The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-05 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING,. DECEMBER 5, 1850.

which such • measure was scarcely requisite, since
the registration of designs might hive wen effected
at a comparatively small expense.
The Council of the Saciety of Arta have bees Very
active in endeavouring to Five efficieney to ape esti-
, nal plan, and at the same time to eQect soomplete re-
formation in the patent laws. Thefpoint al 'tremolo g.
urgency is to supply. the shortcossings of theilict of
last session, and this is proposed to be done by giving
inventors the privilege of provisional registration, to
enable them to seams their property for ens year. It
is supposed that before the end of that terns any really
nested invention exhibited to the world will either be
adopted or obtain such a degree of attention as to en-
able the poor inventor to perfect his registration, for
which he would be required to pay.lol., and would have
a prolongation of his protection for five years.
A further payment, to the amount of fifty pounds,
would be required for a prolongation of another five
years; one hundred pounds for the next term; and
it, at the expiration of sixteen years of protection, the
inventor should require a longer term, it might be
obtained for two hundred poucds. Should this pro-
position be adopted, the cost of a patent for all
'
years would be only eleven pounds ; but if it extended
to twenty-one years or seven years beyoad the dues-
tion of a patent right at present, the cost of protection
would be 3611.!
The principle of making payments by instalments
is based on the plan acted on in France with great
advantage to inventors; but in this *wintry a fixed
annual payment of one hundred francs is required for
each year's prolongation of the term, until the expi-
ration of fourteen years, when the right altogether
ceases. The proposition of the council of the Society of
Arts is, however, much more favourable to the poorer
class of inventors, as it would afford them protection
for a certain number of years for less money • and if
the invention proved profitable, they would gladly pay
the larger sums required for increased prolongations.
The plan of granting protection for short successive
terms would also be attended with the advantage of
ale klugg the continuance of useless and obstructive
ttsonspo'es; for often before the expiration of the
first year the worthlessness of an invention is proved.
At present the rights of all
.patentees continue for
fourteen years, and they remain in force whether the
invention be brought into practice or not. Thus. it
often happens that a mechanical arrangement which is
altogether useless for the purpose for which it was in-
tended, may be an obstruction to the application of it
to a practical use. In France it is ordered otherwise.
If an invention be not brought into use in that
country within two yetis from the grant of the pa-
tent, the privilege ceases to be in force. Some arrange-
ment of this kind is much wanted in England, and
though the grant foe limited terms would greatly
diminish the obstruction to useful inventions, it
would not be so stringent a check as the case seems
Ito require.
The report of the Council of the Society of Arts,
to which we have referred. contains many important
suggestions for the amendment of the patent laws,
particularly in reference to the too facile grant of •
royal license, and the trifling extent of its protection
when obtained. The appointment of a board of scien-
tific men to examine into the merits of inventions, and
their claims to novelty, before any exclusive rights
are granted, would be • moot im2ortant advantage to
inventors and to the public. It would prevent the
accumulation of monopolies for trivial improvements
of no incentive merit, and a patent obtained after in-
vestigation into claims to novelty and ingenuity would
be an honourable distinction and possess substantial
value. The pressing want of the present time, how-
ever, is a cheap and simple means of protection; and
is reference to that point, a reeemmeodation, well
deserving attention, has been made by Mr. Merrnew
RILL, the Recorder of Birmingham, who was re-
cently applied to by the inhabitants of that town fur
his advice and assistance on the amendment of the
patent law. Mr. HILL proposes, in the first place,
that the original plan of cooferi log the right of 'ro-
ped,- on all new inventions placed in the Great Ex-
hibition of Industry should be confirmed; the term of
protection to be limited to a time determined. This
would meet the want of the day ; but as a per-
manent arrangement he recommends the establish-
meet of • " mart for inventors," where, for a year at
least4lity may expose their inventions in security, and
thus be in a condition to treat with capitalists for the
sale of the products of their ingenuity without lia-
tidily to fraud or piracy. Au arrangement of this kind
would be an important boon to inventors, who, as the
law at present stands, cannot show what they have
for sale without incurring the risk of robbery, which
is the more galling, because the thief may steal and
laugh at them with impunity.
