UTILITY OP MACHINES. 411 



stone being very dear, it is not used ; * brick is the gen 

 eral substitute. 



Millions of workmen are now executing, both on the 

 surface of the earth and in its bowels, immense works 

 which could not possibly be undertaken, if certain ma 

 chines were proscribed. Two or three examples will 

 suffice to render this truth palpable. 



The carrying off the water that rises daily in the gal 

 leries of the Cornish mines alone, requires the power of 

 50,000 horses, or of 300,000 men. I ask you whether 

 the pay of 300,000 workmen would not absorb all the 

 benefit of the undertaking ? 



Does the question of the expense and the benefit 

 appear to be too delicate? Other considerations will 

 lead to the same result. 



The working of one Cornish mine alone, comprised 

 under the name of the Consolidated Mines, requires a 

 steam-engine equal to upwards of three hundred horses 

 constantly in harness, and each twenty-four hours it 

 realizes the work of one thousand horses. Need I fear 

 any contradiction if I assert that there are no means of 

 making upwards of three hundred horses, or two thou 

 sand or three thousand men, labour simultaneously and 

 to good purpose around the confined mouth of the shaft 

 of a mine ? To proscribe the steam-engine of the Con 

 solidated Mines would be to reduce to inaction the great 

 number of workmen that the engine renders it possible 

 to employ there ; it would be the same as declaring that 

 the copper and tin of Cornwall shall remain buried there 

 for ever, under a mass of earth, of rock, and of water 

 several hundred meters in thickness. The thesis brought 



* This is a very incorrect expression, and might mislead a Parisian 

 badaud. Translator. 



