WATT. 47 



term in the patent only been secured to him, he 

 would have been a great loser by the invention ; and 

 that for some years after the Act of Parliament had 

 extended the time, he still was out of pocket : conse- 

 quently it follows, that had he never taken a patent at 

 all, but trusted entirely to the preference which his 

 being the inventor would have given him in the 

 market, as a maker of steam-apparatus, that is, had he 

 taken only this indirect benefit instead of the direct 

 gains of the monopoly, he would have been better off 

 in a pecuniary point of view than he was by means of 

 the grant of the patent and its Parliamentary exten- 

 sion. The Act which I introduced in 1835, grounded 

 mainly upon that evidence, has removed some of the 

 greatest defects in the law; and it has enabled, when 

 coupled with the subsequent Act of last Session, an 

 inventor to obtain, at a very inconsiderable cost, an 

 extension for any additional period, not exceeding the 

 duration of the original patent.* The expenses of 

 obtaining patents, and especially the grievous burden 

 of having to take out one for each of the three king- 

 doms, are the principal parts of the grievance which 

 remain to be redressed. 



Notwithstanding the serious drawbacks upon his 

 gains which Watt thus experienced, he was, on the 

 whole, successful in respect of profit, realizing an 

 ample fortune, but which all men wished had been 

 greater, and which, under a more just law, would have 

 been thrice as great. 



We have been contemplating the great achievement 

 of Watt, but it would be a mistake to suppose that the 



* The course- which a patentee ought to pursue if there be no opposi- 

 tion to his claim of extension, is to employ no solicitor and no counsel, 

 but to appear in person before the Judicial Committee, as my gallant and 

 truly ingenious friend Lord Dundonald (better known as Lord Cochrane) 

 lately did. Their lordships will always favour such a course, the rather 

 as they thus obtain the advantage of "hearing the explanations ^required 

 from the person best able to give them.. In opposed cases professional aid 

 is requisite^ 



