AN ESSAY
MINES OF ENGLAND.
LONDON:
MNTKD nv WH1J9, JOWRTT, AND MILLS,
BOI.T.COITRT, Fi.KEr-sTnKZT.
AN ESSAY
MINES OF ENGLAND;
THEIR IMPORTANCE
SOURCE OF NATIONAL WEALTH,
CHANNEL FOR THE ADVANTAGEOUS EMPLOYMENT OF
PRIVATE CAPITAL.
BY GEORGE ABBOTT, JUN.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION.
MDCCCXXXIII.
INTRODUCTION.
THE following observations and details are sub-
mitted with the intention of showing that, when
properly conducted, Mining is neither a specula-
tive nor a precarious mode of employing capital ;
but, on the contrary, both a very secure and great-
ly advantageous mode of investing spare capital.
The following details are also given with the
view of proving, that although the public feeling
against all Mining Operations was formerly well
founded, on account of their then precarious na-
ture, and the many severe losses, occasioned by
deficient scientific information and want of skill,
and various other circumstances not naturally
consequent to Mining Operations the present
dis-estimation of such undertakings is much to
be deplored, as being now ill-founded, impolitic,
B
4 Q4 nna
11 INTRODUCTION.
and unjust; and likewise injurious to national
industry and wealth, as well as to individual
enterprise and prosperity. The perusal of the
following observations will prove, that the present
general misconception of the nature and advan-
tages of the Mine investments of the present day,
has arisen from imbibed prejudice, created by
persons ignorant of the great advantages which
may now be derived from such investments, in
consequence of the total alteration which a change
in the conducting management, and a greatly
improved scientific and mechanical skill, have
caused in the nature and results of such under-
takings.
But it is only after considerable hesitation, that
these observations are committed to the press,
and presented for perusal, as it is felt that, under
the present general view and misapprehension of
this subject, it may be very difficult to encounter
and remove prejudices, which both tradition and
late events have imposed on the minds of most
people, to such a degree that, intent and fixed
in their own feelings and opinions, they are only
disposed to a continued observance of that which
tends to support their misconception, and pro-
mote an obscurity of true position and result.
INTRODUCTION. Ill
Unfortunately, many persons are prone to con-
clude, and even act, from prejudice ; and many,
previous to a final consideration, are apt to give
an improper influence to misunderstood effect,
instead of affording a just one to cause and cir-
cumstance. But if in this instance the mind
can, during the perusal of the following details,
in a certain degree, divest itself of the influence
of prejudice, and keep the judgment suspended,
so as to afford a proper attention to the matter
now suggested for consideration, its advantages
will be easily perceived, although, owing to an
ignorance of its importance, the subject has been
so very generally unheeded. In short, it will be
seen that the operation of the Mineral Royalties
and Mining generally, is now quite another sort
of thing to what it was some years since ; and
that it is now not only divested of many circum-
stances which were opposed to success, but
actually possessed of many circumstantial and
practical facilities and advantages, insuring a suc-
cessful result, such as easier access security
from interruption good title freedom of opera-
tion a greatly increased geological and miner
ralogical experience a better and more expedi-
tious method of working the mineral with dimi-
B 2
Jy. INTRODUCTION.
nished expense by improved mechanism a great
reduction in the price of supplies of all kinds, as
well as in the means of conveyance and transit of
materials and ores to and from the mines a
ready, certain, and secure market, for the imme-
diate sale of the produce, and a jealous attention
to general economy.
To prove that, under proper management and
good direction, Mining may be made highly pro-
ductive and advantageous, I must be permitted
to enter into some general details of many of the
various causes, which have produced the strong
public prejudice and misconception of the nature
and results of Mining Operations ; to advert to
many of the practical and mechanical disadvan-
tages, until lately, consequential on their com-
mencement ; to expose the fraudulent system
which for many years prevailed in their manage-
ment, and operated so powerfully to prevent any
extended or general activity, and to divert atten-
tion from any proper consideration of the import-
ance of the metalliferous minerals of this king-
dom; to point out many combined causes which
have been prejudicial to their profitable opera-
tion ; and to direct a contrast of former igno-
rance, irregularity, and expense, with the im-
INTRODUCTION. , V
provements, information, and economy, of the
present day.
As the operation of the Cornish Copper Mines
has attracted much of the public attention, it will
be as well to generally confine ourselves to mat-
ters and incidents relating to them, and only in-
troduce, in the following details, such observa-
tions respecting other Mines and Mineral Royal-
ties, as shall be necessary to direct a general
attention to the whole.
With a view of placing the bearings and merits
of an important branch of national industry in
their correct position, an attempt has been made,
in the following details, at a perspicuous exposi-
tion of the events and facts which have been op-
posed to a fair and full development of the pecu-
liar advantages of Mining Investments. Mention
has been made of conduct and a diversity of cir-
cumstances, the continuation of which majj be
considered as effectually checked ; and there is
now no longer cause for apprehension of any
attempt at a repetition of the various irregula-
rities and events adverted to.
It has been necessary to advert to these mat-
ters, in order to establish the fact, that "wfrw
v j INTRODUCTION.
properly conducted, Mining is not, in itself , specula-
tive or precarious, on the contrary, both a secure and
greatly advantageous employment of capital.
These matters have also been mentioned with
the intention of conveying useful information to
those persons, who now are, or hereafter may be,
shareholders in such undertakings ; and with the
hope, by giving an impartial explanation and de-
tail, to direct a due attention to the subject, and
obtain that fair and unbiassed consideration which
may lead to a correct appreciation of the great
national and private advantages derivable from
well-selected and judicious Operation.
The facts and tables given in the course of these
observations, prove that Mines are stcwrely and
largely productive when due caution, skill, and
integrity, are combined with a good selection
and well-directed management. But, although
there is an anxious desire to induce a proper con-
sideration of the advantage of distributing dispos-
able capital in well-chosen and well-regulated
operations ; let it not, for one moment, be sup-
posed that, by the position and arguments taken
and used, in the hope of causing a dispassionate
and unprejudiced view of this subject, there is
any intention to excite any of that indiscriminate
INTRODUCTION. Vll
and intemperate rage for Mine Investment which
existed a few years since, and was taken advan-
tage of by designing and unprincipled individuals,
to an extent that led to much devastation and
ruin, and an almost universal condemnation ot
every Mine Operation.
Whether my attempt to draw the public atten-
tion to this most important subject will or will
not be attended with any degree of success the
motive, and an intention to be strictly impartial,
may perhaps be deemed sufficient apology for
trusting that the following remarks and details
may not be wholly useless or uninteresting.
AN ESSAY
MINES OF ENGLAND,
CHAPTER I.
IT is notorious that many parts of Cornwall
and Devonshire were anciently wrought for Tin,
and many centuries since for Silver and Lead;
(see STRABO, lib. iii. p. 147; PLIN. lib. xxxiv.
c. 1C;) but the raising of Copper Ores or working
Copper Mines in these counties is of compara-
tively recent introduction ; for though the ancient
workings of Cornwall and Devon produced Tin,
Silver, and some Lead: some centuries back,
the greater quantity of Copper and Lead appears
to have been raised from Derbyshire, Cumber-
land, Westmoreland, and part of Wales. Edward
III., in the 15th year of his reign, granted to the
2
Duke of Gloucester certain COPPER Mines in the
counties of Cumberland, Northumberland, and
Yorkshire.
The most extensive, as well as the greater
number of ancient workings, appear to have been
in the west, south-west, and north-east parts
of Cornwall ; those of the east and north-east
parts of the county were most productive of Sil-
ver and Lead, as were the western and other
ancient workings in most departments of the
county of Tin. Many of the ancient workings
are very extensive near the surface, but it is ob-
vious that, for want of mechanical power and
material, they cannot have been wrought to any
considerable depth ; indeed, there are very few
ancient, or old, deep mines, except such as have
been recently abandoned. Many of those
mines which have been wrought within the last
fifty years, and upon which machinery has been
erected, have, through a variety of causes, here-
after adverted to, been compelled to suspend
their operations before the workings could be
carried to any effective extent or depth, or the
mine be sufficiently examined to enable any cor-
rect judgment to be formed, as to its natural
capabilities.
The greater number of those mines which have
had steam machinery erected upon them, have
been undertaken as Copper Mines ; as, until very
lately, but comparatively few of the Tin Mines
have been extensively wrought, in consequence
of not having had any effective machinery erected
upon them.
Though the Tin Mines of Cornwall and Devon
have been so ancient, that it may be argued that
metals and minerals never cease to grow (Wyatt,
p. 158), yet it is only within about the last half
century that any positive or settled system of
working them has begun to operate beneficially
in this country. Our miners being totally unac-
quainted with geology, any induction from geog-
nostic relations, was then totally, and even now
is, too frequently, disregarded. Their mine-
ralogical experience and skill were also very
limited, as they were constrained to confine their
attention to the observance of the few specimens
and varieties of mineral within the scope of their
individual operations or immediate neighbour-
hood. Habit and education precluded the possi-
bility of an extensive or general experience ; as it
was, and even now is, the general practice of
those engaged in Mine Operations, to introduce
their children on the mine at an early age, and
employ them in wheeling the barrow, and in
breaking up and dressing the ores, and other sur-
face operations, till strong enough to go under-
ground, where, by degrees, they are instructed
in the arts of boring, blasting, and breaking the
rock, as well as in dialling and all the other prac-
tical operations, until, through quick perception,
personal activity, or family influence, they are, in
early manhood, made underground agents or Cap-
tains of the Mine, under the superintendence of
the chief or directing miner ; in some instances
retaining such situation during life.
Should circumstances cause the suspension or
shutting up of the mine, the miners must endea-
vour to find employment elsewhere ; this is most
generally in an adjoining or neighbouring mine,
by contracting to work on tribute with other
miners. Those who cannot there obtain employ-
ment, go a little further off, where they continue
working till some casualty or strong inducement
takes them to another Mine. It thus happens,
that comparatively few of our miners have any
general knowledge of the country, strata, mine-
rals, indications, or symptoms, varying from
those of their immediate field of observation,
5
and consequently possess only a limited and
local knowledge, instead of an extended or gene-
ral experience.
There are some few, who having been em-
ployed in various unfortunate or profitless con-
cerns, have been compelled to move from one
district to another, and by this means have at-
tained to a somewhat more varied knowledge
than the absolutely local miner.
A very few, from family connexions, and the
influence consequent on being Captains of exten-
sive mines, have on certain occasions been called
in at the onset and progress of new undertak-
ings, as inspecting and consulting agents, not
only in their immediate vicinity, but in different
parts of the county ; by which they gain some
practical knowledge of the varieties, changes,
and irregularities of ground, and of the different
aspects of minerals under a change of circum-
stance and strata. But this information is ex-
tremely limited, as well as very vague, even in
most of our best practical miners ; as only very
few among the most intelligent Mine Captains
know any more of mineralogy than what the
varieties and nomenclature of the district present
to their observation. Any knowledge of the che-
6
mical combination, or of any mode of analysis,
is so totally out of the question that they even
deny its utility. Geological facts and deduc-
tions are not only wholly disregarded and deemed
useless, but pretendedly scorned by most of those
who are looked up to as the cleverest and best
experienced Mine Captains, who are weak enough
to flatter themselves that they hoodwink your
reason, and give you sufficient answer to your
suggestions of the utility and propriety of an at-
tainment, at the least, of some degree of a com-
petent knowledge of these sciences, by stating
(as Captain does) that he has lived many
years, and has been a practical miner from his
childhood ; that his relatives are all miners, and
that he has had much benefit from their know-
ledge and experience, and yet never goes under
ground in a strange place, but new features,
difficulties, and phenomena, are presented to his
observation, and that there are many matters
and derangements connected with heaves and
underground changes, which are quite inex-
plicable to him, and other most experienced
miners of the day ; and that, therefore, it is non-
sense to talk of the utility or propriety of any
application of a knowledge of geology, mine-
ralogy, or chemistry, to practical Mine Opera-
tions. Such persons forget, or appear not to
know, that a comparatively slight geological ex-
perience would be sufficient to convince them,
that many or most of those things which now
appear to them irregularities and inexplicable
phenomena are not so, but natural consequents,
easily accounted for, as the matter-of-course ef-
fects of a certain arrangement and disposition of
things, and easily comprehensible to those in the
habit of regarding and reflecting upon the con-
nexions of cause and effect. But we can scarcely
believe that any persons who, from the nature of
their occupations, must of necessity have, or
from their opportunities of acquiring it ought to
have, more than a common discriminative tact,
can be sincere in making any such observations ;
and therefore we can only conceive them made
for the purpose of furnishing excuses for their
own ignorance of portions of useful scientific ac-
quirement, which they feel conscious they ought
to possess ; or else, that they are made in an
illiberal feeling and jealousy of the advantage
and superior influence a requisite knowledge
would give to the rising Mine Agents.
Such individuals are neither ignorant of the
various losses which have been sustained in con-
sequence of an incompetent knowledge of these
sciences; nor of the fact that, through such in-
competency, a copper-miner from Gwenap would
be a prejudiced as well as inefficient reporter and
adviser upon a Tin Mine in the districts near
St. Just, or of a Lead Mine in the east or north-
east part of the county. In Instance I. will be
found several circumstances exhibitory of this fact.
Many valuable mines have been lost, entirely
owing to an ignorance of the effects of stratifica-
tion, and of the causes and consequents of the
dislocation of the veins, and an interruption of
their stratum and their course by slides, heaves,
flukans, &c. &c. ; and, after a lapse of years,
have been recovered, in consequence of the deri-
vative information afforded by the operations in
the adjoining or surrounding ground having in-
duced a closer observance, and more intimate
knowledge of the nature and prevailing irregu-
larities of the district.
In the face of these mineralogical and geolo-
gical deficiencies and blunders, our Mine Cap-
tains, generally, pretend to question any appli-
cable use of these sciences, and actually take
credit to themselves for their individual practical
9
talent and experience, instead of appearing to
reflect that their knowledge is derived from com-
bined causes, and acquired by chances not de-
pendent on or resting with themselves, or their
appropriate study and scientific attainment
(which would have prevented many ruinous con-
sequences) ; and that they ought to be ashamed
of their scientific deficiency, instead of boasting
and being content to pride themselves upon their
present mechanical and practical experience
more especially when, even at this day, you may
hear miners of the different parishes of Crowan,
Redruth, Gwenap, and Saint Ann's, ridiculing
each other for their professional ignorance of the
gossans, capels, killas, slides, heaves, fluckans,
&c. &c. of their several districts.
The Cornish miner is accustomed to very little
variety of strata, chiefly granite, gneiss, and
killas ; and so far from having any general degree
of information relative to foreign or other strata,
he is absolutely very deficient in a proper prac-
tical as well as scientific experience and know-
ledge of the variety and changes of the growan
and killas of his own country. A Gwenap miner
knows little or nothing about the symptoms,
strata, or produce, of Saint Just; a Crowan miner
c
10
knows very little of the strata, minerals, or indi-
cations, of Saint Agnes; a Redruth miner little
or nothing of the geology or mineral habitudes of
veins in the north-east of the county, which for-
merly produced various kinds of minerals, and
now abounds in a variety of valuable veins and
former workings.
The Cornish miner draws his conclusions, whe-
ther of Tin, Copper, Lead, or other mineral veins,
from prejudice and his own circumscribed prac-
tical experience.
INSTANCE I.
Captains and , two of the most
respectable as well as most experienced mine
agents, one from Redruth the other from Gwenap,
were called in to inspect and give their report
upon a Lead Mine in the eastern part of the
county of Cornwall.
They were unaccustomed to the peculiarities of
the mineral indications of the district, and as they
differed from those of their own parishes, their
opinion was unfavourable, and contrary to that of
the miners on the spot and in the surrounding
11
neighbourhood. Their report was worded in
terms consonant to their prejudice, and they con-
demned the mine as " not being in a district
likely to make a lasting mine," and as having
" an unkindly lode (vein) with hard hungry
stuff." It has since been wrought, and has turned
out very productive.
One of these same captains was sent by
the Committee of Shareholders to inspect and
report upon a Tin Mine on the pink lode (vein),
Tywarnehayle (the adjoining parish to Gwenap) ;
and was perfectly confounded and unable to find
the vein, which has a heave peculiar to that dis-
trict. Had he not been assisted by the local
agents, it is more than probable that a valuable
vein would have been unfavourably reported, and
any Mining Operations condemned.
It is notorious that there are very few Mine
Captains capable of giving a fair, judicious, and
comprehensive report upon the prospects of a
mine or vein out of their particular districts.
In consequence of the prevailing ignorance of
mineralogy and geology, Mines which have been
undertaken for the production of one species of
Ore, have produced a more valuable mineral in
larger quantity than the particular Ore sought for
c 2
12
and expected ; and yet, the valuable Ore has been
disregarded and thrown away, or otherwise ren-
dered useless, and left without any inquiry into
its worth; and after a considerable outlay, the
mines have been suspended or abandoned, under
circumstances where large returns might have
been made, if the Captain or those about him had
been in any general degree conversant with
mineralogical chemistry, or had had sufficient
curiosity to have the mineral properly analysed,
instead of being contented with the report of the
bungling " assayer of Tin, Copper, and Lead,"
who contents himself with certifying that it con-
tains none of those metals.
Instances could be given where Ores, rich in a
particular metal, have been thrown aside or neg-
lected by the miners and agents as worthless,
and have been left for years without any inquiry
into their nature or contents ; and when at length
they have been taken to the country assayer to be
tried, he has been instructed to try it for Tin, Lead,
or Copper, according to their notion of which
of the three metals it was most likely to contain.
If they think the Ore contains Copper, and the
assayer reports "none," they are generally con-
tent to neglect the Ore without taking the trouble
13
of further inquiry as to Lead or Tin. Any assay
for other metals is out of the question with
them, and beyond the power of most of the County
Assayers.
Thus scientifically deficient, the miners have
neither curiosity or disposition to assay Ores
which they consider useless, merely because they
differ from those they have been accustomed to ;
and therefore it has happened that rich Copper
and Tin and other Ores have been neglected or
thrown away as useless, without any kind of
previous assay.
It has often happened that Ores, rich in these
metals, but of a different chemical combination
to those which the country assayers are accus-
tomed to, have been taken to different assay-
masters, who, not knowing how to treat them,
have been unable to bring out their produce, and
have therefore reported them as valueless for
Copper or Tin. The assay or analysis of Ores,
for other metals, is scarcely ever attempted : as
but few of the assay-masters encumber them-
selves with the possession of sufficient practical
skill and knowledge enabling them to " try"
Ores containing other metals. Still fewer are
capable of a correct assay of a mineral contain-
14
ing Silver ; much less of a correct analysis of the
mineral containing that or any other metal.
These observations only apply generally, not to
all for there are some two or three very clever
assayers in the county. However, there are but
very few of the miners who are cautious enough
to employ them, as they generally apply to the
nearest assayer; who, perhaps, has amused him-
self for some time in trying a very limited num-
ber of Copper and Tin Ores, and then has become
a professed assay-master.
In a mine only a few miles from Tavistock, in
Devon, several hundred tons of Tin stuff were
raised after a very heavy expense and extensive
outlay upon surface erection. Expectation was
sanguine, and the shares ran up to large pre-
miums. After a time some of the Tin stuff was
taken to a smelting-house many miles off, and
then only to their utter astonishment as well
as bitter disappointment did they find that it
was not Tin, but " a nasty hungry stone."
It is Thummerstone ; but of this they are still
content to remain ignorant, no one troubling him-
self further about it. As it is not Tin, they neither
know nor care what it is. It will scarcely be
believed, that though the mineral has remained
15
on the surface of the mine upwards of twenty
years, and part of the vein is rich in a metallife-
rous mineral, no one in the neighbourhood, nor
any one interested in the mine, knows more
about it than that " it is not Tin! "
In one mine, some thousands of pounds
worth of rich Copper Ore were thrown away
because " it was not Tin;" and some years
elapsed before they discovered that they were
throwing away the most valuable part of the
mine.
In another mine, rich Copper Ore, called
" Goose Ore," was thrown into the sea; and
after the mine had been abandoned, with consi-
derable loss, they found that the Ore thrown
away would not only have saved the mine, but
would have given them a profit.
Instances could be given of rich Silver and
Copper and other Ores, having been thrown away
and used with the shale to mend the high
roads !
Shortly since, there were two extensive and
profitable mines, which were considered to be
under most efficient management and skilful
superintendence, throwing away Silver Ores of
great value !
16
In working Tin Mines, many valuable Copper
Ores have been thrown away and neglected ; and-
there' is no doubt but there now are many mines
throwing away Silver Ores. Yet, if inquiry were
to be made, it would be generally answered, that
in some few instances, such as in the Herland,
Great Wheal Alfred, Wheal Mexico, Wheal St.
Vincent, and Willsworthy, &c. Mines, some native
i*w"has been found; and that in two or three
other instances, they have found Silver Ores in
small cross veins, not worth working ; and that
when they have occasionally heard of any Silver
in the Ores from the main lodes, they have sent
some of the same kind of Ore, and from the same
place, or f part of the lode, to be tried for Silver,
when it has been found " not to contain any;"
(probably the Ore had been sent to unskilful
assayers ;) and therefore they find the quantity of
Ore containing Silver to be so small that they
" now take no account of it." The truth is,
carelessness and a want of discriminating power
have misled them, and induced them to conclude
that their Ore is all alike, since it appears very
nearly so to the eye, and comes from the same
place. Close observation would convince them,
that the Ore containing the most Silver is most
17
generally either attached to one side of the main
vein, or else in a leader in the centre of the lode.
The lode, or Ore, is all broken or blasted away
together ; and therefore the Ore from the part of
the vein containing Silver is so mixed with the
greater quantity of other Ores, that it would be
useless to attempt to separate them, even if
the surface miners and bucking women were
conversant with their peculiarities and external
indications and appearances. The mode of sav-
ing these to the best advantage will depend upon
the intelligence of the superintending miner, and
his instructions to the tributers as to the mode of
keeping it distinct.
The county assay-masters can manage to ob-
tain Silver from the Lead Ores containing it; but
when Copper or other Ore of a peculiar nature,
and different from that they have been accus-
tomed to, has been sent them to assay for Silver,
some have reported " none," and others have
found it rich in that metal.
One feels very serious regret at being com-
pelled to observe, that from the illiberal educa-
tion, local permanence, and limited field for
18
observation, the Mine Captain or superintendent
of the present day-although in many instances
incomparably superior in general intelligence and
experience to those of a former period is still
very deficient in several requisite acquirements,
and lamentably destitute of general information re-
lative to the strata and mineralogy of his country.
This deficiency has led to the loss, suspension,
and abandonment, of many mines ; and tended
to the preservation if not increase of the errors
still prevailing in regard to the imagined limited
and restricted local deposition of particular Ores
and Minerals.
The consequence of this limited information
and experience is, that when the Cornish miner
is called upon to inspect the mines of other dis-
tricts or counties, being in strata he has never
before seen or even heard of, and producing a
different species of Ores, dissimilar both in kind
and appearance to those he has been accustomed
to, he makes up his mind to condemn the under-
taking, and unhesitatingly reports that he cannot
recommend the mines as likely to be lasting and
productive: as in the whole course of HIS expe-
rience, he has never seen or known any mine to
be lasting or profitable in such a situation, under
19
such symptoms, or in such a stratum or ground,
or with such Ore. Parties who send them to
inspect will, as a matter of course, be guided by
their report ; and perhaps we might praise the
sincerity of the report of such individuals, had
they the candour to state that they were totally
unaccustomed to, and unacquainted with, either
such kind of strata, or such species of Ores.
This kind of report has been made by some
of the most experienced and reputable of the
Cornish miners, relative to mines in Scotland,
Ireland, Westmoreland, and Cumberland ; and
there are instances of their having condemned
mines in the most favourable strata for the pro-
duction of lasting and large quantities of Ore,
merely because the stratum and mineral varied
in appearance from that which they had been
accustomed to ; and not from any scientific know-
ledge, experience, or general information, as to
the stratum most congenial to a particular kind
of Ore, or from any consideration of the effects of
the chemical components of either the stratum,
the vein, or the mineral, as being most conducive
to the production of an arseniate, carbonate,
oxide, sulphuret, or other species of Ore. Hence,
until lately, had any one proposed working a
Copper Mine north of Redruth, south of Gwenap,
east of Truro, or west of Crowan, the undertak-
ing would most certainly have been condemned ;
and the proposer would have been deemed a
knave or a fool. However, the results of Great
Towan, Wheal Charlotte, Saint George, and
Wheal Leisure in the north ; of Wheal Jubilee
in the east ; Great Crinnis, East Crinnis, Pem-
broke, and Fowey and Lanescot, in the south;
and of Wheal Fortune, Botallack, and Wheal
Rodney, c. in the west, have proved the mis-
apprehension and prejudice.
In defiance of these and many other facts,
which could be adduced to show that the Cornish
miners have only a very limited scientific know-
ledge, and that a more varied experience of
localities and strata, with some knowledge of
mineralogical chemistry, would be useful in the
practice of their profession, they continue to treat
such acquisitions as matters of very slight import-
ance, and would wish to induce you to think them
useless, by reminding you of their ancient fame,
and of the general estimation and repute of <; The
Cornish Miner ?" and by appealing to you, and
asking whether they are not reckoned the best
miners in the country : this one cannot but
21
admit. Yet they ought not to forget that they
are chiefly indebted to the introduction of the
steam-engine, and the great improvements in
their machinery, for their present renown, and
not to their geological, mineralogical, or chemi-
cal knowledge. In truth, an inattention to this
part of their profession has caused them to be
held by the Mexicans, generally, in much less
estimation than the Germans, of whose skill they
have a very high notion ; and, unfortunately, the
idle and assuming deportment and unconciliatory
conduct of some of the Cornish agents has in-
duced a feeling of disgust, and a tendency to an
exhibition of contempt for their general skill, cha-
racter, and disposition. It may be doubted whe-
ther those persons, who have been sent out to
Mexico and other places, afford a fair sample of
the general talent, tact, and disposition of the
Cornish miner ; if so, perhaps, the miners of Ger-
many, Sweden, &c., may feel themselves equally
entitled to the like consideration.
