Farewell, then. I have made all necessary arrangements for the mine during my absence.' 'You are going away?' 'Yes, for a brief time. I need to be alone, and yet not alone. He, of whom David will tell you so much, goes with me-not in the flesh, but in the spirit. It seems to me I have learned nothing in a long life, and I do not wish to die with the same reproach on my soul. 'I take him and his one book, that he has carefully and formally bequeathed to me; I need not tell you what book that is. I take these, and intend to try if there be any path open to one like me out of the darkness and the slough of despond in which I stand. Farewell! I will find the way if I am yet the man I was-Israel Mort, Overman.' APPENDIX. THE Author of Israel Mort, Overman,' desires at the close of his work to offer a suggestion as to the most important of the steps remaining to be taken before the miner can realise the full beneficence, justice, and wisdom of Lord Aberdare's measure, in the increased safety and wholesomeness of his labour. In a matter involving such tremendous issues, occasional inspection is simply worthless, except to show at distant intervals of time the then general state of the mine. What the collier wants to know is not what the government inspectors will think of his colliery at some future day, but whether on this day-this very hour-he can go on with his work in entire confidence, no matter in what part of the mine he may happen to be. Let then the men of each mine elect from among themselves (certain preliminary qualifications being understood) three of their own number, from which the employer shall choose one to be a Men's Inspector; and paid by the State, even if the State demand repayment from the mine-owners. Let this man have no other duty than that of constant examination on the collier's behalf as regards the safety of the mine, and its fitness for working in. Let him have a Deputy, if there be night work, as it is believed is now generally the case, so that the watching and the labour may always go on together. Let his election be subject to the approval of the government inspector, who will have to be satisfied of his fitness. Let his powers be confined absolutely to that of free communication, whenever he wishes, with the officers of the mine, deputies, overmen, or agents, according to the importance of what he may have to say; and in case he cannot satisfy them, to do what he thinks requisite, let him (if he considers the case sufficiently urgent) be empowered to demand the immediate attendance of the government inspector. In less important cases his reports would of course be examined at certain intervals by the government inspector, who would then act as he saw fit. Meantime the value of such reports, and the amount of attention paid to them by the mine officers, would become important elements of judgment for or against the employer in cases of calamity. Such a men's inspector would of course practically, in time, come to represent not only the men, but to some extent the inspector appointed by government, and therefore it would only be reasonable to require he should not belong to a Trades Union. Let our working colliers be thus guarded, and to a great extent thrown on their own responsibility to show if aught be wrong in the matter of their safety; let the personal responsibility of the employer or his agent as demanded by the Act, be also systematically enforced, and there will soon be an end to mining accidents, except as calamities of the rarest kind. It can hardly be necessary to urge how masters and workmen, would be alike benefited by such an appointment :—it would infuse new life into the youth of every colliery, who would be emulous to obtain such a post, and educate themselves accordingly; it would give the older men the feeling that they were respected, and so promote their own self-respect; it would in all sorts of ways give a more genial tone to the mutual relation. As to the masters, such an appointment would virtually lessen their responsibility as honest men who wish to conduct the mine only on principles and methods consistent with safety and reasonable comfort for the workers, even while seemingly greater responsibilities are thrown upon them by the new legislation. Then, too, such an appointment, combined with the other recent measures of amelioration of mining life, and with the progress of practical science, would not only tend to spare employers the loss, alarm, and scandal now excited by such regularly-recurring calamities (a thousand men a year killed, for instance), but also to lessen the dislike of the occupation; and thus to do away with the greatest and ever-growing difficulty of mine-owners, that of finding a sufficient and permanently reliable supply of good and contented labourers. Spottiswoode & Co., Printers, New-street Square and Parliament Street. London, March, 1877. Autobiography of a Malay ADAMS (A. L.), M. A., M.B., Field and Forest Rambles 2 Lyrics of Love, from Shakespeare to Tennyson. Selected and arranged by. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth extra, gilt edges, price 3s. 6d. ADAMS (John), M.A. St. Malo's Quest, and other Poems. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 5s. ADON. Through Storm & Sunshine. A Scotch Communion Sun- A ALLEN (Rev. R.), M.A. Abraham; his Life, Times, and Travels, as told by a Contemporary 3,800 years ago. With Map. Post 8vo. Cloth, price ros. 6d. |