The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-02 00:00:00

to take place during the course of the present year,
will doubtless act as an additional incentive to those
who are now endeavouring, in concert with ourselves,
to force the reform here indicated upon the recogni-
tion and acceptance of the Legislature. In the
Crystal Palace of the Exposition will be visible, for
instance, a multitude of assurances that the acknowledg-
ment of the rights of inventors would be most desirable,
if only with a view to the encouragement of scientific
enterprise and the furtherance of mechanical experi-
ments. Speaking upon the subject of these rights,
the recent report of the Committee appointed by the
Society of Arts, observes :—" Inventive labour is a
right which no power in the State ought to have any
option in the recognition of. If the exercise of the
right be useless and frivolous, the public are sure to
pass it by with contempt ; if it be contrary to estah-
lished law, then the proprietor is checked by the
law itself. As a general principle, it must be
conceded that inventors are entitled as fully to a
positive recognition of their labolirs as pro-
perty, as any other description of working people in
the commonwealth. It would seem to be unnecessary
to argue this point even at all whilst the State recog-
nizes right of property in literature of all kinds—
books, articles in newspapers, and reviews; in songs;
even in lecturing ; in ally-unpublished manuscripts;
in engravings, although not published; in ornamental
designs of the simplest character ; in mere arrange-
ments of geometric forms ; and, lastly, in the inven-
tion of the ' form or configuration' of any article of
utility, in the shape of a steel pen, or of a toothpick,
But the producer of a mechanical action or chemical
discovery has no right of property in it at all, if the
Attorney-General should think fit to refuse it, or be
should be unable to pay the toll of 1001. for a patent!"
Further on, in the same sagacious argument,
the Committee remarks—" Upon the intrinsic
merits of an invention the public at large
are the best and only judges, but it is prophesied
that if inventive rights were easily recognised, they
would generate endless litigation, and there are ad-
vocates for the establishment of a tribunal to pro-
nounce judgment on the legal validity of a claim
before it should be recognised. There are many
strong objections to such a course. It is clear that
any tribunal would entail cost— and, probably, very
heavy cost. Its mere existence would encourage dis-
putes, because there are always parties who live by
such disputes, and whose interest would be to keep
the tribunal in a plentiful supply of work whose
interest it would be, in fact, to dispute every claim
for rights. Such a tribucal to investigate all
claims might, perhapse usefully negative a few ; but
its cost and its practical working would be a fax
upon all upon those which were sound and
ur impregnable and those which were invalid. So far
as it was a general tax, it would discourage inven-
tion. To be of any use the decision of this state,
tribunal—this Pepe over inven, inns—must be final
and absolute. Is its infallitsi'dty to he trusted ?
And is the whole progress of invention to be regu-
lated by it ? It has yet to be proved that affixing a
legal respect on su begets u moral disrespect
for them, And if eeeete! in should increase, as is
predicted, to an insupportable Extent, we may
assume that a remedy will be found. Let us
first have proof of the evil before we legis-
late in the dark to remedy it, for it may never come
to pass. It will be time enough,", continues the report,
" toinvestigate the legal validity of the claim when it is
questioned." From these and a variety of other
equally cogent considerations it must be obvious that
justice is on the shit. of those who advocate the rights
of inventors; and net on that of their antagonists ; and
knowing thii, we may rest confident in the ultimate
triumph of these who are struggling to destroy the
odious and ruinous routine necessary for the obtaining
of letters patent. More ostentatious improvements than
these will be brought under the consideration of the
' Legislature during the ensuing session, but none more
largely affecting the interests of humanity, connected
as they are with the emancipation of the populartin-
telligence. •

The directors of the London and North-Western
Railway have, by their judicious, and, at the same
time vigorous and uncompromising conduct emi-
nently entitled themselves to the thanks and gratitude
not only of the directors of other railway companies,
but of every employer of labour thrtghout the entire

country. They have emulated tba noble conduct of
their brethren of the Eastern Conaties, by resisting,

at every hazard, the unwarrantable dictation that teas
attempted to be enforced by their own servants.

By so doing they have inflicted a formidable
blow on the mischievous system which has been
productive of the most injurious consequences to
masters and workmer, employers and employed.
The latter have invariably been the deepest sufferers,
by their own folly in permitting themselves to be
made the tools of designing men, who, reckless of
the consequences to their unfortunate dupes, make

use of them as passive instruments to work out their

own nefarious projects; but the former have also sus-
tained considerable damage. Heavy pecuniary losses to

both parties mutt be the inevitable result. The master
gill see his works: remaining idle, his capital un-

productive at a time when he might be realizing
handsome profits, and he may even be liable to
damages for the non-completion of some contract into

which he had entered, perhaps, for the purpose of
keeping those very persons in employment who have
_ _

acted with such gross ingratitude towards him as to

turn out" without reasonable cause ; but there the
evil ends, so far as he is concerned, he is only injured
while the hands are on the strike. But with the opera-
tives the case is very different. They enjoy no
peace, the grievance never ends. The most amicable
relations may exist between themselves and their em-
ployers. Each may be willing to discharge their own
duties in an exemplary manner, and to respect the
rights of the other part 3-. But the men must con-
tribute largely from their earnings towards the ex•
penes of a grand central executive committee—
composed of a pack of scoundrels, too idle
to work themselves, who exercise despotic
authority, and view with suspicion every act
of the masters, compelling the workmen
to offer a combined resistance in matters, the chief end
and object whereof was the benefit of the men them.

selves. But this is by no means the worst part ele
the system. They have to support a parcel of idle
drones who are "on the strike " in obedience to the
dictates of the secret conclave who pull the wires
behind the scenes. There are also heavy potations
during the club meetings at the public-houses
where the discussions are carried on. The
men are taken from their families dur-
ing the leisure hours that might be more
profitably and agreeably spent in the
pleasures of domestic intercourse, and they incur
habits of intemperance and expenditure fatal to the
happiness of themselves and families. We may say
it advisedly, and with the most perfect conviction
of the accuracy of our assertion, that the greatest
advantages to the working population of the country
that was ever anticipated by the ',lest sanguine
from " combination," either in keeping up wages,
or intimidating employers, are not equivalent to
the tithe of the evils that necessarily attend
the system, and it is as real friends to the labouring
population that we earnestly entreat them to eschew,
henceforward and for ever, all illegal confederacies
and trade clubs, that must be productive of the
greatest misery to themselves.
The
complete and decisive victory gained by the
London and North-Western directors during the
present triumph, and the success of the Eastern
Counties
vince rail
Board
e
gine-drivers and
employees, more rsNciallY en-
Board in August last, must con-
any terror in a threatened " strike."
intimidation are at an end.
firemen,i that the days of
There is no longer
Its only effect
is to consolidate the power
of the directors and t 9
enable them to get rid of the tuo •
worthless men, who are made.re inefficient and
others from offending in like manner, examples
Lofetttohetnei
deter
:
just consider the occurrences of the last ten days and
they will see the utter inutility of their prcceedit
proceedinge which were commenced without
any
adequate cause, for none had been imposed, but from
an absurd and unreasonable jealousy of their
employers. Ie their remonstrance they say, it
is reported currently over the whole length of
the London and North-Western Railway, that on a
future occasion you will do all the injury you can to
your memorialists." And it is en such vague, silly,
and unfounded rumours that rational men, in the
enjoyment of corthrtablo.wjages, far more than could