ditions, amounting to forfeiture for failure to operate the mine for a period of nine weeks.
Space does not permit of the elaboration of the details of this subject, which we hope to
pursue elsewhere in its many historical bearings. Among these we may mention that if the
American "Apex law" is of English descent, it must be laid to the door of Derbyshire, and
not of Cornwall, as is generally done. Our own belief, however, is that the American
" apex " conception came straight from Germany.
It is not our purpose to follow these inquiries into mining law beyond the 15th century,
but we may point out that with the growth of the sentiment of individualism the miners and
landlords obtained steadily wider and wider rights at the cost of the State, until well within
the 19th century. The growth of stronger communal sentiment since the middle of the last
century has already found its manifestation in the legislation with regard to mines, for the
laws of South Africa, Australia, and England, and the agitation in the United States are all
toward greater restrictions on the mineral ownership in favour of the State.
