of an eye; nevertheless, one Commis- row ways meet, and where the coals are

transferred to the 'rolley,' or horse-carriage, to be ultimately delivered at the shaft by means of the quadruped, instead of the biped who had hitherto brought them from the hewer. The child takes his place on one of the barrow-ways, in a small hole scooped out for him of the size of a chim. ney-nook: his duty is to sit by the side of the door or trap,' which closes the way, and to open it the moment he hears the putter running up his tub: for twelve hours he squats down with the door-string in his

Let us now obtain a general idea of the miner at his work, as represented by several of the Sub-commissioners. The coalviewer is the chief man of the colliery: as his duties consist in planning and conduct-hand, without light, and without daring to ing the great operations of the mine, he is supposed to be a person of great talents and acquirements as an engineer; and therefore entitled to the distinguished position he holds in society. The under-viewer has to settle and superintend the accounts of the work-people.

move from the spot. He sits solitary, and has no one to talk to him, for in the pit the whole of the people, men and boys, are as busy as in a sea-fight.' His father may have given him for the first week or two a candle, but the boy's daily wages of tenpence is soon not thought enough to spare

The overmen and deputy-overmen may three-half-pence for light. He may take be said to be the mining police-watchers to his coffee-bottle and bread, but should he over the due discharge of the work and the fall asleep, a smart cut with the 'yard-wand' safety of the mine. The overman has from a deputy-overman never fails to rouse risen from the lowest stations of his craft, him-a mild punishment as compared by talent and conduct, to his present situa- with that which the putter would have intion, yielding perhaps 100l. a year. His is flicted had he found the door closed, and the general superintendence of the pit, his tram stopped: I got my hammers while the deputy-overmen, his lieutenants, twice,' means, I was twice so beaten. (App. see that his orders are carried into effect; I., p. 583.) Thus the young creature soon the latter measure off the quantity of work learns practically that on him depend the to each hewer to the putter,' or lad who lives of the whole community; on the closremoves what has been hewed, they assigning of the door the ventilation of the mine the number of 'tubs,' to be taken from this or that hewer; they make out the accounts of the work of men and boys, and pay on reckoning days; they are distributed over various parts of the mine during the working hour for the purpose of ordering and controlling. It is their duty when the main body of workmen have left the mine after their day's work, to see that all is right in the pit; to move the proppings and timbers, so as to ensure safety from falling in of the roof, &c., &c. At one o'clock in the morning the overman himself goes down to ascertain that the deputies have done their duty, and that the state of the noxious gas is safe.

The trapper, a child of eight years of age, awakened by his mother at half-past two A. M., puts on his clothes by the everblazing fire of a collier's cottage, fills his tin bottle with coffee, and starts with a lump of bread for the pit :-he is let down the shaft, and walking in the bowels of the earth for more than a mile along the horseway, he reaches the barrow-way, used by the young men and boys who push their trams with the tubs on rails to the flats-a debateable land, where the horse and bar

hinges. At four o'clock a cry of 'loose, loose!' is shouted down the shaft, and carried on by signal voices for many miles' through the roads and passages to the very extremity of the mine. The trapper hears it, but must wait until the last putter has passed with his tram, and then he pursues his journey to the foot of the shaft, waits his turn for ascent, and returning to his father's cottage, finds a dinner of potatoes and bacon, a large fire, and, it is hoped, a quiet home; he is then thoroughly washed in hot water and put to bed. He avoids a game with his coevals, lest he should fall asleep the next day at his trap. The Scturday afterpay-Friday' is a holiday at the pit, which is spent by him in sleep till nine, and then in picking up horse-manure on the high-ways for his father's garden. Sunday is, in many places at least, devoted to his school, and to his church, to his walk with his playmates, and to his 'good dinner,' and his bed; and then comes Monday and the pit. After a few years he is promoted honoris causâ, from the barrow to the horse-way, where he now keeps the trap-but without additional pay. The doors on the rolley-way being heavier, re

quire an increase of strength, supplied to him by increase of years. He is now more out of the way of the yard wand;' instead of which, any laxity or sleepiness is visited by a slash from the driver's thong-or, in the event of remonstrance or impertinence,

a blow from his fist.

