In the spring of the year the whole of the mining industry was startled by a proposal made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to place an export duty of 1s. per ton upon all exported coal. It was done to enable him to meet the heavy expenditure which had been thrown upon the nation by the Boer War. The entire cost was over £250,000,000. The year or two previous the coal trade had been prosperous. The profits of the employers and the wages of the miners loomed up very large, and he being in a desperate position (having a deficit of £50,000,000 to meet) thought it safe to make an attack on the trade. His proposition was a very disastrous one. The arguments advanced in support were uneconomic and fallacious, but were forced upon the House of Commons by the sheer weight and force of a great and obedient majority--a majority whose party loyalty covered a large number of political sins. His main arguments (upon which the changes were rung) were as follows:--Coals were a great national asset, and the exportation should be checked, and even if exported under the 1s. tax the foreigners would pay it. To say the least, the former of these arguments was too narrow to be considered at all seriously, because if the necessities of the nation demanded a preservation of our coal supply, then it could only be done by a total prohibition of the export. Further, it lost sight of the large mining population, the amount of capital sunk in the mines, the ships and sailors employed in the carrying of coal, and the interchange of trade, which would be interfered with if the policy were effected. The argument as to the foreigners paying the 1s. was fallacious and selfish; fallacious because it assumed the foreign consumer would not seek the cheapest market, which would be opened out to him by the development of the Continental coal fields; and selfish because, if correct, it was an endeavour to throw upon him a part of the cost of a mad and wasteful war, when he took no part in the initiation of it. His proposal was met by fierce opposition in all the mining districts, both exporting and non-exporting, but in none more than in Durham. Employer and employed united in opposing it. To such an extent was this joint action carried that the pits were all laid idle for the purpose of affording the workmen an opportunity to hold mass meetings. In a circular issued on April 22nd the Executive Committee informed the lodges that they intended to hold seven simultaneous meetings, and to join the Northumberland miners on the Town Moor, Newcastle. In the circular they said: