concerted survey of their mineral fuels the Americans have surpassed us. When we look at such a work as this of Professor Rogers,-laborious in statistics, accurate in surveys, and magnificent in form and embellishments; when we bear in mind that this is merely the survey of one State and mainly the results of one man's personal labours and studies; we may well turn and enquire of our own scientific authorities what we possess of a similar character? The answer must be humiliating: we have simply nothing worth a moment's comparison. We are the first coal-mining and coal-producing country in the world. If we assume the entire annual coal produce of the chief coal fields in the world to be 100,000,000 tons, we ourselves contribute more than three-fifths of that quantity, and the estimated money value of our annual coal produce amounts to the amazing sum of sixteen millions and a quarter. We have deposits of the most varied character and the most valuable qualities; we have a very far larger amount of capital invested in coal-mining than any other nation; we employ above 200,000 persons of all ages in this kind of labour; we have some of the deepest and largest mines, and the most stupendous accumulations of steam power for pumping out water and drawing up coals; we have the most expeditious and ingenious methods of shipping the produce; we have at this hour in our coal-mining districts, scenes of activity above ground, and galleries of mining industry under ground, which astonish all foreigners who care to glance at the one and dare to descend to the other; we have mining engineers of large experience, and even wealth and social position; and we have a national stake in the whole of at least as great importance as we hold in any department of British industry; but we have no adequate publication on the subject—we have as yet no complete surveys of our coal fields-no uniform and official maps of the whole-no compact and continuous account of their mineral character and contents. Here are Professor Rogers' three beautifully illustrated quarto volumes on one American State, and we have not three illustrated quartos on the whole of our British coal fields. It is only a few years ago that we learned what our annual produce of coal really was, and it was then found to be so much in excess of what had been previously conjectured as to appear incredible. At this very time, with the exception of mere statistics officially published, we have no means of tracing some of the most interesting and important circumstances connected with supply and demand. That these are facts, no one can deny; that our ignorance is indefensible, every impartial enquirer will acknowledge.1 1 Since the above lines were written, the Geological Survey has industriously progressed. At this date (May 12, 1873) I ascertain from official sources that the following is the condition of the survey in relation to our coal fields : The survey of these coal fields is completed, but the whole of the maps are not yet published. The Whitehaven coal field is being surveyed. All the other important coal fields are published on a one-inch scale, and will eventually be published on a scale of six inches to the mile. 88 III. FATAL ACCIDENTS IN COAL MINES.1 THE TITLE of the Parliamentary volume which heads this article is in part a misnomer, for it contains no report, but merely a large amount of desultory and miscellaneous evidence prefaced by an intimation that the committee propose to resume their labours in the present session. The primary purpose of this committee was to enquire into the operation of the Acts for the Regulation and Inspection of Mines, and into the complaints contained in petitions from some 14,000 coal-miners of Great Britain, which had been presented to the House of ComThe desires of the petitioners, as expressed in the terms of a Petition of the Under-Miners of Northumberland and Durham' given in an Appendix, appear to be reasonable, but the justice of their complaints and the truth of their statements must, of course, be tested by evidence. mons. These grievances relate to several subjects connected with coal-mining-such as the modes of estimating work done and paying wages, but the most momentous complaints are those relating to the fearful sacrifice of life in mines and collieries,' which, say the miners, 'affords abundant proof that the legislative measures hitherto passed have proved to be totally inadequate for securing 1 I. Report from the Select Committee on Mines; together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix. July 1866. II. Coal Mines (Accidents and Explosions). Return of a Copy of a Circular Letter from the Home Office to, and Reports from, the Inspectors of Mines to the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the recent Accidents and Explosion's in Coal Mines, &c. February, 1867. the personal safety of the miners of this country.' To this matter alone shall we direct the attention of our readers, with a view of putting them in possession of such information as may qualify them to form an opinion upon a subject which has recently awakened universal public interest, in consequence of the late terrible explosions in Barnsley and in Staffordshire.1 The public are by no means aware of the actual loss of life occasioned by coal-extraction in this country. By searching into various local publications in the North of England, and by a fair estimate of probabilities arising from what has been discovered, we are quite warranted in assuming the total number of lives sacrificed in our coal-mining, from the earliest notices to the year 1850, to be not less than 10,000. This is certainly not too high an estimate, and probably a very low one. In November of the year 1850 the first Act for the Inspection of Coal Mines came into operation, and henceforth we have some authentic data for accidents. During the ten years from 1850 to 1860, the deaths in or at all the British coal mines amounted to 9,090. In the ensuing five years, ending 1865, the deaths were altogether 4,827. Thus then adding to the 10,000 deaths up to 1850, 10,000 more (in round numbers) up to 1860, and nearly 5,000 In the present article we are dealing exclusively with accidents terminating fatally. The impression which these will make might be very much deepened by an estimate of the additional number of serious but not fatal accidents. These are very numerous, but there is no return of them. Mr. Dickinson, inspector for the Manchester district, observes, 'There are about sixty fatal accidents every year in my district, and besides these fatal accidents a large number of non-fatal accidents that require investigation.' Of course these are quite unknown to the public. During a visit of some months paid to one of our principal coal-fields, we had daily opportunities of seeing and conversing with the victims of such accidents. We conversed with many pit-lads who had been lamed' (or injured) several times in a few years, and who reckoned events by the chronology of their various 'lamings.' more up to the close of 1865, we have in all an estimate of nearly 25,000 deaths from coal-mine accidents, from the commencement of any account of them to within little more than a year of the present date. We apprehend that the melancholy mortality which we have just estimated has never before been brought, as a whole, before the country; and certainly it has never been sufficiently considered in its full and aggravated interest. Twenty-five thousand persons have been snatched from our industrial population in the midst of their occupations, and not only so much human life, but likewise so much skilled labour has been removed from us. Not the infirm and useless, but the able and the industrious, have been thus hurried away. No other kind of work is attended with so many and so fatal accidents; and if there were suitable data for the comparison, it could probably be shown that our various wars of recent date have not deprived us of a greater number of human beings, while all the deaths in and around mines have taken and are taking place in periods of profound peace and high prosperity. A complete list of deaths from colliery accidents for the ten years commencing January 1st, 1856, and ending December 31st, 1865, has been compiled by one of the present inspectors, Mr. Atkinson, of which the following table is a summary : Causes of Death : |