The week has been marked by a panic in the
coal trade. The masters have not withdrawn from their attitude, nor have the men, and as yet the decision of the latter stands to suspend work on the 12th inst. The Durham miners, exasperated by a proposed reduction of 7 per cent., will, it is believed, come out also, so that the total number of strikers may reach four hundred thousand men. In view of this catastrophe, the great consumers of coal, and especially those who provide for household use, have all over England been sending in orders so large, that the delivering power of the dealers has been overtaxed, and coal on Friday in London was for good descriptions 34s. a ton. The panic has since a little subsided ; but the poor, who buy by the hundredweight, will for some days be unable to refill their stores at less than 40s. a ton. In the bitter weather now prevailing, this will add greatly to the miseries of life; but the miners do not care, and it is difficult to believe that the masters are not at heart pleased with a movement which sweeps their sheds clean at an advance of 50 per cent., promises them a permanent rise of price, and only injures them by encouraging the men to demand further advances, once more to be recouped, as contracts expire, out of the patient public. It is said that imported coal will pour in from Belgium ; but a large British demand would soon cause a strike of Belgian miners for heavy pay, and unless we can learn to burn anthracite from America, or can bring over the limitless supplies existing in India, imports will help us very little. The strike cannot last long, because so enormous a number of men cannot be maintained without wages ; but it will leave all questions unsettleL4r`d coal for many months perceptibly dearer.
