262 Patent-Right and Patent-Law. [May, 
only met with one instance where an alleged invention has 
been sold for a good round sum of money without having 
been previously patented. In this case I fear that the pur- 
chaser was the unfortunate party, since the secret — if there 
is any truth in the history of chemistry — was perfectly known 
to the Egyptians in the days of Moses ! 
Mr. Macfie is reported to have mentioned, not long ago, 
as one of the objections to cheap Patents, that they would 
enable a working man who came upon any improvement to 
secure it for himself instead of handing it over to his em- 
ployer ! 
Perhaps it would not be unreasonable if those eminent 
men, economists, members of the chambers of commerce, 
and others, who entertain such strong objections to Patent- 
right, would point out some other feasible way in which an 
inventor might obtain at any rate some little remuneration 
for his trouble. To sum up this part of the subject, my 
conviction is that the interests of the public and of the bona 
fide inventor are substantially at one. 
Still I am very far from conceiving that the matter is free 
from difficulties. Among the objections raised by Mr. Macfie, 
and by the public characters whose evidence he quotes 
against the working of our present Patent-laws, and indeed 
against any Patent-law, there are some which cannot be 
justly ignored, and in many cases — let our law-makers do 
their best — there will remain but a choice of evils. 
I take it for granted that the original objeCt or purpose 
for which a property in inventions was recognised was the 
introduction of new arts and manufactures into the country, 
or the improvement of such as already existed. To this end 
Patents were granted not merely for inventions originating 
in the United Kingdom, but for such as were imported from 
abroad. Such importation might be effected in two ways : 
either a British subject when travelling might observe the 
particulars of some improvement, and introduce it into this 
country on his return, or an alien, resident abroad, might 
communicate an invention to some resident in Britain. But 
in any case the end was the introduction of a new manufac- 
ture into the country. Now, partly in consequence of the 
defective state of the Law and partly from the rulings of the 
Courts, there has crept in, as regards these “ communica- 
tions from abroad,” a complete departure from the original 
intendment of the Patent-system. The following cases are 
quite common : an alien, in possession of an invention which 
he either has patented or intends to patent in his own 
country, comes over for a time to this country, and obtains 