The geological attainments of our Cumberland
and Derbyshire miners, and the superior skill of
the Germans, Swedes, Russians, and Americans,
in mineralogical chemistry, ought to cause a sense
of inexcusable, inferiority ; yet taking them on the
22
whole, and as a class of men possessing great
nerve, perseverance, and activity, engaged in a
most useful and arduous as well as interesting
variety of occupation, the Cornish miners com-
pose a very valuable and intelligent people, with
more combined knowledge than most of their
grade ; but still individually deficient, and wanting
in a due cultivation of the several acquirements
essential to a complete mastery in their profession.
This deficiency in competent science casts a
material stigma and drawback on their character
for general skill and knowledge, and makes us
uneasy at being compelled to admit the inferior
scientific attainment of the Cornish miner, when
compared with those of most other Countries.
By thus particularly stating the absence of a
proper degree of scientific attainment, it is by no
means intended to impute or convey any impres-
sion of physical inaptitude, but only to exhibit
that there has hitherto been a species of obstinate
dislike to innovation, and an inveterate adherence
to custom and rule, at the expense of improve-
ment, justice, and interest; and to show that
much of the loss, and present erroneous impres-
sion of the precarious nature of all Mine Opera-
tions, have been caused by former deficiency in
23
practical and derivative scientific information,
rather than by any natural incapacity or barren-
ness of the mines. However, upon considering the
way in which the practical Mine Captains have
been brought up, and are now educated, their par-
tial deficiency is not surprising, and is rather a
misfortune than a reproach ; for it is next to an
impossibility for those who have been occupied on
the surface of the mine during childhood, un-
derground during youth, dependent on their per-
sonal labour for support in early manhood, with
the intervals of work taken up in the study of the
general details and more immediate practical
branches of their occupation to have any exten-
sive knowledge of the changes and indications of
strata and minerals, or to possess a requisite
proficiency in the sciences connected with Mine
Operations.
With a little more liberality and candour, the
present superintending mine agents or captains,
might do much for the advancement of science, by
inducing the rising and junior mine agents to give
a proper consideration to the importance of a
competent knowledge of these branches of it.
This has been urged upon the attention of Sir ,
who has an incorrect view of the matter, and
24
thinks he refutes the position by asserting that
the Cornish people are very well versed in the
geology of their county, and that there is very
much valuable and scientific information to be
found in the productions of Messrs. Hawkins,
Carne, and other members of the Geological So-
ciety of Cornwall. There is no question of this :
but, after all, it in fact proves nothing more than
that these gentlemen are scientific men, and have
proved that they know something of the geology
of their country. Sir has forgotten that
these gentlemen are not Mine Captains, or super-
intendents, or practical miners ; and that though
it is very true that there are several gentlemen
in the county who have written different works,
and made many valuable communications to the
Geological Society of the county, yet these works
are of little or no use in promoting the general
diffusion of useful knowledge and scientific attain-
ment among the practical and operative miners ;
as, so far from being generally benefited, few or
none of the miners have ever heard of them. It
is very much to be regretted, that the Geological
Societies do not periodically issue a useful publi-
cation, cheap enough for general purchase and
distribution.
CHAPTER II.
INDEPENDENTLY of what may be termed the
peculiar or natural accidents and risks conse-
quential to Mining Operations, there have existed
almost innumerable other causes, adverse to a
successful prosecution of them ; and repeated and
severe losses and disappointments have created
an impression, that much speculation and great
loss are the matter-of-course and certain conse-
quences of such undertakings. But although the
disappointments which have occurred through
Mining Operations have been very numerous and
great, it is certain that only a very small number
of them can be justly attributed to what may be
termed the natural accident and risk consequent
upon such undertakings ; and, few and limited
I
26
in extent as have been these losses and disap-
pointments from such natural and legitimate
causes, the present increased derivative know-
ledge and practical information relative to the
prevailing faults and irregularities of the various
strata, and of the indicatory symptoms and con-
tents of a mineral vein, together with the improved
mechanism, and the very superior talent and
information of the present period, afford strong
grounds to hope that henceforward we shall sel-
dom or never hear of mines being lost or sus-
pended through geological blunders, or any defi-
ciency in general capacity ; and that the instances
of disappointment and loss from any such under-
takings will be extremely rare.
There are very few natural risks, uncertainties,
or accidents, appertinent to Mine Operations ;
and even these may be prevented in almost every
instance, by a guarded attention to a proper se-
lection and an effective material and machinery.
Through former incapacity, fraud, and bad
management, the artificial and adventitious causes
of disappointment and loss, have been almost
innumerable ; and although the system has of
late years very much improved, there still exist
many things prejudicial to that full degree of
27
success which cannot but result from extended
or diversified Mine Operations, when under cau-
tious and efficient management. It is true, that
from a single or individual mine undertaking, loss
may yet occur, both from natural cause and adven-
titious circumstance ; but where due caution
is exercised in the selection, and when proper
advantage is taken, of the experience afforded by
past indiscretions and faults, and a just con-
sideration is given, to the improved and improv-
ing machinery, and increased skill and great
practical economy of the present time, it is cer-
tain, that Mines are now so far from being dan-
gerous and speculative concerns, that the result
of any given number of Mines, properly managed,
would certainly satisfy any reasonable expecta-
tions or wishes ; and it is unquestionable but
that instead of their being a precarious property
capital may be embarked in them with greater
safety than in any ordinary commercial enterprise
or trade, as now they are less subject to accidents
and revulsions endangering partial loss, and have
the certainty of realizing very much more than the
usual returns of trade, without in any way subject-
ing the invested capital to severe, much less, total
loss.
D 2
28
On referring to the produce of the mines which
have been put into activity within the last six
years, it will' be seen that, under cautious ma-
nagement, the average of success is more than
two to one, and that one profitable mine will
more than compensate the loss from four losing
concerns.
In order to prove that the natural disadvan-
tages are very few in number, as well as very
limited in extent of loss, and to show that former
iicapacity, and bad management, have
cause of more than three-fourths of the
5$ and prejudice relative to Mine undertakings,
it will be requisite to mention in detail, and ex-
pa;e, some of the causes which have been preju-
dicial, and formerly occasioned so many failures.
From the peculiar nature of these causes, it is
utterly impossible to avoid a degree of repetition
which may be thought somewhat tedious ; but
the details are instructive and absolutely neces-
sary to a proper comprehension of the subject, and
to evince that, when mines are judiciously selected
and fairly conducted, money may be invested in
them ; both very securely and very advantageously.
Formerly, when parties determined on explor-
ing a mine, a number of poor and labouring indi-
29
viduals of the neighbourhood subscribed a certain
amount, and divided the concern into a given
number of shares, and appointed, with the title
of Captain, the man who had the repute of being
the best or most experienced miner as a sort of
foreman or director of the works and concerns of
the mine. The operations of the mine proceeded
under his control, either until the subscribed
capital was profitlessly absorbed, or until, through
extended or successful operations, the affairs of
the mine became too burdensome, or so compli-
cated as to render it requisite to appoint some
one, under the title of Purser, to relieve the Cap-
tain, and enable him to direct his exclusive atten-
tion to the practical affairs of the mine.
By gradual innovation and change of system,
the Captains and Pursers became self-constituted,
and acted as such ; not from any superiority of
education or intelligence, or any better capacity
than others, but in consequence of a cunning and
reprehensible connexion and compact with the
traders of the neighbourhood. So that the mat-
ter-of-course consequence of such a system was,
that, until very recently, many ill-advised under-
takings and worthless veins, were pursued and
wrought with severe loss, in consequence of their
30
having been undertaken more in an eagerness for
employment, and as a means of forcing a market
for the consumption of the materials, than in a
cautious and proper view of the natural merits
and eligibility of the concerns.
For examples of the danger and effects of this
system see the following instance.
t INSTANCE II.
A miner having discovered a mineral vein of
any kind, applied to an individual somewhat
more influential than himself to obtain the set or
grant, and to undertake the office of Purser, and
obtain the names and sanction of some traders
in the county, as proprietors of certain portions
or shares, on the condition that they, or parties
named by them, should have the supply of such
materials as they usually dealt in. The concern
was then divided into a certain number of shares,
generally sixty-fourths or one hundred and
twenty-eighths. When the traders had nomi-
nally taken up about half the shares, what was
termed a meeting of the shareholders was held,
at which meeting the originators of the undertak-
31
ing were formally appointed to the Captaincy and
Pursership of the mine.
After some trifling operations, another meeting
was held, at which it was declared inconvenient
to some of the shareholders to advance a suffi-
cient capital to make any effectual trial of the
mine, and it was therefore determined that such
and such shares only should be retained by the
persons constituting the meeting, and that the
remainder should be at the disposal of the Cap-
tain or Purser, who was authorised by that meet-
ing to go to London or elsewhere, and empow-
ered to make sale, or other disposition, of the
shares, and enter into any arrangements they
might think best calculated to ensure an effectual
trial of the mine.
In accordance with such resolutions, the Cap-
tain generally formed a connexion in London, or
elsewhere out of the county, and usually repre-
sented as effective, a smaller capital than they
knew would, under such a system, bring the
mine into any thing like a productive state. This
was done under the feeling that parties would
refuse to take shares where a large capital was
required ; but that the small outfit capital asked
for (some two or three thousand pounds) would
32
induce people of small means to embark in the
undertaking. The Purser and Captain were per-
fectly aware that the traders would support any
lavish expenditure, as well as any future applica-
tion for further advances of capital. They felt
that it mattered not whether the subscribed ca-
pital was sufficient, or even how it was squan-
dered, as they well knew that if parties could or
would not come forward with more money, their
shares would be forfeited or sold to others who
could be induced to provide the necessary ca-
pital, till it suited the county people to take up
the shares for themselves, at a period when the
works had sufficiently advanced to divest the un-
dertaking of any risk.
In confidence of the alleged respectability of
the parties in the county, and of their appearing
to hold considerable shares, many parties were
induced to believe that the concern was not only
likely to be good in itself, but likewise to be well
conducted, in consequence of the large interest
retained by persons conversant in such matters,
who, it was but reasonable to presume, would be
interested in attending to and enforcing an equi-
table and proper management. But, unfortu-
nately, almost every one who has taken shares
33
with parties so connected has been deceived, and
found substantial reasons for general complaints
against Mining Operations.
Having succeeded in obtaining a preliminary
capital, these Agents commenced their undertak-
ing by furnishing some of the supplies from their
own stores ; and in consideration of support and
patronage by the various traders, received mate-
rials from the iron-founders, and dealers in coal,
tallow, rope, timber, gunpowder, &c. &c., equal
to an available capital of 10,000/., instead of an
outfit of 2,000/. This was to be accounted for,
as in some instances the Pursers and Captains re-
ceived from the traders a per-centage on the
amount of materials supplied ; this per centage
being given, not for the mere permission of sup-
ply, but as a premium for the liberty of charges,
and as a species of gag-money, enabling them to
furnish inferior articles, at a higher rate than
better could be obtained for in an open market.
It also operated as an inducement to squander
very large quantities of material in the erection
of useless or premature machinery, in dressing-
houses, counting-houses, and other unnecessary
surface operations, before the under-ground
workings had been sufficiently advanced to war-
34
rant the presumption that there would be abso-
lute occasion for any of them.
Besides the frequency of this kind of wanton
consumption of material, many instances could
be adduced of very inconsiderate expenditure
for crushing-mills, washing and dressing floors,
and even for the erection of smelting-houses,
before any quantity of Ore had been raised, or
any under-ground research made, leading to a
fair expectation that such buildings would be
requisite. In some instances such erections
have been made upon unbroken ground and un-
proved veins. In other instances, certain ma-
chinery and out-buildings have been erected in
anticipation of the mine turning out productive
in a particular kind of Ore, none of which has
been subsequently found. Sometimes it has
turned out a Copper instead of a Tin vein.
Sometimes preparations have been made in ex-
pectation of a vein producing Lead Ore ; but,
after further research, it has proved to be a
Copper vein. Sometimes Lead veins have been
mistaken for Copper ; and in some cases opera-
tions have proved the veins and ground to be
altogether barren, after several thousand pounds
had been expended in useless and anticipatory
35
sur '
rf ace-erections, instead of in proper prepara-
tory and experimental under-ground workings.
A very slight knowledge of mineralogy and geo-
logy would have prevented most of these mis-
takes, as well" as have hindered any attempt to
work unproductive ground and barren veins.
However, during the continuance of such a sys-
tem of agency and supply, it was of little or no
consequence, as far as the Pursers and Traders'
interests were concerned, whether the mine
would ultimately produce one mineral or an-
other, or, in fact, whether it produced any or
none, while the one party, obtained large profits
by the materials furnished, and the other, made
indirect gains by an extravagant consumption of
supplies.
There used to be numerous instances where,
subject to mismanagement, and such compacts
between the agents and trading shareholders, the
capital stated to be sufficient to bring the mine
into a productive and profitable state was wholly
expended previous to any kind of effective under-
ground operations; and then applications were
made to the shareholders for further advances of
money. Influenced by the favourable reports,
and the recommendation of the trading share-
36
holders, they were induced to provide the in-
creased capital, which, from continued extrava-
gance and incautious expenditure, was also con-
sumed before the mine had been brought into
any productive or decided state. Further appli-
cations of capital were followed by similar re-
sults, until vexation and alarm at the continual
and unexpected applications for increased ca-
pital, determined the disappointed non-resident
shareholders to withdraw from a concern which,
notwithstanding the flattering prospects held out,
appeared to them as likely to be productive of
little else but disappointment or ruin. Upon this
determination of the non-resident shareholders
becoming known, the operations were forthwith
suspended, and the account for outstanding
claims, for materials furnished by the trading
shareholders, was generally made up, and left for
the non-residents to pay.
When the prospects were good, and the mines
had been brought into such an advanced state as to
require, under proper economy, very little further
capital to bring them into a profitable condition,
the shares of the retired and unfortunate non-re-
sident proprietors were taken up by the resident
and trading shareholders, who agreed to advance
37
among themselves sufficient capital for the effec-
tual prosecution of the workings. This they
could well afford to do, with perfect safety, out
of the profits made by the former supplies of
materials. From that period the shares were at
premiums, and all persons being equally or equi-
tably interested, the difference in the activity and
economy of the operations was very perceptible,
as in a short time afterwards the mines were
brought into a productive state, and in the course
of a few years realised very large profits. Under
an existing unity of interest and feeling, some of
these mines have continued prosperous to the
present time. From a diversity of opinion, con-
flicting interests for the supplies of material,
jealousies of contiguous properties, and other
causes of disunion among the proprietors, various
mines have been prematurely closed or aban-
doned, though presenting every prospect of large
future gains.
It is right to observe, that in consequence of
there now being a total alteration in the mode of
conducting Mine Operations, both as regards the
local agency and the managing direction, there is
38
no longer any chance of a repetition of the sys-
tem, conduct, and state of things, mentioned in
the course of this chapter. But although they
no longer exist, it has been necessary to advert
to them, because most people have heard of the
losses through Mine Speculations, without know-
ing any thing of the indirect circumstances occa-
sioning them. Many have imbibed prejudices and
misconception, merely from an ignorance of the
great change in attendant circumstances, and the
cessation of all that used to be objectionable,
and through being unaware of the great facilities
and advantages which increased relative informa-
tion, and improved science and mechanism, se-
cure to the Mine Operations of the present day.
CHAPTER III.
AN injudicious and untimely subdivision of
the shares has occasioned heavy expenditure and
waste, and even the abandonment of many very
valuable Mines.
A variety of instances could be given, where
Mines which have given very large profits have
been prematurely suspended and brought down
and ruined, entirely through an improvident
mode of working, and an injudicious extension
of the shares. This has caused much disappoint-
ment and loss from Mines which perhaps, pre-
vious to their suspension, have given profit at the
rate of 200,000/. and upwards to the original and
continuous shareholder ; but yet have closed
with severe loss to the purchasing shareholders :
40
not in consequence of the natural poverty and
unproductiveness of the vein, but from an abso-
lutely forced poverty, produced by circumstances
purely adventitious, and wholly attributable to,
and consequent upon, incautious conduct and
want of energy in the purchasing proprietors ;
whose management has not only deprived the
continuous shareholder of a very valuable pro-
perty, but likewise brought upon themselves the
most vexatious and ruinous consequences. It is
to be regretted that persons, who by their own
inconsiderate and heedless conduct, have sub-
jected themselves to disappointment and loss,
should (with a corresponding disregard of cause
and effect) enforce a recollection of the effect,
and conceal or overlook the cause ; and unfairly
increase the public prejudice concerning matters,
their loss from which, is wholly attributable to
their own folly or lack of common discrimination
and care, instead of to the alleged " certain
ruinous consequences of participation in any
Mine undertaking."
This circulation of prejudice is the more unjust,
as most of such persons know that some Mines
similarly situated to those with which they have
been so unfortunately connected (Instance III),
41
have been since resumed and wrought by other
parties under a different system, to great advan-
tage and profit.
Mine B., the subject of Instance III., is only
one of many that, under a similar management,
disposition of shares, and inconsiderate purchase,
have led to much of the prevailing misapprehen-
sion and prejudice concerning such undertakings.
This is the more to be regretted, because the
extreme subdivision of the shares has proportion-
ably extended the channels of splenetic misre-
presentation and disappointment.
INSTANCE III.
The following is one of many cases where
heedless and incautious conduct has subjected
persons to severe loss, although the Mine has
been very profitable to the original and conti-
nuous shareholder.
Mine B. was originally divided into one hun-
dred shares. The workings becoming profitable,
the shares sold at a large price, say 200/. or 300/.
per share. This being an inconvenient sum to
many who were disposed to purchase a smaller
E
42
interest, it was determined to divide the concern
into two hundred shares : after a short period the
two hundredth share sold for as much as the
original hundredth; and a meeting of share-
holders resolved to divide the undertaking into
five hundred shares. After the mine had realized
about 100,000/. upon the outfit and working
capital, it was by various subdivisions and sales
subsequently divided into three thousand shares.
By this time the mine had given nearly 200,000/.
to the original shareholders, and was still work-
ing profitably. Under an impression, that as the
mine had realized 200,000/. profit, and was still
giving as large returns as ever, it could not but
be a most eligible concern ; parties were found
who eagerly purchased shares at the rate of i
150,000/. for the whole mine ; but in a short time
the period arrived when the extension of the
works, increased depth, and inefficient machi-
nery, rendered it necessary to call upon the
shareholders for a temporary suspension of divi-
dend : there being no reserves of Ore ground,
and the machinery having been worked to nearly
its extent of power. At this time the greater
number of proprietors consisted of those who had
been induced to purchase in at very large pre-
miums, with the unreasonable expectation that,
as the mine had given such large annual profits
for so long a time, it would indefinitely continue
them, even without any provision for its being
properly supported and judiciously wrought ;
and therefore when this unexpected call for a
suspension of dividend, or an advance of capital,
was made upon them, they were astonished and
dismayed, and refused to afford the necessary
assistance.
In the determination of backing out of the
concern as soon as possible, the agents were
urged to raise the usual quantities of ore ; and
although there were no proper reserves of ore
ground, were obliged to do so at any sacrifice,
and however detrimental to the future interests
of the concern. With the intention of keeping
up the price of shares, in spite of the advice and
remonstrances of the superintending agents, the
returns of ore were continued, in order that the
new proprietors might be enabled to part with
their interest and retire from the undertaking
without loss. This arrangement was attended
with the desired effect. Fresh proprietors were
introduced into the concern, and were very soon
informed that, unless they would come forward
E 2
44
with a temporary advance of capital for the erec-
tion of more efficient machinery, the continuance
of the mine would be endangered, as it had been
very irregularly wrought for some time past, and
was then in an almost exhausted state ; but that,
by the prompt advance of a comparatively small
capital, besides allowing the produce of the mine
to be for a short time applied in the renovation
of the works and bringing it into a proper and
lasting condition, there was every probability
that the returns would soon be as large as ever,
and the mine be placed in a state for permanent
production. Being totally unprepared, either for
such information or the temporary advance, the
new shareholders were perfectly panic-struck,
and, under the fear of further disappointment and
loss, refused to furnish the requisite funds ; but
again subdivided the shares, in the hope of secur-
ing themselves from severe loss, and of inducing
the purchasers of the new shares to come forward
with the necessary assistance. Under such cir-
cumstances, before this arrangement could be
effected, a gradual decrease in the returns was
soon followed by a breaking down and other
accidents to the machinery ; and profitless work-
ings compelled the operations to be suspended,
45
after having given near 300,000/. profit upon the
original working capital. Thus we see an impro-
vident mode of working, bad arrangements, and
the extravagant if not almost insanely heedless
purchase of shares by the late proprietors, closing
the concern with a loss of one hundred thousand
pounds, for what may be called purchase capital.
These unfortunate purchasers have, strictly
speaking, only grounds for self-reproach, for their
carelessness and total disregard of common sense
and caution in purchasing shares at such an exor-
bitant rate after having been told that the mine
had been working for many years and had given
200,000/. profit without first satisfying them-
selves of the permanent state of the mine, or con-
sidering that, although it might be then giving
a profit of 30,000/. per annum, and was returning
a very large interest to the moderately purchased
share, it would take some time to repay the
purchase of upwards of 100,000/. and common
interest for the capital invested ; and without
reflecting that, from ike various subdivisions of the
shares and extended proprietor)/, there was every
reason to expect that as much as possible had
been raised from the mine, in order to enhance the
temporary market value of the shares, without any
46
regard to permanency, or the approaching period
when fresh or additional machinery would be
required.
The purchasers ought to have considered, that
under such circumstances, there could be little or
no probability of the mine having been cautiously
or judiciously worked, or of there being that
proper reserve of Ore ground which is so ab-
solutely necessary to permanence and ultimate
great profits. It is true, that by a certain manner
of working a productive vein, comparatively large
profit may be made for a few years, but by such
a mode the most profitable mine may be prema-
turely closed or exhausted ; that is, as far as
concerns profitable and continuous workings,
without occasional application for assistance from
the shareholders.
There is always more or less unprofitable or
dead ground in every vein, and therefore the
mine ought to be so wrought as to give but mode-
rate profits at first, in order to allow part of the
ore ground to be kept in reserve, to make up the
regular dividends, and provide the expenses of
getting through the barren or dead ground to
other courses of ore. In this way, every fresh
course of ore provides the means of augmenting
47 .
the future dividends, and driving through more
dead ground to other courses of ore. Worked in
this manner, a mine will be put in a permanent,
steady, and gradually-increasing state of produc-
tion in a few years, without the danger of stop-
page, from want of funds and effective workings,
or of failure, through barren ground, or unpro-
ductiveness, or accident to the machinery, or
other casualty. This mode of working also gives
an opportunity of taking advantage of a rise in
the market-price of ore, and throwing in an
increased quantity when advisable.
Unless some caution of this kind is used, mines
which have been very productive, and have in a
very short period realized many thousand pounds
profit, may be prematurely and very suddenly
stopped or suspended, in consequence of there
being no reserves of Ores, nor any available capital
to provide increase of machinery, or to enable
them to work through the dead and unproductive
ground, till they regain the courses of ore.
Without any reflection upon their own careless
and impolitic conduct, these inconsiderate pur-
chasers are the most acrimonious and violent in
their invectives against Mine Investment; and
always endeavour to instill a general prejudice
48
against all similar undertakings, by declarations
that they will never allow themselves nor any of
their friends to be induced to embark in any
mine, however favourably represented, or be
the prospects ever so attractive and certain, for
they are sure to be more or less involved, not-
-I
withstanding the representations of^ffvery pro-
fitable condition. They state that the assertions
of the immense gains which some of them are
making are totally false, as they were persuaded
to purchase shares in a mine which they were
told had realized several hundred thousand
pounds, and was then giving a profit of 30,0007.
per annum, but that, to their sorrow, they found,
very soon after the purchase, that the statements
were far from correct, and they had every reason
to think that the whole thing was founded in
fraud, for they had not long held their shares
before the dividends failed, and after a short time
they were called upon for further advances,
which they very fortunately refused to make, or
they might have been ruined, for the mine was
very soon abandoned as good for nothing, after
having cost those who had lately purchased in
near 100,0007., under a full persuasion, from I!K?
statements made, that it was a very eligible
49
investment, and one of the most prosperous mines
in the country, and therefore that the mere con-
templation of any property in such undertakings
would be absolute folly, and any participation or
share in them sure to produce more or less
deplorable consequences.
Such persons are often violent and careless in
their statements and expressions, and appear
well satisfied with what they think an exercise of
their sound judgment and discretion in refusing
the requisite advance and retiring from the con-
cern ; but this conclusion, like their purchase,
arises from first impression and heedless reflec-
tion. Had they fairly and boldly met the appli-
cation of the managers, and held a proper survey
and investigation of the state and prospects of
the mine, they would have been convinced that a
timely support would, in many instances, have
insured them a prosperous and permanent mine :
as some mines which have been suspended under
such circumstances, have been subsequently re-
opened by other parties, and when placed under
efficient direction and agency, have produced
large profits.
CHAPTER IV.
MANY extensive deep mines have been resumed
after a long suspension of operations, and (through
heedless consideration, heavy outfits, extravagant
expenditure, and defective management) have
occasioned such very severe losses, and so much
disappointment, as to have produced much pre-
judice, and a general misconception of the nature
and advantages of judicious operations. After a
long interval in the prosecution of deep Mining
Operations, there is not only great difficulty in
obtaining full and faithful details of the capacity
of production, the state of the underground work-
ings, and the true causes of suspension, but even
when persons have taken the trouble to satisfy
themselves upon these points, the probable alte-
51
ration in the condition of the works, the different
drainage, state of that and the surrounding ground,
and various other accidental circumstances which
may have intervened, are too generally, either
studiously concealed by the one party, or altoge-
ther overlooked, or too lightly considered, by the
other.
