The Express.
London, England, 1863-10-27 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 27, 1863.

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

(azumes nuauma.)
THE lONIAN ISLANDS.
TRIESTE, OCT. 25.

Advices received here from Corfu state that the
lonian Parliament has been prorogued for six

months.

THE PONTIFICAL STATES.
ROME, Ocr. 24.
Prinoe de la Tour d'Auvergne, French Ambassa-
dor to the Pontifical Court, has arrived here.
A decree of the Ministry has been published
to-day considerably reluciag the import duties
upon manufactured articles and articles of con-
sumption.

THE WEDGWOOD INSTITUTE.
1

SIJRBLEN, MONDAY Num.
In 179' the famous Staffordshire potter, Josiah
Wedgwood, died, and to-day the foundation stone of a
worthy monument to his memory hes beau laid here by the

Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Potteries, including
Sctke, Hanley, Shelton, Boehm, Etruria, Fenton, Laneßed,
and Dolph,. owe their prosperity, and in some instanoss their
existence, to the labours, the enterprise, and the res nod taste

ei Wedgwood. The &mous "batter pets "of the time of
Illiabeth, made of the rodent kiod of ware, and roughly
ornamented with pulverised lead ors sprinkled over them,

gave place, under his enterprise, to some of the happiest
specimens of ceramic ware. Instead of devoting himself to
the production of such works as the Royal Oak Dish, then
the chef dauvre of Staffordshire, which was ma immense
soup plate, with Charles, sceptred and crowned. amongst the
branches, his wig floating in vast redundance, and every
golden acorn as large as the King's heed, Wedg-
wood set himself to effect reproductions of the
MOM beautiful forms of classic art, and at tke present day
the exquisitely.formed and delicate plaques and cameos
win from the connoisseur prices equal to their weight is
gold, and form the most valuable objects of study for the
mast and workman. . .

The present scheme of the Wedgwood Institute was mooted
so Wag ago as the year 1858, but it had to couteod with
unusual difficulties. There can be no question that Bun-
ion "ALA_ paramount claim to be the site pf nay sr
kind. It was the birth-plane
of Wedgwood, end,theearliestscene of his triumphs. Inßurs-
lem be saved money wherewith to found the grad manatee-
, tory at Knuth', which still continues in the hands of his
descendanta, and have still, we believe, a monopoly of his
choicest technical secrets. Donlan, though somewhat in-
ferior in population to Hanley, is more exclusively • pottery
town than its rival ; and at all events it may claim to be
the cradle of Staffordshire pottery. Neverthelem, its
neighbours disputed its right to any exclusive benefit, and
they supported a proposal for • public statue. This being
a cheaper memorial carried the day, and the statue was
designed, executed, and inaugurated at the railway-station
of Stoke. Besides this rival scheme, the committee have
also had to contend with a considerable fallingeff
in the trade of the district in consequence of the American
war, for it should be stated that a third of Its wane have
hitherto found a market across the Atlantic. Nevertheless
the committee did not despair, and at last, thanks to their
seal, energy, and perseverance—end especially to the seal,
energy, and perseverance of the honorary secretaries, Mr.
Woodall and Mr. James Macintyre—the institute
has been solemnly founded. A liberal sum has been rub-
earthed, an appropriate site close to Wedgwood's birth-
place and his old works has been purchased, the require-
ante of the government have been complied with, so that
a handsome grant may be confidently looked for, and,
above all, Mr. Ewart's Public Libraries and
Museums Act has been adopted by the rate-
payers almost without a dissentient voice. This
measure will authorise the levying of a peony rate for the
support of the institution, end it is estimated that it will
yield not less than 2001. a year. One peculiarity in the
scheme remains to be noticed. An admirede claims for the
building by Mr. G. B. Nicholls has been selected ; but at a
conference 'of the subscribers held in February last, Mr.
A. J. B. Bamford Hope suggested that premiums should
be offered for the adornment of the principal facade in co.
ramie work, with mouldings in terracotta, panels of dells
robbia, or mosaics in tessera. The adjudimtion upon the
competitive designs will not he made till next month ; so
that the contract for the structure, the first stone of which
was laid yesterday, only relates to the basement ;
but it is believed that the whole will be completed
in the coarse of • year or so, and if the facade at all answers
the expectations that have been teemed of it, there can be no
question that the building will be both striking and appro-
priate. Its internal arrangements seem to be all that can
be desired in point of convenience. They will comprise
schools of art, both for male and for female students, a
fres public library, • library of reference, a museum, and •
modelling room.
It is needless to say that the ceremony excited the greatest
interest in the neighbourhood, sod that the day was kept as
a holiday throughout the whole of the dietrict. The printed
request of the Chief Bailiff to the inhabitants to close
their shops, and exhibit flogs, was very generally obeyed ;
but some of these latter manifested more zeal than ap-
propriateness ; for some bore inscriptions of benediction
upon the Prince and Princess of Wales, while others were
national colours that had no apparent relation to the trade
of Staffordshire. There was a very respectable trium-
phal arch acmes the main street, and the tent
erected over the stone was also decorated with
banners, evergreens, and inscriptions, amongst which
were the following " Burslern, the birthplace of
Josiah Wedgwood, F.R.S. ;" "Burdens, the mother of the
Potteries ;" " May honest industry prosper ;" " Prosperity
to the Wedgwood Institute "May England with honour
be united to all canoes ;" "AWelcome to the Right Hon. W.
E. Gladstone, M.P., D.C.L.," &c. The 'unusual good
fortune of the committee in securing three cabinet ministers,
however, imparted to the occasion an importance far trait-
melding any mere local interest.
At one o'clock the Chancellor of the Exchequer entered
the nest under which the ceremony was to take place, and
he was received with enthusiastic cheering. There were
present Earl Granville, the Bishop of Lichfield, Viscount
lopstre, Mr. Lowe, M.P., Mr. Adderley, M.P., Sir James
Duke, M.P., Mr. Greaten, M.P., Mr. Ewart, M.P., Mrs.
sad Ms Medians', ho.
The proceedings were commenced by the presentation of
as address to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Mr. Parts Bonzes, • working man, also presented an
address to the right bon. gentleman, remarking that he
hoped the right hon. gentleman would be able to attend also
at the opening of this the Working Man's College. (Loud
cheers.)

