The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-14 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 14, 1851.

vanity, is order to provide for the wants
of the great majority of the people: who,
being either catholic@ or presbyter's* weds' shut
out of all participation in the- baits or,
higher hououn of Trinity College. Bet the govern-'
meat of that day steadily set its f against Oe Tea-.
ligation of such designs. The idea Ist eompetttios.was
declared to be at variance with sound policy. There
was already, it was said, rather too much intellectual
ao ivity in the country for imperial purposes. If the
KW of the gentry desired collegiate instruction, they
might become students of Osturd or Cambridge ; and
as foe the nom:entertain mass, what did they want
of university degrees?
Half a century has since elapsed, and what do we
see? The monopoly has durirg that period been
complete. True to the spirit of the trust reposed in
them, the governing body of Trinity College have Ks-
served that institution intact from popular sympathies
or uses. The ancient system of religious arid political
exclusion has been maintained in all its rigour. The
clergy and laity of the established church divided the
loaves and fishes between them, and left nothing to
the disdained and disinherited creeds but the crusts
and the bones. Provost, profes.ors, fellows, and
scholars—all were arid are of the privileged fai'h.
Sons of landlords and sons of beneficed clergy sup-
plied the greater part of the bursar's fees; but as no
account was ever asked for, and none ever published
of the issues and profits of the institution, surmise
alone couldestimate the individual share of blessedness
which each of the irresponsible authorities enjoyed.
Only cm one point there was and could be no wear
Trinity College was a monopoly, and should continue
such everlastingly.
Even in 1815. when strange and s'artling sounds
of innovation filled the air, no voice of warning from
the imperial government was heard. Tr s adminis-
tration of Mr. PITT had given the comfortab:e
assurance that no competition should be permitted,
and the aristocratic and clerical monopoly should be
preserved. The administra ion of Sir RoneaT Pret
reiterated the assurance, and protested that the new
Queen's colleges they were about establishing were
me ant in no respect as rival institu' ions, but as strictly
prueincial seminarie a to supply the industrial
wants of a wholly different class of the community.
The university would not be touched. Its preserve
eh uld not be invaded. Its ledger should never be
audited. Its cloisters should never be trodden by a
mingled crowd cf different creeds and ranks. The
buttery should be full of fat things, and the cellar of
wines on the lees. Tomorrow should ba even ss
yes'erday, or yet more abundant. S the reverend
rulers of Trinity College turned on their corporate
pillow, and slept placidly as before.
Meanwhile the unpretentious academies at Galway
and Cork (fur that at Belfast was rather a modifica-
tion of what already existed there) proceeded towards
completion ; and at the same time other changes of
still greater importance were taking place. As the
colleges rose the potatoes lured. Brute and ecclesi-
astical revenues failed, and the sons of squires and
rectors no longer were sent in the numbers they had
formerly been to Dublin University. Students began
to frequent the new lecture rooms nearer to their
respective himes; and though not for the most part
perhaps consisting of those who otherwise might have
@wired the bet of undergraduates in " Old Trinity,"
they doubthes included some who would under
different circa= anew have " entered* there.
The same cause which deprived the gentry of their
usual means of educating their suns curtailed
the income which the university derived from
land. Tenants of coil ,giate estates died of pestilence
or fled the scene of ruin. Generally speaking, college
property was but ill inan‘ed. Large fines were
continually exacted for the renewal of leases; sod
the uncharitable conjectured that the casual gain thus
recured was distributed among the lucky Fellows for
the time being. No account being required either
by parliament or the crown, these details remained la
the darkness of the corporate archives. And there
they still remain; for when the recent commission of
inquiry into the condition of Oxford and Cambridge
universities was ordered by vote of the House of
Commack Lord Jone Itt'ssaLt. refused to extend the
investigation to Dublin for reasons he did not think
fit to disclose.
