"
"Do you mean that?"
"Whenever the mining population is disturbed the disorder is
obstinate. On the whole they endure less physical suffering
than most of the working classes, their wages being
considerable; and they are so brutalized that they are more
difficult to operate on than our reading and thinking
population of the factories. But when they do stir there is
always violence and a determined course. When I heard of
their insurrection on Saturday I was prepared for great
disturbances in their district, but that they should suddenly
resolve to invade another country as it were, the seat of
another class of labour, and where the hardships however
severe are not of their own kind, is to me amazing, and
convinces me that there is some political head behind the
scenes, and that this move, however unintentional on the part
of the miners themselves, is part of some comprehensive scheme
which, by widening the scene of action and combining several
counties and classes of labour in the broil, must inevitably
embarrass and perhaps paralyse the Government."
"There is a good deal in what you say, said Hatton, taking a
strawberry with a rather absent air, and then he added, "You
remember a conversation we once had, the eve of my departure
from Mowbray in '39?"
"I do," said Morley reddening.
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