STANDING ORDERS. [BILL IN PARLIAMENT.
from the Latin Stan num, " tin." This term sometimes de notes a tin-mine, sometimes the tin-mines of a district, sometimes the royal rights in respect of tin-mines within such dis trict. But it is more commonly used as including the tin-mines within a particu lar district, the tinners employed in work ing them, and the customs and privileges attached to the mines, and to those em ployed in digging and purifying the ore.
The great stannaries of England are those of Devon and Cornwall, of which the stannary of Cornwall is the more im portant. The stannaries of Cornwall and Devon, granted by Edward III. to the Black Prmee, upon the creation of the duchy of Cornwall, and are perpetually incorporated with that duchy. In gene ral both stannaries are under one duchy officer, called the lord-warden of the stan naries, with a separate vice-warden foe each county. The 'tannery of Cornwall is subdivided into the etannary of Black more, in the eastern parts of the county, and the stannaries of Tywarnhaile, Pen with, and Helston, in the west.
All tin in Cornwall and Devon, who ever might be the owner of the land, ap pears to have formerly belonged to the king, by a usage peculiar to these coun ties; for the general prerogative of the crown extends only to mines of gold or silver, or other mines in which the value of the gold or silver exceeds that of the inferior metal with which it is combined (12 Coke's Rep., 9.) King John, in 1201, granted a charter to his tinners in Cornwall and Devon shire, authorising them to dig tin and turves to melt the tin anywhere in the moors and in the fees of bishops, abbots, and earls, as they had been used and ac customed. (Maddox, Era., 279 t. 283 1) This charter was confirmed by Edward I., Richard II., and Henry IV.
In Cornwall the right of digging it other men's land is now regulated by t peculiar usage, called the custom of bound tog. This custom attaches only to and land as now is or antiently was wastrel that is, land open or uninclosed. Th4 mode of acquiring a right to it this : an agent goes on the spot to be bounded and digs up the turf or surface, making little pits at the four corners to wards the east, west, north, and south, of a reasonable extent ; and _the area or space within the four corners will be the con tents of the bounds. Having made these
corners, the agent describes on paper the situation of the bounds, states the day when, and the person by whom, they were marked out or cut, and makes a declare tion for whose use this was done, express ing therein that the spot was free of all lawful bounds. At the next stannary court he procures this description to be put on parchment. when a first proclama tion is made of it in open court, the parch ment, or paper being stuck up in a con spicuous place in the court, and a minute of the transaction is made by the steward in the regular court paper. On the next court day, three weeks afterwards, a second proclamation is in like manner made, and so also at the third court; when, if there successful opposition, judgment is given, and a writ of possession issues to the bailiff of the stannary, who delivers possession accordingly. In this mode the bound-owner, acquires a right to search for and take all the tin he can find, pay ing the lord of the soil one-fifteenth, or to permit others to do so ; and to resist all who attempt to interrupt him. The bounds must be renewed annually, by a bounder employed on behalf of the bound owner, or the lord may re-enter.
As part of the stannary rights, the duke of Cornwall, as grantee of the crown, has or had the pre-emption of tin throughout the county, a privilege supposed to have been reserved to the crown out of an ori ginal right of property in tin-mines, but in modern times it is never exercised.
Formerly for the redressing of griev awes and the general regulation of the stannaries, representative assemblies of the tinners were summoned both in De vonshire and in Cornwall. These assem blies were called parliaments, or convoca tions of timers, and were summoned by the lord-warden of the stannaries, under a writ, issued by the duke of Cornwall, or by the king, when there was no duke au thorising, and requiring him so to do. The last convocation was held in 1752. (Appendix to the case of Rowe v. Bren ton; 3 Manning and Ryland's Reports.) The duties payable to the duke of Corn wall on the stamping or coinage of tin were abolished by 1 & 2 Vict. c. 120, and the stannary courts were re-modelled by 6 & 7 Win. IV. C. 106. Further regula tions for these courts have been introduced by 2 & 3 Vict. c. 58.