The general result, however, begins to be evident
to all. The number of students has during the last
four years been gradually declining, and " the most
inful epprehensions " begin to be felt by the
learned tn.:Naives of Dublin Univ. r4tv. The average
number of s udents entered from 1830 to 1845, was
more than 390. In 1845 there were 366; in 1846
there were 368; in 1847 there were 371; in 1848
they had decreased to 333; and in 1849 to 239. It
would be absurd to ascribeehts acceleratir g progress of
decline to the establishment of the provincial colleges.
Tho dates alone render that supposition incredible.
No competition of this direct description can
reasonably be anticipated in future, provided the
heads of the university shall even now arouse them
from their long trance of unreal security, and en-
deavour by a timely adoption of a more liberal and
enlightened system to win that popular reaped and
confidence, with which it is plain that for their own
sakes they can no larger aff.ad to dispense. So long
as their monopoly continued nnassailed they dwelt in
repose. So long as the only classes of society in
Ireland who desired a higher species of education
were the Anglican clergy and landed garrison of the
kingdom, they had little need for fear. But the
inotimbered estates are fast breaking up under the
judicial hammer, and the days of the anti-Irish
church, as an overgrown sinecure establishment, are
numbered. If Dublin University would keep its posi-
tion and preserve its resources, it mast open its gates to
the middle classes of all degrees and persuasions. The
prestige of an ancient name still hangs around it. It
possesses still incalculable advantages over every com-
petitor that has arisen or that may arise on the
weetern side of the channel. One thing only it
lacketh—that it is not national. It is the monument
of an obsolete policy—the citadel of a surrendered
town. Its isolated holders may devote themselves to
starvation if they will; but to regain what they have
lost is impossible : it has ceased to be.

War-Javan the legislature sets itself in earnest to
the task of ttoroughly remoulding the laws regulat•
ing the rights of inventors, it will probably be found
that there are four principal points to which their
attention wiU be more especially caUed. Tae first,
which we have already considered at some length.
relates to the establishment of one central office of
registration, and one cheap, simple, and expeditions
mode of obtaining the official recognition of a patent
right. The second consists in the dvermination of
the amount of tax to be levied on those to whom
patent rights are conceded, and tha mode in which
that amount is to be paid. A third consideration
would be the beet method of preserving, classifying,
and publishing specifications with a view of most
effectually communicating to the public satisfactory
information as to the nature and number of inventions
for which patents are already in existence. Last, bat
by no means least, would come did object of substi-
tuting more summary modes of redress in cases of in-
fnngemen•, and n more satisfactory tribunal fur try-
ing thy validity of patent rights on the grounds of
want of novelty, want of utility, or want of title in

the patentee.
Of all these points,aone presents a greater practical
difficulty than the question of amount and mode of
payment. The Committee of the Society of Arts (as
we have mentioned in a previous article) propose that
,registration of inventions should be obtainable for a
, period of one year on payment of 61., and should be
renewable for four periods of five years, on payment
of 101. at the first renewal, of 201. at the second, 501.
at the third, and 1001. at the fourth. By this scheme I
the total cost of a 21 years' term in a patent right
would be 1861., and the principle of annual payments
is not adopted. The " Aleocia,ion of Patentees for
! the Regulation of Patent Property," in an able and
business-like paper lately published by them in de-
velopment of their views, propose that the concession
for fourteen years of one patent for the whole empire
should wet. in lieu of 111 other charges, 1001. The
I mode in which it is proposed this amount should be
paid is not particularised, but from the parallel drawn
by the association between the case of the author of an
useful invention and the author of a boDk,—the l►tter
of whom, it is remarked, would frequently have to
expend fu more loan 100/. before h • could give it to
the world,—we are led to infer that the sum named
is regarded as a fixed amount to be paid down in the
first instance by the applicant for a patent as the
I purchase money of his conceded right.
