of the inferior sorts of clay, and afterwards | A wind-mill was erected by Brindley for the purcoated with those of a finer colour or texture, mixed with water and blended together, producing an ornamental surface resembling some kinds of marble-p -paper. The common glaze was produced by lead ore finely pulverized and sprinkled on the pieces of ware before firing; sometimes with the addition of a little manganese for the sake of the brown colour it communicates; and sometimes, by way of improvement, the potters used calcined lead instead of lead ore, but sprinkled on in the same inartistical manner.

pose of grinding it in a dry state, and he altered and adapted water-mills to the same use. The dry grinding of flint was practised for above forty years, notwithstanding that the operation was so fatal to those engaged in it, owing to the particles of flint which they inhaled, that they were seldom known to survive the second year of their engagement. It was not till 1771, when Wedgwood was in the height of his prosperity, that the practice obtained of grinding the flint with water—a suggestion originating with a plumber and glazier, named Bedson, and by the adoption of which the danger and the mortality were avoided.

But we are anticipating. Upon the introduction of flint in combination with the clays a marked and rapid improvement began to be manifest in the productions of the English potters. A number of spirited individuals, having capital at command, now engaged in the trade, and extended its operations. In addition to the commoner articles in use for commercial and domestic purposes, they began to manufacture handsome tea-services and dinner equipages: they no longer carried on these operations in hovels and sheds, but erected substantial manufactories of brick, roofed in with tiles; they travelled abroad to collect information, and imported moulds and models from France, which they turned to good account at home. Many realized competent fortunes by their industry; and not a few failed altogether in their experiments and speculations, and finally abandoned the pursuit. Meanwhile the art continued to progress, and considerable quantities of the productions of Staffordshire began to find their way into the foreign markets, notwithstanding the increased amount required for home consumption. Unhappily, as the potters increased in prosperity they relaxed in care, and competing furiously with each other in cheapness of production, inundated the markets, about the middle of last century, with such vast quantities of inferior goods as almost to ruin their character, not only with foreigners, but also with consumers at home. The French naturally took advantage of such a state of things, and having succeeded in the manufacture of a white ware much more elegant in form and better glazed than our own, shipped it in large quantities to this country, where for a time it completely superseded the productions of Staffordshire, which at that period few persons of taste would admit to their tables. This luckless position of the English potters, which seemed to threaten the overthrow and final ruin of their trade, did not, however, endure for many years. As we have mentioned in a previous article, Josiah Wedgwood in 1763 produced his celebrated

When William of Orange freed this land from the peril of impending popery, and drove the recreant James the Second for shelter to the court of France, he opened England to the enterprise of his countrymen. Among others who came over to try their fortunes, two brothers of the name of Elers found their way from Holland to the north of Staffordshire. It was about the year 1690 that they established a pottery at Bradwell in the neighbourhood of Burslem. They introduced a new kind of glaze, which they effected by casting into the kiln when the fire was at its greatest heat a quantity of common salt, which occasioned a superficial vitrification of the clay. These Hollanders astonished the natives of Staffordshire still further by the production of another species of ware in imitation of the unglazed red china from the east; and they arrived at such a degree of excellence that some of their tea-pots sold at the price of a guinea each. They introduced also a black variety obtained by the addition of manganese to their clays. Their skill in their art is attested by the specimens of their labours which yet remain. The Elers subsequently fled from the inquisitive spirit of the Staffordshire men, but not before, in spite of all their precautions and they used many-their secret had been furtively abstracted from them, and they had been compelled unwillingly to furnish instruction to their rivals in trade. The story goes, that an unscrupulous workman feigned himself a drivelling idiot, and having thus got access to their works, took careful note of their proceedings, and having obtained the desiderated knowledge, communicated it to his employers. The Elers removed to the neighbourhood of London, but leaving behind them the secret they so much wished to guard. The new glaze with salt was speedily succeeded by most important improvements in the composition of the ware itself the art of mixing different kinds of clays together and in combination with other materials began to be practised and understood; but it was mainly to the introduction of flint, as an element in the composition of pottery, that the advance of the art was due. This took place about the year 1720, when Mr. Astbury, a potter, of" Shelton, stopping on his journey to London at an inn at Dunstable, happened to notice the close and delicate texture of some burnt flint-stone when mixed with water, which had been prepared by the ostler of the inn as a remedy for the discased eye of his horse. He immediately conceived the idea of mixing it with clay for the purposes of his trade, and upon making the experiment it was found to succeed beyond his expectations. At first, having calcined the flint, he pounded it to powder in a mortar; but this process was found too tedious when ground flint became generally in demand.

