This excess of death in some localities is due to the fact that the roof or strata that lies immediately over the coal-seams is shaky and liable to come down in masses, whereas the roof of other coals is hard and rocky. The protection against this kind of accident is very simple, and consists of a sufficient supply of timber to prop up the roof as the excavation of the coal goes on.

the shaft of a pit securely bricked or walled throughout the whole depth, so as to form a perfectly smooth face and do away with all irregularities of surface. Many large pits have had this improvement carried out at an enormous expense, and no pit-shaft is ever sunk now without walling being considered a sine qua non.

Some of the Somersetshire collieries are very defective in the formation of their shafts, being remarkably uneven and jagged from top to bottom, and not more than four and a half feet in diameter, which seriously tells on the amount of air which can be admitted for ventilation. When a pit is so bad in this respect as to require a peculiarly constructed machine to travel up and down it, we can easily fancy the constant danger to which the travellers are exposed. Yet this is the case in a colliery in Gloucestershire, where a machine called a hudge" is used, and where, partly in consequence of the state of the shaft, six men lost their lives. They had to get out a little before they arrived at the bottom, where there was a certain amount of

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By means of some inaccuracy of the signals, the men were lowered into the water, and although the engineer found out his mistake in about half a dozen seconds, viz. that the machine had been lowered too much, it was not rectified in time to prevent its occupants from all stepping off into the water and being drowned.

Pit-wood, however, is an expensive article, and there is too often a short supply at the colliery, so that workmen, rather than leave off their occupation, will venture on in a sort of happy recklessness as to whether the roof will hold or not; indeed, it is not uncommon for the men to neglect applying for timber rather than give themselves the trouble to go and look for the officer whose place it is to supply it, until at last the trembling mass gives way and comes down upon the unhappy collier, who, if he is fortunate enough to escape death, seldom comes off without a broken leg or thigh. The large totals of deaths from falls, viz. 395 in 1864, and 407 in 1863,-lead one to think that much greater care-standage water, technically called the "sumph." fulness should be bestowed on this point, and particularly during the removal of timber from abandoned workings. Mr. Atkinson, in his South Durham report, calls special attention to the great danger incurred, and particularly by the deputy over men, whose duty it is to perform this removal. Next to accidents by falls underground, come those connected with the shafts or machinery, -a prevalent source of evil, by which 184 persons lost their lives. And yet, there is no portion of a colliery that is in general so thoroughly well-managed and so provided with the newest appliances as that affecting the winding gear; but, on the other hand, there are so many things to be guarded against, and so many little points liable to get disarranged, that we cannot wonder that so many fatalities are included under this head. The simple accident of tumbling down the shaft by misadventure is not uncommon; and a very singular variety occurred in South Staffordshire by which six men were killed. A horse was being bridled by the ostler in the stable near the pit's mouth, when it got restive, knocked the latter down, and bolted out of the building. Unfortunately it made directly for the shaft, down which it tumbled, falling upon the six men who were descending at the time. Of course both men and horse were all precipitated to the bottom in a heap.

An accident equally fatal with that of being lowered too far sometimes occurs, viz. that of being lifted too high, generally arising from the engine that controls the winding gear running wild, and being unable to be stopped in time. Near Dudley, four boys were ascending a pit shaft about sixty yards deep, when it appeared that an iron key belonging to part of the engine machinery had slipped out of its place, so the engineer lost his control over it, and the lads were drawn up over the pulley and of course killed. For those who are not familiar with the outside appearance of a coal-pit it may be explained that the winding chain is connected with the engine by means of pulleys, or "sheaves," placed on a framework about twenty feet above the mouth of the pit. It will be obvious, therefore, how little escape there could be for anybody brought over these revolving wheels with such force.

cially if subject to the vapor and steam of an upcast shaft,-i. e. a shaft at the bottom of which there is a furnace for the purpose of ventilating the galleries. I have already alluded to the danger of too close

Death from the snapping of the winding-chain is not an unfrequent occurrence, although not so common as of yore, owing to the substitution of flat wire This would have been prevented if the safety ropes instead of the chains that formerly were in wicket which is now adopted in all good collieries universal use. Nevertheless, wire ropes, although had been placed to fence the shaft round. A simi-infinitely superior, will snap sometimes, more espelar accident sometimes happens from men who are descending, and have to stop midway to enter a particular working or gallery, mistaking their landing-place, and stepping off under the impression that their journey is ended, instead of which, poor fel-ly approaching old and disused workings, from the lows, they find that they have undertaken one with a more speedy and terrible termination. Death sometimes arises from things falling on the colliers as they are descending, such as pebbles or a clod of earth from the side of the shaft; and it is surprising to find what a very small stone will kill a man when it tumbles from a great hight. Prevention, however, is easily attained by fixing to the top of the cage an iron roof of no great thickness or weight, called a bonnet, which under ordinary circumstances is calculated to resist the blow.