Whilst these suggestions are under esnsideration,
the .kTTORNZT-GENERAL has laid down a most im-
portant rule to be observed in the applications fur
patents, which, to a certain extent, will put a stop to
a system of fraud and injustice to which inventors
were previously exposed. Applicants for patents are,
by this rule, obliged to give a description in writing
of the nature and extent of their inventions. This
has hitherto been required only in cases where a
patent has been opposed, and the object of it is to pre-
vent the patentee from including in his subsequent spe-
cification anything that he was not cognisant of at the
time of applying for his patent. By the previous
practice it would have been possible for an unspecified
patentee to have included in his claims any novelty
exhibited that was within the range of the title of his
patent. It would have been useless for the inventor
to endeavour to obtain redress. The patentee might
assert that the invention was his, and if the real in-
ventor attempted to carry it into operation, he would
have been liable to an action at law for as infringe-
ment of the patent rights of the spoiler. The possi-
bility of such gross injustice being practised is
prevented by the neetesity to which patentees are
Dow subjected of making their claims accord with
the description deposited six months before specifica-
tion ; but the exhibiting inventor is not yet protected
from general plunder. Any one may exercise the in-
vention as well as hirosel f,for anpatented inventions are
sot recognised as property. The movement that is ac-
tively progressing to effect a complete reformation in
the patent laws must, however, alter this state of
things. The necessity of amendment has been brought
into notice more prominently than it otherwise would
by the emasculation of the bill of last session ; and
what was then considered a lose will probably prove a
gain. Instead of a mere temporary measure we seem
likely to obtain a permanent and thorough reform of
the present system by which the products of inventive
Industry may be protected at little cost and with
greater certainty.

Ig previous articles we have pointed oat the evils
which arise in oar dispensaries from the gratuitous
services of medicil officers, and the control they exer-
cise over the committees of these institutions. We
have seen that the only efficient officer is the apothe-
cary, or house surgeon, who is paid for what he does ;
and that in many lateness the array of medial
names attached to a dispensary paper serves but as
an advertisement, and a very bed one, too, of those
who are connected with it. We have found how sel-
dom the committee performs its duties efficiently, and
we pawpaw to the consideration of the governors, as
they are called, of these institutions. Every sub-
scriber of a guinea annually, or • single donation of
tee guineas, becomes a governor and has a voice in
the business of the dispensary at yearly or half-
yearly meeting". How much interest is evinced
by governors in the dispensaries to which they
subscribe is evinced by their attendance at those
meetings. Occasionally one or two are present, sel-
mom more, unless some party question brings them
together, and the annual meeting is merely au oppor-
tunity afforded for any governor to be present at, to
find fault if he pleases. The fact is, the governors
leave the charity to be managed by the committee,
acd we have seea how the committee are roaraged by
the medical officers. Yet there are questions coo-
tautly to be settled on which the governors ought to
have a voice, and questions which the governors are
morally bound to answer. There is scarcely anything
about which people are so careless as to how their
money is spent in a charity. The annual guinea or
donation is presented as the result of some sudden
feeling of philanthropy, which no longer exists
when the money is paid. It is only • short time
since that a surgeon was transported for
obtaining subscriptions to • dispensary which had
ceased to exist for ten or fifteen years. He had raised
several hundreds of pounds a year for this charity,
and quietly pocketed the whole. Surely if the per-
sons who thus subieribed wished to do any good, they
ought to have inquired as to how their money war
spent. But this is not aIL It frequently happens
that the governors for the time being of a hospital or
dispensary, are made resptuable for the expenditure
of very largo sum of money in trot. Thu in cope-

oially the case with hospitals. Yet this money is
ormstantly being misappropriated, without a, • deg'.
1/0, lifted up spinet It .by the ' 1
tal‘nt Wan,
Cs; St. Thowm(ll Hospital 41 an • ' whole 1
'bey sin 'pendia; thousands of pomade; sea;
terabit& for the suitpoor, on then a s
. grease schooL New if this evenditore was justifiable
'neder 'say circumstances, it is least of all to be dr
fended at St. Thomas's. There is a medicsl school,
and a very efficient one, over the way at Guy's Him
pital, and we believe supported quite independent of
the funds of the hospital; and why any attempt
should be made to establish another, is only to be
ascribed to the influence which the medical officers of
the hospital are enabled to exert over the committee.
It is also very unjust to the other medical wheals,
which era sempcetsd, se they ought to be, by the con-
tributions of those who are educated in them. Why
medical men should be educated upon charitable funds
more than any other class in the community, we are
at a loss to conceive. We have before alluded to the
same gross misappropriation of funds both at',
St. George's and Bartholomew's Hospital. The'
excuse urged is, that it is the duty of
the public to make their hospital. the saw
of raring an efficient body of melba use.
But when it is known that in most of there instances
of expenditure of our hospital funds. it b to enable
an inefficient body of teachers by the do of extrinsic
advantages to occupy the position of these who are
more capable of teaching than themselves, it will be
seen that this system, so far from acting beneficially
on medical education. produces exactly the contrary
result. We could illustrate this position by facts, but
we leave these oases as an example to governors of
dispensaries and kindred institutions of the duty of
examiaing into the way in which their money is spent.
