Ixvi REPORT — 1861. 



course can be carried on between private families, public offices, and the 

 works of merchants and manufacturers. This application of electric currents 

 cannot be too highly appreciated, from its great efficiency and compara- 

 tively small expense. To show to what an extent this improvement has 

 been carried, I may state that Aie thousand wires, in a perfect state of 

 insulation, may be formed into a rope not exceeding half an inch in 

 diameter. 



I must not sit down without directing attention to a subject of deep 

 importance to all classes, namely, the amount of protection inventors should 

 receive from the laws of the country. It is the opinion of many that patent 

 laws are injurious rather than beneficial, and that no legal protection of this 

 kind ought to be granted ; in fact, that a free trade in inventions, as in 

 everything else, should be established. I confess I am not of that opinion. 

 Doubtless there are abuses in the working of the patent law as it at present 

 exists, and protection is often granted to pirates and impostors, to the detri- 

 ment of real inventors. This, however, does not contravene the principle 

 of protection, but rather calls for reform and amendment. It is asserted by 

 those who have done the least to benefit their country by inventions, that a 

 monopoly is injurious, and that if the patent laws are defended, it should be, 

 not on the ground of their benefit to the inventor, but on that of their utility 

 to the nation. I believe this to be a dangerous doctrine, and I hope it will 

 never be acted upon. I cannot see the right of the nation to appropriate 

 the labours of a lifetime, without awarding remuneration. The nation, in 

 this case, receives a benefit ; and assuredly the labourer is worthy of his 

 hire. I am no friend of monopoly, but neither am I a friend of injustice; 

 and I think that before the public are benefited by an invention, the 

 inventor should be rewarded either by a fourteen years' monopoly or in 

 some other way. Our patent laws are defective, so far as they protect 

 pretended inventions ; but they are essential to the best interests of the 

 State in stimulating the exertions of a class of eminent men, such as 

 Arkwright, Watt, and Crompton, whose inventions have entailed upon all 

 countries invaluable benefits, and have done honour to the human race. To 

 this Association is committed the task of correcting the abuses of the present 

 system, and establishing such legal provisions as shall deal out equal justice 

 to the inventor and the nation at large. 



1 must not forget that we owe very much to an entirely new and most 

 attractive method of diff"using knowledge, admirably exemplified in the 

 Great Exhibition of 185J, and its successors in France, Ireland, and America. 

 Most of us remember the gems of art which were accumulated in this city 

 during the summer of 1857, and the wonderful results they produced on all 

 classes of the community. The improvement of taste and the increase of 

 practical knowledge which followed these exhibitions have been deeply felt ; 

 and hence the prospects which are now opening before us in regard to the 

 Exhibition of the next year cannot be too highly appreciated. That Exhi- 

 bition will embrace the whole circle of the sciences, and is likely to elevate 

 the general culture of the public to a higher standard than we have ever 

 before attained. There will be unfolded almost every known production of 

 art, every ingenious contrivance in machinery, and the results of discoveries 

 in science from the earliest period. The Fine Arts, which constituted no 

 part of the Exhibition of 18.51, and which were only partially represented at 

 Paris and Dublin, will be illustrated by new creations from the most dis- 

 tinguished masters of the modern school. Looking forwards, I venture to 

 hope for a great success and a further development of the principle advo- 

 cated by this Association — the union of science and art. 



