DURHAM AND NORTHUMBERLAND. I3i

'well, in a late Number of Tilloch’s Philoso-phical Magazine.*

* Mr. Bafceweilj in his observations on the geology ofNorthumberland, concludes his letter in the followingterms: “ The limits of the present letter will not allowme to enter into the subject of the explosions in coalmines, but I think it proper to add that I perfectly agreewith what Dr. Thomson has said respecting the manage-ment of these mines, and the too great apathy shown bymany proprietors to the waste of human life which an-nually takes place. I was informed that, in two years, sixhundred persons mere destroyed in different coal mines ofthe Tyne and Wear. By one explosion ninety-two personswere killed in the mines of Mr. Brandling (Felling) in1812 , and the very week before the first meeting of thesociety established at Sunderland for preventing theseaccidents, twenty-three men and boys lost their lives in apit belonging to Sir Ralph Milbanke.

“ At the request of the latter, and the Rev. Dr. Gray ofSunderland, I attended that meeting; but I saw withregret that the good intentions and exertions of the gen-tlemen most active in its establishment were viewed withjealousy by some of the coal agents and proprietors, asinterfering with the rights of private property, and tendingto alarm the workmen. By the request of one proprietorthe number of lives lost was erased from the resolutionsfor fear of giving offence. I took the liberty of observ-ing ‘ that if all had been done which circumstances per-mitted to prevent those fatal accidents, no one could beoffended by a plain statement of facts; and in order tomeet the difficulty fairly, and interest the public in pro-moting the object of the society, it was necessary thatK 2