A PIECE OF COAL. IQI 
it was discovered that this black stone would burn, 
and from that time coal has been becoming every day 
more and more useful. Without it not only should 
we have been without warmth in our houses, or light 
in our streets when the stock of forest-wood was used 
up; but we could never have melted large quantities 
of iron-stone and extracted the iron. We have proof 
of this in Sussex. The whole country is full of iron- 
stone, and the railings of St. Paul's churchyard are 
made of Sussex iron. Iron-foundries were at work 
there as long as there was wood enough to supply 
them, but gradually the works fell into disuse, and 
the last furnace was put out in the year 1809. So now, 
because there is no coal in Sussex, the iron lies idle ; 
while in the North, where the ironstone is near the 
coal-mines, hundreds of tons are melted out every day. 
Again, without coal we could have had no engines of 
any kind, and consequently no large manufactories of 
cotton goods, linen goods, or cutlery. In fact, almost 
everything we use could only have been made with 
difficulty and in small quantities; and even if we could 
have made them it would have been impossible to 
have sent them so quickly all over the world without 
coal, for we could have had no railways or steamships, 
but must have carried all goods along canals, and by 
slow sailing vessels. We ourselves must have taken 
days to perform journeys now made in a few hours, 
and months to reach our colonies. 
In consequence of this we should have remained a 
very poor people. Without manufactories and in- 
dustries we should have had to live chiefly by tilling 
the ground, and everyone being obliged to toil for 
