not appear to have been very profperous, fince, in 1785, the proprictors, applying to parliament, complained that they had never been able to pay any dividend, though they had expended 100,000; and they prayed that they might at leaft be relieved from paying duty on the wafte glass. In 1798, it appears that they had brought that branch of manufacture to great perfection; but in fo doing they had funk their own capital, and alfo borrowed 67,5351. 85. for carrying on their bufinefs, for payment of which they had been compelled to fell their property to fome perfons, who carried on the manufacture under the act till its expiration, and afterwards as a private company. The manufacture being beneficial to the public, the prefent proprietors were incorporated for twenty-one years. Their capital is not to exceed 100,000l. in which is included that of the former company, now vefted in the new corporation; and they are enabled to hold lands and tenements not exceeding 1,000l. per annum, make bye laws, &c. They may diffolve themselves at any time, by confent of a majority holding 700 fhares, on giving fix months notice in the Gazette. Their property is alfo protected by fome particular ftatutes, as has been noticed under the head Criminal Law. EARTHEN WARE. By progreflive improvement, but chiefly by the ingenuity and induftry of one individual, earthen ware or pottery, from being an article of importation, is become a very important object of export trade. Of the advance of this great natural benefit, the following account is given by Mr. Macpherson. The north part of Staffordshire, abounding with col, and its ufual attendant, ftrong fire clay, has certainly been the feat of manufactories of earthen ware for feveral centuries. When Dr. Plott wrote his Natural Hiftory of Staffordshire in the year 1686, the manufacture was confined to coarfe butter pans, and fuch ware, the fale of which extended no farther than they could be carried on the backs of the workmen or hawkers. About the beginning of the eighteenth century the discovery of a fine bed of red earth at Bradwell induced two brothers of the name of Elers to come from Holland and fettle there and they may be confidered as the first improvers of the pottery. They made a fine kind of red porcelain in imitation of the oriental; and they introduced the art of glazing earthen ware by throwing common falt into the oven at the time of its highest ignition; but the clouds of fmoke, raifed by this operation, gave fuch offence to the neighbourhood, that they were obliged to leave the country; and, it is believed, they removed to Ireland. The clays of Staffordshire are not fit for making white earthen ware: but the ingenuity of the manufacturers has difcovered various improvements and combinations of the different fubftances, which have enabled them to produce from their own clays. feveral fpecies of earthen ware, ftill beyond the reach of foreign competition. The pipe clay of Devonshire was alfo carried to Staffordshire, and formed the bafis of a white earthen ware, which was foon after much improved by the accidental difcovery of the use of calcined flint. Thefe improvements produced a stronger and more agreeable fpecies of goods, known for many years by the name of white ftone quare, which was glazed with falt in the manner introduced by the Elers, the neighbours no longer complaining of the nuifance of the smoke. This ware came into very general use all over the country; and fome of it was exported; but ftill great quantities of finer and more elegantly formed earthen ware were imported from France and Holland for the tables of the wealthy. Such was the state of the manufacture, when Mr. Jofiah Wedgwood in 1763 produced a kind of cream-coloured earthen ware, fuperior in texture and durability to the French and Dutch, more capable of bearing the fudden changes of heat and cold, and covered with a brilliant and impenetrable glazing, which could be furnished at a moderate expenfe. The tide of public tafte immediately turned; foreign earthen wares were difcarded; English wares were ufed in every house in the kingdom, and began to be exported to the very countries from which earthen ware had hitherto been brought; and the foreign manufactures, unable to ftand the competition, declined, or were abandoned. Mr. Wedgwood, who, with the diligence of the manufacturer, poffeffed the fcience and unwearied perfeverance of the experimental philofopher, not fatisfied with having added a most important article of univerfal ufe to the manufactures of the country, (for the quantity made before his improvement, compared with that made fince, may be reckoned as nothing,) introduced many new fpecies of porcelain of various colours and forts, of which are made an infinite variety of ornamental works, comprehending cameos, intaglios, bafreliefs, medallions, tablets, fmall ftatues, bufts, feals, &c. the matter of which is fo hard, and fo qualified to refift the action of fire and acids, that it promises to remain, after time fhall have destroyed pictures, and even marbles and bronzes, an unperifhing monument, to hand down to the latest pofterity the immortal fame of the inventor, along with that of the characters represented on it. The fortunate circumftance of Sir William Hamilton bringing over from Italy his admired collection of antique vafes alfo opened a new field to his imitative powers, and he foon rendered their beautiful forms familiar in this country, inftead of being confined to the knowledge of the few who could have access to T 2 fee fee originals. He, moreover, difcovered the art of painting on vafes, &c. without any glofs, in the manner of the ancient Etrufcans, which, according to Mr. D. Hancarville, (in his differtation on Sir William Hamilton's Mufeum) has been loft ever fince the age of Pliny: and his productions in this clafs have even a fuperiority over the Etrufcan vafes, as they add to the beauty of defign, the advantages of light and fhade in all the variety of colours. His porcelain mortars, harder and more impenetrable than marble or metal, and his pyrometers for determining the degree of heat in very ftrong fires, deferve the gratitude of all who are interested in medicinal and chemical operations. Nor must his improved ink pots, though trifling in point of price, be forgotten, as they are valuable to all who wifh to preferve the points of their pens from being fpoiled, and their fingers from being daubed with ink. For the fake of connection, he adds, I fhall here give a brief account of the improved ftate of the earthen ware manufacture, chiefly extracted from Mr. Wedgwood's own evidence, given before the committee of the Houfe of Commons in May 1785. From fifteen to twenty thousand perfons are employed in the potteries: and much greater numbers are employed in digging coals for them, and in varicus diftant parts of the kingdom, and even in Ireland, in raifing and preparing the clay and flint, whereof