says in his preface, that, “having visited a coal- | worked fifty years, and its excavations took mine, at the Heaton Colliery, near Newcastle, two hours and a half to be filled.-Report, in the summer of 1799, he adopted that as the p. 145. foundation of his scenery; and endeavoured so to construct his piece, that, should it ever be per- in Irvine, while fishing in the Garnock, obIn June, 1833, Mr. Montgomery, banker formed, the audience might have an opportunity of having the interior of a coal-mine, to which served a gurgling motion in its current, we are indebted for so much comfort, as it were which, though first mistaken by him for presented and realized to them." It is not likely, salmon-leaps, soon led to the suspicion of however, that the drama was ever recited on the its true cause, and, accordingly the neighstage: the first act opens with a scene repre- bouring headsman of the mine was warned senting the top of the shaft, with the drawing-he, however, was at first slow to believemachinery, &c., and a pitman singing a song, of which the following is the first verse:-

It will readily be conceived that the sound and appearance of an instantaneous rushing of a large body of water into the workings must be awful indeed to those engulphed therein-particularly when the lights are mostly or entirely extinguished! One of the earliest boyish impressions which the writer retains is connected with

an event of this nature, which occurred in a Yorkshire colliery in the beginning of the year 1805. The bottom of a large dam suddenly gave way, and poured its contents into the mine beneath: one of the colliers, recording the deliverance of himself and fellows in verse, the mediocrity of which was relieved by the real impressiveness of the occurrence, thus sang:

"It early in the morning was our troubles did begin;

Near two o'clock, we understand, the waters rushed in:

Then many waded in the deep in such a wretched plight,

Their case it dreary was indeed-they had no kind of light!

To hear the cries, and see the tears on this occasion shed,

The tragic scene, it was enough to cause the
heart to bleed:

But the all-seeing eye of God, from whom we
draw our breath,
Beheld, and by his Providence preserved us all
from death," &c.'

-History of Fossil Fuel, pp. 250, 251

but the men below heard the gurgling of
the waters--and were only dragged out,
pursued by the waves, when these had
risen up to their necks. At first the river
ran smooth, but rapidly; but on the follow-
ing afternoon a portion of the mine sunk,
and the stream disappeared, leaving its bed
dry for a mile. The pressure in the pits
became so great from the whole workings
of the mines, which extended over 'many
miles,' being filled, that the air, pent up
between the waters and the crust of over-
lying earth, burst through, and many
acres of ground were to be seen all at
once bubbling up like the boiling of a
cauldron.' Immense quantities of sand and
water were thrown up for five hours, and
fell like showers of rain. In a short time
the whole of Bartonholme, Longford, Snod-
grass, and Nethermains, were laid under
water, by which calamity from five to six
hundred persons were deprived of employ-
ment, and the extensive colliery-works so
injured as to preclude all hope of their ever
being restored to their former state.'-
(History of Fossil Fuel, p. 250.)

This

But there is a class of accidents far more frequent than these awful visitations of elemental agents. The descent into shafts is in the richer mines managed by steam machinery-in the less wealthy by the gin' or wheel worked by a horse-and in the poorest by a wheel worked by hand, such as that used in drawing water from wells. In all these the frightful accident has occurred of the load being 'wound over,' and the men pitched down the shaft. happened in one instance from the little boy In Mr. Curwen's great pit at Working- whom the proprietors employ at 78. a week ton, which was carried two miles under the-in order to save the additional 23s., sea, it was observed by the men that the mine had been oozing salt water for some time, and some of them got away, but in the night, the single night' of the 28th July, 1837, the sea broke in, and none were ever found to tell how it happened. The bodies even were never recovered-and so the funeral service was read over the pitmouth. The spot where the water broke in was discernible in the sea by the blackness of the waves. The mine had been

which would have to be paid to a man fit for such a duty-neglecting to stop the steam-engine in time, his attention being attracted by a mouse on the hearth!!'(Report, p. 144.) The motive of economy is that assigned in the Evidence; and it states the exact saving as above.

