1870.J Mining. 283 



dilute and render harmless noxious gases, to such an extent, that 

 the working places of the pit's levels and workings, and the travel- 

 ling roads to and froni the working places, shall he in a fit state for 

 working and passing therein, but that no owner, agent, or other 

 person shall be held to have contravened this regulation, unless it 

 shall be slioivn that all reasonable precautions have not been taken." 

 This saving clause has been altered in the present Bill to : — ■" Pro- 

 vided that no owner, agent, or other person shall be held to have 

 acted in contravention of this regulation, if it is shown that all 

 reasonable precautions have been taken by the owner, agent, or 

 person who is so charged." 



This proposition is regarded as the turning-point of Mr. Bruce's 

 Bill, and already loud is the cry amongst colliery owners and agents 

 against it. " It cannot be supposed for a moment," says the ' Colliery 

 Guardian,' " that they (the coal-owners) can take any other course 

 than that of opposing it to the utmost, nor will they find any diffi- 

 culty in showing that English legislation contains no precedent for 

 an enactment which assumes that every person charged is guilty, 

 and may be punished as such, unless he can prove himself innocent." 



The question of responsibility is the one over which the battle 

 will be fought. Every one is, of course, desirous of relieving him- 

 self from this burthen ; and it is, indeed, a heavy one in some of our 

 collieries, where the lives of hundreds of men are dependent entirely 

 on the unceasing attention of a single mind. If the colliery owners 

 and agents can relieve themselves of this by any pressure which 

 they can bring upon our legislators, they will most certainly exert 

 themselves to the utmost to secure the necessary force. We cannot 

 ourselves see any alternative. The responsibility of securing the 

 most perfect appliances, in every division of the workings of a 

 colliery, must rest somewhere, and it cannot be allowed to be capa- 

 ble of being shifted from one individual to another. In every 

 colliery some head-man must be made responsible, and the Bill does 

 not appear unjust on this point, for if this responsible head can 

 show, after an accident has occurred, that every proper precaution 

 had been taken, he will be held to be guiltless of any blame. 



The employment of women and children, the payment of wages, 

 the special rules and provisions as to arbitration, are all carefully 

 dealt with in this Bill. The clauses which relate to inspection do 

 not appear to us to be entirely satisfactory. Much has been said of 

 the inability of twelve inspectors to visit, within the year, the 3000 

 collieries in the United Kingdom. It does not appear to us to be 

 desirable that they should do so, but an earnest and intelligent man 

 may make himself perfectly familiar with his district, without sub- 

 jecting himsdf to the labour, or the coal-owner to the annoyance, of 

 prying into the details of the subterranean workings. Lord Elcho 

 remarked, — "The name of 'Inspector' was a misnomer, for the in- 



