PROJECT FOR A WEDGWOOD MEMORIAL INSTITUTE. 401 



employment, and was an object of love and honour to the wide 

 circle who enjoyed his friendship. His liberal support of some of 

 the most distinguished literary and scientific men of the country, 

 and the important assistance which he rendered several of them 

 in their memorable undertakings, are matters of history. His 

 enlightened patriotism and public spirit are equally familiar to all 

 students of his lifetime, and will doubtless, before long, receive 

 justice at the hands of some competent biographer. Such men are 

 exactly those who should be remembered alike as benefactors of 

 their fellows, wjiom, though they ask it not, one of the noblest 

 instincts of our nature commands us never to forget ; and as 

 examples of honest, noble workers in the Great Taskmaster's eye, 

 whose lives are precious daily lessons to all the children of our 

 common empire. Great Britain cannot afford any longer to want a 

 monument to Josiah Wedgwood." 



The idea of a statue was carried out to a successful issue 

 by its promoters, who having collected a sufficient amount 

 of subscriptions, commissioned Mr. E. Davis, of London, to 

 prepare the figure. The bronze statue of Josiah Wedgwood 

 now stands on a kind of neutral ground, on the confines of 

 the towns of Stoke and Hanley, in the open square in front 

 of the railway station at Stoke-upon-Trent, within a few 

 minutes' walk of the church where he is buried. He is 

 represented standing, bare headed, and holding in his left 

 hand the Portland Vase ? whose emblematic figures lie appears 

 to be in the act of descanting upon. The pedestal bears in 

 front the words "JOSIAH WEDGWOOD;" on one of 

 its sides, "Born 1730;" on the other, "Died 1795;" and 

 at the back facing the hotel " Erected by Public Sub- 

 scription. Inaugurated by the Earl of Harrowby, 24th 

 February, 1863." 



The other project that of founding a Memorial Institute 

 has, happily, also been carried out. The proposal was 

 first made in 1858, and inaugurated on the 27th of January, 

 1859, by the Right Hon. the Earl of Carlisle ; and though 

 for a time it waned, has never been lost sight of, and the 

 institution is now, at the time I write, gradually rising from 

 the 'ground the almost hallowed ground within little 



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