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145.: From EDMUND BURKE - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 6 Correspondence of Adam Smith [1740]

Edition used:

Correspondence of Adam Smith, ed. E. C. Mossner and I. S. Ross, vol. VI of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1987).

Part of: The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 7 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

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145.

From EDMUND BURKE

MS., sold at Sotheby’s, 8 Feb. 1955; Burke Corr. iii. 152–3.

Westminster, 1 May 1775

Dear Sir

You will be so good as to excuse an application upon a Business which I have very much at heart. The renewal of Mr Champions1 Patent for his China Manufacture is opposed by Mr Wedgewood,2 who does not so much as pretend to have ever had a Manufacture of that kind and consequently can feel no injury except in his imaginations of unmeasurable gain. He pretends indeed that he is actuated, (and so he told me,) by nothing but a desire of the publick good. I confess a declaration of the lowest species of any honest self Interest, would have much greater weight with me, from the mouth of a Tradesman. He goes this day into Staffordshire to stir up the Potters there to petition against us. This he does now, at the close of the Session; though our petition has stood unopposed in the house from the 2nd of February.3 I should be very much obligd to you if you could apply to the Duke of Buccleugh that he may keep his mind open to the merits of this Cause, in Case we can get it through the house of Commons. His Grace should be furnished with the exact state of the Case, and the merits of the Manufacture and the manufacturers. If you can serve in this matter I shall take it as a real kindness and am with the greatest regard and Esteem,

Dear Sir your very faithful and obedient humble Servant

Edm Burke

[1 ]Richard Champion (1743–91), Bristol ceramist and friend of Burke.

[2 ]Josiah Wedgwood (1730–95), master potter; founded the pre–eminent firm in the English Midland potteries district; developed such wares as Egyptian marbled, queen’s, and jasper.

[3 ]The date should be 22 Feb., when Burke first presented Champion’s petition (see Burke Corr. iii. 138). The Bill to extend the patent was read on 1 May, committed on the 5th, and given its second reading on the 17th. Most of the controversy about it took place during the committee stage. Burke’s notes for a speech supporting Champion’s patent, and defending him against the charge of monopoly, are in the National Library of Ireland.