MB. GLADSTONE'S ADDKESS. 403 



true, were also in no small degree peculiar to his practice, 

 and deserve to be in the permanent annals of art especially 

 associated with his name." 



Later on in the day the Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 said : 



" If this is a day dedicated and devoted to the commemoration of 

 "Wedgwood, let me observe that there is one mode of commemo- 

 rating him beyond all others, and that is by following in his foot- 

 steps ; and you have now undertaken you have now given a pledge 

 hy your energies, to erect a building which you mean to call the 

 "Wedgwood Institute. Let me presume to tell you that you have 

 thereby entered upon no mean or trivial enterprise ; you have thereby 

 undertaken no slight responsibility. If under the name of Wedg- 

 wood of the Wedgwood Institute there should be erected in this 

 town which, I must say, appears to me to have shown singular 

 public spirit in the nature of the buildings already raised for public 

 purposes if there should be raised under the name of the Wedg- 

 wood Institute anything mean, anything inadequate, anything at 

 variance with the principles to which he was devoted, that institute, 

 instead of being an honour, will be a discredit to the town of 

 Burslem. I cannot help hoping that in that institute we shall set 

 forth, and set forth in the fullest efficiency, the means for prose- 

 cuting Wedgwood's art that you are determined that that institution 

 shall be a powerful instrument of public improvement, a means of 

 improving the taste of the community, and of raising the faculties 

 and minds of the working classes to that " level which they 'are 

 capable of attaining. To do this two things will be necessary. One 

 is to instruct them through the medium it may be of books or 

 lectures, or both, and the other is to present the best models to 

 their eye. And here I must confess it is a matter of deep regret 

 that in this neighbourhood this great, wealthy, and populous neigh- 

 bourhood there should at this moment, with the exception of 

 certain limited private possessions of individual manufacturers, be 

 no great collection available for public purposes, and showing forth 

 the wonderful achievements of the art of the potter. That art is, 

 perhaps, nearly the oldest in the world the oldest, I believe, in 

 which the aid of fire was called in as an auxiliary to the industry of 

 man. But, old as it is, it is no less new than old ; it is as full of vigour, 

 it is as full of capability, it is as full of promise for the future, it is as 

 full of forms of excellence, as yet undeveloped, as if it were an inven- 

 tion of yesterday. For one, I do not hesitate to say, that those who 



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