Scenes And Incidents From The Life Of A Practical Miner
With A Treatise On The Ventilation Of Coal Mines

49 But why stagger at the sound of the harsh sentence, or pause upon the denunciation of the miners as a body, without exception? We old ones save seen and heard the like before; look back to the late George Stephen- son when he was a practical brakesman; mark the difficulties he had to contend with, and the obstacles raised in his way; by scanning his illiteracy, and denouncing the abruptness of his language, they pronounced him insane, or a madman. All this did the man of genius, the immortal engineer meet with; yet by dint of perseverance and timely aid, he suc- ceeded in carrying his deep (and to himself clearly defined) piojects into operation, becoming one of the greatest benefactors of the age. T ns was the man of practice, the truly scientific engineer, and how many have sprung up after him, and following in the wake of science and ti nth. am not so vain in my pretensions as to attempt a comparison with such a man, although he himself had a high opinion of my qualifications as a practical miner, &c. But this I have said twenty years ago, and I repeat it a<*ain, that no power on earth could produce such serious and exten- sive explosions in any^itf, of which I myself superintended or inspected the ventilation thereof, as we have had too frequently in the coal mines, causing such havoc and human suffering. Perhaps I have said enough on this score previously, for as Byron says: 11 Self is always fluent, but never agreeable.” Nevertheless, such is my unbounded confidence in my skill, that when the explosion occurred at Teddesley, T volunteered to go and put the pit right again, and the same at Barnsley, through Mr. M. Dunn, the Government Inspector of Mmes, but there was no notice taken of it. 1 was brought forward by the men; when first the report of an increase in the number of inspectors became known, two of the men were delegated to Mr. Dunn, requesting him. to use his influence on my behalf, and to represent me as a ft and proper person for the inspection of coal mines. Neither was that ever heard of again; the cause (“the uneducated colliers”) was not known then. You will observe that in treating on Burradon, I have said, if I had by chance or otherwise been in that pit one hour, or from that to twelve months before the explosion, there would not have been one there, and 1 have shown them what I would have done to prevent it. This rnucli will 1 say for myself, I practice no deception, I see too much of it afloat m the affairs of men, and witness too much of its effects as the first moving principle, the primary cause too frequently of sorrow and grief, in the lowly cot of many a brave miner. . , The noble earl, was about to express his satisfaction with what he had heard and seen, when on a sudden he waived the subject, and after a pause, he' observed—“Do you know of any other obstacle in the way of your advancement, or why you might not serve the government and country. For my part, I shall be happy to assist you all I can; 1 am clearly convinced in my own mind, and will endeavour to induce my colleagues to believe me, that I have seen for myself, a ft and proper person for the duty of inspecting the coal mines.” “Yes, mv lord, there are many obstacles laid in the way of the man that has to rise from the ranks of labour. All history proves that, from the days of our Lord and Master down to those of George Stephenson,