The opinion of Mr. Jevons respecting the probable rate of increase of our consumption was not accepted by the generality of those who examined the subject in 1865 and 1866. There were some, indeed, who considered that the assumption was ‘absurd in every point of view.’ In one sense, indeed, Mr. Jevons himself would have been ready to admit that his estimates would not be justified by the result. The observed rate of increase could not possibly be maintained beyond a certain epoch, simply because there would not be enough men to work the coal mines to the extent required. But, regarding the increase as indicating the requirements of the kingdom, it would matter little whether the necessary supply failed for want of coal or for want of the means of raising the coal. In other words, removing the question from the arena of geological dispute, and considering only the requirements of the country, we should have this disagreeable conclusion forced upon us, if Mr. Jevons’s estimate is just, that England will not be able, a century, or even half a century hence, to get as many coals from her subterranean cellars as she will then require. She may have the coals, but she will not have men enough to bring them to bank. It is, perhaps, in this aspect, that the question assumes its chief interest for us. Rightly understood, the statements of Mr. Jevons were of vital importance; so important, indeed, that the nation might have looked forward to the results of the Commission much as a patient would await the physician’s report of the result of a stethoscopic examination. The power of the nation residing—for the nonce at least—in her coal, the enforced consumption of coal at a rate which cannot be maintained (from whatever cause), means to all intents and purposes the decline and approaching demise of England’s power as a nation. Furthermore, apart from all inquiries such as the Commissioners undertook to make, the mere statement of the successive annual yields was to be looked upon as of vital interest, precisely as the progressive waste of a consumptive patient’s strength and substance suggests even more serious apprehensions than the opinion of the physician.