“Mr. Champion however finds, with some surprise, that Mr. Wedgwood, who has never hitherto undertaken any similar manufacture, conceives himself likely to be injured by the indulgence which Mr. Champion has solicited. He has accordingly printed a memorial containing his reasons against the granting the prayer of Mr. Champion’s petition, and is now actually gone in person into Staffordshire in order to solicit others to prefer a petition to Parliament against Mr. Champion’s bill.
“Before Mr. Champion replies to Mr. Wedgwood’s observations or complaints, he begs leave to remark on the time when Mr. Wedgwood introduces them. Mr. Champion presented his petition to the Honourable House of Commons on the twenty-second day of February. The committee to which that petition was referred did not sit until the twenty-eighth day of April, during which time Mr. Wedgwood neither made any public application against Mr. Champion, or gave him any sort of private information of intended opposition. Neither did any manufacturers in Staffordshire or elsewhere express any uneasiness or make any complaint of Mr. Champion’s application, though it is not improbable that Mr. Wedgwood’s journey thither may be productive of both.
“Mr. Champion forbore to bring forward his petition before the committee until he had prepared such specimens of his manufacture as might give the committee the most striking proofs of the truths of his allegations, and this could not be done sooner in a manufacture so very lately, and with such incredible difficulty, brought to its present perfection. He trusts that the specimens which he has produced in various kinds will show that he has been usefully employed, and merits the public protection.
“Mr. Wedgwood is pleased to represent his memorial on behalf of himself and the manufacturers of earthenware in Staffordshire. Mr. Champion says, as has been already hinted, that Mr. Wedgwood had not any authority from such manufacturers, or any others, to make any representations in their behalf.
“Mr. Champion most cheerfully joins in the general praise which is given to Mr. Wedgwood for the many improvements which he has made in the Staffordshire earthenware, and the great pains and assiduity with which he has pursued them. He richly deserves the large fortune he has made from these improvements. But should he not be content with the rewards he has met with, and not have the avidity to grasp at a manufacture which another has been at as great pains as Mr. Wedgwood has employed in his own to establish?—a manufacture entirely original in this kingdom, and which all nations in Europe have been desirous to obtain?
“Mr. Wedgwood says the application and free use of the various raw materials of this country will make a great improvement in the manufacture of Staffordshire earthenware. Mr. Champion has no objection to the use which the potters of Staffordshire may make of his or any other raw materials, provided earthenware only, as distinguished by that title, is made from it. He wants to interfere with no manufacture whatever, and is content to insert any clause to confine him to the invention which he possesses, and which he has improved. He is contented that Mr. Wedgwood, and every manufacturer, should reap the fruit of their labour; all he asks is, such a protection for his own as the legislature in its wisdom shall think merits.
“Mr. Wedgwood’s remark on the difference of merit betwixt Mr. Watt and Mr. Champion is ungenerous and unjust: ungenerous, as Mr. Champion has not, or does not, compare himself to Mr. Watt; he has not even mentioned his name in any of his applications. His business is not with comparative or similar merits; it is his duty to prove the merit of his own manufacture, for which he solicits the encouragement of the legislature. He hopes that the specimens which he has produced before the committee are incontrovertible evidences of it. The remark is unjust, because he has been many years concerned in this undertaking; nearly from the time the patent was granted to Mr. Cookworthy, in whose name it continued till assigned over to Mr. Champion. To deny the advantage of any part of Mr. Cookworthy’s merits to his assignee is to deny that advantage to Mr. Cookworthy himself. One part of the benefit of every work, from whence profit may be derived, is the power of assignment; and if, in fact, the manufacture could not be completed, nor the inventor, of course, derive any profit from it, without the expense, care, and perseverance of the assignee and once partner, the merit of that assignee, who both completes the manufacture and rewards the discoverer, is equal in equity to that of the discoverer himself—equal in every respect, except the honour that attends original genius and power of invention.
“Mr. Champion can assert with truth that his hazard and expense was many times greater than those of the original inventor. Mr. Champion mentions this without the least disparagement to the worthy gentleman, who is his particular friend; he gives him all the merit which was due to so great a discovery; he deserved it for finding out the means of a manufacture which will, in all probability, be a very great advantage to this country; but yet Mr. Champion claims the merit of supporting the work, and, when the inventor declined the undertaking himself, with his time, his labour, and his fortune, improved it from a very imperfect to an almost perfect manufacture; and he hopes soon, with proper encouragement, to one altogether perfect.
“What regards the original discoverer is, in some measure, answered in the foregoing paragraph, but the original discoverer is not without a reward. Mr. Champion at this moment allows him, and is bound to his heirs, &c., in a profit equal to the first cost of the raw material, and, as Mr. Champion’s manufactory is encouraged, must increase to a very great degree.
“Nor is Mr. Wedgwood more excusable for his implication that a want of skill prevented the work being brought earlier to perfection; undoubtedly the difficulty arose from a want of skill in working these new materials. This is a profound as well as civil remark of Mr. Wedgwood’s; but that skill was to be acquired only by care and expense, and that care and expense are Mr. Champion’s merits. Mr. Champion pretends to no other knowledge as a potter than what he has acquired in the progress of this manufacture, his profession of a merchant not putting more in his power; but he had the experience of Mr. Cookworthy, the inventor, one of the most able chemists in this kingdom, to whom the public is indebted for many useful discoveries; he had the experience of the manager of his works, a person bred in the potteries, and thoroughly conversant in manufactures of this kind; the workmen he employed were brought up to the branch, and he has spared no expense in encouraging foreign artificers.