Another class of accidents arise from carelessness and want of due inspection as to the ropes and tackle of descent. Then again the shaft, which should be well lined,

is in the poorer mines but negligently pro- to prevent eight or ten tons of coal falling tected; and a small stone loosened from in any instant on him. Is it wonderful, its side, or flung from the pit-mouth, suf- then, that men living amid such constant fices, with the impetus of descent, to kill. dangers should be callous, or what appears The corves, which ought to be shedded callous to a sub-commissioner,-startled at over, are often open. The pit-mouths, three or four urchins jumping, with fearless which should be surrounded by a wall, so certainty of foot and eye, from the bank as to hinder people falling down them at into a corve about to descend;-or that ocnight, are not unfrequently unguarded-not casionally some lad of an engine-keeper, so much from the fault of the proprietors, having been well thrashed by a hewer, as because the people will steal the bricks should so manage the machinery as to let for their own use. There are some painful his enemy in the corve drop with the velodescriptions scattered among the Reports city of descending lead down the shaft-of of deaths arising from falling in of the course with imminent risk of life from roofs, when economy tempts to remove the breakage of the rope to which the man pillars that have supported them. Some clings? The minds of such people become times, after such operations, a very unex- familiarized with death, and the ever-repected mode of filling up these galleries curring accidents are speedily forgotten: takes place spontaneously-the floors are pressed up towards the roof-or, as one of the witnesses terms it, 'the earth is on the move.' There are innumerable sources of danger to the drivers, from accidents peculiar to them; and, finally, there is no peril common to any other adventurous profession from which the miner is exempt.

The historian of Fossil Fuel' has a note (p. 291) which we cannot but quote :—

There is, indeed, no class of persons, sailors themselves not excepted, who have greater reason to live in constant readiness to encounter sudden death than the colliers who work in some of our deep and impure mines. The following is a striking illustration of the prevalence of pious sentiments under circumstances of excruciating trial:-In one of the Newcastle collieries, thirty-five men and forty-one boys died by suffocation, or were starved to death; one of the boys was found dead with a bible by his side, and a tin box such as colliers use; within the lid he had contrived to engrave with the point of a nail this last message to his parent and brother: "Fret not, my dear mother, for we are singing the praises of God while we have time. Mother, follow God, more than ever I did. Joseph, think of God, and be kind to poor mother."-p. 291.

times,' says the Chief-Constable at Oldham, ‘if
"There would be more feeling a hundred
a policeman were to kill a dog in the streets
than about killing a collier. They are quite an
uneducated set of people, who go to cockpits,
and races, and fights, and many are gamblers
and drinkers. There are so many killed, that
it becomes quite customary to expect such things.
In a day or two's time even a man's wife and
children seem to have forgotten it. The chiefest
talk is just at the moment, until the body gets
collier!"—(Report, p. 144.)
home, and then people feel, "Oh, it is only a

In Scotland there are no coroners to investigate the causes and modes of accidental deaths, and the instances known, yet neglected, are quite frightful. Mary Sneddon says- Brother Robert was killed on the 21st January last. He was brought home, coffined, and buried in Bo'ness kirkyard. No one came to inquire how he was killed: they never do in this place.' Mr. James Hunter, overseer to Alloa colliery, states that the sheriff sometimes comes down. He did in the last case after the death of John Patteson, which was occasioned by being over-wound at the pit-head; he looked at the ropes and examined their strength, and then walked away, and no further noThe miners, while undergoing,' tap the tice was taken. This is the common pracseam with their picks, to ascertain if it rings tice.' (p. 150.) The commissioners re clear or sounds cracked. In doubtful cases mark two things-the great difficulty of Dr. Mitchell describes them as quitting obtaining from the surgeons any register their work, lighting their pipes, and holding of accidents; and the constant endeavour a consultation-others flying precipitately in the proprietors, managers, and overseers from the falling masses which would, and of mines to lay the blame on the foolhardioften do, crush them. They usually have ness of the miners. If a chain broke, and good warning of such catastrophes by the groaning of the earth,' but often enough neglect the awful voice. The hewer may be seen lying at full length cutting away; and though provided with all the timber ready at hand to prop up and render his work safe, neglecting the means which are

6

half a dozen men were precipitated to the bottom of a shaft, they should have examined the rope or chain before they descended' is the excuse; which is about as just and valid as if in railway travelling it were considered the duty and business of the passengers to inspect the carriages and

trains by which they are to be conveyed. I' are too tired to speak'-'fall asleep before In well regulated mines, however, it is the they can eat their suppers.' There are inespecial business of one person to inspect stances detailed where a curved spine and the head-gear. This should be the case in abscesses of the hip-joint did not shield the all. A mining police is wanted. worker from labour-diseases which exhaustion and a wet mine would readily in

witness says, 'I have often seen them lying on the floor fast asleep: then they fall asleep in the pit, and are killed by waggons running over them.'

tem.

