all the avowed materials; but there is little doubt that the alkalies,
or alkaline earths, either pure or in combination, are also used,
in order to dispose the other ingredients to assume that state of
semi-fusion characteristic of porcelain.

(The principal processes are) the grinding and due mixture of the
ingredients, in order to obtain a mass sufficiently plastic; the
forming this mass on the wheel; the subsequent drying of the ware;
the first firing, by which it is brought to the state of biscuit; the
application of the firmer colours occasionally on the surface of the
biscuit; the dipping the biscuit in the glaze; the second firing, by
which the glaze is vitrified; the pencilling in of the more tender
colours on the surface of the glaze; and the third and last firing
that is given to the porcelain.

It is not for me to determine which of our English porcelains is
the best; probably, indeed, one will be found superior in hardness,
another in whiteness, a third in the thinness and evenness of the
glaze, a fourth in the form of the articles, a fifth in the design,
and a sixth in the colours. In hardness and in fusibility, they are
probably all inferior to the Dresden and to the Sevres porcelain; for
pieces in biscuit and in white glaze, from both these manufactories,
are imported in considerable quantities, in order to be painted and
finished here. But it is equally certain, that the last ten years
have seen the commencement, and, in part, the completion, of such
improvements in this fabric, as will probably place the English
porcelains on an equality with the best of the continental European
ones.

Advantage has recently been taken of the semi-transparency of
porcelain biscuit to form it into plates, and to delineate upon it
some very beautiful copies of landscapes and other drawings, by so
adapting the various thicknesses of the plate as to produce, when held
between the eye and the light, the effects of light and shadow in
common drawings. The invention originated in the ingenuity of our
French neighbours.

* * * * *

NOTES OF A READER

IMPROVEMENT OF LANCASHIRE.

The west of England has considerably the advantage over the eastern
side of the island. One way or another nature did much more for it. It
is true, that the eastern side was civilized much earlier; yet human
ingenuity and industry have of late years been much more successfully
employed in turning the gifts