There is one other statute, passed in the last session of Parliament, 11th & 12th Vict., c. 45, commonly known as the "Joint Stock Companies' Winding-up Act," which operates with very questionable effect on Cornish mines, its provisions being expressly declared to apply to all associations or companies formed for the purposes of working inines or minerals; and it is apprehended that this act will be found, ere long, in some respects to supersede the jurisdiction of the Vice-Warden's Court, or, at all events, to bring that Court into collision with the Superior Courts of Equity, notwithstanding the proviso contained in the second section of the statute, that nothing in the act shall affect the jurisdiction of the Court of Stannaries in Cornwall. The manner in which the statute has already been found to operate on adventurers in Cornish mines demands serious attention from those who represent Cornish interests in Parliament; and it is hoped that the ill-considered application to mines in general of a measure that should be confined to Joint Stock Companies will lead to some legislative enactment for the better regulation of mining companies, the enforcement of the payment of mine-costs, and the winding-up of mining accounts. Some of the clauses of the statute to which these observations apply indicate the practicability of such a measure as that which has been suggested; and, strengthened as the members for Cornwall now are by the recent addition to their body of a gentleman of great experience in mining concerns, in the person of Mr. Humphry Willyams, who has just been returned for the borough of Truro, it may be confidently expected that in the coming session of Parliament an attempt will be made to simplify and improve the law relating to mining companies. The success of such an endeavour would be of equal advantage to the Court of the Vice-Warden and to the Superior Courts.

II. As to the persons and matters within the Vice-Warden's jurisdiction, it may be stated, as a general rule, that those who come under the description of "miners" may sue and be sued on the Common-law side of the Court for almost all causes of action, except such as involve title to land; but on the Equity side of the Court the personal privilege and liability do not prevail, and suits there should be confined to mining transactions. The term "miners" is considered to comprehend mining adventurers, mining agents and labourers, merchants, and others who gain their livelihood principally by supplying materials, machinery, or other articles necessary for the working of mines.

It is in Equity that the jurisdiction of the Vice-Warden is most valuable; and since the appointment in 1835 of the present Vice-Warden, John Lucius Dampier, Esq., who had for many years been a distinguished member of the bar on the Western Circuit, judicial decisions have been given in the Court on many

of the most important legal questions arising out of mining adventures, and illustrating the customs of the county. But one opinion prevails in Cornwall, that the appointment as ViceWarden of a gentleman of such high legal attainments, and such extensive acquaintance with the peculiarities of the county, was a public boon. The crude and anomalous practice which had for many years existed in the Court has been, by the assiduous exertions of Mr. Dampier, aided by the Registrar, reduced into shape, while the jurisdiction has been defined, and the principles recognised in the Superior Courts have, so far as was practicable, with due regard to local circumstances, been introduced and applied.

A main part of the business on the Equity side of the Court consists in enforcing the rules and usages commonly called the "Cost-Book System" of working mines, which probably originated in Cornwall, and has prevailed there for centuries. That system implies, that when a number of persons have determined to form a company for working a mine, they meet, and in a book called the Cost-Book enter, or cause to be entered, their names for the shares they respectively intend to hold; after which they decide what workings shall be carried on, and appoint mining agents to conduct the necessary operations, and another and most important officer called "the Purser," whose duties are to keep the Cost-Book, and there enter the accounts of the mine, to pay and receive moneys on account of the mine, and to collect the amounts due from shareholders for costs. This agent is, for many purposes, considered to be the representative of the whole of the shareholders. The resolutions, embodying these matters, having been passed and entered in the Cost-Book, are subscribed by the adventurers.

The costs attending the adventure are fairly entered in the same book as they arise; and at stated intervals, usually every two months, the adventurers meet to audit the accounts, receive reports from the agents, and decide on further operations. A resolution allowing the accounts, and other necessary resolutions, are then passed and subscribed by the adventurers; and it is to be remembered that the signatures should always either actually or by proxy, on proper stamp, represent a majority of the shares held in the mine. In the same book notices of transfers and of relinquishments of shares ought also to be entered, so that every shareholder may be able at any time to ascertain, without difficulty, with whom he is adventuring, and the proportion of his interest in the undertaking.

Where a mine is thus conducted, the Purser is enabled by the laws of the Stannaries to sue any adventurer, whether resident in or out of Cornwall, for his proportion of the costs so audited and signed, by a petition to the Vice-Warden. The petition, when the defaulter resides in Cornwall, is served on him per

I

sonally; and when he resides out of the jurisdiction, the service is effected by affixing copies of the petition and the summons which accompanies it to the door of the account-house, or some other conspicuous place on the mine. The defendant may by his answer deny or admit the allegations of the petition, or allow a decree for payment to pass, pro confesso, without putting in an answer. If an answer is put in, denying the allegations of the petition, the plaintiff must establish them by producing the CostBook, and by proof of the signatures of the shareholders who have passed the accounts, with evidence that the defendant was and continues to be a shareholder. A decree for payment of the debt, with costs of suit, at a time stated, having been obtained either in the way described or pro confesso, an order nisi for sale of the shares held by the defaulter is afterwards procured, which may ultimately be made absolute; and the shares are then sold under the direction of the Registrar, and the proceeds applied towards satisfaction of the Purser's demand, the costs of suit, and the expenses of sale. If the proceeds be insufficient to cover these claims, the defaulter may, if he reside in the county, be attached and sent to the county gaol, and there detained till the decree is satisfied.