With respect to the general effect of mining labour on the human frame, this duce. (Report, p. 177.) At page 179, the Report states, in conclusion, that the work in a well regulated coal-mine is not only not injurious but healthful, developing and expanding the body into forms, which one of the sub-commissioners compares to the The first direct effect of over-work is exfinest models of ancient sculpture. In Staf- hibited in the extraordinary development fordshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, of the muscles; those of the back stand and in great part of Yorkshire, the men are out like ropes.' The collier-boys were theredescribed as strong and powerful, living fore found greatly superior to those of other like fighting-cocks;' presenting in the callings in this respect. The immediate broad and stalwart frame of the swarthy col- consequence of development in one set of lier as he stalks home, all grime and muscle, organs is diminution in another; and hence, a striking contrast with the puny, pallid, with few exceptions, the colliers are destarveling, little weaver, with his dirty white scribed as a 'stunted race:' the exceptions apron and feminine look.'-(Report, p. 163.) are Warwickshire, Leicestershire, and IreWhatever the imagination may picture land. The third effect of over-work is as to the interior of a mine, the reality early decay of the organ over-worked-in turns out to be far from frightful, where the collier, therefore, of the muscular systhis speculation is conscientiously worked; that is to say, where the passages are sufficiently high not to keep the body bent, the air sufficiently pure to sustain health amid the gigantic efforts the miner must make, the temperature salubrious, and all other appurtenances fit and matching. This is what a mine should be, and what many ought to be, if the eye of public opinion and the hand of the law were directed aright. But this they are not; and so we have descriptions of people working in passages like drains: yet even here we should beware of drawing too broad conclusions true words may paint falsely. A person working twelve hours a-day up to his knees in wet and muck would speedily dieabove ground; but the uniform temperature of the mine, with even inefficient ventilation, removes very much of the dangers of what reads like constant exposure to wet. On the whole it is rather to the over-work than to anything else that most of the constitutional damages to the frame may be traced-although a bad atmosphere will of course largely complicate the result.

Where the work is excessive, and beyond the physical powers, it retards puberty, shortens manhood, and brings on premature old age; and the instances are numerous of this exhausting labour in young children, who are too tired to do anything but sleep. One man remembers he has many a time dropt to sleep with the meat in his mouth.' Mothers say that their children come home so stiff and tired that they are obliged to lift them into bed'

'After they are turned forty-five or fifty they walk home from their work like cripples, stiffly the lowness of the gates induces a very bent stalking along, often leaning on sticks. Where

posture, I have observed an inward curvature of the spine; and chicken-breasted children are very common in low, thin coal-mines.'-(Report, p. 185.)

This decrepitude is common, however, to many other classes than miners: indeed any tribe of mechanics may be known by their forms as modified by their trade.

Diseases of the heart and lungs are rife among colliers-the former as the result of over-action, the latter from that and the vitiated and heated air of certain mines. In East Lothian, Dr. Alison says, pulmonary disease begins between the ages of twenty and thirty, and gradually increasing, carries off the collier, if he be spared by other disorders. 'Want of proper ventilation is the cause: no part requires more looking to than East Lothian. The men die off like rotten sheep.' (Report, p. 189.) Another pulmonary disease, almost peculiar to colliers, is 'black-spit,' or 'spurious melanosis.' The symptoms are, according to Dr. Alison, emaciation, constant shortness of breath, quick pulse, occasional stitches, copious expectoration, mostly perfectly black, of the colour and consistence of blacking, a hacking cough. It is never cured.' (p. 190.) It is said there are no consumptive nor red-faced (apoplectic ?) colliers. The cheap-worked mines are cer

tainly the graves of men. When they are well ventilated, on the other hand, it is remarkable that children who are ill above ground recover in the equable warmth below the half-starved cotton spinner, driven thither by his necessities, often emerges with gain of health and flesh.

