I fear the history will not be very concise; but that, like all other words, is relative. If it is not as short as some would desire, it shall not be verbose. We will waste no words nor use any useless verbal padding; we will "nothing extenuate nor write down aught in malice." Each general event shall have its place and mention. This note may be added, that at the commencement of the Association it was embracive of all sections of labour in and about the mines. Before we had been long in existence there was a desire for the formation of separate organisations, as it was felt that there were certain peculiarities connected with the other occupations which the miners could not technically deal with. The first to leave were the enginemen, then followed the mechanics, and then the cokemen at the end of 1874. With this notice it will be understood that I deal with the miners alone, only mentioning the others as they come into play with us, and especially after the Federation was formed. I propose to deal with the work with regard to the chronological order of the events rather more than in symmetrical chapters, and therefore after we get the Association formed we will take a year or more, just as the business is great or small, as a definite period. HISTORY OF DURHAM MINERS' ASSOCIATION THE PREPARATION The Association was not a sudden and startling phenomenon, but was a pure evolution. It was no growth of a day like Jonah's gourd, but it was the outcome and the harvest of a long, painful sowing-time. In our Hall we have two busts. These are no doubt looked upon (if noticed at all) with casual indifference. Few of us regard them as expressions of important periods in our struggle for Right and Equality, and as part of the preparatory process, the consummation of which is our grand Institution, of which we are justly proud, for our history fully illustrates the sentiment: "Truth struck to earth will rise again." It is not my intention to take a long and detailed retrospect, but just to enumerate a few of the events happening after 1860, all of which were assisting in clearing the ground, and inciting our formation and preparing men's minds gradually for, such an institution. These I will place in chronological order. First, there was the Mines Act which came into force in July 1861, which amongst other important provisions provided that no boy should go down the mine under twelve unless he could produce a certificate that he could read and write; that boys under twelve should go to school five hours per day; that minerals should be weighed, and that the workmen should be at liberty to appoint a checkweighman.