risk of tapping the walls and letting out the accumulated gas, or, may be, water. From this latter eight colliers lost their lives at Mold, in Flintshire, owing to a misunderstanding on the part of the surveyors of the mine. A very common thing in coal strata is the presence of a "fault," or intrusion of some rock of various thickness, which may, and generally does, have the effect of severing the continuity of the coal-beds, and of altering their posi tion, causing them to disappear for a time, and reappear at a higher or lower level, according as the Cases, however, have been known where even the fault is an upthrow or a downthrow. Generally bonnet has been penetrated. The safest and most speaking, faults are held in abhorrence by the colradical protection can only be attained by having | liery proprietor, as, unless they are known to exist

and are expected, they, to say the least of it, cause | a temporary check to the working of the coal, together with a certain amount of doubt as to where the latter may turn up again. Faults, however, have their advantages sometimes; and amongst others, that of serving as a natural barrier to hold back those accumulations of water which exist in every underground working.

Now, it appears that in the case of this accident at Mold it was certain that a quantity of water existed in the old working; but it was also known that there were two faults, which in the natural course of things would have been amply sufficient to have kept it back; and so it would, had not unfortunately ore fault been cut through, and explorations carried very much beyond it, until the working plans were within a yard or two of the walls of the "goaf," as an old working is professionally called; and so a vast torrent of water burst in, and the eight mer were drowned.

have such a lot of money you ought to leave some of it behind for the good of the country. As for the bill, the rule for marketing here is, ' Ġet all you can, and make him who has most, pay most.""

So saying, Juan walked off with the intention of passing the morning at various friends' houses. In the evening, at my dinner-hour, he would show himself again for a short time, after which I should see nothing of him till next day. This free-and-easy style of service is regarded as quite the correct thing in Venezuela, a country which might, indeed, be called the paradise of servants, were the name of servant applicable at all to the vagrant gentlemen and ladies who pay you short visits to replenish their purses and wardrobes, leave you without notice, and severely repress any attempt to communicate with them as to your domestic arrangements. But you may talk with them on general topics, such as the weather or the theatre, and on politics you may be as expansive as you please; for where any one may become a general or a president in a few days, that subject is universally interesting.

I have not yet exhausted the black catalogue of accidents underground; but have, I think, shown sufficient to enlist some sympathy with the daily life The doctrine of perfect equality is so well carried and risk of our black-diamond hewers, who, what out that, in one of the best houses where I was a with fire and water, carelessness and recklessness, guest, the gentleman who cleaned the boots always follow the most dangerous occupation of any class came into my room with his hat on and a cigar in of laborers, except perhaps those who work in gun- his mouth; and another gentleman, whom I engaged powder mills. The great question, after all, is, - to assist Juan, left me the day after his arrival, on what good has the present system of government being refused the custody of my keys and purse, inspection done, or has it done any good? Un-which he candidly stated was the only duty he felt doubtedly it has, as is evidenced by the reports of the Inspectors themselves, and by what is far more to the point, a diminishing death-rate.

equal to. At dances, as soon as the music strikes up in the drawing-room, the servants begin to waltz in the passages and anterooms, and as entertainments are almost always on the ground floor, and generally in rooms looking into the street, the great

TRAITS OF REPUBLICAN LIFE. unwashed" thrust their naked arms and greasy “WHY, Juan,” said I, as I sat examining my first faces between the bars of the windows and criticise week's account at Caracas, "things are exorbitantly the dancing with much spirit. I have seen a gentledear in this land of liberty. There's that dinner man in rags leaning into a window from the street, I gave the day before yesterday. It was a very with his bare arms almost touching those of a beautiplain dinner to thirteen, and they have charged fully dressed lady, while his most sweet breath fantwenty-three pounds for it! That's a charge one ned her tresses. On another occasion I was talking might expect in London with real turtle, ten kinds to some ladies at an evening party, when a worthy of fish, and as many courses; but here we had noth-sans-culotte jerked in his head so suddenly to listen ing very much beyond the usual table d'hôte fare, except, indeed, a turkey, yes, there was a turkey, and

"Things are dear, sir," interrupted Juan, "and if they were n't so in a general way they would be to us. Why, there is not a man, woman, or child in the whole city that does n't know we brought two boxes of gold to La Guaira, and that you are a comisionado."

to our conversation, that I stopped, on which he called out, "O these are the aristocrats we have here, who won't talk to any one but their own set!"

