On Monday Mr. Gladstone laid the first stone of an
institute established at Burslem, in Staffordshire, in honour of Wedgwood, the Potter. After the usual ceremonies and the presentation of an address to himself, Mr. Gladstone proceeded to read—at least the reporter says so—one of the finest oratorical efforts he has over yet made, a speech which from end to end does not contain a trace of being a written composition. Its one single subject was the alliance between grace and utility, and after speaking four columns of the Times, Mr. Gladstone " could not say that his ideas were altogether exhausted," and proceeded to speak another, little infe- rior to the first. We have remarked on his speech in another place, and have only to add here that there is but one quality of porce- lain in which Mr. Gladstone's eloquence must always remain want- ing, and that is thinness. Several other speeches were made, but that of Mr. Beresford Hope is only described as eloquent—we suppose he described the South as the china and the North as the dell of the world—and Earl Granville uttered a long piece of " humour," which, as reported, is hardly intelligible.
