of the dignity of a legislative body we recognise precisely the tone of the .nperial invectives, beneath which, in due time, all such bodies were doomed to tremble. Feb. 2 to 10, 1798.-Lewines was the other night with Buonaparte, when a conversation took place, which I think, from his relation of it, worth recording. Since the 18th Fructidor, the Jacobins are, in a certain degree, more tolerated by government than formerly, and some of their leaders, who had been tried at Vendome with Baboeuf, venture to show themselves a little. On that evening, a person called on the general from the minister of police, and spoke to him, for a considerable time, in a low voice, so that Lewines did not hear what he said; but it appears, by the sequel, that it was probably relative to some overtures from the chiefs of that party; for Buonaparte, all at once, sprung into the middle of the room, with great heat, and said, "What would these gentlemen have? France is revolutionized! Holland is revolutionized! Italy is revolutionized! Switzerland is revolutionized! Europe will soon be revolutionized! But this, it seems, is not enough to content them. I know well what they want: they want the domination of thirty or forty individuals, founded on the massacre of three or four millions; they want the constitution of 1793, but they shall not have it, and death to him who should demand it. We did not fail to reduce them to order when we had but fifteen hundred men, and we will do it much easier now, when we have thirty thousand. We will have the present constitution, and we will have no other, and we have common sense and our bayonets to maintain it. I know these persons, in order to give themselves some little consequence, affect to spread reports of some pretended disunion between the government and the legislative body. It is false. From the foundation of the republic to this day, there never was, perhaps, a moment when there reigned such perfect harmony between the constituted authorities; and I may add, since it seems they are good enough to count me for something in the affair, that I am perfectly in union of sentiment and esteem with the government, and they with me. He that fears calumny is below me. What I have done, has not been done in a boudoir, and it is for Europe and posterity to judge me. No! we will not have the assistance of those gentlemen who call themselves chiefs and leaders of the people: we acknowledge no chiefs or leaders but those pointed out by the constitution, the legislative body, and the Executive Directory; and to them only will we pay respect or attention. For the others, we know very well how to deal with them, if necessary; and, for my part, I declare for one, that if I had only the option between royalty and the system of those gentlemen, I would not hesitate one moment to declare for a king. But we will have neither the one nor the other; we will have the republic and the constitution, with which, if those persons pretend to interfere, they shall soon be made sensible of their absolute nullity." He spoke to this effect, as Lewines reported to me, but in a strain of the greatest animation, and with admirable eloquence.'-vol. ii. pp. 462, 463. ART. (81) ART. IV.-1. Reports relating to the Failure of the Rio Plata Mining Association, formed under an Authority signed by his Excellency Don Bernardino Rivadavia. By Captain F.B. Head. London. 1827. 2. Remarks on the Mines, Management, Ores, &c., of the District of Guanaxuato, belonging to the Anglo-Mexican Mining Association By Edward James. London. 1827. WE TE do not profess to cure insanity, and have, therefore, no ambition to persuade those who still rave about the riches they are to extract from the American mines, that their speculations are as visionary as Daniel O'Rourke's visit to the moon. Deeply as we lament their situation, we offer no remedy to constitutions which require rather blisters, bleeding, and water-gruel, than any treatment which it is our province to administer. The rational part of our community have now, we believe, come to the general conclusion, that these mining speculations are absurd; yet, as the foundation of this opinion is not clearly defined, or, in other words, as the question has not as yet been considered with the requisite calmness and minuteness, we think we may do some service by laying before our readers,-1st, a short practical sketch of the Cornish system of mining, with the character of the Cornish miner; 2dly, a similar outline of the American mines and miners; and, Sdly, a brief review of the progress which our city mining companies have made, and of the experience they have gained. From these data we conceive that every candid person may collect ample reasons for adhering to the opinion now generally prevalent on this subject. 1. The largest mines in Cornwall are the Consolidated Mines, the United Mines, the Poldice Mine, the Dalcoath Mine; all of which are in hills of clay-slate or killas, three or four hundred feet above the level of the sea, and in the neighbourhood of the town of Redruth. These mines run east and west; and they are about half-way between the two shores of the British and Bristol Channels. To one unaccustomed to a mining country, the view from Cairn Marth, which is a rocky eminence of seven hundred and fifty-seven feet, is full of novelty. Over a surface, neither mountainous nor flat, but diversified from sea to sea by a constant series of low undulating hills and vales, the farmer and the miner seem to be occupying the country in something like the confusion of warfare. The situations of the Consolidated Mines, the United Mines, the Poldice Mine, &c., &c., are marked out by spots a mile in length, by half a mile in breadth, covered with what are termed 'the deads' of the mine-i, e., slaty poisonous rubbish, YOL XXXVI. NO. LXXI. G thrown thrown up in rugged heaps, which, at a distance, give the place the appearance of an encampment of soldiers' tents. This lifeless mass follows the course of the main lode (which, as has been said, generally runs east and west); and from it, in different directions, minor branches of the same barren rubbish diverge through the fertile country, like the streams of lava from a volcano. The miner being obliged to have a shaft for air at every hundred yards, and the stannary laws allowing him freely to pursue his game, his hidden path is commonly to be traced by a series of heaps of deads, which rise up among the green fields, and among the grazing cattle, like the workings of a mole. Steam-engines, and whims, (large capstans worked by two or four horses,) are scattered about; and in the neighbourhood of the old, as well as of the new workings, are sprinkled, one by one, a number of small whitewashed miners' cottages, which, being neither on a road, nor near a road, wear, to the eye of the stranger, the appearance of having been dropt down à-propos to nothing.