WATT. 45 



but him, whose unwearied perseverance had already 

 toiled successfully against unnumbered difficulties of 

 another kind. Such was, at that time, the patent law 

 of this country ; such, in some degree, it still is, though 

 much improved. Inventive genius is placed between 

 two dangers, and it can hardly escape the one without 

 falling before the other. If the invention is such that 

 it requires some new demand to be created, or some 

 novel taste to be introduced, before it can be much 

 used, the period of the monopoly expires before any 

 gain can be reaped. This is the more likely to happen 

 if it comes in competition with things already made, 

 and of which, at some expense, a considerable stock has 

 been prepared, because a formidable interest is com- 

 bined against the use of that new method which must 

 displace the old, and render valueless this collected 

 stock. I remember sitting on the trial of a patent for 

 a new and admirable pianoforte ; the only witness to 

 its excellence being a sculptor of distinction who had 

 once made such instruments, but had no longer any 

 interest in crying down the invention; none of the 

 trade could be trusted to give their opinion upon oath ; 

 all were, of course, in a combination against that im- 

 provement, which, if adopted, would render unsaleable 

 their pianofortes already made. If, on the other hand, 

 the superiority of the invention is quite manifest, if 

 the demand for it already exists, if no combination 

 can prevent its coming into general use for example, 

 the making a new instrument for performing a known 

 and necessary operation, or a new substance for sup- 

 plying a general want already existing then the in- 

 ventor has to prepare himself for encountering piracy 

 in all its forms ; capitalists, who would be ashamed to 

 violate the law in their own persons, encouraging men 

 of no substance to infringe the patent, and omitting to 

 pay the patentee's costs when these tools are defeated. 

 My learned and ingenious kinsman, Dr. Forsyth, the 

 inventor of the percussion lock, passed the fourteen 



