“That the company concerned in the porcelain manufactory at Plymouth, established under the authority of this patent, contracted with one gentleman, in whose lands these materials are found, that he should sell the materials only to them, and that they should purchase materials from no other person, during the term of ninety-nine years.
“That nevertheless there are great quantities of such materials in other estates in Cornwall and Devonshire, and probably in many other parts of this island.
“That in the year 1774 Mr. Cookworthy assigned over his patent right to Mr. Champion, of Bristol, who now applies to parliament for an extension of this monopoly, seven years before the expiration of the patent; which assignment was made upon condition that Mr. Cookworthy should receive for ninety-nine years from Mr. Champion as large a sum every year as should be paid to the proprietor for the raw materials, hereby laying a tax of 100 per cent. upon them.
“That Mr. Champion in his petition sets forth that he has brought this discovery to perfection; and that in a paper he has published, entitled A Reply, &c., he says that if the various difficulties which have attended this work from the beginning could have been foreseen, this patent ought not to have been applied for at so early a period; that is, in plain English, the patent was taken out for the discovery of an art before the discovery was made by the patentee. And if the discovery has been made since, there has been no specification of it; it has not been recorded for the public benefit; it is in Mr. Champion’s own possession; it is kept from the public for his own private emolument: and the nature of it being unknown, it is humbly presumed such a pretended discovery can neither entitle the patentee nor the petitioner to the extension of a monopoly injurious to many thousands of industrious manufacturers in various parts of the kingdom.
“And in the same paper in which we find the above curious confession, Mr. Champion acknowledges that even at this time he has just entered upon the commonest and most useful branch of his manufactory, which he has pursued at a great expense, by means of a foreign artificer, and can now venture to assert that he shall bring it to perfection. And in the space of seven years yet to come of his patent, and fourteen years’ further indulgence which he expects from parliament, one would hope some discovery might be made; but would it not be an egregious injury to the public, an unheard of and unprecedented discouragement to many manufacturers who have great and acknowledged merit with the public, to continue to one person who, in this instance, has no public merit, the monopoly of earth and stones that nature has furnished this country with in immense quantities, which are necessary to the support and improvement of one of the most valuable manufactures in the kingdom?
“Mr. Champion says, in the Reply referred to above, he ‘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 them. He wants to interfere with no manufactory whatsoever, and is content to insert any clause to confine him to the invention which he possesses, and which he has improved,’ &c.
“If Mr. Champion had accurately defined the nature of his own invention; if he had described the proportions of his materials necessary to make the body of his ware; if he had also specified the proportions of his materials necessary to produce his glaze, as every mechanical inventor who takes out a patent is obliged to specify the nature of the machine by which he produces his effect; if Mr. Champion could have drawn a distinct line between the various kinds of earthenware and porcelain that have been made, and are now made in this kingdom, and his porcelain, a clause might have been formed to have confined him to the invention which he says he possesses, and to have prevented him from interrupting the progress of other men’s improvements, which he may think proper to call imitations of his porcelain; but as he has not chosen to do the former, nor been able to do the latter, no manufacturer of stoneware, Queen’s ware, or porcelain, can with safety improve the present state of his manufacture.
“It is well known that manufactures of this kind can only support their credit by continual improvements. It is also well known that there is a competition in these improvements through all parts of Europe. In the last century Burslem, and some other villages in Staffordshire, were famous for making milk pans and butter pots, and by a succession of improvements, the manufactory in that neighbourhood has gradually increased in the variety, the quality, and the quantity of its productions, so as to furnish, besides the home consumption, an annual export of useful and ornamental wares, nearly to the amount of two hundred thousand pounds; but during all this progress it has had the free range of the country for materials to work upon, to the great advantage of many landowners and of navigation.
“Queen’s ware has already several of the properties of porcelain, but is yet capable of receiving many essential improvements. The public have for some time required and expected them. Innumerable experiments have been made for this purpose. There are immense quantities of materials in the kingdom that would answer this end; but they are locked up by a monopoly in the bowels of the earth, useless to the landowners, useless to the manufacturers, useless to the public; and one person is petitioning the legislature, in effect, to stop all the improvements in earthenware and porcelain in this kingdom but his own.
“For the next step, and the only step the manufacturers can take to improve their wares, will be deemed an invasion of this vague and incomprehensible patent.