of all the miners of
Northumberland and Durham expired. Roberts was empowered to draw up a
new agreement, in which the men demanded: (1) Payment by weight instead
of measure; (2) Determination of weight by means of ordinary scales
subject to the public inspectors; (3) Half-yearly renewal of contracts;
(4) Abolition of the fines system and payment according to work actually
done; (5) The employers to guarantee to miners in their exclusive service
at least four days' work per week, or wages for the same. This agreement
was submitted to the "coal kings," and a deputation appointed to
negotiate with them; they answered, however, that for them the Union did
not exist, that they had to deal with single workmen only, and should
never recognise the Union. They also submitted an agreement of their own
which ignored all the foregoing points, and was, naturally, refused by
the miners. War was thus declared. On March 31st, 1844, 40,000 miners
laid down their picks, and every mine in the county stood empty. The
funds of the Union were so considerable that for several months a weekly
contribution of 2s. 6d. could be assured to each family. While the
miners were thus putting the patience of their masters to the test,
Roberts organised with incomparable perseverance both strike and
agitation, arranged for the holding of meetings, traversed England from
one end to the other, preached peaceful and legal agitation, and carried
on a crusade against the despotic Justices of the Peace and truck
masters, such as had never been known in England. This he had begun at
the beginning of the year. Wherever a miner had been condemned by a
Justice of the Peace, he obtained a _habeas corpus_ from the Court of
Queen's bench, brought his client to London, and always secured an
acquittal. Thus, January 13th, Judge Williams of Queen's bench acquitted
three miners condemned by the Justices of the Peace of Bilston, South
Staffordshire; the offence of these people was that they refused to work
in a place which threatened to cave in, and had actually caved in before
their return! On an earlier occasion, Judge Patteson had acquitted six
working-men, so that the name Roberts began to be a terror to the mine
owners. In Preston four of his clients were in jail. In the first week
of January he proceeded thither to investigate the case on the spot, but
found, when he arrived, the condemned all released before the expiration
of the sentence. In Mancheste