queen's ware," which at once retrieved the character of the English manufactures, and in due course of time restored the lost trade and gave it a greater impetus than ever. In the introduction of his new ware, Wedgwood adopted the surest means of improving his trade and enriching himself: he manufactured his goods in the best possible manner, and he sold them cheap. The queen's ware was not only handsome in design, but was proof against any change of temperature, however great or sudden; it was not glazed with the salt glaze, which experience had shown to be lamentably defective, but with a fluid glaze, the use of which is said to have

been first introduced by Mr. Enoch Booth, of Tunstall, much improved by William Littler, of Brownhills, but brought to its greatest perfection by Wedgwood himself.

We need not dwell upon the progress of the art of pottery from the time of Wedgwood down to the present day. In point of fact, it is questionable whether any improvements of very great importance in the composition of the material from which the common ware is made have taken place since his time. Various new applications of the potter's art to building, domestic, and commercial purposes have doubtless arisen and are continually arising; and some of these we may have occasion to notice. Great improvements have taken place, too, in matters of general design and ornamentation, much to the advantage, it cannot be doubted, of the popular taste, which unhappily in this country has to be led, and rarely leads, to the appreciation of elegance. But the great and noticeable fact in connexion with the pottery trade is its enormous increase and extension, which have enabled a district, which little more than a hundred years ago barely maintained five thousand inhabitants, to find employment and the means of comfort for a population exceeding, it is now supposed, a hundred thousand. But before proceeding to quote a few statistics which will throw a little light on this remarkable social phenomenon, we must turn our attention briefly to the subject of porcelain, which as yet we have forborne to mention.

The origin of the manufacture of porcelain has been satisfactorily traced to the Chinese, who have excelled in the art for we know not how many centuries. We need not here recapitulate either the facts which are known, or the fables which are circulated, relative to their modes of manufacture. It imports us little to know whether they bury their materials in the ground for a hundred years before they use them; and whether, in the combination of their pe-tun-tse and kao-lin, which stand in the stead of our flint and clays, they make use of hoa-che or not. We must leave these interesting questions to philosophers who have the means of investigation at command, and unlimited space for the report of their conclusions on the subject. Father d'Entrewlles may rest in his grave, for us, and the porcelain tower of Nankin must have its praises sung by some other historian. It is enough for us that certain discoveries in the science of practical chemistry, which were made about the year 1700, established the simple facts that unmixed earths are infusible by any heat to which we can subject them, but that aluminous earths in combination with silex, when exposed to the action of a fierce fire, become chemically united; and that when alkaline earths in certain proportions are added, the result is a dense vitrified substance sufficiently resembling the porcelain of China, and adapted to the same uses. It is on this principle that the manufactures at Dresden in Saxony and at Sèvres near Paris were founded. The first porcelain ever manufactured in England was made at Bow, and simultaneously at Chelsea, near London: the body of the ware was composed of a mixture of sand from Alum Bay, of clay, and powdered flint glass; it was coated with a leaden glaze. This kind of ware, which was first made about 1744 or 1745, was much prized and sought after. In 1748, we find