On my sitting down to play chess with the wife of the president of one of the states, half a dozen female servants of every shade, from tawny twilight to black night, surrounded the table and began to watch the game. The first time I went to a tailor "And what difference does that make? The I was accompanied by a Creole friend, who undergold was for the government, as everybody knows. took to show me the best place. We had to wait And if any man ought to be careful of money, and some time before the gentleman of the shop apto examine well into accounts, it should be a finan-peared. When he did, he came in with the inevicial commissioner."

table cigar in his mouth. He raised his hat politely "Well, sir,” replied Juan, "that's one view, and to my friend, walked straight up to me, shook hands, I'm not a-going to say that it's a wrong one; but and asked me how I did. He then sat down on the it's not a Creole view. Sir, it's of no manner of use counter, put various questions to me regarding my being too honest out here, for no one gets the credit coming to Venezuela, talked on general subjects, of it. As for government business, there's perhaps and at the end of about a quarter of an hour intimore cheating in that than in anything, for it 's amated that he was ready to oblige me if I wanted a kind of proverb, La mejor hacienda es el Gobierno mal administrado, - The best estate is the government ill administered.' So, no offence, sir, but if you would really like to know what is thought, I'll be bound the general opinion is, that being a very sensible man, you won't part with those boxes of gold without keeping a cuartillo for yourself out of every real, and of course they think that when you

coat. This tailor was an officer of rank in the army, and he was wearing his uniform and spurs when he came in to measure a friend of mine.

Juan was an excellent valet, but he would have lost caste had he been too attentive to his duties in Venezuela. So he walked off, as I have said, to amuse himself, and left me to think over the difficulties of the business intrusted to me. I had no

"To give you an idea of the extent of the contraband trade, I may mention that a finance minister of Venezuela has proved that, of the two hundred million dollars' worth of goods imported into the country during the first sixteen years of independence, one hundred and twenty-nine and a half millions' worth were smuggled! But, besides that, the venality and corruption of the custom-house officers is such, that, as Señors Brandt and Iribarren have shown, the defalcations of revenue from the Aduanas up to 1852, amounted to no less than one hundred and one and a half millions of dollars. At present the annual loss to government, by contraband and frauds of various kinds, is reckoned at six millions. But don't suppose that this calculation is based on information furnished by the accounts kept here.

experience in South American affairs, so my first | selves independent, they made a clean sweep of measure had been to secure a coadjutor, who was them, leaving only the customs to supply a revenue thoroughly au fait in them. C., the son of an Eng- to the government. Now, it is in the customs that lishman, had all the integrity characteristic of his it is most easy to peculate and defraud the state. race, and being a Creole by birth, that is, born in With a coast line of two thousand miles, how is it Venezuela, knew all about the country. He chanced possible to keep down smuggling? to come in just as Juan left the room, and seeing that he had taken a cigar and settled himself for a chat, I said: "Now tell me, C., how is it that this country is so wretchedly poor, and so eternally borrowing money? For my part, I can't make it out. You have n't a particle of show. Your government house looks like an East Indian godown, your great men make no display, and as for your soldiers, one would think that the last successful campaign had been against the fripiers, and that the victors were carrying off the plunder on their backs. It is evident that you Venezuelans are not extravagant, and it is plain that you have great resources, if you knew how to use them. Your soil is the richest in the world, and has never been trodden by an invader since the Spaniard was driven out. Then what is the reason that you are always borrowing from other countries? How is it, too, that while the United States of North America have made such progress, the population in your republic is all but stationary, the seas and rivers without steamers, the country without roads, and commerce languishing?" C. knocked the ashes from the end of his cigar, assisted thought by perching his legs conveniently on the top of a chair, and finally replied as follows: "You see, in the first place, there's a difference in the breed. The Yankees are a go-ahead lot, there's no mistake about that. There's plenty of quicksilver in English blood, but fog and damp keep it down in England. At New York it rises to fever heat, and to the boiling point down South. Besides, long before Lexington and Bunker Hill, the North Americans were ripe for self-government.

