of a full realization. If a knowledge of geology and pneumatics, and a special acquaintance with aëro-statics and aëro-dynamics, the chemistry of gases, the scientific principles and possibilities of safety illumination, the indications of the barometer, and the use of such instruments as the eudiometer and the anemometer, are of value to any class of the community, they are obviously of especial value to those on whose skill and precautions some thousands of lives are constantly dependent. The apathy and indifference of many colliery officials or proprietors may be judged of by one sentence of the eminent President of the Northern Institute of Mining Engineers, spoken officially in December, 1858:-'I must repeat that we have not received that support from the coal-trade which I think we are justly entitled to; out of nearly 200 collieries in the trade we have only about sixty subscribing to the Institute. We have laboured hard to make it useful,' &c. But even if a Local Engineering College were organized, the attendance at it would be most difficult for men whose services are wanted for the whole of every workingday; and the best way of really diffusing the knowledge which is chiefly wanted would be to provide that the professors of the college, or other duly qualified persons, shall deliver popular lectures on scientific subjects connected with mining, and deliver them at different places in succession, so that all may have an opportunity of learning.

We should add that there is or was a Mining School at Bristol, and that some attempts of a like kind on a small scale have been made elsewhere, but nowhere is there a superior and well-sustained Mining College in any of the coal-fields of Great Britain.

The Act of Parliament (18 and 19 Vict. cap. 108) by which Inspectors of Collieries were first appointed, and the new Act (23 and 24 Vict. cap. 151), are the slowly matured fruits of numerous parliamentary inquiries, and particularly of the Reports made by the visiting Commissioners on the Children's Employment Commission in 1842. Only those who have taken a special interest in this matter are cognizant of the numerous and formidable obstacles which stood in the way of the passing of this Act, and especially of the addition of improvements in its renewed form. One party aimed at limiting regulation and inspection to a narrow routine, and another desired to extend it further, while the inspectors themselves felt that, without authority larger than was acceptable to opponents, they could effect little, and must fail to satisfy public expectation. Those first appointed were soon brought into contact with the serious difficulties of their duties, but these have been somewhat alleviated by the addition of others

to

to their number, and the extension of pay and power. There are 2463 collieries in England and Wales, 413 in Scotland, and 73 in Ireland, making in all 2949 collieries under inspection.

So far as experience of the working of the Inspection Act has extended, it has proved to be a decided benefit, although it might not be possible to point out in precise terms the full amount of advantage secured. There is, as might be supposed, a marked difference in the efficiency of the twelve inspectors, some of whom are comparatively new to their office. Nor must it be expected that they can do much more than diffuse information, check carelessness, rebuke ignorance, and report gross negligence. It is doubtful whether they can be empowered to proceed beyond examining and recording the condition of the mines entrusted to their vigilance. They might, perhaps, classify all the mines under the two terms of dangerous and not dangerous, or fiery and ordinary; and it is the opinion of several unbiassed persons that the exclusive use of some safety-lamp might be enforced in all fiery or dangerous pits. Whether also blasting by gunpowder should be permitted in such pits is questionable. Beyond this, inspection could hardly pass without trenching upon private and personal rights; still less should inspectors be held responsible for the efficient ventilation and safe condition of collieries, a responsibility which is co-extensive with the hourly superintendence of the whole mine..

Their division of labour, moreover, is unequal. The gentlemen who have the inspection of the 383 collieries in Yorkshire, and the 422 in South Staffordshire, are manifestly overworked in comparison with the inspectors of some other districts(the number of pits in each should have been returned)and if the former are responsible for a regular and thorough visitation of all their collieries within each year, that duty is too great, and cannot be satisfactorily discharged. How can one man, however able, faithfully and fully inspect 422 collieries, producing annually nearly five millions of tons of coals? If the system is to be really successful, a more vigilant supervision and a still greater subdivision of labour must be secured; and if additional inspectors cannot be afforded, sub-inspectors might be appointed from a class of persons who would thus be training for the superior office. There are men who, though not brought up from youth in the practice of mining, nevertheless have generally shrewd opinions about, and sufficient practical acquaintance with, the necessities and perils of pit life. It has been the Secretary of State's general practice hitherto to select the inspectors from the grade of managers and from gentlemen connected with

collieries.

collieries. The coalowners and viewers themselves favour such a course. Only this objection can be taken to it, that inspectors thus appointed may be too apt to hold to technical maxims and old usages. Some have urged the appointment of men of science, and have dwelt upon their probable value as advisers. On the other hand, coalowners and managers of influence—and they can exert vast influence-are understood to have privately urged an apprenticeship of seven years to mining practice as a preliminary to office, and of course none but those of their own circle can have had seven years of subterranean experience. It is to be hoped, however, that when opportunity offers, one or two appointments may be made independently of that restriction.. A really efficient and unbiassed inspector we certainly met with in the late Mr. Herbert Mackworth, recently cut off in the very prime of his days, and whose life was probably terminated by his continual contact with the worst air of some Welsh mines. Having enjoyed several days' conversation with him on the subjects of his duty, we came to understand how great a blessing such a man would be both to miners and managers, how effectively he might further the cause of mining and moral education, and how, under the title of a Colliery Inspector, might be obtained an unwearied instructor and an invaluable monitor of masters

and men. He was a true Christian gentleman, and, though he had not served his seven years' apprenticeship in pits, he was both a scientific and skilful officer of mines.

