aily toil. Let us, then, brace ourselves up
for our mission. Let us proclaim the dignity of labour--its beneficent
effects--its more than magical results. Let us honour the workman,
whether he stand at the loom or plough the field--or sail

"--Beyond the sunset
Or the baths of all the western stars,"

or labour in the dark and dangerous recesses of the mine. Thus shall we
build up a barricade against the murderous art of war, teach all the
world the advantages of peace, and make manifest to the nations how to
live.

One word more--don't let the reader go away with the idea that there is
likely to be a dearth of coals in his time. Let him make merry by his
own fireside, and not vex his small brain about what the world will be
when the years have died away. A writer in the _Times_, of May 24th,
1860, says, "As a good deal of anxiety has been recently shown regarding
the probable extinction of the resources of steam coal in Wales, it may
be interesting to state that, by the successful results of the
prosecution for the last five years of the operations of the Navigation
Works at Aberdare, near Merthyr, all fears upon the subject may be
discarded. This pit is the largest in the world, being 18 feet in
diameter and 370 yards in depth. The estimate of its workings is 1000
tons per day. The expenses thus far have been 130,000 pounds, exclusive
of the value of waggons, &c.--35,000 pounds. The ground is of a most
difficult nature, the layers often extending 15 feet without a bed,
crack, fissure, or any opening whatever. The rock had all to be blasted
with gunpowder. The resources of the seam are comparatively boundless,
the property extending seven miles from Taff up to Cwm Neal, and three
miles in width, covering 4000 to 5000 acres of '4 foot coal.' The
royalty is for 99 years, and is held by a firm, composed of Mr. John
Nixon, the well-known colliery proprietor at Merthyr; Mr. Hugh Taylor,
M.P. for Tynemouth; and Mr. W. Cory, the large coal contractor of London.
The commencement of the use of this smokeless coal afloat began about
1840, on board the Thames steamboats, to work Penn's engines. In the
same year a cargo was shipped to Nantes, and given away to the French for
trial, with the sole condition that the engineer should throw it into the
furnaces and leave it alone to stoke itself. Next, the sugar refiners
adopted it, as they suffered considerably if the steam was not kept up to
a pressure