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390

The New Metropolitan Coal Act.

tice will be defeated by the operation of the new Act, it is probable that no small number of the metropolitan coal "merchants" will give up trade, unless some equivalent advantages are held out by the weighing system. It is desirable, in the next place, for the consumer to purchase coal as large as possible, even when sold by weight; for in breaking down a mass of coal a considerable portion of its more valuable quality (the carburetted hydrogen gas) escapes and is lost, while the surface of the coal imbibes oxygen from the atmosphere, and thereby loses its inflammability. The loss which is sustained by the consumer in purchasing small coal in lieu of large coal, may be estimated at the lowest from twelve to fifteen per cent.; while, for the same reason, it is exceedingly bad economy for the purchaser to lay in a large stock of coals to be many months exposed to the action of the atmosphere.

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Although the new Coal Act directs that all coals sold within the district before-mentioned shall be sold by weight, yet it still sanctions the very objectionable practice of delivering it in sacks, the most fertile source of the frauds which have so long been complained of against the smaller coaldealers of the Metropolis. It is directed, by clause 48, that all coals sold within the cities of London and Westminster, or within twenty-five miles of the post-office aforesaid, in any quantity exceeding 560 pounds (except coals delivered in bulk, as aftermentioned) shall be delivered to the purchasers in sacks, each sack containing either 112 lbs. or 224 lbs. net; but such coals delivered by gang labour may be conveyed in sacks containing any weight."

Now we would ask, what guarantee the purchaser under the new Act will have, that he shall not be imposed upon in having sacks of coals delivered at his door containing only 200 lbs. instead of 224 lbs. of coals? It will be answered that each carman is to be provided with a weighing machine; but, according to the old regulations, each carman was compelled to carry a bushel measure, yet frauds were openly and constantly committed upon the great body of consumers.

The only means by which the Corporation of London might have put a stop to the frauds of coal-dealers

[Nov.

would have been to make it compulsory on coal-venders under the new Act to weigh their commodity at the door of their customers, like potatoes, fish, or any other commodity. Such a plan would afford the only adequate or efficient check against the constant temptation to fraud in dishonest dealers, and a protection against the plunder of servants during the transit of coals from the dealer to the consumer.

It is not worth while to transcribe here the merely verbal provisions of the new Act for inflicting penalties upon dealers, or their servants, in the event of delivering coals short of weight; or for refusing to weigh the same, when required so to do. Such provisions are usually laughed at by those whose interest or whose business it is to evade them. It is true the new Act gives the purchaser the option of buying his coals either by bulk or in sacks of the regulated size; and it also directs that weighing machines shall be carried by the coal carmen in their carts or waggons; but as such carmen are not directed to use such machines, unless specially required so to do, it is obvious that the public will derive little advantage under the new system, beyond that of the present.

It is, however, proper to point out the most obvious means that will offer a temptation to dishonest coal-dealers in selling coals by weight-that of mixing water with the mass. A plausible apology will always be ready for such fraud, that of rain falling on a barge of coals. It is moreover proper to observe, that the smaller the coal the more water it will absorb without detection. The policy of purchasing large coal is therefore, in this case, doubly manifest; for a ton of small coal will absorb from one to two hundred weight of water, which would, in such case, not only be so far a fraud upon the purchaser, but the combustible properties of the coal become greatly depreciated in consequence.

Among other objections to the new Coal Act, the City of London have (in conjunction with the great coal-owners of Northumberland and Durham) still preserved their monopoly in the port of London, by levying an impost duty of 18. 1d. per ton on all coals brought by canal from the inland collieries; which impost almost amounts to a prohibition. Whatever may be said as to the privileges of the Corporation

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On the Founder of Sunday Schools.

connected with the river Thames, it is a monstrous proposition that in obedience to the musty chartered privileges of the City, that the vast population in the environs, and fifty miles distance, should be prohibited from going to the cheapest market for one of the first necessaries of life.*

It was my intention, Mr. Urban, to have gone more at length into the probable effect of the New Metropolitan Coal Act; and to have added a few suggestions to the consumers of coal, with a view of economising fuel to the utmost extent at the present alarming crisis. It is highly probable that in the event of the malignant disease now prevailing at Sunderland, extending to other parts of the kingdom, that trade will be so far intercepted as to raise the price of coals forty or fifty per cent. In such a state of things, it becomes a most serious question to the poorer inhabitants of the Metropolis and its vicinity, many of whom would be quite destitute of fuel during the most inclement season of the year. It is the duty of every philanthrophic individual to use his best exertions at such a juncture to lessen as far as may be the common calamity. I shall, therefore, with your permission, reserve a few additional remarks for another number of your valuable Magazine; fearing that I have already trespassed at too great a length in the present. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

PHILANTHROPOS.

London, Nov. 19. WHO was the founder of Sunday Schools? This question, which the confederate evidence of public opinion, tradition, and unequivocal facts, had long ago settled, has again been mooted, and that, too, in a quarter where it might have been least of all expected. Your Gloucester correspondent (p. 294) is not only at variance with me, but also with the large and influential body of teachers and patrons of this benevolent Institution. Alexander the Great once observed

*It remains to be seen, when the proposed Rail-road is carried into effect between Birmingham and the Metropolis, whether the chartered rights of the City of London are still to be protected at the expense of the great body of the community, by prohibiting the supply of coals from the Warwick and Staffordshire coal field, except under an enormous impost payable to the Corporation.

