MR. BALDWIN AND THE MINERS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In reply to your correspondent, Mr. Barnes-Austin, it may be asked how could the Prime Minister have " prepared for " the Mining Crisis ? The quarrel came slowly to a head. No one (pace Mr. Barnes-Austin) knew the Rights and Wrongs of it. No educated person, not himself connected with the industry, had either the full or the exact and accurate know- ledge which would enable him to take up a decided attitude with regard to it. The general public were entirely in the dark. In such a case a conflict might have brought Revolution nearer by a long stride, while to have compelled the miners' representatives to attend the Court of Inquiry would surely have been the extremity of rashness. The Prime Minister has deserved well of his Country, as will be realized in due time.
The situation with which the Government and the Country will have to deal eight or nine months hence will be entirely new. By that time the fog will have lifted and light will have been let in to the dark corners. The conditions of the Coal Industry will then be generally known. British public opinion, the opinion, remember, of a People who desire justice and love Fair Play, will gradually come to certain conclusions ; and it will fall to the Government, as the instrument of the nation, to carry them out. Then, once the nation has made up its mind, the will of the nation will prevail. If Revolutionaries on the one hand or Reactionaries on the other attempt to enforce one-sided views upon the Country they will quickly find that no one can withstand a British Government which has the People behind it.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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