In a paper now lying before no, which purports to
be the " Outline of a Bill to alter the Lair relating to
Patents fur Inventions," and which is understood to
have been prepared by a gentleman of the bar who
,has had considerable practice in patent causes, the

same um of 100!. is suggested as the exueme limit of
egrage, to be gredd„, however,. got in pre agregatee
Ifs
instal's** Aodordog to pleas, patent
7 for the* empire nee to porchased for
Spears, on this payment of 501.; . !or a further
of seutu •on the payment of $01.; and
or *nattier an 4-1101 period of seven years co the pay-
ment of 201. Twenty-one rem is thee fixed
upon as the extreme duration of a patent right,
and to this extent the wheelie agrees with the
proposals of the eommittee of the Society of Arts ; it 1
differs from those proposals in fixing 1001. instead of
1851. ae the limit of expenses in divid.ng the total
period of the grant into three equal portions of seven
years instead of into five portions, the first of one year
and the rest of five years each---and also in directly
reversing the principle on which the scale of pay-
ments was graduated by the committee, a main fea-
ture in whose scheme it was that the first outlay
should be as moderate u possible, and that the pay-
ment required on each separate renewal should be
increased in proportion to the increased power of pay-
ment which it might be fair to presume in an inventor
the success of whose invention would seem to be
proved by the very fact of hie applications for its
renewal.
It may well be conceived that when doctors differ
to this extent the true remedy is one of no very easy
discovery. The practical difficulties of the question
are in fact very consider Ale, and by men of less
sanguine dispositions are so magnified that a choice
between opposite possibilities of evil seems to be the
only course open to the reformer. On the
other band, it is said that by making the
primary concession of patent right too cheap,
you will stimulate to an unhealthy extent
the activity of needy epeculators in invention and
produce a sort of intellectual intoxication in a class
of men who are at present only too well disposed to
abandon the sober pursuits of industry, for the more
exciting chase of the chimeras of discovery. So with
regard to the eyteem of annual payments, it is ob-
jected that, if adopted, it would put the needy
patentee who has produced an invention which, when
generally known, might become valuable, in the
hands of the capitalist who has supplied him op to a
certain point with the means of making the required
annual payments, but who will purposely withdraw
his aid, when most wanted, in order to compel the
cession to him on the most advantageous terms of the
patent, which would lapse if the required payment
' were not made.
Oa the other hand, it is alleged that these fears are
exaggerated ; that although, in some inetacc e, the
liw price or a patent grant may tempt men to waste
in fruitless efforts at invention the time and labour
which might better be employed in the pursuits of
regular industry, yet that, on the whole, the public
will be vastly the gainers by the great con, terba-
lancing advantage of having no chick imposed upon
that inventive ability, which is so far from being
always associated with rank and wealth, that it would
be more true to affirm that it frequently constitutes
the sole patrimony of poverty. Is the appre-
hension of probably misleading a few artisans of
over-active minds to be set against the splendid
chance of enriching the communinity, and addirg,
perhaps, to the every-day enjoyments of the woild,
by means of some invention which might never, per-
haps, have seen the light, had you not reduced to a
very insignificant amount the first cost of obtaining
for it a legal recogoition? Again, with regard to ob-
jections urged against the scheme of annual payments,
it is contended that they are on the whole rather
specious than sound. It is not more difficult, soy the
advocates of the annual system, for a poor
man to obtain an annual accommodation, for
a limited period, of five, or even ten pounds,
than to find the means of raising at once so large a
sum as SO!. or 1001. Nor is it clear in what respect
the one method of borrowing puts him more in the
power of the capitalist than the other. The aerostat
besides against annual paymente, would tell with
hardly less force against pi rtodical fines on renewal :
the latter in fact would seem, if anything, more
completely to put needy inventivensu within
the grasp of unconscientious wealth. Rut if this
be so, there remains in favour of the annual
payment scheme the very considerable advantage that
it a ill conceive, and decisively cperate, as a preven-
tive check on the continuance of theirs, abortive and
impracticable patents which, though utterly useless
for any purpose of public beneli., may be, and often
are, worked very mischievously against the interrate
of the bond fide inventor, whose specification may
present such points of simitarity to these stale patents
as to give ground for a threat of legal proceedings,
and thereby force a compromise, a purchase, or a
partnership.