If other countries- France and the United States, for example- did not publish the amount of their exports to Venezuela, no one would know what is really brought into this country. It is only by comparing foreign statistics with home fictions that we come to know the extent to which the government is cheated. Indeed, one would not be wrong in saying that the incessant_revolutions which distract this unhappy country all commence at the custom-houses.

Owing to the frauds of the officials, the revenue falls short; to make up the deficiency, the customs are raised until the necessaries of life are too dear for men of small means. Thus discontent is sown broadcast, and discontent leads to conspiracies. Yet, great as the evil is, one cannot help laughing at the impudence of some of the frauds. According to the "In South America things were very different. published returns, the people here must be the dirThe Spaniards kept their American subjects in tiest in the world with any pretentions to civilizaprofound ignorance. Four fifths of the population tion, since it is officially made out that a quarter of could not even read, for there were no schools. an ounce of soap in a week is all that each person Even at Caracas, the capital, there was no printing- uses. We know that the province of Caracas alone office till 1816, when one was set up by the French- consumes a hundred barrels of flour a day, whereas, man, Delpeche. The illiberality of the Spaniards according to the custom-house returns, the daily went so far, that, after Isabella's death, nothing was consumption of all Venezuela does not reach sixtydone to introduce the cultivation of any plant, or nine barrels. Under such circumstances, it is no improve farming. The culture of the vine and olive wonder that the public treasury is empty, that the was prohibited, and that of tobacco was made a revenues of the Aduánas are all more or less mortcrown monopoly. Emigration, too, was all but engaged, and that there are no remittances to the tirely prevented, and, in the total absence of vivify-capital except from La Guaira and Puerto Cabello. ing power, the wonder rather is that Venezuela should ever have become free, than that it should have made so little progress.

"Then as to the poverty of the government and its constant borrowing, there are several reasons for that. In the first place, the Creoles of South America, though they have many good qualities, are very averse to physical labor. They won't go to work in a new country, like Englishmen, -clear away timber, stub up, and drain. Their wits are sharp, and they do well for superintendents; but as to work, that tries the sinews: it is my belief that all the haciendas in the country would go to ruin, if it were not for the Indians and the mixed breeds. Again, the taxes levied by the Spaniards, the alcabala, or excise, the armada and corso, or coast taxes, the medias anatas, or deductions from salaries, the monopolies of salt, cards, cane-liquor, and tobacco, and numerous other imposts, were all so odious to the Columbians, that as soon as they declared them

Of course the only resource is to borrow in foreign markets, and hence," said C., throwing away the end of his cigar, "I have the pleasure of meeting you here. Apropos of which, as there is a bull-fight to-day, and you have never seen one, let us stroll down to the Corrida."

Before we could reach the eastern outskirt of the town, where the building stands in which the bullfights are held, a mass of clouds came drifting from the Avila, and a light rain began, in earnest of a more pelting shower. Looking about for shelter, and seeing at a window some ladies whom we knew slightly, we went in to talk to them. I said to one of them, a slim girl with immense dark eyes, and singularly long eyelashes, "We are going to the Corrida; does the señorita ever go ?

"No, señor, I never go. The ladies of Venezuela think bull-fights very barbarous. As for me, I cannot understand how any one can take pleasure in such odious cruelty."

Saturday

As a pendant to this picture hangs a framed copy | ture seems to be soured. "Don't go near that senof the Act of Independence. But the great curios-try," was a caution I often received; and I once ity of all is the flag of Pizarro, sent from Peru in heard it suggested that a mat with Cave canem! 1837, and enshrined in a case. All the silk and should be laid down in front of every soldier on velvet are eaten off, but the gold wire remains, with duty. Very different is the demeanor of the civilthe device of a lion, and the word Carlos. The flag ians. One day, for instance, I was walking with a is about five feet long and three broad, and being friend on the northern outskirts of the city, when we folded double in the frame, only half is seen, and met a gardener with a store of fresh fruit. "Now they will not allow it to be taken out. There are is your time," said my friend, "to try your Spanish. also two flags of Carlos the Fourth, taken from the See how you can manage a bargain with the garSpaniards, and the original manuscripts of the Act dener." So, for the mere sake of talking, we deof Independence, and other important documents, tained the poor man a long time, and looked at his bound up together. fruit, and tumbled it about, until I was ashamed, and would have bought a quantity of it. Then he asked where I was living, and when I told him, as it was a very long way off, he said it would not pay him to send so far. "Well then," I said, "I fear there is nothing to be done, for I should not know how to direct my servant to come to you." "That's true," said he, "but I should like you to taste this fruit, which is really very fine, so you must accept a few specimens." With these words he insisted on my taking some of the best mangoes and other fruit he had, and positively refused to be paid for it.

