382 Steam Engines in CornwalL 



gree of interest in this question. For the property embarlied 

 in these undertakings is immense, and the slightest interference 

 with any of their machinery might have thrown many thousands 

 of labourers entirely out of employment, and have caused such a 

 complete inundation of the works as would have required many 

 years to recover any of them, and have destroyed some of the 

 deepest mines entirely. In consequence, the miners of Cornwall 

 deputed some of their number to wait upon the committee, and 

 with them Mr, Lean, tlie gentleman wlio is employed by the 

 ininers as a body to survey all their steam-engines, and register 

 the work performed by each. In fact, such was the general 

 alarm, that, could the state of the mines have admitted of their 

 absence, the managers of the greater part of the Cornish mines, 

 there called Captains, would have come to town in a body. One! 

 of them. Captain William Davv, reckoned one of the most in- 

 telliger.t miners in Cornwall, in answer to a letter from a gentle- 

 ttian in London, informing him of the attempt made by some 

 interested or prejudiced individuals to put down all engines 

 working with steam of high temperature, sent him the following: 



" Rcdrulh, May 17, 1817. 

 " Dear Sir, — The contents of your letter have excited no 

 small degree of alarm in this (juarterj — but we ha\ e still such 

 an idea of the intelligence and information of a committee of the 

 House of Commons, as to encourage a hope that the legislature 

 will not be advised to adopt any measure which might operate 

 to destroy most valuable and extensive property, or even to shut 

 the door against further improvement, by any regulations what- 

 ever ; for all restrictions tend to fetter invention and limit the 

 powers of intellect. 



" With regard to the benefits which have resulted to the mines 

 from the oeconomy of fuel introduced by working with steam of 

 high temperature, a pretty correct opinion may be formed from 

 the monthly Report made by Captain Thomas Lean, who is ap- 

 pointed by the adventurers [proprietors] of the different mines 

 for that purpose, and paid by them for performing that duty* 

 These Reports may be relied on. He keeps the keys of the dif- 

 ferent counters*, and no other person can have access to them. 



Our fiiend Mr. can show you a set of these Reports. 



*' Had there been no recent imjirovement for drawing water 

 from the deep mines , — that is, were we left still to the employment 

 of only the common condensing engine, — I know not a single 

 dee|) mine in the county that could have been now in existence 

 as a working concern: and, to stop any one of them at this mo- 

 ment would be productive of the most distressing consequences; 



* Tlie counters arc a piece of clock-work, which, being worked by the 

 steum-fcii^ioc, rcgistcib iho iiuinber of strokes which it performs. — EpiTOR. 



for 



