428 MINE. 
the water runs in plenty, and the mine is deep. Some¬ 
times, indeed, they cannot find a level near enough to 
which an adit may be carried from the very bottom of the 
mine ; yet they find it worth while to make an adit at 
half the height to which the water is to be raifed, thereby 
laving half the expenle. Mr. Collar, confidering that 
fometimes from fmall dreams, and fomctimes from little 
1'prings or colleftions of rain-water, one might have a 
good deal of water above-ground, though not a fufficient 
quantity to turn an overlhot wheel, thought that, if a fuffi¬ 
cient fall might be had, this collection of water might be 
made ufeful in railing the water in a mine to the adit, 
where it may be carried off. But now the moll general 
method of draining mines is by the (team-engine. 
In other countries mining has been fodered and pro¬ 
tected by the (late : immunities, have been granted, the 
workmen have been furrounded by particular privileges, 
and their operations encouraged by grants of timber from 
royal foreds, or the free ufe of lands and waters. Thus 
peculiar fyftems of laws have often arifen where the mines 
were important as a fource of revenue to the (late. Some¬ 
thing of this fort is indeed to be traced in the dannary- 
laws of Cornwall; thefe laws, however, are not operative 
in the other mining-diftrifts of England, but are confined 
to the counties of Devon and Cornwall, which are both 
included in the royal duchy which bears the name of the 
latter. Here the ftannary-laws, (fill exilting, now afford 
the miner but fcanty affiftance, though they effectually 
provide for the i’ecure payment of the mineral revenue to 
the duke of Cornwall. To this objeCt, and to the adjuft- 
ing difputes touching the affairs of tin-mines, the prefent 
adminiftration of thefe laws may be faid to be directed. 
The protection to the perfon of the tinner, as to military 
fervice and proceffes from other courts, has been gradually 
removed; and the rights of embounding lands for his pur- 
fuits, and of obtaining water-courfes for his engines, 
have been queltioned, and in fome cafes rendered doubt¬ 
ful. It cannot, perhaps, be contended that thefe laws 
could now be exercifed in their former conltruCtion in the 
prefent (late of property ; but a revilion, accommodating 
them to the fair wants of the miner, without prejudice to 
the land owner, would be attended with much benefit to 
the mining-intereft. The copper-mines, being altogether 
of later date than thofe of tin, partake of none of the ad¬ 
vantages which the dannary-laws afford, and are therefore 
governed more by cuftom than any thing elfe ; an exten- 
iion of the privileges of the tin-mines to thefe, and a legal 
provifion for the peculiar arrangements which fuch un¬ 
dertakings require, would remove many ferious obllacles 
to their profecution. 
Mining in England had a very early origin, compared 
with the progrefs’of other arts in the country ; it-was in 
all probability the fird fource of trade to thefe iflands, and 
the tin of Britain was. known in diftant parts of the world 
at a very remote period. It is generally believed that the 
Phoenicians were the nation principally engaged in trad¬ 
ing to Britain for this metal. Tin-works were carried on 
before iron was in ule in England, as may be prefumed 
from the tools of oak which have been found in ancient 
mines. Cicero affirmed that no filver was to be found in 
Britain; and, though it has fince been proved that he 
was wrong in that aifertion, yet the notice taken of the 
fubjeCt lerves to (how that the metals of the country were 
the principal temptation to the Roman conquerors. 
