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to, washed out of the coffer into a long and deep trench, cut in the floor, called, the launder, stopped only with turf at one end, through which the water gradually oozes away, while the ore itself, purged of its impurities, fubfides and fettles at the bottom. The fand and gravelly particles, which, being lighter than the ore, remain uppermoft, being removed, the ore is repeatedly washed and cleanfed, and in the end is fent to the smelting, or, as with more propriety they term it, the burning-house. There, being as repeatedly subjected to the fire to free it from the mundic and other foreign substances, ftill intimately adhering to the ore, and afterwards, paffing through the more intenfe heat of the refining-fire, where all its remaining drofs is skimmed off, the burning mass is poured into moulds, holding exactly three hundred and twenty pounds weight; and, being left to cool, it is, in that ftate, called block-tin. fore they are quite cold, the blocks are ftamped with the house-mark of the fmelters, a pelican, a plume of feathers, or some such device, in proof of the genuineness of the metal; they are then weighed, numbered, and fent to the nearest town that has the privilege of coining to be affayed, and to receive

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the farther impreffion of the dutchy feal, which bears a lion rampant, the arms of Richard Earl of Cornwall, without which impreffion it cannot become an article of merchandize, domeftic or foreign. This is called the coinage of the tin, and every one hundred weight of tin thus coined, by ancient ufage, pays a duty of four fhillings to the Duke, producing a vaft, though of neceffity a varying, income to the heir-apparent of the Britifh crown; an income, however, that muft conftantly increase, as new channels for the exportation of this ufeful article are difcovered, or the old ones enlarged by the mer chants of England, in their private or collective capacity; a circumftance which proves the obligation of the present illustrious poffeffor of its revenues, to the laudable exertions of the prefent enlightened Court of Eaft India Directors, to revive that important branch of ancient commerce with Asia.

The towns appointed for the coinage of tin were anciently only four in number, fituated in those districts of the county which were confidered most convenient for the tinners, by name Lefkard, Leftwithiel, Truro, and Helfton. The nearest of these, however, was found too far diftant from the tinners on its weftern

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weftern extremity; and, for their accommodation, Charles the Second added Penzance. To one or other of thefe places the tin is brought on the four great quarterly festivals of the year, and fo great has the confumption increased, that though, when Carew wrote his volume, the total annual amount of the tin fold did not exceed 40,000l. it has of late years rifen to near 200,000l.-Gough's new edition of Camden, p. 10.

The important light in which the British legiflature have ever regarded this national fource of industry and wealth, in periods long antecedent to those in which our woollen manufactures came to be in fuch high estimation in the markets of Europe, the grand STAPLE Commodity of the country, is confpicuously evident in the great number of im munities and charters granted, at different æras, by English kings and parliaments, to the inhabitants of this weftern province, by way of encouragement to them, to direct their whole attention to the native riches treasured in the bofom of their favoured country; immunities fo various, and charters fo extensive in their conceffions, that this part of Cornwall feems, as it were, a separate kingdom, governed by a parliament of its own, and

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and fubject to a jurifdiction peculiarly cal culated for the convenience and comfort of the natives. The chief power in these districts is vested in an officer called the lord-warden of the stannaries, who is fupreme in law and equity, in cafes that affect not the life of the subject, and from his sentence there is no appeal but to the Duke of Cornwall, in council, and, in case of the death or minority of that prince, to the crown.

Having taken this general furvey of the method of exploring and preparing, for the public market, the tin found in the mines of Cornwall, having alfo given the reader fome idea of the importance of this branch of trade to the kingdom, as well as of the quantity of metal coined in that western county, a furvey, however, only introductory to more particular and detailed statements hereafter, it is now neceffary that we should revert our eye to the two infant colonies which we have feen the Phoenicians were able to establish at Gades, or Gadira, on the Fretum Herculeum, and at the still more weftern city of Tarteffus. The account which I have above given, from ancient authors of the greateft authenticity, fuppofes the gold and filver mines of Bætica already explored and wrought, and the metal found

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found in them, as having paffed through the fmelting and refining-house in order for exportation, previous to the arrival of the Phonicians on that coaft. This circumftance exhibits very forcible proof of the rapid progress made by the Celtic colonies, who established themselves in Spain in the science of metallurgy, and without admitting all the romantic claims made by the hiftorians of that nation, who infift upon it, that their empire was founded by Tubal, the fifth fon of Japhet, about the one hundred and fortieth year after the flood,* full credit may be allowed the first post-diluvian settlers, according to the hypothefis of thefe volumes, for carrying away with them from Shinar a confiderable portion of information in a fcience which made the ante-diluvian Tubal-Cain fo renowned in his generation, and the remembrance of which, doubtlefs, was not wholly erafed from the minds of the Noachida. To thofe, however, who may pertinacioufly reject our reasonable hypothefis, other caufes of early improvement in that laborious branch of science, will, upon reflection, without difficulty, be acceded to, as for inftance, the accidental burning of vast

Vide Sanchoniatho in Berofus, and Jofephi Antiq. Judaic. lib. i. Cap. 3.

forefts,

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