per day; and this was fulfilled at an immense sacrifice to the owners, for these men could not hew above four tubs per day on an average. It was reported that this insane system cost the owners of Radcliffe Colliery £90 per fortnight, and yet they said the demands of their own miners were unreasonable, and to comply with them would be tantamount to delivering up to them the property they were possessed of; though their just demands were not, by one half, as much as the wages guaranteed to the strangers, all of whom were totally unacquainted with hewing and pit work in general. After the second fortnight the viewer offered these men 4d. per tub, and they all, with the exception of four, absconded. But even this price was more than the native miners were asking. A reward of £50 was offered for the apprehension of the runaway Cornish men. The Newcastle police captured four of them, brought them to Amble in gigs, together with a posse of police. The poor fellows were kept from the Monday night till the Wednesday morning under strict surveillance, and on the Tuesday night they attempted to make their escape. What a beautiful row was then kicked up! Such a running of police and special constables hither and thither, that the otherwise quiet town of Amble was thrown into a state of alarm. These worthy conservators of the public peace made far more riot in chasing and hunting these four poor fellows than would have transported 14 or 15 pitmen. One energetic and intelligent officer got "hoisted on his own petard" with a vengeance, for, in a general melee which took place, he got pummelled with his own staff to his heart's content. Next morning great excitement prevailed on seeing the overman, banksmen, understrappers, and police, riding and running over hedge and ditch, through standing corn, and overhauling the poor "campers," with whom, it was asserted, the strangers had taken refuge. One of the very clever officials maintained he saw a Cornish footmark near the camp, but, in spite of his keen observation, they escaped. The others who had absconded were arrested by the North Shields police force, and a steam-boat, carrying the police force and the special constables, was sent to bring them to Alnmouth, and thence to Alnwick, to answer for their conduct before the magistrates. At the Special Justices' Meeting, held at Alnwick, on July 25th, Mr. Bushby,

solicitor for the Cornish men; and Mr. Thomas Brown, for himself and partners; a decision was given in favour of the strangers, to the great delight of the pitmen on strike. So, after all the braggadocio, the company had to pay the piper. Mr. Bushby, with a blue and white sash, and his clients with cockades of the same colour, paraded through the streets of Alnwick, and then returned to Amble in the evening amidst the cheers of the populace.

At this period almost every colliery in the two counties had commenced work with officials about the collieries, and strangers who had been imported into the two counties by their agents. The strike had now continued fifteen weeks, and reports began to be industriously circulated, that men were breaking away from the ranks. The unionists became alarmed at such reports, and district meetings were held almost every day in some part of the two counties. The misery and destitution of families who were encamped in the lanes, exposed to all kinds of weather, in many cases with sickness amongst them, now beggared all description. The support the miners got from the general public was not sufficient to meet the crying wants of their little ones; and resolutions were passed at the meetings held by the men at the various collieries, that before they would submit to go to work on the old terms they would pawn or sell everything that belonged to them. They did not only formally resolve to do this, but arrangements were made, and committees formed to take goods away to pledge, and in hundreds of cases eight-day clocks, watches, and other valuables, even to the wedding rings from the poor women's fingers, were yielded up in order that food might be bought for the starving creatures. In this strike there was a very remarkable communal feeling exhibited, for the pitmen and their wives did not demand to have returned to them the whole of the value which the articles they had given up had produced, but willingly allowed the food bought with the money to be meted out fairly and impartially, as well to those who had not contributed towards its purchase as to those who had. Starving as they were, these poor, ignorant, and uneducated creatures were yet capable of teaching by example a fine moral lesson in humanity to those self-styled "superiors," their recent employers.

CHAPTER XVIII.

ANOTHER LARGE MEETING ON NEWCASTLE TOWN MOOR. GREAT PROCESSION AND DEMONSTRATION. АТТЕМРТ ТО STOP THE PUBLICATION OF THE "MINERS' ADVOCATE." LARGE MEETING AT BISHOP AUCKLAND.

