38

COAL MINES OF

themselves are lowered all together, by ma-chinery, from the platform.

It will next occur to recite the unfortunatehistory of explosion, in order to impress morestrongly the necessity of legislative inter-ference. Indeed the great interests connectedwith the question, the fame of England inher improvements, and the mass of humanlife depending upon security, imperiouslyclaim the direct attention of a watchful andbenevolent government.

As the short space of three years has fur-nished a melancholy series of misery and dis-tress, it would be unnecessary to look anyfurther back for accounts, were it not materialto prove that these accidents are not the mereupshots of an unfortunate period, but the re-gular calamities incident to the accumulationof inflammable air, and to the want of properinformation relative to the mines.

Unfortunately no regular statement can betraced from whence to elucidate the immediateconsequences and distresses of the several ex-plosions, until about 1812 .