196 REPORT— 1870. 



lieved 120,038 cases of distress at a cost of £16,560 16s. 8d., together with nearly 

 1,000,000 quarts of soup ; wliile 7000 dinners have been provided weekly for 

 starving children in the several Kagged Schools. 



Criminal intemperance was thus shown. Dui-ing the past year 23,458 cases of 

 drunkenness passed through the hands of the police, the number having doubled 

 as compared with the year 1861 : 3343 men and 2300 women were tabulated as 

 "habitual drunkards; " some of whom were in custody during the year 15 and 18 

 times. Out of 2249 resident prostitutes there were 1867 cases of apprehension for 

 drunkenness, the "social evil" and "strong drink" going hand in hand. The 

 majority of drunkards are Irish. Thus, while there were natives of Scotland only 

 882, of Wales 645, of foreign lands 512, of Ireland there were 7947. Among the 

 drunken there were 16,503 lodgers to 3166 householders, — housekeeping and 

 drunkenness unable to flourish together. In the town there were 1182 houses of 

 bad character, while 20 murders, 15 manslaughters, 106 cases of stabbing, &c., 

 took place during the year. Out of 17,529 cases of drunkenness, 10,934 were more 

 or less educated. The year 1870 is the worst for drunkenness recorded in the 

 annals of the police. Out of 18,303 cases of drunkenness there are 8536 women. 

 The Borough Gaol, erected at a cost of £100,000, is become too small. The annual 

 cost to the Borough of intemperance is computed to be £375,000. 



During a period of 36 years 21,300 cases of death were investigated in the Coro- 

 ners Court ; 85 per cent, or 18,105 of these were attributed by the late coroner to 

 drink. The present average number is about 900 cases per annnm, .300 of which 

 are children under 5 years, about 140 of these being annually suffocated by drunken 

 parents. 



There are, as accounting for all the foregoing, 3579 alcoholic establishments of 

 all sorts, to about 500 only of bakers' shops. Oat of 770 employes in one firm 499 

 were Scottish. One drunken case per day to each public house amoimts to 195,000 

 per annum. 



The paper advocated the rights of the people to put down all public houses by 

 a sufficient majority so deciding. 



On the Impolict/, on economic grounds, of converting the National Debt into 

 Terminahle Annuities, By Dr. Thomas De MEScnrif. 



On the Conipulsory Conversion of Suhstantial Leaseholds in Toivns into 

 Freeholds. By Dr. Thomas De Meschin. 



On the Policy and Provisions of a Patent-law. By E. M. Pankhuest, LL.D. 



After stating and defining at length the two classes of objections to the policy 

 of a patent-law (viz. that protection to inventions is vicious and wrong; secondly, 

 that though some protection may be desirable, it ought not to be in the nature of a 

 legal protection), tlic author went on to state the considerations of gain which should 

 induce the creation of a right of property in inventions. They were, that inventions 

 might be more largel_y and rapidly made, become sooner and more thoroughly per- 

 fected, be speedily made and fully disclosed, be more energetically and successfully 

 brought into general use, and finally, after the legal right in them had been dulj'' de- 

 termined, that they might become the common property of society. With regard 

 to definition of tcnns, an invention considered .as a subject of legal protection was 

 an application of Icnowledgc in general of the laws of nature, expressed in the form 

 of a new and useful process. A patent right in view of legal protection was tlio 

 creation of a limited right of property in a new and useful process. These, tlie 

 author submitted, were sufficient reasons. Upon the question of right, the whole 

 essence of the case lay here : Was it the best way to promote invention and improve 

 manufactures to give tlie inventor a limited right of property in his invention ? If 

 so, these objects were the reasons, the causes of the creation of the right of pro- 

 perty, but the source of the riglit itself was the act of the legislation. The objection 

 that a patent-law ^yas a monopoly the author met bj^ the argument that a patent-right 



