England, as it did in France and Italy. But a more gracious future was in reserve for us; and we owe the greatness of our country, under God, to the "Genevan refugees," of whose narrow minds and ecclesiastical prejudices Mr. Froude ventures to descant so freely, to the illustrious Cecil and his party, and to the practical wisdom of the undaunted Elizabeth. THE STAFFORDSHIRE POTTERIES, AND THE CHILDREN'S The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent. By John Ward. London. 1843. A History of Pottery and Porcelain. By Joseph Marryat. London. 1857. Children's Employment Commission. (1862.) First Report of the Commissioners. London. 1863. Report of the Staffordshire Potteries' Chamber of Commerce. THE potter's art is one of the oldest in the world. The ancient Egyptians represented their gods Pthah and Nephthe Creative power, and Nature-sitting at the potter's wheel and forming man out of clay; and long before the descent of Abraham into their country, they had terra cotta jugs for water, jars for wine, and deep pans in which to serve up viands. Terra cotta cylinders, with letters impressed, found in the palace of Sennacherib at Koyunjik, record the deeds of the Assyrian monarchs. And the original porcelain tower of Nankin is said to have been built by the king A-you about 830 years before the Christian era. Pottery was taken up as a science by the Greeks, the Etruscans, the Romans, and the Moors. The Grecian empire was marked in its boundaries, and in its various epochs of time, by the urns since found in the tombs. Numa established a potter's college for the instruction of its members. The conquests of the Moors through North Africa and Southern Europe may be traced by their enamelled wares; and the jars, cups, vases, and figures now in the British Museum, and in the galleries of the. Louvre in Paris, as well as the beautiful tiles in the Palace of the Alhambra, and in the Alcazar of Seville in Spain, testify not only to the antiquity, but also to the early perfection of the art. The date at which pottery was introduced into Britain is not precisely known; but the sun-baked urns found in the tumuli, enclosing the ashes of the dead, whether Celtic, or of a prior date, belong unquestionably to the earliest historic periods in our land. The Romans, when they conquered Britain, introduced their pottery with other arts of civilized life. The remains of their kilns or ovens may still be seen at Lincoln, Caistor in Northamptonshire, the Upchurch marshes in Kent, and in the New Forest. And when the plough passes over the sites of Roman towns or villas, it not unfrequently turns up fragments of their neat floor tiling, or red Samian ware. Possibly, the Staffordshire Potteries are indebted to the Romans for early lessons in the art. Mr. Ward, in his "Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent," one of the standard local histories of England, states that "The Romans were celebrated for their figuline productions; and some of the soldiers, or settlers, at the neighbouring station of Mediolanum, may first have introduced the potter's art into this neighbourhood." The potteries are not far from the celebrated stations which formerly existed at Manchester, Chester, Wroxeter, and Chesterton (Mediolanum); and the Via Devana, or "Ickneild Street," the Roman road from Chester to the Eastern Counties, actually runs through Lane-end, one of the well known towns of the district. Most likely, then, the Romans were the first moulders of the Staffordshire clay. Be that as it may, Mr. Ward continues :"But we shall contend for the fact of the tilewright's (or potter's) art being established here during the Saxon period, as a certain inference from the name of tellwright-formerly written tylright-being here located in the most ancient period to which our provincial researches have gone; a name that must have originated before the word potter was introduced by the Normans; and while their Saxon predecessors exercised the figuline art, which they called 'tigelwyrtena cræft.' the Saxon Gospels, a translation of the seventh century, "the Potter's-field" is rendered" Acer-tigelwyrtena"-Tilewright's acre; from which we may safely conclude that the "tilewrights" were the English potters of the day. In Little was known about the Staffordshire potteries till Dr. Robert Plot published his "Natural History of Staffordshire" (Oxford, 1686). He mentions Burslem as the seat of the largest pottery in the district. He also says that four kinds of potter's clay were found within the distance of half a mile. The trade made slow progress in the middle ages; butter cups, drinking cups, and jars, made of common potter's clay, being the chief articles produced. In 1690, two brothers of the name of Elers, from Nuremberg, discovered near Bradwell a bed of fine red clay. This they worked on the spot in a small factory, taking every precaution in order to prevent any one from learning the secret of their new Samian ware. They employed none but ignorant or idiotic workmen; but a clever man named Astbury determined to find out the process. He feigned great stupidity, and his deceit was never discovered during the years which he spent in the factory. From memory he made notes of the process, and drawings of the tools; and when he had found. out the Nuremberg secret, he left, and with others opened opposition factories. A few years after, the son of the Astbury above alluded to discovered the use of calcined flint. "While travelling to London on horseback," states Parke, in his Chemical Catechism, "in the year 1720, Astbury had 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 employed in his art." This Astbury, though now apparently forgotten, paved the way for the triumphs of Josiah Wedgwood in after years. The white earthenware became popular; and, among other things, teapots with impressed ornaments in bas-relief were much admired. Sir Charles H. Williams, in his poems, puts into the mouth of the Duchess of Manchester, who is speaking ironically of a teapot, then for the first time made in the Staffordshire potteries, the following words : "Such work as this, she cries, can England do? Thy clay, and build thy fame on earthenware!" These lines, written in jest and irony, were literally fulfilled, commercially, when