391

that, as the earth had not two suns, neither could Asia have two kings. In the same manner I assert that Sunday Schools cannot have had two originators, but for far other reasons to those of the Macedonian hero. As my sole object is to elicit and secure truth, my opinion upon this matter is of course exclusively governed by lawful evidence, and not by any fastidious desire to rob a layman of his acknowledged glory, to confer it wrongfully upon one in holy orders.

Your correspondent appears to believe that the Rev. Thomas Stock (p. 295) divides the meed of honour with Robert Raikes in the establishment of the present Sunday school system of religious education. To confute this erroneous conclusion, I would, primarily, merely quote the following graphic passages from a letter of Mr. Raikes to a certain Col. Townley, which was printed in the Gentleman's Magazine forty-seven years ago:

"The beginning of this scheme," says Raikes, "was entirely owing to accident. Some business leading me one morning into the suburbs of the city, where the lowest of the people chiefly reside, I was struck with concern at seeing a group of children, wretchedly ragged, at play in the street.

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asked an inhabitant whether those children belonged to that part of the town, and lamented their misery and idleness. Ah, Sir!' said the woman to whom I was speaking, could you take a view of this part of the town on a Sunday, you would be shocked indeed, for then the street is filled with multitudes of these wretches, who, released on that day from employment, spend their time in noise and riot, playing at chuck, and cursing and swearing in a manner so horrid as to convey to any serious mind an idea of hell rather than any other place. We have a worthy clergymau, said she, minister of our parish, who has put some of them to school [i. e. day school]; but upon the Sabbath, they are all given up to follow their inclinations without restraint, as their parents, totally abandoned themselves, have no idea of instilling into the minds of their children principles to which they themselves are entire strangers.' This conversation suggested to me that it would be at least a harmless attempt, if it were productive of no good, should some little plan be formed to check this deplorable profanation of the Sabbath. I then enquired of the woman if there were any decent well disposed women in the neighbourhood who kept schools for teaching to read. I presently was directed to four. To these I applied, and made an agree

* Here the good woman undoubtedly referred to the Rev. Thomas Stock.

392

On the Founder of Sunday Schools.

ment with them to receive as many children as I should send upon the Sunday, whom they were to instruct in reading, and the Church catechism. For this I engaged to pay them each a shilling for their day's employment. The women seemed pleased with the proposal. I then waited on the clergyman before mentioned [Rev. Mr. Stock], and imparted to him my plan. He was so much satisfied with the idea, that he engaged to lend his assistance, by going round to the schools on a Sunday afternoon, to examine the progress that was made, and to enforce order and decorum among such a set of little heathens. This, Sir, was the commencement of the plan."*

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These interesting details, Mr. Urban, which your venerable pages have fortunately preserved, have hitherto remained unimpeached. Can anything be more circumstantial or conclusive? Had this narrative been untrue, surely some of the "senior inhabitants and "contemporary per(to whom your correspondent alludes), would speedily have posed it at the time. Suppose, for instance, a benevolent individual were about to found a National School in some provincial town, would he not, as a first step, go and consult with the incumbent of the parish? Just so with Raikes. As soon as the noble idea of schools on the Sabbath had originated in his mind, he proceeded to request the advice and co-operation of the worthy clergyman alluded to [Mr. Stock]; and from the conspicuous part which that Minister afterwards took in promulgating Raikes's plan of civilization, some few individuals have chosen to regard him as the founder of the institution. Whether envy has aught to do with the matter I know not; but I cannot repress thinking that the story of Christopher Columbus and the egg would well apply to this case. I must likewise be allowed the liberty to observe, that I think the remarks of your Gloucester correspondent respecting Mr. Raikes' conduct touching this matter, are far too invidious, and, according to all previous accounts,

untrue.

One most powerful proof in support of Raikes' pretensions, I must not omit to adduce. The festival of a Sunday School Jubilee, (the commemoration of which was hinted at in my 'last letter,) was, among numerous other places, celebrated in this identical city of Gloucester, on the 14th of

*Gent. Mag. vol. LIV. p. 410.

[Nov.

September (Raikes's birthday), under the very eyes of your correspondent; when nearly 1000 teachers and children assembled in convocation, for the purpose of doing "honour to the imcitizen, Robert Raikes, esq. founder of mortal memory of their late brother Sunday Schools." And at a public meeting holden on the same evening, two individuals addressed the assembly, who had themselves been favoured with Mr. Raikes's personal instructions [vide Gloucester Journal]. Indeed, this general celebration of what what was called "Raikes's Jubilee," by so many thousands throughout the country, seems evidently to have settled the matter respecting who was the founder.

I will add one more proof. Although I have never had the pleasure to visit Gloucester, travelling friends have credibly assured me that on the monument of Robert Raikes in the ancient church of St. Mary-de-Crypt, it is expressly inscribed that he first instituted Sunday Schools in that city.

From all these concurring testimonies (others could be produced, though possibly of minor consequence) it appears sufficiently certain that what I stated in my last communication was thoroughly based in truth. The laurel must therefore continue on Raikes's brow, as the founder of the charitable system of Sunday Schools. Much as I differ from your venerable correspondent, I feel myself indebted to his valuable communication for several facts with which I was before unacquainted; and I do hope that, as he resides upon the spot, he will cause careful enquiry to be made respecting this matter, and communicate the result of such researches to the world, through the medium of your intelligent miscellany. Now is the time when information ought to be collected; and the importance of the subject is considerably shown by the eager desire of individuals to pluck the laurel from the brow of him to whom it has been, hitherto, by public consent allowed. Fifty years hence, the then generation may cast odium upon us for our supineness; and if Sunday Schools proceed increasing as they have heretofore done, by the time of a second Jubilee they will have become the greatest and most magni. ficent monument of charity and disinterestedness in the whole world.

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