The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-03-14 00:00:00

PASCO PERUVIAN MINING COMPANY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BEITiSH PRESS.
Sitt,—l had occasion a short time ago to claim the indulgence
of a portion of your columns, while I repelled a very unwarrant-
able attack on the above Company. in whose undertaking I have
embarked property to a considerable amount. At that time 1
stated my unwillingness to pursue a controversy before the public,
particularly with an anonymous antagonist. \Vhethet satisfied
with the facts I then mated. and the conclusions I drew, I kaow
not, but that individual has since remained silent; and so should
had not another and • more powerful opponent appeared on
the same side ; one who (I will do him every justice) has had the
manliness to make his attack openly and in the face of the British
Senate, and who in his place is reported to have declared, on more
than oneoccaslon, that this Company was founded on delusion ; that
its avowed objects were utterly impracticable, and of course that it
would end in the ruin of those who embarked in it. These were not
merely asserted, but the Honourable Member undertook to prove
them to the satisfaction of the House. The Honourably Member
has appointed himself a sort of judge between the Company and
the public. He should, therefore, take care, as his motives are
pure and disinterested tend that they are so I admit most un-
equivocally), lest he should do injustice to the one in his eagerness
to protect the other.
Sir, this Gompany is composed of a body of highly respectable
individuals, who have hitherto moved in the commercial world
without imputation on their character and honour ; and as they are
incapable of sanctioning any delusion, the charge that would im-
pute it ought not to be made without maturely weighing the evi-
dence by which it was to be maintained.
I cannot but think that this Company have been hardly dealt
with. They were not long in existence as a body, when they were
(from what causes 1 will not stop to inquire) most wantonly lit-
tacked in one or two quarters*. It was stated that the mines men-
tioned in the prospectus were no where to be found except in the
vicinity of the Stock Exchange, where they were to be worked fur
jobbing purposes. These unfounded assertions were no sooner
disproved, than forth comes the Honourable Member for Westmin-
ster (Mr. J. C. Hobhomsm, and throwing all the weight of Me
high character and commanding talents into the scale, renews the
attack in another form. lie admits that there is such a place as
Pasco. and that it contains mines; but he adds, " they are 15,500
get above the level of the sea; the working of them is utterly im-
practicable; the thing has been tried over and over again, but the
attempt has always failed ;" and this he proposes to demon-
strate to the House at a future stage of the Bill. Now here I join
irises with the Honourable Member. and upon the result I would
willing risk the whole of the property (and it is by no means incon-
siderable) which I have embarked in the speculation. First pre-
mising that the objects of the Peruvian Mining Company are by
no means limited to the mines of Pasco exclusively, I assert that
thcse mires abound in rich silver ore; that the working of them is
not only practicable, but that immense riches have been drawn
from them during • long series of years; and that they may be still
worked with incalculable advantage by British industry and ca-
pital.
I will not here attempt to anticipate the arguments by which the
Hon. Member proposes to sustain the positions with which he set
out; for I know that men who undertake to prove negatives (and the
lion. Member stands pledged to prove two or three) are sometimes
driven to strange modes of reasoning; but I will do what I am sure
be will admit is candid and ingenuous on my part ; I will point out
to his attention the data upon which the Company rest their coo-
fidence of success, and which it will be necessary for hint to dis-
prove before he arrives at his promised conclusion. For this pur-
rue I beg to refer the Hon. Member to " an Address from the
Director, of the Peruvian Mining Company to the Shareholders,"
which was published on Friday, and which he may obtain at any
booksellers. He will there find in detail the grounds upon which
this Association has been established. They are briefly these:-
Ist.. Contracts for the cession of several valuable mines from their
owners to the Company.
2d. The connection of the Company with gentlemen who reside
in Peru, and possess the most extensive influence with the Inde-
pendent Government there.
3d. The well-known disposi.ion of the Constitutional Govern-
ment to encourage the working of the mines, from which they
themselves derive such important advantages.
4th. The great riches of the mires in l'auricocha and Pasco, and
their productiveness, even when worked in a very imperfect manner.
This is supported by the testimony of the most enlightened travellers
in that country.
6th. The natural assumption, that if the mines were so very
productive tinder the bad management and with the imperfect
machinery of the Spaniards, they would become infinitely more so
when under the operation of British skill and industry. (This as-
sumption is fully borne out by the concurrent testimonies of
several Captains of British ships on that station, as well as several
masters of commercial vessels trading to the Peruvian ports ; and
is further attested by the statements of gentlemen now in London,
who for some time resided in Pasco.)
I have thus in fairness called the Hon. Member's attention to
the leading points upon which the Company proceed, and I rely on
his candour for meeting them in a liberal manner. All I ask is,
a candid examination of these data; and if after this the Hon.
Member shall have cause to alter his opinion, I am confident he
will have the justice to avow it.
If, however, that opinion should remain unchanged, he will of
course endeavour to redeem his pledge to the Ileum, in which
ease. as one materially concerned, I may claim the privilege of a
few comments en his remarks, and you may again have to be
troubled with a few lines front
A PASCO SHAREHOLDER.

