[273] Writing to M. De Luc, the Queen’s Librarian, of what he and his partner had done for Cornwall, Boulton said,--“The copper and tin mines of Cornwall are now sunk to so great a depth that had not Mr. Watt and myself nearly expended our fortunes and hazarded our ruin by neglecting our regular business, and by a long series of expensive experiments in bringing our engine to its present degree of perfection, those mines must inevitably have stopped working, and Cornwall at this time would not have existed as a mining county. The very article of extra coals for common engines would have amounted to more than the entire profits of their working.”--Boulton to De Luc, 31st March, 1787. This was, however, but the wild and unreasoning clamour of misguided and ignorant men. Boulton was personally much esteemed by all who were able to appreciate his character, and to understand the position of himself and his partner with reference to the engine patent. The larger mining owners invited him to their houses, and regarded him as their friend. The more intelligent of the managers were his strenuous supporters. First and foremost among these was Mr. Phillips, manager of the Chacewater mines, of whom he always spoke with the highest respect, as a man of the most scrupulous integrity and honour. Mr. Phillips was a member of the Society of Friends, and his wife Catherine was one of the most celebrated preachers of the body. Boulton and Watt occasionally resided with them before the house at Cosgarne was taken, and conceived for both the warmest friendship. If Watt was attracted by the Cornish Anabaptists, Boulton was equally so by the Cornish Quakers. We find him, in one of his letters to Mrs. Boulton, describing to her a great meeting of Friends at Truro which he had attended, “when,” he said, “I heard our friend Catherine Phillips preach with great energy and good sense for an hour and a half, although so weak in body that she was obliged to lie abed for several days before.” Boulton afterwards dined with the whole body of Friends at the principal inn, being the only person present who was not of the Society; and he confessed to have spent in their company a very pleasant evening.[274]