the coals out of the
colliers into the barges, which latter bring them up for the supply of
the inhabitants of London. Theirs is a precarious and laborious life,
and therefore they have special claims upon the consideration of the
public. Mr. Deering tells us "it may possibly serve to bespeak interest
in the subject if it be known that it is one which affects for weal or
for woe no fewer than 10,000 persons, there being nearly 2,000
coal-whippers, together with their wives and families." From the opening
of the coal-whippers' office in 1843 to the close of 1850, the quantity
of coals delivered through it was 16,864,613.25 tons, and the amount of
wages paid to the men during that time was 589,180 pounds 11s. 5.75d. At
times these men have to wait long without employment, sometimes a ship
only breaks bulk, and a small quantity of coal is taken out, sometimes
the whole cargo is worked right out. Thus the men's remuneration varies.
In some cases a coal-whipper earns but 8s. 9d. a week, and in none more
than 16s. Let us now speak of the work. As we have already intimated,
that is very hard. It is carried on by gangs of nine, four work in the
hold of the ship and fill the basket, four work on the ways, and whip the
coal--that is, raise the basket to the top--and one, the basket man,
turns it into the meter's box. The four on the whip have very hard work,
and after twelve or fourteen tons have been raised go down into the hold,
where they are choked with coal dust, but have not quite so difficult a
task. Men who are employed in this labour describe it as most laborious
and irksome. Nor from their description can we well conceive it to be
otherwise.

Under the old system these men got all their work through the
public-house. That was a fearful system. We have heard coal-whippers
speak of it as "slavery, tyranny, and degradation;" and well they might.
"The only coves who got the work," as one man told us, "were the
Lushingtons." If a man did not spend his money at the public-house he
got no employment; and actually we heard in one case of a _landlady_ who
turned off a gang in the middle of their work because they would not
spend so much money in her public-house as she thought desirable. One
publican who had several of these gangs under his thumb, by various
exactions, we were positively assured, made as much as 35 pounds per week
by them. The publicans, says Mr. Deering, the able and intelligent
secretary to th