The opening, drainage, and resuscitation, of an
extensive and deep suspended mine, necessarily
require a very large outlay ; and instances could
be given of very large sums beyond the estimated
capital having been absorbed, before the water
has been drained from the old workings; and
also where, after further advances of capital by
the shareholders, the probability of working
the mine to advantage has been found to be
attended with the necessity of further outlay
of money, to an extent beyond that which
prudence would dictate, or any probable returns
reimburse.
There are other instances where, after having
expended near 100,000/. in the onset, clearing up,
and drainage of old workings, the bottoms of the
mines have been found poor, and the adjacent
ground in such a very different condition to what
was represented or expected, that the further
52
prosecution of the undertaking has been aban-
doned.
There is great danger and always impolicy in
resuming deep suspended or abandoned mines,
without first exercising the utmost caution, by
obtaining every particular relative to their past
and present, as well as their probable future
state.
Such undertakings always require the outlay
of very large capitals, and render it questionable
whether (excepting under very particular circum-
stances) they are as eligible an investment as
mines of moderate depth. There are a few re-
sumed deep mines very productive and profitable ;
yet, taking into consideration the large sums
invested in them, and the great produce requisite
to repay such capital, with an interest commen-
surate with the risk, one cannot but declare the
resumption of deep mines, even under the most
favourable circumstances, to be a less remu-
nerative and a more hazardous investment,
than the operation of well-selected shallower
mines.
Even among deep mines which have been suc-
cessfully resumed, there arc but few such lucra-
tive concerns as those deep mines which have
53
been continuously wrought, instead of resumed
after long suspension.
Under original and constant operation, a yearly
profit of 10,000/. will, on the average, be more
than cent, per cent, per annum on the outlay, or
original working capital ; while the like produce
will scarcely be adequate to the payment of more
than common interest for the outfit expenditure
of an extensive and deep resumed mine, much
less so to an unreasonably extravagant purchase.
Even with a much greater profit than the above,
a resumed deep mine will take some years to
provide for its establishment or permanent ope-
ration, without repaying the outfit capital and its
interest.
Should the undertaking prove unsuccessful,
there must be a very severe loss ; and in this
view, the appropriation of capital for the purpose
of resuming extensive deep mines, is even more
hazardous than an extravagant purchase in a deep
productive mine ; since, in the latter case, parties
are sure to receive a great portion of their money
back, notwithstanding that the mine should be
under bad management and only last for a few
years. See Instance IV., in which the difference
of profits from investment in deep mines (even
54
when profitable, and such as can be commanded
with a moderate capital) is clearly shown to be
in favour of the latter.
The writer is aware that it has been a general
fashion to recommend and undertake the opera-
tK*s
tion of deep suspended mines, and that ^ is a
very unpopular view of the subject, particularly
as being exceedingly opposed to the interests of
those agents and traders who have recommended
the re-operation of deep mines. But, perhaps,
such recommendation is not very surprising, when
it is recollected that the deeper and more expen-
sive the mines, the greater the produce of dues,
and quantity of machinery, and consumption of
supplies ; and the greater the risk and smaller the
profit to those advancing their money to work
the mines, in a sole dependence of their returns,
giving them good interest for invested capital.
A deep and extensive resumed mine may be
returning upwards of two thousand pounds worth
of Ore per month, and several thousand pounds
per annum for dues, and yet be a profitless, or
even losing concern, to the shareholder.
A species of vanity and jealousy of the increas-
ing influence of neighbouring agents and pursers,
has induced the prosecution of some extensive
55
undertakings, notwithstanding that the prospects
of a successful issue must have been extremely
doubtful, even to those recommending their ope-
ration ; but, unfortunately, the consideration that
the pursership, the large profits to be made by
the supply of great quantities of material, the
patronage of the agency, and the increased local
influence, would very much more than amply
compensate any loss which could possibly accrue
to their share of the general outlay, has been
sufficient to smother and neutralize any reflection
or feeling upon the ruinous consequences, which
the undertaking would entail upon those share-
holders having no other means of securing them-
selves against loss, than their dependence upon a
promised successful result.
; ..n ;.o- lo itii''''|;;-'v.i^-
1 uj Wt*v{ ^J*Hti ju
INSTANCE IV.
To more clearly show the difference in the
profits of investment in deep mines, even when
successful, and such as can be commanded with
a moderate capital, it will be as well to advert to
some deep mines lately resumed, and some new
and shallow mines which have commenced ope-
56
rations within or about the same period ; and
endeavour to direct a fair estimation of profit and
comparison between deep mines and those which
the traders and suppliers of materials call "little
mines," meaning such as are not expensive in their
operation, and consume comparatively small
quantities of merchandise. Although they may
be very extensive, and have great natural capa-
cities, and are actually productive and very
profitable, still, because they are shallow
and inexpensive, they are only " pretty little
mines."
The necessary outfit and consequent expendi-
ture for the three deep resumed mines A, B, C,
cannot be estimated at less than 150,0007.
Suppose two out of the three are successful, ^
and realize a profit of 25,000/. per annum each,
it will take many years to repay the outfit of
150.000/., and interest for the invested capital.
This 150,000/. invested in undertaking such
mines, as Wheal Reeth, Wheal Trenwith, Wheal
Elizabeth, Wheal Caroline, Wheal Strawberry,
Wheal Trumpet, W T heal Tolgus, Wheal Leisure,
Penstruthal, Treburgate, Lanescot, and Fowey,
will afford upwards of 12,0007. for each mine,
which is very much more than the actual aggre-
57
gate outfit capital expended in bringing those
mines into a productive state.
Take the like proportion of success, and there
will be eight profitable mines. Average the
annual profit of the successful mines at 10.000/.
each, and there will be 80,000/. per annum
against the 50,000/. profit from the deep mines.
The per-centage from the new or shallow mines
will be rapidly and greatly increased, as the
underground workings gradually allow more Ore
ground to be opened, when each of the shallow
mines may realize annual profits as large, or
larger, than the two resumed deep mines.
Should accident or other cause occasion the
abandonment or suspension of either of the two
deep mines, there would be only one remaining
to bear the burden of the 150,000/. outlay, and to
yield a profit of nearly 30,000/. per annum, for
ten years, before the principal and common
interest on the embarked capital would be re-
turned. Should any event cause the suspension
or abandonment of either of the eight shallow
successful mines, there would still be seven pro-
fitable and improving mines as security for 43/.
per cent, per annum, instead of only one for 51.
per cent.
68
Each of the seven mines would, most likely,
be improving and augmenting its per-centage of
interest or profit, during the gradual extension of
the workings, till each mine may be producing as
large profits as the deep successful resumed
mines ; in which case there would be 210, OOO/.
per annum against 25, OOO/., and more than dou-
ble the available value in machinery and mate-
rial. This appears a large disproportion in the
result of the investment, yet there is a very fair
probability of such large return, and even of
greater, in the one case, while there is but little
or no chance of half such a return in the other.
It must be recollected that in resuming deep
mines, there is often a permanent investment or
sinking of capital, and always a comparatively
lengthened abstraction; as, under the most
favourable circumstances, it will require several
years of active and successful operation before
they can refund the heavy expenses of the outfit,
and return a remunerating interest for the money
invested. But when money is employed in the
new or shallow successful mines, the investment
is so far from being a permanent sinking of
capital, that both principal and interest are very
soon returned, even though the new mines were
59
giving only the comparatively small profit of
7,000/. a-year each. So that the outfit capital
invested in such operations, is not only sure of
being soon returned with good interest, but the
mines are still left in an improving condition,
and with ample means to provide for all con-
tingencies.
From this quick return of capital, the shallow
mines have the very great advantage of providing
an accumulating fund for working other mines,
without risking the loss of any of the original
capital, and without causing any diminution of
the regular dividend from those in productive
operation ; because, the profit from the successful
shallow mines will be yearly largely increased,
and enable those using due caution and activity,
to confidently calculate upon a renewal or return
of original capital every fourth year, without any
interruption to a continuance of the most effective
and full operation. On the other hand, in the
instance of the investment of capital in the deep
resumed mines, should any accident or contin-
gency cause the suspension of the remaining deep
mine, the whole capital is lost, excepting the pro-
ceeds from the sale of the surface machinery,
which must be sold at a great depreciation and
F 2
60
sacrifice of cost. Accident to one, two, three,
four, or more of the shallow mines, would cause
no great diminution of dividend, and that only
for a short time, as the remaining mines would, in
their yearly increase, very soon make up the tem-
porary deficiency ; but by far the greater portion
of the capital sunk in the outfitting and exploring
the deep mines, is irrecoverably absorbed in
labour and wasted material.
It is to be remembered that the same average
has been taken in the number of profitable deep
and shallow mines, but the chances are, that
there would be a far greater proportion of suc-
cessful mines among those which are shallow.
If only one of the three deep mines were to fail,
there would be a loss of about 50,000/., and only
two mines left to repay the whole outfit, capital
and interest; but not so if three or four of the
shallow mines were to fail, as there would still
be eight profitable mines, to the purposes of which
the machinery and materials of the unsuccessful
shallow mines would be available.
Deep and extensive mines are in great esti-
mation with the traders, as they require large
supplies of all kinds, and are exceedingly good
things for employing the local labouring and de-
61
pendent population. Some of these deep mines
have been set on and recommended by those in-
terested in the dues or royalties, as well as in the
consumption of supplies, and it cannot but be ad-
mitted, that about the 1 2th part of all Ore raised,
a monthly profit of near 20/. per cent on the
materials supplied, some patronage in the appoint-
ments, a per-centage for the trouble of agency, a
decrease of parish rates proportionate to the mag-
nitude of the concern, with other advantages,
are very strong inducements for some people to
recommend and continue the operation of under-
takings insuring them so many advantages and
profits, however unfortunate and ruinous the re-
sult may be to those differently situated.
In thus mentioning these circumstances, and
some of the motives inducing the re-operation of
deep suspended mines, it may be alleged that
there is a disposition to invariably condemn the
resumption of large undertakings, and an intention
to have it inferred that sinister and unfair self-
interests are always the incentives to the re-com-
mencement of extensive concerns. There is no
such feeling. There are some few extensive con-
62
cerns lately resumed, which under fair and
judicious management have made very large
profits. It is only intended to show that va-
rious personal and indirect interests have for-
merly caused the re-operation of many such
undertakings ; and to enforce that as such cir-
cumstances and motives have been acted upon,
and still may exist, they ought to be taken
into careful consideration, and their influence
cautiously guarded against, previous to com-
mencing any future similar undertaking. An
oversight or concealment of the existence of such
influences, coupled with a studiously-imposed ig-
norance of relative particulars, and the absence
of a due consideration of all their disadvantages
and bearings, have led to the resumption of many
min< :s insuring benefits and profits to the suppliers
of material, and those interested in the dues, with
little or no chance of remuneration, or even a re-
turn of any portion of his subscribed capital, to
the mere shareholder.
I once more state that, in consequence of the
very large capital required for their outfit, and
from the number of persons embarked in them,
the incautious operation of resumed deep mines,
has not only been productive of the most exten-
63
sive as well as severe disappointment and loss,
but has also caused much erroneous impression
relative to the general profit or aggregate result
of any given number of well-chosen and con-
ducted undertakings.
CHAPTER V.
THE former extravagant agency of those having
the management of the mines and supplies of
material, together with the improper and incon-
siderate resumption of deep suspended mines,
have been especially conducive to popular mis-
conception, and to too low an estimate of the
average profits and large annual interest usually
derivable from judicious Mine Investment, when
under good and equitable management. The
following instance will show, that it may be the
interest of some mine Agents or Managers lo
mislead parties, and to underrate the natural
capacity of mines, and to conceal what might
and ought to be their annual profits, under fair
and disinterested management.
65
INSTANCE V.
If application were made to the Managers or
Pursers of many of the extensive mines, to know
what they consider a very good concern, and an
average of the yearly interest derivable from
general and successful operation, they would
answer, " We have many mines under our con-
trol, most of them extensive and throwing up
large quantities of Ore, and we should be con-
tented did we realize 20/. per cent, per annum
upon the aggregate of our undertakings. We
have some few giving very large profits, but most
are little more than paying their working charges,
and some are very losing concerns ; but yet, on
the whole of our engagements, we think we are
as successful as our neighbours.'' So they may
be in the number or proportion of productive
mines, but not in the amount of profit* divided
among the shareholders.
In answer to your observations, that such and
such mines are throwing up considerable quan-
tities of Ore, and yet you hear that they are not
more than paying working charges, they will
66
tell you that although Wheal is making
considerable sales of Ore, it is a very expensive
mine, and therefore does not yet pay any divi-
dend to the shareholder, but perhaps it may do
better by-and-bye.
They do not explain why they are or have
been so expensive, nor that more than 50,000/.
has been expended in erections and supplies,
to explore and extend workings, the produce
from which was never expected to more than pay
the current expenses for labour, and extravagant
consumption of materials, and the lord's dues.
Nor do they inform you that, as part lords or
lessees of the dues, and agents and suppliers of
the materials, they are interested in the exten-
sion of the workings ; and that it is their interest
to expend the proceeds and profits from the Ores
raised in one part of the mine, in a questionable
and hazardous extension of the workings at
another part, generally only productive of benefit
to those receiving the dues and supplying the
materials, instead of distributing a great portion
of the proceeds among the shareholders, to whom,
if all were equally or similarly interested, the
mine would be very profitable. They omit to
explain that although, under its present manage-
67
meat, such a mine may perhaps never pay any
great profit to the shareholder, or even reimburse
the capital embarked, it is a very good concern
to them as part-lords, pursers, and purveyors of
materials.
They could inform you that " as the mine is
now in good working condition and well supplied
in material, it will continue working some years,
and every now and then throw up increased
quantities of Ore, and pay a small dividend to
the shareholders."
On this principle mines have been wrought for
many years, without giving any fair proportion of
the proceeds among the shareholders.
Very large sums have been expended in a
lavish supply of material and other extravagance,
and after a few years the mines have been closed,
with heavy loss to the shareholders , while the
receivers of the dues and the supplying Pursers
have been making large profits.
Some mines were wrought for years without
profit, or any future chance of any, and were
continued in operation for the benefit of those
receiving the dues (such dues being paid upon
all Ores raised, whether the workings are pro-
fitable or not), and for the advantage of those
interested in the supplies, and to relieve them
from an otherwise burdensome population ; till
all the material and machinery have been ex-
hausted, without making any provision for the
return of any capital or interest to the non-resi-
dent shareholder. Under other management, or
if the materials and supplies were sold at a timely
period, instead of being thus unfairly or inconsi-
derately consumed, the non-resident shareholder
would at length have received a considerable
dividend.
Some mines, which under certain management
give small dividends at intervals, would under
good and equitably interested direction be very
profitable concerns ; but, subject to bad or extra-
vagant management, mines which, under a dif-
ferent state of things, would have yielded a fair
if not very large interest upon the invested capital,
have too often been profitless and losing concerns,
and have been needlessly suspended or prema-
turely closed, in consequence of the effects of
lavish surface erections and general expensive
management.
Tt may be well to observe, that in forming any
general conclusion or inference respecting the
produce, prospects, and duration of a mine, we
69
must not forget or overlook the indirect influences
of such as are under particular or interested ma-
nagement, or wrought in a manner most beneficial
to those interested in an augmentation of the
dues ; nor those in which the machinery and
operations have been speculatively extended, for
the purpose of an increased consumption of
materials ; nor those in which the workings have
been kept up and extended for the purpose of
benefiting a local population, at the expense of
those who are entitled to a division of the pro-
ceeds of the machinery and materials, previously
to an absorption, rendering a sale, or a division
among the shareholders, a matter of indifference.
Nor must we forget the conduct which was pur-
sued in mines rendered tributary to the drainage
or other assistance of adjacent workings, in con-
sequence of the managers or others having a
greater interest or share in the adjoining concern ;
nor those deep mines surrounded by, or adjoin-
ing, others less deep, and in which the managers
or agents and their friends have a greater interest.
Neither must we overlook the prejudicial effects
to those mines, which the agents, Captains, or
Pursers, have been permitted to supply with
materials, either directly or indirectly, by private
70
or understood partnership, or other participation
in the profits of the supplies, an arrangement
not very uncommon, but one which ought always
to be most rigidly restricted.
Mines working under any of the above circum-
stances, are mostly those which have absorbed
very large capitals in a resumed outfit, or those
continuing a heavy monthly expenditure, con-
suming great quantities of supplies, and produc-
ing considerable sales of ore, without paying re-
gular dividends to the shareholders.
CHAPTER VI.
To more clearly exhibit the effects of invest-
ment in deep and resumed mines, under extrava-
gant and injudicious management, and in those
which are equitably directed and carefully chosen,
and to show that when fairly and cautiously con-
ducted, mining is productive of much larger
profits, and is of a much less precarious nature
than the state of the public feeling would lead us
to expect, it will be as well to give a detail of
the state of forty mines of various descriptions of
mineral, and comprising old, new, and resumed
deep mines, which have been wrought under able
and equitable direction, though in some instances
subject to unfortunate and injudicious selection
and agency. See the state of these mines in the
72
following instance, which will show an annual
profit of 47/. per cent, per annum, notwithstand-
ing that a third part of the aggregate capital was
totally absorbed through an injudicious selection
and ill-judged resumption of four deep mines.
The capital thus inconsiderately appropriated
would have been ample for the re-opening and
efficient operation of twelve mines judiciously
selected, each having prospects of success and
capacity of gain equal to any of the four deep
suspended mines, without subjecting a fourth
part of the capital to more than ordinary risk,
instead of nearly the whole to absolute loss.
INSTANCE VI.
State of Forty Mines of Tin, Copper, and Lead, occupying a
Capital of 568.000/.
13 Profitable Mines in full operation,
yielding, after payment of working
expenses, and Lords' dues, an annual
profitof ^/'*- iV.. *";-. V-V / v .136,600
11 Mines, all promising large returns,
but not yet advanced to a profitable
state : take only the same proportion
as 13 to 40, and call four profitable
mines 42,120
8 New Mines with favourable pro-
spects, but not sufficiently advanced
to enable a correct judgment to be
formed of the result : say only two
in the eight :! VV *'".'"'. ls . . . . 21,060
198,780
8 Deep Mines, absorbing nearly half
of the above capital of 568,000/.
Unless fresh discoveries were made, the're
would be an annual loss by continuing the work-
ings in the deep mines ; but as they can be stop-
ped at any time, it will be better to consider
them so now.
Suppose the proceeds from the sale of the
machinery and materials of these eight deep
mines, and of the thirteen which are calculated
or supposed to be unprofitable (though several of
them will doubtless be very profitable), to realise
75,000/., and the value of the Ores raised from
the unsuccessful and abandoned mines at 75,000/.
more, we must deduct 150,000/. from the original
568,000/.
74
Here will then be an actual investment of
418,000/.
Annual income 198,780/., or 47J/. per cent, pei
annum.
The above result is the actual relative state
the mines, with all the disadvantages and draw-
backs resulting from injudicious selection, and
the incautious and expensive resumption of the
deep suspended mines.
It will be recollected that only 150,000/. has
been deducted, as returnable for the produce of
the eight deep mines, and those thirteen (in all
twenty-one) which have been calculated as un-
profitable, including the proceeds from the sale
of their materials and machinery, and that some
very promising concerns are included in the thir- ,
teen mines which, for argument or relative calcu-
lation, are put down as unprofitable.
In the present instance there were forty mines,
and notwithstanding many of them have been in-
judiciously selected and managed, the collective
result is a profit of 47J/. per cent, per annum
divided among the shareholders, although only
about half the capital is actually occupied in
producing this per-centage of 47^/. per cent, per
annum upon the whole capital invested: the
75
remainder was absorbed and lost by the unfortu-
nate selection and resumption of the suspended
deep mines. This result refers to the actual state
of the forty mines more than three years since.
The deep mines have turned out as calculated
upon, several of the shallow have turned out very
profitable, and upon particular inquiry as to their
present state, it is found, that on the whole they
are still more profitable than they then were.
The whole capital embarked in the above forty
mines would afford ample funds for the operation
of sixty well-selected mines, by which the
chances of success are not only relatively in-
creased to the results of sixty instead of only forty,
.but actually (in effect) to a much greater extent.
The sixty mines would now be selected with
every care and attention, and with better experi-
ence. Besides the increase in the number of
mines, and the proportionate augmentation of
annual profits consequent upon good manage-
ment, a larger per-centage of profit than the pro-
portional of sixty to forty would be insured ;
because, under proper selection and agency, we
may calculate on a far greater proportion of pro-
fitable mines from such as require only a moderate
o 2
76
sum for their effective operation, than from those
absorbing a large capital in their onset.
Independent of this consideration there is an-
other advantage attending the application of
capital to the operation of shallow mines, which
is, that no serious diminution of capital is likely
to arise, even in the event of some of the mines
turning out unfavourably, as, in such undertak-
ings as are here alluded to, a great portion of the
capital embarked in each mine would be return-
able in the shape of machinery and supplies,
applicable to the requisites of the other mines ;
but in deep resumed mines the greater part of the
capital is absorbed in labour, in unconvertible or
lost material, and in unapplicable machinery.
CHAPTER VII.
WITH a view of leading to a perception of
the great profits derivable from Mine Invest-
ment, when subjected to proper direction and
management, it will be as well to furnish tables
of the various Cornish Copper Mines now
producing Ores, and selling them by public
ticket, and to put down their past gains as well
as present state and produce. For the purpose
of more clearly distinguishing their present indi-
vidual condition from the collective result, they
lave been divided into classes of
\.-Mines which have been continuously pro.
ductive, and are still working profitably,
78
B Mines which have given large profits in
former workings, and have been success-
fully resumed.
C.-Mines which have been lately resumed after
a change in the Agency, some of which are
already profitable, and others are about pay-
ing charges.
D. Mines comparatively new, and all put into
active operation within about the last seven
years ; some of them have given large profits,
others are beginning to be profitable.
E. New Mines, not sufficiently advanced to
enable any one to draw a just conclusion as
to their profitable results.
F. Mines which in former workings produced
large profits, but have been injudiciously or>
unfortunately resumed and closed, or are
likely to close, with severe loss.
G. Mines which have formerly divided large
profits: some of these are working more
for the consumption of supplies, and to the
benefit of those interested in the royalties or
dues, than for the advantage of the share-
holders ; others, from bad management and
extravagance, or other adventitious circum-
stances, are in an almost inactive state, and
79
may be considered to have been brought to
a premature close, and about to be perma-
nently abandoned.
INSTANCE VII.
The following is a list of the Cornish Copper
Mines, now working and selling their Ores by
ticket or public sale.
Bassett Wheal.
Bassett S. Wheal.
Beauchamp.
Duller.
Brinner Downs.
Botallack.
Budnick.
Bussey.
Cardrew Downs.
Carharrack and
Wheal Maiden.
Caroline Wheal.
Charles Wheal.
Crofty E. Wheal.
Chance Wheal.
Cooks Kitchen.
Condorrow.
Cock Wheal.
Crinnis, East.
Crinnis Consols.
Dalcoath, Great.
Dalcoath, S.
Damsel Wheal.
Darlington.
Elizabeth Wheal.
Edward Wheal.
Falmouth Wheal.
Falmouth E. Wheal.
George, Great St.
Gorland Wheal.
80
Harmony Wheal.
Herland, The
Hills, United.
HopeWheal.
Jewell Great Wheal.
Jewell East Wheal.
Kayle Wheal.
Lanescot.
Leisure Wheal.
Leisure East Wheal.
Leisure S. Wheal.
Levant, The
Mines, The Gt. Consols.
Mines, Marazion.
Mines, Union.
Mary Wheal.
Music Wheal.
Montagu Wheal.
North Downs.
Poldice.
Poldice, West.
Penandrea & Sparnon.
Penstruthal.
Prudence Wheal.
Prosper- Wheal.
Pembroke Wheal.
Penwinnick.
Retallack.
Relistian.
Roskear, North.
Roskear, South.
Stray Park.
Sperries Wheal.
Sparrow Wheal.
Strawberry Wheal.
Speedwell Wheal.
Tin Croft and Wheal
Fanny.
Tolgus Wheal.
Towan, Great.
Towan, South.
Trannack Wheal.
Trenwith Wheal.
Tresavean.
Trevabyn Wheal.
Unity Wheal.
Unity Wood.
United Mines.
Vyvyan Wheal.
Vor Great Wheal.
Rock W T heal.
West Pink.
81
Spearm Wheal. Penwith Wheal.
Andre w-Boscawen Wheal. Great Work.
Anna Maria Wheal. Harriat Wheal.
Many of the mines produce large quantities of
Tin as well as Copper, some of them very much
more, but the amount cannot be accurately
ascertained.
A. Mines which have been continuously productive,
and are still working profitably.
Names. Profits. Tons of Ore
. per annum.
1 Botallack . . ^ . . 100,000 250
Beauchamp and Buller 80,000 2,500
2 Consolidated Mines, &
previous to consoli-
dation
. . 400,000
17,000
3 East Crinnis . .
. . 100,000
2,200
4 Damsel Wheal .
. . 100,000
1,200
5 Dalcoath, Great .
. . 500,000
10,000
G Gorland Wheal .
. -. 300,000
1,400
7 Jewell Wheal .
. . 200,000
2,800
8 Levant Mine . .
. . 770,000
2,000
9 Maiden and Carharrack 60,000
1,500
10 Poldice Wheal &
Unity 250,000
2,500
11 Pembroke A v -
. . 70,000
4,100
12 Tins-tansr ,
, 200,000
2,800
B. Mines which have given large, profits informer
workings, and after suspension, have been suc-
cessfully resumed within about the last seven
years.
Names. Profits. Produce
. per annum.
