to establish the equality of bad with good workmen--Boycotting and intimidation--Dynamite and Radical deputies from Paris--A Republican minister asks the company to accept Basly and his syndicate as an umpire--Bitter opposition of the Basly syndicate to the saving fund system--They demand a State pension fund--And pending this a fund controlled by the syndicate--A despotism of agitators--Upshot of the strike--The mines in the Pas-de-Calais--Visits to workmen's houses--Fine appearance and carriage of the miners--Their politics--Women and children--Good ventilation and sanitation of the mines--'No man can be a miner not bred to it as a boy'--Excellent housekeeping of the women--Miners of Southern and Northern France--Influence of high altitudes on character--The elective principle in the mines--Morals and conduct of the mining people--Churches and schools--A children's school at St. Waast--A digression into the Artois--What the Tiers-Etat of Northern France wanted in 1789--The _cahiers_ of the Tiers-Etat--Respect for vested interests--A visit to St.-Amand--The conspiracy of Dumouriez--Ruin of a magnificent abbey--A beautiful belfry--Interesting pictures by Watteau--Co-operation at Anzin--What its advantages are to the workmen--Eight per cent. dividends to the members in 1866, and an average during 23 years to 1889 of 11-80/100 per cent.--How the workmen and their families live--Table of articles purchased--Attendance upon the schools--Influence of women and families--Increase of juvenile crime under irreligious education in France and the United States--Louis Napoleon's National Retiring Fund for Old Age--Regulations of the Anzin Council affecting this fund--Average expenditure of the Anzin company for the benefit of workmen 'fifty centimes for every ton of coal extracted'--The Decazeville strikes in 1888--They begin with the murder of one of the best engineers and end with a workman's banquet to the engineer-in-chief 259-331 CHAPTER XII IN THE NORD--(_continued_)