this to the 'flats,' or junction between the horse and barrow ways; and this is accomplished by his pushing forward, flinging himself into an elongated and stooping posture-both for the sake of the purchase and power he thereby gains, and to get through these galleries of three or four feet high In the course of time the trapper be- without scalping himself: sometimes he comes himself a driver. He now descends pushes with his head-which he first pads the shaft at four A. M., and finds his horse by stuffing his loggers,' or footless stockready caparisoned for him by the horse-ings, into his cap. Every tub is marked keeper; so that he has only to hook him to down by the young man at the flats; and the carriage or rolley, and to attach two his rank and his profit urge his exertions: similar machines to the first; rejoicing in he has no time to eat. The hewer has had his horse, his carriage, his whip, and, most two hours' start of him, and is away early, of all, in the candle by his side,' he starts leaving him alone to fill his own tub and do to the termination of the horseway, where his own work: in his absence he holds the he is to receive loaded tubs from the 'put- first rank among the workers in the mine. ter:' these he mounts on his 'rolleys,' and, | At last the signal is given, and 'Loose, thus charged, he delivers them at the shaft: should he meet an empty train the driver must give way to him; or should he find a sleeping trapper, he luxuriates in his newborn power. (App. I., p. 131.) So is his first journey made; but before the day's work is over he will have thus traversed about 30 miles of ground, sitting on the limber of his rolley.

The driver in time becomes a 'putter,' a signal promotion in every way-his position in honour and emolument being greatly enhanced-his salary depending on his exertions, and his rank next to that of the hewer. He arrives with the drivers and trappers, at the same early hour in the morning, and takes his tram, or small fourwheeled sledge, on which he places the empty tub, and proceeds to the spot indicated by the deputy-overman, where a 'hewer,' who has already been working two hours, has collected a heap of coal. By his help the tub is soon filled with six cwt. -the whole weight of carriage and all now being eight cwt., he has to 'hurry' or 'put'

loose!' being heard, the putter walks to the shaft, waits his turn, may have a word or two with the onsetter,' who loads the cage' or 'basket' for ascent, and soon finds himself at home, washed to the waist, and seated before his plentiful meal of potatoes and bacon. The exertions he has made secure speedy sleep, from which he is roused only by the 'callman's' rap at his window, to begin the duties of another day. His wages depend on the distance he goes and the number of tubs he brings. If the tram be 90 yards-as ascertained by the deputy-overman's ' yard wand '-to and fro is one journey. When he performs this twenty-one times he scores 16d., having traversed 2 miles and 260 yards. If the putter is not equal to the tram he has an assistant or half-marrow; if he needs less aid he takes a foal,' or small boy, as helper, and the wages are proportionably divided. In some districts there is an abstract sort of a miner, who is portioned into eight parts, (p. 157) thus;

The kewer or holer is generally twenty-one the blow they strike with their 'pick:' to years of age or upwards. He goes to the pit bring down the harder mass they use gunat two in the morning, having breakfasted, powder and a drill. When he has worked and learns from the deputy-overman what about two hours the 'putters' come to clear is to be done. He strips to the waist in away the coal: he must be careful that the some mines, but in others, even where wo-tub is full measure, or he forfeits it; also men and girls are employed, he works quite that there is nothing but coal in it, or he is naked. Some 'undergo,' that is, begin ex- fined; finally, he appends an iron ticket to cavating, by squatting on their hams: while each tram, that his work may be put to his in other places they lie on their backs or credit. He has usually done his day's work sides, and fling in their whole weight into by eleven; and he has to find his powder

his picks, and his candles, so that, with these expenses and his fines, he earns about 501. a year (in the Durham Districts.)

with its matin or its even song, the miner as he emerges from or descends into his perilous place of labour; but our Protestant system has ever been defective in its machinery, as well as curtailed in its resources; and, moreover, the upper classes of Englishmen, speaking generally, have scarcely yet learnt to be the companions of the poorer orders of society, however meritorious their claims as distributors of charity. These reports prove that the Wesleyan has followed them in every village, and gone from cottage to cottage, to leave in person his tracts and his discipline. Hence the English colliers, where they have any religion at all, are Methodists.

