CASE OF THE STAFFORDSHIRE POTTERS. 249 



fession, Mr. Champion acknowledges that even at this time he has 

 just entered upon the commonest and most useful branch of this 

 manufactory, which he has pursued at a great expense by means of 

 & foreign artificer, and can now venture to assert that he shall bring 

 it to perfection. And in the space of seven years yet to come of his 

 patent, and fourteen years' further indulgence which he expects 

 from Parliament, one would hope some discovery might be made ; 

 but would it not be an egregious injury to the public, an unheard 

 of and unprecedented discouragement to many manufacturers who 

 have great and acknowledged merit with the public, to continue 

 to one person who, in this instance, has no public merit, the mo- 

 nopoly of earth and stones that Nature has furnished this country 

 with in immense quantities, which are necessary to the support 

 and improvement of one of the most valuable manufactures in the 

 kingdom ? 



" Mr. Champion says, in the Reply referred to above, he ' has no 

 objection to the use which the potters of Staffordshire may make 

 of his or any other raw materials, provided earthenware only, as 

 distinguished by that title, is made from them. He wants to inter- 

 fere with no manufactory whatsoever, and is content to insert any 

 clause to confine him to the invention which he possesses, and 

 which he has improved,' &c. 



" If Mr. Champion had accurately defined the nature of his own 

 invention ; if he had described the proportions of his material 

 necessary to make the body of his ware ; if he had also specified the 

 proportions of his materials necessary to produce his glaze, as every 

 mechanical inventor who takes out a patent is obliged to specify the 

 nature of the machine by which he produces his effect; if Mr. 

 Champion could have drawn a distinct line between the various kind*; 

 of earthenware and porcelain that have been made, and are now 

 made in this kingdom, and his porcelain, a clause might have been 

 formed to have confined him to the invention which he says he pos- 

 sesses, and to have prevented him from interrupting the progress of 

 other men's improvements, which he may think proper to call imita- 

 tions of his porcelain ; but, as he has not chosen to do the former, 

 nor been able to do the latter, no manufacturer of stoneware, 

 Queen's ware, or porcelain, can with safety improve the present 

 state of his manufacture. 



"It is well known that manufactures of this kind can only sup- 

 port their credit by continual improvements. It is also well known 

 that there is a competition in these improvements through all parts 

 of Europe. In the last century Bui slem, and some other villages in 