To apply these principles to the modes of payment
suggested in the three pipers to which we ha-se referred ;
it appears to us that to require 1001. or 501 to be paid
down in one sum for the first concession of a patent
right, is contrary to those views which we consider
most in accordance with the true interests of the
public, and the true interests of the inventor; we
very much prefer the plan of the committee of the
Society of Arts, which concedes a patent right for
one year for the payment of 51. ; the only grounds
on which we should be diepoied toaissent from she com-
mittee are, first, because we think the sum of 1851. too
high for the total period of patent right, and secondly
—but of this we would be understood to speak more
doubtfully—because we think that the French sys-
tem of small amnia payments is preferable to the
scheme of short successive periods of concession with
a fine imposed on each renewal, on a gradually
ascending scale.
We cannot conclude these remarks without the
expression of a sincere hope that ere parliament
meet some very decisive steps may be made towards
securing the corcurient and unanimous action of all
claws of Patent Law Reformers; one plan, though
it may involve the mutual surrender of a few favour-
ite crotchets, will have far more weight with the
government and the legislature, than any number of
separate schemes, however self-consistent, however
systematically matured.

GERMANY.

The sitting of the Second Chamber at Berlin on
the 11th offered no point of interest. The budget
of 1831 was not voted, and doubts were pre-
valent as to how the payments of the
state were to be made. The oppoviion jonrnals
maintained that government shoold ask for a bill of
indemnity from the Chambers, while the mioisierisl
papers refer to the 109:h article of the conritutioo.
wording to which taxes may, at any time, be antici-
pated without recour•e being bed to a new law.
Our prevent advicts confirm the statement of M.
Ton der Heydrs resignation, and its acceptance by
the King.
Baron Menteuffel arrived at Dresden on the night
of the 10th inst. He had an interview with Prince
lichwarzetberg, who intends to remain at Dresden
for some time to come.
Count Reventlow, appointed Commissioner for the
Duchies on the part of Denmark, has arrived at
Hemburgh.

CASSEL, JA!( 10.

The members of the Superior Committee of Health,
u well as those of the corsoistare, the Director of the
Polytechnic School, and several of the officials at
Hobgeisman and at It dtenburgh have obtained the
dismissal they had demanded.

FRANCE.
PARIS, MONDAY Ilvmenie.
In the sitting of the Assembly to-dey the represen-
tatives were chiefly occupied in conversing on the
reports of the *Wier of the Committee of Perms-
Bence,- which have been printed and distributed. The
report of the committee was expected to be presented
em Wednesday.
The publication of the militates of the Committee of
Permanence, of which I send yen a complete copy. is
likely to damage the President less than his
adversaries. These proces-verbaux in fact con-
tain nothing new, and are merely an official
version of what appeared in the newel:topers during
the last six weeks of the recess. If there ever existed
a project for bringing the President to trial for high
treason, according to the 68th article of the coeetitu-
rion—a project which might easily have entered
into the heads of some of the Permanent Com-
mittee, to judge by the violence of the language
attributed to them in the official reports of their sit-
tings—it is evident that the moment for carrying
each a project into effect has been allowed to slip.
The public has already judged the military
pic-nice, the cries at the neje% s, the die-
missil of General Neumayor, and the amount
of compl city which existed between the govern-
ment and the feats of the society of the Dix Decembre.
The verdict of the country on these heads of accusation
against the President would have been more severe,
had it not recognised in the men who impeached him
far bitterer enemies of the republic, sgainst which
they had plotted at Claremont at.d Wiesbaden. If
these considerations sufficed to absolve the President
in the eyes of the public Wore the re-opening of the
Assembly, there would be much lees chance of pro-
curing a sentence of condemnation against him since
the emphatic pledges given in his message to respect
the constitution.
ire most important, indeed the only important,
part of the printed proces-verbaux as far as any new
revelation is coeceroed, is the declaration of General
Changarnier with reord to the dismissal of Gee Neu-
mayer. Ile there soya that however deeply he
may regret bring deprived of the services of so useful
a lieutenant, still it was a mu-representation to con-
sider him as hostile to the gayer'meat, and that he
should remain as he had ever been, ready to defend
the person and the rights of the President of the
Republic.