the manufacture removed to Derby, and flourishing under the management of a Mr. Duesbury, an artist of marked talent. In 1751, Dr. Wale established a manufactory at Worcester, which still exists: to this gentleman is attributed the invention of printing upon the ware by transferring printed patterns upon the biscuit, a process which we shall have occasion to describe in a future paper. In the same year, Messrs. Littler, Yates, and Baddeley made experiments in the same manufacture in Staffordshire, but at first without success, at least in a commercial sense, Mr. Littler being ruined by the speculation; and it was not till fourteen years after that Messrs. Baddeley and Fletcher succeeded in the manufacture at Shelton. By this time Wedgwood, having settled the question of the superiority of the English in the produce of common wares, was experimenting in the higher branches of the art, and pursuing those practical researches which led eventually to his splendid reproductions of antique vases, and the invention of the exquisite jasper wares. In 1768, Mr. Cookworthy, a chemist of Plymouth, took out a patent for the manufacture of porcelain by a process more facile in operation and more certain in result than any which had been hitherto practised. It was mainly through the introduction of Cookworthy's process that the making of porcelain was at length completely established in Staffordshire. Since the year 1772 it has been practised with more or less success by most of the potters of the district : though it is said that the first firm who turned the porcelain to good account were the Messrs. Hollins and Co., of Shelton; they having obtained by purchase an interest in the patent of Cookworthy. In 1800, Mr. Josiah Spode, of Stoke, produced a porcelain superior to any before known in England, and very nearly approaching in excellence to that made at Sèvres. He is said first to have introduced the mixture of calcined and ground bones with the paste. He realized a large fortune by the business, and retired to a noble mansion which he built at Penkhull in the neighbourhood of Stoke. His manufactory is now the property of Alderman Copeland.

When porcelain is coloured by the mixture of metallic ingredients, as in the jasper ware of Wedgwood, it is called stone-ware; when it is free from colouring matter and is transparent, it is called china. Of china there are two sorts-the hard and the tender. The hard china is that of the cast and of Saxony; its glaze is of earthy materials, and in the process of glazing it is submitted to a heat of such intensity as to vitrify the entire mass; thus the glaze does not form a coating to the ware, but is in a manner incorporated with it, and the surface appears like a stone polished by a lapidary. This process is one of much hazard, as it is attended with the danger of melting the goods in the act of vitrification. The tender china is that which is mostly made in England; its glaze is less hard, and may be scratched with a steel point, to which the hard china would be impervious: it is glazed with a mixture harder than that used for earthenware, but in a fire not sufficiently intense to endanger the integrity of the goods. Many of the foreign manufacturers are now imitating the caution of the English, and making soft or tender instead of hard china.

SCEPTICISM: A TALE. "BUT, Peyton, have you considered the consequences of the principles which you have just uttered?"

Among the later improvements in connexion with this department of the plastic arts is the combination of the beautiful material which forms the substance of the porcelain statuary, of which numberless exquisite specimens may be seen in the shop-windows of dealers in works of art in the "Considered them? to be sure I have," replied metropolis, and in the collections of the curious. The Duchess of Sutherland, it is said, was the Arthur Peyton, somewhat proudly. "Listen to me, first to perceive the adaptation of this material to and see if I have not. First, there is the rejection the purposes of statuary, and to encourage its use. of the bible, and of course, as priestcraft swims She directed the attention of Gibson to it, who de- in the same boat, they both sink together; secondly, clared it the next best thing to marble, and had a there is the displeasure of many of my friends and reduced copy of his Narcissus made of it at Cope- the sneers of the orthodox, as they call themland's manufactory. It is a matter of doubt or of dispute as to whom the invention of this exquisite selves; and, lastly, and I confess that is the material is due it is largely used by most if not deepest cut of all to me, there is the loss of Agnes all of the principal potters in Staffordshire; but Musgrove. The two first consequences hardly it is evident that it is not, and need not be, pre-graze the skin, the last makes a deep gash; pared after any very rigid formula, inasmuch differs essentially in transparency, in texture, and there is no escaping it, for I see plainly that Agnes in colour, in various establishments.

as it

Having thus taken a hasty glance at the rise and progress of the pottery trade, we shall conclude this paper by quoting a little statistical information, for which we are chiefly indebted to an admirable article on the subject, which appeared in the "Times" in the autumn of 1851, and which may serve to acquaint the reader with the manufacturing status of the potteries in our days.

The following is a statement of the probable annual consumption of articles in the Staffordshire Potteries:

Ball clay, from Devon and Dorset
China clay (Cornish)
Cornish stone and flint
Straw (for packing).

Per Ann.
45,000 tons.

