For instance, the girls carry not only immense loads, but for long hours, so as to complete the tasks allotted to them daily. The basket is placed upon the back, and is half-suspended partly by a broad belt passing round the forehead; the carriers walking with their bodies bent forward, and often making long journeys along inclined planes, up to the surface, and ofttimes they have to ascend ladders. The toil imposed is excessive. Speaking of what girls and women in parts of Scotland have to endure, one Reporter says they

Always did the lifting, or heavy part of the work, and neither they nor the children were treated like human beings, nor are they where they are employed. Females submit to work in places where no man, or even lad, could be got to labour in; they work in bad roads, up to their knees in water, in a posture nearly double. They are below till the last hour of pregnancy. They have swelled haunches and ankles, and are prematurely brought to the grave, or, what is worse, a lingering existence.

Most assuredly the strong and appalling conclusion to which Mr. Franks arrives is amply substantiated by innumerable evidences in this voluminous Report. He says:

Now, when the nature of this horrible labour is taken into consideration, its extreme severity, its regular duration of from twelve to fourteen hours daily, which, and once a-week at least, as in the instance of J. Cumming, is extended through the whole of the night; the damp, heated, and unwholesome atmosphere in which the work is carried on; the tender age and sex of the workers; when it is considered that such labour is performed not in isolated instances selected to excite compassion, but that it may be truly regarded as the type of the every-day existence of hundreds of our fellow-creatures,-a picture is presented of deadly physical oppression and systematic slavery, of which I conscientiously believe no one unacquainted with such facts would credit the existence in the British dominions.

It is not irrelevant to the horrors of the coal-mine system to mention, that the Report brings to light the condition of females of mature years, wives and mothers, who are doomed to the degrading occupation which we have seen is allotted to girls, and children of the tender sex. The women who are torn from their domestic duties, are subjected to a species of labour, and thrown into associations, which at once reduce the physical powers, and destroy the moral feelings; while the consequence is, that all the domestic comforts and ties of kindred, upon which the very framework of society rests, are annihilated; inducing, moreover, a frightful sacrifice of human life, beyond what would be incident to the employment of males only.

As far as we can gather the facts from the Report, it would appear that it is in the east of Scotland that the women are subjected to the most oppressive species of physical labour. They are

there denominated "coal bearers," and are employed, as already mentioned, to carry coals on their backs, and this too in unrailed roads, with burdens varying from three-quarters to three hundred weight. Well may this remnant of the barbarous and cruel slavery of a degraded age, which happily has long since been abolished in England, and in the greater part of Scotland, be described as a condition of humanity which renders the existence of those who sustain it, "the most weary of all the pilgrimages of this journey through life."

The evidence of the witnesses fully explains the nature of the horrible labour to which we refer; and when it is borne in mind that its regular duration is, according to one Reporter's account, from 12 to 14 hours daily, which once a week at least is extended through the night, we shall be convinced that "a picture is presented of deadly physical oppression, and of systematic slavery, of which no one unacquainted with such facts would credit the existence in the British dominions."

Jane Cuming says, "I gang with the women at five, and come home at five at night, work all night on Fridays, and come away at twelve in the day. I carry the large bits of coal from the wall face (the place where it is cut out) to the pit-bottom, and the small pieces in a creel. The weight is usually a hundred weight. The distance varies. Sometimes it is 150 fathoms, whiles 250 fathoms. The roof is very low; I have to bend my back and legs, and the water comes frequently up to the calves of my legs. Have no liking for the work." "It is no uncommon thing for women to lose their burdens, and drop off the ladder down the dyke below."

A

The evidence of Jane Peacock Watson, aged 40 years, shows most painfully the sufferings of women following this laborious employment. "I have wrought in the bowels of the earth 33 years; have been married 23 years, and had nine children; six are alive. Three died of typhus a few years since. Have had two dead born. Thinks they were so from the oppressive work. vast number of women have dead children and false births, which are worse, as they are not able to work after the latter. I have always been obliged to work below till forced to go home to bear the bairn, and so have all other women. We return as soon as we are able; never longer than ten or twelve days, many less, if they are needed. It is only horse work, and ruins the women; it crushes their haunches, bends their ancles, and makes them old women at forty."

Any one reading the evidences of the women will readily enter into the feelings of a poor creature, a married woman, who, passing Mr. Ball, the coal viewer, who was going down one of the mines as she was ascending, groaning under an excessive weight of coals, trembling in every nerve, and almost unable to keep her knees from

sinking under her, exclaimed in a melancholy voice, "Oh, Sir, this is sore, sore, sore work. Would to God that the first woman who tried to bear coals had broke her back, and none would have tried it again."

Such is the frightful condition to which large numbers of the female sex are reduced, and such the murderous consequences resulting from it, in a country which exalts itself as a model of Christian sensibility and sympathy, and which expends its many thousands annually to "improve" the condition of the "free sons of the desert."

The number of hours during which girls and boys have to toil are often protracted, one would imagine, beyond the power of human endurance. At an early hour, and in the depth of winter, they are roused from their dirty beds, and obliged to descend into the dreary pits, there to labour for a greater stretch of time than the adults. Says one of the Reporters,

It will be noticed how frequently the boys state that they have remained in the pits for 24 and 36 consecutive hours, and even 48 hours. These statements were too numerous to be disputable, and were often fully confirmed by the evidence of separate witnesses. The frequency of the fact is surprising. A witness asserted his knowledge of an instance in which a boy had, eight years previously, remained an entire week in a pit in the Tees district, but there were no means of confirming this statement.

