us turn now to the most important branch of British mining, the iron
and coal mines, which the Children's Employment Commission treats in
common, and with all the detail which the importance of the subject
demands. Nearly the whole of the first part of this report is devoted to
the condition of the workers employed in these mines. After the detailed
description which I have furnished of the state of the industrial
workers, I shall, however, be able to be as brief in dealing with this
subject as the scope of the present work requires.

In the coal and iron mines which are worked in pretty much the same way,
children of four, five, and seven years are employed. They are set to
transporting the ore or coal loosened by the miner from its place to the
horse-path or the main shaft, and to opening and shutting the doors
(which separate the divisions of the mine and regulate its ventilation)
for the passage of workers and material. For watching the doors the
smallest children are usually employed, who thus pass twelve hours daily,
in the dark, alone, sitting usually in damp passages without even having
work enough to save them from the stupefying, brutalising tedium of doing
nothing. The transport of coal and iron-stone, on the other hand, is
very hard labour, the stuff being shoved in large tubs, without wheels,
over the uneven floor of the mine; often over moist clay, or through
water, and frequently up steep inclines and through paths so low-roofed
that the workers are forced to creep on hands and knees. For this more
wearing labour, therefore, older children and half-grown girls are
employed. One man or two boys per tub are employed, according to
circumstances; and, if two boys, one pushes and the other pulls. The
loosening of the ore or coal, which is done by men or strong youths of
sixteen years or more, is also very weary work. The usual working-day is
eleven to twelve hours, often longer; in Scotland it reaches fourteen
hours, and double time is frequent, when all the employees are at work
below ground twenty-four, and even thirty-six hours at a stretch. Set
times for meals are almost unknown, so that these people eat when hunger
and time permit.

The standard of living of the miners is in general described as fairly
good and their wages high in comparison with those of the agricultural
labourers surrounding them (who, however, live at starvation rates),
except in certain parts of Scotland and in the Irish min