14,000 24,000 16,000

The population in 1851 was reckoned at 90,000; but from the rapid increase by immigration it is supposed now to exceed 100,000.

The coals consumed annually in manufactures amount to no less than 468,000 tons, some of the pot-works consuming as much as 60 tons a day each; the consumption in collieries and mills is not less than 282,000 tons; making altogether 750,000 tons of coals per annum used for pottery purposes. The mills supply the smaller establishments with materials ready ground and fit for use, as only the larger manufacturers grind their own. Every potter, however, prepares his own glazes, which, if he choose, he can have ground at the public mills.

The entire value of the goods made annually in the potteries is estimated at 1,700,000l.; of this the large amount of 1,300,000l. represents the value of the exports, leaving goods to the amount of 400,000l. for home consumption. The value of the gold annually consumed in the ornamentation of china and earthenware is about 36,000Z.

Of the pottery of Staffordshire which is exported, more than one-third goes to the United States; and the rest finds its way in various bottoms to the following places: Canada, British North American colonies, Brazil, East Indies, West Indies, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Russia, Italy and the Italian islands, Spain and the Balearic islands, Turkey, Foreign West Indies, West Africa, Cape of Good Hope, Sumatra and the Eastern Archipelago, Australia, etc., etc.

but

will discard me as soon as she knows that I am really an unbeliever."

Ay, and there are other consequences than these; there is the restless tossing of the spirit on the waves of doubt when the anchor of faith is thrown overboard; there is a life, perhaps a long one, before you, and no chart or compass to make you feel that you are sailing to a haven of peace; and there is a death which, in such a case as yours, seerns to me to resemble a storm, in which there will be no cheering hope that you shall escape shipwreck."

"How very nautical you are, Evelyn,” replied Arthur, in an assumed tone of gaiety: “it's my opinion that you would make a first-rate parson, with such a power for metaphors as you possess 'a gift,' I suppose I ought to have said, had I spoken orthodoxically; but you see I am losing the slang of the sectaries already."

"Peyton, speak respectfully of those whom you have abandoned. If you will be a sceptic, refrain at the least from the intolerant sarcasm in which too many of your party indulge."

"Well, I shall try to follow your advice," replied Arthur; "but if they sneer at me, I cannot promise that my temper will not blaze up, and if it should I shall be pretty sure to sneer too. I always had a particular dislike to being laughed at, and I do not find that my sensitiveness to ridicule materially diminishes as I grow older."

"Ah, Peyton, take the warning of an old friend, and guard against pride. It is pride of intellect, I fear, that has much to do with your present unhappy notions; do not be offended at me for saying so."

"Oh no, Evelyn; you are a privileged individual. I can take more from you than from almost any one else. But, good-bye.'

Arthur Peyton was articled to a solicitor in the same country town in which Edward Evelyn was pupil to a surgeon, and they had been intimate from boyhood. Arthur was a high-spirited and showy young man, with some talent, but his acquirements were superficial. Edward was more sober-minded, and a deeper thinker than his friend. Both at one time gave tokens of religious feeling, which cheered the hearts of many of their friends; but after a decline-slow at first-from the prin ciples which were bearing such promising fruit,

Arthur had now thrown them aside altogether, and | embraced the theory of scepticisin. He was an only child, and his parents were both dead. His engagement to Agnes Musgrove-the daughter of the surgeon of whom Edward was a pupil-has been already alluded to. He paid her a visit on the evening of the day in which the above conversation had taken place.

'How grave you are to-night, Agnes," he said, after several attempts to make his lover smile, which had succeeded very partially. "What is the matter? have you seen a ghost, dearest ?"

Arthur, I am in no mood for jesting, and you know what it is that makes me sad. Tell me, honestly and plainly, what is the final result of the examination of Christianity, which you told me you were rapidly bringing to a close when we last met."

"Nay, Agnes dear, do not be so hard with me; consider how you tempt me to dissemble when I see you so serious about a mere trifle. Come, give me one of your celestial smiles; you see I believe in heaven, or I should not apply that term to your bewitching face."

"You are trifling, Arthur," said Agnes, gravely; "but if you do not speak out honestly, I shall conclude that my fears are realized, and that the result is what I have dreaded and expected it would be."

