The reasons assigned by the owners in support of their claims were unacceptable to the Board. They felt justified, they said, in refusing, but were willing to meet to discuss the respective alterations. The meeting took place, but it was found that the representatives of the miners could not proceed, as their Council had refused to accept the scale until all the notices of men who were discharged for depression of trade were withdrawn and all the pits recommenced. "The owners said that such a thing was an impossibility, seeing that a want of trade was the only cause of pits being stopped and men dismissed. If the pits could be worked they would work them, but this they could not do in consequence of the terrible depression of trade. It was nonsense to say that the pits were stopped by an arrangement among the owners. That was a monstrous absurdity." These remarks were sent out to the miners with a most earnest appeal not to delay the matter any longer, because it could only result in danger. A form accompanied the circular upon which the lodges were asked to vote whether they would place the question of a sliding scale in the hands of the Federation Board. This appeal was successful, and the Board was instructed to proceed with it by a majority of 104. At the earliest possible moment a meeting was arranged, and the scale agreed to on the lines of the previous one, to commence on 1st August 1884, and to continue for two years certain, subject to two calendar months' notice. But such notice was to be given on a date to permit of a termination on the 31st of July. This fourth sliding scale was similar to the third one, which appears on page 177, so we need not reproduce it. SECOND RELIEF FUND The formation of the Second Relief Fund was forced upon the county by the fact that there were so many men out of work, and their poverty was a peril to those who were in employment. Men's necessities are a strong force, oft compelling them to do things they would otherwise shrink from. It was thought, therefore, it would be sound economy to ease off the poverty, if luxury could not be afforded, and thus save men from overcrowding the labour market, or at least from accepting conditions which, if once established, would prove a general injury. Then there was a feeling of sympathy for the distress seen on all hands, and a desire to alleviate, if not obliterate it; for the miners of Durham may have little, but they never hesitate to share it. They are not the men "who, seeing their brother in distress, shut up their bowels of compassion against him." The sight of distress, or a knowledge that someone is in danger, never appeals in vain.