GREAT BRITAIN. What the wise direction of public authority has established in Germany, the spirit of association, the sentiment of individual independence, the habit of calculation and of observation, have consecrated in Great Britain. The associations of provident institutions, of saving, of insurance, of charitable, friendly and benefit societies and clubs, in this country, have been clothed with the popular character, always visible in all its institutions. However, the patronage of the higher classes is not refused. It is probable even that these establishments have been originated by the masters or by the mining companies; but these parties have placed themselves in the back-ground of the picture. The charitable or friendly societies have become now part of the customs of the English people. The soil of Great Britain is covered with them. We have consulted the documents relating to the benefit societies, or those of mutual assistance, in several parts of the United Kingdom. In general, although the donations of distinguished patrons, or those of the proprietors, are welcomed, the major part of the funds is supplied by the workmen; not by means of a voluntary assessment, but by virtue of statutes to which they submit on entering into the establishment. These institutions participate in the character of insurance societies, but they present this peculiarity, that they are not, to any one, the object of lucre or of speculation. They possess the defects of the societies of mutual help; inasmuch as, in general, they apply only to a small number of individuals. But the wisdom with which the funds are guarded, the prudence which they exercise not to encroach upon the reserve, show that the inconveniences are at least but slight. The workman knows that the "chest" is only maintained by his contributions; he knows that the funds cannot be diverted, and he makes no complaint, in any case, of the insignificance of the aid he receives in proportion to the sacrifices that he has made. Nevertheless, the funds are, ordinarily, sufficient, and in affinity with the wants of the members. The proprietor of the English mines interests himself in the lot of his workmen. He takes pride in seeing them well-ordered and economical. For his own advantage, he constructs, for the use of his work-people, habitations convenient to the seat of their operations. He gives them, sometimes, dwellings gratuitously. He founds schools for the children; he furnishes a place for a common library. He contributes to the stock for mutual assistance, placed under his patronage; he holds the funds, and pays the interest on them. In England especially, and the attempts to reform the poor-laws demonstrate it, they seek to avoid the inconveniences of those institutions which are solely charitable or purely helpful. The superior classes, so enlightened in this kingdom, interfere in these institutions only to facilitate their operation. The government, whose action ordinarily remains latent, limits itself to the publication of the precise formula for the regulation of the various societies of insurance or benefit. These societies when they have acquired some extension, are very careful to solicit and secure legal sanction. An advocate of the crown is appointed to review the rules of the associations which aspire to be incorporated. The acts of Parliament, 10 Geo. IV. and 4 and 5 William IV., fix the course to be pursued, and the final sanction is accorded by the magistrates of the county. The numerous philanthropic societies in Great Britain second the tendency of the English people to profit by the benefits of co-operation. Association, in the times to come, will produce such wonders as we owe, in the order of physics, to the accumulation of steam, or to electricity. It is a lever or powerful spring, which till now has been employed but imperfectly; but which, well directed, will be the principle of prodigies which the future will disclose. The English workman is, in general, better instructed, and is in easier circumstances, than those of Belgium. He not only has a love for his profession, but entertains a great respect for his superiors and for the laws. The habit of economy, the advantage he finds in it, the pride which the sentiment of his power and good conduct gives him, contribute to strengthen these moral ties. We speak not now of the workers in the great manufactories: reduced to the state of paupers; ill fed; exposed to every privation. But the working miner is, in this kingdom, in a more favourable position than the Belgian miner. There are two traits of character in the English workmen that we must not lose sight of:-the care that they take to provide a suitable and religious burial for their deceased comrades, and the importance which they attach to the education of their children.* The picture thus presented by M. Visschers, of the condition of the English miners, is drawn by a friendly hand, and perhaps may be considered somewhat flattering. To the foregoing liberal views of this philanthropist, we proceed to note some prominent statistics on the miners' Benefit Societies, and on the casualties of coal mining in England; a country which has perhaps a greater interest in these subjects than any other, being the largest coal producer, and employing a more numerous population in its extraction, than the rest of world united. The continuance of voluntary subscriptions to the innumerable provident societies of the mining districts, proves the prevailing reliance on their efficacy in times of emergency; while the almost universal enrollment, as contributing members, of the class of operatives especially interested in the result, attest the estimate which has been formed, by the working miners themselves, of the salutary influence of those associations. Local instances, we are constrained to admit, may be cited where abuses have existed; where the system has been rendered less operative for good by defective arrangements; by erroneous calculations at the outset; or by occasional improvidence in * Notice sur l'établissement de Caisses de Prévoyance. M. A. Visschers, 1843, p. 18. the management; such, for instance, as has been shown by a Parliamentary Report of the South Staffordshire coal-fields; a district. which has acquired a lamentable notoriety, for the habits and the moral and social condition of its mining population. But the general working of the relief funds and provident societies, throughout the length and breadth of the land, is satisfactory: creating habits of foresight and economy-compulsory probably at first-and, above all, estimable in bringing opportune succour to the maimed and the sick, and relief to the infirm; in providing support to