318 No. XII.-COTTAGES. Text, p. 110. The quantity of land ordained by the Saxons for each man's allotment was, six acres for wheat, six for barley, six for oats, six for hay, six for pasture, six for dwelling, barn-yard, and garden; in all, thirty-six acres. No. XIII.-MINES. Text p. 120. The following additional account of the products and value of the mines in general, on an average of years ending 1838, is copied from the "Mining Review:" Silver, Tin, Iron, Lead, Weight. 13,000 Tuns. Value. £30,000 1,300,000 550,000 7,000,000 Salt, Alum, and other produce, rather more than 950,000 1,000,000 AS PENCILS are in much use in this Union, perhaps the following account of the material from which they are made, and the mine from which it is produced, may be interesting: The mineral substance from which black lead is manufactured has successively been known by the several names of wad, black-cawke, black lead, plumbago, and graphite. The names of plumbago and black lead, although still retained in common use, tend to convey an erroneous idea of the subject, as lead forms no part of its composition, which is found to be principally carbon combined with a small portion of iron; and graphite, perhaps the least objectionable term, has scarcely yet obtained currency. The mineral occurs in various parts of the world, and in rocks of different formation; but in no place has it been met with equal in purity to that produced from Borrowdale, in Cumberland, where it lies in a rock of intermediate formation. We have no account of the first discovery or opening of this mine; but, from a conveyance made in the beginning of the seventeenth century, it appears to have been known before that time. The Manor of Borrowdale is said to have belonged to the Abbey of Furness; and having, at the dissolution of that monastery, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, fallen to the Crown, it was granted by James the First to William Whitmore and Jonas Verdon, including and particularizing, among other things, "the wad-holes and wad, commonly called black-cawke, within the commons of Seatoller, or elsewhere within any of the wastes or commons of the said manor, now or late in the tenure or occupation of Rodger Robinson, or his assigns, by the particulars thereof mentioned to be of the yearly rent or value of fifteen shillings and four pence." By a deed bearing date the twenty-eighth day of November, 1614, the said William Whitmore and Jonas Verdon sold and conveyed unto Sir Wilfred Lawson, of Isel, Knight, and several others therein named to the number of thirty-six, chiefly inhabitants of Borrowdale, "all the said Manor of Borrowdale, with the appurtenances of what nature or kind soever, excepted and reserved unto the said William Whitmore and Jonas Verdon, their heirs and assigns, all those wad-holes and wad, commonly called blackcawke, within the commons of Seatoller, or elsewhere within the commons and wastes of the Manor of Borrowdale aforesaid, with liberty to dig, work, and carry the same. The mine is situated about nine miles from Keswick, near the head of the Valley of Borrowdale, on the steep side of a mountain, facing toward the south-east, and has been opened at different places were the wad probably appeared on the surface. Formerly this mine was worked only at intervals, and, when a sufficient quantity had been procured to supply the demand for a few years, it was strongly closed up until the stock was reduced; but of late it has been obtained less plentifully, and the demand being greater, the working has been continued for several years successively. An old level, which was reopened in 1769, was found to have been cut through this very hard rock without the help of gunpowder; and a kind of pipe-vein, which had produced a great quantity of wad, having been pursued to the depth of one hundred yards or more, much inconvenience was experienced in working it to obviate which, in 1798 an adit or level was begun in the side of the hill, which, at the length of 220 yards, communicates with the bottom of the former sinking; since which time the works have been carried on internally through various ramifications; a survey of which was made a few years since by the late Mr. Farey. Through this principal level the water now passes off, and the produce and rubbish are brought out upon a railway in a small wagon; and over its mouth a house is built, where the workmen are undressed and examined as they pass through it on leaving their work. Owing to the great value of this mineral, and the facilities afforded for disposing of it in an unmanufactured state, the greatest precaution has sometimes been found scarcely sufficient to keep the workman from pilfering, and those appointed to overlook them have not always escaped suspicion. To prevent the depredations of intruders, it has sometimes been necessary to keep a strong guard upon the place; and, for its better protection, an act of parliament was passed, 25th Geo. II., cap. 10th, by which an unlawful entering of any mine, or wad-hole of wad, or black-cawke, commonly called black lead, or unlawfully taking or carrying away any wad, &c., therefrom, as also the buying or receiving the same, knowing it to be unlawfully taken, is made felony. Black lead is used for various purposes, but its principal use is the manufacture of pencils, for which Keswick has long been famed. It was formerly used without any previous preparation, being only cut with a saw to the scantlings required, and thus enclosed in a suitable casing of cedar wood: but generally, being too soft for some purposes, a method of hardening it had long been a desideratum; and a process has at length