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workshops of the trades. It rows, it pumps, it excavates, it carries, it draws, it lifts, it hammers, it spins, it weaves, it prints."*

* As there is no reproduction of Coal in this country, since no natural causes are now in operation to form other beds of it; whilst, owing to the regular increase of our population, and the new purposes to which the steam engine is continually applied, its consumption is advancing at a rapid accelerating rate; it is of most portentous interest to a nation, that has so large a portion of its inhabitants dependant for existence on machinery, kept in action only by the use of Coal, to economize this precious fuel. I can. not, therefore, conclude this interesting subject without making some remarks upon a practice which can only be viewed in the light of a national calamity, demanding the attention of the legislature.

We have, during many years witnessed the disgraceful and almost incredible fact, that more than a million chaldrons per annum, being nearly onethird part of the best coals produced by the mines near Newcastle, have been condemned to wanton waste, on a fiery heap perpetually blazing near the mouth of almost every coal-pit in that district.

This destruction originated mainly in certain legislative enactments, providing that Coal in London should be sold, and the duty upon it be rated, by measure, and not by weight. The smaller coal is broken, the greater the space it fills; it became, therefore, the interest of every dealer in Coal, to buy it of as large a size, and to sell it of as small a size as he was able.. This compelled the Proprietors of the Coal-mines to send the large Coal only to market, and to consign the small coal to destruction.

In the year 1830, the attention of Parliament was called to these evils; and pursuant to the Report of a Committee, the duty on Coal was repealed, and Coal directed to be sold by weight instead of measure. The effect of this change has been, that a considerable quantity of Coal is now shipped for the London Market, in the state in which it comes from the pit; that after landing the cargo, the small coal is separated by screening from the rest, and answers as fuel for various ordinary purposes, as well as much of the Coal which was sold in London before the alteration of the law.

The destruction of Coals on the fiery heaps near Newcastle, although diminished, still goes on, however, to a frightful extent, that ought not to be permitted; since the inevitable consequence of this practice, if allowed to continue, must be, in no long space of time, to consume all the beds nearest to the surface, and readiest of access to the coast; and thus enhance the price of Coal in those parts of England which depend upon the Coal-field of Newcastle for their supply; and finally to exhaust this Coal-field, at a period, nearer by at least one-third, than that to which it would last, if wisely eco

We need no farther evidence to show that the presence of coal is, in an especial degree, the foundation of increasing

nomized. (See Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, on the state of the Coal Trade, 1830, page 242, and Bakewell's Introduction to Geology, 1833, page 183 and 543.)

We are all fully aware of the impolicy of needless legislative interference; but a broad line has been drawn by nature between commodities annually or periodically reproduced by the Soil on its surface, and that subterranean treasure, and sustaining foundation of Industry, which is laid by Nature in strata of mineral Coal, whose amount is limited, and which, when once exhausted, is gone for ever. As the Law most justly interferes to prevent the wanton destruction of life and property, it should seem also to be its duty to prevent all needless waste of mineral fuel; since the exhaustion of this fuel would irrecoverably paralyze the industry of millions. The tenant of the soil may neglect, or cultivate his lands, and dispose of his produce, as caprice or interest may dictate; the surface of his fields is not consumed, but remains susceptible of tillage by his successor; had he the physical power to anni. hilate the Land, and thereby reflect an irremediable injury upon posterity, the legislature would justly interfere to prevent such destruction of the future resources of the nation. This highly favoured Country, has been enriched with mineral treasures in her strata of Coal, incomparably more precious than 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 foundations of the Industry of future Generations.

Might not an easy remedy for this evil be found in a Legislative enactment, that all Coals from the Ports of Northumberland 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 with 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 interest, and of husbanding the resources of posterity should permit 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 ma

population, riches, and power, and of improvement in almost every Art which administers to the necessities and comforts of Mankind. And, however remote may have been the periods, at which these materials of future beneficial dispensations were laid up in store, we may fairly assume, that, besides the immediate purposes effected at, or before the time 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 admirably adapted to the benefit of the Human Race.

CHAPTER XX.

Proofs of Design in the Effects of Disturbing Forces on the Strata of the Earth.