a celebrated foreigner, M. Faujas de Saint Fond, writing in praise of the wares introduced by Josiah Wedgwood, said, "In travelling from Paris to Petersburg, from Amsterdam to the furthest part of Sweden, and from Dunkirk to the furthest extremity of the south of France, one is served at every inn with 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." Josiah Wedgwood was born in Burslem in 1730. This remarkable man was the son of a potter, and the youngest of thirteen children. His early education was defective, owing to the want of a good school in his native town. At the age of eleven we find him an orphan, and working as a "thrower" in his brother's factory. An attack of small-pox, however, leaving a disease in one of his legs, afterwards amputated, compelled him to leave his potter's wheel. He turned his mind to light fancy articles, and to experiments in imitating jaspers, agates, and other variegated stones, by mixing metallic oxides in various proportions with different kinds of clay. In 1752 he formed a connexion with a Mr. Harrison, of Stoke; and in 1754 he entered into partnership with Mr. Thomas Whieldon, of Fenton, the most eminent potter of that day. Here young Wedgwood had a scope for his talent, and a large field for his experiments, but yet not sufficient for his expanding genius. In 1759 he returned to his native town Burslem, and in his own factory produced the celebrated cream-coloured ware, popularly known as "Wedgwood." Mr. Wedgwood presented some articles of this ware to Queen Charlotte, who immediately ordered a complete table service. The manner in which this order was executed induced Her Majesty to appoint him "Potter to the Queen," and from henceforth this ware was designated "Queen's ware." One of the most elegant specimens of pottery to be seen, is a scroll butter-boat of this ware in the Museum of Practical Geology; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his recent eloquent address on laying the foundation stone of the proposed "Wedgwood Institute" in Burslem, and when alluding to the perfection in the form of this ware, quaintly said, "I feel persuaded that a Wiltshire cheese, if it could speak, would declare itself more comfortable in a dish of Wedgwood's than in any other dish." From 1760 to 1762, six different kinds of stone ware and pottery made their appearance from his workshops. At this time, Mr. Wedgwood secured the services of men eminent for their talents. He took for his partner Mr. Bentley, a son of the famous critic; and through him obtained the patronage of the aristocracy of letters, as he had before obtained the sanction of the aristocracy of rank. He engaged Mr. Chisholme as chemist; and Flaxman also joined his staff. Who is there that has not seen the shield of Achilles, by Flaxman? Wedgwood also opened a show-room in St. James's Square. The nobles and the great came forward to assist the rising genius. One lent antique vases, another cameos, a third medallions; and Sir William Hamilton, who, during his residence at Naples as British Minister, had made a collection of rare specimens, lent him some of those from Herculaneum. At this time the celebrated, and now well-known, Barberini Vase was offered for sale at the auction of the Duchess of Portland (after whom it has since been named). Wedgwood wished to become the possessor of it, for the purpose of imitating it, and selling the imitation copies at a fair price; but he was saved the cost. The Duke of Portland became the purchaser at one thousand guineas; and, "thanks to this nobleman's zeal for the fine arts," wrote Mr. Wedgwood, "I was soon enabled to accomplish my anxious desire, by his grace's readiness to afford me the means of making a copy." The first fifty copies were sold at fifty guineas each; one of them has since been re-sold for £127. About this time, he opened works at a hamlet midway from Burslem to Stoke, which he called "Etruria," after the fatherland of his favourite vases; and the fame of his ware was such, that although many of the States of Europe had prohibited the entry of British earthenware, and others had imposed on it very high duties, yet five-sixths of all he made were exported. Mr. Wedgwood died at Etruria in 1795, in his sixty-fifth year. A handsome mural monument, in the chancel of Stoke parish church, tells of the benefits which he conferred upon his country. Of his religion we really know nothing. We have heard that he is claimed by the Socinians. Whether this is true or not, we cannot tell. At no period was real evangelical religion at a lower ebb than in the middle of the last century; and at no time was it more difficult to find out what a man's religious sentiments were. The preaching of eminent dissenters in this district, between 1760 and 1790, loosened the attachment of many to the Church of their fathers; which, though scriptural in form, and full of truth in the language of her articles, creeds, and liturgy, was at that time cold and powerless in this neighbourhood as in many others. Mr. Wedgwood may have been one of those who wished for a warmer religious atmosphere than he found in Etruria, then without either church or clergyman, and who joined the nearest dissenting chapel, without reference to the doctrines preached within. But if the assertion be true, if he really was a Socinian, then it is but another added to the long list of testimonies to the truth contained in that wondrous passage in which we read the words of our Lord,-" I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." We hope, however, better things of one whose outward mien was good, and of whose religious opinions so little is known; and we end our short incidental notice of him-necessary in showing the progress of the Staffordshire potteries-in the words of Mr. Gladstone, on the occasion above referred to :-" Of the personal character of Wedgwood in its inner sense, the world has not yet been informed; but none can presume otherwise than well of one who, in all those aspects which offer themselves to the view of the world, appears to have been admirable. For our present purpose, let us consider him only as a master." From this time the Staffordshire potteries made a rapid onward movement; and from a few scattered villages, with a |