Here is the corroborative testimony of one boy, whose work is hoisting a crane for 1s. 6d. per day, as reported by the gentleman whose words we have just now quoted:

George Foster has wrought a double shift of 24 hours three times in the Benton pit. About a year and a half ago he wrought three shifts at one time, going down at four o'clock one morning, and staying 36 hours without coming up. The overman asked him to stop, &c.-George Kendall, two or three times, has stood 36 hours down the pit. When lads say they stop double shift, they mean generally 36 hours. If, for instance, they are in the day shift, and are asked to stop for the night shift, then they stay their own shift for next day;-their baits (meals) being sent down to them. A great quantity of boys are doing this now, from a scarcity of boys. *** Some lads have worked double shift (36 hours) lately. John Clough, aged 14, worked 36 hours down last Friday. (His brother confirms this.) George Short has always been drowsy since he went there. Twice he has worked three shifts following, of 12 hours each shift, about three years ago. They had no lads, and he was forced to do it: and he was wanted to drive and "put" coals. Never came up at all during the 36 hours; was sleepy, but had no time to sleep. *** His head "swells" very often, and he feels sickish sometimes; and drowsy sometimes, especially if he sits down.

We have alluded to the dirty beds of the colliers. It would certainly require no ordinary ablutions to rid their persons of its dark dye. The face and hands, therefore, become the representative seats of cleanliness; and in Scotland particularly their dwellings are a scene of filth,-are disgusting hovels. On the subject of washing we have this evidence:

How often do the drawers wash their bodies?-None of the drawers ever wash their bodies; I never wash my body; I let my shirt rub the dirt off; my shirt will show that; I wash my neck, and ears, and face, of course. Do you think it is usual for the young women to do the same as you do?—I don't think it is usual for the lasses to wash their bodies; my sisters never wash themselves, and seeing is believing; they wash their faces, and necks, and ears. When a collier is in full dress he has white stockings and low shoes, and very tall shirt-neck, very stiffly starched, and ruffles? That is very true, Sir, but they never wash their bodies underneath; I know that; and their legs and bodies are as black as your hat.

Without charging wilful neglect to the parents, I must repeat (Mr. Kennedy adds) that I have found the children of colliers, with of course some exceptions, exceedingly dirty, and, in looking at the beds of some of them, I have seen a black mark of the bodies on the sheets.

True, all these evils and enormities do not unite in every coal district of the empire, nor in every colliery of the same district. Some proprietors are far more considerate than others. Cupidity does not always steel the heart of masters; viewers are sometimes humane and unhardened; colliers are not necessarily divested of tenderness. Still, the mass of suffering, the number of unprotected slaves which spend the budding period of their lives under the surface of British soil, offer appeals to the justice, not to speak of the sympathy of the nation, more loud and heart-rending than was the cry even of the Factory children.

With regard to the moral branches of the investigation pursued by the Commissioners whose Report we have been quoting, and the remedies suggested, or which may hereafter form the subject of legislation, another opportunity will be offered for us to speak. In the meanwhile we merely state that difficulties and delicacies abundantly interpose themselves. There are great interests, private as well as public, at stake, so as even to admonish the legislature that it must not rashly interfere. The industrial economy of the country is deeply involved with regard to an adequate supply of coal; while the profit of many coal owners might be entirely swept away, so as to cause their pits to be shut, were no children allowed to be employed in the thin seams. Again, the condition and necessities of multitudes of the working population, in this great mercantile and manufacturing country, are such that there is no alternative at present but the species of oppressive slavery of which we have been

hearing, and starvation. Still, ameliorations may be introduced; remedies to some extent may be devised. Why should children not be exempted by Act of Parliament from the coal bondage, drudgery, and excessive toil, till they have arrived at a certain age, as well as those tending machinery in a Factory? Can no reasonable limits be fixed to the hours of continuous labour and confinement? Is there no method by which they may be enabled to inhale the pure air, and sport in the cheerful light of heaven each day of the week, for a short space? Might not a certain amount of schooling be combined with heathful exhilarating exercise? Do science and mechanical art offer no cheap method of enlarging the passages in mines where thin seams prevail?

It is manifest that the worst evils of the system have hitherto existed and grown to their terrific maturity in consequence of the general ignorance as to its reality which has prevailed. Indeed had the employers and the proprietors only been in the habit of visiting mines and witnessing the daily course of proceeding in their works, as is the case in every other branch of industry, the horrors now disclosed must have been checked and in measure provided against. And this consideration may suggest remedies.

ART. IV.-Narrative of the Second Campaign in China. By K. S. MACKENZIE, Esq. Bentley.

A

MR. Keith Stewart Mackenzie's Narrative follows up, and will properly be classed, in regard to character and judicious expression, with Lord Jocelyn's welcomed account of the early operations of our forces in China. As military secretary to the commander-inchief, Sir Gordon Bremer, our author was necessarily at the fountain-head of information, and must have enjoyed some rare occasions for acquiring a knowledge of Chinese manners and matters. principal subject of the volume consists of the operations in the Canton river, and the taking of the city, which are well described. Indeed Mr. Mackenzie's style of treatment suits the nature and interest which attach to our quarrel with the Celestials, a conflict which was regarded and conducted at first as a "little war." From his Narrative, however, it will be gathered that not only at the beginning were false steps taken, and incompetency displayed by Captain Elliot, but that the duration and issue of the contest are points which even now admit of doubt, and are calculated to create anxiety. In running through the book, the best thing that we can do, is to select a few passages which may seem to yield our readers fresh information with regard to the scenes which the narrator witnessed, and the disposition and peculiarities of the Chinese people. It was near the close of the year 1840 that Lieut, Mackenzie