A day or two after, I went to see the university of Caracas, which, with the House of Assembly, the National Library, and a church, form one great block of buildings. The National Library does not contain more than ten thousand volumes, and in that of the university there are about three thousand five hundred. The department of divinity seemed best represented; but there was no great evidence of the books being cared for. The professors of the university were most obliging, and showed me all there was to be seen in the college, which is massive and not ill-suited for its present purpose, though originally it was a convent of Carmelite friars. The departments of chemistry and medicine seemed the best organized. I concluded my inspection with a visit to the dissecting-room, and that for anatomical preparations. Among other things, I was shown the skull of a man whose bones had turned to chalk. The skull was from an inch to an inch and a half thick, and if a piece of it had been broken off and shown separately, no unscientific person would have guessed it to be, or to have ever been, a human bone. One of the professors then went with me to the Hall of Congress, where also are pictures of Bolivar, and of the meeting at which the Act of Independence was settled. The locality seemed to inspire my cicerone, for, though I, and a man who sat there reading, and who never raised his head, were his sole audience, he delivered with the greatest animation an eloquent harangue on the subject of liberty. If it be true that still waters are the deepest, I should fear that the republicanism of South America is somewhat shallow, it does so babble as it runs. However, I was glad to hear the orator express himself with great warmth as regards England, saying that she was the only power that had assisted them in their great struggle with the Spaniards, and without her they would hardly have secured their independence.

The time had come for my interview with the ministers on the business I had in hand. C. came for me at 11 A. M. on the appointed day, and we walked together to Government House. As we were very busy conversing, I did not notice the sentry, and indeed he was such a mite of a man, that I might have been pardoned for overlooking him. It seems that in Venezuela "such divinity doth hedge" a sentinel that no passer-by must come within a yard of him.

Having approached within the limits, the small warrior soon convinced me that his dignity was not to be so offended with impunity. In the twinkling of an eye he brought down his musket with a terrible rattle to the charge, and very nearly wounded me a little above the knee, at the same time snarling out some unintelligible words. It is a curious fact that the Venezuelans are, generally speaking, a very civil race, until they put on uniform, (a red uniform, by the by, like the English,) when their whole na

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Escaping from the surly little sentry, we entered the Government House, and were received by the official whose duty it is to usher in those who come to pay their respects to the ministers. This official, whose name is Godoy, is a negro of the negroes, and is a genius in his way. Many of his bon-mots are current at Carácas. On one occasion, when government had suddenly changed hands, a conceited official, who had just got into power, said to Godoy, "You here still? How is it that you have not been turned out with the rest?" "I," said Godoy, with an affectation of humility, but casting a significant glance at his interrogator, ascend, and consequently never descend." His questioner was soon enabled to appreciate the philosophy of the remark, for he descended from Government House as suddenly as he ascended, being turned out by another change. Another time, during the late troubles, a number of young men, chiefly students from the university, collected in a threatening manner near Government House, and began shouting out various seditious cries. Godoy, and one of the generals on the side of the party in power, came out on the balcony to see what was the matter; on which stones were thrown at Godoy, and the mob shouted, "Down with the negroes!" "Down with the brigands!" "Do you hear what they say?" asked the general, sneeringly, of Godoy. excellency," he replied, "I hear. They are calling out, 'Down with the negroes!' meaning, of course, me; and Down with the brigands!' which, as no one else is present, must refer, I suppose, to your excellency."

"Your

We were ushered by Godoy into the councilroom, a handsome apartment, looking on the Gran Plaza. It contains the inevitable picture of Bolivar. There is also his sash, but I do not remember to have seen his sword anywhere. We entered and found a suffocating atmosphere, for the rooms at Government House are open only during the day, and the doors and windows are kept closed from sunset till the hour when business commences, which is generally about eleven o'clock. There are, besides, no verandahs, so that the public rooms at Caracas are hotter than those at Madras. However, as the ministers, with the acting president at their head, were already assembled, there was noth