The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-03-05 00:00:00

THE CORNISH MINERS.

In Flindelrs Western Luminary of Tuesday, we foul the
following strong remarks on a speech reported in our paper
a short time since; for the faithfulness of that report` we
can confidently answer; and we therefore feel ourstites
bound to give insertion to the comments of the provincial
journal:—
At a meeting of the Port of London Society (reported in the
British Press of the 18th instant), a Rev. Mr. Stuart is said to
have informed the company, that " the light of religious instruc.
lion has not as yet DAWN' Don the Cornish Miners; that then
are 50,000 of them, who, to his knowledge, ascend the pit at nLitt
to go down again in the morning, and who range the fields on the
Sabbath dishonouring their Saviour and their God ; that the sound
of the Gospel has not reached their ears, and that their present
state is a disgrace to our age and country." If this be a carrell re-
port, and on this point the Editor of the British Pre:, is responsi-
ble, it cannot be truly characterised in language less strong than
that of a gross and scandalous, if nut a malicious, libel. For it is
not leas false than was that misrepresentation which a British
Judge (Lord Ellenborough) once pronounced in the House of Peers
to be "as false as helL" We speak strongly, but advisedly ; and
we call upon this Rev. Mr. Stuart, in the face of the saute public
in which his libel is published, either to substantiate, or recant it.
We know nothing of the l'ort of London Society; from the tcnour
of Mr. Stuart's pious fiction, it would appear to be religious in its
objects; and if so, we would ask the gentlemen present on this
occasion, the hearers of this mental adventurer, whether it was
from ignorance, or indifference to the truth of the case, that they
suffered the ealumr.y to pass uncontrulieted ? Or, do they think
men may " lie for God, as one man will do for another, to gratify
him ?" We have long known the Cornish miners, lived among
them, and studied then] ; and in the face of many intelligent
readers, who have had opportunities, as well as ourselves, of
comparing these miners with the operatives, peasantry, and la.
bourers of various other parts of the kingdom, we venture to de-
clare, that they are, as a body, better acquainted with the Mille
and our best moral writer,, better mathematicians, more scien-
tific mechanics and engineers, more sagacious, intelligent, and
courteous, than any other body. of working villagers of equal
number in England. That the miners of Cornwall were a very dif-
ferent people, rude and ignorant, till John Wesley came among
them, we readily gram. At the name of 'Wesley many of our
readers may turn up their noses with contempt, as others will lift
up their eyes and ejaculate a blessing on it. But it may not have
struck either party—it escaped his biographer, the accomplished
lament—that 11 easy, to whom the merit of civilizing the Cornish
miners cannot be denied, perforuted this work on a classical model—
by the same same process as the tragedians of ancient Greece con-
tributed to civilize their rude children of nature; simply by the
excitement and exercise of the natural passions of tenor and pity,
and the developentent of mind front the fermentation. The earliest
Methodist Missionaries declaimed on the terrors of eternal damna-
tion till their hearers trenthletl, and on the suffering of a crucified
Saviour till they wept; and widely different as were the associations
and trains of ideas with which the profane dramatists and the
Christian preachers innoculmed the fevered passions of their seve-
ral flocks, the effect in both cases was to make them think. The
Cornish miners have become a thinking people. An ancient his-
torian (Stnbo, if we recollect rightly) rein:ea, that the Phanicians
found the Cornish wearing long (!oaks, long hair. and long staves,
and that they resembled the Furies of the Greek drama. The pious
authors of the early Spanish Moralities (in which the mysteries of
the Bible were dressed tip for stage representation) profiting of this
hint, made Cornwall, or the Cassiterides, their local hell. 'When
their devil, the Vice of the piece, had danced his saraband with
Adam anti Eve, he made his bow and descended through the trap-
door
into—Cornwall ! Was opt eloquent .Mr. Stuart dreaming of
I some of these monstrosities when he framed the speech we have
I quoted for the pious info:ma:ion of his • wise men of the east ?' "

• A few days since we received a letter from Penzance, contra-
dieting the statements of 3lr. Stuart, which we were prevented from
inserting by a press of matter.

Charks Pinfold, Esq. has purchased the well-known
racer Wouvermans, of Mr. ll'lliteside. The horse is now
at Chichely, mar Newport Pagnell, Bucks.
In the manufacturing town of Wigan, in Lancashire,
there are twenty retail breweries now in full trade. It is
not only in the reduced price and improved quality of the
beer sold at these breweries that the public are benefited,
but since their establishment a visible improvement is
manifest in the condition of the families of the workmen.

Rise IN LAND.—A great impulse has lately been given,
at least !n some Instances, to the value of land, in conse-
quence, no doubt, of the change in the rate of interest, and
of the steady rise in the price of agricultural produce.
The proprietors of land, it is said, are beginning to look
again towards war prices. We have heard it mentioned,
that an estate in a neighbouring county, for which the pro-
prietor, about twelve months ago, would have been glad to
have closed for 30,0001., has just been disposed of for
66,0001.; and another, which was actually sold about the
same time for 25,0001., but which, from particular circum-
stances, having been again brought to market, has lately
been sold at the advanced prim. of 31,0001. We also un-
Iderstand that an extensive property in Fife has just been
sold for upwards of 100,0001.—Cu.'edmiuu Mercury.