Another mode of improper expenditure in medical
charities is in the unsuitable classes of persons ad-
mitted as recipients of their benefits. It is not nu-
frequently the case that no inquiry is made into the
conditions of life of persons who apply to governors
for orders for attendance. A man, woman, or child,
present themselves at the door of a rich governor, and
the letter of admission to the dispensary is given,
whatever may be the circumstances of the individual.
Thus many receive relief who ought themselves to
"attribute to the funds. Another class of persons
who are fused letters are parish paupers. For
this class the Poor Law Board provides medical
'dicers, who, however small and inadequate their
1
salary, are paid for attending on them, yet they are
allowed to consume the time and the medicine
which may be needed by some poor person who has
no
claim for parish relief.
I But amongst the misappropriation of the funds
and abuses of oar dispensaries which is more or less
connived at in all of them is the allowing governors
to send their servants as objects of charity to receive
gratuitous advice and medicines. Surely our domestic
servants ought either to receive such payment for
their services as to render it unnecessary that they
should receive charitable attendance, or if their wages
ere insufficient to meet the reasonable demand of a
medical man, they ought to be able to look to their
master or mistress for such an attention to their
wants. It is a matter of great importance to
la every class the feeling of independence, and :7e'-
lieve that in the case of affording gratuitous med!cal
' attendance at our dispensaries this feeling is more
broken down than in any other. It is not a very
wide step from the apothecary of the dispensary to
the relieving officer of the Poor Law Union.
But the carelesaneas of the majority of governors
and the selfishness of a few are not the only sins
which are to be found at one dispeeseries. In some
initanoes which have come to our knowledge, funds
which have been raised for the sick poor of all classes
in the community have been used as a metes of in-
fluence on behalf of religions sects, and that benefit
which is avowedly intended for all is confined to
those who conform to special religious creeds and
practices. We hope that such proceedings are not
general, but the fact of even its occasional occurrence
should lead persons who subscribe their money in the
hope of contribir ing to alleviate the sufferings of their
fellow-creatures to see that no activity on the part of
individuals is tending to frustrate their benevolence
or to make their good intentions an instrument of
persecution.

FILIIICIL
PARIS, W/121111eDliT Ereareto
You are aware of the diarist footing upon which
the French and Austrian garrisons are placed in the
States of the Church. The whole expense of the
Roman expedition, aced of the subsequent occupation,
has fallen upon the French government. whereas the
Austrian troops are maintained at the cost of the
Papal embequer. This berthsa has been found so
intolerable by Rome that some time ago as extra-
ordinary envoy was sent to Vienna by the Pope to
represent the necessity of reducing the Austrian faros
to 12,000 mon, unless the Austrian government were
prepared to maintain its own troops. With its usual
insolence, the cabinet ef Vienna answered that it
should neither reduce 'sate in the Roman States
ace pay them. lire of the country did not
admit of the former measure, nor the state of the
Austrian exchequer of the latter. In consequence of
this pretension of Prince Schwerzenberg to feed the
armed hordes of Austria upon the States of the Church,
a note was presented to the cabinet of Vienna by the
apostolic nuncio, on the 20th ult., insisting upon the
previous demand. The Austrian corps d'armee in the
Bann States amounts to 20,000 men, and entails
anon the Roman government an annual expenditure
oi a quarter of a million sterling, thus paralyzing the
efforts of his holiness to reduce the deficit. The
nuncio met the assertion of Prince Schwarzenberg
that the state of the country was such that no redac-
tion could safely be made, by stating that such was
not the case, that the guarantees of order were daily
consolidating, and that the Roman government was
in a better position to judge of the condition and inte-
rests of the country than the Austrians. Finally, it
is understood that if Austria does not accede to this
proposition an application will be made to the French
government to back the Pope'. demand.
There hardly passes a week that one does not see'
the name of a Roneparte in the Gazette der Tribunaux.
