works of Sèvres produced specimens of art which vied successfully with those of Dresden and China.

Mr. Jonas Hanway, in the account of his travels published in 1753, has given a detailed account of the immense collection of porcelain deposited in the Chinese palace at Dresden.

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"The vaults of this palace," says Mr. Hanway, sist of fourteen apartments filled with Chinese and Dresden porcelain. One would imagine there was sufficient to stock a whole country; and yet they say, with an air of importance, that a hundred thousand pieces more are wanted to complete the intention of furnishing this single palace.

"Here are a great number of porcelain figures of wolves, bears, leopards, &c. some of them as big as the lifee-a prodigious variety of birds, and a curious collection of different flowers. A clock is preparing for the gallery, whose bells are to be also of porcelain : I heard one of them proved, and think they are sufficient to form any music; but the hammers must be of wood.

“Here are forty-eight large China vases, which appear to be of no use, nor any way extraordinary, except for their great size; and yet his Polish majesty purchased them of the late king of Prussia at the price of a whole regiment of dragoons."

One part of this collection must have been peculiarly interesting, as it exhibited, in an orderly arrangement, specimens of Dresden manufacture laid up by this king of Poland, from the first efforts of De Botticher, through every subsequent gradation ; “ an idea," says Mr. Parke, "truly philosophical, and which reflects more honour on his memory than the bartering away the liberties of his subjects for pieces of foreign porcelain."

Frederick the Great, when he conquered Saxony, forcibly carried away several of the best workmen from the manufactory at Meissen, near Dresden, and conveyed them to Berlin, where, since that time, a considerable quantity of very good porcelain has been made for the private advantage of the monarch. As many as

500 men are constantly employed in this establishment; but although much of their material is drawn from Saxony, the Prussian porcelain has never equalled in quality that of Dresden.

It is generally believed, that since the time when they were first established by the Romans, potteries have always existed in Staffordshire, but it is certain that until the beginning of the eighteenth century the manufacture was confined to a few objects of the commonest and coarsest description.

The district in this county wherein the great bulk of English manufactured earthenware is produced, is situated about a mile from the borders of Cheshire. The potteries commence at a village called Golden Hill, and extend for a distance of more than seven miles, passing through other towns and villages to Lane End. The names of the places comprised in this district, intermediate between the two already mentioned, are Newfield, Smithfield, Tunstall, Longport, Burslem, Cobridge, Etruria, Hanley, Shelton, Stoke, Lower Lane, and Lower Delf. All these have formerly been sufficiently distinct from each other; but the increase of the staple manufacture of the district has called for the erection of so many new potteries and dwelling-houses, that their individuality has been lost, and to a stranger the whole presents very much the appearance of one large town. In every part of the kingdom, except the district itself, the whole are ranked under one general name that of the Potteries. Etruria is the creation of the celebrated Josiah Wedgwood, by whom the place was thus named after one of the ancient Italian states, celebrated for the tasteful forms it gave to its pottery, specimens of which have materially promoted the improvement of our modern English wares.

In the year 1686, when Dr. Plot published a Natural History of Staffordshire, its traffic in earthenware was very unimportant—being carried on only by the workmen themselves, or by pedlars, who conveyed the pieces in baskets on their backs through the adjoining counties.

About the time just mentioned (1690), two brothers, named Elers, came from Nuremberg, in Holland, and settled at Bradwell, where they made an improved kind of red ware, and introduced the art of glazing the vessels by throwing common salt into the oven at a certain period of the baking.* Every precaution was used by the brothers to keep their processes secret; and it is probable that this circumstance, joined to the success of the strangers, excited the enmity and jealousy of their neighbours to the degree which obliged them to leave the country. The pretext assigned for this persecution was the alarm occasioned by the fumes from their kilns during the time of glazing. These fears subsided, however, when the process was continued by their successor. This man, whose name was Astbury, had, it is said, become master of their secrets by a singular stratagem. Feigning to be of weak intellect, and assuming an appropriate vacuity of countenance, he obtained employment in the Bradwell works, and submitted to all the drudgery and contumely which were drawn upon him by his supposed imbecility. By this course of proceeding, he was enabled, unsuspected, to acquire a knowledge of all that was done in the manufactory, and to make models for his own use of all the utensils.