-Such, or not very dissimilar, is in most cases the superficial view of a country the chief wealth of which is subterraneous. Early in the morning the scene becomes animated. From the scattered cottages, as far as the eye can reach, men, women, and children of all ages begin to creep out; and it is curious to observe them all converging like bees towards the small hole at which they are to enter their mine. On their arrival, the women and children, whose duty it is to dress or clean the ore, repair to the rough sheds under which they work, while the men, having stripped and put on their underground clothes, (which are coarse flannel dresses,) one after another descend the several shafts of the mine, by perpendicular ladders, to their respective levels or galleries—one of which is nine hundred and ninety feet below the level of the ocean. As soon as they have all disappeared, a most remarkable stillness prevails scarcely a human being is to be seen. The tall chimneys of the steam-engines emit no smoke; and nothing is in motion but the great bobs' or levers of these gigantic machines, which, slowly rising and falling, exert their power, either to lift the water or produce from the mine, or to stamp the ores; and in the tranquillity of such a scene, it is curious to call to mind the busy occupations of the hidden thousands who are at work; to contrast the natural verdure of the country with the dead product of the mines, and to observe a few cattle ruminating on the surface of green sunny fields, while man is buried and toiling beneath them in darkness and seclusion.-But it is necessary that we should now descend from the heights of Cairn Marth, to take a nearer view of the mode of working the mine, and to give a skeleton plan of that simple operation. A lode A lode is a crack in the rock, bearing, in shape and dimen sions, the character of the convulsion that formed it; and it is in this irregular crevice that nature has, most irregularly, deposited her mineral wealth; for the crack, or lode, is never filled with ore, but that is distributed and scattered in veins and bunches, the rest of the lode being made up of quartz, mundic, and 'deads.' Under such circumstances, it is impossible to say beforehand, where the riches of the lode exist; and, therefore, if its general character and appearance seem to authorise the expense, the following is the simple, and, indeed, the natural plan of working it usually resorted to. A perpendicular pit, or shaft, is sunk, and at a depth of about sixty feet a horizontal gallery, or level, is cut in the lode, say both towards the east, and towards the west-the ore and materials being raised at first by a common windlass. As soon as the two sets of miners have each cut or driven the level about a hundred yards, they find it impossible to proceed for want of air; this being anticipated, two other sets of miners have been sinking from the surface two other perpendicular shafts, to meet them; from these the ores and materials may also be raised: and it is evident that, by thus sinking perpendicular shafts a hundred yards from each other, the first gallery, or level, may be prolonged ad libitum." But while this horizontal work is carrying on, the original, or, as it is termed, the engine-shaft, is sunk deeper; and at a second depth of sixty feet, a second horizontal gallery, or level, is driven towards the east and towards the west, receiving air from the various perpendicular shafts which are all successively sunk down so as to meet it.-The main, or engine-shaft, is then carrieddeeper still; and at the same distance-sixty feet, or ten fathoms is driven a third, and then a fourth gallery; and so on to any depth. The object of these perpendicular shafts, and horizontal galleries, is not so much to get at the ores which are directly pro cured from them, as to put the lode into a state capable of being worked by a number of men-in short, to convert it into what may now be termed a mine-for it will be evident that the shafts and galleries divide the lode into solid rectangular masses, or compart ments, each three hundred feet in length, by sixty feet in height. These masses of three hundred feet are again subdivided, by small perpendicular shafts, into three parts; and by this arrangement, the lode is finally divided into masses called pitches, each sixty feet in height, by about thirty-three feet in length. In the Cornish mines, the sinking of the shafts, and the driving of the levels, is paid by what is termed tut-work, or task-work, that is, so much per fathom; and, in addition to this, the miners receive a small G 2 per per centage of the ores, in order to induce them to keep these as separate as possible from the deads, which they would not do, unless it were thus made their interest. The lode, when divided as above described, is open to the inspection of all the labouring miners in the country; and by a most admirable system, each mass or compartment is let by public competition, for two months, to two or four miners, who may work it as they choose. These men undertake to break the ores, wheel them, raise them to the surface, or, as it is termed, to grass,' and pay for the whole process of dressing the ores-which is bringing them to a state fit for market. The ores are sold every week by public auction, and the miner receives immediately the tribute or per centage for which he agreed to work-which varies from sixpence to thirteen shillings in the pound, according to the richness or poverty of the ores produced. The owners of the mine, or, as they are termed, the adventurers, thus avoid the necessity of overlooking the detail of so many operations, and it is evidently the interest of the miner to make them gain as much as possible. Should the pitch, or compartment, turn out bad, the miner has a right at any time to abandon his bargain, by paying a fine of twenty shillings. At the expiration of the lease, or whenever they may be abandoned, the pitches are anew put up to auction, and let for two months more: Some may be getting richer, others poorer, as the work proceeds;-and thus public competition practically determines, from time to time, the proper proportion of produce which the miner should receive. The different rectangular masses, or pitches, into which the lode is divided by the galleries and shafts, very seldom turn out to be of similar value; and they are of course worked exactly in proportion to their produce. In one compartment the whole of the ore is worked out; in another only a proportion will pay for working; while not a few turn out so poor, that no one will undertake to work them at all. The pitches are in most cases taken by two miners, who relieve each other, and one often sees a father and son, who are in partnership, gradually find the lode turn out poorer and poorer, until they are at last compelled to pay their fine, and quit the ungrateful spot. The lottery in which the tributers engage abounds in blanks and in prizes. Sometimes the lode gets suddenly rich, sometimes as suddenly poor, and occasionally a productive lode altogether vanishes, or, as the miners say, has taken a heave; by which they mean, that some convulsion of nature has broken the lode, and removed it off-sometimes two or three hundred feet-to the right or left. In order to determine where to find it, those well acquainted with the subject carefully observe the fracture or broken extre |