All these varied circumstances and modified results must be candidly considered. As we said at the outset, there are great evils and dangers in many other callings, which might perhaps, if reported on by a set of gentlemen, however honest and sincere, appear actually crammed with mere misery and oppression, yet which are not de facto inconsistent with a fair average of well-being. Many trades, and professions too, are undoubtedly unfavourable to length of days. The colliers are not cut off nearly so soon as some other classes-yet they, generally speaking, are a short-lived people. At forty they are incapable of work in Shropshire and Staffordshire- are regular old men, as much as some at eighty;' at fifty in Warwickshire. In Derbyshire the collier is aged at forty; and the loader, being twenty-eight and thirty. (p. 192.) And so is it wherever we track them. As a race, they may be said to be extinct at fifty-five. There are only half as many old men above seventy among colliers as among agriculturists; and twice as many deaths by accidents. Yet, with all this, the collier is fond of his colliery, preferring it to every other calling; and, if he quits his mine for a time, speedily returns to it. The spirit of adventure, and rough enjoyment, and independence, makes him gamble with life.

more sober set of workmen are not to be found in Scotland.'-App. I., p. 497. Another witness says:—

With respect to the moral condition of the they were twenty years ago: formerly their colliers I can affirm they are much better than food and clothing were of the commonest de scription, but now a collier's family, if careful, eat of the best and most wholesome food, and have the clothing of the first-rate merchant of twenty years ago.'

of the em

It is particularly satisfactory to quote such examples from Scotland, where certainly they were and are most needed: but we are bound to say that the settlement of the legislative question as to mines and miners must be infinitely more difficult as any other regards that than part pire. The evils of the want of a libera. and uniform Poor Law for Scotland are be coming every day more and more terrible; and till that gigantic mischief is remediea, it will avail little to attempt regulations as to particular classes of the lower popula tion there.

To return to England-let us hear one of the ablest of these Sub-commissioners:

beset the mental and moral progress of the The worst of all the many adversities which working classes, is the indifference towards them of the higher orders of society. It is a fearful thing to see how exempt the employers of labour often hold themselves from moral obliga tions of every description towards those from whose industry their own fortunes spring. Even they who contribute at all to the education We cannot conclude without one or two in nineteen cases out of twenty, merely by or moral improvement of their workmen do so, examples more of the good that may be money, and without personal pains and superdone by the proprietor, where he seriously intendence of their own.'-Mr. Symons, App. I., turns his thoughts to the condition of his miners. And, first, look at the collier population of Alloa, amounting to 1100, as affected by the kind exertions of their landlord, the late Earl of Mar. He gaye them the means of education, improved their cottages, encouraged gardening, prohibited the wives working in the mines; and so,' says Mr. John Craich, raised their character in a wonderful degree.' The provident society of the Alloa Colliery has at present 12007. in the bauk!

The present Earl of Elgin had for many years before his father's death the management of the property in Scotland; and under his eye an improved system appears to have been established in the collieries. James Grier, manager, says that twentyfive years ago few persons thought themselves safe near the spot after dark; now a

p.

201.

How the reverse of such a feeling has operated the following account will prove: Mrs. Stansfield, of Flockton, and her family, large proprietors both of mines and land, erected a room 56 feet long as a Sunday-school, and covered its walls with maps and pictures, and placed a piano in it. At nine on each Sunday morning a bell heard in the neighbouring village summons about sixty-four children, who prepare, by prayer and psalmody, for reading catechisms and hearing Scripture: after these preliminaries they are taken to the church, about half-a-mile off; and a similar exercise is repeated in the evening. Tickets, bearing a value of 1d. or 2d. a dozen, are given for attendance at school and chapel; and four of these can be obtained

each Sunday. From these funds all the girls but the youngest purchase their bible, prayer, and hymn-books.

The first Sunday in August an examination takes place, to which the parents are invited it is termed the feast of August, and is anticipated by all with delight.

swelled into 'a multitude of colliers,' with their families, who attended the concert as well as the games, remaining the whole evening, and declaring, at its close, 'This beats cock-fighting!'

