Thomas Wigham, St. Laurence Colliery:

"Was down this pit when, his mother said, he was between five and six years old, a wee thing of a boy." (Ibid. No. 268; p. 623, 1. 22.)

James Smeatim, aged seventeen, putter:

"Knows one boy, about five and a half years old, and very little, down the pit; his name is William Fraser." (Ibid. No. 429; p. 653, 1, 10.)

Mr. George Elliott, aged twenty-seven, Monkwearmouth Colliery :

"Is the head viewer here and at Washington and Belmont Collieries; is very much pressed and entreated by parents to take children at a very early age, from six years and upwards. Has known boys of five years of age in some pits. Could give two names and instances of boys of five years of age being employed in pits in the county of Durham. One Robert Pattison, now employed down this pit, is now six years of age, and has been down four months. His father, who was not well off, earnestly requested that he might be taken, but the viewer did not know his age till yesterday, neither does the boy know his own age." (Ibid. No. 367; p. 643. 11. 33, 45.)

To the honour of Ireland it must be stated, that no young children appear to be employed in underground work, excepting some in the small collieries of Dunnglass and Coal Island, in the county of Tyrone.

It would have been of some value as well as curiosity could we have obtained a tolerable idea of the comparative number of adults and children working in the coal-mines of the United Kingdom. But the returns will not, for the reasons already stated, give us this information. The commissioners have, in their report, done something towards this, as far as their materials furnished them with data, by constructing four tables, comprising some of the coal-fields of England, east of Scotland, west of Scotland, and South Wales; that is, those fields from which a sufficient number of returns have been made to justify the conclusion that they afford a near approximation to the truth. From these tables, which, it is to be borne in mind, do not shew the actual number of persons employed, but only the proportion which each class and sex bears to the whole number of the work-people employed underground, the following conclusions are drawn:

1. That in England, in three out of six districts-namely, in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Northumberland and North Durham, the proportion of young persons to adults is about one-third; and in other three districts— namely, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, and South Durham, it is two-sevenths. 2. That in one district of Scotland-i.e., East-Lothian, the proportion of young persons to adults is nearly one-half, and that in the other districts it varies from one-third to two-fifths; while the proportion of children to young persons in all the districts, excepting Mid-Lothian and East-Lothian, is one-third and upwards.

3. That in the west of Scotland, the proportion of young persons to adults is under one-fourth, and that the proportion of children to young persons is under one-third.

4. That in one of the districts of South Wales, Pembrokeshire, the proportion of young persons to adults is two-fifths; and in the two other districts, Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire, it is nearly one-third; while in all these districts the proportion of children to young persons is much more than one-third.

But how much soever the employment of young male children in this severe description of labour is to be deprecated, the practice which prevails in many districts of subjecting young children of the female sex to it is still more reprehensible. It prevails, however, in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and some parts of Wales.

In many of the collieries in the West Riding of Yorkshire, as far as relates to the underground employment, there is no distinction of sex, but

the labour is distributed indifferently among both sexes, excepting that it is comparatively rare for the women to hew or get the coals, although there are numerous instances in which they regularly perform even this work.

In great numbers of the coal-pits in this district the men work in a state of perfect nakedness, and are in this state assisted in their labour by females of all ages, from girls of six years old to women of twenty-one, these females being themselves quite naked down to the waist.

