A, D. 1792. 237 



hard upon the community. And a great advantage to all proprietors of 

 the national debt (and their number is fo prodigioufly great, that their 

 intereft well merits confideration) is, that the conftant and large pur- 

 chafes made by the commiflioners keep the value of their property con- 

 fiderably higher than it could be, if fuch large fums were not thus 

 taken entirely out of the market : and thence alfo the nation, corporate- 

 ly confidered, has a great advantage, by thus keeping up the price of 

 the funds, in negotiating new loans on more favourable terms than 

 could otherways be obtained. 



By buying only from thofe creditors who are defirous of felling, no 

 creditor is diftrefTed by being compelled, as the creditors of fome other 

 nations are, to accept an annual payment of one or two per cent, which, 

 being too trifling to be re-invefled, or employed to any ufeful purpofe. 

 ferves only to wither away the capital in the hands of the creditor, and 

 perhaps to work his ruin. By avoiding that opprelfive meafure, while 

 every purpofe propofed by it is obtained, this admirable plan has the 

 great advantage of reconciling the intcrefts of all parties. 



Mr. James Turner had obtained a patent for the difcovery of a me- 

 thod of making a yellow colour for painting in oil or water, and alfo 

 white lead, and at the fame time feparating the mineral alkaline from 

 common fait, the whole being performed in one fmgle procefs. He re- 

 prefenied to parliament, that his yellow colour, compofed entirely of 

 Britilh materials, not only fuperfeded the ufe of the yellow paints (fome 

 of them very prejudicial to the workmen by their poifonous qualities) 

 which ufed to be imported from foreign countries, by its iuperior qual- 

 ity and lower price, but was alfo exported to all parts of the world, by 

 which, and the great confumption of common fait in the manufafture, 

 it had become an obje6l of importance to the commerce and revenue 

 of the country ; but that his privilege had been fo much invaded and 

 pirated by people, who ftole the method of preparing the colour from 

 his own fpecification enrolled in the court of chancery, that his patent 

 had hitherto been of no real fervice to himfelf He therefor prayed, 

 that the period of his patent might be prolonged, and the privilege of 

 it protedled and rendered valid. A prolongation of eleven years from 

 the 24'" of June 1792 was accordingly granted him, on condition that 

 he fhall fell the colour in wholelale at a price not exceeding five guineas 

 per hundredweight, and ihall not allign ihares of the patent to more 

 than five perfons. \c. 72.] 



It was apparently in order to guard againfl; fuch furreptitious methods 

 of obtaining the knowlege of inventions, for which patents are taken 

 out, and to prevent copies of the fpecification from being carried to 

 foreign countries, that the parliament permitted Mr. Jofeph Booth * to 



* Mr. Booth is probably better known to the public as the author of the polygraphic method of 

 palntiHg, or multiplying pictures in oil colours, fo as to produce cheap copies. 



