WEDGWOOD'S DESIRE TO RESTORE PEACE. 305 



have brought us thus far, has been one of the most pleasing contem- 

 plations of my life. How mortifying, then, is it to have this fair 

 prospect endangered by one rash act! How ill a return is it to 

 those gentlemen, who by their protection of, and attention to, the 

 interests of this manufactory, have contributed greatly to its ad- 

 vancement ; and more especially to the noble person who, as lord 

 lieutenant of the county, is particularly interested in its peace and 

 good order, and who has on every occasion stood up the powerful 

 patron of our infant trade ! 



" If, after the mention of a name which has every claim to your 

 respectful attention, I may say a word of one who has so little as 

 myself, I can very truly assure you of my sorrow, who, for more 

 than twenty years past, in public and in private, on every proper 

 occasion, have represented the Staffordshire potters as the most 

 orderly body of manufacturers in the kingdom : that this fair and 

 well-earned character should be rendered suspicious, and my mouth 

 so stopped upon this pleasing subject, by the wickedness of a few, 

 and the credulity of many, in too easily believing and following 

 their blind guides into the late mischiefs. But I place my hopes, 

 with some good degree of confidence, in the rising generation ; being 

 persuaded that they will, by their better conduct, make atonement 

 for this unhappy, this unwise slip of their fathers. 



" Do not, however, mistake me ; for though the anxiety and con- 

 cern of mind I am under may lead me to express myself strongly 

 upon this occasion, I am far from meaning to say that people who 

 for an age past have been generally well behaved and orderly, shall, 

 for a single deviation from this line of conduct, entirely lose their 

 character, and be deemed incapable of a return to that course of well 

 regulated behaviour which had before gained for them so much 

 reputation. Tar from it : I am persuaded that your fathers will show, 

 by some proper means, that they are recovered from that unhappy 

 fit of phrensy, under the influence of which they were hurried into 

 acts that in their cooler moments they must condemn ; and if the 

 magistracy, to whose care the peace and good order of the country 

 is entrusted, can be convinced that this is really and truly the case, 

 it will be the likeliest means to have the hand of justice stayed and 

 contented with one unfortunate victim, that those unhappy persons 

 whose just apprehensions have obliged them to leave their homes may 

 return again to the support and comfort of their families. 



" Permit me one word more, to assure you that the earnest wishes 

 I feel for your welfare, and the peace and good order of our neigh- 

 bourhood, have been my only inducement to address you upon this 



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