Sinner Downs . . . 1^0,000 4,500
Herland ..... 90,000 1,000
Stray Park 40,000 2,000
Great Towan ..... 250,000 3,000
Tresavean 200,000 15,000
Marazion Mines . . . 40,000 5,000
Roskear, North . . . /S0,000 6,500
Unity Wood .... 40,000 2,800
C. Mines which have been lately resumed, and after
a change in the management and agency, some
are giving profits, and others about paying
working charges.
Names. Tons of Ore Names. Tons of Ore
per annum. per annum.
Cardrew Downs 2,200 Towan, South . 1,200
Great St. George 4,000 Relistian . . .1,000**
Wheal Mary and Retallack & Hal-
Parent . ,- , 700 lamaning . .3,200-^
Roskear, South 1,000 East Crofty . . 1,100 j
United Hills . . 1,000
83
D. Mines comparatively new, most of them having
been put into activity within about the last seven
years, some are giving large profits, others are
beginning to be prof table.
Names.
Profits.
Tons of Ore
.
per annum.
Charles Wheal ...
( f 10,000
j^
Charlotte Wheal* .
f , n 50,000
Caroline Whealf .
Vr
A-
Elizabeth Wheal .
. C9f
1,500
Fowey Consols ,,-
^ 120,000
9,600
Lanescot . .* ,
. ., 100,000
5,600
Leisure Wheal
. i 10,000
6,200
Penstruthal .
. 70,000
7,000
Sperries WhealJ .
. 10,000
*** Strawberry Wheal
/Vv
1,800
Tolgus Wheal
.. ^0,000
4,100
Trannack Wheal .
. 20,000
200
Trenwith Wheal V
. 40,000
300
Vy vyan J Wheal .
*
* Stated to have been badly managed, and prematurely sus-
pended.
f Stated to have great capabilities, and has produced much Ore,
but is languidly wrought.
\ Likely to make large returns when actively wrought.
84
. Mines not sufficiently advanced to enable any one
to form any correct conclusion as to their results,
they are all selling small quantities of Ore, but
are not yet sufficiently extended or opened upon
in the Ore ground.
Falmouth * Darlington Wheal.
(consols.) Wheal Sparrow.
Wheal Bassett, S. * Wheal Budnick.
Wheal Trevabyn. Wheal Prudence.
West Wheal Jewel. * Wheal Kayle. *
Penwinnick. * E. Wheal Leisure. *
* Are spoken well of, and are likely to make
good mines.
F. Mines which produced large profits from former
workings, but have been re-opened and closed, or
are likely to close with severe loss.
1. Great Wheal Alfred, former profits 380,000/.
Resumed with large outlay, and then aban-
doned without extending in depth. Possible loss
by re-opening 60,000/.
2. Chacewater, former profit 100,000/. This
mine gave large profits in former workings, but
through interested agency it fell into decay, as
85
the Chacewater Mine, and suspended operations
after costing to the purchasing proprietors about
50,000/. It then changed proprietorship, and
was again resumed, as Wheal Bussey ; but in
consequence of the irregularity of the former
workings, and a general poverty, the operations
have not been extended in depth. The Mine is
likely to close with a loss of 50,000/.
3. Crinnis Consols, former profit 25Q,000/.
Though the former operations were so profit-
able, it is stated that the present resumption is
likely to be a failure, to the amount of 60,OOG/.,
unless more energy is exerted.
4. North Downs, former profit 100,000/.
Expensive resumption, and is likely to close with
a loss of 40,000/., unless more productive.
5. Penandrea and Sparnon, former profit
50,000/. Some Copper, Tin, and Cobalt. Re-
sumed, and closed with a loss of about 40,000/.
6. United Mines, former profit 300,0007. ; pre-
sent produce 1,800 tons of Ore per annum.
These mines were very profitable formerly, but
through extravagant agency they gradually fell
into decay and confusion, and caused a loss of
50,000/. After much squabbling and litigation
they were again resumed, with outlay and loss of
86
near 30,000/. ; but they are now under better
direction and agency, and from a reciprocal aid
in connexion with the Consols Mines, now stand
a much better chance of again doing well.
The outlay upon the above six deep resumed
mines, would be sufficient for the outfit of tenfold
the number of well-selected shallow and ancient
mines, and thus make a difference of ten to one
in the number and chances of good mines.
The chances of successful operation from the
moderately shallow mines, are certainly much
more than equal to those in the deep mines.
Take them at the same rate, the average of suc-
cess upon the resumption of deep mines, well-
selected, is nearly equal : this will give three
profitable deep mines out of the six, and thirty
profitable mines out of the sixty shallow opera-
tions, each of which, under proper management,
would be likely to yield, after a few years, profits
equal to, or larger, than those from the deep
mines. Suppose that the three deep mines give
a profit of 20,000/. a-year each, and the thirty
shallow mines only 10,000/. each, the profit on
the investment would be as five to one.
87
The income from the thirty profitable shallow
mines would for many years gradually increase,
while the profits from the three deep mines would
depend upon several contingencies, not affecting
the other mines.
The machinery and materials from the unsuc-
cessful shallow mines would afford the means of
operation upon other undertakings; but the
capital absorbed in the clearing up and re-opera-
tion of the deep unsuccessful mines, would pre-
vent the possibility of working any others with-
out the aid of fresh capital.
G. Extensive mines which have formerly divided
large profits. Some of these are working more
for the consumption of supplies, and benefit of
those interested in the dues or royalties, than
for the advantage of the shareholders ; others,
from bad management and extravagance, or
other adventitious cause, are in an almost inac-
tive state, and may be considered to have been
brought to a premature close, and about to be
permanently abandoned.
1. Abraham Wheal, profits 100,000/. Only
occasionally selling Ore picked from the refuse.
2. Crenver and Oatfield, profits 50,000/. A
company was formed to resume these mines, but
as yet they have made no progress.
3. Bassett Wheal, profits 100,000/. Occa-
sional sales of Halvan Ores. The mine is consi-
dered as permanently closed.
4. Camborne Vean, profits 200,000/. This
mine has thrown up large quantities of Ore. A
few years since it was proposed to resume opera-
tions and connect this mine with another to the
west.
5. Chance Wheal, profits 150,000/. Consi-
dered closed, and now only working up refuse
Ores.
6. Music Wheal, profits 100,000/. This mine
^ ^c^has produced nearly all native Copper, and may \
^rr^ *~? ,be considered a kind of stock work of small veins.
The workings are now very languid, and produce
only small parcels of Ore.
7. Spinster Wheal, profits 80,000/. Closed.
8. Speedwell Wheal, profits 60,000/.~ Closed.
9. Treskirby Mines, profits 200,OOC/. Consi-
dered as worked out and permanently aban-
doned.
10. Unity Wheal, profits 250,000/. Selling
with Poldice, united.
89
11. Union Mines, profits 50,000/.
12. Tin Croft, &c., profits 300,000/. This and
the adjoining mine, Wheal Fanny, have produced
at various workings upwards of 1,300,000/. ; the
operation of the two mines is about to be resumed
by a united company ; much Ore will be raised.
13. Vor Wheal, profits 150,000/. The chief
returns of this mine are in Tin. It is stated that
it would have been very much more profitable
had there been a different management.
14. Cook's Kitchen, profits 300,000/.
Though mines are stated to have been brought
to a close, and to have been worked out and
abandoned, it must not be supposed that it is
a matter of course for them to become poor or
exhausted as they proceed in depth ; for the
reverse is the fact. Although it cannot be denied
that in a few mines the Ore has been found less
abundant and of a poorer quality at a certain
depth, yet, in most of these instances, the increased
size and productiveness of the vein have more than
made up for occasional deficiencies in quality.
Xenophon, speaking of the duration of the
veins, in his " Discourse on the Mines of Athens,"
p. 541, says, " There is scarcely a diminution,
H
90
and in all probability they will never be ex-
hausted." And Wyatt, speaking- of the Estkyrkyr
Mines, says, " They are wrought down for many
hundred yards between firm sides, and still grow
richer as they go further under the ground."
Dalcoath is mentioned as the deepest mine in
Cornwall; and although the Ores are stated to be
somewhat poorer in some places at the bottoms
of that and the adjoining mine (Cook's Kitchen),
it is by no means a frequent case ; and even now
these are very far from what are termed poor
Ores, as they give an excess over the average
produce of the county.
Compared with Dalcoath, most of the mines
mentioned in the list G. are shallow ; yet they
have been brought to a suspension and premature
close, by a combination of what may be termed
fortuitous adventition, and not from a scarcity of
Ore, or a working out, exhaustion, or a defal-
cation of the vein; but through extravagant
management, bad direction, indirect and oppos-
ing individual interest, and other circumstances
neither natural nor incidental to their operation.
Many mines have been brought to a premature
close, by injudiciously working out and breaking
away all the Ore ground as speedily as possible,
91
at an increased charge ; without leaving a proper
reservation of sufficient supply to meet any
sudden exigency. In consequence of neither
doing this, nor applying any of the proceeds of
the mine as a provision for the extension of ope^
rations, when it becomes necessary to erect other
machinery and incur expense, there is no way of
obtaining the means, except by an application
to the proprietors or shareholders, to refund a
portion of their gains in supporting and extending
the works. This used to be very seldom con-
sented to, as most persons were disposed to
retain their profit, and risk the continuance of
successful operation, rather than afford any por-
tion of a certain gain for what they feared a specu-
lative or hazardous appropriation of capital for
further researches in a mine which had already
been very productive, and therefore, in their
opinion, unlikely to produce much more ; espe-
cially when in the absence of any intimation
that bad management had brought the mine into
a temporary poverty, and was the cause of the
application : they were naturally disposed to
regard the application itself, as an evident symp-
tom of the failing resources of the mine. Under
this impression the mines were suffered to work
H 2
92
on until the machinery was inadequate to any
deeper or extended operations, and then, through
irregular and partial workings, the produce gra-
dually decreased, until the mines were suspended
or prematurely closed, without having been
wrought or explored to one-half of their capacity
and yet rendered difficult and expensive, if not
altogether unavailable for future operation ; be-
cause, when it is known that a large mine is
about to be stopped, the agents are not very
particular with the tributors, who, under such
circumstances, raise Ore wherever they can, and
destroy and choke up the levels and workings,
by leaving the deads and refuse attle behind them
in all directions, so that immense labour, time,
and expense, must be incurred by those who
may subsequently resume the workings.
CHAPTER VIII.
MANY instances of vexatious disappointment
and loss could be detailed, in cases where a few
poor people have partially cleared up the former
workings of an old shallow mine and have found
the bottoms rich, or with flattering prospects;
but having no means of working the mine to any
productive effect, they have applied to some indi-
viduals in the neighbourhood, to exchange small
parcels of materials for some shares and the
management of the mine ; and to assist them by
recommending strangers to purchase other shares
at premiums.
A reference to the following (Instance VIII.),
will show the necessity of great circumspection
previous to the purchase of shares in any mine,
94
and the necessity of first ascertaining the respect-
ability and credit of the Purser, the talent and
integrity of the Captain of the works, and the
efficient means of the county shareholders.
INSTANCE VIII.
After clearing up some of the workings of an
old mine, and finding themselves unable to prose-
cute their researches with effect, the poor miners
have gone to some shopkeeper or trader in 'the
neighbourhood, and for a small supply of goods
and a few pounds, have given him the majority
of the shares, together with the Pursership and
the management of the concern, and the liberty *
of disposing of some of their shares. Some of
these he distributed among his neighbour-traders,
and the remainder to strangers at small premiums,
giving them a flaming account of the value of
the concern, and representing that a very small
capital would enable them to explore the re-
mainder of the ancient workings, a.nd bring the
-mine into a productive state. He referred to
.reports from respectable Mine Captains, stating
that the prospects of the mine were very good.
95
and that the proposed capital (perhaps 500/. or
1000/.) would be sufficient to effect the desired
object. He further stated, that no more shares
could be purchased, as they would shortly be at
large premiums ; that Captains and
had shares, but would not sell for double that
price ; that the parties whose names were down
in the list as shareholders were very respectable,
and well able to bear their proportion of costs ;
that Mr. and Mr. were very rich and
had an eighth of the concern each, and were
thinking of increasing their shares, but were now
too late, without giving a premium for them;
that the stannary laws were a protection from
liability beyond the proportion of each person's
share of the undertaking ; that the production of
the cost-book was sufficient evidence of each
shareholder's title ; that, as the set was marked
out by the Bounders, or the Lords Tollars, and
signed by them in the cost-book, there was no
occasion for any lease of the mine (true only as
respects Tin Mines, for which under certain cir-
cumstances there is no necessity for leases) ; that
every caution would be taken, and the propriety
and progress of the Captain's workings would be
decided upon and controlled by monthly meet-
96
ings of the shareholders ; and that copies of the
resolutions of these meetings, with copies of the
accounts and of the costs, and reports of the
state, progress, and prospects of the concern,
would be forwarded to each shareholder monthly.
All this being to a certain degree unexception-
able, when faithfully carried into execution, he
succeeded in inducing parties to purchase large
shares, which they very soon found productive
of much vexation and anxiety.
It has most generally happened, that instead
of such a mine having been economically and
equitably managed, the incapacity of the Cap-
tain, the fraud or subterfuge of the Purser, the
rapacity of the traders in supplies, and the in-
attention of the resident shareholders, have soon
convinced the purchaser that he had but a very
slender prospect of any fair participation in the
promised gain ; and that, so far from being likely
to make a profit from his shares, he was not only
in a fair way of losing the whole of his investment,
but likewise of being called upon to pay a por-
tion of the cost of some of the fictitious resident
shareholders ; some of whom were stated to have
been struck off the cost-book, and their interest
divided among the shareholders. Some excuse
97
was made for the non-payment of the cost by
respectable individuals who had been represented
as very anxious to increase their shares, when
the fact was they were entirely ignorant of their
names being used, never having taken any shares,
or even heard of the mine ; the Pursers having,
in many instances, put down their names merely
as a kind of decoy, to induce others to take
shares.
After some ineffective operations, the out-share-
holder was informed that some of the resident
traders had relinquished their shares and retired
from the concern, and that there were debts
owing for labour and materials, which must be
immediately settled for, or the workings be sus-
pended. Sometimes it turned out that the Purser
had used the shareholders' money for his own
purposes and private trade, instead of paying the
labourers' wages ; and that the operations were
suspended in consequence of the magistrates
having issued an order for the immediate sale of
the materials, to pay the labouring miners. Very
soon after this, information was received that
there were trade debts due from the Purser, on
account of the mine, to the lately seceding sup-
plying shareholders ; who, finding that under such
management there was little chance of the opera-
tions being much longer continued, had retired
from their responsibility as shareholders, and had
selected certain out-shareholders to pay off their
claims, and the other liabilities of the mine ; be-
cause, if they were forced to press or annoy the
Purser, it might be prejudicial to their future
interests, and therefore they refrained from any
recourse to coercive steps against him for the
payment of their accounts, although they very
well knew that he was the true defaulter and
only party to whom they ought in justice to apply
for a liquidation of their demands.
Under such circumstances, the purchasing
shareholder soon found his expectations of profit
disappointed, liabilities incurred, and his interest
or shares in a naturally good concern, valueless,
if not absolutely lost, by an arrangement between
the Purser and lord's agent ; who made an entry
on the mine for a breach of covenant, and then
the Purser gave up possession of the sett, upon
an understanding that he should soon afterwards
have another grant either to himself or his friends.
A fresh list of shareholders was then made up
for re-working the mine, and other strangers who
might be induced to join in the undertaking, met
with similar treatment ; which was again and
again repeated, till the mine was brought into so
forward a state that a very little more money and
operation would render it productive: then the
majority of the shareholders determined " to put
the mine on with spirit," and resolved that a given
amount per share should be paid by a certain
time, or that the shares should be forfeited.
The non-resident shareholders, who had been
from time to time, on various pretences, drained
of more capital than they were at first led to
expect would be required, got impatient, vexed,
and disappointed ; and fearful of being deeply
involved, often refused compliance with the re-r
quisition, and in disgust of that and all similar
concerns, relinquished their shares, which were
then taken with avidity by the resident share-
holders, and after a short time, sold at large pre-
miums.
Sometimes, the Purser mal-appropriated the
money remitted to him by the non-resident share-
holders, and kept the names standing as de-
faulters in the cost-book. This having been done
to large amounts, the resident shareholders very
reasonably complained that they were working
the mine for other people, and were determined
100
to shut it up rather than work for strangers.
On being directed to apprise the presumed de-
faulters of this determination of the local share-
holders, the Purser turned round, and as an
excuse to the non-resident shareholders, alleged
that several of the proprietors were backward in
their proportion of cost, and that the traders had
threatened to sue him for their demands; and
therefore he had suspended operations, and the
materials were ordered to be sold off.
*** Although the above system used to be
frequently pursued, there is now no danger of its
recurrence, the mode of conducting, managing,
and directing Mine Operations being altogether
changed.
CHAPTER IX.
MINES, positively good in themselves, were,
from a variety of circumstances, formerly pro-
ductive of much disappointment and loss; and
although losses from such causes as those men-
tioned in the Instances VII. and VIII. have not
been of great individual extent, they have fre-
quently produced vexation and disgust, which,
in conjunction with the apparently unaccountable
loss of many valuable mines to the first and
second set of shareholders, have propagated and
increased the general prejudice and misconcep-
tion.
102
INSTANCE IX.
A number of indigent persons frequently made
up a list for working a mine; the facilities of
operation and prospects of success being often
peculiarly flattering, as such men generally had
every opportunity of making a good selection,
by looking out for some old shallow mine, some
of the workings of which could be easily and
cheaply explored.
The concern was generally divided into one
hundred and twenty-eighths, and a small capital,
sufficient to enable the incipient workings to
proceed, was subscribed ; several of the parties
taking up much larger portions than their means
would enable them to effectually provide for or
retain.
Well knowing that, in the event of a majority
of the shares being parted with, they would be
compelled to retire from the concern, a meeting
of the shareholders was held, consisting of the
Captain, who was receiving 8/. per month as
superintendent of the works, and owner of some
eight or ten shares ; of his two or three sons,
holding two or four shares each ; of his uncles,
103
brothers, nephews, &c. &c., all shareholders, and
obtaining a livelihood by employment in the
mine, as underground miners or surface-work-
men : besides these, there were present, at the
meeting, the Purser, receiving an income for
keeping the books, &c., and his relatives and
friends, as shareholders.
At this meeting it was determined that only a
certain number of shares less thatl the majority
should be disposed of, in order to prevent the
possibility of their being controlled in their au-
thority over the operations and management of
the mine, or of their being put to further expense
for their shares than the price of their labour.
After a time, they resolved that some adit should be
cleared up, or driven to such and such bottoms,
for the purpose of getting under the old workings,
where they "expect to raise Ore enough to pay
the expenses of the adit, and future erection of
the necessary machinery for effectually working
the mine." As this is seldom or never the case,
all strangers should be very cautious of partici-
pation in a mine to be wrought with a limited
capital, in a dependance of Ore, sufficient to put
the mine into effective operation, being raised
from or above the adit level.
104
The strangers were called on for their propor-
tion of cost, which was generally made to appear
very moderate, and as it amounted to only a com-
paratively trifling sum per month for each share,
it was cheerfully paid for a considerable period.
But, moderate as the sum appeared to those
unacquainted with such matters, it was often
twice as much as it ought to have been, and much
more than sufficient to pay the little work done,
even if it were properly and substantially exe-
cuted, and useful when done; but the truth is, it
seldom mattered whether the workings were judi-
cious or how they were conducted, as all they
usually looked to was present employ, and suffi-
cient progress in the works to keep up the hopes
of the distant shareholders, who, in this way, were
kept in good-humour, till the period was near at
hand, when they expected to get the adit end
under the old workings or into the vein.
But under such Agency, languid operation, and
alternate accident and excuse, generally suc-
ceeded in tiring the patience of some of the out-
shareholders, and in wearing down, into indif-
ference or disappointment, the anxious expecta-
tions of others. The Captain, and his relations
and friends, having the superintendence and un-
105
checked control of the mine, carried on only such
operations as were necessary to furnish them with
employment and wages to subsist, and enable
them indirectly to hold their shares free of expense
to their private purse.
The works are, therefore, not only almost
always very languid in their progress, but like-
wise very temporary in their duration. The adit
choked up the timbers gave way, or the shafts
fell in and often money was wasted in repairing
and re-constructing works, which were afterwards
proved not only unnecessary, but positively pre-
judicial to future operations. The little that was
done absorbed more than double the requisite
expenditure, and took up more than twice the
time that it ought to have been effected in ; be-
cause sons, cousins, nephews, and other relatives,
though working the mine as labourers, were pro-
prietors or shareholders thereof, as well as the
Captain and Purser ; and, therefore, they refused
to work longer, or at other times, or to drive the
ground at a fair set, or less price per fathom,
than they judged would allow them to work
intermittently, and carry on their shares free of
cost. The Captain, in consequence of such
relationship and proprietorship, was unable to
106
exercise any proper energy or control over them,
so that much time was lost, and unnecessary
expenses were incurred at the public-house, the
amount of which was entered indirectly in the
cost-book, and paid by the out-shareholders.
Well knowing that whatever capabilities the
mine might naturally possess, or however valua-
ble it might be, it was nearly utterly^impossible
to effect any ultimate good under such a system
and management ; and finding that some of the
out-shareholders were striving to get the mine
into effective operation, they began to sell their
shares at such premiums as their connexion and
opportunity now and then afforded ; till at length,
after a tiresome and prejudicial state of compara-
tive inactivity, the Captain and his friends con-
trived to part with all their shares, the operations x
became, very shortly afterwards, suddenly sus-
pended, and the new and non-resident share-
holders were left to manage the concern, and
pay such debts as the Purser might have left
unliquidated.
Sometimes, as in other instances, the mine
remained idle for a long time. Most of the
lurched parties were indisposed to take any trou-
ble or incur further expense and risk, and others
107
were incapable of proceeding beyond their anti-
cipated advances. When the prospects were
good, and the works in a forward state, after a
short interval, an arrangement was made with
the Lords' Agent for a grant to fresh parties, who
made up a list of new proprietors, and re-ap-
pointed the Captain and Purser, who were per-
mitted to reinstate such of the old shareholders
as might be prevailed on to expend further sums
in operations, which, under such government,
could not be productive of any thing but vexa-
tion and loss, even when the mines were pos-
sessed of the most unbounded capabilities and
natural advantages. In some instances, the
workings proceeded until the out-shareholders
obtained a majority of shares, and afterwards
finding it a naturally good concern, the whole
mine repaid the expended capital, and became
very profitable in a short time after being put into
effective operation.
If inquiry were to be made, it would be found,
that, until lately, most of the mines which upon
subsequent operation have turned out very pro-
fitable, were previously, partially wrought by
several or various sets of shareholders, subjected
to the above kind of system and mismanagement,
i 2
108
Previous to their becoming profitable mines, the
Crinnis, the Great Wheal Towan, Wheal Reeth,
Penstruthal, Wheal Leisure, and also the Tresa-
vean Copper Mine, now giving a profit of 60,000/.
per annum, were for some years only partially
and intermittently wrought, by several sets of
adventurers or companies.
The above system, and that detailed in the
previous chapter, have been adverted to in order
to show how very injurious the effects have been
in former operation. Circumstances are now so
completely changed, that any repetition of these
systems can scarcely ever occur, and if any were
attempted, they would now very easily be disco-
vered and effectually checked.
CHAPTER X.
THE several instances of deficiency in talent
or general experience, of interested and improper
management, of incautious and unreflective con-
duct, together with the chicane and fraud, either
already adverted to, or which will be mentioned
in the course of these details, are those which
have been the source of the most frequent and
severe disappointment and loss.
Many other instances and circumstances could
be mentioned, but as many of them are now
easily seen and avoided, and others are neither
productive of such extensive loss, nor even of
such frequent occurrence, it will be sufficient to
give a less circumstantial notice of them, and
observe, that notwithstanding the greatest natural
110
advantages, or most favourable representations of
flattering prospects, any share or participation in
mining operations, subject to any of the objec-
tions mentioned in the following instance, ought
to be most carefully avoided and determinedly
rejected.
INSTANCE X.
First. Use great caution, and obtain every
information relative to such mines as are repre-
sented as capable of being commanded without
machinery, of being wrought with an unreason-
ably or unusually small capital, and of being
brought into a profitable state with Ore to be
raised from an intended adit level. When a small
sum is stated to be sufficient to drive an adit
level, and make TRIAL of the mine, persons are
very often misled, and generally calculate that
the proposed capital will be sufficient to bring
the mine into an effective and profitable state ;
but instead of being so, it is generally expended
in useless or premature operation, and in other
inconsiderate outlay or extravagance. Even in
the very few cases where it has been judiciously
Ill
and economically applied, it very rarely happens
that it is more than equal to prove the mine
worthy of further research, and of the erection of
a steam-engine and other machinery, " in order
to make effectual trial of the mine."
The Cornish valleys are seldom deep, or with
high precipitous sides, and there are but com-
paratively very few instances where the Ore
raised from or above the adit level, has produced
sufficient funds for the future efficient operation
of the mine. In that county, it is but seldom
that more than a forty fathom adit can be ob-
tained, and this in most cases, and more par-
ticularly in new or unbroken districts, is very
gradual in its increase of depth. In consequence
of the easy slant or rotund undulation of the sur-
face, much time is consumed and labour spent
before the adit is brought into the vein, which,
after this has been accomplished, rarely proves
sufficiently productive to provide the necessary
machinery for further and deeper operation.
In consequence of the time required to bring
up the deep adit and its shafts, &c., there is, in
proportion to the quantity of work done, a very
large outlay in the agency and pursership, and
there are likewise other extraneous preliminary
112
expenses continually feeding upon the subscribed
capital; so that in many cases the funds have
been exhausted even before the adit has been
brought home. In other instances, when the
anticipated or calculated requisite outlay has
been expended without an effective result, the
shareholders in the absence of a proper expla-
nation, and under the apprehension of a recur-
rence of disappointment have refrained from.
further operation, although the vein has presented
very flattering indications.