London March 12, 1825. ----
P.S.—As some of your readers who may have seen the recent
objections to the Company may not have read what was heretofore
advanced in its support. I beg to add an extract or two. The first
is taken from the Lust! Potitious of Humboldt—Paris, 1811,
vol. 4, p. 158:
In Peru almost all the silver is obtained from the great mines
of Ysuricochs or Lauricocha (commonly called the mines of Puco
and of the ('erro de 11.mboti), from those of Gualgayoe, or Chats.
and of Iluantajaya. The mines of Pasco, which are worse worked
than any other in Spanish America, were first discovered by the
Indian, Iluari Cupca. in 1830. They yield annually nearly two
millions of dollars. In order to form a just idea of the enormous
mesa of silver ore which nature has deposited in the bosom of these
calcareous mountains, at the height of more than 4000 metres
above the level of the ocean, it should be remembered that the bed
of argentiferous oxide of iron in Yeurieecha has ken worked
Itithowt inictsuption front tl.e commencement of the seventeenth
century, and that during the last twenty years more thanfia mil-
lions of murk: of Alter, equal to 40.000 000 of dollars, have been
extracted, though the greater ran of the shafts do not exceed
30 metres (about 32 yards) in depth, and nc one of them is more
than 120.

" The mines of Yauricocha would supply the same quantity of
silver as Oustaxato, if hydraulic machines or steam engines were
used, the fuel fur which would be furnished by tLe peat of the lake
ihaacochat."
. . _

It appears from a table given in the' Ade.ress,' and extracted
from the books of the Provincial Treasury of Pasco, that the pro-
duce of the mines hal scarcely ever been under 240,000 marks (of
eight dollars each), and that in 1794 and 1001, it nearly reached
the sum of 300 000 marks of silver.

" The ' Address' next contains a communication made to the
Company by an Officer of the Constitutional Army, who resided
for some tir.te at Pasco. He says_
" The latter end of 1820 and the beginning of 1821 I was at
Pasco, in the command of a brigade of guns, under the orders of
General Areneles, and actually had under my escort twenty mules,
each laden with 2601h5. of silver, the produce of the mines which
had been• drained by the steam-engines. I saw these at work in
the midst of a population which I csCmated, at leas., at 5000 per-
sons, and where 2000 troops were stationed for some time."

• It is a fact within the al knowledge of the writer of this
letter, that one of the individuals by *horn the most unfounded
report, have been circulated to the prejudice of the Company,
declared that he hai pursued that course in consequence of barn-,p
been refu-ed some shares, and within the last three days, has niacin
u' °O'er, that if a certain number of shares were given him he
would go on the Stock Exchange and recint his former statements.
It is unnecessary to add that the offer was indignantly spurned.
This fact can be attested on the oaths of three respectable indivi-
dnals.

t Since Ba-on Humboldt visited those mines. a valuable coal
=rue has been discovered within a few pules of Pasco.

IGRATION.—We learn that by an order from the!
Lords of the Treasury, obtained chiefly through the ree-
sentations of our active and intelligent Representative (the
Right Honourable Sir John Newport, Bart.), the Officers
of the Customs have been authorised to dispense for the
present with the provisions of the existing law, which pre-
vented vessels from taking any number of passengers
exceeding the proportion of one adult person to every five
tons of such vessel's registered capacity not occupied by
her cargo, &c. This indulgence will be a sensible relief
to persons interested in the trade to Canada, Newfound-
land, &c. by whom the enforcement of the regulation thus
suspended was felt as a serious inconvenience.—Waterf)rd
Paper.
Hes AA A Y.— In 1066 the invasion of the Normans
eonuibuted very much to the improvement of agriculture ;
for, by that event, many thousands of huabandmen, from
Flanders, France, and Normandy, settled in Britain, ob-
tained estates or farms, and cultivated them after the
manner of their country. The implements of husbandry
used at this time were of the same kind of those em-1
ployed at present; but some of them were less perfect in
their construction. The plough, for example, bad but
one stilt or handle, which the ploughman guided with one
hand, having in his other hand an instrument which
served both for cleaning and mending the plough, as well
as for breaking the clods. The Norman plough had two
wheels, and, in the light soil of Normandy, was commonly
drawn by one or two oxen, but in England a greater num-
ber was often necessary. In WALES, the person whoeon-
ducted the oxen in the plough walked backwards. Their
carts, harrows, scythes, sickles, and flails, from th^ figures
of them still remaining, appear to have been nearly of the
same msstruction with those that are now used.

