The Miner and Workman's Advocate. — 1865-01-14 (London, England)

THE MINER AND WORKMAN'S ADVOCATE.  am always glad to see anybody prosper and get on in the world, but when I see those whom God has blessed with health and prosperity look on others who have been less fortunate and more honest with contempt and scorn, I always wish to make them feel their wickedness.  I have no need to tell your readers that many coalowners manifest such conduct towards their servants. Year columns tell me they know that by experience. The conduct of employers to employed is one thing that makes me a unionist, and I believe that miners will never be treated with proper respect till they are united. There is something more than contempt and scorn to resist; there is all the despotism to which miners are exposed; and if one could sum it up into one mass, it would be enough to make the very angels unite to oppose it. As I write I imagine I see the poor collier standing before his employer—he has done nothing wrong— broken no law—but he trembles from head.to foot. Why? Simply because he knows himself to be in the hands of a merciless being. He trembles for the same reason that a man would if near an an. fettered lion.  Sir, I am a unionist because I believe that nothing but unity will make these lions become lambs. lam a unionist because my trade is about the unhealthiest of all others, and I want to have it improved. I am a unionist beoause my work is about the hardest and most laborious of all, and I am not paid accordingly. Myself, wife, and children have not what they ought to have to eat, drink, or wear. On the Other hand, employers, who do nothing, can heap up gold; they can ride in coaches; they have all that the heart can wish for or the appetite crave. While lam rolling to and fro on my bed, and cannot sleep because of the hard task which I have to perform in the pit, those, who oppress me are rolling to and fro on their beds, and cannot sleep because they have not had sufficient of that of which I have had too much. Instead of sleeping, perhaps, they are concocting schemes of despotism, which they put into execution the very first thing the next morning. These things make me a unionist, and I believe God, the Father and Maker of us all, never intended His creatures to oppress one another. Those who read will be aware that the average life of miners is 27 years and the Scriptures give us to understand that the life of a man should be threescore years and ten. We may infer from this that if he dies before be reaches that age, his spirit is ushered into the presence of God before its time, and some one will be called to account for it. It is a divine injunction, ")Do thyself no harm." Brother miners, why should we go to a premature grave? Why should our miners -be leaving widows and orphans? Why should so much stythe, carbonic acid gas, black damp, and fire damp be allowed to exist in our working places? Why should we allow those who oppress us to heap up the gold which ought to be spent to preserve our health and secure our lives. Why should we commit suicide, and allow the despots to get rich, and upon an average to live twice as long as ourselves, when unity will regulate and improve all these things? I am a unionist because I know that ignorance must always succumb to intelligence, and coalowners generally are more intelligent than their victims; besides, they bring their intelligence together in order to concoct schemes; so there is no other way to meet them and resist their oppression than by miners bringing their experience and their mites of intelli. gence together. lam a unionist because I think that miners ought to meet together to discuss the preservation of their health, the protection of their lives; but without unity there would neither be rooms kept nor persons appointed to discuss these matters. lam inclined to think that the Edmund's Main compensation case will open the eyes of all united miners, at letuit when I read that the owners of that colliery were glad to pay £1,500 to the widows and orphans of my poor unfortunate brethren. Sir, when I read this in your journal— our own