Bearing in mind the present efficiency of our
machinery, as well as cheapness of our supplies, it
is hardly questionable whether too much import-
ance is not now commonly attached to the ad-
vantages of deep adits. Where there are facilities
for getting a deep adit into a mine, it is certainly,
for many reasons, very desirable that it should
be brought up ; but at a proper time, and not as
a first and preliminary operation. A deep adit is
unquestionably a great advantage in future ope-
rations; but as machinery and supplies of all
kinds are so much cheaper than they used to be,
when a shallow adit level can be speedily driven
up, it is now both the safest and most economical
plan to carry it in, and subscribe sufficient capital
113
for the employ of effective machinery, and then
run down in depth as quick as possible. In most
cases a small increase of the capital calculated
or proposed to be expended in driving up the
deep adit, will be sufficient to bring the mine
into a decisive state, and most generally into
quick production. Much time, as well as great
expense in preliminary and ineffective operation,
will have been saved, even in the event of a pro-
fitless result, as the sale of the materials will
provide a return of some part of the capital to
the shareholders, more perhaps than the differ-
ence between driving in the deep adit and the
erection of machinery. By this course the share-
holders secure every chance of a fortunate result,
and also the satisfaction of an effectual trial, and
a return of some portion of their capital ; but by
driving the deep adit in the first instance, there
is a long suspense, much greater risk, and a more
than probable necessity for an increase of the
subscribed capital, even if the vein be favourably
cut; if not, there must be a total loss.
Secondly. Refrain from participation in any
mine which is proposed to be wrought by steam-
machinery, with less capital than 5,000/. ; unless
the fullest investigation shall quite satisfactorily
114
prove, that there are facilities for operation which
can be made immediately available for effectually
working the mine with the proposed capital. It
is not to be denied but that some mines have
been brought into a very profitable state with a
very small outlay; but then such mines have had
the advantage of the adits, shafts, and preliminary
operations, of former workings and proprietors,
and the prompt and efficient application of the
capital to useful, prudent, and productive opera-
tions in the first instance ; or otherwise a supply
of sufficient water to propel machinery to effec-
tually drain the mine, without the aid of steam-
power. It cannot be doubted but that there are,
among the ancient shallow workings, many mines
possessed of peculiar facilities, and presenting
everything favourable for the adoption of cheap
and expeditious workings; but these were not
held in the best estimation by many of the sup-
pliers of materials, and therefore have been very
seldom explored or sought after, although there
can be no question but that many of them would
be very productive under good selection and
management.
Every relative inquiry should be made respect-
ing a new mine, proposed to be undertaken with
115
a command of less capital than 5,0007. It is true
that, with peculiar localities and facilities for
operation, and with rigid economy and good
management, much less than 5,000/. may bring
a mine into a profitable state ; yet no mine ought
to be undertaken with cramped means, nor indeed
without a surplus capital ; for of the many mines
which have been undertaken with extremely
limited capitals, nine out of ten have been pro-
ductive only of loss and disappointment, and
have been obliged to be suspended or closed,
for the benefit of subsequent parties, who have
resumed the workings and brought the mines
into a very profitable state.
Thirdly. Be very cautious when the Purser
of the mine is a trader, or shopkeeper of any
description to make inquiry as to his means
and repute, as the funds of the mine are some-
times applied to the extension of his private
trade.
It is notorious that some Pursers make much
more by the direct and indirect supply of mate-
rials, and the use of the mine funds, than by their
income and salary as Pursers ; and that not the
mere pay, but the facilities which the large sums
passing through their hands give to their private
116
trade, form the chief inducement to undertake
the Pursership. The evils of this we have before
seen : the operations of the mine are often re-
tarded, and sometimes the mine funds are totally
lost ; the continuance of operation is jeopardized ;
and various subterfuges are resorted to in the
endeavour to conceal the fact from the pro-
prietors. In some instances, when mines have
advanced to a profitable state, various pretences
have been made for keeping large balances in
hand; for delaying the dividends much longer
than necessary ; and for making a much smaller
one than would be declared under other manage-
ment.
Fourthly. If there be a majority of resident
shareholders in a mine, although profitable, avoid
purchasing any shares in it, if it be drained by, or
is draining, or is likely to be of other service
to, an adjoining or neighbouring mine ; as, not-
withstanding its being profitable, it is likely
to be suspended through dispute, and a mani-
festation of that littleness of mind and mean-
ness which often lose sight of their best in-
terests, by a display of chagrin at being
instrumental to the welfare or profit of others,
without participation, or receiving something in
117
the nature of a quid pro quo from the benefited
party.
Under such circumstances it is by no means
uncommon for the majority to purchase or obtain
interests in the adjoining concern, and then make
your mine subservient to their purposes. Some-
times an agreement is made with the proprietors
of the adjoining mine, to consolidate or unite the
two mines. Various motives may bring about
an agreement for this consolidation, as if one
concern threatens the existence of the other, the
Receivership of the dues or royalties, and the
continuance of the Pursership and consumption
of material, are endangered.
This consideration alone might be sufficient to
induce a settlement for a consolidation advan-
tageous to the resident and supplying share-
holders, although prejudicial, if not directly
unjust, to the non-resident or purchasing share-
holder ; as, instead of his share being regularly
productive, he might not only find that the profits
of his interest were diverted for the more expen-
sive and less profitable operation of the united
concern, but that he was unexpectedly called
upon to contribute a portion of the joint capital,
and that in default of doing so his shares would
118
be destroyed or merged in the union, in defiance
of any remonstrance or opposition : because the
majority resolved to suspend operations, as the
easiest mode of getting rid of those parties
opposing the consolidation. Fresh grants would
then be obtained, and a fictitious " new com-
pany " formed, the operations would be resumed,
and the mines would go on as usual, and the pro-
testing shareholder would be left to his legal re-
medy for a redress, of which they had little or no
fear, from the certainty that there would be few
individuals possessing the means and inclination
to enter into a chancery contest with them, and
still fewer persons, who would have the temerity
to litigate with parties who are too often inca-
pable of conforming to the terms of a successful
decree.
Disputes for the supply of materials, other
opposing interests, and cabal and illiberal obsti-
nacy, have caused the suspension of valuable
mines, and a total loss to the purchasing share-
holder, who may have given a large premium for
his shares, perhaps only a very short period pre-
vious to the suspension or consolidation, and is
therefore either unable or indisposed to hazard-
ously increase his interest in the undertaking.
119
Fifthly. Avoid mines of which the traders
in supplies have the agency, and in which they
or their friends have any considerable interest or
controlling share.
Mines in which the resident shareholders have
a less interest than in an adjoining mine, and are
therefore likely to be induced to make your mine
subservient to the drainage, or other advantage
of the adjoining mine.
Mines in which the Captain and Purser, unless
of undoubted character and respectability, have
any share or interest; as they sometimes miscon-
duct themselves, and upon any attempt being
made to dismiss them from their situations, they
may give much annoyance and trouble, and, in
proportion to their delinquency and disrepute,
promote disunion and litigation, as well as cause
the unnecessary expenditure of much time and
money.
Mines belonging to non-residents, the opera-
tions and produce of which are left to the un-
checked and sole control and discretion of the
Purser and Captain.
Mines where the Purser is solely intrusted with
the transfer and registry of shares, by means of
entries in the cost-book only.
120
Mines of any mineral, except Tin, the leases
of which are incomplete, or have never been
granted except by the set, and signature of the
Lords' Agents in the cost-book.
CHAPTER XI.
FEW or none but the Copper Mines of
Cornwall have been or will be mentioned in the
course of these details ; but from the prevalence
of similar errors, mismanagement, and frauds,
the same observations upon the necessity of cir-
cumspection will apply to all descriptions of
mines, whether resumed, deep, or shallow mines,
or deposits of Tin, Lead, Antimony, or other
Mineral ; for although the various errors and
irregularities have been much more expensive
and ruinous in deep and suspended Cornish Cop-
per Mines, than any others, many references
could be made to the disastrous results of the
like management and misconduct in Tin and Lead
mines.
122
The re-opening and operation of many exten-
sive mines, involving more speculation and risk
than ordinarily belong to Mining Operations, have
been recommended more in a consideration of
the incidental advantages to be derived from
getting such mines into activity, than from a con-
viction of a probable successful result to the
shareholders. This has led some parties, who
have had the direction of such mines, and others,
persons who ought to know-to-the contrary, and
possess better information on the matter, to ex-
press an opinion that there are but few eligible
mines in this country that are not now either in
operation or taken up with the intention of work-
ing. Nothing can be more erroneous than this ^
belief; which can only be imagined to have ori-
ginated in misrepresentation or interested advice,
given to those parties who have only restricted
means of information, and an inability of devoting
their time and attention to a personal inspection
of localities, and who are consequently compelled
to rely on the fallacious and interested reports of
others. Had they the opportunity, by personal
inspection, of possessing themselves of the neces-
sary intelligence, they could not for one moment
have been impressed with such a misconception
123
on the contrary, they would have found various
metalliferous deposits eligible for the investment
of many millions sterling, and possessing faci-
lities, capacities, and prospects, superior to some
of those under recommendation. Perhaps the
true cause of such an assertion and belief, may,
with some justice, be ascribed to the activity and
indirect influence of the Cornish Copper miners,
and their purveyors of supplies.
The ancient and old Tin, Lead, and other
workings, must not be confounded with those
which have been wrought of late years, by steam
and other machinery, and afterwards suspended
or abandoned; for although they are much
neglected, the old shallow workings include a
very valuable class of mines, the proper selection
and re-operation of some of which, could not but
be attended with great advantages, as it is cer-
tain that they cannot be deep, or under efficient
management, require either much time or capital
to be explored and brought into a productive
state. Neither must this description of mines be
confounded with those comparatively new and
recent concerns, which have been improperly
or heedlessly and abortively undertaken, in un-
productive and barren ground; but, whenever
K2
124
we see the remains of extensive operations, with
much of the vein stone carried away, and the
coffins or cavities long and open, with little or no
attle or deads, it is but reasonable to infer that
the vein was formerly very productive, and that
the workings would not have been pursued to
such an extent unless considerable quantities of
Ore had been raised; more especially, from its
being evident that large quantities of something
must have been produced, and from its being
very improbable that such excavations would
have been fruitlessly continued to such an extent,
and additional labour and expense incurred by
the transport of the poor and useless vein stuff:
but yet, notwithstanding their presenting many
indications, inferences, and advantages, these
mines, as well as others, require the exercise of
much caution and discrimination in their selec-
tion for operation.
Such of those Tin workings as have been
hitherto explored, have almost all been cleared
up by poor working miners, and afterwards sold
at small premiums to more influential persons,
who have been able, either by their own means
or by the assistance of others, to bring them into
effective operation. These mines are of great
125
importance in any consideration in reference to
the proprietorship of the Tin Royalties, as there
are some hundreds of those workings in different
parts of the Duchy. Many of them could be put
into effective production with small advances,
and only a comparatively short time would elapse
before the dues, from each mine, would be an-
nually increasing to a considerable amount.
Upon inquiry, it will be found that scarcely
any of those workings which have been so ex-
plored and wrought, have been losing concerns ;
but, on the contrary, that they have been almost
uniformly productive, and very profitable. The
reasons why so few of these old workings have
been explored, are deducible partly from the
difficulty of obtaining any grants or under-
leases of the Tin from the Lessee of the Duchy
Royalties, the indisposition of the merchants and
traders in supplies, to attend to inexpensive con-
cerns, and from a want of reflection and proper
consideration of their value by others.
It is not to the value of the ancient Tin work-
ings only that these observations are intended to
apply, but to old workings for other metals, in
Cornwall, Devonshire, Cumberland, Westmore-
land, and elsewhere, Some explanations why
126
they are now so little known, and have been so
much unattended to hitherto, will be seen in the
following pages, when alluding to the effects of
the ancient and former monopolizing grants of the
Mineral Royalties ; and the effect of suffering to
remain unrepealed the Act of the Fifth year of
Henry the Fourth, against " the multiplying or re-
duction of the Ores of Gold and Silver for profit."
The remains of these ancient Tin and other
mines are to be found in almost every district in
Cornwall, a great many of Lead and other Mine-
rals in Devonshire, parts of Wales, Derbyshire,
and Yorkshire. In Cumberland and other places*
there are many remains of old workings for Copper
and other Minerals, some of which would make
profitable and lasting mines, if effectually wrought.
For many years past there has been a strong
feeling in favour of Copper Mines, which it is
difficult to account for otherwise than by hazard-
ing the supposition of its having been created by
the introduction of Bolton and Watt's steam-en-
gine, into the county of Cornwall, just about the
period of their being interested in various govern-
ment contracts for the supply of Copper for
coinage and other purposes.
The erection of their steam-engines upon seve-
127
ral Copper Mines, enabled them to be wrought
more expeditiously, and to a greater extent and
depth, with a corresponding increase in produce
and profit; and consequently excited attention,
and induced their application to many other
Copper veins, the large and quick returns from
which, incited an eagerness to adventure, and an
active engagement of as many Copper Mines as
could be set into operation.
Some of these were profitable to all parties
interested, and to an extent beyond any former
example ; others were very profitable only to the
resident shareholders and traders, and those in-
terested in the dues or Royalties ; and, as might
be expected, many were altogether unsuccessful^
and losing concerns, either from bad and extra-
vagant management or through injudicious se-
lection ; for, in the rage for Copper mining, and
under an expectation that all Copper veins were
to be very productive, many concerns were put
on and wrought, which, under an exercise of
common judgment and discretion, would never
have been prosecuted or deemed worthy of ope-
ration. Notwithstanding some failures, the ex-
traordinary profits derived from many of the
Cornish Copper Mines, attracted a general atten-
128
tion to their operation, without any corresponding
activity in those of other counties, and also led to
a comparative neglect and disrepute of the Tin,
Lead, and other Minerals. Besides this, the
employment of steam machinery on the Copper
Mines, in only some few of the Cornish districts,
created an impression, even in that county, that
Copper Mines were more certain, eligible, and
lasting, than any others ; and also caused the
erroneous supposition, that only those districts
were congenial to the production of such profit-
able and permanent Copper Mines. But the
subsequent application of the steam-engine to
many of the Copper veins in other districts of the
county, having produced equally profitable re-
sults, the prejudices as to the limited local dispo-
sition of Copper Ores are fast wearing away.
The great activity in the application of the
steam-engine to these mines, in almost total
neglect of those in any other county (excepting
the few in Wales and Ireland), has by degrees
drawn an almost exclusive attention to them,
though there are many valuable Copper veins in
Westmoreland and other northern counties
totally neglected, some of which possess peculiar
facilities for operation, and frequently contain a
129
richer Ore than the generality of those in Corn-
wall. The rapid operation and great produce
of the Copper Mines having steam machinery,
prompted its application to some of the Tin and
Lead Mines, and having been attended with suc-
cess and great profit in most instances where it
has been judiciously and economically applied,
it has proved that Tin and Lead Mines, when
carefully selected and properly conducted, have
as great capabilities of produce or gain as the
Copper Mines.
The great comparative activity and number,
and the efficient machinery of the Cornish Mines,
have given them an undue prominence (good and
bad) in public estimation, and have so nearly
eclipsed the Mine Operations of other counties,
and so completely thrown their mineral products
into oblivion, that most people imagine that there
are no mines but those of Cornwall and Devon, and
are quite unaware of the productiveness of some
of the Welsh and Irish Copper and other Mines.
Perhaps there are other persons, as well as
Sir , who may be of opinion that any
reference to the veins of the north is injudicious,
as perchance it might be prejudicial to the county
of Cornwall, and some parties indirectly con-
130
nected with the Mineral Royalties; but on
inquiry, it will be seen that formerly, and pre-
viously to the activity of the Cornish Copper
Mines, those of the northern counties were better
known; and it is more than possible that had
similar machinery and activity been, in the first
instance, directed to the mines in the north, those
in the west would have been in a far less produc-
tive and prominent state.
Some persons suppose that only the Lead
veins of Cumberland are worth working, and
that the Copper and other mineral veins of that
county, and of Westmoreland, Yorkshire, and
Derby, are of little or no value ; but the truth is,
that although Cornwall and Devon are the only
counties in which the Tin Mines have hitherto
been wrought, the northern counties were for-
merly famous for their many valuable veins of
Copper, Lead, and other Minerals ; and although
they have been so much neglected for a long
time past, a great proportion of them, from their
great size, richness, and facility of operation,
might be wrought with very great advantage.
Many possess greater claims to attention than
some of the Cornish veins which have realized
very large profits.
131
It is true that, at this time, there are but com
paratively few metalliferous Mining Operations
in Cumberland, Westmoreland, Derby, or York-
shire ; but this is accounted for by the activity of
the Cornish Copper Miners, who have succeeded
in drawing an almost exclusive public attention,
by the employment of the steam-engines in draw-
ing the Copper veins of that county, and in the
application of steam-power to stamping-mills and
other purposes, by which great improvements in
the general economy of operation, as well as in
the various mechanical arrangements, have been
effected, and such increased expedition in the
general result has been introduced ; that the ex-
traordinary produce and profits of the Cornish
Mines have raised an impression, that the veins
of that county are richer, more certain in their
returns, of greater capacity of production, more
permanent, and altogether more eligible, than any
others. This supposition is far from being uni-
versally correct.
And the following extracts from well-known
authors, will corroborate this assertion, and pre-
vent its appearing to rest entirely upon individual
bias or authority.
132
EVIDENCES.
WEBSTER, in his " Metallographia," page 20,
mentions Brunghill Moor, in Slaidburn, where
Sir B. Bulmer " got great store of Silver Ore,
that held 671. per ton ;" also, that " at Riming-
ton, Gisburn in Craven, in a field called Skil-
burne, belonging to William Pudsey, they got
great store of Silver Ore, which was coined."
WYATT, page 6, mentions this one in the follow-
ing way : " In 1655, some persons in London
sent an expert assay-master (who had been from
England to settle the standard of the Russian
coin) to Brunghill Moor. But not having suffi-
cient money or enterprise for such an undertak-
ing, they deserted the assay-master, whom a
neighbouring gentleman employed to pick some
Ore out of the rubbish of works that Sir B. Bul-
mer had left. Several tryals yielded near 67/.
per ton, though it was none of the best Ore."
EDWABD the Fourth, in the eighth year of his
reign, granted all his Copper Alines, containing
Gold and Silver, in Cumberland, Westmoreland,
and Northumberland, to Dodrick Wavers wick.
133
C-ESAR, in his " Commentaries," says, that one
reason of his invading Britain, was because they
assisted the Gauls with their treasures.
GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS affirms, that in his
time there was a very rich vein of Silver disco-
vered, in following which, " item est in viscera
terrae."
SIR J. PETTUS, in his " Fodin. Reg.," p. II,
says, "There is no doubt but the Silver, coined
after the Roman way, in the time of Augustus,
was taken from English mines."
CAMDEX, in his "Britannia, "(new translation,)
observes, " This is certain, that both Gold and
Silver were formerly extracted from several of our
mines in Devon, Cornwall, and Cumberland."
BOYLE, in his Useful Philosophy, says, " A
friend of mine found, in his own land, a par-
cel of Ore which seemed to be Copper. After
fusion it yielded very good Copper, but the per-
son to whom he committed the examination
being extraordinary skilful, found, besides the
Copper, a considerable quantify of Silver, and in
that Silver a good portion of Gold."
DR. FULLER, in his "Worthies of Cumber-
land," observes, that " in taking the rich Copper
Mine from the Duke of Northumberland, at Kes-
134
wick, it came to pass that this Queen (Elizabeth)
left more Brass than she found Iron ordnance in
the kingdom."
PLOWDEN'S " Reports." " In the tenth year
of her reign, Queen Elizabeth took from the Earl
of Northumberland his rich Copper Mine of Kes-
wick, because of its holding so much Silver and
Gold in the Ores."
DR. LEIGH, in his " History of Lancashire,"
p. 82, says, " We have, in England, quantities of
Copper to supply all Europe. If the Mines of
Copper Ore were rightly managed, we should
not import any Copper." Also p. 82, " The right
method of running the Copper which is got in the
north is by reducing the Ore to a small powder,
afterwards by roasting it ; and then, by an addi-
tion of lixivial ashes, the Ore, in a proper furnace,
will run into a fourth part of malleable Copper."
The average produce of the Cornish Copper Ores
is only about seven and a half per cent.
ALONZO BARBA, in his " Art of Metals," p.
134, says, that " in following the veins of Tin, the
miners often meet with rich parcels of Silver."
BOYLE, in his Usefulness of Philosophy,"
observes, Tin Ores very often contain Silver.
I have also seen Tin containing chips of gold.
135
The owner told me, that one of his workmen
profitably employed his children, in picking the
Gold out of the Tin Ore after it was broken
up."
In 1702, a patent was taken out by Mr. R.
LYDALL, of Truro, " for refining and separating
the Silver from Tin, by precipitation."
" Pert Britannia Aurum et Argentum," TACI-
TUS, in "Vita Agricolae," cap. 10.
PLIN. " Nat. Hist." " Plumbum in Britannia
adeo large eruiter, ut lex altro dicatur ne plus
certo fiat." L. 34. c. 17. " Ubicunque una vena
inventa est, non procul invenita altera." L. 33.
c. 6.
'
CHAPTER XII.
, .THE Cornish miner is only conversant with one
description of vein. In Derbyshire and some
other counties there are the Rake-vertical-veins,
the Pipe-veins, the Streak-veins, and the accu-
mulated or Stock-veins; all of which have been
wrought with varied success. Some of the Rake-
veins have given enormous profits, and may be
deemed interminable, and, on being judiciously
selected and re-opened, some of the ancient
workings on these veins would be very pro-
ductive.
The accumulated or Stock-veins have also been
very profitable : such are, the Obi, Beacon, Ac-
ton, Mixon, Farrey's mines, &c. &c., in Derby-
shire, Staffordshire, and Anglesea.
137
The Streak and Pipe-veins have produced much
vexation and loss. The Streak- veins are layers
or floors of Ore, varying from a few lines to an
inch or two in thickness, lying between strata,
and often leading from or to a Pipe-vein, which
is then frequently very productive, though always
of comparatively short duration, as well as very
sudden in its defection ; being neither more nor
less than a chamber or cavity in the rock, vary-
ing from a few feet to many fathoms in circum-
ference, and sometimes lined or nearly filled with
Ore.
These two veins Streak and Pipe are very
variable in size, and uncertain in their duration
and produce. Some of the worst of the Pipe-
veins present more specious and tempting ap-
pearances, to the superficial observer and those
unacquainted with their peculiarities and de-
pendent nature, than many which have subse-
quently turned out very profitable: but the
working these veins, even with good and skilful
management, is always speculative, and but sel-
dom advisable under any circumstances.
The very numerous unsuccessful and ill-judged
operations on these two descriptions of veins,
have occasioned frequent if not heavy loss and
138
disappointment, and have been greatly tributary
to the general prejudice against all other metal-
liferous veins and mining undertakings. Thus,
in these northern counties as well as others, a
deficiency in competent scientific and mechanical
skill, has caused a general apathy and wrong-
apprehension towards a branch of national in-
dustry, which, when correctly developed and
understood, would be esteemed of the first con-
sequence to public prosperity, as well as to
private welfare.
The Beacon Rake lead vein, in Derbyshire,
was wrought by the Romans with great advan-
tage, and several centuries after it was partly
reopened by the ancestor of the present Duke of
Rutland ; who made very large profits from the \
workings, but was compelled to abandon them
in consequence of the then-prevailing ignorance
of the geology or habitudes of the strata about
the mine. There is little doubt but tjiat the vein
would be again productive, if explored under the
toad-stone, and effectually wrought by competent
machinery and means.
Consumblock, in Cardiganshire, is stated to|
have been wrought by the Romans and Saxons ; t
and afterwards, with great profit, by the Patentee^
139
of Royal Mines ; and after them by " The Com-
pany of Mine Adventurers." The vein is larger
than ever, and now yields above sixty ounces of
silver in a ton of lead. SHIERS' " Second Dis-
course."
There can be no doubt of the general perma-
nence of these kind of veins; but it will be per-
ceived, that the duration of operation and profits of
a mine, mainly depend upon judicious selection
and conduct. It may, indeed, be said, that all
depends on the circumspection and economy of the
directing management, and the adroitness of the
local agency, as well as general method in the
underground workings; by a regular extension
of which, and keeping proper reserves of ore
ground, the requisite increase of machinery, and
every unexpected exigency, will be provided for
without any remission of the regular division of
profits ; and the mine will be continued in a pro-
ductive state for any period. So that by this
means, the profits of a limited mine investment
may not only be secured from exhaustion, but
gradually and safely augmented; while, without
such circumspection, economy, and reserve, any
casualty, or a mere temporary poverty of the
veins, may bring the mine to a premature close.
L2
140
In reference to the continuance of veins, and
the natural permanence of mines, we may quote
a gentleman of great experience in such matters ;
viz.,
WALLER ; who observes, " Nature is regular
in its products underground as well as above,
and when miners have once found the vein be-
twixt good or firm sides, they seldom or never
lose such a vein, without an apparent reason
above ground ; especially in silver, copper, and
lead mines, in which the veins lie nearly perpen-
dicular: but in horizontal veins, as in coal, a
perpendicular rock will cut its veins in two, and
therefore the veins may fall or rise on the other
side. But the bottom of any fixed large settled
vein, with firm sides, was never found, but the
works have been left off, when they have been
carried as deep as the water would permit, and
not because the ore was worked out" Thus none of
the old Tin workings and other mines are deep,
because there was then no efficient machinery to
enable the miners to get rid of the water.
SHIERS, in his "Second Discourse," tells us,
that " Settled veins, which have ore near the
surface, did never fail or miscarry, at the bottom
of the deepest level that was ever driven."
141
Sir JOHN PETTUS, in his Metallic Works, page
88, says, " The mine at Goslar, in Germany,
formerly belonging to the Duke of Saxony, after-
wards to the Duke of Brunswick, has been in
constant working for above seven hundred years."
