The Express.
London, England, 1852-02-03 00:00:00

lootbtiebed, Oth edition, trios le.; post Der',Y. 6d.
A N ESSAY on SPKRMATORHHCEA. By
XI. Rieman. DAWII,III, M.D., Licentiate of the Rnoel Donets
Pigskins+, Loodon, le. Alm, b 7 the same Author, boo., cloth MU
tenth L.: jowl fres. ha. fol.
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Loam Aylott sad loses, 6, PaternoMergow.

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WITCH CRAFT. The HORSE-SHOE; $
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Engraved by J. Itotapeoe.
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rator, the it, .&t. and Proaprets animated. WV, Itclisolacas
ProbaSis Mamma a( War. By Taman. Bursa, Poo.
Landon: Partridge sad Okay, Paternoster-row; and 7.4 11d.
end

- - -
ANNUAL MEETING OF TILE LIVERBOOL

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

The annual meeting of this association was held
yesterday, in Asir Council Room. The assemblage was
most numerous, and many gentlemen were unable to effect
an entrance, so crowded was the place of meeting. len the
absence of the president, Mr. T. B. Hessian, the shale was
Vby Mr. Hues
CIIAIRMAI

said It was satisfactory to the
chamber flat the request of the deputation for further
inquiry would be ar.swered by the reappointment of
the Customs committee early in the present session. (Ap-
plause.) It would be the duty of the association to fur-
nish that committee with ample proofs of the grievous evils
resulting from the present Custom-house system, and to
show that those evils could be remediid without the least
injury or obstruction to the collection of the revenue.
(Cheers) The diligence and discretion with which the
(Member had devoted itself to the promotion of objetets of
general mercantile utility, and the careful abstinence from
an controversial and political subjects, had greatly added
w their numbers; and he trusted this progreieion would
ilustinue until the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce in-
cluded the whole of the respectable commercial classes of
cla town. (Great applause.)
The SECRETARY read the annual report, by the
council, of the transactions of the past year, which em-
braced the fallowing subjects The reform of the pre-
sent Customhouse system and regulations, and the
formation of local boards, by extending the authority of
I the head local officers ; the establishment of tribunals of
commerce ; an amendment of the patent laws; the success t 1f
the act for the arrest of absconding debtors ; the introduction
of ocean penny postage and of international pest money
orders for sums not exceeding 101.; the abolition of the
Russia Company's monopoly of the Sound dues and of the
soap duties. The report concluded with the announcement
that Mr. Gilbert had presented the Chamber witk• Sala-
able portrait of the late Mr. Canning, which had bean
placed in the council-room, and was much admired.
Mr. C. HOLLAND moved the adoption of thezi=
showing, in the remarks he made, the advantages p
by Chambers of Commerce in carrying out their under-
takings. Hu then entered into the subject of eustibms'
reform, and showed the advantages that would result to
the commerce of the country by the adoption of the prin-
ciple of local boards.
The treasurer's report was then read, and shosied that
the association had increased from 345 members in 1135 f to
413 in 1851. At the present time, when only • month of
1852 had elapsed, a further accession of between fifty and
sixty members had been obtained.
Both reports having been adopted, the election of six
gentlemen to fill the places of the retiring directors took
place, and the meeting separated.

I'ATENT LAW AMENDMENT ASSOCIATION.

A public meeting, convened by the Patent Law
Amendment Association, was held last evening, at the Belle
Sauvage Hotel, Ludgate-hill, for the purpose n 1 receiving •
report of the progress of the question which had been
drawn op by the committee of the association. Mr. Alder-
man SIDNSY occupied the chair.
The report, which was read and adopted, related the his-
tory of the withdrawal of the bill introduced by Lord Oran-
, vine last session, and recited the different points contended
for h 7 the association as indispensable to the new measure
anticipated in the ensuing session. The large sum of
nearly 4001. (says the document) has still to ho paid be-
fore an inventor can secure the property, for the United
Kingdom, in hie own invention. Renee all inventors who
are sot rich men are thus debarred of their rights; sad
should they haply obtain them by the assistance of others,
no thanks are due to the law of patents. Indeed, in no
part of the civilised world are less facilities afforded to in-
ventors to obtain their tights than in this country . for by
an outlay of less than 101. a patent may be obtained in
either France, Belgium, Holland, or America.
Mr. Aid. Sidney, in his opening remarks, observed
that they stood in regard to patent law reform in the same
position which they had occupied at this period last year.
It was quite clear, however, that a bill would be very soon
introduced ; and it was to be hoped that this bill would go
farther, and be more satisfactory, than the first measure. He
believed that the government had gone last 'mien upon a
false assumption in respect to the effect of cheep patents upon
the revenues. If a patent was only to cost 241. in lieu of
3001. there would, of course, be a great increase in the pub-
lication of discoveries ; and his calculation was that the
present revenue from patents of 63,000!. would be increased
at once to 75,000/, and at the cod of seven years to 100,000!.
per annum.
Resolution. enunciatory of the objects of the society ware
proposed and passed.
The meeting was successively addressed by Mr. Rogers,
Q C., Mr. F. Campin, Mr. S. Stocker, junr., Mr. Brown,
Mr. Donald Brown, Mr. Peckham, Mr. Dart, Mr. George
Bhepherd, Mr. J. Mahon, end other gentlemen.
The proceedings were closed with a vote of thanks to the
press.
The following letter was read in the course of the even-
ing. It was addressed, in October last, to Mr. Shepherd,
the chairman of the committee of the association :

