required than by railway makers of every
grade, from the gaffers to the tip-boy. In
my humble opinion, however, the efforts
made were rather calculated to bring the
object attempted into disrepute, than to
accomplish it; and that these efforts failed
is not to be gainsayed. Thus, many well-
dressed, and doubtless well-meaning persons,
obtained permission to visit the men on
the works, during meal times, with the view
of imparting religious instruction to them,
and did so. The distribution of religious
tracts, and the usual machinery of
proselytism, were shortly in active operation,
and the men's dinner-hour, instead of being a
period of rest and relaxation, was converted
into a time for admonition and harangue.

An elderly man who was very officious in
the distribution of tracts—which would not
be received—all at once found them acceptable
and even in demand. He was
overjoyed, talked among his fellows of a revival,
and came loaded daily with his wares. The
success of his labours was now spoken of as
a decided and encouraging fact, and doubtless
would have been considered so till now, had
he not one day been taken to a shanty, the
walls of which had been doubly papered with
his tracts, over which a thick coat of white-
wash was then being plastered. On one occasion
I remember walking down to the tunnel,
and was joined at Hazlewood Bridge by a
missionary. He detailed to me how he had
nearly been a martyr to the cause; how he
had been twice nearly drawn half-way up
the shaft in a bucket and suddenly let down;
how he had been run out on trucks to the
tip-head; how he had been shunted on a
lorry and left upon the spoil-bank for hours;
and how all sorts of practical jokes had been
played upon him, and yet he felt the interest
of the men so deeply at heart that, despite all,
he must persevere. I could respect and admire
this enthusiast; although I did not think he
used the right means to attain his purpose.

The right steps towards the conversion of
navvies were soon afterwards taken by Mr.
now Sir T. M. Peto, Mr.Thomas Jackson,
Mr. Brassey, and other gentlemen; who,
having entered into contracts on a vast scale,
made the social condition of their men a
matter of primary consideration. In several
districts suitable dwellings were erected for
them; in towns, cottages were run up. For
these a small rent was deducted from wages;
but, in some cases, suitable lodgings were
provided and paid for by the contractor. The
gaffers and gangers were not allowed to keep
tommy and beershops; wages were paid in
money, and there was no truck.  The hours
of labour also were duly regulated; and
regulations as to the proper conduct of work
in hand and thos executing it were duly
enforced.  Beer in barrels, casks, and even in
pails, had formerly been brought upon the
works. All this was strictly forbidden; men
were no longer brought fuddled to their
work, nor kept fuddled at it, in order that,
under the influence of drink, they might get
through more in a given time. A certain
quantity of beer was permitted to be brought
to each man during the hours of labour; this
being regulated according to circumstances
and the nature of the work. Under such rule
as this, railway-makers of every trade—and
the navvie more especially—became at
length somewhat disciplined. Self-respect was
inculcated; respect for the laws of sobriety,
and decorum followed in due course; and
thus was effected the great moral revolution
in the condition of the railway-labourer, to
which all who have been conversant with
railway operations during the last twenty
years, can most emphatically testify.

COAST FOLK.

ALTHOUGH I was born in a seaside town, I
am not entitled, as the waves did not reach,
and the spray did not wet the house of my
birth, to repeat the grand boast of the Fisher
people of the east coast of Scotland, and to
say, I was born with the sea in my mouth.
The world-renowned silver spoon is nothing
when compared with this magnificent buccal
ornament. Some men have several, but all
men have two births,—the birth of the
organism, and the birth of the memory.
Authentic tradition, analogical observation,
and sound reasoning, compel us to believe we
were born, nursed, and weaned, although we
know nothing about our experiences of these
important operations. Biographical doubts
in the most sceptical of minds have never
attacked these facts, although absolute
oblivion and entire unconsciousness hide from
us all the earlier months and events of our
existence. The mammalian epoch is a period
of moving time which we are compelled to
confound with the immobile eternity of the
past in which we did not exist at all. The
only birth of which we have the certain
knowledge of personal consciousness is the
birth of the memory, the awakening of the
observation, the earliest recollection of the
first vivid pictures still remaining in the
picture stores of the mind. One of my
earliest recollections is of being awoke by the
morning sun shining in upon me when lying
in a bed with white dimity curtains, opposite
which stood a chest of mahogany drawers
with a white coverlet upon the top of it, and
surmounted by a magnificent model of a
three-decked and three-masted ship,
completely rigged and fully equipped, and with
cannons in all the port-holes. Rapturous
admiration is the only phrase which can
convey an idea of my entranced contemplation
of this miracle of art. How old I was I
do not know. I remember it was about the
time when it was quite an effort of courage
for me to slide out of bed by myself while
clutching the sheet to prevent a sudden drop
and a fall upon the floor. I could not have