"Girls," says the Sub-Commissioner, "regularly perform all the various offices of trapping, hurrying, filling, riddling, tipping, and occasionally getting, just as they are performed by boys. One of the most disgusting sights I have ever seen was that of young females, dressed like boys in trousers, crawling on all fours, with belts round their waists and chains passing between their legs, at day pits at Hunshelf Bank, and in many small pits near Holmfrith and New Mills. It exists also in several other places. I visited the Hunshelf Colliery on the 18th of January: it is a day pit; that is, there is no shaft or descent; the gate, or entrance, is at the side of a bank, and nearly horizontal. The gate was not more than a yard high, and in some places not above two feet. When I arrived at the board or workings of the pit, I found at one of the side-boards down a narrow passage a girl of fourteen years of age, in boy's clothes, picking down the coal with the regular pick used by the men. She was half sitting half lying at her work, and said she found it tired her very much, and of course she didn't like it.' The place where she was at work was not two feet high. Further on were men at work, lying on their sides and getting. No less than six girls, out of eighteen men and children, are employed in this pit. Whilst I was in the pit, the Rev. Mr. Bruce, of Wadsley, and the Rev. Mr. Nelson, of Rotherham, who accompanied me, and remained outside, saw another girl of ten years of age, also dressed in boy's clothes, who was employed in hurrying, and these gentlemen saw her at work. She was a nice-looking little child, but of course as black as a tinker, and with a little necklace round her throat. In two other pits, in the Huddersfield Union, I have seen the same sight. In one, near New Mills, the chain, passing high up between the legs of two of these girls, had worn large holes in their trousers; and any sight more disgustingly indecent or revolting can scarcely be imagined than these girls at work; no brothel can beat it. On descending Messrs. Hopwood's pit, at Barnsley, I found assembled round the fire a group of men, boys, and girls, some of whom were of the age of puberty, the girls as well as the boys stark naked down to the waist, their hair bound up with a tight cap, and trousers supported by their hips. (At Silkstone and at Flockton they work in their shifts and trousers.) Their sex was recognisable only by their breasts, and some little difficulty occasionally arose in pointing out to me which were girls and which were boys, and which caused a good deal of laughing and joking. In the Flockton and Thornhill pits the system is even more indecent; for though the girls are clothed, at least three-fourths of the men for whom they hurry' work stark naked, or with a flannel waistcoat only, and in this state they assist one another to fill the corves eighteen or twenty times a-day. I have seen this done myself frequently." (J. C. Symons, Esq., Report, § 111, et seq. App., Pt. I., pp. 181, 182.)

Evidence to the same effect is given by all classes of witnesses in this district:

Thomas Dunn, Esq., of the firm of Hounsfield, Wilson, Dunn, and Jeffcock, chief "Girls are worked naked down to their waist, the same as men." manager, says, (J. C. Symons, Esq., Evidence, App., Pt. I., p. 226, 1. 9.)—Mr. Thomas Peace, of the firm of Webster and Peace, Hunshelf Bank Coal-Works, says-" There are as many girls as boys emyloyed about here." (Ibid. p. 233, 1. 20.)—Mr. Charles Locke, coal-master and agent at Snafethorpe, near Wakefield!" Girls make better hurries than boys; the boys are often stripped all but a shirt." (Ibid., p. 279, 1. 40.)—John Thorneley, Esq., one of her Ma. jesty's justices of the peace for the county of York: "The system of having females to work in coal-pits prevails generally in this neighbourhood." (Ibid., p. 246, 1. 44.)—William Bowden, underground steward to Messrs. Hounsfield, Dunn, and Co., at the Soaphouse Colliery, Sheffield: "In Silkstone pits, believes women and girls work dressed as men, and often naked down to the waist, just the same as men and boys. Decency is disregarded." (Ibid., p. 227, 1. 16.)—Mr. William Hopwood, agent of Barnsley New Colliery: "In most of the pits round Barnsley, girls are employed in trapping and in hurrying; they do the same work as the boys." (Ibid., p. 243, l. 17.)—Martin Gomersal, underground steward at Barnsley Colliery: "It is common for girls to hurry in this neighbourhood. I never saw a woman get here, but I have at Silkstone. I have seen two women work like men there." (Ibid., p. 247, 1. 29.)—William Pickard, general steward to

Sir John Lister Lister Kaye's Collieries: "I have known a married woman hurrying for a man who worked stark naked, and not any kin to her." (Ibid., p. 289, 1. 59.)

