The Express.
London, England, 1865-02-04 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4.

IT is not often that in these days a question of
Royal Prerogative is mooted in our courts of law.
But a case which was heard at great length in the
Queen's Bench last week, and on which the Court
yesterday delivered its judgment, carries us back
to the days before the Protectorate, and to the
arguments which were then pressed by COKE and
Szter.l4 for and against monopolies.
The argument may be interesting to the legal
antiquary, but the consequences of the judgment
are of novel and serious interest to the publiz.
And it has taken even the law officers of the Crown
almost by surprise. tinder the statutes authori•
sing the Crown to grant patents for meritorious I
inventions, it has never till now been conceived
that the Crown could claim exemption for itself.
The statutes give it, indeed, a right to obtain sup-
plies of a manufactured article at • fair price ; but
this provision would seem by analogy to imply that
it must pay for the use of a patented process, if
used in its own manufactures. Sometimes, in-
deed, it has endeavoured, when a renewal of •
patent was sought from the Privy Council, to have
a condition inserted that it should be at
liberty to use the invention. The law offi-
cers made an application to this effect
in regard to the patent for the screw propeller,
and again in the case of the Lancaster rifle, but the
Privy Council refused the demand. That it was
made, sad refused, shows how entirely the legal
advisers of the Crown were then convinced that
without such express restriction the Crown had no
right, and how unwilling the learned Judges who
presided in the Privy Council were to concede such
a right, even in an individual case. But the Ad-
miralty have been more astute than the ATTORNEY-
GENERAL, and more constitutionally learned than
the Privy Council. By the hands of Mr. RELD
they have used Mr. FEATHER'S patent in the En-
terprise, and they have refused to pay him for his
idea. Sued for the infringement, they have ad-
mitted that the idea is valuable, for they have
allowed judgment to go against them for
10,000/. of damages, if they were found liable
to pay anything in point of law. Nor does it
even seem that the law officers sanctioned the
legal plea after it was first suggested. The
Arrosinar-GessaLL distinctly stated that it was
not of his moving, but that the course was forced
upon him by the " pressure of the Departments."
They have complained that they were hampered
by the multiplicity of patents, and they have taken
this very summary method of freeing themselves
completely from embarrassment.
But it scarcely appears that their immediate
success will be a permanent benefit to the public.
Most of the patents which government officers will
wish to use have little application except to govern-
ment productions. No other subject of the
QUEEN will employ Mr. FEarneit's patent If
not the Admiralty. No private manatee-
turer has such a demand for guns, shed,
tents, or other warlike stores as is sufficient to
make a patent pay, if it is not adopted by Govern-
ment. But if Government insists on using all
inventions without paying for them, the result will
be that nobody but its own officers will any longer