XXXIX] MONEY MATTERS 



363 



beautiful country, visited the mines, went down the shafts by 

 endless perpendicular ladders, and examined the veins and 

 workings with the manager, who had great confidence in its 

 value, and was a large shareholder. " Here," said Geach, 

 " you can see the vein of lead ore. It is very valuable, and 

 extends to an unknown depth. This is not a probability, it 

 is a certainty." And so I was persuaded to buy shares in 

 lead-mines, and gradually had a large portion of my capital 

 invested in them. 



But here again, neither I nor Geach, nor hardly one in 

 England, knew of the insidious foe that in a remote part of 

 the world was preparing the way for the ruin of English lead- 

 mining. This was twofold : the great development of mining 

 in Spain by English capitalists ; and, more important still, the 

 enormous amount of silver-mining in Nevada, United States, 

 where the ore contained lead and silver combined, so that as 

 the works extended large quantities of lead accumulated as 

 a kind of waste product, and much of this was exported to 

 Europe, and so lowered the price of lead that most of the 

 British lead-mines became unprofitable. About 1 870 the price 

 of lead began to fall, and has continued to fall, as has silver, 

 ever since. The result of all this was that by 1880 a large 

 part of the money I had earned at the risk of health and life 

 was irrecoverably lost. 



While these continued misfortunes were in progress I was 

 involved in two other annoyances, causing anxiety and worry 

 for years, as well as a very large money loss. The first was 

 with a dishonest builder, who contracted to build my house 

 at Grays, and who was paid every month according to the 

 proportion of the work done. One day, when the house was 

 little more than half finished, he did not appear to pay his 

 men, and as they would not continue to work without their 

 money I paid them. He did not appear the next week, and 

 sent no excuse, so the architect gave him notice that I should 

 complete the building myself, and that, according to the agree- 

 ment, he would be responsible for any cost beyond the con- 

 tract price. After a few weeks he appeared, and wanted to 

 go on, but that we declined. The house cost me somewhat 



