651, and most of these were brought from the workhouses of the immediate neighbourhood. This and other circumstances connected with the character and habits of the hands generally produced a rather low morale. But from that time this kind of apprentice system has supplied a smaller proportion of the operatives, and they have much improved in their general character. While at Willenhall I went to see one of the numerous coal-mines in the neighbourhood, which have erected many parallels of high, black bulwarks, which no army could scale without tall ladders. The men were just ascending from the pit, so I only ventured to look over into its dark mouth, and to wonder if the apostle of the Apocalypse ever saw anything of the kind before he had the sublime vision which he described with such splendid diction and imagery. How wonderful is the industrial economy of human necessities! What infinite and mysterious provisions to meet and satisfy their demands! The greatest mystery of all is this, that the demands of these necessities should not only produce occupations but tastes of endless variety. I have not the slightest doubt that every mother's son of these subterranean toilers would prefer, at the same price, to grub on his back or knees by lamp-light down in the coal seams fifty fathoms under ground, rather than to plough, reap, or
