The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FIIIDAY EVENING, JUNE 4, 1869.

stand. But why twenty-eight, by preference
has been selected, as the precise aggregate which is
never to be exceeded, fairly goes beyond the limits of
our conjecture. However this conclusion may have
been arrived at, so it has, in siteple point of fact, been
definitely arranged. And remembering that a limit
of some kind must, in every case, be marked out,
that indicated by a total of twenty-eight will do, as
a matter of course, quite as well as any other that
might have been suggested. It seems rather a nice
distinction, that one which was drawn by the Earl of
CARNARVON last evening, during the course of the
discussion, when, after deprecating the awarding of
life peerages to men of great ability, a large propor-
tion of whom would, he said, probably be poor—
those men themselves, he argued, being thereby
placed in a false position, and their coronets being
of the value of a sham—the noble Earl immediately
afterwards admitted that it wonld be a great and
obvious gain to the House of Peers if they could
secure men of great eloq,:,..nce and ability, such men
being brought into the House with a minimum of
disturbing effect. So arranging matters, that is, with
aminimum of disturbing effect, that tbeywould have—
observed Lord CARNARVON —hereditary peers who were
not lords of Parliament, and lords of Parliament who
were not hereditary peers. A powerful argument in
favour of this proposed innovation in regard to the
construction of the House of Peers, as a whole, was
well introduced in an earlier portion of the thought-
ful and carefully-considered address delivered by the
noble earl in the very midst of last night's discussion.
The argument here referred to being simply this, that
there was scarcely any institution in the country that
had changed oftener than the House of Lords. Their
Tordship's House, he said, had upheld distinctly the
character of every successive age or epoch in the
history of the country. It had done so
from the feudal age of the Barons to the
purely oligarchical age, which was immediately
subsequent to the date of the Revolution. Even, he
insisted, and with a force of reason perfectly obvious
to us all, because it is, so to speak, actually within
our own remembrance, bringing us down to a time
mmediately contemporary—even, said Lord CAR-
NARVON, after the moving of the first Reform Act, it
still adapted itself to the circumstances of the period
in which its lot, as with others, had been cast. The
House of Lords, in effect, has shown it self to be, in
other words, throughout the whole of the manifold
phases, developments, or transformations of our his-
tory, anything but a fossil institution. It has kept pace
with the changes of the times. Once, and once only,
it sank to a level of degeneration—this was in the
days of the STUART3—and (remembering the charac-
teristics of that epoch) one is almost tempted to say to
a level of degradation. Otherwise, upon the whole, it
has more or less contrived, all through our history, to
hold its own nobly side by side with the popular, or,
in other words, the representative branch of the
Legislature. Representative, of course, the House
of Lords is, essentially, itself, but not representative
in the popular acceptation of the phrase. As the noble
lord last raised to the peerage under the title of Baron
PENZANCE, very happily took occasion to remark in a
cr •
maiden speech not unworthy of his forensic and judicial
reputation, " the House of Lords in its constitutional
aspect represented the favour of the SOVEREIGN and
the power of the land." Adding at once very truth-
fully and very sententiously that " the favour of the
SOVEREIGN constitutionally exercised was the reward
of the subject, and the power of the land was nothing
but the accumulated frugality of the people." In
that sense it is that the House of Peers is represen-
tative, and always has been representative—re-
presentative of the power of the land and of the
favour of the SOVEREIGN. It is representative
and always has been representative, also, in another
character, Ghat, is to say representative of the geuitv,
the valour, the learning, and the enterprise of the
people of England—as signalized generation after
generation by heroes like NELSON and MARLBOROUGH,
by authors like MACAULAY and LYTTON, by pro_
found lawyers, and by the more illustrious of the
promoters and developers of the Com-
merce of England. It is in this latter capacly as
a representative institution that the House of Peers
is now about to be enhanced, namely, by the almis
sion within it of men of distinguished ability whose
comparative poverty—meaning thereby whose po3ses-
sion merely of a very moderate competence must other-
wise preclude them from the overwhelming honours
of a peerage of a hereditary character. By accord-
ing to men like these a peerage of au exceptional
kind, the dignity appertaining to which will be
simply applicable to themselves during their lifetime,
whatever difficulty there has been, hitherto, den) ing
honourable recognition to them, and the advantage
of their talents to the House of Lords, will
be at once and entirely obviated. A
inv upon on e
growing sense of this is influencing, (in regard to their
deliberations
of
a very considerable ifePeerages
majority
ofBill) t h e the
here opi-
nions !it
no
tary branch of the Legislature. Those among their
lordships who were at the outset disposed to be averse
to the notion of any change such as the one
formally indicated by the provisions of
the measure,
now under their legislative considera•ion, the
change originally attempted to be introduced by
a surprise in the instance of Lord WENSLEYDALE, have
already realised distinctly enough that the advan-
tages ensured to the house of Lords are in this matter
of the Life Peerage, in no way counterbalanced by
any valid or even it may be said any recognisable,
or in the smallest degree appreciable, disadvantages.

