ABSTRACT
Charles Knight was a pioneer of accessible populist non-fiction, which took off in the nineteenth century. The Midland Mining Commission was later set up in 1843 to examine the conditions of mining workers after unrest the previous year highlighted the blighted landscape, poor living conditions and health problems among miners and their families. However, little political action occurred until the full emergence of state welfarism in the middle of the next century. Clergymen have been known to send home a wedding party in despair after a vain essay to gain from the vocal organs of the bride or bridegroom, or their friends, a sound by way of name which any known alphabet had the power of committing to paper. The habit of using the cognomen is so common, that the miners apply the custom to strangers with an un-consciousness of offence quite classic.
