pwith, Esq., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was
appointed by the Board of Woods and Forests a Commissioner for the
purpose on behalf of the Crown; and John Probyn, Esq., of Longhope
Manor-house, Gloucestershire, was selected by the body of free miners to
act on their behalf; and the office of arbitrator between them was filled
by John Buddle, Esq., of Wallsend, in the county of Northumberland;
Thomas Graham, Esq., acting as their solicitor, and Mr. Henry Ebsworth as
his clerk. {126}

Some idea may be formed of the necessity for such a mining Commission,
and of the difficulties it had to overcome, from the following
particulars, as Mr. Sopwith stated them in his valuable Paper on "Mining
Plans and Records," read before the British Association at Newcastle in
1838:--"Great distrust of any interference" (he says) "existed, and some
of the mine-owners refused to allow of underground surveys being made.
Numerous and conflicting parties were then working mines under customs
which were totally inapplicable to the present state of mining;
destructive at once to the interests of the free miners of the Forest;
ruinous, as sad experience had shown, to the enterprising capitalist; and
subversive of the rights of the Crown. So great was the perplexity, and
so numerous and conflicting were the claims of contending parties, that
the law advisers of the Board of Woods deemed it almost impossible to
arrive at any satisfactory adjustment of them within the period of three
years, as named in the Dean Forest Mining Act. The ruinous and
unsatisfactory state of the mines must appear obvious on a slight
consideration. As no plans existed, it was impossible to tell to what
extent or in what direction the underground works were being carried.
The crossing of mattocks, that is to say, the actual meeting of the
workmen underground, was often the abrupt signal for contention; the
driving of narrow headings was a means by which one coal-owner might gain
possession of coal which of right belonged to another; and a pit, though
sunk at a cost of several thousand pounds, had no secured possession of
coal beyond 12 yards round it, that is, a tract of coal 24 yards in
diameter. At 40 or 50 yards from such a work another adventurer might
commence a pit, and have an equal right, if right it could be called, to
the coal. If a long and expensive adit was driven, another one might be
commenced only a few yards deeper; and, from such a state of things, it
is qui