The Express.
London, England, 1863-02-07 00:00:00

HIGH WATZRAT LONDON BILIDGIL.

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LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7.

Max of genius, especially inventors, have no-
toriously a hard time of it. Jsmes Wirr and
Gaosoz STILPHENSON were long looked upon as
flighty enthusiasts. Sprung from the humblest ranks,
they were, of course, poor, and it was with diffi-
culty that they could induce the men of capital to
risk any money in the realization of their grand
conceptions. It is no doubt extremely aggravating
to think that inventions fraught with so much
benefit should be withheld even for a day from the
world; but the world has only itself to blame. In-
ventors and capitalists must advance hand in hand.
There must not only be the genius to invent, but
the pecuniary means to put the invention into prac-
tical operation. After the man of genius has
proved the practical value of his idea men are loud
in hispraise, and not less loud in the condemnation

of those who at first refused to listen to
his suggestion. The praise is seldom exagge-
rated—the blame too often is. Amid the
multitude of schemes propounded by active-
minded, ingenious men, it is no easy task to
separate the good from the bad, the visionary from
the solid, the theoretical from the practical. The
advocate at the bar who argues with power and
ingenuity in support of hi client often gives proof
of remarkable ability, but the judge who sits
quietly on the bench listening to the arguments
on either side, and pronounces a sound judgment,
gives proof perhaps even of • higher order of
intellect. It is the same with inventors and capi-
talists. To invent requires genius ; but to sit in
judgment on some new invention, to anticipate
correctly its success or its failure, and to be pre-
pared to risk perhaps a fortune in carrying a new
theory into practical effect, requires • soundness
of judgment, • self-confidence, and a spirit of
enterprise which are by no means common.
Genuine inventors are rare things : they come
once or twice in generations. But the persever-
ing bores who deafen society with the
story of their discoveries, and the neglect with
which those discoveries have been met, are porten•
tonal), plentiful. Your crack-brained inventor is
never dumb and never indolent. If be has not
eloquence he has volubility ; if his activity is not
productive it is at all events unceasing. He is
stimulated by the hope of glory and the hope of
gains ; and unlike other men, he has two pro-
mised lands—one in this world and the other in
the next.

Those who bad the good fortune to be present
in the Queen's Bench at Westminster during the
last few days would have seen a living specimen
of the hair-brained inventor in the person of Mr.
Quits. In the year 1847 be seems to have ahan-
boned his business of a broker and betaken him-
self to the study of iron ships and the means of
constructing them. In pursuance of this design
Mr. CLAtic took out a patent in 1853, but the de-
scription which he gives of his designs appears to
be so vague that experienced shipbuilders declare
them to be useless for working purposes. Mr.Cisaz
is of a different opinion. Inflamed with the desire to
furnish his country with an iron-clad fleet, he has

carried on a vigorous correspondence with successive
Lords and Secretaries of the Admiralty, with
War Ministers, and with Lord Patarszerox him-
self during the last ten years. He has even suc-
ceeded in penetrating into the presence of these
august persons—he has conversed with them and
given them advice. On several occasions he
seems to have bad interviews with Admiral
BEIXCLIT, now Lord FITZZAZDIXO; and during
that interview he persuaded himself that the
Admiral, on behalf of the Government, had con-
tracted to pay him five per cent, on all the
money expended on iron ships. According to this
theory Mr. CLAIM claimed an annual sum of
100,0001. for the last seven years, and a like
sum for the next seven. Even if he failed to
establish his contract he was not without hope, for
he insisted that those who planned the Warrior and
the other ships had borrowed from his patent, and
that, therefore, he was entitled to compensation
for infringement of it.
It would be a waste of time to discuss the
grounds upon which Mr. ClA's attempted to
establish his claim. There was not the shadow of
proof that any official connected with the
Admiralty had made any contract with Mr. Cuss
as to the construction of iron ships ; nor, again, as
has already been said, was there any proof that
those who had planned the construction of the