COALS.
One of the pamphlets of the age of the Commonwealth is said, in the title-page, to be
Printed in the year
That sea-coal was exceeding dear.
The remembrance of this inconvenience, which the Londoners had suffered during the stoppage of their supply from Newcastle, made "the committees of both kingdoms conclude and agree among themselves, that some of the most notorious delinquents and malignants, late coal-owners in the town of Newcastle, be wholly excluded from intermeddling with any shares or parts of colleries;" "but as the parliament might find a difficulty in driving on the trade, they did not conceive it for their service to put out all the said malignants at once, but were rather constrained, for the present, to make use of those delinquents in working their own collieries as tenants and servants." The more stubborn and wealthy, therefore, were selected for example; and the others had this favour shown them.