The courts were api)ealed to, the farther construction of the canal was enjoined by the lower tribunal and work was stopped for several months, pending the appeal to the Supreme Court of the State. For a time the entire mining industry of Georgia hung upon the question. If the miner could not get water for his stamp mills, then all operations of any magnitude must cease. The future prospects of the State as regards her mining intei'ests, were about to be forever blighted. Some of the ablest lawyers in Georgia were employed, and after a lengtliy discussion, the Supreme Judges decided in favor of Mr. Hand and his right to proceed with his canal. His charter was pronounced constitutional- Inch by inch he has fought his way ; and to-day through his unwearied exertions, the mining interests of the great State of Georgia have been placed upon a safe and lasting basis.

Chief Justice Hiram Warner, in delivering the opinion of the court in the case alluded to (the Hand Gold Mining Company v.s. John A. Parker, et al., 59th Georgia Reports) says: "In view of the evidence contained in the record as to the necessity for the General Asssembly to exercise the right of Eminent Domain in granting the right of way for the defendant's ditch or canal to convey the water from Yahoola River and Cane Creek into the gold belt in the County of Lumpkin, for the successful workings of the valuable mines to be found there, so as to increase the production of gold for the use of the ])ublic through the medium of the defendant's corporation, the General Assembly did not exceed its Constitutional power in making the grant to the defendant of the riglit of way, as expressed in its charter. Let the defendant's ditch or canal be constructed in pursuance of the grant in the defendant's charter, and let the water from Yahoola River and Cane Creek flow therein into the gold belt of Lumpkin County, where, in the judgment of the General Assembly of the State, the public good requires it should flow, so as to enable the defendant