven back to the 
use of wood for fuel. The effects of such an event upon the 
populousness, wealth, and strength of the country, it requires no 
great amount of penetration to foresee. Its approach would be 
greatly retarded if some method could be devised of extracting the 
whole contents of the coal fields, and making them available 
either in domestic economy or the processes of manufacture; but 
at present from a quarter to a half, and in some mines as much as 
two-thirds of the whole amount of coal they contain, is either 
left behind or expended and wasted in different ways in bringing 
the rest to the surface. Nor does it appear that this immense 
loss can be very materially diminished. Massive pillars of coal 
must necessarily be left untouched in every mine to support the 
superincumbent strata, and prevent them from sinking clown 
and crushing the workmen — and although these are afterwards 
wrought out and raised to the. surface, the coal they yield is ob- 
tained with much additional labour, danger, and loss. 
That the coal fields have not had too much importance attributed 
to them, in determining the present condition of the British Em- 
pire will be conceded when it is remarked that the seats of all the 
important manufactures are either within the limits of the coal 
formations or on their borders, and that they draw from them the 
principal element of their activity. The steam engine, the 
machinery employed in the spinning Of cotton and wool, and more 
recently of flax, that which is an important auxiliary in the manu- 
facture of earthen and hardware, and cutlery, would all become, 
in a great measure, useless and unavailable, if the supply of coal 
for the creation of steam were to be exhausted. The mines of 
copper, tin, and lead would be abandoned from the impossibility 
of draining them, as would those of iron, when the ores could no 
longer be smelted, and those of salt when there was no fuel for the 
evaporation of the brine. The principal reason why Great Britain 
is able to maintain the position she has gained and defy compe- 
tition in the market of the civilized world for the products of art 
and manufacture, is, that she can at a cheap rate bring the untir- 
ing powers and agencies of nature to contend with human strength. 
Steam does for her, what in other parts of the world is accomplished 
6 
