CASE OF THE STAFFOKD SHIRE POTTERS. 247 



between earthenware and porcelain, and especially between earthen- 

 ware and the various kinds of this patent porcelain, to render it safe 

 for any potter to make use of these materials in his works. 



" The extension of this monopoly would be injurious to the public, 

 by preventing the employment of a great number of vessels in the 

 coasting trade in bringing the raw materials from the places where 

 they would be dug out of the earth, to the different parts of this 

 island where they would be manufactured. 



"This extension would also be injurious to the public because it 

 would prevent our manufactures of earthenware from being improved 

 in their quality and increased in their quantity and value to the 

 amount of many hundred thousand pounds per annum. 



"And lastly, it would be injurious to the public by preventing a 

 very great increase of our exports, which must infallibly take place 

 when the body of our earthenwares shall come to be improved so as 

 to bear a proportion to the beauty of their forms and the excellence 

 of their workmanship. 



"Upon the whole, would it not be unreasonable to extend the 

 term of a monopoly in favour of an individual to the prejudice of 

 ten thousand industrious manufacturers, when the individual can 

 have no -merit with the public, as he has made no discovery to 

 them?" 



" The Case of the Manufacturers of Earthenware in Staf- 

 fordshire," as drawn up by Wedgwood, to which I have 

 referred, is as follows : 



"The potters, and other persons depending upon the pottery in 

 Staffordshire, beg leave humbly to represent that Nature has pro- 

 vided this island with immense quantities of materials proper for 

 the improvement of their manufactures ; that such materials have 

 been known and used twenty or thirty years ago ; and that many 

 experiments were made upon them by various operators, with 

 various degrees of success. 



"That porcelain was made of these materials, and publicly sold 

 before the year 1768. 



"That in March, 1768, Mr. Cookworthy, of Plymouth, took out a 

 patent for the sole use of the materials in question, called in the 

 patent moor-stone or growan, and growan clay, for the making of 

 porcelain, which is denned to have a fine colour and a lucid grain, 

 and likewise to be as infusible as the Asiatic. 



" That Mr. Coolcworthy contracted, as the condition upon which 