We think we shall please many by giving one extract more from the historian of Fossil Fuel.' It may be surmised, from something already quoted, that this able writer himself began life in the pit; but, if so, we have it not in our power to add his name to a list which it would by no means discredit.

From the elder girls of the school eight are selected; who, on each Wednesday, are joined by twenty young men and lads, and are formed into a singing class. Some have attained great proficiency: Mr. Symons says that, at a concert given by Mr. Miles Stansfield, he saw Sarah Wood and 'The Cornish miners have often been referred seven other girls, who had spent the whole to as being a remarkably observant and intelliday in toilsome labour in the mine, per-gent race of men: combining, as they commonly forming some of the most difficult pieces of do, each in his own person, the labourer, the Spohr's Last Judgment, and Haydn's adventurer, and the merchant, they have acMasses, with zest and skill. They had quired a degree of shrewdness and industry that been practised only a few months, once or could not fail to be noted, especially by strangers twice-a-week, and they sang that most chro- with whom they came into contact. The colliers, on the other hand, whether less knowing matic oratorio admirably, with some of the or not, have been, in this respect at least, less first chorus-singers in Yorkshire.' known: they have almost uniformly been the servants of capitalists between whom and the actual labourers there have existed several gradations of rank-so to speak-the duties of the uppermost of which, however, bear very lightly, if at all, on the real independence of the lowest -the latter, indeed, frequently rising meritoriously from the bottom to the top of the scale. Many honourable instances of this might be mentioned. It is no proof of the general intelligence of any body of operatives that men of talent have occasionally risen from among them to distinguished stations in society; but it is natural to associate the ultimate fame or notoriety of an individual with his original calling, and this without the least disparagement or disrespect. It is on this principle that one feels a certain description of interest in knowing that the late celebrated Doctor Hutton was origianally a hewer employed in Old Long Benton Colliery; that Mr. Stephenson, the intelligent engineer of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, was originally a coal-miner; that the late Rev, W. Huntingdon, an eccentric but talented and even that the late "king of the conjurors, preacher in the metropolis, was a coal-heaver; as the ingenious Ingleby was called, was a pitman, who first practised sleight of hand among his companions on the banks of the Tyne. Thomas Bewick too, "the celebrated xylographer and illustrator of nature," may be mentioned as another instance. His father was a collier in

Mr. Briggs, the partner of Mrs, Stansfield, and Mr. Miles Stansfield, her son, have, in addition to these means of mental culture for the children, opened a gymnasium and cricketground for the men. Twice a-week they are admitted by means of tickets; and the scene presented by the commingling of all ages and both sexes for the purposes of recreation strongly corroborated the impression I had formed of the good-heartedness (in spite of the ignorance) of the collier population. Nor is the kindly and grateful feeling which exists on the part of the workpeople of Messrs. Stansfield and Briggs to wards their employers by any means confined to the playground:-it exists most warmly throughout the village.'-Ibid., p. 203.

A slight trait, incidentally placed in foot-note, will perhaps bring the whole scene more vividly before the reader than the description by Mr. Symons of the contention for prizes-these Titans, in the various games of bell-race, jumping in sacks, throwing weights, running, leaping over poles, &c. An individual of great strength is appointed to act as constable, whose office is to enforce the laws, to turn out strangers entering without tickets, or any members misconducting themselves, and to close up the ground at night.'

A further experiment was made on these sons of earth-an attempt to entice them, through music, from their ordinary haunt of the public-house, and its potent attractions of strong drink and fierce gambling. At first twenty only appeared, and these in their shirt-sleeves.' The concert riveted their attention, and they became quiet and expressed great delight.' At the feast of August,' 1841, the twenty had

the neighbourhood of Hexham; and Thomas with his brothers, one of whom died after giving promise of high excellency in the beautiful art of wood-engraving, was early immured in that subterranean, laborious, and loathsome employment.-"I have heard him say," remarks his friend Mr. Dovaston, that the remotest recollection of his powerful and tenacious memory was that of lying for hours on his side between candle, plying the pick with his little handsdismal strata of coal, by a glimmering and dirty those hands afterwards destined to elevate the arts, illustrate nature, and promulgate her truths,