238 THE WEDGWOODS. 



of late received many essential improvements, and is continually 

 advancing to higher Degrees of perfection. 



" That the further Improvement of the Manufactory must 

 depend upon the Application and free Use of the various Raw 

 Materials that are the Natural Products of this Country. 



" That the E-aw Materials now secured for a limited Time to the 

 Petitioner, may at the Expiration of the Patent assigned to him, 

 be of great Use to enable the Potters, throughout Great Britain, to 

 improve their Manufactures into the finest Porcelain ; and thereby 

 produce a Branch of Commerce of more national Importance than 

 any of this Kind hitherto established. 



" The Case of the ingenious Mr. Watt, and the Extension of his 

 Patent, having been urged in Favour of Mr. Champion's Applica- 

 tion for the like Indulgence, it may be proper to observe that the 

 Cases are far from being similar, Mr. Watt being the original 

 Inventor of the Machine for which his Patent was granted, and 

 Mr. Champion the purchaser only of the unexpired Term of a 

 Patent granted to another Man, who does not appear to have any 

 Interest in this Application. 



" The Petitioner, therefore, not being the original Discoverer, and 

 having purchased the remaining Term of the Patent at a propor- 

 tionate Price, can have no Eight to expect a further Extension of 

 a Monopoly injurious to the Community at large, which neither 

 the Ingenious Discoverer nor Purchaser, for want, perhaps, of 

 Skill and Experience in this particular Business, have been able 

 during the Space of Seven Years, already elapsed, to bring to any 

 useful Degree of Perfection. 



" But supposing the Petitioner, as he alledges, has now brought 

 this Discovery to Perfection,* it may surely be presumed that 

 the remaining Seven Years will give him such an Opportunity of 

 reimbursing himself, and so great an Advantage over any persons 

 who may Succeed him at the end of that Term, as must render the 

 Extension or the Monopoly both unnecessary and unreasonable." 



To this memorial of Josiah Wedgwood's, Champion pre- 

 sented the following honourable reply f : 



" When Mr. Champion presented a petition to the Honourable 

 House of Commons, praying the aid of Parliament for a prolonga- 



* See the Petition presented to the House the 22nd of February. 

 t <4 A Reply to Mr. Wedgwood's Memorial relative to Mr. Champion's 

 Application for a Bill to prolong his Patent for making Porcelain." 



