218 Josiah Wedgwood CHAP. 



figures will make one medallion, which I will call 

 No. 1. The burning of the implements of War, and the 

 figure of Peace, must then form another group for 

 medallion No. 2. 



" Montfaucon in his Antiquities (vol. i. part ii. p. 

 349), speaking of the manner in which Virtue is repre- 

 sented, says, ' In Gordiano virtus Augusti exprimi- 

 tur per Herculem exuvias leonis gestantem et clavae 

 innexum.' I have got Mr. Webber to sketch me this 

 Hercules to represent Virtue, and the implements of 

 war sacrificing upon an altar sacred to Commerce ; but 

 this is not meant by any means to preclude any altera- 

 tion or better mode of expressing the same thing, which 

 will probably occur to you. I only mean to make a 

 separate group for my own convenience, and leave it to 

 you to make that group what you please. 



"We must take care not to show that these re- 

 presentations were invented by an Englishman ; as 

 they are meant to be conciliatory, they should be 

 scrupulously impartial. The figures, for instance, which 

 represent the two nations, should be equally magnificent 

 and important, in their dress, attitude, character, and 

 attributes ; and Mercury should not perhaps seem more 

 inclined to one than to the other, but show a full front 

 face between them, and if you think there is no 

 impropriety in it, I should wish France to have her 

 helmet and shield as well as Britannia, and the fleur 

 de lis upon the latter. 



"The figures must be modelled 8 inches high, 



