The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-11 00:00:00

BY MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.

GRAVESEND, Wednesday Morning.
Arrived, May 10—Catherine, from Terceira; Triumfo,
from St. Jago do Cuba; Lady Gordon Canning, from
Dantzic ; Cowrie, from Malmo.

Arrived, May 11—Two Brothers, from Krageroe.
DEAL, Wednesday Morning.
Passed—Her Majesty's ship Dee, from the west for the
river ; Exeter, for Genoa ; Hellenis, screw steamer, for
Malta—both from London.

WED GWO OD'S IMPROVEMENTS.--The manufac-
ture of white ware, relief tiles, and small ornamen-
tal articles, were carried on at the now works. But Wedg-
wood saw clearly that it was not those classes of ware
which would either open or secure a new and great mar-
ket. What was wanting was a ware of a superior descrip-
tion, so excellent in all respects as to be suited to the tables
of the upper classes; and which, when improvements and
facility in production should enable the manufacturer to
sell it at a cheaper rate, might reach those of the middle
classes. He had for a considerable period, as we have seen,
turned his attention towards the improvement of the ordi-
nary cream coloured ware, manufactured at various pot-
tery works in Burslem and its neighbourhood. But his ex-
periments had been desultory : rather directed to future pur-
poses than immediate results. He now, however, concen-
trated all his energies for a period in this one direction.
Every essential of body, glaze, form, and ornament was
alike the object of his care. But through the various ne-
cessary processes his patience was often sorely tried, his
repeated failures most disheartening. One kiln after an-
other was pulled down in order to correct some defect or
effect some necessary improvements. His losses from this
source alone were at this period very heavy, and the ware
itself was often destroyed before he could bring his firing
processes to the requisite degree of perfection. His chemi-
cal combinations often baffled him, and his experiments
both in body and glaze would, after the greatest pains,
turn out entire failures. Yet, unwearied and indomitable
in spirit, he persevered, and success came. He had to in-
♦ent, and, if not that, to improve almost every tool, in-
strument, and apparatus ; and to seek for smiths and ma-
chinists to work under his guidance. Lathes, whirlers,
punches, gravers, models, moulds, drying-pans, and many
other things were all variously improved. He often passed
the whole day at the bench beside his men, and in many
cases instructed them individually. The first pattern of
each original piece he almost always made himself ; and
though no great draughtsman, the enamellers could work
from his designs.—Meteyarers Life of Wedgwood. •

ALGERIA A LA FRANOISE !—The Place du
Gouvernement might be the principal square of a
French provincial town of the first class. There aro big
hotels, cafes, counting-houses, and shops; the names aro
French, the green blinds aro French, the merchandise is
French. You may buy Paris chocolate, and pectoral paste,
and pills, and sham jewellery, and crinolines. You may
dine a la carte or an prix fixes you may buy the latest
scrofulous French novel at the bookstalls, and read the
same etiolated little newspapers, with their timid Murmur-
ings of news a fortnight old, and their leading article
devoted to a puff on a corncutter or a juggler fresh come to
town. In a word, you aro in a little Paris. The "pat" of
the consumer sounds shrilly through the air, and the
.31'sr " of the gargon is audibly responsive. The
itinerant musicians of Gaul, the wheezy flute, the rachitic
fiddle, and the harp dying of atrophy strum and tootle feeble
music at the street corner ; the commissionaire slumbers
on his trunk in the sun ; the shoeblack plies his trade •
the bonne parades the same elaborately-laced babies ;
the little girls in Hessian boots and frilled trousers go
through competitive exhibitions with skipping ropes ;
real French poodle, shaven and shorn, crosses your
path; groups of red-trousered soldiers lounge by,
their mouths agape, and their hands thrust in their
pockets ; the roguish little milliner flits by with.
her handbook ; the tremendous *ler superieur aiguilletted
and epauletted, strolls out of the cafe where he has been
breakfasting, picking his teeth ; the orderly trots by with
his leathern satchel on his hip; the gamin makes faces at.
you, flees behind a corner if you threaten him with your
cane, and when you are at a convenient distance flings a.
steno at you ; the snowy-vested, night capped cook
emerges into the morning and leans against the door-
jamb to inhale the fresh air, all hot and hot though it be,
until it is time for him to diVe into his burning tomb of
pots and pans again ; Adolphe, in curly-brimmed hat and
turn-down collar preposterously vandyked, and cravat in a
gigantic true-lover's-knot, leers under the bonnet of Ma-
dame the spouse of the employe of the administration, taking
her walks abroad, and attired in the height of Parisian
fashion, to cheapen leathery artichokes and
skinny
chickens in the market ; whilst Jules is humming « Rten
n'est sacra pour un Sapeur," and puffing his halfpenny cigar
as superbly as though it were a half-crown Embajador.
Wan children press you to buy cigar lights and three sous
bunches of flowers ; bright in the sun glitter the gilded
signs of the photographers and the dentists—two branches
of industry which appear at present to absorb the most
energetic of French faculties; there is a distant sound of
trumpeting and drumming ; the caleche-drivers are
asleep in their boxes as usual; and cropping up like pop-
pies in a cornfield are the ribbons of the Legion.—Sala) its
the Tcle,rark,