The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-19 00:00:00

MAJOR TREMENIIEERE'S REPORT ON
THE MINING DISTRICT S•

A report addressed to the Home Department by
Mr. Hugh Seymour Tremenheere, the Commissioner
appointed under the provisions of the act 5 and 6
Viet., cap. 99, to inquire into the operation of that
act, and into the state of the mining districts, has
just been published, dated August 8, 1859. We ex-
tract from it the following, relating to the South
Staffordshire districts :
THE BITTTY SYSTEM.
In the course of the strike last autumn, which
lasted about fifteen weeks, the complaints against
the " batty " system were renewed by the men,
and the continuance of that system was urged
as the most prominent among their grievances.
The " butty is a contractor, or middleman,
between the master and the men. He has under
him an agent, the " doggy," who superintends
the work in the butty's absence. It is a complaint
of long standing that the contractors and under-
agents take advantage of the men in various ways ;
by stopping money from their wages, which they
are obliged to spend in drink ; by making them
work until two o'clock for half a day, or until half-
plot ten or eleven for a quarter-day ;by measur-
ing four yards for three and a half in estimating
the araount of work done ; by sending drink to the
pits in tit: e middle of the week, land making the men
pay for it, whether they want it or not; by paying
the men late oz Saturday night, and keeping them
waiting in or abozit the public-houses in which the
butties are interested, in order that they may spend
money in drink ; by unskilful and improper
management of the pits, "to save money and
time," whereby their health is injured and their
lives endangered. These and other complaints
against the batty system were urged at
various meetings, attended by from 1,200 to
3,000 and 4,000 of the men (as the one at West
Bromwich, on the 17th of August, 1858), where
they were all enumerated; and it was added by ens
of the speakers, " the man must pay whether he has
the drink or not, and if the man does not drink
there is little or no work ;" meaning that those Wk•
do not drink are soon got rid of.
Complaints of this nature have been attracting
public attention in South Staffordshire for many
years. About 20 years ago, as lam informed by
Mr.-Phillip Williams, the chairman of the Iron
Masters' Association, than whom no other is better
acquainted with everything that concerns the dis-
trict, a county meeting was called, and was pre-
sided over by the then lord-lieutenant of the county,
Earl Talbot, to take this alleged " grievance"
into consideration. The meeting was attended by
forty magistrates. Mr. Philip Williams, on being
called upon, gave such explanations relating to
it that the meeting abstained from farther inter-
ference. In 1843, Mr. Tancred was instructed by
the Secretary of State to inquire into all matters
affecting the social condition of the mining popula-
tion of this county, and in his report dwelt much
upon this question. In my report of the year fol-
lowing, to the Secretary of State, upon the same
subject, and in my reports for 1847 and 1850, I
directed attention to the fact that complaints
arising from this source still existed, although ap-
parently to a less extent than formerly, and I stated
the various disadvantages, social as well as econo-
mical, which many enlightened persons in the dis-
trict believed they could trace directly to this SU-
lem of employment.
As the question has again been raised, I deemed
it my duty again to investigate it, and I have re-
cently discussed it with a considerable number of
gentlemen representing large firms in Staffordshire
and Worcestershire, employing mining labour, and
whose position and experience entitle their opinions
to the most respectful consideration.
The cylestion is much narrowed by one or two
preliminary considerations. First, the two counties,
as regard.l the raising of coal, are separated into
two great districts, the thick and the thin coal
district.
In the former the pits are for the most part ex-
tensive, and the number of men in each is consider.
able.
In this district it is more easy to do away with
the butty system. and adopt that by which the
colliers are in the direct employ of master.
Accordingly, in this district several of the principal
employers have for some years past worked many
of their own pits, under the superintendence of
their own agents, with results satisfactory both to
themselves and their men.
In the latter, the thin coal district, the pits being
for the most part small, containing only from 10 to
20 or 30 men, it is alleged fo be more difficult to
dispense with the system of betting the pits to con-
tractors (battles) ; and it is asEserted with, I believe,
perfect truth, that the butty s vstem is not neces-
sarily attended with the evils that have been
specified at the meetings above adverted to.
