This makes the proportion of miners to the other classes as four to five, much greater than I have allowed above; yet when we consider that the militia returns are made for each parish on oath, and that each class is strictly drawn from the individuals of that class, it cannot be doubted that this is a fair estimate of the number of miners in the district.
Occupations.─1. Peasantry. The general habits of the peasantry of this district are, of course, very similar, in most respects, to those of their brethren in other parts of the kingdom; and, consequently, being universally known, require no formal notice here.
2. Artisans.─The same remark applies to those employed in handicraft trades, and in all the other more common avocations of the labouring classes of society.
3. Fishermen.─The employment of the Cornish fishermen is of two kinds; the one, the daily, quiet one of catching fish for the home market; the other, the periodical and grand occasion of catching pilchards and mackerel for the foreign market. The home demand is not sufficient to require the active exertion of one-fourth part of the number of fishermen resident in the district; many of these, consequently, remain either very inactively employed, not employed at all, or employed in other kinds of labour, during the intervals of the pilchard and mackerel seasons. Indeed, all the various occupations formerly enumerated are, occasionally, blended in the practice of the same individual. Many of the miners are husbandmen, and not a few of them are both