All the fractions of the Left of the Assembly met
yesterday morning, aid appointed a con mittee to
consult on the situation. The committee is composed
of MM. Cremieux,Victor Hago, Jules Fevre, Dupont
de Bu-sac, Pascal Dupre, Orevy, Ch Girardin,
Emmanuel Arago, Mohler' de la Drome, Schcalcher,
Michael de Bourgee, Edgar, Quinet, Demme, Joly,
arid Canet. The object of this committee is to pro-
cure uni.y in the votes of the Lett.
It was reported that the Assembly would take mea-
sures fir the prceecution of the Constitutianncl and

With respect to the deliberations of the Committee
on .l. ltemusat'e motion, little has transpired, as the
closet secrecy is maintained by its members. It is
lnd, however, that M Baroche had promised to inter-
dict from sale all journals attacking the Assembly in
a eis,espectful mariner.
It is said that the members are equally divided. 7
being for, and 7 against the government, so that the
elating vote rested with the president, M. de Broglie.
The reporter had not been yet appointed.
M. Lanjuinais was a x Acted to be named reporter
of the committee. I Lear that its resolution will be a
very serious one.
The members of the niejority complain bitterly of
the hostility of the English press.
There is no foundation that I can depend on for the
rumour that M. de Broglie hale had an interview to-
day with the President of the Republic, at the Elysee.
The proceedings ol the Assembly were comp letely
devoid of interest.
A bill was adopted anthcrisiug the President to
ratify the treaty of extradition conc:uded with Spain.
A new head ot the staff of the national guard has
been appointed, in the person of C lone) Foltz, who is
a close friend of Gen. Baraguay d'Hilliers.
The Moniteur contains a notice, that from Jan. 13
the interest attached to the Treasury bends shall be
fixed as follows : at 2! je:r cent, per annum fur bonds
falling due in from three to five month.; at 3 per
cent. p.r annum for bonds falling due in from six to
eleven months; at 4 per cent. per a..uum for bonds
at one year This order has given a smart up-
ward impulse to the funds. It is clear that
.tl. Fould means to tell the world that the
government is in nowise distress: d for money.
At the Bourse it was considered that the motion
of M. de Remusat would not be followed by
any serious results, and that every day would bring
over w to the side of the government. In
consequence of these favourable influences, the Fives
closed at 941.93 c., with a rive of 4.5 c. en the closing
quotations ot Saturday.
The following are the points in the pro6s-verh,stis
of the Committee of Permanence, which have chiefly
mitt d the attention of the Assembly.
FouaTii SITTING, 6TH Seer.—The President communi.
rived die. rs petitions from the department of the Meuse,
einceiv-d in i tenting' terms, dernviding that the power lot
life ssould be conferred oi. Price Lewis N poleon.
Nisrif SITTING. 7Tti OCT.—in reply to questions pro-
posed to him, General d'aleutpoul avowed Met a distribu-
tion of meat, of the value of about 25 centimes pet
egad, bad been made from tee purse of the
President of the R. public to the troops at i-
t Ty, he also avowed that U. Lou's Bonaparte bad die-
,ribured champagoe, br. ad, and meat to the officers and sub-
officers mixed together on the ground. Gen. Changarnim
d. clued that it was contrary to his advice, and in spite of
Me recommendation, that acclamations were not only so-
couraged but pr .voked. If he did not adopt measures of
repetition, it woe that at a review at which the President of
he It •public and the leLnieter of War were present, theft
responsibility covered and effaced that of the commander-ea-
chief. M. Dupla observed the gravity which in these
elplanatioos the constitutional question assumed. What
Nu in question wee as less than the d:scipliae of the army
and the IN eruct of the few.,
TaNTH 3irrixo, Ocr. 11.—The members of the Com-
mittee who were present at the review at fiatory,ot the 10. h
October, made their report. They sioaninously declared
that the cries of " ice Napoleon ! ' Viva l'Empereur !"
