The Press. — London, England, 1853-06-25 00:00:00

t powers, it would certainly appear that an in ventor has a natural right to the whole profit ) be derived from a useful embodiment of his invention. The author of the book before us restricts this natural right to that of " exer cising his own invention freely," Any reference t.) abstract natural rights seems always some what absurd in the midst of an old civilised society like ours, because we must long since practically have come to some arrangement between the natural rights of individuals and the claims of the community. But in the pre sent instance such reference is not altogether needless, when we find Mr. Ricardo, and others in the House of Commons, denouncing the whole system of protecting inventors as bad and founded in error, and laying it down that all legislation on the matter should pro ceed upon the principle of obstructing and not facilitating grants of patents. Such opinions are to be negatived by showing that inventors have so strong a sense of their natural right to protection that they would cease to invent, or at least to make their inventions public, if protection were denied ; and in that ease the community would suffer. It is of course im possible to have any peculiar property in a mere now idea or invention, for, from its very na ture, when once uttered or published it becomes the common property of all. In order that it may become capable of being appropriated it must be embodied ; and this embodiment may be either a formal description or expression of it, as in a book ; or it may be in a thing made or manufactured, and involving the new idea or invention as its essential characteristic. The former kind of " embodiment" is the sub ject of the Law of Copyright, the latter of the I'atent Laws. The law of England proceeds upon the prim ciple of purchasing now inventions for the use of the public at the price of granting to in ventors a monopoly of all the profit to be derived from their inventions for fourteen years. It has always been ono of the prerogatives of the Crown to grant exclusive privileges under the Great Seal ; but. in the act 21 James 1., c. 3, whereby certain monopolies were ren dered void, an express exception was made in the case of " letters patent and grants of pri vilege for the term of fourteen years or under of the sole working or making of any manner of new manufacture within this realm to the true and first inventors of such manu factures so as they be not contrary to law or mischievous to the State, by raising prices of commodities at home, or hurt of trade, or generally inconvenient." In the letters patent is a proviso that they shall be come void if the inventor " shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the inven tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing to be enrolled in the High Court of Chancery." A patentee, therefore, must be the true and first inventor of a new and useful invention, the nature and manner of perfimniny which he must particularly describe and ascertain. In these respects the law still remains the same ; but the recent act, 15 and 10 Vic., e. has made material alterations in the manner and cost of obtaining letters patent. Formerly three pa tents were necessary for the United Kingdom ; one is now sufficient. Formerly the protection dated from the day of sealing the patent ; now the sealing and protection date from the day of application. Great delay and expense were caused by opponents un(Ler the old caveat system ; that system is now abolished, and the law officer is enabled openly to investigate the eases of rival inventors without injury to either. The plan of provisional specification also enables inventors without danger to make ex periments and perfect their inventions. There is only one office where the business is con ducted ; formerly there were several. Pro vision is also made for a complete publication and classification of specifications, and facilities are afforded for the inspection of all docu ments. But not the least gain under the new law is on the cost of patents. Formerly 3001. hardly covered the fees and stamps necessary to obtain patents in the three countries ; now the same may be obtained for 25/. down ; 501. at the end of three years, supposing the patentee finds it worth while to renew his pro teal= ; and 1001. at the end of the seventh THE PRESS. year. Very many other beneficial alterations are made, which we have not space even to mention. Several new works, editions of the act, and new editions of old books, have appeared on the new Patent Law. Mr. Norman's book is perhaps the best, in so far as it gives a succinct account of the whole subject. It cannot lay claim to any originality either in matter or mode of treatment; and the eases under the act have been so few that no new matter of that kind could be given. It con tains no suggestions as to points likely to arise upon the construction of the act, &c. We should like to have seen some reference to the advisability or the reverse of making the pro visional specification public, after protection granted ; us to the necessity or non-necessity of a preliminary examination by a board of examiners; and as to the consistency of the rule of the law officers with the words of the act, when the former requires that it shall " describe the means, &e." One thing in the book we especially object to, and that is the recklessness of the references to all sorts of cases decided by all sorts of persons, in all sorts of courts, and reported in all sorts of reports and text-books. A hundred well-selected eases are more than sufficient to teach the whole Law of Patents. Nisi Prius reports should never be referred to, whereas Mr. Norman quotes even the reports of the 'Times. Upon the whole, we recommend the work as good, poi table, and cheap. RECENT THEOLOGICAL WORKS. 1. Six-Preacher Sermons ; including the Sub jects of National Education, &v., &c. A Course Delivered in Canterbury Cathedral, by the Rev. Charles Forster, 8.D., one of the Six Preachers, and Rector of Stisted, Essex, Author of " The One Primeval Lan guage." London : Bentley. 2. Notes on Genesis. Designed principally for the Use of Students in Divinity. By the Rev. Sir C. Macgregor, Batt, M.A., Vicar of Cabourn, and Rural Dean. The First Part. London : J. W. Parker. 