The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-10 00:00:00

bcnour which supported them in the discharge of their

arduous duties.

Leave was then given to bring in the Bill.
Mr. FOX MAULE then moved for leave to bring
in a Bill to enable th© Lord Chancellor to direct that

certai❑ proceedings from the Court of Chancery, and
matters i❑ bankruptcy, insolvency, and lunacy, may be

. _
carried to the County Courts. The Hon. Gentleman
said that the Bill which he now proposed was some-
what connected with that which had already been dis-

cussed. He took it for granted, in addressing himself
to this second Bill, that the County Courts had been

established. It was not his intention to enter on that

occasion into the great questions of insolvency and bank-
ruptcy. That question must be touched upon in another
Bill, and required to be brought forward by one whose
views were far more practical and enlarged than his own.
All that he proposed; in the present case was to give to
the Lord Chancellor power to refer to the Judges of the
County Courts those matters in bankruptcy and insol-
vency which now came under the jurisdiction of Com-
missioners. In the Rep art of Commissioners on Insol-
vency and Bankruptcy it was stated that it appeared to
them by the evidence that there were strong grounds for
alteration in the present mode of administering the laws
relating to bankruptcy. There were in the country
seven hundred Commissioners in one hundred and forty
Courts ; by devolving the business which had b;en trans-
acted by these Commissioners upon the Judges of the
County Courts, a saving would take place which would
go aery far towards meeting the expense attendant upon
those Courts. Another point which he would just refer
to was the expense attendine- the imprisonment of
debtors. A great saving would he effected in this res-
pect by the. Bill ; there were numerous cases of debtors
suif ring incarceration who, when their cases came to be
deei led, were not charged with acting fraudulently. The
frequent sitting of the County Courts would give to
tlmose unfortunate men more speedy relief than they
could obtain under the old system. He also proposed
to refer cases of lunacy, which were now brought
before the Lord Chancellor, to these Courts. The

present system worked most injuriously ; it was found
to be very iaconvenient ; and he was quite sure that if
Commissions of Lunacy were transferred to these
Courts a saving of nearly 10,000/. a-year would be
effected. But it might be asked, would the Judges,
whom he proposed to appoint by the first Bill, be able
to dispose of all the business which, by this; second
Bill, would be devolved upon them. Possibly they
would not ; but in order to prevent any inconvenience
which might arise in that way, he had inserted a
clause in this second Bill, giving to the Lord Chancel-
lor power to increase the number of Judges if any in-
creme should be required. Thesa were the main pro-
visions of the Bill, which be trusted would meet the

approval of the House.
Mr. HAWES thought it would be inexpedient to
have uny discussion on the measure until the Bill was
before the House ; but he might be permitted to say
that it was one of the most important measures as

regarded the commercial interests of the country, that
had ever been brought before Parliament.—(Loud

cheers.) There was nothing so well known as the un-
satisfactory state of the Bankruptcy-law, and no sub.
ject had been more generally complained of by the
commercial interests. A. new system had certainly
been introduced of late in the metropolis, and had given
great satisfaction to all parties competent to form an
opinio❑ on the subject. He trusted it would be more
generally followed up under the provisions of the pre-
sent Bill. . . . .

Leave was then given to bring in the Bill.
COPYRIGHT OF DESIGNS.

Petitions on the subject of the Copyright of Designs
were presented by Mr. O'Connell, from calico printers
of Manchester and Leeds ; by Mr. Colquhoun, from
Paisley and other places; and by Mr. E. Tennent, from
Belfast and Manchester.
On the motion of Mr. E. TENNENT, the House
then went into a Committee of the whole House to
consider the laws relating to the Copyright of Designs.

