The salt monopoly has been, started, the capital required, three
millions and a half, having been readily subscribed, and we shall see what comes of it. There are people who believe
that the whole loss will fall upon the distributor, which is as much as to say that the pipes, but not the cisterns, will be aware of the shrinking of the reservoir. The Times evidently believes that a similar scheme will be tried to monopolise the supply of coal; but there are two obstacles in the way. The nominal capital required, 280,000,000, is enormous, even for days when the saving man can find no profitable investment and the industries affected by a rise in coal are the most powerful in the country, far more powerful than the "public," which in such cases seems to have no power at all. To tax the struggling householder is one thing, to impede every factory, foundry, and steamship in the country is quite another. Science, too, would grow wroth at a permanent rise in the price of coal, and we might soon be convinced of the truth once enunciated by a great engineer. "Coal," he said, "will never be really cheap till it costs four pounds .a ton." Then, and not till then, will men compel their brains to save their fuel.
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