The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-31 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 31, 1851

The Lords sat last evening for a few minutes for the
purpose of forwarding certain Bills a stage.
In the Commons the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
announced, in reply to a question from Lord JOCELYN,
that no steps had been taken to dstablish a steam com-
munication between the Cape and Sidney.
The Coalwhippers (Port of London) Bill and the
Steam Navigation Bill were read a third time and
passed.
The Patent Law Amendment Bill was, after a short
discussion, committed pro forma, for the purpose of in-
troducing certain amendments.
The House then went into Committee successively on
the Church Building Acts' Amendment Bill, the Petty
Sessions (Ireland) Bill, and the New Zealand Settle-
ments Bill, which occupied the remainder of the
sitting.

Actuated by a fear that the speedy prorogation of
Parliament may interrupt the progress of the Patent
Law Amendment Bill, Ministers are hurrying on
that measure to its completion. Yesterday the Bill
was passed through Committee pro forma in the
House of Commons, so that another step has brought
the advocates of the desired improvement nearer to
the realization of their wishes, and has brought us
nearer to the time which shall witness the recogni-
tion of the rights of inventors by the Legislature.
After the solicitude which has been so long felt in
reference to this subject by a very large section of
the community, the satisfaction experienced at these
proceedings must necessarily be of proportionate mag-
nitude. Hitherto the Government has apparently been
blind to the injury inflicted by its apathy upon a nume-
rous and intelligent bodyof men, as well as upon the cause
of science generally, a cause which has come latterly
to be regarded as identical with that of civilization.
At length the indifference evinced in the matter by
our administrators has given place to a laudable evi-
dence of solicitude on their part, such as cannot fail to
act beneficially as an incitement to the more energetic
interposition of the Legislature. Already the endea-
vours made by the Government to effect some im-
provemsnt in the matter here specified has proved
effectual in instigating inquiries into the evils
complained of, so that we have ultimately
had the satisfaction of witnessing, among
our representatives i❑ the House of Commons,
a singular and almost unexampled unanimity in re-
gard to these suggested innovations. Insomuch has
this unanimity of feeling upon the subject been
manifested in the House of Commons that not a
single dissentient voice has been yet beard in refe-
rence to it—those who at all quarrel with the measure
now before Parliament doing so simply on the ground
that the changes suggested are not by any means
sufficiently sweeping in their character. As to the
general provisions of the Bill, we ourselves have all
along maintained it to be deserving of support from
every person indiscriminately, that support being more-
over, under the circumstances, altogether unconditional.
Our reasoning upon the matter is simple enough of
its kind, and the force of it may be very readily re-
cognised and appreciated. We rejoice so entirely at
the fact of any improvement at all being adventured
upon by the Government upon a question which
seemed until now little less than desperately situated,
that we are anxious to see no impediment whatever
placed in the way of its realization. Let us obtain
what improvement we can without carping at its inade-
quacy, rather than throw back the subject to some inde-
finite period, and thereby deprive living inventors of an
' inestimable advantage, simply in the hope of yet more
largely benefiting their successors. Any innovation
at all in the Patent Laws is better than none, no
matter how insignificant may be its appearance;
and, having secured the smallest step en avant, we
may then rest satisfied that the matter at issue may
progress yet more to the general satisfaction.
Remember the number and the magnitude of
the evils complained of in the Patent Laws a s
they are at the present moment, and contrast
those laws with the proposed amendments, and
there cannot exist for an instant on the
mind of the sinister observer a doubt but that the
country must, perforce, benefit, and that very largely,
from the proposed improvement. Remember, for ex-
ample, that an inventor, according to the existing
system, finds it necessary to exhaust a great deal of
time, as well as of money, in obtaining what the Bill
now before Parliament will place within his reach at
once, and at the cost of a very moderate expenditure.
Remember that the old system requires three, and
the new will require only one single patent, for the
United Kingdom. Remember that the old system
necessitated the application of the inventor to seven
different offices, in order to secure what he will hence-
forth, with the aid of the Act referred to, be enabled to
procure at oue, and this one unguarded by deputy
chaff-waxes, or any other cormorants of bribery in
the shape of subordinate recipients of fees of no
earthly utility whatever. Remember that, whereas,
with the Patent Laws unamended, it is necessary for
the applicants to purchase their protection by en out-
lay, in most instances, of 3001. for the United King-
dom, that enormous sum, moreover, being ex-
torted at once, and, therefore, of course long
before the invention desired to be protected
from piracy could be brought into operation,
whereas, with the Patent Laws amended, he will only
have to disburse a few pounds at the outset, paying,
after the lapse of three years, 501., and after the
lapse of seven 100 Z. additional. It may possibly be
objected to this by a few dissentients that 1701. or
180/. for a patent is still very exorbitant, but i

should be remembered by those that the amount here
specified will only have to be paid in instalments, so
proportioned as to press least heavily on the inventor,
affording, while so doing, every reasonable op-
portunity of bringing his contrivance into
such general use, that the payment of the
moneys required for the letter patent shall
be to him a matter scarcely worthy of conside-
ration. It should likewise be borne in recollection
that, for this 1701. or 1801., will be obtained protec-
tion not only in England, but, in addition to this,
in Scotland and in Ireland. Whatever, therefore,

may be the objections made to the changes, as
sketched out in the measure introduced into the
House of Commons by her MAJESTY'S Government,
it must be confessed that, inadequate though those
changes may be in some particulars, they are as-
suredly preferable to no changes at all—reducing the
time required in the process of securing the patent yet
more remarkably than they do the expense, and that
expense, be it not forgotten, is reduced to little more
than half the sum originally extorted from inventors.
Later on reformers may apply their energies to the
removal of the evils yet allowed to remain in the
laws relating to patents , but let them not, out of a
mistaken anxiety to obtain all the advantages desired

at once, prevent any benefit whatever being secured

to the cultivators of science, and, through them, to the
general community.

Some months since it was our pleasing duty to
direct the public attention to the laudable efforts that
had been made, under the auspices of the Eastern
Counties Railway Company, to afford additional
facilities for communication with the north of
Europe by means of the recently completed harbour
at Lowestoft. We are rejoiced to find that this
praiseworthy intention is not to be suffered to
remain in abeyance, but that immediate steps
will be taken to carry it into execution, so
that Lowestoft may become—what its geogra-
phical position indicates it should be—the
point of departure for Northern Europe. This
" consummation so devoutly to be wished for " wiii
be alike beneficial to the inhabitants of the district,