(As published in the Morning Post)

1. That instances occur in which children are taken into these mines to work as early as four years of age, sometimes at five, and between five and six, no unfrequently between six and seven, and often from seven to eight, while from eight to nine the ordinary age at which employment in these mines commences.
2. That a very large proportion of the persons employed in carrying on the work of these mines is under thirteen years of age ; and a still larger proportion between thirteen and eighteen.
3. That in several districts female children begin to work in these mines at the same early age as the males.
4. That the great body of the children and young persons employed in these mines are of the families of the adult workpeople engaged in the pits, or belong to the poorest population in the neighbourhood, and are hired and paid in some districts by the workpeople, but in others by the proprietors or contractors.
5. That there are in some districts also a small number of parish apprentices, who are bound to serve their masters until twenty-one years of age, in an employment in which there is nothing deseving the name of skill to be acquired, under circumstances of frequent ill-treatment, and under the oppressive condition that they shall receive only food and clothing, while their free companions may be obtaining a man’s wage.
6. That in many instances much that skill and capital can effect to render the place of work unoppressive, healthy, and safe, is done, often with complete success, as far as regards the healthfulness and comfort of the mines ; but that to render them perfectly safe does not appear to be practicable by any means yet known ; while in great numbers of instances their condition in regard both to ventilation and drainage is lamentably defective.
7. That the nature of the employment which is assigned to the youngest children, generally that of “trapping,” requires that they should be in the pit as soon as the work of the day commences, and, according to the present system, that they should leave the pit before the work fo the day is at an end.
8. That although this employment scarcely deserves the name of labour, yet, as the children engaged in it are commonly excluded from light, and are always without companions, it would, were it not for the passing and repassing of the coal carriages, amount to solitary confinement of the worst order.
9. That in those districts in which the seams of coal are so thick that horses go direct to the workings, or in which the side passages from the workings to the horse-ways are not of any great length, the lights in the main ways render the situation of these children comparatively less cheerless, dull, and stupefying, but that in some districts they remain in solitude and darkness, during the whole time they are in the pit, and, according to their own account, many of them never see the light of day for weeks together during the greater part of the winter season, excepting on those days in the week when work is not going on, and on Sundays.
10. That the different ages, from six years old and upwards, the hard work of pushing and dragging the carriages of coal from the workings to the main ways, or to the foot of the shaft, begins ; a labour which all classes of witnesses concur in stating requires the unremitting exertion of all the physical power. which the young workers possess.
11. That, in the districts in which females are taken down into the coal mines, both sexes are employed together in precisely the same kind of labour, and work for the same number of hours ; that the girls and boys, and the young men and young women, and even married women and women with child, commonly work almost naked, and the men, in many cases, quite naked ; and that all classes of witnesses bear testimony to the demoralising influence of the employment of females underground.
12. That, in the east of Scotland, a much larger proportion of children and young persons are employed in these mines than in other districts, many of whom are girls ; and that the chief part of their labour consists in carrying the coals on their backs up steep ladders.
13. That when the workpeople are in full employment, the regular hours of work for children and young persons are rarely less than eleven ; more often they are twelve ; in some districts they are thirteen ; and in one district they are generally fourteen and upwards.
14. That in the great majority of these mines night-work is a part of the ordinary system of labour, more or less regularly carried out according to the demand for coals, and one which the whole body of evidence shows to act most injuriously both n the physical and moral condition of the workpeople, and more especially on that of the children and young persons.
15. That the labour performed daily for this number of hours, though it cannot be said to be continuous, because, from the nature of the employment, intervals of a few minutes necessarily occur during which the muscles are not in active exertion, is nevertheless generally uninterrupted by any regular time set apart for rest and refreshment ; what food is taken in the pit being eaten as best it may while the labour continues.