tons of pig-iron; in 1834, 16,200 tons of iron products and 107,000 tons
of pig-iron, while the whole iron product reaching in 1740 but 17,000
tons, had risen in 1834 to nearly 700,000 tons. The smelting of pig-iron
alone consumes yearly more than 3,000,000 tons of coal, and the
importance which coal mining has attained in the course of the last 60
years can scarcely be conceived. All the English and Scotch deposits are
now worked, and the mines of Northumberland and Durham alone yield
annually more than 5,000,000 tons for shipping, and employ from 40 to
50,000 men. According to the Durham _Chronicle_, there were worked in
these two counties: In 1753, 14 mines; in 1800, 40 mines; in 1836, 76
mines; in 1843, 130 mines. Moreover, all mines are now much more
energetically worked than formerly. A similarly increased activity was
applied to the working of tin, copper, and lead, and alongside of the
extension of glass manufacture arose a new branch of industry in the
production of pottery, rendered important by the efforts of Josiah
Wedgewood, about 1763. This inventor placed the whole manufacture of
stoneware on a scientific basis, introduced better taste, and founded the
potteries of North Staffordshire, a district of eight English miles
square, which, formerly a desert waste, is now sown with works and
dwellings, and supports more than 60,000 people.

Into this universal whirl of activity everything was drawn. Agriculture
made a corresponding advance. Not only did landed property pass, as we
have already seen, into the hands of new owners and cultivators,
agriculture was affected in still another way. The great holders applied
capital to the improvement of the soil, tore down needless fences,
drained, manured, employed better tools, and applied a rotation of crops.
The progress of science came to their assistance also; Sir Humphrey Davy
applied chemistry to agriculture with success, and the development of
mechanical science bestowed a multitude of advantages upon the large