ore those mines, which are
properly royal, and to which the king is entitled when found, are only
those of silver and gold[s]. By the old common law, if gold or silver
be found in mines of base metal, according to the opinion of some the
whole was a royal mine, and belonged to the king; though others held
that it only did so, if the quantity of gold or silver was of greater
value than the quantity of base metal[t]. But now by the statutes 1 W.
& M. st. 1. c. 30. and 5 W. & M. c. 6. this difference is made
immaterial; it being enacted, that no mines of copper, tin, iron, or
lead, shall be looked upon as royal mines, notwithstanding gold or
silver may be extracted from them in any quantities: but that the
king, or persons claiming royal mines under his authority, may have
the ore, (other than tin-ore in the counties of Devon and Cornwall)
paying for the same a price stated in the act. This was an extremely
reasonable law: for now private owners are not discouraged from
working mines, through a fear that they may be claimed as royal ones;
neither does the king depart from the just rights of his revenue,
since he may have all the precious metal contained in the ore, paying
no more for it than the value of the base metal which it is supposed
to be; to which base metal the land-owner is by reason and law
entitled.

[Footnote s: 2 Inst. 577.]

[Footnote t: Plowd. 566.]

XIII. TO the same original may in part be referred the revenue of
treasure-trove (derived from the French word, _trover_, to find)
called in Latin _thesaurus inventus_, which is where any money or
coin, gold, silver, plate, or bullion, is found hidden _in_ the earth,
or other private place, the owner thereof being unknown; in which case
the treasure belongs to the king: but if he that hid it be known, or
afterwards found out, the owner and not the king is entitled to it[u].
Also if it be found in the sea, or _upon_ the earth, it doth not
belong to the king, but the finder, if no owner appears[w]. So that it
seems it is the _hiding_, not the _abandoning_ of it, that gives the
king a property: Bracton[x] defining it, in the words of the
civilians, to be "_vetus depositio pecuniae_." This difference clearly
arises from the different intentions, which the law implies in the
owner. A man, that hides his treasure in a secret place, evidently
does not mean to relinquish his property; but reserves a right of
claiming it again, when he sees occasion; and, if he dies