"He had never been down a pit in all his life."
The evening passed away in the tap room of the Rising Sun in
reflections on the present critical state of affairs and in
consultations as to the most expedient course for the future.
The rate of wages which for several years in this district had
undergone a continuous depression, had just received another
downward impulse and was threatened with still further
reduction, for the price of iron became every day lower in the
market, and the article itself so little in demand that few
but the great capitalists who could afford to accumulate their
produce were able to maintain their furnaces in action. The
little men who still continued their speculations could only
do so partially, by diminishing the days of service and
increasing their stints or toil and by decreasing the rate of
wages as well as paying them entirely in goods, of which they
had a great stock and of which they thus relieved themselves
at a high profit. Add to all these causes of suffering and
discontent among the workmen the apprehension of still greater
evils and the tyranny of the butties or middlemen, and it will
with little difficulty be felt that the public mind of this
district was well-prepared for the excitement of the political
agitator, especially if he were discreet enough rather to
descant on their physical sufferings and personal injuries
than to attempt the propagation of abstract political
principles, with which it was impossible for them to
sympathise with the impulse and facility of the inhabitants of
manufacturing towns, members of literary and scientific
institutes, habitual readers of political journals and
accustomed to habits of discussion of all public questions.
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