been discovered, by which it may be rendered capable of bearing a finer and more durable point. The specific gravity of the best wad, or black lead, is to that of water as two to one nearly the coarser kind is heavier in proportion, as it contains more stony matter. It comes from the mine in pieces of irregular shape and various sizes, requiring no process to prepare it for the market farther than freeing the pieces from any stony or extraneous matter which may adhere to them. It is then assorted according to the different degrees of purity and size, and thus packed in casks, to be sent off to the warehouse in London, where it is exposed to sale only on the first Monday in every month. In the year 1803, after a tedious search, one of the largest bellies was fallen in with, which produced five hundred casks, weighing about one hundred and a quarter each, and worth thirty shillings a pound and upward; besides a greater quantity of inferior sorts; and since then several smaller sops. have been met with. In the year 1829 a sop produced about half a dozen casks, the best part of which was eagerly bought up at thirty-five shillings a pound. For three or four years the quantity raised was trifling; but in 1833 they succeeded in filling a few casks, the best part of which has been sold at forty-five shillings a pound. By an account published in 1804, the stock then on hand was valued at £54,000, and the annual consumption stated to be about £3,500. This afforded a clue to the assessors of the property tax, which soon after came into operation; and this mine-which 200 years ago had been valued at fifteen shillings and four pence-was accordingly rated at £2,700.* No. XIV.-TEA. Tea imported into the United States from 1839 to 1840 was, 19,337,527lbs. do do do 1841 to 1842, 13,500,337" No. XV.-EMIGRATION. Text, p. 159. The policy now pursued is contrary to that of all ages. "It was an opinion of Solomon that the riches of princes consist in the multitudes of their subjects."t England is not only losing (if Solomon's opinion is correct) by dissipating her riches in the mere persons, but is also losing an annual drain of about £5,000,000, which is paid to from twenty-four to twenty-five thousand absentees scattered over France and other parts of Europe. The following table will show the full amount of emigration to all parts of the world during the year 1842 : The parts of the world to which they went were the following: 63,852 Texas, Central America, and Buenos Ayres, 363 Canada, 41,375 New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, &c., 12,748 813 128,344 Four-fifths of the Irish emigrants went to the British North American * Cumberland Pacquet. tBrown's "Vulgar Errors." Colonies; the largest proportion of the Scotch went to Canada and Nova Scotia; and five-sevenths of the English to the United States. Of the emigrants, 1,508 were assisted from the poor-rates, 2,341 from funds supplied by the Commissioners of Colonial Lands and Emigration, and 982 from bounties paid in New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land. In 1841 the number of emigrants was, From England, 72,104 14,060 32,592 118,756 The number of emigrants in 1842 was greater than in 1841 by 10,000, and exceeds in a much higher proportion that for any previous year. Its extent is, indeed, unparalleled and astounding, amounting to no less than four thousand souls per diem, excluding Sundays. Its direction also has undergone a material change. In 1841 the emigrants to Australia and New Zealand amounted to 32,550. The removal of so great a number of persons, most of them belonging to the working classes, must have had a considerable effect in lightening the pressure on the market for labour; but the return does not enable us to state what proportion the women and children bore to the In the olden time, long before the house of Durham was suppressed, the Abbey Church, and all the churchyard, and all the circuit thereof, was a sanctuary for any man that had committed any great offence, and fled to the church-door, knocking to have it opened. "There were certain men that did lie in two chambers over the said north door for the purpose that, when any such offenders did come and knock, straightway they were let in at any hour, and then they did run straightway to the Galilee bell, and did toll it to the intent that any man that heard it might know that some man had taken sanctuary; and when the prior had intelligence thereof, he sent word and commanded them to have a gown of black cloth made, with a cross of yellow, called St. Cuthbert's cross, set on the shoulder of the left arm, to the intent that every one might see that there was such a privilege granted by God unto St. Cuthbert's shrine, for all such offenders to fly unto for succour, until such time as they might obtain their prince's pardon; and likewise they had meat and drink, bedding, and other necessaries, for thirty-seven days, at the expense of the house, till such time as the prior could get them conveyed out of the diocess." At Beverley Minster, in Yorkshire, and at Hexham Abbey Church, Northumberland, are ancient fridstools, being in the sanctuary; to take a prisoner from which, in former days, was deemed an unpardonable crime by the church. In the latter abbey is a piece of sculpture within a niche, representing a hare squatted in her form, which is an appropriate emblem of the security of the sanctuary and the mode of attaining it-by speedy flight. There is also a human figure in sculpture, which seems to be an officer of justice, with his feet manacled and bare, which implies that within the bounds of the sanctuary he dare not do more toward his design, |