e commissioners, compelled every man to pay on an average
to the amount of eight shillings, and in some instances ten shillings,
per week for liquor on shore and on board, whether drunk by him or not.
The plan was to compel the coal-whippers to visit their houses previous
to obtaining employment, and on the night before obtaining a ship to
commence the score, and at six o'clock in the morning, before going to
work, to drink a pot of beer, or spirits to an equal amount of value;
then to take on board for each gang nine pots of beer, to be repeated on
delivering every forty-nine tons during the day; after which they were
compelled to pay nine or ten shillings per man for each ship for gear.
The evil effects of such a system it is unnecessary to point out. After
a week's hard work, a man had nothing to take home. The coal-whippers
became a drunken and degraded class, the family were starved, the boys
early learned to thieve, and the girls were too often thrown upon the
streets. No wonder the men rebelled against this cruel tyranny. For
long they bore it, but at length they plucked up courage, and demanded
deliverance.

Generation after generation had struggled for their rights, and numerous
Acts were passed to redress their grievances; but no sooner was an Act
passed than ways and means were found to evade it. Then four brave men,
Robert Newell, Henry Barthorpe, George Applegate, and Daniel Brown,
created amongst their oppressed fellow-labourers an excitement which
never subsided till the Corporation of London took their case in hand.
Lieutenant Arnold, with a view to benefit them, established an office,
but the publicans combined against him and drove him out of the field.
The London Corporation appointed a committee to examine into the whole
matter. Government was besieged, but Mr. Labouchere told the
coal-whippers that they could not interfere, "as it would be too great an
interference with the rights of labour." The coal-whippers, however,
were not to be daunted, and after years of unremitting toil, in which
their claims had become increasingly appreciated, Mr. Gladstone prevailed
upon the House of Commons to pass the Act which on the 22nd of August,
1843, received the royal assent. The Act simply provided that an office
should be established where the coal-whippers should assemble, and that
owners and captains of vessels discharging their cargoes by hired men and
by the process of whipping should make to them t