ONE of the soundest and safest lawyers in the
kingdom has pronounced against the Patent Laws.
That is a great fact. The " leading journal " has pro-
nounced against them. That is another great fact.
But neither Sir ROUNDELL PALMER nor the Times
will desire that their verdict shall be received with-
out examination. The truth is, the ques-
tion at issue is neither so simple nor is its
solution so near at hand as these authorities
believe. There can be no doubt that many—that
most—of the charges brought against the Patent
Laws by Mr. MACFIE and his distinguished seconder
are well founded. Patents do interfere with trade
most seriously; the original inventor too often derives
no advantage from his discovery ; a large number
of patents ought never to have been granted,
so minute is the improvement which the inven-
tion patented confers. On the other hand, we attach
very little importance to the protective argument
used by Mr. HOWARD and Mr. MUNDELLA. To
suppose that invention will be killed because
inventors are not protected, is a supposition akin to
the belief which prevailed thirty years ago, that
farmers would be ruined if the corn laws were abo-
ltrioes
shteielcctl
0.
no
foencli e ariseo mcompetition.
inventiona willnd i go on as the necessary
Every
fe manufacturercan
i discover
process for doing so he will discover it, although his
competitor should benefit to the same extent. In
fact, there is no protection under the present system
so far as the manufacturer is concerned. The only
protection is for the inventor, who sells his inventicn
indifferently to all who choose to pay for it. If the
manufacturer should himself be the inventor he still
need not want protection. The fact that he is the
first to discover and to apply an invention ought to
be sufficient for him. It will give him a priority in
the market, and a reputation, which ought to
be sufficient recompense. But—and here lies
the difficulty inventors are not always
manufacturers nor capitalists. Very frequently
they are working men. This is but
natural. The manufacturer has a variety of
subjects to occupy his mind. He has the markets to
think of ; he is a merchant as well as a manufacturer,

a buyer _and a seller as well as a producer. His
thoughts are not sufficiently concentrated upon the
purely mechanical part of his business to have time
for inventions and discoveries. It is the mechanic
par excellence, the man whose whole life is given up
to mechanical employments, that is most likely
to hit upon new ideas. Yet if the Patent
Laws were abolished, what protection would he
have ? What reward of any kind would he
have ? It may be argued that at present he gets
little, since knowing well his inability to engage in a
law suit to protect his invention if it were pirated,
he usually sells it for a small sum to his employer.
But at least he gets something, and the sum which
we may consider insignificant will not appear so to
him. Moreover, working-men inventors do: some-
times obtain fair and equitable terms. Yr. M rzN-
DELLA mentioned an instance in which a capitalist
and a working man had entered into partnership,
and the latter had received L'2,000 as his share of the
profits of an invention. Considering the improve-
ment that is every year taking place in the position
which the employed occupy towards their employers,
it is probable that such terms as these are
likely to become snore and more common. That
working men themselves value the Patent Laws
is proved by the fact that the representatives
of some of the most important working-class organi-
sations in the kingdom presented Mr. MACFIE with a
series of eight reasons why his resolution for the
abolition of the Patent Laws should not pass.
The fact is, the question at issue is one between
private rights and the public benefit. The Patent
Laws are unquestionably a public nuisance, and
the majority of the community would benefit by
their abolition. But this, through a strong, is not
a conclusive argument against them. It would have
been unquestionably for the public benAfit, if all the
land required by the railway companies at the time
that their lines were constructed had been taken
from the private landowners and handed over free
to the companies. Yet is anyone prepared to say
that this would have been just ? Sir ROUNDELL
PALMER attempted to shew that property in
inventions is per se undesirable and unsustain-
able on philosophical and economical grounds;
and when the very obvious argument suggested
itself to him that his reasoning would lead
to the abolition of copyright, he attempted
to draw a distinction between the two—between
ideas of one kind and ideas of another, which
we utterly fail to comprehend. For instance, what
difference of principle is there between. a history
of England and a printing press ? The
writer does not create his facts any more
than the inventor creates the metals with
which he constructs his machine. Both deal
with things that already existed ; both invent new
combinations of old materials ; yet Sir ROUNDELL
PALMER would protect the first but not the second.
The argument that the one is not necessarily a public
benefit, or that the world can do without it, and
suffer no loss, while it cannot do without the other,
tells against the open system. The greater the
boon conferred upon the public, the greater cause
has the conferrer to expect a reward. The exceeding
value of an article is scarcely a reason why we should
have it for nothing. _ _ _