The local press now began to teem with reports very damaging to the union, asserting and reiterating that the strike was only kept going by a few of the leading agitating agents of the defunct union, for motives of self-interest, and that the great majority of the men had returned to their work. The miners therefore determined to hold another general meeting on the 30th July, in order to show the public that they had not yet given up the contest, "to conquer or die" having been their motto from the beginning; and con- . sequently a general meeting was called to take place on the Newcastle Town Moor, by the consent of Sir John Fife, the Mayor. The meeting was announced by large placards, which stated it was called "for the purpose of taking into consideration the present position and future prospects of the pitmen of Northumberland and Durham." It also stated "that in order to convince the inhabitants that there had not such a great number left the union, a procession would take place. The Tyne Collieries will meet at Sunderland Road End, Gateshead, at eleven o'clock, and will there be joined by the brethren of the Wear and Tees, and walk in procession through Gateshead and Newcastle to the place of meeting, chair to be taken at one o'clock.' This placard was headed, "Peace, Law, and Order." To prevent confusion in such a large body of men forming and walking in procession, the following order of procession was published. "All the collieries coming in by the Wreckington Road to halt before coming to Sunderland Road End, on the righthand side of the said Wreckington Road. All the collieries coming by the Low Fell or Durham New Road, to halt within the said Road End on the right-hand side. collieries coming by the Sunderland Road to halt within the said Road End, on the left-hand side. The collieries from the North to pass on and to form a line on the left-hand of the Wreckington Road. On the signal being given by Mr. Daniels to move forward, the men on the right-hand of the

All

Wreckington Road (No. 1) to take the lead, to be followed by the men on the left-hand of the said Road (No. 2), then the men on the Durham New Road (No. 3) to fall in behind the above, and the men on the Sunderland Road (No. 4) to fall in last. The order of the procession to be as follows; passing along High Street, Church Street, Newcastle Bridge, Sandhill, Side, Dean Street, Grey Street, Blackett Street, Northumberland Street, Barras Bridge, and keeping the turnpike road to the Moor. Conductors of the procession, Messrs. Dodds, Daniels and Jobling. At the time appointed the men assembled in thousands, with their flags, headed by their bands of music; and by the judicious. arrangements of the conductors were soon marshalled into procession in perfect order, and on the concerted signal being given, the immense body began to move towards the place of meeting. Some conception may be formed of the numbers from the fact that the procession was upwards of one hour and a half in passing the Theatre Royal, Grey Street. There were seventy-two flags belonging to the different collieries, most of them formed of silk, and beautifully painted, bearing appropriate mottoes. Nothing could be more imposing than the sight of the men marching in procession as they came on to the Town Moor. As far as the eye could reach for near a mile, were seen flags flying in the breeze, men walking in perfect order, while ever and anon were heard the dulcet sounds of the different bands. Mr. Mark Dent, having been called to the chair, made a few preliminary remarks, and introduced to the meeting, Mr. James Hardy, who said that he really thought that the procession which he had that day witnessed passing through Newcastle to the Moor, would give a "broadsider" to those who had been at such pains to misrepresent them. He was really at a loss to know where all these men came from, they were indeed the hard-working sons of toil, and glad was he to witness the same determination that existed sixteen weeks ago to stand out until their full demands were acceded to. They had truth on their side, they spoke the truth, and their statements were never contradicted. They told the people of Sunderland what was the effect of their grievances, and they all agreed that they had been ignorant of them. He never was so confident of success as

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he was in the week gone by. They all knew that the last kick was the greatest kick of all, and this the masters were beginning to exhibit. They must wait patiently, and they must be content to suffer a little more. If they could get to their real employers he believed they might then be at work. Let their motto be, "to conquer or die." They talked of starving them into compliance, but it could not be done. Whatever they did, let them stand firm; never mind those few that had left them, and they might rest assured that they would triumph. He concluded by moving the following resolution:-"That, as the miners of these two counties have now struck work upwards of sixteen weeks, and having at various intervals offered to meet the owners, in order to come to some amicable arrangement, rather than risk the ruin of the trade, and though those overtures on our part have been met with insult and contempt, yet this meeting is of opinion that all unpleasantness of this kind should be forgotten, if they, the owners, would at the present time come forward and endeavour to adjust all differences."

Mr. Thomas Pratt, of Castle Eden, seconded the resolution. He said the weather was so very unfavourable that he would not detain them.-(Cries of "cheer up, and go on lad, never mind the rain.")-The first effort of the masters, he went on to say, was to stop the supplies by using their influence with the shopkeepers. They told them if they would only withdraw their support from the pitmen, they would be starved into compliance. They had had to concoct plans to support some of their more indignent brethren; they had some funds in their Association at the commencement of the strike, but these were soon distributed to those who had not been prepared for the struggle. Many of them had been turned out of their houses and homes, and they were now living on their pledged goods, and he thought that it was the determination of every man present to pledge everything he had rather than give up this cause. He had known the aged and infirm to have been ejected from their houses; and he knew one man, Henry Barrass, in his 80th year, with his wife in her 75th, turned out. The old man had worked on the collieries belonging to the Marquis of Londonderry, for 30 years. He thought he might say to the world-" hear this, you feeling part of mankind, and be astonished." Ought