The advantages of this method of glazing with salt were so apparent, that in a short time it was very generally adopted; and on Saturday, the day appropriated to this process, the thick fumes from nearly sixty potteries filled the towns to a degree which darkened the atmosphere, and covered the hills of the surrounding district.t

To Astbury is generally ascribed the introduction of white stone-ware, by the adoption of calcined flints in its composition. The popular version of the origin of this improvement states, that "while travelling to London on horseback, in the year 1720, Astbury had

The salt is decomposed by this means; and, rising in fumes, the alkali which it contains combines with the silica of the ware, and forms a true glass which covers the entire surface.

+ Parke, Chem. Cat., p. 125.

occasion, at Dunstable, to seek a remedy for a disorder in his horse's eyes; when the ostler at the inn, by burning a flint, reduced it to a fine powder, which he blew into them. The potter, observing the beautiful white colour of the flint after calcination, instantly conceived the use to which it might be applied in his art.”*

The merit of this man has been somewhat overlooked, while contemplating the greater claims to admiration possessed by his more philosophic successor in the course of improvement. That could have been no common mind, however, which led Astbury to the long-continued pursuit of his object, by means so humiliating; and which also enabled him, on the occasion just related, to seize upon a fact thus accidentally presented, and which, although of high importance to his art, might have passed unheeded before the eyes of many a commonplace manufacturer.

The step thus made was of consequence in preparing the way for the far greater advances towards perfection, afterwards accomplished by Mr. Josiah Wedgwood. This extraordinary man owed none of his success to fortuitous circumstances. Devoting his mind to patient investigations, and sparing neither pains nor expense in accomplishing his aims, he gathered round him talented artists from different countries, and drew upon the stores of science for aid in pursuing the objects of his praiseworthy ambition. The early and signal prosperity whereby his efforts were attended, served only as a motive urging him forward to new exertions, and as the means for calling forth and encouraging talents in others, in a manner calculated to promote the welfare of his country. Previously to his time, the potteries of Staffordshire produced only inferior fabrics, flimsy as to their materials, and void of taste in their forms and ornaments—the best among them being only wretched imitations of the grotesque and unmeaning scenes and figures portrayed on the porcelain of China. But such have been the effects resulting from the exertions and

* Parke, Chem. Cat. p. 126.

example of this one manufacturer, that the wares of that district are now not only brought into general use in this country, to the exclusion of all foreign goods, which had before been largely imported, but English pottery has since been sought for and celebrated throughout the civilised world, and adopted even in places where the art was previously prosecuted. An intelligent foreigner, M. Faujas de Saint Fond, writing on this subject, says, "its excellent workmanship, its solidity, the advantage which it possesses of sustaining the action of fire, its fine glaze impenetrable to acids, the beauty and convenience of its form, and the cheapness of its price, have given rise to a commerce so active and so universal, that in travelling from Paris to Petersburgh, from Amsterdam to the furthest part of Sweden, and from Dunkirk to the extremity of the south of France, one is served at every inn upon English ware. Spain, Portugal, and Italy, are supplied with it; and vessels are loaded with it for the East Indies, the West Indies, and the continent of America.*

It is not among the least of Mr. Wedgwood's merits, that he overcame the disadvantages of a defective education; and, amid the calls of an incessantly active life, found time wherein to school his mind in all the discipline necessary for investigations purely scientific. The ample fortune which he acquired was ever ready for promoting the spread of knowledge, encouraging the efforts of genius, and lessening, as far as possible, the sufferings of his fellow creatures. His charities, public and private, and especially in his own district, were exemplary and consistent. He gave life to many objects of public utility. The Trent and Mersey canal was undertaken and accomplished through his influence; and by the benefits it has produced to the district, and to its proprietors, has fully approved his wisdom in its promotion.

The principal inventions of Mr. Wedgwood were 1. His table ware; the merits of which are, that it has * Travels in England and Scotland (English translation), vol. i. p. 97.