The House of Commons has declined to adopt Mr.
MACFIE'S sweeping resolution. It has preferred to
resort to the not very satisfactory expedient of a
select committee. Considering that the question has
been already thoroughly examined by a royal com-
mission, we can scarcely expect much result from
this new tribunal. At the same time we cannot be
surprised that Parliament should take this course.
The proposed change is so revolutionary that it was
hardly possible for it to be taken at once.
Perhaps some via media may be discovered whereby
the public shall be relieved from the burdens
and restraints of the Patent Laws, while the inventor
is saved from the threatened confiscation of his pro-
perty. But the only suggestion in that direction—
Government rewards to inventors—does not lead us
to be very sanguine on that point. For some time
to come the whole matt3r must be one for discussion.
A decisionappears to us comparatively remote.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS,

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, THURSDAY, June 3.

The other day I reproduced a statement that all the
electors' cards which had not been claimed had been
collected from the different mairies at the Prefecture "for
a use," said a Radical Election Committee, "which it is
not difficult to explain." This hint that the authorities
meant to distribute these cards in order that they might
be given in favour of official candidates by surreptitious
electors, is denied by the Journal Officlel. It states that
the cards have been left at the mairies for the disposal
of the electors, who have been invited, by bills posted nP,
to claim them before the second ballot. I hasten to give
the authorities the full benefit of this contradiction,
which, however, is by no means so unambiguous as it
might be. But though the authorities may have
been guiltless of this flagrant act of electoral
dishonesty, the evidence of sharp practice of
other kinds is not to be set aside. An instance may be
quoted in the sixth circumscription of the Nord. There
the official candidate and two Liberals went to
the poll at the last ballot. None of them obtained
the required majority. Tho Liberal candidate who
received the least support gave way to the other Liberal,
leaving him, as he thought, to fight on the moot advanta-
geous terms. But no sooner had this Liberal withdrawn
than the official candidate withdrew too, leaving the field
clear to the other soi•disant Liberal, who has been openly
proclaimed by the authorities as worthy of their support !
I might multiply instances of this sort of trickery. So
merciless has been the application of the " screw " this
year, so discreditable the devices of the prefect; that
even the oldest servants of the Empire revolt against their
instructions. I notified to you the resignation of the
Maire of Lormont. Another instance of the same kind
is to be recorded to-day. M. Delcussot, Garde General
of the Forests at Soulac, has resigned. He says that the
instructions he has received were so contrary to his senti-
ments of independence as a citizen, and dignity as an
Imperial officer, that he could not comply with them.
As soon as this determination was known, he was ordered
off to Angouleme on a " temporary mission," clearly for
the purpose of getting him out of the way. He refuses to
go. He will not consent to a step which has been taken
on the principle of transforming an Imperial officer
into an " electoral serf "—a high pressure machine for
the manufacture of official deputies. He accordingly
resigns his post, which he has held for twelve years.
What is the use of the official papers publishing denials
of the complaints against the authorities, when old ser-
vants of the Empire, who have everything to lose by giving
up their posts, enter their protests in this fashion.

Some of the culprits who were arrested for taking part
in the provincial riots during the elections have been
brought to trial. One young fellow at Lille has
earned twenty days' imprisonment by his folly. He
had paraded through the streets with a gun on his
shuulder, followed by about fifteen other individuals
singing the " Marseillaise," and raising seditious cries.
His appearance in a court of justice, however, dissipated
the courage which had caused this display of gallantry,
and he was constrained to plead that his Republican effer-
vescence was merely the effect of his being drunk. A few
wretched cases like this are all that has come of the
frightful disturbances which brought out regiments of
troops and sent the Patric into paroxysms of horror.
Something is to be done, it appears, in the way of
patching up a Constitution for Algeria. The Emperor has
approved a proposal to appoint a commission to be
charged with the examination of all fundamental
questions concerning the Constitution of Algeria,
the result of which inquiry will be submitted
to the Senate at the commencement of the
next legislative session. That body, writes the
Marshal, would have to conciliate the aspirations
which the colonists have just manifested in the agricul-
tural inquiry, with the interests of the natives, in order to
realise gradually the progress indicated in his Majesty's
letter on the 20th June, 1805. The Temps does not
approve of this commission. It is all very well to
examine into things, but the examining body must
be so constituted as to allow a fair hope of reform.
This commission is not likely, in the opinion
of the Te»zps, to secure this end. Two of its
members hold high office in the Algerian department of
the Government. Much reform cannot be expected from
a commission led by red tape.

