Such was the rage for mining on
the Royal Exchange, that for a time it was only necessary for any one
to appear with contracts made with Mexican mine owners to establish a
company. Many who were so ignorant as not even to know the difference
between a shaft and a level, commenced speculators, not for the purpose
of fairly earning a reward for doing some service to those to whom they
offered their mines, but to fill their own purses without reference to
consequences. Such a system of unprincipled conduct could not last;
almost all the minor performers have been driven from the stage, and the
respectable associations alone maintain their footing, though the want
of returns for the immense sums invested has tended to produce a general
want of confidence.
Since these enterprises have been undertaken, an immense and fruitless
expenditure has been incurred by sending out machinery, which could be
of no earthly use--by despising the native processes, and substituting
others that have been found wholly inapplicable--and by introducing
British labourers, who when abroad reverse all the good qualities for
which they are valuable at home. A reform in this system we believe to
have been generally adopted, and we are sure that a reduction of
expense, a management purely European, and native labour, with only such
modifications in working, smelting, or amalgamating, as experience will
prove to be advantageous, will, in a moderate time, return the capital
already expended, with a commensurate advantage.
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