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Upon the sea-coast of a well-improved country, indeed, if coals

can conveniently be had for fuel, it may sometimes be cheaper to

bring barren timber for building from less cultivated foreign

countries than to raise it at home. In the new town of Edinburgh,

built within these few years, there is not, perhaps, a single

stick of Scotch timber.

Whatever may be the price of wood, if that of coals is such that

the expense of a coal fire is nearly equal to that of a wood one

we may be assured, that at that place, and in these

circumstances, the price of coals is as high as it can be. It

seems to be so in some of the inland parts of England,

particularly in Oxfordshire, where it is usual, even in the fires

of the common people, to mix coals and wood together, and where

the difference in the expense of those two sorts of fuel cannot,

therefore, be very great. Coals, in the coal countries, are

everywhere much below this highest price. If they were not, they

could not bear the expense of a distant carriage, either by land

or by water. A small quantity only could be sold; and the coal

masters and the coal proprietors find it more for their interest

to sell a great quantity at a price somewhat above the lowest,

than a small quantity at the highest.