work 12 hours, and it took two hours in going and coming from it in the mine. These resolutions were carried unanimously, as well as one in favour of the miners then present at once joining the union.

Another large meeting was held on the 17th October, at Tantoby, near Tanfield. Around the district of Tantoby there were a great number of small collieries, each employing from 100 to 150 men, and the workmen from these pits were nearly all present. Mr. Milburn, of Gateshead, presided, and in opening the proceedings he said that though he was glad to see the miners once more united, he at the same time was sorry to see so many of them violating the rules they had drawn up for the guidance of the society, in coming out on strike. Mr. Crawford also spoke. He said the question before them was one of great importance not only to the present generation, but also to rising generations. It was likewise a question of great magnitude, its ramifications extending as it was likely to do throughout the whole of the British Empire. There were evils to redress, wrongs to put right, and in trying to grapple with the question in all its details, great caution and forbearance would have to be observed. And it rested with themselves whether they would be free, or continue in the position they were in. A resolution was unanimously carried pledging the constituents of the meeting to join the union, and abide by the rules of the society.

By means of such meetings a very considerable amount of good was done to the cause of unity, for there was scarce a village at which a meeting was held, in which a large number of members were not registered. The numerical strength of the union towards the end of the year was all that could be desired, but as it had just been called into existence that year there were no funds to fall back upon in case of a general dispute between the masters and the men occurring.

CHAPTER XL.

THE STRIKE AT WILLINGTON. CONDUCT OF MESSRS. STRAKER AND LOVE. EVICTION OF THE MEN. PUBLIC MEETINGS. OTHER STRIKES. FIRST CONFERENCE OF

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

In

Unhappily when everything was going on so prosperously in both counties, when unity was fast taking the place of discord and disunion, and when many thousands of men in the counties were binding themselves together in one solid phalanx an event occurred, which did much to wreck the union. This was none other than the unfortunate strike which occurred at Messrs. Straker and Love's collieries at Willington. There were other strikes in the county at the same time, but this one was the largest, and attracted the most attention. This dispute, which ultimately threw 1200 men out of employment, occurred owing to the system which prevailed of setting out the tubs. After the tubs were filled in-bye, and were packed as close as it was possible for them to be filled in the low places in which the men had to work, they often, from the jolting in going out, were shaken down, and appeared at the bank just filled to the brim. order to obviate any deficiency which must arise from this cause, and result in the tub being confiscated, the men had to resort to "rocking" their tubs, an arduous and excessively painful operation. The weighman received a commission upon every tub laid out by him, and naturally enough he was only too anxious to find out "light" tubs. Matters became so very bad—the miners losing from eight to ten tubs on an average per fortnight, that they could no longer submit to such injustice and illegal treatment. They accordingly asked to have every tub that came to bank weighed, and to be paid upon the weight of coals which they sent to bank, and not upon the number of tubs. They also demanded an advance equivalent to five per cent. on the score price. These terms Mr. Love, the acting partner, refused to comply with, though he agreed that the tubs should be weighed, that each should weigh 104 cwt., and if they did not exceed 10 cwt. they should be laid out.

Mr.

Love also expressed his determination not to employ again any of the men who had been connected with the proceedings he had taken at the Police Court against them. There were 6 of these "marked men" at Brandon, 12 at Oakenshaw, 4 at Sunnybrow, and 10 at Brancepeth. The number of miners belonging to the union at these collieries at the time of the strike were, Brandon 214, Oakenshaw 237, Brancepeth 518, and Sunnybrow 220. Twelve men were selected as ring-leaders, and warrants having been obtained for their apprehension they were taken from their houses in the dead hour of mid-night into custody, the crime of which they had been guilty being the terrible one of having refused to work. The people were naturally indignant at this treatment, as unnecessary as it was unjust and cruel, for a more befitting hour might easily have been selected as there was not one tittle of ground for believing that any opposition or resistance would have been offered. The men were brought before the magistrates, when Mr. Marshall, of Durham, appeared for the owners, and Mr. Bush, of Newcastle, for the men. The latter conducted the case with much ability and success. The strike began on the 16th of October, and on Tuesday, the 27th of the same month, notices were given to the men to quit their houses, some on the 28th, and some had till the 30th, allowed them to get out of the wretched hovels that were dignified in the notices with the names of houses. On Wednesday, the 28th of October, on a raw cold foggy morning a force of sixteen policemen and twenty-four men, gathered from the common lodging houses of Newcastle and Gateshead, were marched into the village of Sunnybrow at half-past seven o'clock. There were not many people astir at that time, but the news of the invasion having quickly spread through the village the men turned out to have a look at them. They had, however, been taken to a public-house where they were regaled with a substantial breakfast, and stimulated with drink in order to inspire them with Dutch courage for the task they were soon to perform. At nine o'clock the policemen and their gang of rowdies, who were called "candymen" by the pitmen and their wives, turned out in company with two young men representing the owners. These officials went into each house where notice had been given, and asked the head of

