ers advance the miners small sums to be worked out afterwards, thus
binding the debtors to themselves. In the North, the custom is general
of keeping the payment of wages one week behindhand, chaining the miners
in this way to their work. And to complete the slavery of these
enthralled workers, nearly all the Justices of the Peace in the coal
districts are mine owners themselves, or relatives or friends of mine
owners, and possess almost unlimited power in these poor, uncivilised
regions where there are few newspapers, these few in the service of the
ruling class, and but little other agitation. It is almost beyond
conception how these poor coal miners have been plundered and tyrannised
over by Justices of the Peace acting as judges in their own cause.

So it went on for a long time. The workers did not know any better than
that they were there for the purpose of being swindled out of their very
lives. But gradually, even among them, and especially in the factory
districts, where contact with the more intelligent operatives could not
fail of its effect, there arose a spirit of opposition to the shameless
oppression of the "coal kings." The men began to form Unions and strike
from time to time. In civilised districts they joined the Chartists body
and soul. The great coal district of the North of England, shut off from
all industrial intercourse, remained backward until, after many efforts,
partly of the Chartists and partly of the more intelligent miners
themselves, a general spirit of opposition arose in 1843. Such a
movement seized the workers of Northumberland and Durham that they placed
themselves at the forefront of a general Union of coal miners throughout
the kingdom, and appointed W. P. Roberts, a Chartist solicitor, of
Bristol, their "Attorney General," he having distinguished himself in
earlier Chartist trials. The Union soon spread over a great majority of
the districts; agents were appointed in all directions, who held meetings
everywhere and secured new members; at the first conference of delegates,
in Manchester, in 1844, there were 60,000 members represented, and at
Glasgow, six months later, at the second conference, 100,000. Here all
the affairs of the coal miners were discussed and decisions as to the
greater strikes arrived at. Several journals were founded, especially
the _Miners' Advocate_, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for defending the rights
of the miners. On March 31st, 1844, the contracts