‘Then you will die yourself,’ Salvarini put in sadly. ‘Then I shall die—death comes only once,’ Maxwell exclaimed proudly, throwing back his head. ‘No sin like that shall stain my soul!’ For a moment the two men were silent. Salvarini broke the silence. ‘Listen, Maxwell,’ he said. ‘I am in a measure to blame for this, and I will do what I can to serve you. You must go to Rome, as if you intended to fulfil your task, and wait there till you hear from me. I am running great risks in helping you so, and you must rely on me. One thing is in your favour: time is no particular object. Will you go so far, for your sake and mine?’ ‘Anything, anywhere!’ burst out the Englishman passionately. (_To be continued._) PITMEN, PAST AND PRESENT. The coal-trade of Scotland dates from the early part of the thirteenth century. In its earliest stages it embraced only the shallowest seams, and those without water, or any other difficulty requiring machinery to overcome. The digging of coal, therefore, is one of our oldest industries; and it may be interesting to look at some phases of the work from the miner’s point of view. Taking this stand-point, we will see that the improvement in the miner’s condition—physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual—is almost inconceivable. When machinery became necessary for pumping water from coal-pits—about the beginning of the seventeenth century—there appears to have been a demand for workmen greater than the supply, and power was granted to colliery owners ‘to apprehend all vagabonds and sturdy beggars’ and set them to work. This shows that the life of a miner was not at all an attractive one; and this is not to be wondered at, as will be seen from some of the allusions made in this article as we proceed. The one fact, that colliers were, for two centuries after the date referred to—that is, till near the end of the eighteenth century—bought and sold with the collieries in which they wrought, is sufficient to stamp mining as a most undesirable kind of employment, even in those early and more or less barbarous times. One can easily understand, from this instance of hardship, how it became necessary to keep up the supply of miners from the criminal classes. An analogous case still presents itself in Russia, where one of the most hopeless sentences that can be passed on political and other offenders is banishment to the Siberian mines.