the family if he would return to work on the owners' terms. As in each case a negative answer was returned, they paid the money that was due, but which was refused in one or two instances and was left lying upon the table, and then they directed the constables and men to remove the men's furniture. It is needless to say with how much roughness the articles of furniture, which in many instances it had taken years to accumulate, were handled, for the great zeal and energy of policemen in general is too well known. But exceptionally rough and brutal were the policemen and "candymen" on this occasion, for they broke and splintered the various articles, and tumbled them into the colliery carts or into the road as the case may be, as if they were heaps of rubbish rather than the much prized chattels of their fellowcreatures. Ere the sun set on that foggy, damp raw day no less then 37 families had been turned adrift to sleep in the houses of their friends if they could, or beneath the inclement sky, with the cold wet ground beneath, and a chill wet mist dripping from the leaden clouds above. Tents and camps were hurriedly improvised in a field near, and so a boisterous night was passed, those who had to sleep in this manner rising in the morning wet and cramped. On Thursday the evicting party removed from Sunnybrow to Oakenshaw and there with the same brutal indifference to the feelings of the poor creatures around them, they emptied the houses in the same way as at Sunnybrow on the previous day, the result of their day's labour being that 38 married men, 37 wives— some of them about to become mothers-85 children and single women, and 59 single men who were working, making a total of 219 human creatures, were turned out of house and home to seek shelter from the pelting, merciless storm wherever they could. On Friday, the 30th of October, the process of eviction was stopped, although notice had been served on many of the men to leave their houses on that day. Saturday also passed off without any more men being put out of their houses, as did also Sunday the first day of November. Monday morning, however, was so foul that even Mr. Love had not the heart to order his myrmidons to turn more of these poor wretches out. An interview between Mr. Gott, an agent of Mr. Love's, and a deputation of the workmen took place on this day, and as

men.

the men contended that the tubs were not large enough to hold the quantity they were expected to fill into them it was proposed that six tubs should be filled on the pit heap and weighed, and an average. of the whole struck, but this Mr. Gott declined to have done. The men on being informed of the result of the interview resolved to remain firm on strike, whatever might be the consequence of such a step. To make matters worse the owners forbade the poor creatures they had turned out to seek for shelter wherever they could, or to encamp in any of the fields belonging to the colliery, and notices threatening dreadful consequences to trespassers were posted all over the neighbourhood One poor woman, more bold then her neighbours, ventured on to the wagon way to pick up a little coal to warm herself by in the bitter wintry weather, and no sooner was she seen by the police, ever on the alert at persecution, then she was pounced upon; and because she very naturally did her best to get away, she was shamefully ill-treated by those She was expecting every day to become a mother, but the zealous officers had no eyes to see such a condition, and (it must be written) no heart disposed to show mercy even if they had seen it. However, matters went on more or less peacefully till the 10th of November, when Mr. Love proposed that the tubs should be sent to bank unrocked, and that the men should be paid by weight at so much per ton, but that the price per ton should be fixed upon the same basis as the score price had been. This the men refused, and on the 17th of November, the candymen and policemen once more appeared in Sunnybrow and turned to the door all who still remained housed. The next day they went to Brancepeth and did the same, and on the following day the villagers at Oakenshaw were turned adrift. At Brancepeth some of the women got rather noisy, and the men unable to bear any longer the many indignities to which they were subjected grew restive, and gave evidence of a determination to do something desperate. Indeed some riotous proceedings actually did occur, and it was deemed advisable to get the candymen out of the place with all despatch in order to save their unlucky necks from being broken. There were now some thousands of human creatures starving with cold and hunger in the fields and lanes, most of them women and