1871J Our Patent Laws. 95 



the real inventor has a mere imitation. For this the legal 

 profession are to blame for not inventing shorter processes 

 of eliciting truth. We do not blame the men but rather the 

 technicalities of statutes and the antiquated habits of 

 thought among lawyers. It is a symptom of decay when 

 men think long over trifles and give themselves to hair 

 splitting. It is a symptom of vigour when the hairs are made 

 into a rope and cut through with one stroke. We know the 

 value of details in proper places, but life is short, and he who 

 does not know how to dash through the spray of trifles may 

 sit long in the wet before he lands on the shore. 



We cannot by a statute law destroy the power of money, 

 and the influence of cunning and falsehood. It is not sound 

 reason which throws the blame of such proceedings as 

 we have alluded to on inventors, on lawyers, or any one 

 class. Government may not know in all cases to whom a 

 patent is due, but it will know in very many cases, and the 

 incredible proceeding of selling a patent to twenty individuals 

 more than one to have it solely, which we are told has been 

 done, ought to be quite impossible among us. Some officers 

 have an interest in giving patents, but an officer who can act 

 thus does not fulfil a useful function. If it is a rule of his 

 office, and not his personal fault, the rule should be rescinded. 

 This, surely, must be an infringement of right. It is no law 

 of nature or mind ; it must at best be some poor paper law 

 that usurps that lofty name. 



The lawyers are a powerful race ; their minds are acute 

 and their impetus is great. They are respected for many 

 reasons, and one is because they are believed to carry, and 

 do carry, within them the wisdom of the ages regarding the 

 various relations of society ; we know much of this is true. 

 Still, as a rule, the lawyer in a court is merciless and not 

 refined. He probes feelings, he exposes private relations, he 

 hurts tender hearts, he is determined to win, fighting over 

 the dead and dying. Men with delicate feelings and keen 

 sense of justice are outraged in courts and leave as 

 soon as possible. Inventors, real inventors, being often of 

 this class, seeing no hope for themselves unaided, give part 

 of their rights to others, who, being determined to make 

 as much money as possible, begin the crushing, pounding 

 work of a trial. The invention may be a real one, but in 

 such rude hands it is soon made to assume all the offensive 

 appearance possessed by the unreal. No distinction is made — ■ 

 truth-loving scientific men are ill-treated by men accustomed 

 to deal with law-breakers, and the result is the same to a spec- 

 tator as if no real invention or inventor was ever connected with 



