The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-04 00:00:00

;EVENING IMITION.

now existed in that country ; and so great was the ability
in carrying out designs, that they had undoubtedly a
superiority over every other country. But if the same
:means were adopted in this country, and schools
of design were est ablished, we would not be ore tittle
le hind the French, either in taste or
in the production of designs. There was one remarkable
fact, and it was, that more than a year and a half ago a Biil
Lad. passed Parliament to establish a copyright in de-
signator twelve months for ail descriptions of both ar-
ticles. The producers found that no protection at ell.
In the great and extensive trade of the manufastare
of silk, in which it was computed that not less then
from .50 to 100,000 patterns were annually produced,
tot 20 of these patterns were registered. Could such
grounds then as these be rested upon by the parties
who sought for the extensiou ? Tne passing of tile
measure now sought to be made law would be most in-
Jurictl3 and most detrimental to these most important
branches of the manufactures of the country ; and
fie would therefore move that the 13.11 be read a second
time tient (lay twelve months.
Mr- GISBORNE seconded the motion.
M. SHE IL had been at considerah'e pains to 111 J
`the most correct iniormat'on on ;he subject, and
it at,peared to him that there were great diffieulties in
the:
way of settling the matter to the
satisfaction of the
arsons interested. The embarrassment which the
subject presented seemed somewhat less with respect to
tee paper-banging trade. The operations in paper-staining
%sate slower ir: their nature, and the patterns were of
lot ger duration. Tile French mode of paper-staining
:was deeidedly superior to ours, and if live could have
unproved our designs by the extension of the copy-
rola he had no doubt that the French paper would
have beers long since banished from this country.
Another Consideration was, that there was no difference
of opinion among the parties concerned in the trade ;
and before the Committee no party interested in the
traila came forward to give evidence egainst the ex-
tension of the copyright in papeoataining. That was
Dot the case with respect to the cal-en trade ; for with
respect to the extension of the copyright in the calico
untie considerable dissension existed.—(Hear, hear.)
Tee Sec Leh printers seemed almost unanimous with T •
saeci. to the propriety of the existing copyright. He
(Mr. Shed) believed that there were sixty-seven
prir tars in Scotland, originslly sixty-four, in favour of
extension of it. He heard that there was another
'betty of printers in Scotland favourable to the extension
of the copyright, and they produced annually about four
mi lions of pieces. In Ireland there were twodistinguished
maeufacturers, Air. Duffy and Mr. Henry,who produced
excellent designs, and who were naturally in favour of
tire extension. Ia Manchester the difference of opinion
cm the subject rose to a pitch of excitement. Both the
Hoe. Members for Manchester were opposed to the ex-
tensioo, and one cf them made a speech on the subject
att 'tided with such eff..ct, that it required all the talents
of the Hon. Member for Inverness to remove that ef-
feet. It was net wonderful, under those circumstances,
that those who had nothing but the public good at heart,
and did not participate in the feelings of those who ap-
peate.l as witnesses before the Committee, should expe-
rio.ree some difficulty on the subject. Even the Com-
mittee, after hearing a great deal of evidence on the sub•
Jeer, were far from agreeing—six were for reporting on
tha subject and six against it, and it was only the cast-
ing vote of the Chairman that decided it. The
Committee agresd to no definite period of eaten-
airier, they merely agreed to the principle that the
term of t e copyright should be extended. The
Honourable Member for Belfast, who had shown
great sagacity and experience on the subject, could
t say that in selecting tie period of twelve months
he was just fled by the Report of the Committee.
Trey %night tike it for panted that the period of copy-
right should be regulated by the period for which it
was grant :d. Were three months adequate for that
purpose? He did not think they were. The season
lasted for more that three months ; and yet, after the
lapse of three months, some copyist, lying in wait, with-
out undergoing any expense or incurring any risk, might
deluge the market with a pattern of an inferior fabric,
render the origin pattern vulgar, and far less valuable.
It had been said that if the extended copyright had
been at first i: traduced into this country, we should
now be able to enter into competition with our conti-
nental ne-ghbours. It was true, however, that this
celeery even still carried on a more prosperous trade
than Feinee. In 1889 the French exported only
4s:4,000,000 of yards of calico, including printed and
not printed goods ; while, in the same year, Eng-
land 'had exported 751,000,000 of cotton goads.
The lion. Member for Bsliast had introduce:l the
per I.tus cord " imitation" into the Bill, by which Le
opened the door to endless litigation. It was already
difficult enough to ascertain, under the provisions of
the old and 4th of George 111., what was "a copy."
--(Hear, hear.) He thought the copyright ought to
be extended, but not beyond six months ; and with
tire hope that it would be !educed to that Lmit, he
would vote for the second readina.—( Hear, hear.)
There were I.:rya:ly five Acts of Parliament, and this
would make a s'stl:. It would save much expense and
unee,oainty if they were all condensed into one—
(lL a^, hear)—and if the Hon. Member for BAlast
would accept his setv.ces for thst purpose, he would
hit ing:y give him all the ilbSitt wee in his power.