3. Eternal Life: The Revelation of the Books of Moses. By the Rev. James Ellice, M.A., Rector of Clothall, &e., &e. London : Bentley. THE writer of the first work in our list, if we mistake not, is the accomplished author of the Life of Bishop Jebb, and also editor of the letters and correspondence between that eminent prelate and Alexander Knox. In perfect accordance with what his previous works would suggest, these sound, sober dis courses prove Mr. Forster to be a Churchman of the true Anglican type, equally removed on the one side from Romish and on the other from Genevan tendencies. These ser mons make no pretension to glowing elo quence, profound research, or logical subtlety; but they are excellent specimens of pastoral instruction in relation to some of the lead ing fallacies of our fevered age. They amount altogether to eighteen, and divide them selves into three divisions ; those on " National Education " being followed by dis courses on " The Church of England View of Lent Duties and Services," and these latter by appropriate discourses on " The Life and Ministry of St. Paul." They are all, in their distinctive bearings, valuable statements of scriptural truth, and will repay a devout and careful pausal. The keynote to Mr. Forster's theology is truthfully indicated by his pregnant remark in p. 15-16, when the preacher ob serves of the Church of England :—" Con troversy is not Her element: her clement is love." Our remarks on the two other works must be very succinct. The " Notes on Genesis" eontain a digest of valuable notes, criticisms, and historical and scientifie discussions, al though we are by no means prepared to admit all that the reverend baronet asserts or infers. We are sorry to find him a Loekist, and must -beg to protest against his speaking of that ill6O SATURDAY', lent, schismatic, and Romish dissenter, Cardi nal Wiseman, as an " Archbishop." The "Coalition" Governmeut,with "all the Talents," cannot even by their magical power transform an ecclesiastical intruder, who is the Pcpe's nominee, into an " Archbishop," where there is already a canonical Archbishop of the Eng. lish Church. As to Mr. lillice's work, we regret to say we consider it little more than a theological jwnble of valuable truths, blended most incoherently with all sorts of superficial statements and illogical conclusions. It is quite clear he does not understand his own argument ; confounds " revelation" with intimation ; and at length so entirely forgets his plan as to speak of the Old Testament as if Moses were the only writer of all the books that volume contains. His preface, too, is unsound ; and we recom mend him to study Bishop Butler before he attempts to reason from a priori views towards the ways and works of God as the moral legis lator and providential governor of mankind. The truth must be told : his volume is a failure ; and he mistakes the individualism of his own conception, grafted on the word of God, for the pure and perfect revelations of the divine will. State-Paper Taxation, with an Analysis of the Nature and Relations of Gold, Paper, and Credit. By Alexander Charles Macleod, Esq. London : Ridg way. Ir• Mr. Macleod is right, the sooner the world is turned topsyturvy the better. As we read his pages, all our received ideas of finance and trade, of cash currency and capital, of buying and selling, of money getting and money-spending, are not to say confused, but absolutely inverted, thrown bottom upwards, turned about sena dessus dessous. By way of a speci men inference or two : The more money we have the poorer we must be, for (money being only the repre sentative of value) he who makes or imports coins, bank notes, or what not, produces nothing but a claim for himself to a share in the pre-existing "values," and so leaves less to the rest of the community. Again, we are told respecting the gold which a note represents, that it " amounts to nearly the same thing" whether that gold is in circulation or not in existence. And yet, again, we find, to our utter confusion, that when money is locked up unproductively the owner loses, but the "public gains proportionately" ! Altogether the book is a strange jumble—the author endeavour ing to build up in the midst of the chaos a system such as that indicated in his title, in which the nation is to pay its creditors and claimants x millions per annum in the shape of " state paper," of course remitting to its debtors an equivalent amount of taxation. The Importance, Necessity, and Practicability of Thorough Drainage in the British West India Colonies, ctc. A Letter to the Right Hon. the Earl of Aberdeen, by a late Stipendiary Magistrate in Jamaica. London : Bosworth. THE author has collected from various sources a credit able array of facts and opinions in support of these con clusions :—That the soil of our West India colonies is, naturally, abundantly productive ; that drainage is the great artificial stimulus necessary to enhance that production to a remunerative point ; and that Government aid, after the example set in Ireland and Scotland, would be expediently devoted to that pur pose. The circumstance that many of his positions are self evident has not prevented their being over looked, nor will it render his pamphlet less suggestive and valuable. OUR LIBRARY TABLE. lfonnt Lebanon. 3 vols. Colour! Churchill. Saunders and Ottley: Enrirona n JAMdou. Lunguitin and Co. Eureivi. I and 2. _ _ _ 77w Poetical am Dramatic Works of Sir E. Dultrer Lytton- Vol. 3. Chapman and Hall. 'raajord. lly the Author td'" Mary Barton." Chapman and Hall. r•thatits qi Darien Ship Canal. 1)r. Cullen. Effinghoun The Faueral of the Duke if II Wlington. Ackermann. The Alphabet A Notated. Ackermann. Rome. A pamphlet. J. Allen. 17a/ref-say Rai/dingo. F. liashfortb, M.A . Maylunillan mid Co RIMMiIIII. Turkey. A pamphlet. Saunders and Sandford . • SALE OF "TOM MOORE'S" LETTERS. (From n Correspondent.) ON THURSDAY poor Tom Moore's literary remains, in the shape of his autograph letters, were put up to auction, and we were induced, by the report we heard of the omissions from the poet's letters, to stroll up for the sake of curiosity to see them. When leaving St. James's.street we could not help thinking how much the scene we were witnessing (it was " a draw ing•room ") was in harmony with the taste of the poet whose autographs we were to visit. And we recollected how enthusiastic a worshipper he was of that beauty dorie of which the changing line of