286 Josiah Wedgwood CHAP. 



entertained. Foreigners from every country were frequent 

 visitors, and were for the time made happy in the survey 

 of the beautiful works of art which the Hall contained. 

 All Wedgwood's best productions were there vases, 

 bas-reliefs, cameos, medallions, and his other famous 

 works of art. But though Wedgwood strove to entertain 

 his swarms of visitors, nothing could cure the proprietor 

 of this casket of learning and art. 



His generous contributions to the aid of all good 

 measures remained the same as before, or were even 

 increased. His subscriptions to philanthropic and 

 benevolent societies, to the struggling Poles, for the 

 Abolition of the Slave Trade, and for the relief of the 

 loyalist French emigrants who flooded England after 

 the outbreak of the French Revolution, were large and 

 bountiful. He started a free library and sick fund 

 for the benefit of his work-people, when such help was 

 very unusual. He was the great friend of Parliamentary 

 Reform, and entertained the opinion that all measures 

 of improvement should be argued out and established 

 by Parliament. To his son Josiah he wrote : " A real 

 Parliamentary Reform is therefore what we most stand 

 in need of, and for this I would willingly devote rny 

 time, the most precious thing I have, or anything else 

 by which I could serve so noble a cause." 



As another instance of Wedgwood's liberality in 

 respect of the advancement of Art, it may be mentioned 

 that in 1792 he offered 1000 towards the establish- 

 ment of a National Gallery of Sculpture, which was 