Dr. BROWN'S Travels, page 121 and 134, states
the same of the Mines of Silver in Gottenburgh,
in Bohemia, and at Frieburgh, in Misnia.
PLINY THE ELDER mentions the Silver Mine
upon the Pyrrenian hills, which for a long time
yielded every day two hundred pounds weight
of metal.
Dr. HEYLIN, in his " Cosmography," says that
they " rose three thousand pounds by tale;" and
that "it was wrought for three hundred years,
being at last near a mile and half deep" [quere
long]. P. 221.
The same author, in page 222, says, " The
rich Mines of Gold and Silver in Gallicia, in
Spain, and the Asturias, and some part of Lusi-
tania, for many long years afforded yearly unto
the Romans twenty thousand pounds weight of
gold."
CHAPTER XIII.
IN all considerations of the past consequences
of Mine Operations, it is of much importance to
bear in mind that former deficiencies in compe-
tent scientific attainment and mechanical skill
and power, combined with the cupidity and
rapacity of some of the Cornish traders and pur-
sers, have been the causes or sources of most of
the loss and misunderstanding, as well as the
origin of the erroneous impression, that success in
mining operations is always extremely precarious,
even when under the most favourable prospects
and best management.
Observations have been and will be made,
relative to many of the local circumstances and
arrangements, which have been adverse to the
143
degree of success that ought to have been attend-
ant upon, and naturally belongs to, most Mine
Operations. In order further to manifest, that
improper conduct, and matters quite foreign to
the formation of a right conception of the nature
of mines and mineral veins, have been jumbled
together, and have produced the misconception
that every mine investment or undertaking is
naturally attended with a great degree of uncer-
tainty and fortuitous event, it will be as well to
shortly refer to some matters which, although
not immediately touching on the local arrange-
ment, have nevertheless gone hand in hand
in propagating the public prejudice. But
first, one may observe, that in all mines which
are represented as controllable, and able to be
brought into a productive state with a very small
capital, it is absolutely necessary to look to the
responsibility of the persons composing the pro-
prietary, and to the talent and activity of the
local management ; to see that the Purser has no
interest in the supply of the materials, and that
he be so situate, that there will be no likelihood
of the progress and funds of the mines being
made serviceable to the purposes of his private
trade; to choose a Captain and Director of
144
Works who is independent of adjoining and
neighbouring operations, and persons who might
use a prejudicial influence over his management
of the concern ; and, above all, to take every
care that he be an experienced, active, and in-
telligent man, and fit to exercise the proper in-
fluence and control over the subordinate agents
and labouring miners. Great expense, as well
as ruinous delay, and even the loss of many mines,
have been occasioned by a deficient energy or
inaptitude for command in the appointed agent
or Captain ; who perhaps, very shortly previous
to his being selected to oversee and direct the
works of the mine, was a fellow tributer or
labourer with those over whom adventitious cir-
cumstances have called him to exercise a tem-
porary authority and control. Hence it often
happens, that though he may be a very good and
experienced miner (as a labourer or tributer), he
is defective in the requisite commanding tact and
influence, and backward or unable to enforce that
rigid economy, activity, and perseverance, so
imperatively necessary to ensure a successful
result with unusually restricted means.
It has been before observed, that besides the
many things relating to their local arrangements,
145
there have been various extraneous matters which
have engendered and promulgated misconcep-
tion, and unjustly strengthened the prejudice
against Mine Operations. Among these extra-
neous circumstances, we must not forget to men-
tion and bear in mind, that the impatience, irri-
tation, want of nerve, and absence of reflecting
discrimination in the directing or managing pro-
prietary, have very often caused severe loss, and
the stoppage and abandonment of many mines,
which have subsequently produced very large
profits to succeeding proprietors.
This has more generally happened in those in-
stances where parties have been induced to
undertake the operation of a new or shallow
mine, under the impression that the mine could
be brought into a productive state by means of
the ore to be raised by driving an adit level, and
the expenditure of a comparatively trifling capital
a thing very seldom accomplished, as it is but
rarely that quantities of ore of any importance
are raised before the workings are under the adit
levels of the Cornish Copper Mines.
In too many instances of this kind, parties
have been led to believe that there was nothing
to do but to drive a new adit, or continue the
146
old one over some three or four hundred yards
of ground at a shallow depth, up to a given spot,
where the mine would be profitable, as they fully
relied upon the adit producing returns of ore
sufficient to pay for the erection of the requisite
machinery, and the cost of the future workings.
Such statements and mines require great cau-
tion and activity in the onset, both by the pro-
prietary and by the acting agent or Captain, as
under such circumstances, in nine cases out of
ten, the small capital proposed to defray the
expense of driving the adit is almost always
frittered away in needless expense and by incon-
sequential operation. Very often, through a
general lack of talent, experience, and influence
in the Captain; by his tardiness in operation?
and by his premature as well as injudicious sur-
face-erections and workings, the capital is totally
absorbed even before the underground-workings
have been brought to a state enabling any con-
clusion to be formed as to the propriety of further
operation or outlay.
Sometimes the capital has been found sufficient
for all preliminary workings previous to an im-
mediate productiveness, and then the mine has
been allowed to be suspended for the want of a
147
comparatively trifling advance. In other under-
takings, the improvidence or misconduct of the
Pursers has caused the proprietors to suspend
their operations, just as the works have been so
far advanced as to commence their regular sales
of ore.
Under these and similar circumstances, the
managing proprietors have too often evinced a
great degree of supineness and irritability ; and
through an exhibition of extraordinary apathy
and inactivity, and an unwarranted and ill-judged
invective, have often lost a valuable mine : vacil-
lating between an anxious desire of gain and a
prejudiced impression, more solicitous to accuse
and impute blame, than to apply a timely remedy,
or take the trouble of seeking the real cause of
the vexation and dilemma.
Through such conduct, much loss and frequent
disappointments have been needlessly incurred,
and many valuable undertakings have been petu-
lantly suspended and given up, when firmness,
justice, and deliberate consideration, would have
convinced the parties that it was to the interest
of the shareholders and themselves, that they
should have secured and retained the mine; in-
stead of improperly giving way to spleen and
148
unjust vituperation, to a degree imposing a con-
fused perception of cause and effect ; and a
conglomerated condemnation of every mining
undertaking, and of all persons in any way con-
cerned in agitating or projecting their operation.
It would be extremely irksome to dilate upon
every reason for asserting the conviction, that,
under present circumstances, very great profits
must be derived from cautious Mine Operations;
and it would also be an unreasonable imposition
upon the reader's patience to enter into every
possible minutiae and detail of every matter con-
nected with mine management, and of all that
ought to be done, and of all that is to be avoided,
in order to secure success. It is a matter upon
which much could be said, and one which has
formerly been subjected to much impropriety, as
well as many natural obstacles, difficulties, and
disadvantages, which now no longer exist. Here
we can only touch upon the most prominent
faults and facts, and trust that candour and
discrimination will lead to a perception of the
effects of matters of minor importance ; especially
as there has been during the last five years, such
a great improvement in the management, eco-
nomy, and profits of Mine Investment, as to have
149
already had some effect towards exciting atten-
tion to the change which has taken place.
It has been already mentioned, that the per-
manence and profits of Mine Investment, depend
upon judicious selection, and the general discrimi-
nation, judgment, skill, and energy of the Direct-
ing Agency. Through injudicious selection, many
mines have been, and some few (yet working)
will 'be, losing concerns, notwithstanding their
now being under the most able direction. Al-
though there will, henceforth, be little cause to
apprehend severe failures in Mine Operation,
when under good selection, and efficient and
equitable direction, it is possible that, through
bad management or other cause, an individual or
single mine may be a losing concern ; and there-
fore it is advisable that the capital, devoted to
Mining purposes, should be invested in various
undertakings, because the distribution of the in-
vestment, and the consequent division of risk,
diminishes the severity of the effects of any par-
tial loss or accident, and thereby insures a greater
degree of success upon the aggregate under-
takings.
Under proper management, it is scarcely pos-
sible that actual loss can ever occur, as the profits
150
from one productive mine will more than compen-
sate the loss from four unsuccessful undertak-
ings, and it is certain that the chances of success
are more than two to one against failure ; but yet,
it is advisable that the money appropriated, to
Mine Investment, should be such as can be spared
without a necessity of a quick return, as various
circumstances, dependent upon a more or less
judicious directing management and course of
working, may now and then occur, rendering the
exact period of return uncertain. For instance,
in a temporarily depressed state of the market, it
may be judicious to sell only a reduced quantity
of ore, and for a short period defer or lessen the
usual dividend, until a reaction in the market
may enable an increased quantity of Ore to be
sold at a better price.
In cases where a surplus capital has not been
provided, parties should be prepared to make a
small temporary advance, beyond that stated or
anticipated as the actual requisite amount of the
investment ; as, sometimes, an event may occur,
rendering such a surplus capital or advance abso-
lutely necessary to the salvation and success of
the undertaking.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE assertion that mining is a precarious in-
vestment, and not sufficiently profitable on the
whole, has not only been made by persons who
are prejudiced, and by such as have been misled
and are very little acquainted with the subject,
but also by those who, having various motives
for concealing the amount of profits, which judi-
cious and fair management must develope, have,
in the mistaken and narrow policy, prompted by
overweeningconsiderations of present self-interest,
forgotten, that when, in a misconception of their
best interests, they have cunningly succeeded in
misleading and defeating the object of the in-
quiries of a Parliamentary Committee; they were
likewise powerfully instrumental in the diffusion
152
of misunderstanding and prejudice, and in creating
a distaste for undertaking operations, upon the
number and success of which depended the public
patronage, and with it, their own prosperity.
The facts and tables in the previous pages, will
prove that the employment of a large capital in
equitable and well-selected Mining operations,
is securely productive of a much larger profit than
any other application of it will safely admit of; less
subject to violent fluctuations, and perhaps, on
the whole, much more eligible than any other
species of income, on account of its not being di-
rectly affected by parliamentary imposition or tax,
or parochial assessment; and, more especially, in
consequence of its being free from the influences
so often causing losses and fluctuations in the
value of funded, mercantile, and manufacturing
investments, as well as a reduction in the value
and rental of agricultural and other landed pro-
perties, whether freehold or leasehold.
Leasehold properties, whether land or houses,
after a certain period, decline in income or mar-
ketable value; when, on the contrary, if pro-
perly managed, the Mine Investment greatly in-
creases its value, and by its continual and rapid
reproduction of capital, applicable to an aug-
153
mentation of investment, provides for the opera-
tion of fresh undertakings, without making any
reduction in the regular monthly distribution of
profit, or any inroad upon the invested capital.
This is a special peculiarity and advantage, pos-
sessed by no other kind of investment. It is true
that such a reproduction of capital may occur
from fortunate and desperate mercantile specula-
tion; but then the risk is great, and the success
and its degree, are contingent or dependent upon
many circumstances, both public and private,
over which the speculator has no control. There
are also instances of very fortunate leasehold land
and house purchases ; but then they may be said
to be isolated cases, or exceptions to the general
results of such investments, which are by no
means productive either of large or early returns
for the out-laid capital, especially house-lease-
holds, which depend upon many contingencies ;
and even when they are in good situations,
steadily rented, and in increasing and improving
neighbourhoods, afford anything but large returns
for the outlay, and after a time require heavy
expenditure to keep them in repair, and by so
much reduce the limited returns of the invest-
ment. Many house properties pay very little;
M
154
many, by depopulation or change of inhabitants,
become much depreciated in value, and very
many are a continual drain and source of vexa-
tion and ruin to those who have restricted means
of repair.
The judicious Mine Investment will not only
return a regular and large quarterly or monthly
interest for the money advanced, but will permit
a portion of the surplus profits to be applied in
the gradual increase of the number and quantity
of Operations ; and thus continually augment
the marketable value of the investment, without
interfering with the distribution of annual bonuses,
or requiring any portion of the regular interest,
dividends, or bonuses, to be refunded for the sup- j
port of the undertaking, as the increase of machi- x i
nery, repairs, and other exigences, will always be j
provided for by appropriate reserves of Ore
ground.
It may be objected that there are still some
losses from Mine Undertakings; there is no
question of this, but so there are in merchants'
and traders' affairs, which are nevertheless very
productive on the whole. The losses now occur-
ring from Mine Operations, only confirm thfc
correctness of that which I am endeavouring to
155
urge ; namely, that as most people possessed of
common sense, use some discernment, and exer-
/
cise some caution, previous to investing money in
any ordinary business, it is but right that an equal
degree of trouble and circumspection should be
exhibited in the selection, onset, and progress, of
Mine Undertakings.
Many considerations and inquiries will suggest
themselves, to those using due care and discrimi-
nation, previous to embarking in Mine Opera-
tions, and therefore, it is well to mention that care
should be taken to seek information through per-
sons and channels unlikely to be biassed by indi-
rect interests and prejudices.
Individuals are apt to believe they have good
sources of information from persons residing in
the county, or neighbourhood of the mines : this
is not the case, because those who are not directly
interested in Mine Undertakings, are often inimi-
cal to their operation. Their knowledge of the
frequency of former failures has possessed them
generally, with all the common prejudices and
misconceptions regarding the losses from Mine
Operations, while they are still unaware of the
artificial circumstances, and unconnected causes,
producing them. Some persons, naturally
M 2
156
enough, imagine that they have the best means of
intelligence by an application to friends, whom
they know to have either deposits of Mineral, or
Mines working in their own estates ; and whom
they therefore suppose to be well qualified to
advise, as to their participating in any such un-
dertaking as may be suggested for consideration ;
but they make a great mistake, as such Mineral
Proprietors, with very few exceptions, are either
altogether ignorant of the value of their own Mi-
neral Properties, or are altogether indifferent to
the results of Mining Operations, and therefore
leave the whole management of them to their
agents, upon whose judgment and prejudices
they wholly rely, as they are seldom possessed of
any personal knowledge of the matter, and are
entirely indebted to indirect sources for their
imbibed information or prejudice. This is very
much to be regretted ; for if the landed proprie-
tors had paid a greater attention to their Mineral
deposits, and given any proper consideration to
their value, and the policy of inducing a more
general operation, they would have been greatly
benefited, the county would have been much
enriched, and the manufacturing as well as
labouring population, in a very different state.
157
As several really valuable undertakings have
been much misrepresented and put down, by a
discreditable want of candour and honourable
perception, in some individuals to whom applica-
tions have been made for information and advice,
it may be as well to mention a course which has
been too often pursued.
Representation being made of the favourable
prospects of a mine which can be profitably
wrought with a moderate capital, persons dis-
posed to take an interest in the undertaking, will
prudently consider how they can obtain the best
information and details of its eligibility and value.
Some persons who have been desirous of such
guidance, have recollected a friend who has had
some connexion with Mines, and have asked his
opinion of the merits of the enterprise, when if
prejudice does not altogether denounce any con-
sideration of a share in the undertaking, which
has been most generally the case, without any
attention to the peculiarities of the concern, and
the great alteration in the attendant circum-
stances, which entitle it to exemption from the
general condemnation, he is told he had better
make application to Messrs. , who are
influential people, and have many large Mines of
158
their own as well as others, under their manage-
ment and control. Application being made, one
or other of the following answers was generally
received.
" We have made inquiry, but cannot hear of
any such mine as Mr. requests information
about, therefore his friend had better not have
anything to do with the concern."
" We have made inquiry, and find that a person
of the name of (who must be guarded
against) had pretended to have found a good
adventure, but we are told that it is quite un-
worthy attention."
" We have heard from one of our Captains, that
there is such a concern, but that it is in bad
hands; except which, there appears nothin<
against the concern."
" We find there is such a concern, considered
a very promising adventure by some people ;
but we do not think it a concern likely to be of
any importance, as it is out of the mining district.
It cannot be of much value, or we should in all
probability have had something to do with it ;
therefore it will be dangerous for your friend to
embark in it."
" We have made inquiries and find that it is a
150
small unimportant adventure, and though some
persons speak well of it, we much doubt its suc-
cess ; as, in the present hands, it is certainly very
far from a desirable concern."
Such answers appeared very reasonable and
cautious to those seeking information ; and as
they were totally unable to imagine the spirit of
intrigue and jealousy prompting concealment and
superlation, they gave a free reception to the
intention of the Jesuitical answers they received.
These remarks very generally ended with observ*
ing : " If your friends are disposed to undertake
any thing of the kind, we have (or we shall in all
probability shortly hear of) something we can
recommend, and you will have the satisfactiorj of
knowing that you will be in good hands as far as
regards respectability, we having some of the
largest and most productive mines in the county."
(Yes; but not most profitable, though most pro-
ductive.) " At the same time, we would observe,
that if your friends determine to embark in this
affair, we shall be very happy in taking an in-
terest with you, and affording your friends the
benefit of our experience in the management and
agency of the concern." Meaning, that they
should he glad to take upon themselves the paid
160
agency, and the pursership, with the power of
making it an expensive concern, by the supply
to a needless consumption of materials, and thus
dividing, in the event of success/10/. per cent, in-
stead of 60/. per cent, per annum; the difference
being swallowed up in expensive management,
an effectual indemnity against any possible loss
through unsuccessful or injudicious operation.
Application being made to certain parties for
information respecting Wheal , within three
miles of their residence, answer was returned,
' ' There was no such mine." This was replied to, by
proving that they themselves had spent a consider-
able sum on it formerly, and had highly extolled
its prospects, and recommended its operation ; but
that in consequence of some difference or mis-
understanding relative to the supply of that and
some adjoining mines, they had discontinued
operations, and had, only a few months before,
been compelled to surrender the lease. On being
reminded of this, it was observed, that in the
multiplicity of their concerns, they had forgotten
it; but that they had made more particular in-
quiries, and heard that the concern was going on
and likely to do well.
Such answers as the above, and others very
161
like them, have been very prejudicial. The con-
fidence of the proprietary in either the ability
and integrity of the agency, or in the value of the
concern, having been weakened, they have often
been induced to withhold the funds for further
working, and with bitter chagrin at the outlay
and loss of money in incipient works, many
mines have been ordered to be suspended or
abandoned, without any decisive operations, or
even trial. Some of these have afterwards turned
out very profitable and important concerns ; and
others, which otherwise would have been profit-
able, have been ruined by transfer to such ex-
pensive agency and extravagant management.
Perhaps an application to some intelligent and
reputable Mine Agency in London, would be the
best mode of gaining good and authentic infor-
mation as to the propriety and eligibility of pur-
chasing, or commencing, or continuing operations
in any mine. Such Agents would have the
means of obtaining a disinterested and unbiassed
judgment, and could give an opinion, the result
of a just consideration of the views and preju-
dices of contending or conflicting interests and
feelings. Should this course be inconvenient,
162
then the best plan would be to obtain as many
relative particulars as possible from the Purser
or Captain of the Mine, and send them to some
respectable Purser or Captain of Mines for their
opinion and guidance, with instructions to per-
sonally inspect the mine and send up their report.
Things are so much altered, that now, an honest and
sincere, if not in all cases, a most judicious or
correct report and opinion will be given.
CHAPTER XV.
PREVIOUS to adventure or participation in the
commencement of any Mine Operations, inquiry
should be made as to the repute and talent of
the Purser and Captain, and the truth of the
statements made by them should be examined
into ; as sometimes, in the details of the merits of
the concern, scandalous and disreputable misre-
presentations are made, with a view to mislead
and induce parties to invest their money in un-
dertakings badly selected, and ignorantly as well
as viciously conducted, and from which little else
than disappointment and loss are likely to result.
It may be very natural for persons to avail
themselves of every fact and position which they
think may enhance the value or estimation of
164
their mines, and some allowance can be afforded
for the inadvertencies and sanguine calculations
of eager and inconsiderate anticipators; but
statements, untrue and drawn up with intent to
deceive, ought never to be tolerated. Such state-
ments should be instantly and thoroughly ex-
posed, for the dishonesty of the few, causes a
general disrepute, and reflects unmerited odium
upon a whole class of men, the majority of whom
would, on examination, be found to possess an
acute perception of any impugnable course, and
a disposition, to discourage every abuse of reposed
confidence, and repress any attempted inroad
upon integrity.
The following is a gross instance of the impro-
priety and exaggeration alluded to, and forms a
great contrast to this simple and pithy recom-
mendatory report of Messrs. Rowe and Thomas,
two reputable and experienced mine captains.
REPORT.
" There is no practical miner but what would
recommend this concern in the strongest terms,
to any company of gentlemen inclined to engage
165
in mines; as it is our joint opinions that the
specimens and samples produced from the lode
together with a beautiful gozzan richly inter-
spersed with fine lead ores, put it beyond a doubt.
The machinery and local advantages are rarely
equalled.
(Signed) " RICHARD ROWE,
" Agent of Pol b err o Mines.
" JAMES THOMAS,
" Agent ofDolcoath Mine:'
Copy of the Prospectus of the mine alluded to
in the above Report :
" On the north part of the mines a shaft has been
sunk upon the lode, about ten fathoms in depth,
and by extending about sir fathoms upon the course
of the lode, more than a thousand pounds worth of
ore was raised. (1) This working was with very
inefficient machinery, a deficiency of skill, and
a miserable want of capital. Since that period
a new engine shaft has been sunk to about six
fathoms, which, when fourteen fathoms deeper,
will unwater and adequately open the mine" [///]
" In pursuing this lode and sinking the shaft,
a rich copper lode will be cut, which, from its
166
appearance at a shallow depth, promises to be
highly productive, whilst it can be worked by the
same machinery, and without occasioning addi-
tional expense. To the eastward of the great
lode there has been discovered a very rich anti-
mony lode, capable, of being worked with great
facility by the same machinery ; and there are
other lodes not yet proved. There is now erected
upon these mines a very powerful water-engine,
equal to an eighty-horse power, with pumps,
chains, capstan, and all apparatus complete. The
supply of water is from a powerful and never-
failing stream, conveyed by a leat a mile in length
on the south side of the mines to the water-
engine. (2)
; ' The lead lode has been proved also on the
south, by sinking on its course from three to four
fathoms, in doing which upwards of ten tons of
rich ore were raised, by which the lode has been
fully proved to a considerable extent. This lode
in the engine shaft is from five to si. v feet in the
thickness, with a leader of solid lead exceeding a
foot in thickness, and the remainder of the lode all
good work. (3)
" Scarcely anything remains to be done, with
the exception of extending on the course of the
167
lode and at once raising produce. There are
convenient smiths' shops, timber house, carpen-
ter's house, &c. &c., all newly built, and the
whole operations of the mines are effected by
water-power, and no steam-engine required, by
which a saving of several thousand pounds per
annum will be effected."
The above Prospectus is very well as far as
regards the indications of the mine, and if one
can get proof of the truth of what is stated, there
can be no reason to doubt its being a very pro-
mising and eligible concern. But the positive
conclusion, that a shaft only twenty fathoms deep
from the surface will be sufficient to " adequately
unwater and open the mine," is far from a safe
one. If 1, 2> and 3, were facts, there would be
no occasion for the 4000/. required as necessary
to put the mine to work, as they could raise ore
with very little expenditure, " scarcely anything
remaining to be done but to extend on the course
of the lode ;" and everything, taking Captain
GUARD upon his own statement, being ready for
immediate productive operation ; but it is very
difficult to believe, or repose any kind of confi-
dence in, the assertions or recommendation of an
168
'individual so palpably and extraordinarily lax
a nd indifferent, to even the semblance to truth,
and so totally regardless of the consequences of
erroneous and incompatible statements.
Take the following moderate estimate and state-
ment of Captain Guard, who it is to be hoped
will be too much guarded, to be open to the
effects of any similar laxity of common sense and
consistency.
" Captain Guard says that he is certain of
raising
Lead, 100 tons per month, at 20/. [! ! !]
Per ton . v . . . 2 ,000
Copper, ditto ditto (standard 100/.) 1,000
Antimony, ditto ditto (at 20/.) 2,000
5,000
Say 5,000/. per month, which Captain Guard
considers the very lowest computation, for he
expects four [ ! ! !] times the quantity of Lead,
four times the quantity of Copper, and twice the
quantity of Antimony, will be raised.
" In the above estimate the Copper is only va-
169
lued at a standard of 100/., whereas the standard
is much higher.
" The Antimony is estimated at 20/. per ton,
but Captain Guard has been offered 50/. [! ! !]
per ton for as much as he can raise ; even if
IT BE AS MUCH AS FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND
TONS.
" The above estimate is made according to the
best of my judgment and belief, as I shall be ready
to state on my oath, if required.
4th Oct. 1826. (Signed) J. GUARD."
The above is an extreme instance of departure
from truth, and wilful indifference to fact; a
shameful laxity of principle, fortunately rarely,
if ever, to be met with among the reputable
Cornish Mine Captains. It must be recollected
that Captains Rowe and James, who made the
introductory Report, had nothing, directly or in-
directly, to do with Captain Guard's Prospectus,
Report, or estimate.
The natural advantages and good prospects of
the concern were such, that there was no occa-
sion to make assertions relative to it, which, from
their positive and obvious mendaciousness, were
170
calculated to throw a suspicion and indifference
on the whole affair.
Captain Guard volunteers to swear that he
believes he can raise four hundred tons of Lead
Ore per month, and sell it at 20/. per ton (at a
time when Lead itself teas only IS/. 10v. per ton),
four hundred tons of Copper Ore, and two
hundred tons of Antimony Ore, per month,
from one level, not^ yet opened, proved, or
driven upon.
He calculates four hundred tons of Copper Ore
per month (to begin with) from a vein or lode not
yet properly explored, or even proved to be a
Copper vein or lode.
The Antimony lode is in the same state, and
yet he is ready to swear, that he believes he
can raise two hundred tons per month, and that
he can sell^/we hundred thousand tons of this Anti-
mony Ore at 50/. per ton.
In the first place, it is rather more in quantity
than a moderate supply ; as it is considerably more
than FIVE HUNDRED YEARS present consumption
of Antimony, in the United Kingdom and its Colonies
together!!!