Sometimes Napoleon Jerome is cited before the court
to pay for a pony-chaise; or Pierre is hauled over
the coals for getting into a row. Yesterday two of
this conspicuous family had to appear before the
judicial authorities of Paris, one as plaintiff, the other
as defendant. It appears that the Vicomte d'Arlin-
court, who has been taking recently a legitimist
peep at Italy, has thought proper to introduce
into a chapter of has published voyage, entitled Italie
Rouge, some severe reflections on the part played
in the Roman revolution by the Prince de Canino. An
action for libel, founded on this publication. was tried
yesterday before the court of Correctional Police, and
attracted a numerous auditory, from the circumstance
of M. Chain d'Estrange having been engaged for the
prosecution, and M. Berryer for the defence. In the
coarse of the proceedings a rather curious incident
turned up. M. Berryer argued that the Prince of
Canino had forfeited, by his resistance to the French
government at Rome, his right to be considered as al
French ci Men. He therefore proposed that he should
be celled upon as a foreigner to deposit a sum of money
les guarantee for the costa of the suit in ca-ejudgment
were given against him. The court admitted this
masoning, and called upon M. Bonaparte de Canino to
deposit of 5001 r. as caution-money. After thio gua-
rantee had been given the trial proceeded. M. Bee-
ryer contrasted the conduct of the Prince of Canino,
whom he represented as a turbulent demagogue, with
that of his father, Lucien, who had died, full of years,
Is the bosom of the church, and full of gratitude to
the Pope for his hospitality. court finally con-
demned M. d'Arlincourt to the paym-nt of 3001 r. fine,
with the eats, and the insertion of the judgment in
the )journals.
The other Bonaparte ease was brought before the
Court of Appeal. Mine. Clary was the plaintiff and M.
P. Bonaparte the defendant. It appeared that the lady,
who is the cousin by marriage to the defendant, let
him a villa, furnished very elegantly, situated near
the Arc-de-Triomphe. In the month of April last M.
Pierre Bonaparte left the house and handed over the
keys to the proprietress. Mine. Clary complained
bitterly of the damage which had been done to the
?Genitive; the carpets were torn, the curtains pierced
with holes from foils, and in fact the whole place
exhibited, she said, more the appearance of a dog-
kennel than an elegant hotel, which it was when M.
Pierre Bonaparte took possession of it. An appraiser
was called in to estimate the damage done, and he
fixed the amount at 217(r. 50c. This sum was there-
fore claimed, but payment was refused, M. Bonaparte
offering his cousin only 60fr., and an action wee
therefore brought for the amount, and 3001 r. damages
fire tom sustained by Mme. Clary, not being able to re-
let the house immediately. The court condemned the
defendant to pay the full amount claimed, including
300 fr. damages.
The Assembly, in its sitting of to-day, rejected the
proposition relative to prestations en nature, a tax in
kind, for the maintenance of roads, upon which itihas
been occupied for two days. The object of the pro-
position was to remove the inequality with which this
tax pressed upon the poor and rich proprietors, who
are equally obliged to furnish annually three days
labtur for the repair of roads.
The bill opening an extraordinary credit of
600,000 francs for Monte Video, was adopted without
debate.
The sitting broke up without any further occurrence
of interest.
The following amendment to M. de Remusat's re-
solution on the German question has been presented
by hi. Francisque Bouvet :
The National Assembly, considering that the questions
whi,:h at this moment divide Germany cannot bs equitably
decided by arms; that war is ordinarily for the nations who
make it a source of miser y and servitude, and, at the same
time, a enhject of diequistude and scandal for the neighbouring
peoples ; desirous of being able, without derogation to its dig
nity, to °wide' Itself constantly to a peaceful policy ; forming
wishes for general peace, and tracing that a positive institu-
tion of common law may at some future day &salve tonatioaa
the certainty thereof, and deliver them from the chatgue el
war, puma to the damnation of the articles.
A meeting took place last night at the club of the
Rue des Pyramides, formerly of the Rue Richelieu,
but it was only attended by 36 members. The subject
of discussion was the levy of the 40,000 men. M.
Leon Faucher presided.
The Fives closed to-day at 93.10, with a rise of
lf. 10:. upon the closing quotations of yesterday.
BOTISSE.

Pelle, Dec. 4. Pm
Money. lOptalng ,Bleamt. Lowest. Closing.
1 por Oesta.
5 per Oran. 94 SS 94 24 93 10 91 13 93 10
3 do. New lane ~ . OP se 10
11 pew Oleto. ye 00 PS elo %I
t per can. , I. .
Imalsonso es 1:edo• : at oliNit, 15; 710 dam, 14 8 6.
9•lwian.3, 1840
110. 4, me 441 . Nome Loon 1139 731
Do. 46
Do. 26
Piedmont 30.0.1830 84 40 . Beak leami ...... 2110
Boone —Versailles (right bank), 160 ditto (loft bank,)
146 ; Paris and Orison,. 805; Paris and Lumen, 610 ; 11.4.-
seines and Avignon, 192 60; Strasbourg and Bale, 136 26;
Orleans inn Viorsm, 380 ; North, 465 ; Paris and Strasbourg,
343 76; Toms and Nantes, 241 26; Montoreaus and
Troyes, 90; Dieppe and Femosp, 172 60; St. Germain, 390;
1 Flattops and Anima. 200.

ror Amount.