date

1822 Novr. 15. Tripoli. Securities agst.
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
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    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. 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
  • Title: [1822 Oct. 24 Tripoli Persuasive]
    Description: 1822 Oct. 24

    Tripoli

    Persuasive to Pasha

    3. If /Supposing/ a Representative body were established, Tripoli would exhibit the first example of a Mahometan country in which undertakings, for private or public benefit, requiring the permanent employment of capital to a considerable amount will have been set on foot. Example

    1. Manufactories of articles suitable to the local wants and means of supply.

    2. Means of communication - such as roads, canals, bridges improvements in the facilities for communication afforded by rivers: source of profit, money in the shape of tolls.

    3. Reservoirs for the preservation of a supply of water in extraordinarily dry seasons: for example by wells dug in apt places, and water raised from them by horse power or a steam engine

    4. Embankment of rivers in their course for the purpose of irrigation, or for giving motion to mills

    5. Erection of a prison on the Panopticon plan for deriving profit from the labour of prisoners.

    6. Digging of mines: extraction of useful mineral substances of various kinds from the bowels of the earth, when by the use of boring machines, directed by Geological observations their existence has been discovered. To conduct it with advantange an enterprize of this sort commonly requires large advances in the shape of capital

    But to this end all claim to the absolute ownership of mines on the part of the Sovereign in grounds belonging to individuals must be solemnly given up. By such surrender he might profit to an indefinite amount, and would not lose any thing. For the effect of such claim is neither more nor less than of an interdiction prohibiting the working of any such mine. It would remain for consideration whether any profit could be derived to the Sovereign from a tax upon the produce of such mines.