Mr. FRESHFIEI.D in the Chair.
Mr. E. TENN ENT said it was not his intention to
introduce any new principle of legislation, nor any new
law, but simply to give efficacy to the laws which had
been in existence for the last half century. He had
had the honour of introducing a 1111 in the course of
last Session, to extend the p.riod of taking the benefit
of the copyright from three to twelve months, but in
the imperfect state of the information possessed by the
House, the Right Hon. Gentleman the President of the
Board of Trade, had expressed his unwillingness. The
House, however, would recollect that a great propor-
tion of the goods manufactured, to come within
the provisions of his proposition, were to find a market
in the East and West Indies, and he did not think the
proprietors asked too much when they required twelve
months as the period within which they might obtain
remuneration for the labour and capital they had ex-
pended. The copyright of designs, in every branch of
the art., was most carefully preserved in France, and
there a party might obtain the copyright for a period of
one, three, five, or ten years, or even in perpetuity.
What was the amount of protection which the copy-
right furnished in the present state of the law ? Instead
of five or fifteen years, or perpetuity, as on the Conti-
nent, it was, in England, only a protection of three
months. That protection was granted fifty years ago.
But the improvements of modern times, and par-
ticularly the application of electro-magnetism to these
branches of art, had reduced the operations of months
to weeks, and consequently increased facilities were
furnished to the pirating copyists. The House,
ho was sure, would admit that it was not fair that
there should be one law for the producer of designs for
silks, and another for that of designs for cottons. Was
it not absurd that the individual who invented designs
for silk should have a protection of twelvemonths'
copyright, but the originator of designs for cottons
should have only a copyright of three months ? The
latter merely asked the same privilege as the former—
that was, that the term of the copyright be extended
to twelve, instead of three months. That proposition
was surely a reasonable one, and yet, he regretted to
say that opposition was offered to it. However, the
opposition was but partial. In England, Scotland, and
Ireland, the cotton trade was carried on very eaten-
' sively, and yet throughout the entire of the manufac-
turing districts, in each of these countries, not
a single person objected to the assimilation
now sought to be established, save a few
individuals in one district who were, he had no
doubt, acting under mistaken views respecting the ob-
ject of the present Bill. He would read to the House
extracts from evidence given before the Committee of

last year. The gentleman, whose evidence he should
first read, was a person of great influence, and one
wso was opposed to giving an extension of the copy-
right, he was a Mr. Brooks. That gentleman avowed
that he was himself a most extensive copyist of other
men's designs, both during the existence of the term of
copyright and afterwards ; he was so sometimes with
loss to himself, but generally with prafit ; lie produced
the copies on inferior cloth ; when remonstrated with
for thus proceeding in a manner which was injurious to
individuals, and upon being asked how ho should act
if proceeded against, he said that he did not think he
acted unjustly on account of the shortness of the copy.
right term, awl that if he was proceeded against for
damages, he would oppose and rely on his purse for
success. That, observed the lion. Gentleman, was the
confession of a repentant pirate copyist. The next evi-
dence was that of Mr. Luc is, of the house of Lucas
and Co., calico-printers. The Hon. Gentleman then
proceeded to read extracts from the last-named person's
evidence, which stated that their house purchased
printed goods to a very great extent, generally about
60,0001. a month ; and that they seldom employed an
original designer, for that they could find a copyist who
would undertake the task at his own price, and at a
cheaper rate than the other could. " But," added Mr.
Lucas, " I do not object to the protection of
three months, for I never found it any protec-
tion whatever to the printer.' The evidence of
Mr. Stirling, of the house of Henry and Co.,
Island-bridge, Dublin, stated, that in December 1839,
they delivered 700 pieces to Mr. Hosier of London,
and that in the Januaryohreodsa !Ila
tef o211h0o:upi
sneogr ,moBoe3on
too.fif
ltootsthsuorsteehdadooe
nsti
they
tenorwere bcrlootuhghatndtoefft
obtained for the original designs. Mr. Henry's business
was almost at a stand,
oaplsoamthteee
rwnoa.fs
en,vreividieeerrneca
ewb laoesn,to
ct
hoenefft
tienacbut
el
eda,
sociceonndoosa.le
Member, o f any nae wv
filled with details of the ruinous consequences to honest
traders of the practices to which he alluded. He might
be asked if there were infractions of the existing law
of three months copy-right, why did not
the injured party vindicate their rights by
application to the legal authorities? His answer
was, that it would not be worth their while. The
copyright would have expired before the legal proceed-
ings would have been well commenced. He contended
that the present deficiency in the law, and the preva-
lence of piracy, arose from the small extent of the term
of He was . prepared to show that,
for its own purposes. Its object.
tivewasiqvausitetogivetothe successful inventor the benefit of his own invention.
He would, to confirm his statement, take, for ex-
s
ample,
continuedt h e sale
in of
fashion ladies' dresses.from
sevenArttoiclte:coisfetmhaotontials-
generally, and sometimes as long as two years.
The inventor of designs was only protected
fcr three months, and thus the copyist had
very nearly as much benefit as the inventor.
—(Hear.) The Hon. Member next adverted to the
non-extension of protection to those engaged in the
sewing embroidery of muslin, a branch of manufacture
which was carried on extensively in Glasgow and Paisley,
and also in Ireland. The manufacturers of furniture
calico had, he observed, a similar gronnd of complaint ;
the sale of their articles continued much longer in the
market than that of others, and their business was
something similar to that of parr-stainers, who had a
copyright of 12 months given them by Poulett Thom-
son's Bill. That extension was all that be (Mr. T.)
asked for the calico printers, and he was certain that if
it were granted them, it would be a stimulus to trade, it
would bring an increased number of designs into the
market, and augment the number of conaumere, The