In the next place, Captain Guard swears that
he was offered a contract for more than a five
171
hundred years supply of Antimony Ore, at 50/.
per ton; when the crude Antimony (requiring
upwards of one ton and a half of Ore to make I
ton crude) was selling at only 48/., after paying
smelting charges, freight, and duty. In fact,
much better Ore than Captain Guard's was
brought from India (Singapore) and sold at 8/.
per ton; and Spanish Ore (from Bilboa) was
then selling at 13/. per ton. The Spanish Ore
smelted much more easily, gave a much greater
produce, and refined to a greater purity, than
any British Ore. And yet Captain Guard is
ready to swear, that he can raise two hundred tons
of Ore per month, and sell fae hundred thousand
tons of Ore at 501. per ton ! ! !
N2
CHAPTER XVI.
MUCH has been said relative to the local direc-
tion and agency, and the severe losses and pre-
judicial effects of imprudent and extravagant
purchase have been alluded to ; but though last
mentioned, not the least effective in the extent
of injury and promotion of general prejudice,
has been the concoction of the many nefarious,
ill-advised, and badly-arranged Public Mining
Companies. To enter into any particular details
or exposures of the various circumstances and
inducements of their formation ; of the absolute
fraud of some, the total absence of proper direc-
tion, agency, material, and management of others;
and of the direct and indirect causes of their
failure ; would fill a volume, and after all be ai
unentertaining and useless narrative.
173
Fortunately, the progress, acts, and errors, of
many of them have been so glaring and notorious
as to have attracted much public attention ; and
are so comparatively well understood as to save
the necessity of adverting to them, further than
to observe that, though the cause of the ill suc-
cess of these undertakings is so palpable, and to
be so easily accounted for, in the incompetency
and bad constitution and imprudence of the direc-
tion, and extravagance and carelessness of the
agency, the public still permit prejudice to so
completely overcome discriminative justice, that
instead of taking the trouble of any unbiassed
reflection, there appears to be a determination
to confound cause and effect, to refrain from
any distinction between careless imprudence or
ignorance, and equity and talent, and to con-
clude and assert that all mines are still very
uncertain, dangerous, and ruinous properties.
Strange as such a position may appear, it is
not an inconsistent statement of the general feel-
ing and declarations relative to Mine Operations.
Perhaps, when one glances at past vexations,
arid recollects how rife heavy losses have been,
from adventitious causes only, we can scarcely feel
surprise at the degree of disesteem and suspicion
174
with which such undertakings are viewed, by
those who, alike prejudiced and ignorant as to
their nature, are incapable of discriminating their
value ; yet, I am anxious to remove undue odium
and desirous to induce a just distinction and
esteem towards a branch of national industry, of
the very first public interest and private impor-
tance.
Of public interest, from the consideration that
the value of the ores, to many millions sterling,
annually raised from the bowels of the earth,
is so much positively gained, or added, to the
aggregate and actual floating or computable pro-
perty and capital of the kingdom, beyond and
totally apart and independent of the usual com-
mercial gains, derivable by the merchant and
manufacturer from the sale and consumption of
large quantities of stores and manufactured ma-
terials, consumed in the various businesses con-
sequent to and dependent upon active Mine
Operation. It is also of great importance from
the great service rendered to internal and do-
mestic commerce, and from the activity and im-
pulse it gives to the timber, coal, iron, leather,
rope, gunpowder, and tallow merchants, and to
various descriptions of manufacturers and shop-
175
keepers ; and likewise for the employ it provides
for many thousands of highly interesting and
intelligent labouring families ; and yet, notwith-
standing these important considerations, there
are but few, besides the Cornish Copper and Tin
Mines, which, together with several of the Welsh
and Irish Copper Mines, are now in general
activity. The deposits of Copper Ore, of all the
Antimony, and much of the Lead, &c., in other
counties, are absolutely in an inert and unpro-
ductive state. This is very much to be deplored;
particularly as, if cautiously selected and wrought,
many of these mineral deposits would, in point
of profit, be very superior to most in the world.
This country was not only anciently famous
among the Phoenicians for its productive Tin
workings, but also with the Romans for its Lead
and other minerals ; and many records and re-
mains of these workings are to be found in various
districts of Great Britain ; the metalliferous de-
posits of which, from the reign of Edward III. to
the present time, have been, in proportion to the
quantity wrought, as productive as any in Eu-
rope. It is true that the importation of Lead
from Malaga and other places, has within these
176
few years caused a general depression, and a
suspension of operation in many of the Lead
districts of the North ; and consequently thrown
many thousand valuable and industrious people
into a state of inactivity and destitution, and
compelled a great portion of them to a reluctant
dependence upon the usually dreadfully stinted
and debasing parochial support.
The fact of the importation of Lead Ores and
other Minerals into this country, may, to a great
many, appear indicative of the unimportance and
inferiority of our deposits, and to show that we
are unable to compete with foreign importation :
this is far from the truth, under a different state
of things. With proper encouragement and foster,
ing protection, we should, after a few years, not
only be able to supply our own consumption for
Lead and other Minerals, but be able at least to
compete with others for the supply of foreign
demands.
If all things were duly considered, it might be
perceived that there are many peculiarities and
contingent circumstances attending a general
activity and prosperous condition of our mines,
rendering them of much greater importance than
177
they are usually held in, and demanding more
encouragement, protection, and fostering care,
than have yet been afforded to them.
The merchants of London, and others interested
in the South American trade, have countenanced
and encouraged the embarkation of many millions
sterling, to aid the active operation of the Mexi-
can mines ; in order to give an impulse to trade,
and enable the inhabitants to purchase some of
their supplies and requisites from the European
market. It cannot be doubted but that the many
millions embarked in the purchase and operation
of the Mexican mines, have been of the utmost
importance to that country; which at present,
and for some years to come, must wholly depend
upon the activity of its mines, for all its means of
support and prosperity.
Though some millions sterling have been re-
turned to this country in another shape, and to
the profit of the merchant instead of the mine-
shareholder ; though millions sterling have been
absorbed and thrown away, and a great want of
judgment and economy has been exhibited in
their selection, and general mode of operation and
management ; and though there is still a deplo-
rable inattention to the gradual introduction of
178
practical and economical improvements, for open-
ing the ground, draining the mines, and preparing
the ores, by which immense current expenditure
would be saved, there is little or no reason to
doubt but many of these mines will be ultimately
profitable, provided they are left undisturbed in
regular operation, and unchecked by internal
commotion, revolution, or other political revul-
sion.
Some few years since, the very mention of a
silver mine had* a talismanic charm and effect
upon a great many persons. The details of the
immense quantities of gold and silver produced
in the various Spanish provinces of South Ame-
rica, and the vivid narratives and romantic anec-
dotes of occasional discoveries of very extraor-
dinary deposits of rich ores and metal, led to a
common belief, not only that all the mines of
Mexico must be amazingly rich, but that, as all
the ores produced silver or gold, they must be of
very great value, and therefore amazing profits
must soon be made, as a very little of such ore
must be sufficient to defray the working expenses.
People being possessed with such notions, it
was at that time utterly useless either to repre-
sent the extra hazards, expenses, delays, dangers,
179
aud comparative ineligibility, of foreign as com-
pared with home mine investments; or to call
attention to the superior value of the English
ores, and their comparative inexpensive prepara-
tion; and the greater security of investment in
the copper, tin, and other mines of this country.
They incredulously heard all you might urge, or
rather, they heard nothing, for you could plainly
perceive a sympathetic effect of the wandering
imagination, in the fixed and gleaming eye, which
appeared to reflect the hundred thousand acres
of burnished gold and silver upon which it felt
to rest. When you explained that the Mexican
ores were poor on the average, they would refer
you to some extracts from Helms, Ulloa, and
other narrators, and run over the names of all
the marquises and counts who had been enriched
and ennobled ; nothing would move them, or con-
vince them, but that you were incorrect in stating
that it was from the great capacity of the veins,
and immense abundance of the ores, and not
from their general rkhness, that such enormous
fortunes were derived; and that the generality
of Mexican ores contained only about forty-two
ounces of silver, or 9/. value to the ton of ore ;
out of which was to be deducted the heavy ex-
180
penses for purchase of the mines, all the expen-
diture and outgoings preliminary to operation,
the expensive outfit and current working charges
of the mines, the expense of preparing and amal-
gamating the ores, and of smelting and refining
the metal, the payment of the government duties,
and the expenses of exchange or transit for ship-
ment and insurance and freight to this country.
Notwithstanding you pointed out many contin-
gencies which might prevent their receiving any
returns for some five or six years or longer, and
that even in the event of successful operation,
political influences might present obstructions to
the receipt of the produce; and although you
represented the many advantages and peculia-
rities in favour of the British mine investments,
such as their being easier of access and under
more immediate control, requiring much less
capital for outfit and operation, cheaper in their
agency and working charges, and producing ores
much less expensive in their preparation, and on
the average realizing more profit per ton than the
ton of Mexican ore containing the forty-two
ounces of silver, still these people were bent
upon the venture of the more hazardous and less
profitable foreign investment, to an extent which
181
has since been a matter of reproach to many, and
of regret to some few, who have turned an atten-
tion to the large profits now making by many of
the English mines.
The many millions sterling of British capital
which have been sunk and invested in the South
American Mines, have undoubtedly been produc-
tive of much benefit to that part of the world,
and may have been the means of expediting an
amicable understanding with the native mer-
chants and traders, and of securing for a short
time, a larger portion of commercial intercourse
with England than any other country ; but how
much more and longer the merchant, the trader,
and the public revenue, would have benefited ;
and how much more favourable would have been
the position of the capitalist, and the condition of
the miners, had the same number of millions
sterling, or the half of them, been invested in the
British Mines ! It may be said that the revenue,
the merchant, and the trader, are benefited by the
present foreign demand for English manufactures ;
so they are, but then only for a short time, and
to a very small degree, in proportion to that
proceeding from the vast direct and indirect
consumption of merchandise, manufacture, and
182
provender of all descriptions, required by a
numerous, active, and prosperous mining popu-
lation.
Open a productive vein in the barren valley,
upon the black moor, or on the rugged mountain,
and in a few years it shall present a neat town,
with an intelligent and industrious population,
containing various artizans and tradesmen, whose
inventive energies and productive skill have been
roused and supported by continual supplies to
the requisites and necessities of the miners ; who
have not only supported themselves and families,
but have also supplied the means of wealth to
some, and profitable employment to others, be-
sides having been largely contributory to the
Customs revenue, by the variety and quantity of
materials consumed for and in the mines; and
likewise, in proportion to their comfort and suc-
cess, largely contributory to the Excise revenue,
for the supply of their necessaries, wants, and
luxuries.
Perhaps mines, their operations and produce,
might, upon investigation, be found proper sub-
jects to form an exception to the received prin-
ciple, that tariff restraints and restrictions of any
description are always injurious to a country, and
183
prejudicial to an extended and reciprocal foreign
commercial intercourse.
If raw silk or cotton, to the amount of one
million sterling, is imported into this country
from India or America, it is very probable that
this is, as far as the countries are concerned, a
barter or exchange business, and that the very
parties importing the silk or cotton take an
agreed quantity either of the manufactured arti-
cle, or other goods, in return from this country.
But suppose they do not, and that instead of its
being exchanged for our goods or produce, it is
all paid for in money ; it is still a commerce
highly advantageous to this country, on account
of its being an introduction of raw material which
ice cannot cultivate or produce for the manufacturer,
near so cheaply as we can import it ; and, inde-
pendently of this consideration, it is deserving of
every encouragement and support, because, after
importation, it undergoes a variety of processes ;
until, through art and mechanical skill, it becomes
of very great increased value, and available to the
purchase or exchange of very much more than
the million's-worth of raw silk or cotton ; and this
too, after having been the means of employment
and support to many hundred artizans and their
184
families, during the interval between its being
imported, and fabricated for home consumption
or foreign exchange; and after having afforded
remunerative profits to each of the various houses
of business through which it has passed.
The effects of the importation of Lead Ores,
&c., are very different; as, so far from being a
raw produce unattainable in this country, we have
immense quantities of it, but unfortunately, an
insufficient conversance with the consequences of
supporting its production has allowed the consi-
deration of its importance to be merged in the
effects of a general Custom-House regulation,
prejudicial and ruinous alike to the Revenue and
the Miner.
If the introduction of Foreign Lead conduced
to results similar to those from the importation
of raw silks, cottons, or such-like, and produced
employment and support to the artizan and
labourer, profit to the various manufactures, and
large returns to the merchants, who, from our
inability to produce the article at a proper price,
could not be supported, maintained, and en-
riched, but by such importation, then the conse-
quences would be beneficial, instead of being,
as they now are, very injurious to the revenue,
185
and prejudicial to the country. If due atten-
tion were paid to the interests of the British
miner, and to the manufacturers and artisans con-
nected with these active operations, it would be
found that we could provide for the home con-
sumption of Lead, perhaps cheaper than it is now
imported.
Though it is a very essential consideration, the
mere fact of giving employ to many thousands of
industrious and intelligent miners and their fami-
lies, and preventing their being unproductive, and
consequently burdensome to their country, is
not the only important matter to be regarded, in
an attention to the advantages of an activity in
the Mine Operations of this country.
If a million sterling were now employed in this
country, in raising Lead Ore, it would be distri-
buted for merchandise and supplies of various
descriptions, very much more productive to the
Excise and Customs, than the duty received for
the introduction of as much foreign Ore ; besides
this, many kinds of trades would receive an im-
petus, a numerous and burdensome population
would be supported, the local rates relieved,
various descriptions of art and science would be
stimulated, and the Capitalist embarking his
186
money would be amply rewarded by the produce
of Ore ; and all this good would be effected, to
the benefit of the country and the great emolu-
ment of the Mine Proprietor, without any preju-
dicial effects to others: since not only every
profit and advantage that could be given and
derived from the sale, smelting, and conversion,
of the imported Ore, still remains open to the
merchant, trader, and labourer, but much more,
as there can be no question but that the same
amount, expended in well-selected operation in
this country, would be productive of a much
larger quantity of mineral than could be imported
for the same amount of money, the raising of
which, would give business and employ to the
manufacturers, traders, and miners, and yet leave
increased means of occupation, employ, and profit,
to the smelters and metal-dealers. Even were it
less, the country and revenue would still be the
gainers, as there is a peculiarity consequential to
Mine Operation, beneficial to the country, manufac-
turer, and miner.
If 50,000 tons of Lead Ore &c. be imported
into this country, money or money's-worth must
be given for it, so that the transaction is merely
that of exchange, worth for value, and thus
187
ended, and the countries are relatively equal as
to the transaction ; but if the price of the 30,000
tons of Lead Ore &c. were to be invested in
working the mines of this country, the Customs
and Excise revenues would be increased ; the
manufacturer, trader, artisan, and labourer, would
all be benefited ; the miner would have the value
of his investment in mineral, ready for sale or ex-
change for money, the amount of which is actually
gained from the interior of the earth, and is so
much added to the computable and disposable
property of the country ; whereas, by the pur-
chase or importation of the foreign Ore, nothing
is added, as the transaction is only a barter or
exchange of money for money's worth. But by
the Operation of the English Mines, the absolute
property of the country, as well as the revenue,
would be increased, without charge, expense, or
prejudice to any ; as the cost of production would be
still in the country, distributed about for supplies
of various descriptions, and the value of the Ore
raised, much exceeding the expenses of its pro-
ductions, will also still be in the country, and
will be to such amount, a positive augmentation
of the property of the kingdom. &$
I once more repeat, that by the investment of
o 2
188
the money in English Operations, the public
revenue would be benefited ; the capitalist largely
remunerated ; the manufacturer, trader, and arti-
san, stimulated; the miner and labourer sup-
ported ; local rates relieved ; and the tangible
property of the kingdom increased, without
charge, loss, or suffering, to any ; while by the
importation of Ore, the miners and a valuable
labouring population are thrown into a state of
destitution ; the parochial rates are increased ;
manufactures and trade are greatly depressed;
the public revenue is greatly injured ; and the
property of the country greatly estranged.
It ought to be recollected that Mine Operation
is nationally valuable and interesting, even were
it only for the fostering aid and influence it has
upon the progress and improvement of many im-
portant branches of art and science, and for its
indirect agency, in forming a most reflective,
intelligent, and moral class of labouring people.
Mine Operations require, more or less directly,
the aid of the chemist and metallurgist, and also
of the geologist and mineralogist, together with
the assistance of the mathematician, engineer,
machinist, and draughtsman; and also call into
action a variety of subordinate artisans, such as,
189
the founder, builder, smith, carpenter, brick-
maker, and bricklayer and mason, &c. &c. &c.
The labouring miner, who has the opportunity
of witnessing the detail and progress of the dif-
ferent branches of these trades, and the numerous
surface operations, in conjunction with the variety
of underground practice, cannot but obtain a
certain degree of intelligence and knowledge,
especially as his immediate occupation, in watch-
ing and considering the effect of every slight
alteration and symptom, peculiarly adapts him
for acquisitiveness, and an habitual reflective
observation. The constant change of circum-
stance, and the frequent difficulties which he is
subject to, require discrimination, with prompt-
ness in conception, energy in execution, and
habitual tact. This considerative occupation and
derivative knowledge enlarges and developes the
natural faculties of the Miners, and tends to the
formation of an active, courageous, intelligent,
and valuable population.
The Greek and Roman Miners were held in
high estimation, and the ancient civil law granted
them many privileges ; alleging as a reason for
so doing, that the miners were very useful and
valuable to the public. [See Digest, lib. hi.
190
tit. 4,'etlib. xlviii. tit. 19. Cod. i. ii. tit. 6, leg.
], 2, 3. Justit. lib. ii. tit. 1, sec. 39.]
Queen Elizabeth, in the tenth year of her
reign,' by letters patent, discharged all miners,
and all other persons occupied in finding, dig-
ging, and refining metals or minerals, from paying
any taxes or impositions, and relieved them from
serving on juries, and made them free from
arrests.
Paracelsus de Metallis, lib. i. says " Fodinae
sunt Schola optima Philosophorum."
Surely the above considerations ought to make
Mine Operation a matter of great public interest,
particularly as the secure and large remunerating
profits derivable from such undertakings, when
judiciously and equitably managed, make them a
subject of the first private importance.
It is probable that the general prejudice has
allowed but few persons to be impressed with
this opinion, yet a reference to the state of the
Cornish Copper Mines, which have been vigor-
ously wrought for the last seven years, will at
once prove the correctness of the statement, and
clearly show that when properly conducted, mining
is a secure and very eligible appropriation of capi-
.tal j and this too, in many instances, in defiance
191
of obstacles to an economical operation, and to a
just development of their natural resources and
profits.
Those mines which have been efficiently
wrought within the last seven years, have been on
the whole very profitable; some few have been
losing and vexatious concerns, but they bear
a small proportion to those which have been
successful.
If the causes of failure were inquired into,
scarcely an instance of loss would be found to
have been occasioned by the barrenness of the
vein ; bvt most of the failures would be proved
to have originated, in abortive attempts for pro-
fitable operation, with very restricted or altoge-
ther incompetent capitals ; and in disputes and
difficulties between the shareholders, arising from
various causes, such as opposing interests, parti-
cipation in adjoining mines, attempts to consoli-
date, and in improvident arrangements and pre-
mature surface erections.
Some persons may say, that it is useless to
endeavour to establish the fact of the natural
advantages of Mine Investment, since it is con-
nected with a variety of circumstances opposed
to a due distribution of its benefits ; and that, as
192
there are so many things to be avoided, and such
care is required in the selection, it is on the
whole an impolitic and questionable investment.
To such it may be answered, that circumstances
are so altered, and there is now such a vast
improvement in the system of management and
working, and in the mechanical skill, that mining
is no longer dependent and precarious as it for-
merly was. The average of success from opera-
tions of the present day, is more than equal, and
one successful mine will more than compensate
the loss from four losing concerns. Although
there have been so many, and now and then still
may be some, things peculiarly objectionable;
they are now mostly such as can, with common
prudence and caution, be easily avoided.
On referring to tables B. C. D. and E. in Chap-
ter VII., it will be found that those undertakings
which have been lately put into active operation,
have a great preponderance of productive mines,
and that among those which have been fairly and
properly wrought and managed, there are very
few losing concerns.
Upon computation, it will be found that
though there may be a loss on an individual
investment, any given number of well-selected mines
193T
may be undertaken with every guarantee of success,
even with all the faults, and with only the partial
improvements and general economy practised
within the last few years ; but now, economy
and further improvements can be much more
extensively and effectively introduced.
When judiciously selected, properly directed,
and economically conducted, very much larger
pro/its than have been hitherto distributed, can be
securely depended upon.
CHAPTER XVII.
INDEPENDENTLY of the many things which, in
the foregoing detail, have been suggested as con-
tributing to the general prejudice and misconcep-
tion, there are many others, which if no longer
of immediate practical or local relation, have yet
indirectly tended to abuse the public estimation
of Mine Undertakings.
Many persons have refrained from Mine Invest-
ments, under the impression that almost every
undertaking, recommended to their attention,
must either be worthless or very speculative.
If an old mine is suggested to their considera-
tion, they conceive that it must have been aban-
doned as useless, and that it would not have
remained idle so long, if it had been likely to be
195
productive, as persons in the neighbourhood, con-
versant with such things, and with large capitals
at their command, would not be so indifferent to
their interests as to permit a good mine to pass
away from them. Perhaps such an inference
may be very natural, but the truth is, there are
very few persons in the neighbourhood of the
mines who know anything about them, or who
will take the trouble to give correct information
respecting their nature or prospects ; as such
persons, in consequence of having heard of former
losses without any explanation of their cause, are
generally strongly prejudiced against such under-
takings, and unhesitatingly condemn them, with-
out any consideration of the total alteration which
has taken place, in expense, system, science, and
mechanical skill. There is nothing peculiarly
tending to prevent a stranger frpm obtaining
grants of valuable mines ; indeed, the disputes
occasioned by opposing interests often enable a
neutral or stranger to obtain an extensive and
highly-prized undertaking, upon very advan-
tageous terms. How frequently we hear of mer-
chants and traders overlooking the most obvious
and facile opportunities of advantageous con-
tracts, and beneficial investments, even when
196
directly connected with their general or imme-
diate pursuits, until prompted to a view of their
important advantages, by the suggestions and
enterprise of those who have been the first to
perceive the benefit derivable from opportunity
and a change of circumstance ! Again, most
persons concerned in or connected with Mine
Operations, have generally a disinclination to the
activity of mines out of their immediate observa-
tion or control, and they often create prejudices
by alleging various disparagements, as they are
interested in giving their whole consideration to
the activity of the mineral in their immediate
district, not merely on account of the easy supply
and distribution of materials in a neighbourhood
of general operation, but because it allows them
to give their attention to a plurality of salaries
and profits appertinent to the agency and supply
of various undertakings. Hence it is that mines
of great value are very often allowed to remain
idle, both from an ignorance of their existence,
and a disinclination to operations which would be
prejudicial to individual interest, by withdrawing
public attention from their immediate andfavourite
mining field, and thereby not only rendering their
agency more difficult, but less profitable, in con-
197
sequence of a decrease in the number and sources
of yearly income or salary. This tendency to
concentrated operation in a few districts only,
has caused an oblivion or indifference towards
many valuable mineral deposits, and presented
obstacles to the development of the great mineral
fecundity of several valuable, though inert, mine-
ral deposits.
When the operation of a new discovery has
been suggested, many persons have declined any
participation in it under the feeling, that as the
owner is rich he must have had it investigated,
and that if it had been thought well of, he would
have worked it himself instead of granting setts
to others ; or that, if good for anything, it would
have been taken up by persons in the neighbour-
hood instead of being left open to strangers, and
therefore there could be little or no probability of
its being a valuable undertaking.
These and similar considerations, have often
deterred persons from giving any attention, or
making any inquiry into the merits or nature of
such undertakings ; but such conclusions are
certainly ill founded : for, strange as it may ap-
pear, the majority of persons who have metalli-
ferous mineral property, are not only perfectly
ignorant of its value, but indifferent as to its
operation, and will sometimes sign grants and
leases very prejudicial to their own interests.
Many proprietors of mineral have a variety of
objections and prejudices, and are positively
inimical to all Mine Operation, and will neither
work the minerals for themselves, nor make any
sett, or grant any lease of them to others ; in con-
sequence of which, some valuable deposits have
been forgotten, and others have been kept idle,
till the death of a party, the determination of a
law-suit, or other favourable circumstance, has
afforded an opportunity of their being wrought.
Some persons are afraid of a park, plantation,
or farm, being destroyed or disfigured, and others
fear the mine adit will be injurious, by draining
the water from the brooks and farm land.
Most proprietors either forget, or are unaware,
that former bad management and want of skill,
and not the natural irregularity or poverty of the
mines, have occasioned nearly all the failures and
loss. They therefore give way to the popular
prejudice and misconception, and very gladly
lease the minerals to those who will chance the
risk of working them.
Some proprietors of mineral grounds are unable
199
to procure the capital requisite to work their
mines ; and others, who have known or heard of
certain abuses and expensive management, have
preferred to lease their mineral and secure several
thousands per annum by the reserved dues or
royalties, rather than by individual operation
be subject to the possible loss of a large sum,
through indiscriminate and improvident work-
ings and unskilful management.
One of the effects of former bad management
and extravagance is, that many mineral proprie-
tors, in the most active and productive districts,
have been afraid of advancing money to work
their deposits, in consequence of having wit-
nessed and heard of the effects, without seeing
or being informed of the causes of unsuccessful
operation ; and therefore have preferred to lease
them out upon condition of receiving about a
twelfth part of the mineral raised.
Seeing that the proprietors in such districts
have fancied themselves compelled to join in the
prevailing declaration of the precariousness and
great uncertainty of Mine Operations, the pro-
prietors of mineral in other districts have neither
the means of getting their mineral wrought by
leaseholders, nor any disposition to work it them-
200
selves ; so that under the general and formerly
correct but now erroneous impression of the
uncertainty and ruinous consequences attending
Mine Operation, many valuable deposits have
been left untouched and forgotten.
