We have given elsewhere the history of the quarrel between
the coal-miners of the district around Montceau-les-Mines and the French Government, but must mention here that alarm is not yet completely over. The great strike has been postponed, but the more violent leaders say that if the Committee of Labour in the Chamber reports against them the strike will be general, and they will resist force by force. Indeed; 3f. Yvetot, secretary of the new Labour Exchanges; says that all labourers in France are irritated by the employs ment of troops, and if blood is once shed the soldiers will refuse to fire, "and the social revolution will burst upon the country." As soldiers never refuse to fire, and as five in seven of the adult males of France are posssssed of property, there is not much in these threats; but there is evidently real anger in the mines, and a desire to call attention to their mismanagement by something like an insurrection. There must be serious grievances down there still uncured; but, as usual, no one will tell the world plainly what an average miner earns, and what is the cost in the district of maintaining a work- man's household. The Labour Committee is working hard at the pension project, and, we may be sure, does not forget that employes with a right to a pension cannot risk dis. missal.
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