but to him has been a pleasure-in collecting the great store of facts contained in these volumes, the results of so much reading, inquiry, observation, and experiment,-facts which, however dry and unattractive they may seem, constitute the only sure foundation of the science of Metallurgy. This great work will, when completed,* be the first really satisfactory treatise on Metallurgy contributed to British literature. Germany, however, possesses many valuable treatises on the subject. Dr. Percy more particularly cites those of Agricola and Karsten, the former published more than three centuries since, the latter within the last thirty years. The work of Agricola, De Re Metallica, is a remarkable book, considering the time at which it was written. It is very full in its descriptions of the various methods of mining, raising and dressing the ores, and extracting the metals by smelting; and is illustrated by a great variety of curious engravings, showing the mining tools formerly in use, the modes of sinking and working the shafts, with the odd dresses of the labourers and miners at work above and below ground, the latter being shown accoutred in leathern coats with long peaked tails to carry off the drip of the mine. The publication of so complete and elaborate a work as early as 1555—the year in which it first appeared-indicates the importance then attached to mining operations in Germany, and the interest with which they were studied. Indeed, as Dr. Percy observes, we are probably indebted to the Germans to a greater extent than is commonly supposed, for the development of our mineral resources, since the introduction of German miners and metallurgists into England, about three centuries ago, through the wisdom of Elizabeth.'† But, long before the reign of Elizabeth, measures had been adopted by the English monarchs to induce skilled German miners to settle in England. Thus, about the middle of the fourteenth century, Edward III. granted powers to several gangs of Germans to work the mines of Sheildam in Northumberland, Alston Moor in Cumberland, and Richmond in Yorkshire, on condition that the adventurers would instruct his subjects in the art of copper mining. Henry VI. pursued the same policy, and in 1430 we find him inviting three famous German miners, Michael Gosselyn, George Harbryke, and Matthew Laweston, with thirty skilled workmen from Bohemia and Hungary, to superintend and work the Royal tin mines in Cornwall. Again, it * A final volume on Lead, Silver, Gold, &c., will complete the work. Most of the mining terms still in use indicate their German origin. Hence smelt is from schmeltzen, to melt; slag is from schlagen, or cinder; sump, the cavity below the shaft, is from sumpf, a bog or pit; spern, a point or buttress, and so on. appears appears from the State Papers that a party of German miners, labourers, smiths, carpenters, assayers, drainers, and colliers, were invited over to England in the reign of Edward VI. Setting out from Frankfort, they reached Antwerp, where we find them kicking their heels along the quays, waiting the arrival of a consignment of kerseys, the proceeds of which were to defray the cost of their voyage; but it is not clear from the State records that the mining party ever reached their destination. The greatest efforts to develop the mining resources of England by the aid of German skill were, however, made in the reign of Elizabeth, when numerous bodies of foreign miners were invited to settle in different parts of the country, for the purpose, at the same time, of working the mines and instructing our people in the best methods of mining. To two of the leading adventurers, Hochstetter and Thurland, both from Augsburg, the queen granted a patent to search for gold, silver, quicksilver, and copper, in eight counties, with power to convert the proceeds to their own use. Hochstetter first established copper works in the neighbourhood of Keswick, in Cumberland, and worked them with such success, that it was said of Queen Elizabeth, that she left more brass than she had found iron ordnance in England. The Rev. Thomas Robinson, in his History of Westmoreland and Cumberland,' written more than a century and a half ago, says: The operators, managers, and miners were most of them Germans. The chief steward of the work was one Hecksteter, who, by his book of accounts, which are most regular and exact, and all on imperial paper, as well as by other writings I found under his hand, appears to have been a man of great learning, as well as judgment in minerals and metals. The copper ore which kept these large furnaces at constant work was, for the most part, got in the veins upon Newland Mountains. Some small quantities of ore were got upon Caldbeck and Cunningston Mountains, and brought to the great work at Keswick, being a place most convenient both for water and coal, which they had from Bolton Colliery. In our survey of the mountains of Newland we found eleven veins opened and wrought by the Germans, all distinguished by such names given them as Gold-Scalp, Long Work, St. Thomas Work, &c., of all which veins the richest was that called Gold-Scalp. We found the vein wrought three yards wide, and twenty fathoms deep above the grand level, which is driven in a hard rock 100 fathoms, and only with pick-axe, hammers, and wedges, the use of blasting with gunpowder being not then discovered. securing of this rich vein no cost of the best oak wood was spared; and for the recovering of the soles under level was placed a watergin, and water was brought to it in troughs of wood upon the tops and * Calendar of State Papers.' Foreign Series. 1547-1553. For sides sides of high mountains, near half a mile from the vein. The one at the top of the vein, which appeared by daylight, was sulphurous, but in sinking deeper the vein got more moisture, and the ore improved in goodness. The ore got by gin under level was so rich in silver that Queen Elizabeth sued for it and recovered it from Earl Percy (lord of the manor) for a royal vein. The most judicious chemists of England were concerned in the trial, either as of the jury or evidence. The verdict was given for the queen: and, as the German books give account, a hundred tons of ore was entered upon by the queen's agents.' When the German miners died out, or migrated elsewhere, the works fell into decay, and the mines ceased to be worked. Fuller, the Church historian, writing in 1684, after they had been laid in,' quaintly surmised that probably the burying of so much steel in the bowels of men during the late Civil Wars, hath hindered the further digging of copper out of the bowels of the earth.' In consequence of the shortness in the home supply of the metal, England for a long time imported its copper principally from Hungary and Sweden, while English calamine, from which brass is principally made, was exported as ballast,'copper,' says Plot, comeing cheaper from Sweden than they could make it here.' While the Germans were actively employed among us as miners from an early period, they also started many important branches of manufactures in metal. One Christopher Schutze, from Annaburg, in Saxony, besides being extensively employed in mining operations, established in 1565 the first wire-drawing mill in England. About the same time another foreigner, a Dutchman, named Joseph Laban, erected a second wire work in the neighbourhood of Tintern Abbey, and the descendants of the family are still traceable in the neighbourhood. Godfrey Box, of Liege, began the same business at Esher in Surrey, where it was afterwards continued by two Germans, Mommer and Demetrius; while the art of needle-making was introduced by another German, named Elias Crowse. Stow says that before his time a Spanish negro made needles in Cheapside, but held his art a secret. The Germans were more open, and taught their art to the native workmen, thereby establishing a considerable branch of industry.