In the preceding pages we have endeavoured to enable our readers to form an opinion on the important topic of colliery calamities. The whole inquiry may now be reduced to these simple elements:-There are certain recognized conditions of safety in fiery pits. These are discoverable and applicable by intelligent managers; but their application involves additional outlay at first and perpetual vigilance throughout--both of which amount to an increased charge on coals, and therefore to a diminution of profits. Can the State enforce the observance of the essential conditions of safety? If not, palliatives must take the place of remedies, and we must depend on better education, mining improvements, strong public opinion, and a sense of moral reponsibility.

ART.

ART. III.-1. The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. By William Whewell, D.D. J. W. Parker, 1858.

2. History of the Inductive Sciences. By William Whewell, D.D. J. W. Parker, 1858.

WE

E are about to venture a few suggestions, not on the admirable volumes which are placed at the head of this article, nor on any particular work connected with the important question of Modern Scepticism, but on one short phrase, which is insensibly stealing into general circulation, and which seems to require considerable watchfulness and caution. They are offered for the consideration of Physical Science and Inductive Logicnot in any spirit of antagonism to them, and still less dogmatically. But the phrase itself appears not only to involve a violation of the first laws of accurate inductive reasoning, but to be charged with most perilous conclusions to Christian faith, unless it be carefully modified. This phrase is 'the Immutability of the Laws of Nature.'

In the short space to which these suggestions must be confined, it is needless to empty a common-place book to illustrate the bold and unqualified manner in which the expression too often drops, even from the lips of writers whose life and conduct emphatically protest against the charge of unbelief. They neither deduce themselves, nor wish others to deduce, the consequences which flow from it. They would shudder at the thought, that mere incaution in their language should strike a death-blow at the Christian belief of the age. But incautious language is the dry rot of the world. The historians and philosophers of physical science remind us in every page of the power of words, mere words-warn us how they necessarily contain the sporules of mighty principles, how they give to those principles wings to fly, and filaments to root them in the earth, and a power of propagation able to cover the whole field of truth with the most noxious weeds, so that when once their hold is taken, it is almost hopeless to eradicate them. The language of Physical as of Moral Science is its vehicle, the body without which its mind cannot act. And our present object is to implore caution, only caution; the caution prescribed and commanded by its own Logic of Induction, rigidly confining statements of facts to actual experience, and refraining from any admixture with these of assumption, or hypothesis, in the employment of one phrase, ‘the Immutability of the Laws of Nature.'

Newton himself has set us the example. That great and glorious intellect has given the same warning, has supplied all the qualifications required to neutralise the fatal mischief involved

in those incautious words 'Immutability of Nature.' And we plead for nothing else—

'Deum esse ens summe perfectum concedunt omnes. Entis autem summe perfecti Idea est, ut sit substantia una, simplex, indivisibilis, viva et vivifica, ubique semper necessario existens, summe intelligens omnia, libere volens bona, voluntate efficiens possibilia, effectibus nobilioribus similitudinem propriam, quantum fieri potest, communicans, omnia in se continens, tamquam eorum principium et locus, omnia per præsentiam substantialem cernens et regens, et cum rebus omnibus, secundum leges accuratas, ut naturæ totius fundamentum et causa, constanter cooperans, nisi ubi aliter agere bonum est.'*

These are the words of Newton, in the seeming outline of his celebrated Scholium-'Secundum leges accuratas constanter cooperans, nisi ubi aliter agere bonum est'-God acting in what is called Nature according to accurate and uniform laws, except when it be good for him to act otherwise. This last clause secures all. Nothing else is wanted. The words involve no compromise, sacrifice no truth, pledge science to nothing beyond the range of its own province, offer no difficulty. But they effectually cut off the train of mischief, which in the popular mind is ready laid from the Immutability of Nature to practical Atheism. And, therefore, we will endeavour at present to take that simple but most perilous phrase 'the Immutability of the Laws of Nature,' and to place it in the crucible, and under the microscope of strict Inductive Logic-that Logic whose nobleness and potency is centred in a rigid discrimination of experience from imagination, of external facts from internal theories; and in a scrupulous integrity and accuracy when registering its own observations. Not to exceed, and not to fall short of facts; not to add, and not to take away; to state the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, are the grand, the vital maxims of Inductive Science, of English Law, and let us add of Christian Faith. If there is insensibly stealing into circulation and acceptance an inaccurate phrase, which tends to violate in every word this fundamental law of inductive logic, it surely should be called in and recoined. This is all we ask.

And we ask it of those great men, in whose hands the empire of science is now vested, and who possess the control over its language. They are not, like German Rationalists, little likely to carry weight and influence with an English mind. Their authority and therefore their responsibility is enormous. In every period of society there spring up classes of minds, besides. that class which Divine Providence has especially appointed to

* Sir D. Brewster's Life of Newton, p. 154, vol. ii. Vol. 110.-No. 220. 2 B

teach