CHAP. xxix. OF PRECIOUS METALS. 359 



only been worked at the expense of great toil 

 and suffering of the people employed in them. 

 In the earlier ages of the world, the extension of 

 slavery, and of the most oppressive kind, was 

 the natural consequence of pursuing this descrip- 

 tion of labour. In more modern times, since the 

 discovery of America, the working of the mines 

 could only be effected by the forced labour of the 

 native inhabitants, and their numbers were rapidly 

 thinned by the severe cruelties and privations to 

 which they were exposed by their new masters. 

 In the washings for gold, whether in Africa or 

 Asia, we have seen that the condition of those so 

 occupied is that of almost the lowest of human 

 beings. If of late years Mexico has been an ex- 

 ception to this general representation, if the la- 

 bourers have been better treated and better main- 

 tained, it has arisen from local and fortuitous cir- 

 cumstances, from the minerals being found in 

 larger beds, and from the application of larger 

 capitals to their extraction and refining. In these 

 circumstances, the loss has been rather that of the 

 wealth of the adventurers than of the lives and 

 sweat and strength of the labourers. In spite of 

 a very few instances of most unusual success, but 

 a success which has enticed to their ruin many 

 other capitalists, the profit of mining, even in 

 Mexico and under the most favourable circum- 

 stances, has been far less in proportion to the 

 capital devoted to it than that derived from agri- 