HOME CIRCUIT.

ESSEX ASSIZES, CatLusroar, MAlcu 12.

The Assizes for this county ended this afternoon at two o'clock.
The business on the Crown aide ended about twelve. None of the
capital convicts were left for execution. Mr. Amain Graham an.
nounced on Friday that four of the causes in the paper could not
be tile., at these Anises. in consequence of the length of time
which the other cues had occupied, and consequently they were
made reitianets.

•
DOE D. EDWARDS Y. C. TOWER, EiQ.
This was an ejectment for the rectorial tithes of the parish of
Daggenham, and for certain lands at Chigwell, mat of property
which had been settled in the reign of Philip and Mary, for the en-
dowment of Brentwood Free Grammar School. by Sir Anthony
Browne, Knight, sergeant at law, one of the fudges of the Common
Plea
Ple in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
dlr. Sergeant TADDY and car. COWYN conducted theplaintifra
MC, and Mr. 31•11TATT, Mr. GURNEY., and Mr. B Ennws,
the defence.
This cause excited great interest in the county of Essex, and
more particularly at Brentwood, the inhabitants' of which town
were deeply interested in the result ; the object of it being to have
-the funds of Sir Anthony Browne's grammar school duly appro.
• priated to the beneficent purposes of the founder, instead of dive, ted
• to the mere personal aggrandisement of the present possessor of the
settled estates. The ejectment was brought on the demise of the
Rev. Edward Edwards, who was appointed master of the school
by Mr. Coomber, the heir-at-law of the original founder, and also
on the demise of the guerdiana of the school. In the reign of
Philip and Mary, Sir Anthony Browne having founded a grammar
school for the education of the children of Brentwood, endowed it
with certain tithes and lands in Daggenham, Chigwell, and South.
weAld, estimated in value at about 1.1001. per annum. Some
difficulties having arisen in the reign of Queen Elizabeth es
to the management of the school, they became the subject of
investigatinn in the Coon of Chancery, mail in 1823 a de-
cree was pronounced, and certain Statutes tined/ for its due
government, reserving to Sir Anthony Browne and his heirs
for ever the patronage of the school and the power of ap-
pointing Its masters, by way of donative. For several years
past the defendant, who is a gentleman of fortune at Southweald,
has been in possession of the estates with which the school was en. •
dowed ; and it being alleged that certain abases existed in the di-
version of the funds from their original purpose, this action was
brought at the instance of Mr. Clamber, who claimed as heir of Sir
Anthony Browne, the founder, the right of appointment and dons.
don. Independently of heirship, he alto claimed as devisee under
the will of the last heir, from a horn he derived title. The de-
fendaties title was founded in long family possessiem and enjoy.
matt under conveyances from the notorious Sir William &rendes,
Chief Justice of the King': Bench in the reign of James IL,
who had purchased the estates in question from an extravagant an.
cestor of .Mx. Coomber. On the other hand it was insisted that
supposing such conveyances to exist, still they could not exclude
the heirs of Sir Anthony Browne from exercising the right of pa-
tronage and appointment to the situation of master of the school.
Independently of the ground nit which the defendant's tight was
founded, it was objected, that the Sir Anthony Browne named in the
decree, and for the purpose of this cause called the statute maker, ,
was not the right heir of the original fluider. The Cornntissismrts
of Inquiry appointed under Mr. Brougham's Cheri able Founda-
tion Act had inquired into the management of this school, and ,
had made their report thereon ; and in consequence of their report
the Attorney-General had instituted proceeding', for the purpose
of having the intentions of the founder fulfilled, but those pro-
ceed ings had been enspended until the result of this cause was known.
After evidence of Mr. Cooniber's pedigree was given, for the
purpose of shewing that he was heir-at-law to the original founder,
through the female line, it was objected that the action was not
maintainable, inasmuch as it did not appear that the lessor of the
plaintiff or his donor had any possessory title within the last
twenty years, to as to maintain ejectment. Mr. Edwards had only
been appointed within the last two yeara, and neither Mr. Coomber
nor any of the persons from whom he derived title, had done any
act within the last hundred yeses to assert a tight of possession,
and consequently this scion was barred by the Statute of Limita-
tion. In answer to this objection it wss urged that this being a
donative, the Statute of Limitation did not operate.
Mr. Baron GRAHAM, however, was clearly of opinion, that as
no possessory title had been made out during the last 20 years, the
action was not maintainable, and therefore directed • nomettit.—
Nonsutted.