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of economic readjustment. A national solidarity of blood is being gradually substituted for provincial solidarities; but there are still strongly marked local characteristics in the great majority of the humbler population, although the upper classes, at least of England, have already blended more or less into a common type."

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Diodorus the Sicilian, a contemporary of Cæsar and Augustus, probably wrote his famous work after the year 8 B.C., when Augustus corrected the calendar and introduced the intercalation every fourth year. His undoubted reference to Cornwall is most interesting and valuable. He says (Book V, chap. п), “But Julius Cæsar in our time was the first that conquered the island, and compelled the Britons to pay Tribute. only say something concerning the island, and the Tin that is found there. In form it is triangular, like Sicily; but the sides are unequal . . . but the other point called Balerium is four days' sail from the continent." This point is evidently either Land's End or Cape Cornwall. "Now we shall speak something of the Tin that's dug and gotten there. They that inhabit the British Promontary of Balerium, by reason of their Converse with Merchants, are more civiliz'd and courteous to Strangers than the rest are. These are the People that make the Tin, which with a great deal of Care and Labour they dig out of the Ground; and that being Rocky the Mettle is mixt with some veins of Earth, out of which they melt the Mettle and then refine it. Then they heat it into four-square Pieces like to a Dye and carry it to a British isle, near at Hand, called Iktis (St. Michael's Mount). For at low Tide, all being dry between them and the Island, they convey over in Carts abundance of Tin in the meantime. But there's one thing peculiar to these islands, which lye between Britain and Europe; For at Full Sca they appear to be Islands, but at low water for a long way they look like so many peninsula's. Hence the merchants transport the Tin they buy of the inhabitants to France, and for thirty days journey they carry it in packs upon horses backs through France, to the mouth of the River Rhone. But this much concerning Tin."1

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1 The Historical Library of Diodorus the Sicilian. Made English by G. Booth, of the City of Chester, Esq. London, MDCC." Page 185.

CORNWALL, TIN AND THE BIBLE 13

For which, Diodorus, we owe thee many thanks, as you show us how far in advance at that early period was this part of Cornwall over the rest of Britain in commerce. While the remainder of this island of ours was peopled by half-naked savages, living on their flocks and herds, and internecine wars; clothed in skins, or only clothed in warpaint at times; while Paris was not; while the artistic cities of the Continent were primeval forests or swamps, peopled by lake-dwellers or savages, Land's End and Mount's Bay were peopled with industrious inhabitants living in little bee-hive huts, burying their great men in state under cromlechs, and not only forging their own weapons of metal, but bartering ingots of tin for the commodities of foreign parts. In general education the Cornishmen of those days must have been far in advance of their compatriots.

Herodotus, who wrote in 440 B.C., knew something of Cornwall from hearsay, for he says, "I have nothing certain to relate concerning the western bounds of Europe. I know as little of the islands called Cassiterides from the tin, which is thence imported amongst us." Here again notice, it was tin which in those early days made Britain known to ancient civilisation; not oysters, as some have said, and certainly not coal.

If Cornwall (and the Scilly Isles) supplied the ancient world with tin, as seems most probable, then it follows that the tin mentioned in the Bible came from the county. “Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs" (Ezek. xxvII. 12).1

If it be true that the tin of the Bible came from Cornwall, as most think who have studied the subject, how it exalts our estimate of the county, and of the mining industry which is its leading characteristic! The picture of the arrival of the merchants is thus graphically drawn by Mr. LachSzyrma: "Lo! to the south, ships are coming,-strange quaint, beaked galleys, with bronzed Jewish-looking crews in long Asiatic robes! They enter the Bay and make for the Mount, the appointed emporium of their trade with the natives, who are jealous of the foreigners landing on

1 Also Num. xxxi. 22; Isa. 1. 25; Ezek. xxi. 18, 20.

the mainland. Out of the bee-hive huts, now stream to the shore little crowds of the natives. They are a fair-skinned, bright-coloured people, and talk in a quaint Celtic language. Their dress is very queer, long black cloaks and tunics reaching to the feet, girt about the breast,' and they are walking with staves' in their hands. They make for the Mount; and lead with them their hardy little horses, laden with blocks of tin. These they barter with the Jewishlooking Merchants for money, clothes and pottery.”

It is, therefore, to the element and metal tin that Cornwall, from the earliest times of which we have any records, owes its pristine distinctive peculiarities. The commercial spirit which began at so early a period to be associated with Cornwall in conjunction with business capacity and training has never lapsed. Shrewdness, intelligence, directness of purpose, hospitality, are among the characteristics still noticeable in Cornwall, all of which, no doubt, are the fruit of the county's early participations in business.

