A HISTORY OF CORNWALL by the Lombard commentators 1 made them applicable to mines of all descriptions and in all countries, and the German emperors in the twelfth century succeeded in enforcing their pretensions and in taking all mines under their peculiar care. 2 It was found, however, that attempts to treat the miners as so many agricultural labourers would be disastrous. The technical difficulties con- nected with mining made it essential that the men be secured from interruption, and also that skilled workmen be called in by special grants of privileges. The upshot was that the emperor, and his imitators, the lesser princes, gradually commuted their mining rights for a proportion of the produce, and threw open the mines to all comers under a series of charters, 3 the pro- visions of which we shall find exemplified, in the main, by those of the Cornish tinners. Germany's policy was followed some centuries later by France, the edicts of Charles VI 4 and Louis XI 5 removing the miner from the power of the landlords, and granting privileges to pro- spectors. Even Norway and Sweden appear at an early date to have regarded the mining classes as of a special status. 6 In England, in the same general period, we meet with similar codes, applied, however, not to all mines, but to several scattered mining communities the lead miners of the Mendip Hills, 7 Derbyshire, 8 and Alston Moor, 9 the iron and coal miners of the Forest of Dean, 10 and the tanners of Cornwall. It would simplify matters could we regard these codes as descended from Roman law, as was probably the case upon the 1 See extracts from the Gloss of Accursius and the Summa of Azo, printed in E. Smirke, Vice v. Thomas, App. 104. 1 See charters of mines, printed in the Spiculegium Ecclesiasticum, Luenig, Reichs Archiv. and cited by J. F. Gmelin, Geschichte da Teutschen Bergbau, 220, 241. 3 See F. L. von Cancrin, Grunds'dzze des Teutschen Bergrechts, 149. A specimen charter is that of Iglau, Peithner, Versuch uber die Naturliche und Polltische Geschichte der Eohmischen und M'drischen Bergwerke, App.; Jars, Voyages Mttallurgiques, iii, 461511 ; Reyer, Zinn, 35, 53, 54, 56, 79.
- Recueil des Anciennes Lois Francoises, vii, 386390.
5 Ibid, x, 623; ' The Mining Laws of France,' by M. Migneron, Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Cormv. vi, 239- 258. 6 Swank, Iron in all Ages (ed. 2)29; 'A Sketch of Mining Law in Germany and other Countries,' by C. Lemon, Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Cormo. vi, 171-172; Jars, Voyages Metallurgiques, i, 403-416 ; Heron de Villefosse, De la Richesse Minerale (Extrait par M. Patrin, 1811), 40-41. 7 Houghton, The Compleat Miner, pt. iii. 8 Esch. Enr. Accts. 16 Edw. I, No. 34 ; Add. MS. 6682, fol. 65 ; Compkat Mineral Laws of Derb. 9 Pat. 4 Hen. V, m. 8 ; 30 Edw. I, pt. iii, m. 23 ; Par/. R. (Rec. Com.) i, 64. 10 Houghton, The Compleat Miner, pt. ii ; Nicholls, The r^.-est if Dean. continent. This, however, is not easy to prove. The early references to the English miners' privi- leges give the impression of unwritten law, arisen through custom, rather than of rights formally conferred by charter. 11 In Derbyshire the lead-miners' customs rested on immemorial usage, 12 to which Edward I in 1288 merely affixed his confirmation. 13 In Dean the law 'used time out of mind ' was but restated in the so- called mine charter of ia86. u The Alston miners received a charter from Henry V ; 15 but, again, nothing was granted that had not been previously enjoyed. What also seems strange is that, although these mining camps were operated under conditions of great liberality to the adventurer, all mines outside their limits should be the property of the king 16 or of the landlord. 17 This is no place for a dissertation upon the general subject of the origins of English mining law; but I may here state my opinion, formed after a study of the sources, that, while the king unquestionably tried to imitate the continental sovereigns in claiming all metallic mines, 18 this pretension was never permanently established except for the precious metals, other mines, as a rule, remaining the property of the ground-lord. 19 Under these circumstances, the existence, under peculiar mining codes, of several isolated tracts well known to be the seat of the oldest mines in England, seems due, not to any engrafting of Roman law from the continent, but, as the miners themselves declared, to usage time out of mind. It has been stated that the authentic history of the tin mines begins with the year 1156. The earliest entries are but brief items in the Pipe Rolls, 20 but in 1198 appears a letter 21 from 11 ' The Origins of Mining Law,' by J. Hawkins, Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Cormv. vi, 90. " It is said that William the Conqueror expressly refrained from disturbing them. Add. MS. 6682, fol. 197. 13 Esch. Enr. Accts. 16 Edw. I, No. 34. 14 Nicholls, The Forest of Dean, 17. 15 Pat. 4 Hen. V, m. 8. 16 As in the case of mines royal (Pipe R. of Cumb. Westmld. and Dur. Introd. xxiv-xxvi, Fines, 18 Edw. II, m. 15 ; Cal. of Pat. 1300, 502 ; 1461, 19 ; Plowden, Commentaries (ed. 1761), 310 (Case of Mines); Ruding, Annals of the Coinage, i, 124 et seq.). " As in the coal mines in the north (Galloway, Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade, 1 8, 21, 23, 24> Z 7> 37-39. 44> S9 6 9> 73; Patrick, Early Mining Records of Scotland, Introd. xlv). 18 Dugdale, Mon. (ed. 1 846), ii, 289 (grant by Rich. I to the bishop of Bath) ; Cal. of Pat. 1283, 73 (grant of lead mines to the Carthusian monks). 19 Plowden, Commentaries (ed. 1761), 310 (Case of Mines). 80 Pipe R. 2 Hen. II, Devon, and for the following years. It is probable that these entries comprised both the Devon and the (then) less important Cornish stannaries. 81 Black Book of Exchequer, No. 10. 524