In the proofs of the agency of a wise, and powerful, and benevolent Creator, which we have derived from the Animal and Vegetable kingdoms, the evidence has rested chiefly on the prevalence of Adaptations and Contrivances, and of Mechanisms adapted to the production of certain ends, throughout the organic remains of a former world.

An argument of another kind may be founded on the Order, Symmetry, and Constancy, of the Crystalline forms of the unorganized Mineral ingredients of the Earth. But in considering the great geological phenomena which appear in the disposition of the strata, and their various accidents, a third kind of evidence arises from conditions of the earth,

chinery, 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.

which are the result of disturbing forces, that appear to certain degree to have acted at random and fortuitously.

Elevations and subsidences, inclinations and contortion fractures and dislocations, are phenomena, which, althou at first sight they present only the appearance of disord and confusion, yet when fully understood, demonstrate t existence of Order, and Method, and Design, even in t operations of the most turbulent, among the many migh physical forces which have affected the terraqueous globe

Some of the most important results of the action of the forces have been already noticed in our fourth and fif chapters; and our first Section, Pl. 1, illustrates their ben ficial effect, in elevating and converting into habitable Land strata of various kinds that were formed at the bottom the ancient Waters; and in diversifying the surface of the lands with Mountains, Plains, and Valleys, of various pr

"Notwithstanding the appearances of irregularity and confusion in t formation of the crust of our globe, which are presented to the eye in t contemplation of its external features, Geologists have been able in num rous instances to detect, in the arrangement and position of its stratific masses, distinct approximations to geometrical laws. In the phenomena anticlinal lines, faults, fissures, mineral veins, &c. such laws are easily reco nised." Hopkin's Researches in Physical Geology. Trans. Cambridg Phil. Soc. v. 6. part 1. 1835.

"It scarcely admits of a doubt," says the author of an able article in th Quarterly Review, (Sept. 1826, p. 537,) "that the agents employed in e fecting this most perfect and systematic arrangement have been earthquake operating with different degrees of violence, and at various intervals time during a lapse of ages. The order that now reigns has resulted ther fore, from causes which have generally been considered as capable only defacing and devastating the earth's surface, but which we thus find stron grounds for suspecting were, in the primeval state of the globe, and perhap still are, instrumental in its perpetual, renovation. The effects of these sub terranean forces prove that they are governed by general laws, and that thes laws have been conccived by consummate wisdom and forethought."

"Sources of apparent derangement in the system appear, when thei operation throughout a series of ages is brought into one view, to have pro duced a great preponderance of good, and to be governed by fixed genera laws, condusive, perhaps essential, to the habitable state of the globe.. Ibid. p. 539.

ductive qualities, and variously adapted to the habitation of Man, and the inferior tribes of terrestrial animals.

In our last Chapter we considered the advantages of the disposition of the Carboniferous strata in the form of Basins. It remains to examine the farther advantages that arise from other disturbances of these strata by Faults or Fractures, which are of great importance in facilitating the operations of Coal mines; and to extend our inquiry into the more general effect of similar Dislocations of other strata, in producing convenient receptacles for many valuable Metallic ores, and in regulating the supplies of Water from the interior of the earth, through the medium of Springs.

I have elsewhere observed* that the occurrence of Faults and the Inclined position in which the strata composing the Coal measures are usually laid out, are facts of the highest importance, as connected with the accessibility of their mineral contents. From their inclined position, the thin strata of Coal are worked with greater facility than if they had been horizontal; but as this inclination has a tendency to plunge their lower extremities to a depth that would be inaccessible, a series of Faults, or Traps, is interposed, by which the component portions of the same formation are arranged in a series of successive tables, or stages, rising one behind another, and elevated continually upwards towards the surface, from their lowest points of depression. (See Pl. 65. Fig. 3. and Pl. 66. Fig. 2.) A similar effect is often produced by Undulations or contortions of the strata, which give the united advantage of inclined position and of keeping them near the surface. The Basin-shaped structure which so frequently occurs in coal fields, has a tendency to produce the same beneficial consequences. (See Pl. 65 Figs. 1. 2. 3.)

But a still more important benefit results from the occurrence of Faults or Fractures,† without which the contents of

* Inaugural Lecture, Oxford, 1819.

"Faults," says Mr. Conybeare, "consist of fissures traversing the strata, extending often for several miles, and penetrating to a depth, in

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