24 
want of former records or present knowledge ? N o one, I am 
confident, acquainted practically with our mineral districts, will 
hesitate in replying, that in all these points great and salutary 
changes may be made, and that enlarged opportunities of learn- 
ing accorded to the mine agents must produce their fruits in due 
season. 
As for the miserable plea of ignorance, that the country cannot 
fail to prosper, in whatever degree her sons may squander the stores 
of nature deemed inexhaustible, — it but leads the mind back, 
through many centuries, to an instance of similar reckless boasting, 
followed by a warning fate. In the palmy days of Athens, when 
the silver mines of Laurion were vivifying art, commerce, and 
luxury, Xenophon asserted, in a formal treatise on the revenues 
of the state, that “ whatever number of men had been employed 
in those silver mines, no diminution had been practically effected 
in the quantity of the ores ; — that there was no limit to the pro- 
ductiveness of the veins, either in depth or in extension, and 
that their riches, in fine, were inexhaustible."* Let any one 
contrast such assurances with the beggared state of the land 
ever since. 
I would be far from strictly comparing the conditions of 
Attica or its people with our own; but we must bear in mind, 
that in all our mining districts the minerals are extracting at a 
fearful rate, and each year in an increasing ratio, and that after 
a certain lapse of time scarcity and increase of price must neces- 
sarily follow. In the meanwhile, we have numerous rivals in 
other and less favoured lands, doing their utmost to make up 
for natural disadvantages by fostering education and acquiring a 
sound knowledge of the principles on which they act. In this 
race they have often been checked by political troubles and 
pecidiarities in their social relations ; but, having so thoroughly 
secured each onward step as to be comparatively independent of 
* MapTvpe'i Ss xuxet vo, on, E]pyu<ry.zvcav ui/Qpu>7roov kv roTj apyvploi; ev Tea 
7T«vn XP° VC 9 ^vapiOp-^TcaV) wv oufisv diafiepei tx xpyupix rj u oi npoyovot rjy.a>v 
ovTot i/xvvjjuAsuov uvrct. . . Oure yap fixQou; 7 repx; outs vnovop-uiv ot 
cp’jTTOVTsc evplerxoucri . — Xcu. de I cct. c. iv. 