The Saxons neglected the purfuit of the metals, but the 
Normans appear to have worked for them to advantage ; 
and, from this time until the reign of king John, the 
mines w'ere moltly in the hands of Jews, when they are 
faid not to have been productive; but in the reign en- 
fuing they were -worked by the lame people with more 
effeft. Edward I. caufed the Jews to be baniffied ; and 
the mines were, in confequence, neglected, until Edmund, 
the elder Con of that king, and earl of Cornwall, willing 
to reitore what had produced Co large a proportion of the 
revenue, of his domain, made grants important to the 
miner, which were confirmed by the king, by a charter ire 
the 33d year of his reign ; which dates that, “ For the ad¬ 
vancement of the dannaries, he frees the tinners from all 
pleas of the natives touching the court, and from an- 
fwering before any judices, Sec. fave only the keeper of 
the dannaries; (pleas of land, life, and member, excepted;) 
neither are they to be kept from work, but by the faid 
keeper.” And it further “ indemnifies them from tolls, 
See. gives them libertie to dig tin and turf any where in 
the faid countie, and to turn water-courfes for their works 
at pleafure ; with many other privileges.” It is from this 
time that the enactment of law's for the government of 
the dannaries may principally be dated. 
The mines continued to be protected by the crown, 
and particularly by Henry VII. until Edward VI. when 
they were neglected ; and fell into complete decay during 
the diladrous government of Mary. When Elizabeth 
fucceeded to the crown, the mines of the kingdom par¬ 
took of the attention wdiich this enterprifing queen be- 
dowed on every objeft from which an increafe to the re- 
lources, or an addition to the drength of her government, 
might be derived. The failure of the mines had dimi- 
nifhed the number, and annihilated the (kill, of the Eng- 
lilh miners ; the queen therefore invited over Germans, 
and made extenfive grants in different parts of England 
to Houghfetter and Thurland, and likewife others to 
William Humphreys and Chridopher Shutz. She alfo 
edabliihed, in 1568, a corporation, wffiich dill exids, called 
“ The Society for the Mines Royal,” which had certain 
grants and privileges in feveral counties, and of which 
William earl of Pembroke was the find governor. It does 
not appear that this lociety, which was originally a min¬ 
ing-company, though now engaged in linelting ores only, 
produced any important effeft upon the difeovery of me¬ 
tals in England. The tin-mines of Cornwall were not 
worked by them, but remained in the hands of private 
adventurers, under the jurifdiftion of the dannaries, and 
increafed in produce and value in proportion to the de¬ 
mand for this metal. The whole amount of tin annually 
railed in Devon and Cornwall, in the following reigns of 
James I. and Charles, was from fourteen hundred to fix- 
teen hundred tons. It is probable that the civil wars 
which fucceeded injured the workings of the mines, as in 
the reign of Charles II. it appears from a note of Mr. 
Scawen, of Molinek, who w r as vice-warden of the dan¬ 
naries, and quoted by Dr. Pryce, that the tin-revenues 
were very fmall. In the reigns of Anne and George I. 
the produce of tin had again become confiderable, and 
amounted, one year with another, to (omething more 
than fixteen hundred tons ; fo that in the (pace of one 
hundred and ten years its mean proportion was equal to 
fifteen hundred tons per annum. 
After the foregoing time a gradual increafe took place 
in the enfuing thirty years ; for in the year 1742 a propo- 
lal was made by the Mines Royal Company in London to 
raife 140,000k to encourage the tin-trade by farming that 
commodity for feven years at a certain price. A com¬ 
mittee of Cornidi gentlemen were appointed to conlider 
of the propolal; and they reported, “ That the quantity 
of tin railed yearly in Cornwall, at an average for many 
years lad pall, hath been about two thousand one hun¬ 
dred tons ;” and refolved, “ that three pounds nine (hil¬ 
lings for grain-tin, and three pounds five (hillings per 
hundred-weight for common tin, are the lowed prices for 
which fuch tin will be fold to the contractors, exclufive 
of all coinage duties and fees.” The produce qf the tin- 
mines was much more confiderable afterwards; and from 
1760 to 1780 it was reckoned at about two thoufand eight 
hundred tons a-year, which was w'orih the annual fum of 
about i8o,oool. Copper began to be worked in Cornwall 
in the beginning of the 18 th century, and the amount had 
attained at the period jult quoted to about the fame an¬ 
nual fum of 180,000k making the mineral returns of this 
didrift at this period, viz. about 1780, to be of the yearly 
value of 360,000k 
The 