But I have no doubt this early trading with the ancient civilised world was also the indirect cause of the introduction of the delight in athletics which the inhabitants of Penwith have always displayed. The amphitheatre also came in its inception from Rome. The wrestling and hurling matches also may have been introduced by the Roman warriors, who landed at the havens of Cornwall. This love of sports is recognised by Macaulay, in his History of England, as is also the clannishness of Cornishmen. "The people of Cornwall, a fierce, bold, athletic race, among whom there was a stronger provincial feeling than in any other part of the realm," were greatly moved by the danger of Trelawney, whom they honoured less as a ruler of the Church than as the head of an honourable house, and the heir through twenty descents of ancestors, who had been of great note before the Normans had set foot on English ground. It was then that the feeling of Cornwall broke forth into a stirring song, of which the burden is still remembered:-

"And shall Trelawney die, and shall Trelawney die?

Then thirty thousand Cornish boys will know the reason why." But the counties differ remarkably not only in the character of the people, and their physiognomy and expression, but also in other directions.

COUNTY SEPARATENESS

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Even the well-known folk-lore stories, nursery rhymes, and jingles are found to differ in details in the various counties, as do also the methods of using charms and the extent of, and belief in, peculiar superstitions.

The clannish feeling of the counties is in no way better exemplified than in the endeavours which are so repeatedly made to change the present judicial circuit system. It is found that jurymen of one county very much object to try causes and cases of other counties besides their own.

What is the genius loci which created these county entities, these remarkable local idiosyncrasies? William I could not have made them when he artificially divided up the country, and even the Roman invasion disturbed them not; witness the camps at Chester, Lincoln, Exeter, Dorchester, Camberley, which, though they remain in visual evidence to this day, never obliterated the local features and characteristics of the people. The question is one, we fear, which will take long in answering, and the solution, after all, can only take the form of theory. Buckle would say most of the distinctions were due to climate and physical geography. Mr. H. J. Mackinder has attempted the task, and for that purpose has individualised the counties and given elaborate explanations. For example, he says that the county system of England appears to have arisen in Wessex by a process of swarming from the first settlement of the West Saxons at Southampton and Winchester.

Bishop Creighton, who, as we have seen, evidently had an inkling of the subject, never boldly faced it, or attempted to collate the necessary facts, or explain the observations he had made. But though the causes are difficult to find, it is manifestly obvious that these county individualities are not for nothing. The variety of persistent manners, customs, idiosyncrasies, turns of thought and usages in our counties has gone far to preserve in England that manysidedness of character and width of outlook which have given our country its primary rank among the nations. To these persistently differing traits are due in large measure our commercial versatility, our colonising genius, our permanent political constitution, which by its happy mixture of Parliament and peers, or mayors and county councils, of boards and boroughs, has solved the problem of how to com

bine freedom with order and progress with reverence for the past.

In other words, the love of compromise, which is the outcome of our country life, has preserved our Church and State from ever being dominated by a single mind. Of this the complete failure of Cromwell's Protectorate is a sufficient proof. Even one of England's greatest men, the Duke of Wellington, who might have been a mighty autocrat, always asserted that he was the humble servant of the State.

The tendency of the time is to obliterate individuality. People move about more than formerly, travelling is marvellously on the increase, the influence of home and country life is waning. Will it happen that, with the universal levelling which is going on, the nation will become weaker?

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The barriers placed by Nature-mountains, rivers, seas, and so on-have all naturally tended to seclude and separate communities. Sometimes, as with the Jews, sanitary laws and religion keep peoples separate from others. great advantage which these factors for preventing segregation have brought to the front is the protection of minorities. Amalgamation of small entities of peoples, of little coteries of individuals, strongly knit together by common interests, traits, religion, manners, or customs, means sooner or later their absorption; in other words, the disappearance of them in the larger circle they have joined.

I have no doubt the Tower of Babel was anything but a curse. It was in my opinion a distinct advantage to the world. Had the world started with one language, it would have been peopled with one people, imbued with one set of ideas, one way of regarding the external world, and would soon have sunk in a terribly depressing slough of universality. Competition would soon have died out, commonplaceness would have been exalted into a virtue, and the human race would soon have degenerated instead of advancing. It would soon have presented a picture of what it will be if socialism ever predominates.

Long, therefore, may Cornwall be just what it is-a corner of England replete with a feeling of respect for its great past, and a confident looking forward into the future; and yet always Cornwall, with its own special, pronounced individuality.

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