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not long ago, it was so renowned for scenes of vulgar violence, that the name has passed into the language as a by-word for coarse vituperation and passionate invective. It is difficult to get rid of a bad character and of old associations, notwithstanding that reforms and changes render them unsuitable; and a wholesome use is made of this fact, if it increases care in the maintenance of an honourable reputation. Although the manners of Billingsgate may be improved, the name itself has been stamped with an opprobrious meaning, which will not be dissociated from it while the language lasts.

Fishermen, isolated to some extent from the rest of the community by the nature of their profession, and long neglected as the consequence, have strong claims upon the benevolent regard of the nation at large. They are the men who mainly man the life-boat, and go out in the storm, braving the howling winds and furious billows, to save crews and passengers from wrecks, at the risk of making their own wives widows, and leaving their children fatherless. While contributing by their ordinary calling to the comfort of their countrymen, they are exposed in its exercise to more frequent perils than the followers of any other occupation whatever, and often leave home in health and strength to find an uncoffined grave in the tempestuous sea. In the August of 1848, during a storm in the north of Scotland, upwards of a hundred fishermen were hurried into eternity in one hour, on a seaboard of about as many miles, many of them perishing within sight and hail of thousands of spectators. The habits and circumstances of this class of our countrymen-formerly improvident, intemperate, profane, and ignorant-the consequence in part of

their exclusion from the sympathy of general society, though much altered for the better, stand yet in need of improvement. They may be ameliorated by extending to fishing towns and villages those inducements to be thrifty which provident institutions supply, with the means of secular and religious instruction in early life, both of which are largely furnished to the working classes of inland districts, but have not as yet been adequately enjoyed by the sons of the wave.

CHAPTER V.

MINES-TIN, COPPER, LEAD, AND IRON.

Gold in Britain-Discoveries in Scotland and Ireland-Silver-Tin MinesTheir Antiquity-Leased to Jews-Stannary Courts-Vein and Stream Tin-Treatment of the Ore-Wherry Mine-Copper-Ores of the MetalVast Mining Works-Smelting-Aspect of the Cornish Copper DistrictWorkmen-Subterranean Temperature-Lead-Roman Remains-Derbyshire Mining Laws-Principal Lead Districts-Iron-Early Seats of Production-Weald of Kent-Destruction of Timber-Restrictive Enactments-Use of Coal-Progress of the Iron Manufacture - The Common Ore-Furnaces-Cast Iron-Aspect of the Iron Country.

THOUGH there is no known portion of the globe containing so large an amount of mineral wealth within the same area as the United Kingdom, yet the precious metals, gold and silver, only occur to a very unimportant extent among its produce. In the mountainous parts of the country, at a few localities, gold has been noticed, but in too small a quantity to be worth extraction; and the amount originally imparted to the rocks must have been trifling, as no rich auriferous débris has been recognised in the adjacent sand or gravel, just as it occurs in all really prolific gold-bearing lands. It is not unlikely, that a limited supply was obtained by the Druids from alluvial soil in the neighbourhood of the crystalline rocks of Cornwall and Wales, who used it for the ornaments found in their possession when the country came into the hands of the Romans, and exhausted the stock. These enterprising foreigners conducted regular mining

operations for gold at Ogofau in Carmarthenshire, where large veinstones of quartz in the slaty masses have been cut into, and lofty galleries excavated; which, with traces of aqueducts, remains of workshops-even the stones and troughs used in grinding the hard matrix and washing the débris-are well-defined existing memorials of their search. But if successful to some extent, as is intimated by the discovery of gold ornaments at the neighbouring Roman station of CynfilCayo, it is almost certain that the workings were not remunerative, and were therefore discontinued.

At more recent periods, the report of gold in Britain has been raised, sometimes by designing persons, at other times by well-meaning but too sanguine finders of specimens of the glittering product; and monarchs, anxious to profit by it, have issued numerous grants to individuals, making over to them their anticipated gold discoveries in several counties, subject to the payment of royalties. In the reign of Henry VI., the rumour of a concealed mine in Essex got abroad; whereupon the king issued letters of mandamus, directing Walter Fitz Walter "to apprehend all such persons as he in his judgment thinks fit, that do conceal the said mine, and to bring them before the king and his council, there to receive what shall be thought fit to be ordered." A curious work, entitled "The Discoverie and Historie of the Gold Mynes in Scotland," was published by the Bannatyne Club, from a manuscript written in the year 1619 by Stephen Atkinson, a refiner in London. The slate mountains, which run across the south of Scotland, have afforded stream gold in several places, especially the sands of the Uvan, a rivulet which joins the Clyde near its source, and other streams

near Crawford Moor, and the lead mines of Wanlockhead and Leadhills. The alluvium, particularly near the outcrop of the lead veins, contains gold in small grains, associated with quartz. It was first discovered in the time of James Iv., who reigned between the years 1488 and 1518. Under his successor, a company of German miners obtained a grant for working for forty-three years; but operations are said to have become unprofitable when a man's wages rose to fourpence a-day. Atkinson wished by his treatise to induce James 1. of England, whom he likened to Job, David, and Solomon, to resume the adventure; and held out to him the prospect of being able to build a second temple more glorious than the first. It was recommenced; and the king is affirmed to have obtained his quota of not quite three ounces of gold, at the expense of three thousand pounds. A spot long bore the name of Gold-scour, where the soil was washed.

The most notable discovery of the precious metal, within the limits of the kingdom, occurred in Ireland towards the close of the last century, which promised fair for a time, and raised high expectations, but disappointed them completely. In the Ballin valley stream, a tributary to the celebrated "Meeting of the Waters," in the county of Wicklow, a schoolmaster is reported to have found gold in his solitary walks. He kept the secret to himself, wandered at dusk and day-dawn in search of further treasure, and became as a distracted man to his neighbours. At last, in 1796, while crossing a brook in the valley, a man picked up a piece of nearly pure gold half an ounce in weight. The news spread; and soon brought hundreds of peasantry to the spot, of both sexes and of all ages, who began

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