es, where great
misery prevails. We shall have occasion to return later to this
statement, which, by the way, is merely relative, implying comparison to
the poorest class in all England. Meanwhile, we shall consider the evils
which arise from the present method of mining, and the reader may judge
whether any pay in money can indemnify the miner for such suffering.

The children and young people who are employed in transporting coal and
iron-stone all complain of being over-tired. Even in the most recklessly
conducted industrial establishments there is no such universal and
exaggerated overwork. The whole report proves this, with a number of
examples on every page. It is constantly happening that children throw
themselves down on the stone hearth or the floor as soon as they reach
home, fall asleep at once without being able to take a bite of food, and
have to be washed and put to bed while asleep; it even happens that they
lie down on the way home, and are found by their parents late at night
asleep on the road. It seems to be a universal practice among these
children to spend Sunday in bed to recover in some degree from the over-
exertion of the week. Church and school are visited by but few, and even
of these the teachers complain of their great sleepiness and the want of
all eagerness to learn. The same thing is true of the elder girls and
women. They are overworked in the most brutal manner. This weariness,
which is almost always carried to a most painful pitch, cannot fail to
affect the constitution. The first result of such over-exertion is the
diversion of vitality to the one-sided development of the muscles, so
that those especially of the arms, legs, and back, of the shoulders and
chest, which are chiefly called into activity in pushing and pulling,
attain an uncommonly vigorous development, while all the rest of the body
suffers and is atrophied from want of nourishment. More than all else
the stature suffers, being stunted and retarded; nearly all miners are
short, except those of Leicestershire and Warwickshire, who work under
exceptionally favourable conditions. Further, among boys as well as
girls, puberty is retarded, among the former often until the eighteenth
year; indeed, a nineteen years old boy appeared before Commissioner
Symonds, showing no evidence beyond that of the teeth, that he was more
than eleven or twelve years old. This prolongation of the period of
childhood is at bottom noth