date

1822 Novr. 15. Tripoli. Securities against
1822 Novr. 15. Tripoli. Securities against Misrule. Ch. Bashaws Inducements 2.

Extra-regarding

2. Now as to the interior of the earth. Say in the English phrase the bowels of

it: meaning in general whatever masses of matter lie within the surface down to

which vegetation extends.

Extensive portions of the matter of the earth considered in this point of view

are called mines. Such portions as are regarded as consisting of earth concreted

into a stoney hardness, and not containing metallic substances in any porportion

worth regarding are in English distinguished by a particular name, quarries: and

so in other languages.

When separated from other substances, the several different subjects of the

mineral kingdom as it is called exhibit differences in value upon a scale of

prodigious length - witness, at the one end of it diamonds and other glittering

stones deriving value from their splendor combined with their rarity: at the

other end, clay, sand, lime and coal. Not, however, from the value of the

species of the matter when obtained separately is the value of the mine that

affords it to be estimated, but to that circumstance combined with the quantity

and quality of the labour employed in effecting the separation, and conveying

the matter in its separate state to the several places where it is put to use.

Taking all these circumstances into consideration, the working of a diamond mine

or of a gold mine may instead of the most lucrative of all mining concerns, be a

losing one, and such in many instances it actually has been. Witness, for

example, Brazil; as may be seen in Mr. Mawe's interesting travels in that

interesting country. On
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  • Title: [1822 Novr. 15. Tripoli. Securities agst.]
    Description: 1822 Novr. 15. Tripoli. Securities agst. Misrule. Preliminary Explanations Ch.

    Bashaws Inducements

    In general, before the peculiar precious substance can be found in any very

    considerable quantity, it becomes necessary to penetrate to a depth where

    vegetation ends. Here and there however exceptions to this rule have been found:

    gold in particular has, in large quantities, been obtained by extracting and

    sifting the earth found at the bottom of shallow rivers.

    As to silver, in the mixed masses in which it is contained, it has been found in

    a great variety of proportions: in some instances, in a proportion so large that

    every other metal mixed with it has in the course of the extraction been driven

    away and sacrificed to it: in other instances, it has been as it were drowned in

    the less precious metal: and the less precious metal has been sold at a price no

    higher than what would have been asked for it, had no silver been combined with

    it. In particular, this in many instances has been the case with lead in

    England.

    In the case of a mine in which silver is thus found in combination with a metal

    inferior in separate value, unfortunate may be the condition of the proprietor,

    who has expended a capital in the extraction of it. Sooner or later, enters the

    agent of the sovereign and says - this mine is a sacred one: sacrilegious the

    subject hands that have employed themselves in the working of it: there must be

    no more such sacrilege. as
  • Title: [1822 Novr. 15. Tripoli. Securities against]
    Description: 1822 Novr. 15. Tripoli. Securities against Misrule. Preliminary Explanations

    Ch. Bashaws Inducements ?.2. Extra-regarding

    On the other hand, not only coal and chalk, but even clay and sand, may be, and

    in every well cultivated country actually have been and continue to be extracted

    with considerable profit. Witness the clay extracted for porcelain and other

    pottery.

    In England in particular, coal, a substance which from the vegetable has by

    lapse of time past into the mineral kingdom, has in England for centuries past

    constituted the foundation of vast opulence to numerous families: opulence, in

    masses superior to any that are to be found in Tripoli, of whatsoever materials

    composed.

    As to stones called precious and the metals called by way of distinction

    precious, although they are capable of existing in such quantities and under

    such circumstances as not to pay for the labour of extraction, yet they are also

    capable of existing, and accordingly have been known /found/ to exist, in such

    proportions and under such circumstances as to afford a greater rate of profit

    than any other ingredients in the composition of the earth's interior. Hence it

    is that by men in general, and in particular by men armed with power, they have

    been in all times and in all places, regarded with peculiar avidity.

    Accordingly, mines in which gold has been found, and mines in which silver has

    been found, have in many, perhaps most countries, been by law and practice in

    whose soever land, and by whomsoever discovered, declared sacred to the use of

    the sovereign: too valuable to be capable of passing into any subject

    hand. In
  • Title: [1822 Novr. 15. Tripoli. Securities against]
    Description: 1822 Novr. 15. Tripoli. Securities against Misrule. Preliminary Explanations

    Ch. Bashaws Inducements ?.2. Extra-regarding

    As to water, whether it be to be excluded by draining, or occasionally

    introduced for the purpose of irrigation, capital, to an amount more or less

    considerable, must it is evident be expended: capital, the returns for which

    will be more or less distant and uncertain.

    Now as to fences. Some animals there may be, for the sufficient exclusion of

    which, in some situations and circumstances, no very considerable expenditure of

    capital may be necessary. But in other instances the expenditure necessary for

    this purpose, even where this is the only one, may be very great.

    As to human beings, of expences sufficient for the exclusion of depredators and

    deteriorators in this shape, the amount can not, in any situation, fail of being

    very considerable. For the effectual exclusion of them, if absolutely determined

    to gain entrance, no expence, how vast soever, can, it is evident, be

    sufficient. In the making of fences in this view, a sort of calculation

    sufficiently obvious, is of course made: on the one side, is set down the

    estimated value of the damage apprehended from such intrusion, on the other

    hand, the estimated expence of such fence as will in general be sufficient:

    sufficient to overbalance the net profit looked for by an intruder after

    deduction of the value of the burthen, composed of the labour and physical

    hazard of the enterprize, combined with the eventual evil apprehended in the

    case of detection and punishment.