252 Josiah Wedgwood CHAP. 



contents, which were sold at any prices they would 

 fetch. We find among the Wedgwood papers a letter 

 from Ashton Lever (27th September 1781) as to the 

 fragments of the Holophuricon, which had been blown 

 to pieces by a waggon-load of gunpowder at Talk-o'-th'- 

 Hill. 



Wedgwood was under the impression that his works 

 were threatened. He despatched messengers to New- 

 castle-under-Lyme, and the result was that a company 

 of the Welsh Fusiliers and a detachment of the 

 Staffordshire Militia arrived at Etruria. Several of the 

 highwaymen were seized and tried; one of them was 

 hanged, and the turmoil was thus put an end to. No 

 doubt great distress existed. The war with America 

 was on foot, and everything was thrown into confusion 

 at home. Factories were closed, and many men, both 

 in Lancashire and the Potteries, were thrown out of 

 work. Yet Etruria was always ready to give employ- 

 ment to those who were willing to give their industry 

 for good wages. 



When everything had in a manner settled down, 

 Wedgwood published a small pamphlet on the folly 

 of such outbreaks for the redress of social wrongs, 

 entitled An Address to the Young Inhabitants of the 

 Pottery, which he distributed amongst his work-people. 

 In the course of this pamphlet he said : " I would request 

 you to ask your parents for a description of the country 

 we inhabit, when they first knew it ; and they will tell 

 you that the inhabitants bore all the signs of poverty to 