fifty or fixty thousand tons are annually conveyed to Staffordshire by coafting and inland navigation, which gives employment not only to coafting veffels and canal barges, but also to veffels belonging to the Newfoundland fishery during the months that they used to be laid up idle. Vaft numbers are alfo employed in carrying the goods, when manufactured, to every part of Great Britain for home confumption, and for exportation. Though many of the flates of Europe have prohibited the admiflion of British earthen ware, and others have loaded it with intolerable duties, yet five-fixths of the quantity made are exported; and fcarcely a vefiel fails from any port of Great Britain without carrying lefs or more of this cheap and univerfally ufeful article, the great bulk of which, in comparison with its price, renders it a most important object in respect to freightage, as every ton in weight of the raw material becomes three or four tons in measurement, when fhipped in its finifhed ftate. To this account of the great increafe of the manufacture Mr. Wedgwood added, that he conceived it to be ftill in its infancy, in comparison of what it may be, if it is not interrupted in its growth. The manufacture has ftill continued to increafe, and has fpread over a diftrict in the north part of Staffordshire of about nine miles in extent, the whole of which is now fo covered with manufactories and dwelling houfes, that it has the appearance of one large fcattering fcattering town, and is accordingly called in the neighbourhood by the name of the Pottery, though including feveral towns and villages. Earthen ware is alfo made in imitation of Mr. Wedgwood's manner in many other parts of Great Britain, and in Ireland, and alfo in feveral parts of the continent of Europe. Thus are the meaneft materials, clay and flint ftones, converted into objects of the greatest utility and beauty, and become the means of giving employment to a prodigious number of people with the greateft poffible national advantage, (for the whole value of the earthen ware of every kind is the price of labour paid to our own people,) and of opening a new and extenfive field of commerce of the moft beneficial kind to the kingdom. For all these bleflings Great Britain is indebted to the genius, the elegant tafte, the fcience and the perfeverance, of Mr. Wedgwood, whofe memory ought to be held in honour by all concerned in the landed or commercial interefts, or who wish well to the general profperity, of Great Britain. Befide thofe enumerated, the inland trade of England furnishes many extenfive heads of commerce from which great emoluments are derived, but which it is not neceffary here to defcribe. Such are the trades in coals, corn, cattle, and hops; the brewery, diftillery, tobacco and fnuff, and many other trades, and the manufacture of coaches, engines, clocks and watches, the conftruction of mills, the building of houfes, and ianumerable other means which induftry and invention afford for the employment of capital. FISHERY. On this most important fubject to British commerce, the following obfervations are offered by Mr. Oddy. In every country where the coafts lay favourably for the fisheries, their encouragement has been found to be an object of high importance; it increafes the quantity of food, it brings up a hardy race of people, and it is a great fource of wealth, by fupplying fuch nations as have not themfelves the means of catching fifh. To Britain, which is an ifland circumfcribed in extent, and therefore limited in point of fubfiftence and population (which depends on the means of fubfiftence), the encouragement of fisheries is a peculiar object of importance, and ought to be one of particular folicitude. Its defence too, in time of war, depending on its naval power, increafes the importance of that fource of wealth; and therefore, in more views than one, the fisheries are fit objects for public bounties. Dr. Adam Smith, whofe views on fubjects of political economy have been allowed to be in general good; and who, if in error in any leading principle, it is in withing governments to interfere as little as pollible in trade and commerce, allows that fisheries are an exception, that their encouragement is a national T 3 national benefit, and therefore their extenfion ought to be an object for bounties and encouragement, at the expenfe of the public. The great floating capitals of merchants, which are ready to occupy themfelves on any branch of trade that seems advantageous, and is merely moveable, (that is to fay, where to buy, fell, or carry, is all the bufinefs,) very quickly occupy and feize on every new channel; but it is not fo with fithing; merchants will, indeed, veil their capitals in purchases of fifh that are cured, or of oil, or other produce arifing from fisheries; but they will not inveft their capitals either in fishing or curing, and unless they are caught and cured ready, they cannot be purchased. But without capital, fifheries cannot be extended fuddenly, and we, at this time in particular, require to make a great and a fudden effort; but the manner of making it is the queftion. Joint stock companies, for the purpose of fishing, have seldom anfwered, and they never can answer any great purpofse; neither will any great, complicated, or difficult plan fucceed; it muft be fomething fimple, and that will facilitate and encourage the labour of the poor individual fisherman. It is into the mode of doing this to the most advantage that we are to inquire; but, before we inquire into particular circumftances, let us take a view of the general nature of the cafe. In the first place, unlefs fifh can be cured at a reasonable price, the catching them will be to little purpofe. The price of falt is the thing that renders that cafy or difficult. Unless the poor fishermen can have boats and other implements, they cannot employ their induftry, and thefe are expenfive tools. Manufactures never flourished in this or in any country till a mode has been found out, of the rich furnishing expenfive tools to the poor. In furnishing the means to pay for these tools, fome certain mode of repayment or fecurity was expected or devifed. With immoveable property this matter is fimple and eafy; but with property that is liable to be loft, deftroyed, or carried away, there are difficulties in the nature of the thing; it is then for the intelligence of man to remove or overcome the difficulties. A government finds it impracticable to enter into the details. neceffary to aid individuals, where there are risks and hazards to run, and where there is room not only for mismanagement, but for fraud, both on the part of the individuals to be affifted, and the agents employed to give the affiftance. In this cafe, an intermediate perfon fhould be employed, who fhould fecure the government from rifk, and find, in his vigilance in looking after the property, a reward for his trouble. All the attempts hitherto |