The &iAxesizoa of the Ercneuccit bristly acknowledged
the complimenta paid to him in the two documents.
The foundation Moos was thee laid with the usual mob-
mooiss, prayer having first been offered by the Bishop of
Lichfield.
Mr. Gummi then read a paper in which he treated
the purpose in hand as of national interest. He
showed how high an estimate he had formed of
Wedgwood, in relation not merely to his particular
business, but to the general laws of industrial pro-
duction. His peculiar pre-eminence was in the
emaciation of beauty with utility. " Beauty," said the
right hoo. gentleman, "is not an accident of things. It
pertains to their sums, it pervades the wide range of
creation (cheers) end wherever it is impaired
or banished, we have in this fact the proof
of the moral disorder which pervades the world. (Cheers.)
Iteject, therefore, the false philosophy of those who will
ask, . • What death matter, provided a thing be metal,
whether it be beautiful or not'." and say, in reply, that we
will take our lesson from Almighty God, who is Hie works
bath shows us, and in His Word also bath told as. that

He bath made everything —not one thin or another
thing, but everything—" beautiful in his tkno.^ (Cheer.) I
Among all the decrees of creation, there is not one more ;
wonderful—whe.ber it be the movement of the heavenly !
Indite, or the succession of the seasons and the years, or the
adaptation of the world and its phenomena to
the 000ditioos of human life, or the structure
of the eye or band, or any other part of the frame,
of man—not one of these is more wonderful than the pro-
fusions with which the mighty Maker has shed over the
works of Hisbands an endless and boundless beauty.
(Cheers.) And to this constitution of things outward the
constitutional mind of man, deranged although it be,
still answers from within. Down to the humidest condition
of life, down to the lowest and moat backward grad* of del.
Lion, the nature of man crave., and seems as it ware
even to cry aloud for something—some gigs or token, at the
least, of what is beautiful io some of the muy spheres of
mind or soon. (Cheers) It is that which makes the
Elpitalfields weaver, amid the murky streets of
London, train ossarke and &deans' to sing to him
at his wait, that alb with gowerpota the window. of
the poor, that Inds the peasant of Pembrokeshire to paint
the outside of hie cottage in lively colours, and prompt'
in the humbler clams of women a desire for some little
personal ornament, artainly sot without its dangers (for
whet sort of isdalpec• cam ever be without them(!), yet
sometimes, perhaps, too sternly repressed from the high
and luxurious places of society. We knee the operation
of this priscipte yet more conspicuously in • loftier region ;
in that instinct of rational sod Chriatian piety which
taught the early masters of the fine arts to
clothe the noblest objects of our faith, end asps
the ides of the sacred person of our Laid,
in the noblest forms of beauty that their minds could
ooeoeive, or their heads could execute. "(Cheers.) It is, la