376 WATT. 



tion of a party to suits at law and in equity, so numerous 

 as might well have worn out the patience of any one 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 into 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 combined against the use of that new method which 

 must displace the old, and render valueless this col- 

 lected 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 improvement, 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 perform- 

 ing a known and necessary operation, or a new substance 