Arthur gazed earnestly at Agnes for a few moments, and then laying down the book which he was carelessly turning over, he said with emphasis: "Then I am a sceptic, Agnes."

She burst into tears, but checked herself almost instantly, saying with forced calmness," Mr. Peyton, our engagement is at an end."

Arthur endeavoured earnestly to dissuade Agnes from her resolution, but his efforts were fruitless, and he soon quitted the house, somewhat piqued at the steady coolness with which she had met his pleadings. He could not see the flood of tears which found vent after his departure. A few months rolled on. Arthur was the president of a small club which professed principles similar to his own, and which consisted, with but one exception, of men in a lower rank of society than that in which he stood. Their deference to his opinions, and the applanse with which they greeted the papers which he occasionally read before them, flattered and fed his vanity. His scepticism soon became generally known in the Country town in which he resided.

He is a conceited fellow, and always was," said Mr. Vale, a tradesman in the town, who was Conversing about Arthur with a friend on the platform of the railway station. It so happened that Arthur was standing near the two speakers, and he could not help hearing that the conversation had reference to himself. Nettled at this last remark, he darted before Mr. Vale, and said angri"Why do you call me a conceited fellow, sir ?" "Because you are one," was the curt and logical

names," coolly replied Mr. Vale, "it would do me little harm I assure you. Your opinion is not of that weight that one need be much afraid of it; and I should join the rest of our fellow-townsmen in saying, that it was a pity you had not more good sense."

This was a tender point with Arthur. To accuse him of being weak-minded galled him sorely, but he saw that he was likely to be worsted in his present combat, so turning contemptuously away, he merely added: "Ah, you are an ignoramus, and know no better; I will not argue with you."

The report of this encounter spread rapidly through the town, and Arthur winced under the comments which were made upon it. His father had left him a sum of money which, with economy, was sufficient to start him in his profession; but he grew dissatisfied with his position, and resolved to remove to the metropolis. "There," he said to himself, "I shall be free from the impertinent remarks of those around me, and my principles will not be so obnoxious as they are in this hole."

Accordingly, in a few months he went to London, with the consent of the solicitor to whom he was articled, who, in truth, was glad to get rid of him out of his family, in which were several sons. Two of these were in their father's office, educating for his profession. Arthur now met with acquaintances of his own rank who professed sceptical principles, and with one in particular who possessed a considerable amount of general knowledge, and a power of sarcasm which caused him to be both courted and feared by others. This man was an avowed unbeliever, and Arthur soon imbibed his principles. From this time his downfall was rapid. He quarrelled with the solicitor to whom his indentures had been transferred, and lived for some time upon his fortune. An idle life accelerated his progress in dissipation, and after some months he was compelled to take a situation as lawyer's clerk. He retained this for two years, and then lost it through his fiery temper. He now became a socialist lecturer, but found it impossible to subsist on his scanty receipts. Drunkenness was next added to his other vices, and destitution soon stared him in the face. He became desperate and reckless. Thoughts of self-destruction flitted before his mind; but he thrust them aside, for his heart belied his principles, and he dreaded the hereafter which, in words, he stoutly denied to have any existence.

One bright autumn evening, when twilight was dimming the outlines of distant objects, a haggard and fierce-looking man was seen to come hurriedly upon one of the metropolitan bridges. He gazed earnestly at the dark water as it glided slowly through the central arch. He then took a glance over that city where the last few and bitter years of his life had been spent, and as he did so his eye fell upon the cross which stands loftily upon the summit of St. Paul's. He turned moodily away, and in an instant sprang upon the parapet of the bridge and threw himself into the river. Just as Then, s suppose I call you an obstinate fanatic-he reached the turbid water he was heard to a psalm-singing hypocrite-a besotted believer in shriek, "Oh Christ"--but the rest of the sentence exploded fallacies-an orthodox bigot," said Ar- was left unuttered. He thus belied in his last thir, waxing more wrathful as he proceeded with moments the principles which had ruined him, and his string of sarcasms. left a warning example to others of the danger of approaching Christianity in a proud and flippant

reply.

"Well, if you did call me all these handsome