his mark by the fairness and moderation of his views, and the sound business-like instincts which he displayed. I happen to

be one of the very few people who noticed Mr. Burt at that time; and I can well remember how refreshing it was, after a long wrangle of the usual description among the well-meaning but wrong-headed 'delegates' of the ordinary kind, when this unknown young man raised his voice and offered a few practical suggestions to his companions. No one, even then, could doubt Mr. Burt's superiority, not merely to most miners, but to most of the people whom chance or their own persistence thrusts into prominent positions before the public. Very quickly did he make his way and win the confidence of those around him; for, fortunately, the Northumbrian pitmen. are not slow to recognise merit; and thus it came to pass that before the year 1865

was out, Thomas Burt had become the paid General Secretary of the Northumberland Miners' Association. Then it was that, as I have already told, he was able to lay aside the pick and take up the pen. He had tholed his assize' in the darkness and loneliness of the mine, and now he came forth into the daylight, henceforth to be known to his fellows as no ordinary man. Installed in a position which gave him great influence in the counsels of his fellow-workmen, and which made him a really important personage in the industrial affairs of the North of England, he speedily showed the special qualities for which he has since. been distinguished in Parliament. His remarkable powers of organisation found full employment in the creation and consolidation of a permanent fund for the benefit of the Northumberland miners, the management of which he has since conducted with

marked abillty and success.

His next object

was to improve, as far as possible, the relations between employers and employed. How he succeeded in this work I need

hardly say. One may indeed appeal to the testimony both of masters and men on this point. For many years unbroken harmony prevailed in the Northumberland coal trade, and all the vexed questions of wages, allowances, hours of work, etc., were settled without difficulty, and without the creation of any angry feeling, by a resort to that arbitration of which Mr. Burt has always been one of the warmest advocates. The world is accustomed to hear many bitter names applied to those working men who occupy positions like that held by Mr. Burt. They are described as demagogues and adventurers, and are charged with setting class. against class. So long, however, as they can point to persons like the Member for

VOL. II.

B

Morpeth, their order stands in no need of vindication. The one occasion on which there has been any serious dispute in the Northumberland coal trade, since the present Secretary of the men's association took office, was an occasion when the masters, by the universal acknowledgment of their own order elsewhere, were wholly in the wrong, and when no part of the responsibility for the strife could be laid to the charge of Mr. Burt.

It was not surprising, when a movement began in London for securing the return of a certain number of working-class representatives to the House of Commons, that the name of Mr. Burt should be mentioned among those of men eminently suited for seats in Parliament. The movement in

itself may have been a mistake. But there can be no doubt that the special needs of the mining classes, their liability to excep

tional dangers, and their consequent need of special protection, made it desirable that they should have a representative of their own in the House of Commons. And it so happened that the decision of the Revising Barrister, which gave the franchise to a vast number of Choppington pitmen who had not previously possessed it, enabled Mr. Burt's friends to bring him forward at the last general election under the most favourable circumstances. He stood for Morpeth, where the members of his own class had secured, if not an actual majority, at least a position of commanding influence on the register. After a contest marked by the display of much good feeling on both sides, Mr. Burt was returned as the representative of the borough in which he had so long lived in the humble capacity of a hewer, and where he had made himself known by his modesty, his abilities, and his zealous efforts