To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom and Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled.

The Petition of the undersigned Pitmen, who work in the coal mines of Durham and Northumberland, humbly sheweth:

That, within the last twenty years, upwards of seven hundred pitmen, the friends and companions of your petitioners, have been miserably destroyed, in the Durham and Northumberland mines, by explosions of inflamable gas ; and in addition, great numbers more from various other causes, have also encountered in the same mines, the most fearful deaths.

That the cause of those fearful explosions, is invariably the want of sufficient ventilation which permits the accumulation of inflammable gas, or fire-damp, from the coal in such large mases, as accidently set fire to explodes with such tremendous force, as sometimes to blow men through the shaft, 200 yards deep, as if from a cannon mouth, shaking the solid structure of the earth, in the neighbourhood of the pit, as if with an earthquake.

That the lives of your petitioners are not a day or an hour secure from such deadly operations, and, that it is a horrible and fearful thing to die such a death, or live in daily expectation of it.

That in addition to destruction by the sudden calamities, insufficient ventilation produces as vitiated atmosphere, from the poisonous gases and dampness of the mines, in which, from ten to twelve hours a day, your petitioners are confined, breathing it under a severity of labour seldom practised on the surface, which brings on suffering, emaciation, disease, and early death.

That, in the following cases of explosions in late years, it has been demonstrated beyond doubt, by the evidence at the coroner's inquests, that imperfect ventilation, and that alone, brought on the dreadful catastrophe. At St. Hilda explosion, in June 1839, in which a 51 lives were lost ; at Willington, in April, 1841, in which 10; at Thornley Pit, in August, 1841, in which 9; and at the King Pit, in April of the present year, in which 28 lives were thus destroyed.

That your petitioners are clearly convinced, that while mines are allowed to be worked, as at present, with only a single brattice-pit to each, as in the greatest number of instances in those districts, through which are supplied 100, 200, 300, 400, and sometimes 500 acres of underground workings, extending in some cases to be upwards of 60 or 70 miles of passages, that the lives of your petitioners will continue in daily imminent dangers, from the incapacity of one shaft to supply a sufficient quantity of air. Your petitioners are further convinced, that brattice-shafts, or pits divided by wooden partitions, of very imperfect, dangerous, and ill fitted for securing proper ventilation, as they waste the air at its source, by allowing an escape from the down-cast to the up-cast, through a partition of about seven inches thick, the temperature differing between them, from 50 deg. to 60 deg. That in accidents they get easily deranged or destroyed; and, as is universally the case where they exist, are used at the same time for drawing coals with corves or tubs, which obstruct by the amount of their areas, the admission and egress of air in their already too diminutive capacities.

That the only mode of securing proper ventilation, whatever direct means may be employed for securing it, is by sinking two shafts always to the coal or winning ; and in proportion as the underground, making additional shafts. And thus would the whole mine be ventilated, the coals more easily and healthfully worked, and your petitioners secured from the recurrence of those terrible accidents.

That your petitioners, knowing that, under certain circumstances, the Davy Lamp is liable to an explosive mixture, cannot rest satisfied with their being secured of by an imperfect instrument, easily deranged, which at the moments of greatest danger develops its imperfections, and brings on the mischief it is intended to prevent ; and, on the pretended safety of which has been based the modern practice of carrying foul underground workings to the most dangerous extent; demonstrating, your petitioners humbly hope, to your honourable house, another important reason for the adoption of an efficient ventilation.

That such ventilation may be properly applied, and the mine placed in every respect in as perfect a condition as its nature it will admit, your petitioners respectfully submit to your honourable house, that means should be adopted to secure for the direction of the mines, viewers and under-viewers, properly educated, and sufficiently experienced for their onerous charge, to whose care lives, as well as much valuable property, are entrusted, and by whose ignorance they are not infrequently sacrificed. And your petitioners consider it only proper, as in other professions, so in that of mining, that a scientific and suitable education should be possessed by the officers of mines, previous to the assumption of their important duties, which should be made imperative.

That for securing those things, and other improvements and advantages to the mine, which self interest or negligence might resist, evade, or leave unaccomplished, even though authorised by your honourable house ; your petitioners conceive that the appointment of official Inspectors of mines as of factories and railways, with authority to investigate, suggest, and recommend, and enforce, would greatly conduce thereto, and also to their early introduction and right working.

That the adoption of these suggestions, your petitioners are firmly convinced, is imperatively necessary for providing against the calamities of the mines, and for their better and economical working. Your petitioners therefore humbly and most earnestly pray that your honourable house will take them and any other beneficial suggestions that may be made, into your immediate consideration ; and, should your honourable house, induced by the importance of the subject to humanity, and the interest of the country, favourably incline to this their faithful representation ; your petitioners, further, humbly and respectfully pray that for obtaining a more particular and extensive information on all the points bearing on the mine, and receiving confirmation of the facts contained in the premises, your honourable house will be pleased to appoint a select committee of inquiry ; or take such steps as may be necessary for the appointment of a commission of scientific and practical men to visit the mines, and investigate their condition by personal enquiry and examination, with a view to report speedily thereon, for the purpose or basing a practical, complete, and comprehensive measure, by which your petitioners may, for the future, be better protected from the fearful destruction that is perpetually carrying death and woe into the bosoms of their families.

And your petitioners as in duty-bound will ever pray.