a dense and durable body, and is covered with a brilliant glaze, capable of bearing uninjured sudden and great vicissitudes of heat and cold. This ware, as it was capable of being manufactured with ease and expedition, could be sold at a cheap rate, and would still yield a handsome profit to the inventor. Its various qualities, so superior to any possessed by previous manufactures of either domestic or foreign production, caused this ware to be taken into immediate and universal favour with the public. Among others, the queen bestowed upon it the tribute of her admiration and patronage; commanded it to be called queen's ware—a name which it continues to bear to the present day; and honoured Mr. Wedgwood by appointing him her majesty's potter.

2. A terra cotta, which could be made to resemble porphyry, granite, Egyptian pebble, and other beautiful stones of the silicious or crystalline order.

3. Basaltes, or black ware. This was a black porcelainous biscuit, having nearly the same properties with the natural stone. It would emit sparks when struck with steel; was capable of taking a high polish; resisted acids; and would bear, without injury, a stronger degree of heat than even the natural basaltes.

4. White porcelain biscuit. This ware had a smooth, wax-like appearance, and was possessed of all the properties exhibited by the preceding invention, differing from it only in regard to its colour.

5. Bamboo, or cane-coloured porcelain biscuit, of the same nature as the preceding.

6. Jasper. This was also a white porcelainous biscuit, of exquisite delicacy and beauty, having in general all the properties of the basaltes, with this in addition, --that it would receive through its whole substance, from the admixture of metallic oxides, the same colours as those oxides communicate to glass or enamel in fusion. This peculiar property, which it shares with no other porcelain or earthenware body of either ancient or modern composition, renders it applicable in a very pleasing manner to the production of cameos, portraits, and all

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subjects that require to be shown in bas-relief; since the ground can be made of any colour that may be preferred; while the raised figures are of the purest white.

7. A porcelain biscuit, possessing several properties that render it invaluable to the chemist, and which have occasioned this invention to be brought into general use in all laboratories. The ware is exceedingly hard, being little inferior in this respect to agate, whence it is peculiarly adapted for forming mortars. It resists the action of the strongest acids and of all corrosive substances, and has the further quality of being perfectly impenetrable by any known liquid.

The investigations of Reaumur, already detailed, make it evident that the characteristics of porcelain, as far as they depend upon semi-vitrification, may be obtained when ingredients wholly fusible are employed, provided the fire be carefully withdrawn from the oven at the precise moment when vitrification has arrived at, and not proceeded beyond, a certain point. Accordingly, this porcelain was, at one time, very commonly produced both in this and other countries. The quality of goods thus composed is always inferior to that of true porcelain; and, if further or again exposed to the heat of the furnace, the substance would entirely change its nature, and run into a vitreous and shapeless mass.

Porcelain of this description, much esteemed for its beauty, was long manufactured at Bow and at Chelsea. It was not until the year 1768, that Mr. Cookworthy discovered certain mineral substances in Cornwall similar in their properties to the porcelain earths of China; and having secured to himself, by patent, the exclusive right of using those materials, was the first person who made true porcelain in England.

In practising this art, Mr. Cookworthy, and those to whom he afterwards assigned his patent right, attained to considerable success as regarded the quality of their manufactures, although the demand for their goods did not prove proportionate to the money expended in bringing the processes to perfection. One probable

cause for the inadequacy of their remuneration, existed in the successful efforts of Mr. Wedgwood, which have been already detailed, for improving the quality of common earthenwares made in Staffordshire, whereby foreign porcelain was rendered less an object of desire, and consequently its successful imitation was no longer considered as being of any great importance.

The extent to which, in the year 1785, this manufacture had arrived, and its importance to the three great interests of the country-landed, maritime, and commercial—may be collected from the evidence then given by Mr. Wedgwood before a committee of the privy council, and at the bars of the two houses of parliament. The question at that time under the consideration of the legislature, and upon which these examinations were taken, arose out of the proposal of government to abolish the system of commercial restrictions and disabilities then existing between Great Britain and Ireland, and to render the intercourse between the two divisions of the empire nearly as free and unrestricted as that between the counties of Durham and Northumberland; a proposition so perfectly natural and reasonable in itself, that, but for the possession of records wherein they have been preserved, we might really be at a loss to conjecture the nature of the arguments whereby it was opposed and defeated.