* Although *The art of pin-making must have been practised in England long before, for English pins were famous even on the Continent, superseding skewers of bone, wood, and silver. In 1400 the Duchess of Orleans is stated to have purchased from her epinglier' at Paris five hundred pins of English make (de la façon d'Angleterre'). They cost a considerable sum, and were such expensive luxuries that the use of them led to the custom of allowing the wife pin-money.' The English must, however, have fallen behind in the art of din-making a century and a half Although various foreign branches of industry thus became planted in England, the foreign artisans residing here were for a long time wholly unable to supply the demand for articles in ordinary use, which continued to be imported from abroad in large quantities. Cloth, leather, hats, and various ornamental fabrics were brought from Flanders and France; Delft ware from Holland; stone drinking pots from Cologne; cutlery from Nuremberg; glass from Venice; and millinery from Milan. The milaners of London constituted a special class of retail dealers. They sold not only French and Flemish cloths, but Spanish gloves and girdles, Milan caps, swords, daggers, knives and cutlery, needles, pins, porcelain, glass, and various articles of foreign manufacture. All that remains of this once important class of tradesmen is but their name of 'milliner,' which is still applied to dealers in ladies' caps and bonnets. 6 To carry on the extensive business connected with the import and sale of foreign commodities, the merchants of many countries established agencies in England, and special privileges were usually granted to the merchant strangers.' Most of the Italian republics were thus represented; the Lombards principally residing in Lombard Street, which still retains their name. But when the Italian republics became a prey to anarchy, their commercial importance rapidly declined, and the great Hanse towns of Germany rose upon their ruins. The foreign trade of Britain then fell almost entirely into the hands of the German merchants, whom Pennant styles our masters in the art of commerce.' They were first known among us as the Esterlings-the name still surviving in our sterling money, the coin paid by the Hanse merchants in exchange for English wool being especially esteemed for its purity.* A branch of this great confederacy was established in London, where it was known as The Steelyard Company of Foreign Merchants.' Their guildhall and storehouses were situated in Downgard (now Dowgate) Ward, in Upper Thames Street. The buildings occupied a large space of ground, and extended to the river side. They were enclosed within high and strong a half later, for we find Fuller, writing of the year 1542, saying, 'it may easily be proved that about this time strangers have sold in this land pinnes to the value of three score thousand pounds a yeare.' The manufacture seems to have been re-established by the help of Flemish artizans in the reign of James I. * Camden says-'In the time of King Richard the First, monie coined in the east parts of Germanie began to be of especiall request in England for the puritie thereof, and was called Easterling monie, as all the inhabitants of those parts were called Easterlings; and shortly after, some of that countrie skilful in mint matters and alloies, were sent for into this realme to bring the coins to perfection, which since that time was called of them sterling, for Easterling.' walls, For a walls, and barricaded with stout iron gates, like a fortress. long time nearly the whole foreign trade of the country was conducted by these Steelyard merchants, who bought up and exported our English wool, and imported foreign iron and steel, besides metal wares of all kinds, paying the customary toll at Billingsgate in fine cloth, gloves, pepper, and vinegar. On more than one occasion their fortress had to stand a siege by the turbulent London populace. In 1381 they resisted the assault of Wat Tyler and his men until the authorities recovered from their panic; but a century later, in 1493, the mob were more successful, for they broke into the place and completely gutted it. The Steelyard merchants were also in great peril during the serious riot which broke out on Evil May Day,' 1517. Large numbers of foreign artisans then inhabited the suburbs, where they made and sold a variety of articles to the supposed detriment of the English workmen. The Flemings especially abounded in Southwark, Westminster, and St. Catherine's, all outside the freedom of the city; and there were so many French in Tottenham, that 'Tottenham is turned French' passed into a proverb. Hall, in his 'Life of Henry VIII.' says, 'there were such numbers of foreigners employed as artificers that the English could get no work.' It was also alleged that they export so much wool, tin, and lead, that English adventurers can have no living;' and the Dutch, or Germans, were especially complained against because of their importations of large quantities of iron, timber, and leather, ready manufactured, and nails, locks, baskets, cupboards, stools, tables, chests, girdles, saddles, and painted cloths.' Most probably, the real secret of the popular outcry was, that the foreign artisans were more industrious, and manufactured better and cheaper things than the English could then do; and hence the riot of Evil May Day,' the object of which was the expulsion or destruction of the foreigners. The latter, being forewarned of the outbreak, took the precaution of retiring into the villages round London, so that the rioters were left to expend their fury upon their dwellings, which were for the most part pillaged and destroyed. The Steelyard merchants barred their gates, and successfully resisted all assaults, until help arrived. The authorities acted in the matter with creditable promptitude. Lincoln and Bell, two of the most prominent leaders in the riot, were seized and hanged with ten others. Peace was thus restored, and the city was compelled by the king (Henry VIII.) to make good the losses sustained by the foreign artisans. The Steelyard Company continued to flourish until the reign of Edward VI., when their privileges were withdrawn; and in the reign of Elizabeth (1597), the Emperor Rodolph of Germany |