the survivors of those frightful accidents which so often occur; in securing decent burial to the dead, and, in affording consolation to the families of such as have unfortunately perished. The drawback on the utility of the ordinary country clubs, seems to consist in their local operation and restricted character; in the limited and fluctuating nature of their resources. Often based on erroneous data; frequently originating with, and conducted by, the uninformed; isolated in all respects; they want the power and uniformity, almost amounting to nationality, which the coherence of the Belgian confederated exploitations, guaranteed by the solemn sanction of the government and laws, seems to assure to the individual societies of which they are made up. In England there are no public institutions to supply the deficiencies of the country club system. It has been even considered better to leave the supposed evils to be corrected by the interested parties themselves. Moreover it is contended that the extension of especial public protection and relief in favour of one class of operatives, is incompatible with strict justice towards numerous other classes who also pursue hazardous occupations; such, for instance, as the sea service, in which 2,000 British sailors are annually estimated to perish by shipwreck; which appears very little to exceed the number of the killed and disabled miners. Violent deaths, which occurred in 55 mining districts of England and Wales, in the year 1838: By falling down shafts, - Falling of stones and coals, Total, 63 1 10 22 97 88 4 21 43 349 Mining Casualties in the South Staffordshire Coal District.―This district has been recently investigated by the "Midland Mining Commission," and forms an important part of their able Report, drawn up by Mr. Tancred. He remarks, "I come now to, perhaps, the most distressing part of my subject, on which I have to present details which I am persuaded must shock the feelings of all who read them; I allude to the frightful amount of accidents and loss of life which is day by day leaving the fatherless and widows to lament the sudden loss, in the midst of health and vigour, of those on whom they depended for support. "I should hardly have been disposed to investigate this subject so minutely, had I believed that such a destruction of human life was a necessary and inevitable accompaniment of the working of the thick-coal seam; for in this by far the most danger is incurred. On the contrary, however, I shall have the consolation of proving that such is not the case, and shall produce instances in which a gratifying contrast to the general course of things is exhibited."* The writer proceeds to quote the records of the "General Registry Office," which furnished the following appalling results. Table of the Deaths of miners in the Dudley Coal-field, in 51 years, viz. from July 1837 to December 1842, and the proportion of such deaths as result from accidents, in eleven parishes, whose population in 1841 was 221,018. We may observe that in this population there appears to be no registry or estimate of the total number of miners, so that we are deficient in the means of comparing the results with other districts. Death of miners, of 15 years and upwards, in 5 years, Of the above number killed by accidents, Proportion per cent. [being 54.3 killed out of every 100 deaths,] Average age of miners at their deaths, years, 1122 610 54.3 36 Thus every miner has more than an equal chance of being killed, in pursuing his occupation. According to a return by Mr. Best manager of the large works of the British Iron Company, the proportions of casualties, in the Netherton colliery, were, in 1842, or rather for 45 weeks in that year, as follows: As during this year, 1842, the works were inactive for seven weeks, on account of the strike of the men, if we take the proportion for the entire year or 52 weeks, the result shows a total of near 146 accidents sufficiently serious to prevent men from working, out of 174 mines. * Midland Mining Commission, First Report, 1843, p. liv. Mr. Best adds, that in the same year was paid, to the sick colliers, miner's widows and orphans in that establishment, upwards of £560= $2,721. Mr. Smith, manager of the property of the Earl of Dudley, employing 1054 miners, furnishes the following statement also for the year 1842, or for 45 weeks only. Thick coal colliers, Thin coal and ironstone miners, 429 290 325 1054 men. Medical relief and pensions paid to wounded and superannuated miners and widows, £960 98.=$4,658. From the details of the mining casualties in this region, it appears that none have been ocasioned by inundation, and very few by explosions of fire-damp. This gas appears to be not engendered by the Staffordshire coal so abundantly as in most other fields; the men usually working with open candles. The reporter goes on to state the remarkable circumstance that, with so great a number of frightful accidents, constantly occurring, there is nothing in the shape of a hospital in the whole mining district, with the exception of a few in-door patients at the Wolverhampton Dispensary. All other cases, requiring pecular skill, must be sent to Birmingham. A serious case of explosion occurred on the 18th August, 1845, at Tividale, near Dudley, when twenty miners lost their lives. Among other cases may be added that at Round's Green colliery, near Oldburg, by which twenty lives were lost, on the 17th November, 1846, leaving fourteen widows and one hundred and two orphans destitute. Benefit Clubs in the Dudley or South Staffordshire Coal-field.The report from which we have last quoted, examines into the nature of the associations among the miners of this district, for the relief of the members in sickness, and for their burials, and allowances to their widows. "These institutions, so beneficial in themselves, and so well calculated, if properly regulated, to counteract the habitual improvidence of the workmen, and to compensate, in some small degree, for the absence of a wealthier class living amongst them, are, by the perverse ingenuity of interested parties, converted into one of the numerous means by which the hard-earned wages of the miner are transferred from his pocket to the till of the public house." We cannot enter here into the details which appear in the pages of the report. It is evident enough that the practical working of the system is greatly in need of amendment; and, indeed, occasionally is productive of injurious consequences. The evidence shows that these clubs are always held at public houses, and are promoted by the publicans for their own benefit. By reason of the abuses of the system, and of the appropriation of the funds to drinking and |