312 NATURAL HISTORY 
courts, privileges of exercifing trades, of electing officers within 
their own diftricft, and inverted with the property of lands, mills, 
fairs, &c. paying annually a certain chief or fee-farm rent ; moft 
of them alfo were parts of the ancient demefnes of the Crown, 
and had been either in the Crown or in the Royal Blood from the 
Norman conqueft 1 , and by parting to and from the Crown often, 
and their privileges conftantly referved and confirmed at every 
transfer, thefe towns had acquired a kind of nominal dignity, 
but were in every other light inconfiderable, aud no ways entitled 
to the power of fending members to Parliament, much lefs in pre- 
ference to fo many more populous communities in the other parts 
of England. 
sect. xvi. The chief trade in Cornwall confifts in exporting tin, copper, and 
Trade. fiffi, and the principal imports are timber, iron, hemp, and fuch 
other neceffaries as mining and fifhing require. The Cornifh had 
a privilege granted by Charles the firft, for their fteady attachment 
to the royal caufe, of trading to all parts of the world k ; a privilege 
of more credit than profit, fince trade has been fettered and fo con- 
fined to exclufive companies ; this however can be no excufe for that 
dangerous abufe of trade, called fmuggling. The common people 
on the fea-coaft are, it muft be owned, too much addi&ed to carry 
off our bullion to France, and bring us back nothing but brandy, 
tea, and fome other luxuries of life ; nothing can be more pernici- 
ous to the intereft of this county, as well as the kingdom in general, 
or to the conftitutions of the inhabitants : the infection is fpread 
below the rank of birth and fortune ; there is not the pooreft family 
in any parifh which has not its tea, its fnuff, and tobacco, and 
(when they have money or credit) brandy, and it is greatly to be 
feared that this deftru£tive trade will not ceafe as long as the duties 
are fo high, and confequently the profit of clandeftinely importing 
foreign uncuftomed goods fo great and tempting. 
■a 
sect.xvii. The Cornifh tenants ufually chufe not to hold lands at a rack 
Cornifh ^te- or yearly rent, but to pay a fine, and take lands of the Lord of the 
revenues. Soil, for the term of ninety -nine years determinable with the lives 
of three perfons named in the grant or leafe. This method of 
taking, they feem to have been inclined to, firft, becaufe their 
general turn being to mining, farmery is not fo well underftood 
here as in other parts ; fecondly, becaufe the profits of mines and 
fifhing come by ftarts, and after a lucky year, the owner not 
knowing well the management of cafh, chufes to have fome certain 
' Once only excepted, when Pierce Gavefton for a fhort time, 
was by the favour of Edward II. Earl of Cornwall k Camden, Annot. page 8. 
income 
