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Woolf.

very imperfect steam-engine then in use was known) devoted himself to its improvement, and nobly did he succeed. Of the STEAM-ENGINE, as we now know it, he was substantially the inventor, the Columbus of that new world of practical science, in which each passing day discovers fresh and inexhaustible treasures.

Fortunately for Watt, he met with a patron possessed of great wealth and extensive influence, so that when his turn came, the money which backed him defeated the money opposed to him, and his patent was maintained, although all the rules laid down and the practice pursued in similar cases dictated its repeal. Nay, the formal and technical objections against it were much stronger than those upon which many patents had been declared void. The expenditure of an immense sum of money saved it. Still Mr. Watt might have died a pauper, had not a fresh and still more enormous expenditure obtained a renewal of the patent by Act of Parliament for twenty-five years more. And after all, this very prolongation of the exclusive right benefited the public more than it benefited Mr. Watt, by enabling him to improve his invention. He himself expressed his opinion on the protection accorded to the inventor, by stating that he had "suffered so much pain and anxiety from the lawsuits on his patent for the steam-engine, that nothing would induce him ever to take out a patent again." His predecessors, Savery and Newcomen, were severe losers by their inventions; his worthy successor, Mr. Woolf, whose further improvements* effected a saving of coal in the consumption of the engine which a competent judge has declared to be equivalent to the whole profit of all the deep mining

His main improvement consisted in working the engines by high pressure steam acting expansively. See Mr. Farey's admirable account of the steam-engine.

carried on in Cornwall, (the very existence of which, therefore, depends upon it,) has not only received no reward, but has also been a great loser, the profits of the last four years of his patent having been less than the losses sustained during the first year. Cases of a similar kind are too numerous to mention.

Time has passed on. The iron smelted by the process of Lord Dudley has been fashioned into the steamengine of Watt, and made the moving power of the mighty machinery of Hargraves, and Arkwright, and Crumpton. Chemistry has afforded its powerful aid, and improvement has followed upon improvement. But have the claims of the successors of this honorable band of public benefactors-I say not to the encouragement but to the equitable protection of our laws-been attended to? Surely the recollection of inventions such as these, ruining (for the most part) those who made them, but now working in harmonious and beautiful concurrence, and diffusing blessings throughout the land, must have roused the public and the legislative mind to something like large and comprehensive views? Let the records of our parliament and our courts of law answer the question:

Copyright is still designated "a monopoly against the public." Patents are still held to be "fair plunder;" senators still regard them as grants springing out of the royal prerogative. It is still to be the law that a man shall have no right to his undoubted invention, unless he have three hundred pounds in his pocket to pay fees for claiming it, and twice or thrice that sum to pay law costs, at the outset, should any man choose to infringe it; and a clever and well-informed man, writing upon a public question, gravely asserts that "an author or inventor asks a boon of society when he seeks by legal power to prevent individuals doing what it was perfectly competent for them to do by their own natural

The Copy

right ques

tion,ut sup.

means, thereby creating an artificial property;" and the writer takes the same occasion to mention that he is engaged on a work "upon the causes of the progressive improvement of society."*

All this however may be amended. Such amendment has been prayed for in petition after petition, and in remonstrance after remonstrance. Among the signatures to these petitions or to these remonstrances are to be found the names of Southey, and Wordsworth, and Bulwer, and Lockhart, and Campbell;-and of Faraday, and Babbage, and Lardner, and Birkbeck. Will such men plead in vain ?

But amendment to be effectual must include the provision of a national fund, as well as for rewarding those whom mere protection, with the best of guarantees, may yet leave unrewarded, as for purchasing† such valuable inventions as the owners may be willing to give up freely to the public.

We have too long been satisfied with saying to the inventor-"Produce us the pure gold from the mine, and we will give you (on your paying well for it) a chance of getting all you can for fourteen years, provided always no man stronger than you shall come and forcibly hinder you-of that you must take your chance.'

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Let us now try the policy of saying-" Show us the place where you say the gold is, and convince us by good reason that it is probably there, and we will come and help you to dig it out; you shall then have all you can get for a definite period, and we will secure you in the peaceable possession of your gains. You must however pay us for our labour. But if, unfortu

* Assuredly if this work be characterized by no larger view than that quoted in the text, no future writer on the same subject will be likely to mention it as one of those causes. But inconsistency is quite common enough to make us hope and believe much better things of Mr. Mudie's work.

† A better term might perhaps have been found.

nately, you and we should alike be mistaken; it will be no great loss to us, pay us when you can.'

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Words nearly similar to these were addressed to the Congress of the United States, nearly fifty years ago;* and the bread cast upon the waters has returned after many days. America has reformed her system of patent See Appenlaws, not perfectly perhaps, but she has done much and dix B. will doubtless do more. Let not Britain lag behind her descendant in a course so truly honorable.

NOTE.

While this sheet is passing through the press, I am enabled to add that two bills are about to be introduced in the House of Commons, by Mr. Poulett Thomson, for the purpose of securing copyright in designs for manufactures: by the first, it is proposed to extend the provisions of the Act 34 Geo. III. c. 34, (see ante, p. 54,) to fabrics composed of wool, silk, or hair, and to mixed fabrics composed of any two or more of the following materials; i. e. linen, cotton, wool, silk, or hair; by the second Act, it is proposed, to give copyright for a term of [

] calendar

months: 1, to the proprietor of any new and original design for the pattern or print for any article of manufacture being a tissue or textile fabric, and not within the meaning of the 34th Geo. III., c. 23, or the prior Acts; 2, to the proprietor of any new design for the shape and configuration of any article of manufacture, not within the meaning of the same Acts; and 3, to the proprietor of any new design for the modelling, or the casting, embossment, chasing, engraving, or any other kind of impression or ornament on any article of manufacture, not being a tissue or textile fabric. The copyright is further made contingent upon registration, and provision is made for transfer; but the important subject of cheap and competent tribunals is altogether overlooked.

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By an anonymous writer in the National Gazette of Philadelphia, of December 19, 1792.

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