Since the proprietors themselves have not taken
the trouble of proper investigation, have con-
founded cause and effect, and have been the
means of promulgating and materially strength-
ening the public prejudice, we cannot be very
much surprised at the general apathy and indif-
ference to this valuable branch of our national
wealth and industry
CHAPTER XVIII.
ALTHOUGH mines were, many centuries since,
wrought for Tin, Silver, Lead, and Copper, in
various parts of Cornwall, Devon, Wales, Somer-
set, Derby, Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Cumber-
land, and Durham, at that period, and until very
lately, mining must have been very uncertain
and precarious in its success and duration, not
only on account of the very limited mineralogical
experience of the people, and a total absence of
any notion of there being any regularity in the
structure and contents of the different strata, or
that the causes and effects of the various inter-
ruptions and intersections of mineral veins could
be easily accounted for and recovered, but also
from an absolutely general geognostic ignorance,
202
and a belief that mines and mineral veins were
to be found in all soils and in every description
of rock.
The productiveness of some of the veins led to
an eager expectation of wealth from every deposit
of mineral ; and as there were then no means of
general intercourse between the miners of the
different districts or countries, nor ^ny way of
obtaining a collected or combined knowledge of
their discoveries, progress, and mode of opera-
tion by any general investigation concerning the
various symptoms, deposits, and peculiarities,
we may easily conceive a positive knowledge, or
any rational consideration or conception of the
nature of the strata, or of the peculiarity of a
vein or other mineral deposit, was then quite
out of the question : especially when an author
of great general experience in the mining opera-
tions of his day (1700) expresses his surprise
" that more pains are not taken to search Essex for
mines of different sorts of metals"
Several learned people assert that the money
which Cunobeline, Prince of the Trinobantes,
coined at Camelodunum, in Essex, was drawn
from a mine in that county. This is certainly
a mistake, although Sir JOHN PETTUS appears to
203
believe it [see Fodinse Regales, p. 11]; and
though ARicoLA, in his book De Re Metallica,
p. 26, speaking of those parts, uses the words,
" naturalia venarum signa observavi," he did
not mean the usual metalliferous deposits, but
veins of Ruddle and Iron Pyrites, some of the
latter of which, it is possible, might occasionally
produce very small quantities of gold.
Henry the Fourth, in the second year of his
reign, having received information of a concealed
gold mine in Essex, commanded Walter Fitz-
walter to " apprehend all persons concerned in
concealing the said mine, and bring them before
the King and his Council, to receive what shall
be ordered." TOWER RECORDS, ROT. 34.
About one hundred and sixty years since, two
gold mines were stated to have been discovered r
one at Polluxhill, in Bedfordshire, and the other
at Little Taunton, in Gloucestershire. " The
Society of Mines Royal seized them, and granted
two leases of them to some refiners, who ex-
tracted some Gold ; but they did not go on with
the work, as the Gold sometimes would not
repay or requite the charge of separation, though
often it did." 1 ESSAY ON METALLIC WORDS.
It required the lapse of centuries to gradually
p2
204
introduce, between the miners of the different
counties and districts, that kind of communica-
tion leading to innovations and improvements
upon their several modes of working, and that in-
terchange of information relative to the varieties
and difference of the strata and mineral deposits
in their respective districts; enabling them to
form some definite conclusion as to the kind of
vein and mineral deposit most eligible for opera-
tion, instead of giving way to that indiscriminate
chance which formerly led the African miner to
dig pits and work them for Gold" without any
the least knowledge of there being any vein or
deposit near him" [BOSMAN'S GUINEA]; or the
uncertainty that prompted our Derbyshire Peak
miners to search for Ore at a venture, and by
way of propitiation say, " By the grace of God
and what I may fold" BARGE-MOOT COURT, by
MANLOW.
By degrees our miners obtained a local inform-
ation, and a certain portion of mineralogical expe-
rience, which was diffused and interchanged by
little and little ; but they took no effective mea-
sures to institute any inquiries into the nature
and cause of the various geognostic phenomena
continually presented to their consideration.
205
Indeed, whatever progress the science might have
made, if free scope had been left for its advance-
ment, was kept in continual check by the re-
straints put upon the owners of mineral veins ;
by penal interdictions against the refining and
conversion of the precious metals from any Ores
containing them; and by the advantages taken
of the proprietors, workers, and adventurers, of
mines by the royal and patent lessees. In fine,
although there have been many parliamentary
enactments relative to the minerals and miners of
this country, it is certain they have never been
considered with that degree of attention which
their value and importance deserve.
The grants made by Edward the Third, of the
Copper Mines in Northumberland, Cumberland,
and Yorkshire ; those of the same king, of all his
Gold and Silver Mines in Cumberland, Westmoreland^
and Devonshire ; those of Richard the Second,
Henry the Fourth, and Henry the Sixth, of the
same mines ; a grant of Henry the Sixth to John
Boatright, of all Copper, Tin, and Lead, possess-
ing Gold and Silver ; more especially the grant of
Henry the Seventh, who, in the first year of his
reign, constituted the Duke of Bedford and others
^Commissioners of all the mines, not only of Gold
206
and Silver, but of Tin, Lead, and Copper, in
England and Wales, upon paying to the King the
fifteenth part of the Gold and Silver, and to the
lord of the soil the eleventh part ; and also the
grant of Queen Elizabeth, who, in the sixth year
of her reign, granted all Ores, mixed or com-
pound, and all other metals, minerals, or trea-
sures to be found in earth or ground, in England
and the English pale in Ireland, with license to
dig and search for the same, and build houses
&c. &c, for their own use (the disturbers of the
grantees or their miners to be imprisoned for six
months without bail or mainprize), with power
to take up and use all necessaries for their work-
ings, and to fell timber, &c. &c. ; " the Queen to
receive for every hundred weight of Gold Ore
eight pounds* weight of Gold, and of the Silver the
twentieth part;"- were all very prejudicial to the
progress of mining, and operated directly con-
trary to the intention and expectations of the
Crown and grantees, who had the power not only
of seizing upon people's mines and working them,
but of destroying their land and estates; for
though there were clauses in several of the Crown
* Ounces, instead of pounds, must have been intended.
207
grants, obliging the lessees to repair any damage
done to the estates, the grantees seldom or never
paid any attention to the proprietors of the land,
but tore it up, sunk shafts, and made roads at
their pleasure, and left the proprietors to their
remedy : so that, instead of leading to the dis-
covery of new veins, or the increase of the number
of mines and workings upon those veins already
known, those grants caused a general inactivity
and stagnation. Under the fear of being dispos-
sessed by the patentees, the people not only
generally ceased to work the mines, but joined
with the proprietors of the land in concealing as
many as possible, and in opposing every obstacle
to the operations of the Crown lessees.
These grants were also pernicious, because the
field for operation was much too extensive to
admit of more than a very small portion or num-
ber of the mineral veins, being wrought by the
grantees by means of their own pecuniary re-
sources ; and in consequence, it seldom happened
that any but well-known spots or veins were
explored, all others being either unheeded or
totally neglected, as, although the parties to
whom these grants were made could not, even if
disposed, work a thousandth part of the mineral
208
deposits, their exclusive grants and monopo-
lizing privileges precluded any attention to them
by that portion of the community who might,
under other circumstances, have been disposed
to undertake their operation.
In the tenth year of her reign, Queen Elizabeth
took the rich Copper Mine at Keswick from the
Duke of Northumberland, and incorporated the
society of " Mines Royal" and also the society
of " Mineral and Battery Works."
James the First confirmed these grants or char-
ters to the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Cecil, and
others, and to their successors, with all the powers
and immunities formerly granted by Elizabeth.
The counties of Cumberland, Westmoreland, York-
shire, Lancashire, Devon, and Cornwall, and the
principality of Wales, were granted to the Mines
Royal, as being " the counties where Gold and
Silver mines were most abundant/'
The incorporation of these societies had a still
more baneful and discouraging effect upon the
general activity and estimation of Mine Opera-
tion, than the previous privileged gpgfffr^ and pre-
sented an effectual check to any general activity,
not only on account of the comparatively exclu-
sive and limited opportunity of operation, but
209
of the hostility of the proprietors and farmers
of the soil, who would at all times conceal every
mineral deposit ; and when in their power prevent
and obstruct the progress of the patentees' works
upon those veins which were known, by watch-
ing for every opportunity of destroying their
workings, and of engendering among the miners
and neighbouring farmers and populace as much
contention and strife as possible.
Although the directors of these corporate socie-
ties possessed a complete monopoly, and were
invested with extrinsic powers and extensive
immunities, they were not only without a proper
spirit of enterprise in themselves, but were defi-
cient in management, discrimination, and general
tact. Instead of setting an example of activity
and enterprise, and giving an impulse and a liberal
encouragement to the discovery and working of
mines, they exhibited an incapacity, and an igno-
rance of their best interests, in an unvarying disn
play of a disposition to take illiberal advantages
alike of their own sub-grantees and of the owners,
occupiers, and workers of any ground wherein
there was any mineral or Ores, affording a pre-
tence to their claims under their exclusive pri-
vileges.
210
The illiberality and total want of judgment in
the conduct of " The Society of Mines Royal,"
in hindering the workings, and always claiming
profitable mines, under an allegation of their
belonging to their Company, in consequence of
the Gold and Silver contained in some of their
Ores, excited much vexation and dispute, and
caused a general inactivity and an indifference
in those disposed to work the mines, as well as
a concealment of many valuable veins containing
Silver and other Ores.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE references given by many authors who
have formerly written, either partially or imme-
diately, concerning the mineralogy of this country,
leave no doubt of there being some Gold, and
many deposits of Ores containing Silver, in
various counties.
Many extracts could be given, but the few
herein recited, from authors of repute, will suffice
to show the existence of such deposits. The
writer knows three lasting deposits of what may
be termed rich Silver Ores; and there is scarcely
room to doubt but that many deposits of Ores
containing this metal, would have been effectively
wrought in this country, had not the exclusive
royal grants, the subsequent incorporation of the
212
societies of " The Mines Royal " and of the
" Mineral Battery Works," and the prejudice
and inactivity created by their oppressive and
reckless conduct, combined with the unrepealed
continuance of the act of the first year of the
reign of Henry the Fourth against the conversion
to profit of the Ores of Gold and Silver together
with the claims of the Crown, until the time of
William and Mary, " of all mines containing
Gold and Silver Ores, not in grant to the corpo-
ration of " Mines Royal," had the effect of pro-
ducing a disinclination or indifference to any
general activity, research, or discovery. Though
Gold has been found in small quantities in several
counties of England, no veins or other regular
deposition of that metal have yet been disco-
vered ; but it is certain that some Gold, as well
as very considerable quantities of Silver, have
been extracted from several mines of Tin and
Copper in Devon and Cornwall, and from Copper
and other mines in Cumberland, Yorkshire, West-
moreland, and Wales. See Camd. Brit.
" A gentleman digging for Copper Ore found
a quantity of red earth, which, by knowing mi-
neralists, was guessed to be only bole; but
being melted with martis stellatis, by a skilful
213
trier of metals, it often richly recompensed,
by affording pure Gold.'' Boyles Hydrostatic
Balance.
VANNOCHIO, the famous Italian mineralogist,
tells us, that soft and crumbly red earth often
contains the richest minerals and metals. It may
be as well to remark, that the red earth mentioned
in the above paragraphs is the gossan of our
miners, and most commonly contains some small
quantity of Silver or Gold. Sometimes it is very
rich in Silver, and in considerable quantity, but
it is generally unheeded, being only esteemed by
our miners as an indication of great productive-
ness below for Copper, Lead, &c. &c. There is
not one in a hundred of these gossans properly
examined, although they ought always to be
tried, as large gains would be made by extract-
ing the Silver from many of them ; but our miners
and assayers are mostly incapable of assaying
them, as they are generally surprisingly deficient
in competent attainment, being, with very few
exceptions, incapable of any assays but those of
the ordinary Lead, Copper, and Tin Ores. The
assay of a complex mineral, containing Silver,
is very rarely accomplished, and even then very
incorrectly; fortunately, we have a few assayers
214
of great skill, but they are very different from the
usual Copper assay-masters.
BOYLE, in his Sceptical Chemist, says, " I re-
member a candid mineralist, famous for his skill
in trying Ores, that he obtained near one-third
part Gold from a mineral or earth which was
taken to the public assayers, who were unable to
bring it to a fusion or regulus ; but yet a parti-
cular flux separated a third part Gold."
" An expert man was desirous of my procur-
ing Tin Ores for him. He had met with a sort
that after a long digestion in lixiviate liquors,
afforded him a very considerable portion of the
richer metals ; having a larger quantity of that
sort he succeeded constantly/' Usefulness of
Philosophy*
A very celebrated author says, " I know Gold
and Silver to be blended with the predominant
metals of mines, as appears from some of the
Copper Mines of Cumnitz, where a considerable
quantity of both is obtained." ALONZO BARBA:
Art of Metals.
ACOSTA says, " Gold and Silver are most com-
monly found with Copper" " In following the
veins of Tin, the miners have often met with rich
parcels of Silver."
215
Dr. BROWN, in his Account of Windschot Mine,
says, " Often in following a vein of Copper they
have met with a vein of fine Gold, but it is more
usual to have the veins change into or carry Silver.""
ALOXZO BARBA says, "The Mine of Osloque,
in the Lypes, was at top in a manner all Copper,
but every spade's depth, as they dug downwards,
the Ore grew more rich in Silver ; but the water
increasing, hindered them from prosecuting fur-
ther riches."
In Ireland some quantity of Gold has been
gathered, particularly about the Wicklow Hills,
where pieces of some considerable size have been
found. It is to be regretted that the authorities
not only interdicted any operations by the public,
but were inert and indifferent to the possible
important consequences of discoveries, through a
proper investigation and activity by their own
agents. A careful consideration of some of the
specimens leads to a conclusion, that if free scope
were given to industry and cupidity, it is proba-
ble a considerable deposit would be discovered.
" Among the wastes in Scotland, on Crawford
Moor, the people find pieces of Gold, some of
which are of a considerable bigness." Camd.
Brit. pp. 915, 922. New trans.
21G
BOYLE, in his hydrostatical way of examining
Ores (p. 182), says, that he had several of these
pieces of Gold given him, which he " presented
to that curious examiner of Ores, Prince Rupert."
From what Dr. NICHOLSON (a former Bishop
of Carlisle) says in SCOTT'S Historical Library, it
is clear that there have been Gold Mines or work-
ings in that kingdom. There can be no doubt of
there being numerous veins carrying Silver, in
various parts of Scotland. King James is stated
to have received 10,000/. in Silver out of a Scot-
tish mine. (History of the First Fourteen Years of
the Reign of King James the First, p. 13.) " About
seventy years since a Silver Mine was working
very profitably, but was suddenly interrupted or
cut out, and the workings were abandoned" (in
consequence of the geological deficiency of the
directing miner). Williams 's Mineral Kingdom.
MARTIN, in his Description of the Western Isles
of Scotland, says, "there are valuable mines or
veins of Silver, Copper, Tin, and Lead, in the
Isles of Orkney."
ATKINSON'S Manuscripts give an account of
the finding and losing " a valuable Silver Mine
at Hilderstone, in the county of Linlithgow."
Speaking of another mine, he says, " a partner in
217
the mining concern got as much native Gold as
to make a bason to hold an English gallon, which
the Earl of Morton presented full of Gold to the
King of France, assuring him that both were from
the mines."
"A master of mines and minerals was ap-
pointed in 1607, and the Gold and Silver Mines of
Lesmahago were bestowed on the Marquis of
Hamilton, in 1620. In thirty days after, eight
pounds of native Gold were brought to the Mint.
The workmen also obtained Gold which they
sold for forty shillings per ounce."
All those who have written concerning metals
appear to agree that there is naturally a small
quantity of Gold or Silver in most metalliferous
Ores ; and the smelters and refiners of former
times affirm, that there Is in Copper Ore naturally
Gold and Silver, and in Tin and in Lead Ores
naturally Silver only ; and that there is scarcely
a mine without some small portion of the one or
the other.
It is more than probable that a great many
deposits of Silver Ores would have been long
since explored and made known, and some of
them successfully wrought, had not the inter-
dictory statutes, corporate grants, and injurious
Q
218
monopolizing privileges, by depriving parties of
their fair proportion of the resulting benefits, pre-
sented an effectual barrier to any active and
proper investigation.
Some Kings of England have challenged or
claimed all the mines out of which Gold or Silver
could be extracted; in consequence of which
there have been continual disputes between the
Crown and the subject, and afterwards between
the Corporation of Mines Royal and the subject;
such as, that between them and Sir Thomas
Chaloner, relative to Copper Mines in Yorkshire,
and that relative to other mines in that county,
from which the silver coinage called " Pudsey's coin-
age''' was extracted.
In mentioning the great trial between Queen
Elizabeth and the Duke of Northumberland, Dr.
FULLER, in his Worthies of Cumberland, observes,
that " At the trial at law between these parties,
it was resolved by nine out of the twelve judges,
that though Henry the Eighth had granted the
manor of Keswick, with all mines within the said
manor, yet the mines could not pass; and although
the grant of the manor was very good, the King
could not alienate the mines." But CAMDEN'S
Britannia, p. 821, says, that the suit was carried
219
in favour of the Queen " by reason of the mixture
of the Gold and Silver found in the veins of Cop-
per." And Sir WILLIAM DUGDALE, in his
Baronage of England, speaking of the Duke of
Northumberland, says (p. 283), " The rich mine
of Copper found in the lands of that noble lord
was adjudged a royal mine from the quantity of Gold
and Silver it contained, and cotisequently belonged
to the Crown."
After the settlement of these disputes, followed
many between the owners of the mines, the
lessees of the Crown, and the Governors of the
Corporation of Mines Royal ; such as, that be-
tween Sir Hugh Middleton and Sir Richard
Price, concerning the mines atTallabout, whether
royal mines or not; that of Sir Charles Price
and the Governors of the Mines Royal, relative
to the productive mines of Estkyrkyr, which,
after several trials at bar, was by a noli prosequi
from the Crown given in favour of Sir Charles
Price, and occasioned the following clause in an
Act of the first year of the reign of William and
Mary.
" No mine of Copper, Tin, Iron^ or Lead, shall
hereafter be adjudged, reputed, or taken to be a
Q2
220
mine royal, although Gold and Silver may be
extracted out of the same."
The fifth of William and Mary states, that
" notwithstanding the good provision of the Act
of the first year of their Majesties' reign, many
doubts and questions have been entertained,
whereby great suits and troubles have arisen to
many owners and proprietors of mines, where-
fore, for the better explanation of such statutes,
Be it enacted and declared, &c. &c., ' that any
Person or Persons, subjects of the Crown of
England, Proprietors or Owners of any Mine or
Mines in the Kingdom of England, Dominion of
Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, wherein
any Ore now is, or hereafter may be, opened,
found, or wrought, and in which there is Tin,
Iron, Copper, or Lead, shall enjoy and continue
in possession thereof, notwithstanding such mine
shall be pretended to be claimed to be a Royal
Mine: "
This Act contains a Proviso that their Majes-
ties and their successors, and all claiming Royal
Mines under them, shall have the use of any such
mine, other than Tin Ore in the counties of Devon
and Cornwall; but paying to the proprietors or
221
owners of any such mines, within thirty days after
such Ore is laid on the banks of any such mine,
and before removal from them, the following rates,
that is to say: 16/. per ton for Copper Ore;
2/. per ton for Tin Ore, except as excepted;
2/. per ton for Iron Ore ; 91. per ton for Lead
Ore; "Proviso, that nothing in this Act shall
alter or make void the Charter granted to the
Tinners of Devonshire and Cornwall, nor any of
the liberties, privileges, or franchises, of the said
Tinners, or to alter the customs of the stannaries
of Devonshire and Cornwall, or any or either of
them."
The exclusive grants and charters before-men-
tioned, and also the Act of the fifth year of the
reign of Henry the Fourth, against the multiply-
ing and extraction of Gold and Silver, operated
so injuriously, and were so very pernicious and
effective in checking a proper progress in the
investigation or analysis of the various Ores and
Minerals of the country, that Webster's Metal-
lographia, p. 233, states, that " the Dutch, for a
long time, came over to this country and bought
Ores, which were sent to Holland to be smelted
and refined."
It is true that some few persons in this country,
222
who were fond of the metallurgical art, procured
specimens of Ore, and smelted and analyzed
them experimentally, but then they were almost
always ignorant of the actual locality of the
Mineral, which was concealed by the proprietor
or the grantees, who were both, in effect, de-
barred from working their minerals ; first, by the
charters given to parties of distinction, and sub-
sequently, by the monopoly of the incorporated
societies.
If the metallurgist found the mineral himself,
or had it brought to him by some friend, he was
compelled to be satisfied with his experiments
upon it, and felt indisposed to communicate either
its contents or the place from whence it came, as
the law prevented him from exercising the art
for the purpose of increase or gain. But, even if
the law had not prevented a profitable conversion
of the mineral containing either Gold or Silver,
there was such a maladministration of the Mineral
Royalties, that there was almost every impedi-
ment to any available or advantageous operation.
Even the Patentees and Company of Mines
Koyal, were so extraordinarily inert and ineffi-
cient for their object and duties, as to allow the
Act of Henry the Fourth, against the multiplica-
223
tion of Gold and Silver, to be enforced and remain
unrepealed until the first year of William and
Mary.
At last, it was perceived that this Act of Henry
the Fourth had been very injurious, and had
caused the localities and contents of many
valuable mineral veins to be kept secret and
concealed; and therefore, the Act of the first
year of William and Mary repeals that against
the multiplication of the precious metals, in the
following words :
" Whereas by a statute made in the first year
of the reign of King Henry the Fourth, it was,
amongst other things, enacted, that none should
use to multiply Gold or Silver, or use the craft
of multiplication, and if any the same do, they
shall incur the pain of felony; And whereas,
since the making of the said Act, divers persons
have by their study, industry, and learning,
arrived at great skill and perfection in the art of
melting and refining of metals, and improving
them and their ores, which very much abound in
this kingdom, and extracting Gold and Silver out
of the same, but yet dare not exercise their skill
in this realm, but exercise the said art in foreign
parts, to the great loss and detriment of this king-
224
dom: Be it therefore enacted, &c. that the afore-
said branch, article, or sentence, contained in the
said Act, shall be repealed, annulled, revoked,
and for ever made void, anything herein con-
tained to the contrary, &c."
This Act, together with that of the same year
of their Majesties' reign (before mentioned), had a
very beneficial influence, in inspiring such a con-
fidence, and in inducing such an activity in mining
operations, as never before existed ; but, unfor-
tunately, too great an eagerness to participate in
an expected enormous gain, caused heedless in-
vestment and injudicious operation, and in many
cases went near to create a reaction in the public
prejudice. And, although several able and skil-
ful persons afforded very valuable information
and assistance, the distrust of mine engagements
was still further promoted by the vain and im-
pudent pretensions of many of the adepti, or al-
chemists of the day; some of whom scrupled not
to offend both morals and common sense, by
their impertinences and abortive attempts.
But if some of the alchemists exceeded the
bounds of prudence or reason, and brought them-
selves into general ridicule, it must not be for-
gotten that it was very different with others, to
225
whom we are very much indebted; as their
researches and operations certainly very much
progressed the science of metallurgical chemistry,
and not only led an inquiry into mineralogical
relations and position, but first presented the
dawn of geognostic indication and dependence.
Well would it have been, had the importance
of geological attainment been considered by all
persons subsequently having the direction and
practical management of mines, as it would have
prevented much severe disappointment and loss ;
and instead of our Mine Captains being generally
deficient in the requisite degree of mineralogical
science, they would probably have advanced
sufficiently to challenge an equality, if not a pre-
eminence, in science, as well as practical expe-
rience.
It will now, I trust, be perceived, that, the
unfortunate and unpropitious circumstances of
former times, and the absence of a proper degree
of mineralogical knowledge, together with an
almost total deficiency in geological and chemical
science, have occasioned a species of prescrip-
tive or traditional record of the uncertainty of
Mine Operations. Fortunately, however, deri-
vative knowledge has so totally altered the state
226
4>
of things, that the prosecution of Mine Under-
takings is no longer trammelled with that in-
tricacy and geological uncertainty which have
caused so many failures. Indeed, we may say,
that from the experience and information derived
by an insight, into the geology, mineralogy, and
practical operations, of the various mines, both
of the old and new continents, and from the im-
proved state of metallurgical chemistry and me-
chanical science, it is now hardly possible to
think that we shall henceforth hear of disappoint-
ment or failure, occurring from natural difficulties
or absolute unproductiveness ; and that, under
present circumstances, there can be no rational
doubt of successful operation, in proportion to a
judicious selection and proper management.
Among many mines in operation there may
be an occasional loss causing a temporary fluc-
tuation ; but if there be, it will in almost every
case be found to proceed from bad selection and
adventitious cause, and from effects altogether
independent and apart from the consequential s
of judicious and equitable operations.
In conclusion, one may repeat, that of the
matters and details spoken of, some no longer
exist; others are of comparatively rare occur-
227
rence ; and the rest may be easily avoided by
a slight exercise of common discernment. They
have been alluded to with a wish to guard indi-
viduals from any possible repetition of suffering
from such causes, and not in any feeling or
intention to augment the prevailing misconcep-
tion, by the exposure of difficulties and matters
tending to deter persons from investing money
in Mine Operations. These matters have been
adverted to with the view of proving the in-
calculable mischief which has resulted from their
former existence; and it has been the desire of the
writer to convince parties that their prejudices
and misconception have not been caused by any
natural uncertainty, or barrenness of the mineral
deposits, but by former mechanical and scientific
deficiencies, and an injudicious system of manage-
ment, now no longer existing.
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