454 ' Pateiiih 
arise upon patents ; yet I would by no means exclude the lights to 
be derived from a court of law. t think the preceding summary 
^f decisions will shew, that much good sense, in the decision, has 
been the result of much and patient reflection in considering the 
subject of patent rights in England. Nor can we well dispense 
with the accuracy and precision of a court of law. 
But in the case of Liardet and Johnson which I remember ^ 
in the case of T urner against Winter, reported ; in the case of 
Oliver Evans at Baltimore ; in the case of Livingston and Fulton 
against Van Ingen, before chancellor Lansing, notwithstanding the 
known abilities of the judges, a scientific man cannot but feel the 
want of scientific knowledge in the bench and the bar ; and the 
narrow views taken of the subjects discussed. Yet more able men 
in their own profession^ are not easily found. 
i can well remember being sent up by a committee of manu- 
facturers from Manchester, to oppose a patent for bleaching with 
oxymuriatic acid founded upon Berthollet’s process. The ques- 
tion was heard before Macdonald, master of the rolls at his cham- 
bers : Graham was employed by the applicant for the patent, who 
hearing the torrent of voluble but unintelligible declamation ut- 
tered by his counsel, quitted the room in disgust, and left the mas- 
ter of the rolls to decide according to the best of his comprehen- 
’sion : who certainly did not understand one syllable of what was 
spoken, any more than the speaker* 
HencCj secondly, I would propose a board of scientific men, 
to whom should be submittedj in the first instance, all applications 
for patents. Should they reject the application, let the applicant 
nevertheless take out his patent at his own risk ; but accompanied 
•with the reasons of the board for rejecting it; which reasons 
should be evidence for the consideration of a court and jury, in 
case the claim should be contested ; and double costs awarded in 
all cases of final judgment against the patentee of an application 
thus rejected* 
Thirdly, some provision should be made, to promulgate the 
patents taken out, at present, the specifications are as utterly Un- 
known to the public at large, as if they had been filed only among 
the records of China. The office is useless : who but Dr. Thorn- 
ton knows what it contains ? And it is greatly to be doubted whe- 
ther that gentleman, intelligent as he is, be much the wiser for 
the records of his office, for I do not know that it is his business 
to be so. At any rate, the public are not. Suppose, a volume 