uttered by some iquadrons of cavalry, were evactently pro-
voked by toe ollimes, and repeated by the soldier§ eriteout
enilletvialm and erithou• spontaneousness. Before the review
the President of the Republic bad caused to be communi-
cated to the chiefs of corps that he would be always happy
to receive the testimonies of symp ithy which the troops
would gm him.
FotAirmiNTll SITTING, OCT. 33.-A member observed
that toe inaction of the executive power in face of the
intrigues of the society of the Dix D.:cerebra were not only
prows of culpable par. iality, but might even be qualified as
'roam At this same sitting the question of replecMg
0-neral Neurnemr was raised, and General Chungaraier
declared that the only cause of the recitation was ins reply
lands to a eel mei by General Neumayer, "Silence tinier
arms is the attitude meet conformable to military regale
lions." 0 1 Commenter said that he is not a man of
any party, only the man of the country end the law, the man
of eery above all, and this duty, the same la his eyes in ois.
grace and at the head of an army, would cause bim, whether
al or soldier, to expose his life for the defence of the
person and legal authority of the President of the Republic.
St is Simon, Nov. 2.—Toe committee ach,p:eit
unanim.uely the tchuoriag resolution :—" Tne committee
state that the Minister of tee Interior has opposed en ulna.
sate refusal to explain himself on the question put to him
rels•ive to the actual motion to which is attributed the
measure taken wi.h regard to General Neumayer. In the
resume which terminates the 20th and lest sitting, M. D apin
lover a with severity to the riotous manifesta.ions of the
society Dm Dements, the troub:es it has exci:ed, and tee
naamti,y et prosecuting it, and said a 'second lact, not lees
grave. are the snacifesta•ions which have accompanied the
miLtary reviews. To. committee see in these cries an at
tempt contrary to the actual order of things, and a breach el
military discipline, either in the distribution of eataules and
drit It, which have produced scenes of drunktnuess and dis-
order, or in the provocation on the part of some officers to
politiesl demonstration', contrary to the laws and rep ule ti use.
Toe sommitiee bee adjured the Minister of War to recall the
•roops to the observance of the military reputations. The
blieister of War has dime nothing, but he hes eta ed to oe
Minister ot War ;he issued no order of the d•y, but Gen.
Cnangarnier hes iwa. d one, 'wades, energetic, fo.inde.; on
the iiecessi,y of °memo, the laws and reAula ions, and the
government has in fact adopted it by its acquit, acence."
Ti. following is the text of a proposition tending
to modify the electoral law of May 31, 1650, deposed
on Saturday in the bureau of the Assembly by M. de
Ltroshejaqutlin
Art. 1. Within 30 days of the promulgation of the ;resent
law the electoral list shall be addressed by the mayors, as
awed by tares delegates appointed for seen oomenuae, two
by the municipal casual of the commune, toe third by the
jug. de pair ; they mast be domiciliated in the °into's. Sec.
I. Similar to the law.
Art. 2 The list shell sonars, in alphabetical order-Ist,
alt Frenchmen aged 21 y. ars enjoying their civil end poli-
tical right., actually domiciliatail in the commune for two
years. Sic. 2ln communes whose populati exceeds
2,000, the number of delegates shall be augmented proper-
tion.lly. See. 2. Smiler to the law.
Art 3 The electoral domicile *ball be proved—lst,by inscrip-
tion to one of the four direct taxes of one of the departments,
ce by panne' inscrir ion on the roll of duty in kind fur the
vidaal yoga. 2nd. By the de;laretiona of the fathers or