No. 199.] 3G9 



Far more endurance, forlUiuIc a nci cncrgj-, in scIf-iTenial, disappoint- 

 ment, poverty and dlscourageinent, is required in the inventor than in 

 the warrior ; and yet where is Iiis prospect ] What poets or orators 

 swell liis fame ? How have his energies been aroused, and his cour- 

 age sustained, anil his conquests secured and annually multiplied, 

 until the results have already become the controllir.g influence in the 

 condition and progress of society ? 



No questions appertaining to the temporal interest and secular af- 

 fairs of man, can command the attention of the present age, of more 

 importance than these. 



But they are answerable. The inventor^s stimulant has been the 

 system of policy adopted by civilized nations, of securing to the au- 

 thor of a new and useful thing, a personal, individual and substantial 

 interest in the thing produced, and by rendering this interest in exact 

 proportion to the utility and value of the production. 



Laws granting letters patent, to protect new productions, have long 

 formed a branch of the jurisprudence of all civilized nations. Origi- 

 nating in England in the seventeenth century, their march has been 

 onward with that of intelligence, until they have become incorpora- 

 ted into the statutes of more than sixteen countries of Europe. 



But as the policy of most foreign patent laws, as well as the terms 

 upon which the patents are issued, essentially difTer from those of the 

 United States, it may be well here to notice a few of their leading 

 features. 



England grants patents to both first inventors, and importers of new 

 improvements not previously known within the realm. The applicant 

 must be in the kingdom, and the patent may or may not, at the elec- 

 tion of the applicant, include Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and the 

 colonies : if for England alone, the government fees are about $500, 

 but if all the olhers places of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 

 and Ireland be included, such i(tcs will amount to about $1,500. la 

 case of no opposition, no examination as to novelty is made, prior to 



TAssemblv, No. 199.1 2% 



