lowed the French Revolution, the Tribunal of Mines, in addition to a voluntary gift of half a million of dollars, was forced to assist the Royal Treasury with a loan of Three millions more. The whole of its disposable funds were swept away by these advances, and more than half its revenue has been absorbed since, by the interest of the money raised in order to meet such unexpected demands. The Miners, forced again to depend upon the speculations of individuals for "Avios," confined their operations within narrower limits; and although in two years of the term under consideration the Coinage attained the Maximum of Twenty-seven millions of dollars, (in 1804 and 1805,) still, there was a decrease upon the whole term, as compared with that ending in 1799, of nearly Five millions.
The Mining Code of Mexico, (Las Ordonanzas de Mineria) having been published in English, with notes, it will be sufficient for me to observe, that the object of its provisions was rather to determine disputes between individuals, than to settle any differences between the Mining proprietors and the Sovereign. The whole Mining property of the Country was, indeed, supposed to be invested in the Crown, but the only use which the King made of his rights, was to concede to any individual, who "denounced"[1] the existence of a metalliferous vein
- ↑ To "denounce," in the Mining Code of Mexico, implies that process, by which a legal right of possession is obtained to a particular portion of any vein, worked or unworked, known
