460 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
and processes in the arts are either not perfected by their authors, 
or employed in secret and for ever lost to society.^ 
This is not the occasion to analyse the patent laws of England, 
and to criticise the principles which are supposed to regulate their 
enactments. It may be enough to have referred to the miserable 
tenure of fourteen years which they assign to the inventor ; to the 
crushing tax of L.175 which they levy from him ; to the illusory 
privilege which they give him ; to the endless litigation into which 
they lead him ; and to the bankruptcy and ruin in which he is so 
frequently involved. There are, doubtless, cases in which patent 
rights have led to fortune, but it is chiefly when the wealthy capi- 
talist has come to the rescue of the humble inventor, or when the 
patent has been confirmed by the decision of a court of law. 
The injustice of the patent law has been so fully admitted, that 
various acts of Parliament have been passed in favour of the patentee, 
adding slightly to the protection of his right, and reducing to the 
sum we have mentioned the expense of its attainment ; but no ad- 
dition has been made to the shortness of its tenure, and no increase 
of security against direct piracy, or partial infringement. 
Whatever difficulty the statesman may experience in giving 
security to the rights of inventors, he can have none in giving 
them the same tenure as copyrights, and conferring them as gratui- 
tously, or at no greater cost than is necessary to cover the expenses 
of the patent office. 
Between the national claims of authors and inventors there can 
be no comparison. Value as you may, and value highly, the 
treasures of ancient and of modern thought, what are they when 
weighed against the inventions of art and science, predominating 
over our household arrangements, animating our cities with the 
sounds of industry, and covering with mechanical life the earth 
and the ocean ? The eloquence of the orator, the lesson of the his- 
torian, the lay of the poet, are, as it were, but the fragrance of the 
plant whose fruit feeds us, and by whose leaves we are healed ; or 
On this subject the Commissioners state, in their recent Report, that 
“ They have been pressed with the opinion, that the cost of obtaining letters- 
patent is still so high as to be an insuperable bar to the poor inventor, in ob- 
taining the protection to which he is fairly entitled.” — Report, p. v. Lond 
1865. 