" Office of Committee of Privy Council for Trade,
" Whitehall, Oct. 25, 1861.
" fiir,—l am directed by the Lords of the Committee of
Privy Council (or Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of the 17th inst., conveying the resolutions passed at
a meeting of the National Patent-Law Amendment Asa-
elation. _ _ _

"Ist resolution.—That application be made to her Ma-
festy's government to continue the Provisional Protectionof
Inventions Act 1851, until the latest moment, by the Board
of Trade licensing any of the public scientific exhibitions of
the realm, or one of them, u a place of exhibition under
the aet. _

" 2nd. That as a very large portion of the patent fees is
in the hands of the government, it is desirable tha: the go-
vernment should immediately reduce the cost of patent*—
, without waiting for parliament—by that amount—the
reduction of patent charges having been sanctioned by the
House of Lords and Commons, and the government oats-
mines of 1848 (on Privy Seal and Signet office).
" With regard to the first of the above resolutions, I am
to inform you, that it appears to my lords that consisWatly
with the intentions of the legislature in passing the act of
last session fur extending the provisions of the Designs Act,
1850, and to give protection from piracy to persons exhi-
biting new inventions in the Exhibition of the Works of
Industry of All Nations in 1851 ; their lordships could not
with propriety certify that any other building than the
Exhibition building in Hyde lark is a place of exhibition
within the meaning of the act.
"With regard to the second of the above resolutions, lam
to inform ou that an act was passed last session (14 and .16
o. 82), which comes into operation on the Ist January
next, by virtue of which tbo fees in the Privy Seal and ffig-
net offices referred to in this resolution, as well as those as
the Queen's Hilt (a step in the granting of patents aholislted
, in the act) will cease to be paid; and that, as a contiderahle
'reduction of the ezponses on English patents will be thereby
effected, and as it is the intention of the government, to
bring in a bill early in the next session for the amendment
of the patent laws, when the whole question of the fees
payable on patents will have to be considered, it does hot
appear expedient to make any further reduction in the
meantime.-1 am, sir, your obedient servant,
" J. 6.11611 BOOTH."

MR. VERNON SMITH, M.P., has, it ie stated, re-
cetera a ministerial appointment ; and rumour declares the
William Mulesworth likely to be equally fortunate.
TIM FATAL LAMP FAI'LOSION AT HIGHGATE.—
Yesterday Mr. Wskley, M.P., resumed, at the Woodman
'Tavern, Archway-road, Highgate, the adjourned inquiry
into the circumstances attending the death of Thomas
Wynee Edwards, aged 21 years, which was cause.' by the
sudden explosion of a naphths mineral spirit lamp. The
inquiry bad been adjourned for the purpose of heating the
Opinions of eminent chemists respecting the comtruetion of
the lamps, and the compoiition of the nine-rat spirits used
in them. lie. Seoffern and Dr. Miller were lath illumined
at some length. each explaining the particulars of the ex-
periments they had made, and they concurred in expressing
their opinions that the death of the deceiwed hail hewn
caused by an explit.ion of ens. resulting from the ignition of
a mixture of naphtha vapour with at mospliri is air. They
ale, concurred in stating that this mixture was invariably
explosive. Mr. Wakley, in summing up the ease, said that,
Men. the opinions expensed by the two eminent practical
ekemeatt engaged in the case, Mr. Holloway was clearly
not legally to blame in the matter, and that the only ear
diet the jury could return would be one of accidental death.
The ;or), after a 'Aal deliberation, returned a verdict of
t• Ai...dental death," and exerewed an opinion that great
caution ought to be observed in the use of such lamps.