Edward Newman, Esq., solicitor: "I have been an inhabitant of Barnsley for eighteen years, and been in the constant habit of seeing the colliers and children passing to and from their work. At Silkstone there are a great many girls who work in the pits, and I have seen them washing themselves naked much below the waist as I passed their doors, and whilst they are doing this they will be talking and chatting with any men who happen to be there with the utmost unconcern; and men, young and old, would be washing in the same place at the same time. They dress so well after their work, and on Sundays, that it is impossible to recognise them. They wear earrings even whilst they work, and I have seen them with them nearly two inches long. There is a great deal of slang and loud talk between the lads and girls as they pass along the streets; and I conceive that they would behave far more decorously were it not for the dress and the disguise it affords. I have never heard similar language pass between men and girls respectably dressed in Barnsley. Their dress, when they come out of the pit, is a kind of scull-cap, which hides all the hair, trousers without stockings, and thick wooden clogs; their waists are covered." (Ibid., p. 250, 1. 25.)—Mr. Crooks, surgeon, Barnsley: "Girls are employed in the pits as well as boys; and when they have a little relaxation all congregate together, and no one in particular to overlook them." (Ibid., p. 267, 1. 46.)

William Frood, collier: "Some of the men work quite naked, but very few; most work like me, with a flannel shirt and nothing else on." (Ibid., p. 276, 1. 16.)-Anne Hague, turned of thirteen: "Sarah Monhouse, 'gets' as well as hurries; she gets and hurries eight corves a-day." (Ibid., p. 234, 1. 23.)—Rebecca Hough, aged fourteen, examined whilst getting in the same pit: "I am a regular hurrier; I am used to help the getter. I often do it three or four times a-week. I help to fill and riddle, and then I hurry the corves down to the Bull-stake. I find the hurrying the hardest work. It is because I don't do much at getting that it tires me less." (Ibid., p. 257, l. 49.)—Margaret Westwood, aged fourteen and a half, examined whilst hurrying and eating in Messrs. Stansfield and Brigg's Emryod Pit, Flockton: "I hurry for Charles Littlewood. I am let to him. He is no kin to me; he works stark naked; he has no waistcoat on, nor nothing." (Ibid., p. 276, 1. 25.)-Mary Holmes, aged fourteen and a half, Meal Hill, Hepworth: "I always hurry as you saw me, with a belt round my waist and the chain through my legs. I hurry so in the board-gates. I always wear lad's clothes. The trousers don't get torn at all." (Ibid., p. 295, 1. 22.)-Ebenezer Healey, aged thirteen: "There are girls that hurry in the same way, with belt and chain. Our breeches are often torn between the legs with the chain. The girls' breeches are torn as often as ours; they are torn many a time, and when they are going along we can see them all between the legs naked; I have often; and that girl, Mary Holmes, was so to-day; she denies it, but it true for all that." (Ibid., p. 295, 1. 41.)

To the general correctness of these statements the sub-commissioners themselves bear testimony; for in the coal-pits examined by them, both at Barnsley and at Flockton, they saw many girls performing precisely the same work as the boys, the girls dressed in the manner described, and some of them as old as fifteen or eighteen assisting, and often brought by their work into personal contact with men perfectly naked.

It is stated by the sub-commissioner, that "it is not the custom of the Bradford and Leeds district to employ female children in mining operations;" yet it appears, from the evidence of Mr. Thomas Mackley, surgeon, Wilsden, four miles from Bradford, that there are "coal-mines lying rather apart from the general coal and iron mines of the Bradford district, in which girls are employed, and that in these pits the men work perfectly naked." (App. Pt. II., p. h 28, II. 3, 12.) It appears also, from the evidence of William Green, colliery steward of the Low-Moor Iron-Works, that some girls are employed in the pits even there ::- "Not generally; some few; never many in this country; more formerly than now, but it never was common in this country to employ girls." (App., Pt. II., p. h 5, 1. 60.)