In the course of the discussions to which this subject gave rise in the house of lords, the marquess of Lansdowne, remarking upon the evidence given by the respectable merchants and manufacturers at the bar of the house, declared that the result to which he in his own mind had arrived was the very opposite to the conviction which they had adopted. "Though much valuable information may," said his lordship, " doubtless, be derived from their evidence, it must not be forgotten that they are men peculiarly subject to prejudice and error, in all cases where their personal interests are concerned. Were any one, for instance, to ask a manufacturer of Halifax, what is the greatest crime upon

earth? Is it felony, is it murder, is it parricide? No! he would answer; it is none of these it is the ex

In later times, we have seen this measure of justice and sound policy more successfully brought forward; and it is acknowledged that each country has since been reaping benefits in consequence, upon the inevitable arrival of which nothing but the strongest commercial prejudices and national jealousy could have thrown even a momentary doubt.

Mr. Wedgwood, in the course of the evidence already alluded to, thus remarks: Though the manufacturing part alone in the Potteries, and their immediate vicinity, gives bread to 15 or 20,000 people, yet this is but a small object when compared with the many others which depend on it; namely, 1st, The immense quantity of inland carriage it creates throughout the kingdom, both for its raw materials and finished goods. 2d, The great number of people employed in the extensive collieries for its use. 3d, The still greater number employed in raising and preparing its raw materials in several distant parts of England, from near the Land's End, in Cornwall one way along different parts of the coast, to Falmouth, Teignmouth, Exeter, Pool, Gravesend, and the Norfolk coast; the other way to Biddeford, Wales, and the Irish coast. 4th, The coasting vessels, which, after having been employed at the proper season in the Newfoundland fishery, carry these materials coastwise to Liverpool and Hull, to the amount of more than 20,000 tons yearly; and at times when, without this employment, they would be laid up idle in harbour. 5th, The further conveyance of these materials from those ports, by river and canal navigation, to the Potteries, situated in one of the most inland parts of this kingdom; and, 6th, The re-conveyance of the finished goods to the different parts of this island, where they are shipped for every foreign market that is open to the earthenwares of England."

Mr. Wedgwood very justly observed further, that

this manufacture is attended with some circumstances of advantage which are almost peculiar to itself; viz. that the value of the finished goods consists almost wholly in the labour bestowed upon them; that every ton of raw materials produces several tons of merchan.. dise for shipping, the freight being paid, not upon the weight, but according to the bulk; that scarcely a vessel leaves any of our ports whose lading is not in part made up of these cheap, bulky, and, for these reasons, valuable articles, to this maritime country; and that fully five parts in six of the aggregate manufactures of the Potteries are exported to foreign markets.

Important as were the advances which at that time had been made in the art, Mr. Wedgwood was still of opinion that they could be considered but as the beginning of improvements, - that these were still but in their infancy, and but of little moment when compared with those to which the art was capable of attaining, through the continued industry and growing intelligence of the manufacturers, in combination with and fostered by the natural facilities and political advantages enjoyed by the country; an opinion fully borne out by the event, and which our progressive experience shows to have been founded on clear and accurate perceptions.

The manufacture of earthenwares in England is far from being restricted to the district in Staffordshire which has been described already as having acquired the name of "the Potteries." Establishments for making the commoner kinds of wares are to be found in many and various parts of the kingdom; at Lambeth, especially, several manufactories of stone pottery have been carried on for considerably more than a century, producing articles which have never been surpassed in any country, either for the excellence of their materials and workmanship, or for the magnitude of the vessels and the variety of uses to which they are adapted. The Lambeth ware may, in fact, be pronounced perfect of its kind.

Porcelain has long been made at Derby, and at Coal