UTILITY OF 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 j-enders 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 incon-ect expression, and might mislead a Parisian 

 hadaud. — Translator. 