In the neighbourhood of Halifax, girls from five years old and upwards regularly perform the same work as boys. It is stated by the sub-commissioner, that there is no distinction whatever between the boys and girls in their coming up the shaft and going down; in their mode of hurrying or

thrusting; in the weights of corves; in the distance they are hurried; in wages or dress; that the girls, associate and labour with men who are in a state of nakedness, and that they have themselves no other garment than a ragged shift, or, in the absence of that, a pair of broken trousers to cover their persons.

man,

I

Susan Pitchforth, aged eleven, Elland: "I have worked in this pit going two years. have one sister going of fourteen, and she works with me in the pit. I am a thruster." (S. S. Scriven, Esq., Evidence, App. Pt. II., p. 103, 1. 60; p. 104, 1. 2. )—“ This child,” says the sub-commissioner, stood shivering before me from cold. The rags that hung about her waist were once called a shift, which was as black as the coal she thrust, and saturated with water-the drippings of the roof and shaft. During my examination of her, the bankswhom I had left in the pit, came to the public-house and wanted to take her away, because, as he expressed himself, it was not decent that she should be exposed to us.” (Ibid., p. 104, 1. 8.)-Patience Kershaw, aged seventeen: "I hurry in the clothes I have now got on-trousers and ragged jacket; the bald place upon my head is made by thrusting the corves; the getters that I work for are naked except their caps; they pull off all their clothes; all the men are naked.” (Ibid., No. 26; p. 108, 1. 8.)-Mary Barrett, aged fourteen: "I work always without stockings, or shoes, or trousers; I wear nothing but my shift; I have to go up to the headings with the men; they are all naked there; I am got well used to that, and don't care now much about it; I was afraid at first, and did not like it." (Ibid., p. 122, I. 54.)

In the greater portion of the Lancashire coal-fields it is the general custom for girls and women to be employed in the ordinary work of the mines; and an unusually large proportion appear to be so employed in the mines about Wigan, Blackrod, Worsley, Hulton, Clifton, Outwood, Bolton, Lure, St. Helen's, and Prescot.

Henry Eaton, Ringley Bridge, Bolton, surveyor of coal-mines: "I have been sixteen years and upwards connected with coal-mines, and I have been in almost all the pits in the neighbourhood of Bolton, Bury, Ratcliff, Lure, and Rochdale. There are women in all the pits in those neighbourhoods. I cannot say in which pits there are the most employed; they are employed in all; they are used as drawers." (J. L. Kennedy, Esq., Evidence, App. Pt. II.. p. 208, 1. 56.) | John Millington, superintendent of the collieries of Mr. Ashton, at Hyde: "They [the women whilst at work] wear a pair of drawers which come down nearly to the knees, and some women a small handkerchief about their necks; but I have seen many a one with her breasts hanging out. The girls are not a bit ashamed amongst their own pit set; it is the same as if they were one family." (Ibid., p. 202, 1. 26.)

Throughout the whole of the district examined by A. Austin, Esq., North Lancashire, girls and women are regularly employed in the underground work of the coal-mines, just as boys and men. (App. Pt. II., p. 788, et passim.)

In Scotland, the employment of girls and women in the ordinary underground work of the coal-pits is even more extensive than in any part of England; but this practice is confined chiefly to the collieries in the east of Scotland. Of the employment of girls and women in the coal-mines in the east of Scotland, Mr. Franks says—

"It will now become a more painful duty to give a particular description of the employment of children and young persons in those departments in which their labour is used, and in which females are, equally with males, employed at very tender years. The coal-bearers are women and children employed to carry coal on their backs in unrailed roads, with burdens varying from & cwt. to 3 cwt. It is revolting to humanity to reflect upon the barbarous and cruel slavery which this degrading labour constitutes-a labour which happily has long since been abolished in England, and in the greater part of Scotland, and, I believe, is only to be found in the Lothians, the remnant of the slavery of a degraded age.” (App., Pt. I., p. 383.)

