AND THE MODE OF TEACHING THEM. 448 



ously to the invention of the steam-engine, he could with profit 

 employ,* But, aided by the steam-engine, he has successively 

 doubled, trebled, and quadrupled the depths to which he can descend, 

 in order to return loaded with the riches of the mine. As he 

 penetrates deeper, he discovers richer and more widely-spread- 

 ing veins of treasure, to which he sends his " captains " and his 

 " companies," and which soon are forced to render up their store. 

 At the head of his well-disciplined army he forces his way through 

 the hardest rock, he removes the earth and the ore, and the 

 earth's bosom is furrowed even more diligently than its surface.f 



And when these sources of national wealth are found com- 

 bined, when the metal and coal occur in juxta-position, in such 

 favoured localities the application of steam-power effects still 

 greater wonders. The arts spring up and multiply, upon this new 

 and rapid supply of their material, and of the means of fabricating 

 it. An immense population, gathered from all quarters, derives 

 its subsistence from them. Opulent cities arise, as if at the wand 

 of the enchanter ; and towns, such as Birmingham and Sheffield, 

 the former of which in the beginning of the last century numbered 

 scarcely thirty streets, are now among the largest, the most popu- 

 lous, and the most wealthy of the empire. 



What a gain to our country are such possessions ! We' lavish 

 wealth, and life itself, upon distant conquests, which may be 

 wrested from our possession in a moment by invasion or revolt, 

 conquests which we are compelled to protect by costly fortifications, 

 and to defend with troops, who perish by thousands, the victims of 

 a pestilential climate, conquests, whose fruits reach our shores at 

 a vast expense, with great risk, and frequent loss. What service, 

 then, does not that power render, which, by a few mechanical 

 means, and at the cost of a little fuel, brings up upon the surface of 

 our own soil its hidden treasures, and enriches us with the produce 

 of a territory situated beneath our feet ! These are triumphs, in- 

 deed, bloodless victories won by the arm of science from unreluc- 

 tant nature, conquests that no rival can wrest from us, no caprice 

 detach. 



I have already alluded, generally, to the moral revolution which 



* The removal of the water which rises daily in the galleries of the Cornish mines 

 would require the labour of upwards of 44,000 horses, or of about 300,000 men. 



t In a single mining establishment (the consolidated mines) in Cornwall, wliich I 

 visited last summer, the total length of the shafts and galleries now measures 68 miles- 



