It now carries about two-fifths (about one million tons) of all the coal brought by railway into London. And here, as so much has recently been said about the enormous strides that have been made in the coal extraction from our collieries in the United Kingdom, a few words on the subject may not be deemed inappropriate. It is true that, as will be seen from the subjoined summary, extracted from the _Times_ of the 13th of September last, its production has increased with very great rapidity during the last twelve years. In 1855 it was 64,453,679 tons; in 1856, 66,645,450 tons; in 1857, 65,394,707 tons; in 1858, 65,008,649 tons; in 1859, 71,979,765 tons; in 1860, 80,042,698 tons; in 1861, 83,635,214 tons; in 1862, 81,638,338 tons; in 1863, 86,292,515 tons; in 1864, 92,787,873 tons; in 1865, 98,150,587 tons; and in 1866, 101,630,544 tons. But is there any real reason for the uneasiness that has been created about failure of supply in a century or so? We believe not, and our reasons are explained in the foot note.[13] And now it will not be uninteresting to see what has become of all these coals. In the first place our export of them to all parts of the world was not very large, 8,733,327 tons in 1865, and 9,622,324 tons in 1866.[14] Secondly, they warmed (with the addition of some turf and a little wood), cooked, and made gas for the 30,157,239 persons who, according to the most recent returns, constitute the present population of the United Kingdom. Thirdly, we supplied with fuel, in 1865, some few foreign, and 2,718 British steam vessels, of which 1,745 were over fifty tons register, and 973 were fifty tons each and under; united, they represent a gross burden of 825,533 tons.[15] Fourthly, we furnished the principal consumption of coals for the engines of our iron-clads and our wooden-clads. Fifthly, our railway locomotives ran, as we have seen (in 1865), 139,527,127 miles, and taking the average consumption at about 35 lbs. a mile, which includes lighting up[16] and time that engines are standing in steam, waiting for duty, or acting as “pilots” (reserve and station engines), the total amount is 2,625,000 tons; and to this amount may be added the consumption in the locomotive and carriage shops, stores, and stations, 1,375,000, making the direct railway consumption 4,000,000 tons. Sixthly, independent of the coal used in the reduction of our other minerals to the state of metal, we produced, by means of 613 blast furnaces, in 1866, from 9,665,012 tons of iron ore, raised during the year, 2,576,928 tons of pig iron in England, 952,123 in Wales, and 994,000 tons in Scotland; total, 4,223,051 tons, which consumed at least 6,000,000 tons of coal; and, by means of some 6,000,000 more tons, we kept at work, in 1866, 256 iron works, in which there were 6,239 puddling furnaces, and 826 rolling mills.[17] Seventhly, our agricultural steam cultivation is beginning to count for something. And lastly, our coal assisted in the