8 
Patent-Law A mendment . 
[January, 
is so characteristic of modern times. A statesman of the 
present day has openly expressed his satisfaction that we 
have no longer a monopoly of the world’s manufactures. 
Will he and his friends, then, do nothing to place us at least 
on terms of fair equality with our rivals ? Or are we to go 
on, as we are at present, heavily handicapped in the race ? 
But though Parliament has done nothing, and does not 
for the present seem likely to do anything, certain societies 
have taken the matter up, and have expressed opinions which 
will not be without influence upon the nation, and in due 
time upon the Government. Among these may be noticed 
the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, and the Society of 
Arts, which has taken the trouble to draft a Bill to be intro- 
duced into Parliament if that august body has ever time 
for the consideration of so plain and matter-of-faCI a 
subject. 
More recently the Council of the Society of Chemical 
Industry has resolved upon certain “ recommendations,” 
which have been widely circulated and which are influen- 
tially supported. 
It may, perhaps, seem presumptuous for a mere private 
individual, holding no official position, to dissent from 
opinions put forward by such high authorities, and to pro- 
claim their recommendations unsatisfactory ; yet I feel 
compelled so to do, and I can only hope that the grave im- 
portance of the subject may be accepted as an excuse for 
the liberty I am about to take. 
In the first place it must be asked, What do we aim at by 
a new and improved Patent Law ? Do we seek to encourage 
and attract invention, or to drive it away ? On the answer 
to this question the character of the recommendations to be 
proposed, and of the law to be enaCted, must hinge. If we 
have the former purpose in view, — if we wish that invention 
should abound and flourish among us, that our working-men 
in every department of industry should be constantly seeking 
to improve the processes now in use, and that foreign in- 
ventors should flock to England as the best sphere for the 
practical carrying out of their ideas, — we must seek to give 
greater facilities for protecting the property of the inventor 
in the work of his own brain than he can meet with else- 
where. This is not the case at present. And we must 
venture to remind those cynical freebooters who tell us that 
the inventor will go on inventing whether we protect him or 
rob him, that if he finds himself robbed he may carry his 
future inventions elsewhere. 
A regard to our own future, an enlightened self-interest,™ 