Petitions of this kind are amongst the most numerous of the suits on the Equity side of the Court; and the other most frequent form of petition is equally peculiar and necessary to Cornwall,-namely, the Creditor's Petition against the Purser of a mine for the amount due for labour, agency, or supplies. Every labourer, agent, and person engaged at a mine in performing services necessary for a mine, and every person supplying machinery, materials, and other articles required for the use of a mine, has by the custom of the county an equitable lien on the ores, halvans, engines, machinery, materials and effects upon and belonging to such mine, for the amount due for any such labour, agency, or supplies; and the Vice-Warden will, on the hearing of a petition of this kind, if satisfactory proof be given of the justice of the demand, order payment of it, with the costs of suit, to be made by the Purser at a time stated; after which, if default has been made in payment of the sums ordered to be paid, an order nisi, and ultimately an order absolute, for the sale of the ores, halvans, engines, machinery, materials and effects of the mine may be obtained, when the same are sold under the direction of the Registrar, and the proceeds distributed among the petitioning creditor and the other creditors of the mine. If the proceeds should prove insufficient to pay their demands in full, the creditors receive an equal dividend on the amount of their respective claims.

Another suit peculiar to the Court is the petition frequently presented for the revocation of unexpired mining setts, where mines have ceased to be worked, or have been worked inefficiently.

Formerly, tin bounds furnished a fruitful source of litigation in the Court, and questions relating to that peculiar kind of property were tried on petition to the Vice-Warden sitting in Equity, which should more properly have been tried at common law; but owing to the supposed unsettled state of the law as to tin bounds, no proceeding has for some years been instituted in this Court respecting them; and, indeed, since the decision on appeal in the case of Vice v. Thomas, before referred to, it would seem doubtful whether title to tin bounds can now be tried on the Equity side of the Vice-Warden's Court, as formerly was done. The judgment in this case, however consonant with the principles and practice of the Superior Courts, seems of very questionable propriety with reference to the peculiar customs of Cornwall; and has put an end to a mode of determining disputes concerning tin bounds which was at once simple, efficient, and inexpensive.

The space allotted to this article precludes further detail of the peculiar matters within the equitable jurisdiction of the Vice-Warden; and with regard to the general equitable jurisdiction of the Court, it may suffice to say, that it embraces most of the matters relating to mining transactions and mining companies which could properly be the subject of a suit in a Superior Court of Equity.

III. For the mode of proceeding in the Court, reference should be had to a small volume published at Truro, embodying the two more important Acts of Parliament which have been already cited at some length, and the rules and orders for the regulation of practice and pleadings. It may be sufficient here to state that the process and pleadings on the Common-law side of the Court resemble those of the Superior Courts of common law, except in actions for the recovery of debts not exceeding 207.; the time for appearing, declaring, pleading, and other proceedings, being regulated so as to accord with the periods at which the sittings of the Court take place. In actions for recovery of debts not exceeding 201., the process is by plaint and summons, and without formal pleadings.

The mode of proceeding on the Equity side of the Court is invariably by petition, in the nature of a bill in Chancery, but without its prolixity. The answer to it must be in writing, but is not taken on oath, and must confess or deny all the allegations in the petition, which, if not confessed, it would be necessary for the plaintiff to prove, the defendant being liable to pay the costs incurred by the plaintiff in proving the allegations which have been denied or not confessed.

The costs attending the proceedings, and the trial or hearing of causes, on either side of the Court, are regulated by scales which have received the sanction of judges of the Superior Courts, and are such as should satisfy the most rigid legal economist.

Appeals from the decisions of the Vice-Warden to the LordWarden must be lodged with the Secretary of the Lord-Warden within six weeks from the date of the decisions appealed against; after which, they are argued by counsel before the Lord-Warden, assisted by three or more members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. These appeals were formerly attended with great delay; but since the appointment of his Royal Highness Prince Albert, they have been heard and determined with not less promptitude than judicial ability. The expense of an appeal is inconsiderable; yet, though the spirit of litigation is far from being inactive in Cornwall, applications for reversal of the judgments of the Vice- Warden are very rare, their infrequency showing how largely the Vice-Warden possesses the confidence and respect of the many litigants in his Court.

ON

THE UTILITY OF A KNOWLEDGE OF ENGINEERING, GEOLOGY, MINERALOGY, AND METALLURGY,

IN PURSUIT OF PRACTICAL MINING.

BY PERCIVAL N. JOHNSON, F.R.S., F.G.S., ETC.

THOSE who have had any experience in the development of the hidden riches of the earth, and compared the rude operations of the ancients with the present mode of working mines, must be struck with the insufficiency of knowledge which they had, as well as the enormously heavy comparative expense of bringing the produce to light for the use of man.

It may be well observed that to the improvements and information of the present day may be attributed our national prosperity and nearly all our luxuries; but no sciences have added so much to these as developing the abundant resources of our mines; and while such comforts are thereby produced, the industrial occupation of man is encouraged and the hearth of the labourer made happy with the heartfelt pleasure that he is eating the frugal meal, the produce of his labours, instead of such wretched scenes as are to be witnessed in Ireland, where such class of men, having no occupation, live a life but little removed from the brute creation, and are useless members of the community.

I make these observations to draw the attention of the reader and the executive of our country, not only in a national but a moral point of view, to the necessity of giving such encourage