THE CORNISH PUMPING ENGINE. 
15 
strongly before the attention of the Government; and we find that their endeavours 
were at last successful, for in the session of 1741 the prayer of the petition was 
granted, and the duty remitted by Act of Parliament. 
21. The Act here referred to is the 14th Geo. II. cap. xli., and intituled 
“ An Act for granting to His Majesty the sum of One Million out of the Sinking 
Fund, and for applying other sums therein mentioned for the service of the year one 
thousand seven hundred and forty-one ; and for allowing a Draw-back of the Duties 
upon Coals used in Fire Engines for draining Tin and Copper Mines in the County of 
Cornwall; and for appropriating the supplies granted in this Session of Parliament; 
and for making forth Duplicates of Exchequer Bills, Lottery Tickets and Orders, 
lost, burnt, or otherwise destroyed; and for giving further time for the payment 
of duties omitted to be paid for the Indentures and Contracts of Clerks and 
Apprentices.” 
This Act, so important to the progress of mining in Cornwall, appears to have 
been overlooked, probably from the comprehensive nature of its title, by writers on 
Cornish history; for although the former existence of the duty upon coals, and its 
subsequent repeal at some time or other, are occasionally alluded to by historians, 
the precise circumstances of the remission, and the intimate connection it had with 
the progress of the steam engine in Cornwall, have not been heretofore satisfactorily 
traced. 
The part of the Act referring to the coal duties is Section 3, of which the fol 
lowing is a copy. It will be noticed that it is evidently founded upon the memorial 
before mentioned. 
“ And whereas for many years past there have been no considerable new lodes or veins of 
tin and copper discovered, and the greatest and most considerable mines of tin and copper 
wfithin the county of Cornwall are become so deep, that all means for the draining water out 
of them have already proved ineffectual; and it hath been found by experience, that under 
the present duties upon coals, the application of fire engines to the draining the waters out 
of the mines in the said county of Cornwall hath been impracticable, from the great expense 
attending the same: 
“ Therefore, for the encouragement of such valuable works, wherein a great number of 
tinners, labourers, and adventurers are employed, and subsist thereby; Be it enacted by 
the authority aforesaid, That from and after the twenty-fourth day of June, one thousand 
seven hundred and forty-one, for all coals which shall be used in fire engines, for the 
draining water out of the mines of tin and copper, within the said county of Cornwall, and 
for which duties have been first answered and paid, a draw-back shall be allowed and made of 
draw-back of the duty on coal used in mines ; when Sir Robert Walpole, then at the head of public affairs, 
complimented him on the clear and able manner in which he had made every statement, and a present of 
silver plate from Frederick, Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall, is preserved in his family.”