Mr. GREG said, that from all the attention ha
bad be_n dl.: to give to the subject, he was convince!
that t.e Bill would do more mischief than good. 11!
thaugl.t that in most eases the protection was a loss t,
ti.e public, and rarely a benefit to the individual.—
( lie t-, be -.) In the case of mechanical inventions,
preha,,ly not one, certainly not six in the hundred, of
feee its was useful to the inventor. In the case even of
Watts and Bolton, the invention of the former 1
illustrious man was of no benefit to the part-
ners tat I alter their patent bad expired.—(Hear.)
All experience showed that if the first manufacturer
made his article good, and sold it at a reasonable price,
he wochl have an almost undisputed sale for it. He
was coafilent that. the 811 then proposed would intlct
it jury upon the calico trade at large, and in particular
upan that town which he had the honour to represent.
A short eryright, secrecy, despatch, and moderate
prit C 3 were the only prat' ction that could be afforded.
-Though the peseta time was short it was effectual ;
if extendel to twelve, or even six months, the security
would be diminished, and the trade would he invo!ved
in constant litigation. He must observe, that almost
all the tire. t printers had agents in France, who sent
ever to this country every new pattern as it came out.
It fiese idef t. cal patterns were protected, it was not
too much to say, Veit those who sought to pass this
Hi 1 would themselves he the victims of it. When
orders came from different parts of the world, how was
the merchant to know who was the inventor of the
patterns, or whether a particular pattern had one, two,
or three months to run ?—( Hear, hear.) How could
he execute the orders in time if he had to make the
necessary iaquiries?—(llear, hear, hear.) At pre-
sent there was certainly and confidence ; under the ex-
tended period there would inevitably be not only
constat t litigation, but fee-, te.itation and doubt in
the tramta_ton of imports t and extensive business,
all which woull damage the trade materially, and in the
end it me more than the calico printers themselves. Tae
11,n. Gentleman then read a petition signed by 164 of
the largest wholesale manufaeturrrs in the neighbour-
hood of Manchester in support of his views.. No one
who was enoged in our export trade could doubt the
great competition which it had to contend with in fo-
reign countries. Any ot.e might learn that from the
reports 0! Dr. Bawrinz, or the crideace taken before
the Export Dates' Cammittee. Seventy thousand
bundrca weight of cottcn goods were annually exported
to foreign cote tries : and three-fourths of the manufac-
, •
tuTes of :yw,tzerland were exported. T e fact was that
we could not. compete with foreigners in any species of
cotton manufacture which required a considereale por-
tion of indisidual labour. Yarns were now constantly
sent out to G.;rmany to be dyed, and came back again
to Glasgow and other towns in this country. IL did
not think if the Bid then before the House were
pass that any limits could be put to litigation. Teo
Lord Chance:ior could ,not determine what was a
copy and what was an original, and
On the whole,
dsJuries would he
eqaady unable to decide in such ca
the most mature consale-
alter hatiog given the subject
tai:on—after having conversed with a
.number
and
of
after
per-
sons the best acquainted with the subj-..
hating read all the pamphlets printed with regard to
it—he could not remove the impression from his mind
that, taking the interests of the community, and of the
trade at large, into account, the Bill would be attended
with a degree of injury more than commensurate with
any individual advantages with which it might be at-
tended.

Sir R. PEEL observed that the Committee which
had been appointed to inquire into the subject then un-
der their e.
consideration had been appointed at his su
in -
g scion, the course of last Session. He had attended
that Committee with no prepossession, certainly, in fa
your of the extension of the copyright of designs—he
had feared that the consequence of the extension might
be to injure a branch of manufactures which was deci-
dedly prosperous, and which was even increa.iiiez in
prosperity ; and if his opinions had undergone any change
it was owing to the evidence which hal been adduced be-
fore that Corntmt•ce. The qcestion was not,tben, whether
there should IT a copyright or not. The law had decided
that by giving a protection
for three months. But
in point of fact, that protection was perfectly ineffica-
zious. If there was to be a protection at all, it was
clear that it ghoul I be extmidedt,) such a period as would
render it really advent igeous. Now, while the protec-
tion lasted only for three months, the expense of de-
fending the privilege was so great, that no party would
undergo it on account of the shortness of the period.
He would not by any means deny that there were con-
flicting considerations which would require the most
ample discussion, before they determined the extent of
the term they were going to give ; but, on the ques-
tion of the second reading of the Bill, he should say
that a case bad been made out for an addi:ional protec-
tion of some kind,
which it was almost impossible for
the House to resist. man
mined before the Committee of
st the manufacturers exa-
patterns printed for them ,arnaouentthdat the numb
to t tehrreoef
thousand, while they only used &v; or sixv ohurndrcd