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

TEE

be at the pains to devise and perfect ag
for the public use. Now, considering" bow many
of the really valuable discoveries pew *pled in
the Royal service have been made by outsiders,
and how extremely few by officials, it is obvious
that if we dry up the former source of
invention, we shall find very Mile equiva-
lent in the efforts of the latter. But while these
are the probable pradical results of the new
system, there is in it an objection of principle,
which is conclusive. Patents at present oonfer a
right of property. The theory may be sound, or it
may be mischievous ; but while the laws stand on
the statute-book the fact is undeniable. Now the
recent decision is virtually a permission to the
Crown to seize this property. True, the benefit
is supposed to be that of the public ; but the public
is indisposed to take benefit by theft. And while
we assure inventors that their property shall be
respected by all the world, it is an anomaly of an
evil kind that it should be infringed by the powers
which profess to guard it.
Of course, during the argument all idea of
appropriation without payment was disclaimed.
The Crown, it was declared, will always be
disposed to deal liberally with deserving
inventors. But who is to judge what is desert
and what liberality t Here it appears that Mr.
Run judged Mr. FiLTHIAII ideas to be deserving
of adoption ; but we do not hear that he made
any offer to pay for them to Mr. FSATHZIL'S
astir
faction. It is clear that an arrangement which
gives all the power and all the right to one of the
parties is unfair. Nor can the Crown take credit
for liberality in any of its past dealings with inven-
tors. One or two, who were lucky, it has richly
rewarded ; but the majority it has in every official
way frowned at, discouraged, and starved. It is
plain that they must have some protection against
the mere arbitrary capita of subordinates, and
the entire ignorance of their superiors. Nothing
can be more reasonable than the principle that
no patent shall exclude the public from right to
use it on just terms. But these terms ought to be
settled by fair arbitration, not left to be fixed by pre-
jud;oed partiality. There could be no difficulty in
establishing such • provision. An arbiter named
by the Crown, and another by the patentee, with
an umpire in case of need, would speedily decide
what an invention was good for, and what the
public ought to pay for it. This proviso ought to
satisfy the " Departments," for it will remove all
real impediment from their way. But nothing
WI will satisfy inventors, nor ought to satisfy the

SERAFINA POLIGNI., the Italian, has been found
guilty of the murder of MrcnAv. HARRINGTON,
who was fatally stabbed last Boxing-day at a
public house on Saffron-bill. This is the third time
within a few months that a foreigner has been con-
victed of murder at the Old Bailey. The Germans,
MULLER and Kost, were incited by cupidity to
crimes varying in the degree in which they were
premeditated ; PouoNl appears to have acted
solely upon an impulse of passion. A number of
his countrymen, of whom many reside in the
neighbourhood of Saffron-hill, fancied that they
had been insulted at the Golden Anchor publik.-
house on the Saturday before Christmas-day, and
appear to have harboured their ill-will, which
grew into a determination to be revenged.
Two days afterwards, on the 26th of December,
in the evening. a number of Italians went to the
Golden Anchor, and the primmer told the landlord
that "he could kill six such as he." POLIO2II
then left, and in his absence & row ensued and the
landlord was struck. In the midst of the dis-
turbance the prisoner returned and, at the head of
several of the foreigners, rushed into the bagatelle
room, where the deceased man was sitting with
others, and made a general attack upon them, in
the course of which the prisoner stabbed the de-
ceased with a knife. The prisoner was almost
immediately seized, and was recognised by the
dying man as the person who had stabbed him :
the fact was also sworn to by as many as six wit-
nesses. The prisoner's defence was well cared
for. As in the case of Alcu.za, a number of his
countrymen, firmly convinced of his innocence,
exerted themselves on his behalf, and at the trial
an attempt was made to show that the fatal blow
had been struck by another Italian, who was
proved to have been in the brawl, and who had
suddenly disappeared. The jury, however, were
perfectly satisfied of the sufficiency of the evident*.
which Baron MARTIN declared " could not be
" clearer, and was the most direct and conclusive
"he had ever heard in the whole course of his
"experience." Those, however, who have cul-
tivated a distrust of circumstantial evidence, and
are unable to feel the force of proof result-

ing from the convergence of a number of inde-
pendent facts towards one result, may learn from
this ease that direct testimony is not without dif-
ficulties of its own. The counsel for the defence
struggled ably with the evidence by which the pri-
soner was identified, arguing from the resemblance
of the prisoner to other Italians, as to the features
by which the witnesses for the Crown recognised
him, and dwelling on the confusion and excite-
ment, which made it difficult for them to preserve
a clear recollection of what bad occurred. But he
argued in vain, and POLIONIN crime is to be ex-
piated by his death. The sentence is just.