The Consul of the Argentine Republic at Marseilles has
issued a circular, which shews that his Government
actually intend to hold an international exhibition at
Buenos Ayres in 1870. This evidence of vitality in the
South American State is very cheering ; but it can hardly be
expected that manyproductsof European manufacture will
find their way to Buenos Ayres. The wonder is that
an international exhibition has never been held at New
York.

A very interesting archaeological discovery has been made
at Laroessa, in Algiers. his is an ancient inscription in
Latin, of no less than eighty-one lines. It describes
the construction of an aqueduct to convey water
to Bougia through a mountain, which was pierced
on both sides at the same time. The plans
drawn up must, however, have been defective,
or the work carelessly executed ; for, according to the
text, the two tunnels did not meet, and the engineer had
to return twice to repair the errors committed. The
inscription also mentions the names of three legates of
Numidia, and three procurators of Mauritania, who lived
in the time of Antoninus Pius. The construction of the
aqueduct consequently dates from the reign of that
Emperor. The inscription further contains an account of
a robbery by brigands.

lATERNATIONAL HORTICULTURAL
EXHIBITION AT HAMBURG.

An International Horticultural Exhibition will be held
at Hamburg from the 2nd to the 12th of September, con-
temporaneously with the Congress of German Botanists
and Gardeners. The scope of the display will be
wide, for it will include raw, forest, and agri-
cultural produce, as well as garden furniture,
machinery, implements, heating apparatus, and garden
tools and cutlery, besides, of course, fruit, flowers, and
vegetables. The list of guarantors and committee of
management include many of the chief political and com-
mercial men of North Germany. The site of the exhibi-
tion has been well selected, and will be carefully
laid out. The river Elhe flows through the
grounds, and a light suspension bridge will be
thrown across it. The situation commands o, magnifi-
cent prospect of Altona and Hamburg. The prize
list is very high. The King and Queen of Prussia have
offered two prizes of great value; and £75 is to be
given in open competition as the first prize
for fifty plants of new hybrids in the highest
state of cultivation, one half, at least, to be in
flower. The other money prizes vary from £37 10s. to
155., and the gold, silver, and bronze medals are very
numerous. There are gold, silver, and bronze medals for
new hybrids, £l5 for the best-arranged group of 200
plants, not in the trade, in flower. There are numerous
prizes for ferns, lycopodiacea, and cactea. Fruits are like-
wise amply provided for, and both musery stock and green-
house plants. Gold medals and other prizes are offered for
the best designs of paths, drives, iron bridges, ferry boats,
&c. A very influential sub-committee, comprising the
well-known names of Veitch, Fleming of Clieveden, Hen-
derson, Osborn, Dr. Hogg, Thomson of Dalkeith, Macnab
of Edinburgh, and Dr. Moore of Dublin, has been formed
to represent the United Kingdom on this occasion. The
Rev. M. J. Berkeley, rector of Sibbertoft, Market Har-
borough, has been appointed her Britannic Majesty's
Commissioner, and Mr. George Eyles, of the Royal
Horticultural Gardens, South Kensington, acts as
secretary. Amateurs, botanists, and gardeners are invited
to compete.

THE CHARITY CHILDREN AT ST. PAUL'S.

The annual gathering of the charity children of the
metropolis at St. Paul's Cathedral took place yesterday
morning. About 5,000 of them, in their many coloured
dresses were ranged round the terraced platform,
which enclosed the entire circumference of the dome.
The whole of the western nave, the vast space under the
centre of the dome, and the galleries in the eastern nave
were crowded by
a highly-respectable congregation, number-
ing not fewer than 9,000 or 10,000 persons. The Lord Mayor
and the corporation also attended the cathedral. The whole of
the children, rising ez masse, at once commenced singing the
hymn "All people that on earth do dwell." In spite of the
efforts of the conductor, Mr. Shoolbridge, who directed the
singing from a very elevated stall, the performance
was not so smooth as might have been desired. The
sermon was preached by the Lord Bishop of London,
The musical pen tion of the service was of an elaborate cha-
racter, embracing the "Coronation Anthem," Which was
sung- before the prayer for the Queen, and the "Hallelujah
Chorus," with which the so-vice terminated. Mr. Goss pre.
sided at the organ, and the gentlemen of the choir assisted
the children in rendering the psalms and hymns.

The Free Assembly of the Church of Scotland has
agreed unanimoualy to petition Parliament against the bill
for legalising marriage with a deceased Wife's sister.

A proctocol relative to the rights of British sub.
jects in Turkey has just been published. It stipulates that
foreigners may hold real property throughout the whole of
the Ottoman Empire provided that they conform to the laws
and polico regulations which govern real property in Turkey
and pay all charges and contributions. Property may ha
dif-posci of by gift or will, but if the owner die§ intestate 5
will ba_dionog o AMILlin 1 Citt9/4414.1k