Indeed, the character of all the principal per-
sons in the coal and iron trades in the whole
of this important district, and that of the great
majority of the small masters, stands' far too high
to permit a doubt that if those evils could be sub-
stantiated as existing in their works the contrac-
tors would be immediately dismissed, or efficient
means taken to remove any such causes of com-
plaint. In point of fact, many of the masters have
again recently assured me that the men in the em-
ploy of their contractors make no complaints, and
that they are perfectly aware that the master is at
all times ready to listen to, and take immediate
steps to redress, any complaint relating to any form
of oppredirion that might be attemptea.
But, although the question is narrowed by the
above considerations, there is no doubt thatin many
instances the complaints above mentioned are well
founded.
To appreciate the causes which lie at the
bottom of the system which has become so rooted in
the habits of these two counties, it is necessary
briefly to pass in review certain facts, which
cannot but have exercised a great influence upon
their social condition.
The great development of industry in this part
of the country is shown by the statement given on
undoubted authority at page 26 of my report for
1849, namely, that in 1806 the number of iron fur-
naces in Staffordshire was 42, and the annual make
of iron 50,000 tons, while in 1848 the number of
furnaces had increased to 151, and the make of iron
to 385,840 tons. The number last year is given
as 183 furnaces, and the produce, on a moderate
estimate, 616,400 tons.
It will readily be understood how great has been
the simultaneous increase in the mining population
of the district, rendered necessary by this vast in-
crease in the iron trade, and by that of all the other
numerous branches of industry which have spread
themselves over many square miles of country, from
Birmingham to Wolverhampton in one direction,
and from Walsall to Stourbridge in the other.
Among the firms which supply the vast consump-
tion of coal required for these branches of indus-
try and for the population engaged in them, are
many old established ones, both in the coal and
iron trades, and also many new ones, who, as their
men are well aware, would not permit of any abuse
arising out of the butty system or any other to exist
a day after they became aware of it, without the most
decided effort to put an end to it. But out of so
large a number of firms, many of them comparatively
new to the occupation, there will naturally be a cer-
tain proportion, happily, however, as I was assured
by a gentleman of very large experience in the dis-
trict, not employing more than one-third of the
whole number of colliers and miners in it, who are
from circumstances less able, or from other reasons
less disposed, to interfere with their butties, upon
-whose knowledge of the business and on whore
c.,tpital they to a certain extent depend for a steady
supply of coal, &c., and whose acquaintance with
the habits of the men enables them to dep.l with
them better than they could themselves.
Ten years ago the number of butties in the district
was estimated at about' 900. They are at present
more numerous. Under the butties, in each pit, is
a man who superintends the work in his absence,
the local term
and
,f,odr whom is a "doggy." Both
" butties"
intelligent of the oggier are selected from the
working
The former,
often by superior skill
andinteligence, realise in
-the course of years
considerable
emsumst by their
-various contracts, and
some of
th
rise
into the
Mass of masters having
pits of their
own.
If, in South Staffordshire, in the year 1850, as I
stilted iv. my report for that year (page 33), on the
authority of one of the principal mine agents, or
"underground bailiffs" of that county, of the then
estimated total number of mine agents of the district
(60) under whose general direction thesebutties were
employed—" who have the supervision of all the coal
and. ironstone pits—who lay them all out for yfork
and ventilation—who are expected to understand
all the details of the machinery, both for pumping
" &c
and drawing, where shafts are to be sunk.
there were some 14 or 15 unable to write, and cer-
tainly some of them unable to read, or were so only
a short time ago," and that out of the 60 " there
might be 25 who were educated men," it may easily
-be inferred what is the state of education among
the class of butties and their subordinates, and that
among so many who are in a low intellectual state
t here must be many whose moral notions and whose
m ode of governing their men, can scarcely fail to
lea d to acts which the men feel to be unjustifiable,
bark and irritating.
The an industry employing such an amount of
capital as' is engaged in the business ofraising minerals
in this district should be under the practical man-
agement of,two classes of men whose general grade
-of intellectual cultivation is as above described, and
.that it should flourish under it, cannot but be re-
garded .as something extraordinary, and at the
5, \me time as affording a proof of the degree to which
SOL •Ind common sense and acuteness may, undex cer-