The collier generally has a love for some gaudy furniture, which is,' as Mr. Scriven remarks, ill-assorted to the rest of his gear.'

Besides these chief inhabitants of the mines there are masons, and carpenters, and furnace-men; in a word, this subterraneous world must be as complete in itself as a ship-of-war. A father with his three sons can earn 27. 10s. a-week; his own labour as hewer will average 23s.; the putter will earn 20s. ; the rolley driver 7s, and the trapper 5s.: besides which he has a certain quantity of coals brought to his door, and the rent of his cottage is trifling. We have seen how rapidly a collier village springs up, and, according to one commissioner, how speedily the houses of the neighbouring gentry become untenanted; but another (Dr. Mitchell) thinks the tall chimneys of the coal-works enhance the beauties of the plains of Warwickshire; and certainly no one who has once wit nessed the glowing furnaces, as seen in the depths of night, will easily forget the sight. The village community consists of colliers, venders of beer, and small dealers exclu--Dr. Mitchell, p. 137. sively. The cottages are whitewashed and plastered, and the roof slated. The degree of neatness within is of course dependent on the individual; but there are abundant descriptions which bear testimony to the virtue of cleanliness, towards which the large coal-fire and hot water are great helps. These villages are of course run up at a minimum of expense by the landlord, and therefore are seldom picturesque. Even in an agricultural district a collier's cottage may be readily known by a heap of rubbish and filth without, and a fierce bulldog within doors.

In such a village Dr. Mitchell enumerates a population of 5000 souls, with thirty beer-shops, but without a church or chapel, save the meeting-house of the indefatigable Wesleyan, who, let it be noted, has hitherto been in many of these regions the only Protestant missionary.

In every house may be seen an eight-day clock, a chest of drawers with brass handles and ing; a four-post bed with large coverlet, comornaments, reaching from the floor to the ceilposed of squares of printed calico; bright saucepans, and other tin-ware, displayed on the walls.'

There are public ovens for common use in the village. The collier is often fond of his garden, which is an allotment in some neighbouring field. It is said that the love of flowers may still be remarked in the number of nosegays which are worn on Sundays even at Newcastle. The best garment is denominated 'the posy jacket,' from the huge posy which used to be held indispensable on gala-days.

At the village of South Hetton,' says Dr. Mitchell, ' a miner, with much pleasure, showed his little garden, and expatiated on the beauties of his flowers. Mr. Potter, the viewer, stated that at the prize-shows the miner often competed successfully with the gentlemen's gardeners.'-p. 137.

This is a pleasing feature-but those of a worse sort predominate in the portrait drawn by the commissioners. According to these gentlemen, the colliers are, as a class, rude, given to drunkenness and gambling, turbulent, quite illiterate, and not seldom sunk in the depths of ignorance of all save their mine.

In the West Riding (Report, p. 163) the family breakfast is bread, milk, or porridge; the luncheon, huge lumps of bread, and often bits of cheese or bacon, in the < There is a Scotch dealer in Birmingham, who pit; a hot meal when they come home at

five or six ; and often porridge, or bread and, his well-starched shirt-collar and his 'rufmilk again, at supper.'

In Ireland their appearance was very healthy they said they worked hard, and must live well; they used bread instead of potatoes; had meat twice or thrice a week; changed their clothes once a week; and the commissioner 'fancies' that they wash-medical attendant of the Lambton colliered once a week.-Report, p. 173.