The preceding evidence shews how much the sub-commissioner is mistaken in supposing that the employment of women in this kind of labour is peculiar to Scotland and to the Lothians, and that the practice does not prevail in England...

Mr. Symons says, "Under no conceivable circumstances is any one sort of employment in collieries proper for females. The practice is flagrantly disgraceful to a Christian as well as to a civilized country. From the guarded evidence of Mr. Clarke, who states that it is not suitable work for girls,' to the indignant resolution of the collected body of the colliers themselves, that it is a 'scandalous practice,' I found scarcely an exception to the general reprobation of this revolting abomination." (App. Pt. I., pp. 182, 196.) And Mr. Franks states, that the employment of females in the mines of his district is universally conceived to be so degrading that all other classes of operatives refuse intermarriage with the daughters of colliers who are wrought in the pits; that it is a labour totally disproportioned to the female strength and sex; that it is altogether unnecessary; and that it is wholly inconsistent with the proper discharge of the maternal duties, and with the decent proprieties of domestic life. From the evidence he has collected, it appears that in the cases in which the proprietors of coal-mines have excluded females from their pits, a rapid and great improvement has taken place in the condition of the collier families, and that the measure, however reluctantly submitted to in the first instance, has given entire satisfaction to all classes.

In the course of the extracts we have given, sufficient will have appeared to justify such a determination as that formed by the other classes of operatives in the east of Scotland, not to intermarry with the females employed in mining-works. Let us, however, refer somewhat more particularly to the circumstances of degradation and immorality in which females thus working are placed, even at the hazard of some repetition.

Emily Margaret Patterson, aged 15, working in Messrs. Stansfield and Briggs', Low Bottom Pit, Flockton, Yorkshire, says―

"I wear my petticoat and shift when I hurry. I hurry for my cousin, He wears a flannel riglet, or waistcoat, and nought else." (App. I., p. 280.)

Betty Harris, aged 37, drawer at Mr. Knowles's, Little Bolton, says—

"There are six women and six boys and girls in the pit I worked in. It is very hard work for a woman. The pit is very wet where I work, and the water comes over our clogtops always, and I have seen it up to my thighs. It rains in at the roof terribly; my clothes are wet through almost all day long. I never was ill in my life but when I was lying-in. My cousin looks after my children in the day-time. I am very tired when I get home at night; I fall asleep sometimes before I get washed. I am not so strong as I was, and cannot stand my work so well as I used to do. I have drawn till I have had the skin off me; the belt and chain is worse when we are in the family way. My feller [husband] has beaten me many a time for not being ready. I were not used to it at first, and he had little patience. I have known many a man beat his drawer." (Ibid., p. 230.)

Mary Glover, aged thirty-eight, at Messrs. Foster's, Ringley-bridge:

"I went into a coal-pit when I was seven years old, and began by being a drawer. I never worked much in the pit when I was in the family way; but since I gave up having children I have begun again a bit. I wear a shift and a pair of trousers when at work. I always will have a good pair of trousers. I have had many a two-pence given me by the boatmen on the canal to shew my breeches. I never saw women work naked, but I have seen men work without breeches in the neighbourhood of Bolton, I remember seeing a man who worked stark naked." (Ibid., p. 214.)

They are nigh naked ; (Ibid., p. 224,)

William Cooper, aged seven years, thrutcher, at Almond's: "There are about twenty wenches, drawers, in the pit I work in. they wear trousers; they have no other clothes, except loose shifts.” Robert Hunt, underlooker to Messrs. Foster, Outwood: "It is quite true that women work in the pits when they are in the family way. My last wife worked in a pit from ten years old; and once she worked all day in the pits, and was put to bed at night. That woman you saw in the pit was in the family way, [alluding to a person I had seen in the pit.]

Betty Harris, drawer in a coal-pit, Little Bolton:

"I worked at drawing when I was in the family way. I know a woman who has gone