The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-17 00:00:00

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14th March, 1642.
LMV LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY, Fleet
street, next St; Dunstan's Church.
Notice is hereby t,iven, that the BOOKS for TRANS-
FERRING SHARES in this SOCIETY, WILL BE
CLOSED on THURSDAY, the 24th instant, arid will be RE-
OPENED on THURSDAY, the 7th day of April net. The
Dividends fer the year 1841 will be payable on TH.', sDA Y, the
7th day April next, or any subsequent day (Wedne day ex-
erred), between the hours of Ten and Three o'clock.
By Order of the Directors,
GEORGE KIRKPATRICK, Actuary.

NATIONAL LOAN FUND SOCIETY
FOR GRANTING
LIFE ASSURANCES, DEFERRED ANNUITIES, &c.
No. 26, CORNHILL.
Capital £.500,000.
Empowered by Special Act of Parliament.
DIRECTORS.
T. LAMIE MURRAY, Eq., Chairman.
J. Elliotson, M. D., F. 11. S. f John Rawson, Esq.
John Griffith Frith, Esq. I ;John Riddle Stodart, Esq.
hunter Gordon, Esq. I Clement Tabor, Esq.
George Lurigley, Esq. Joseph Thompson, Esq.

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quite opposite to that
of the don. Gentleman. It did not seem that the Hon Gen-
tleman h.rnself saw any very urgent necessity for a change i n
the law, inasmuch as he had allowed two years to pass withoet t
taking any steps upon the recommendation of that Commit..
tee. The Hon. Gentleman had moved for the appointment
of that Committe, and as was usual in such cases he had taken
care that there should be a majority of persons prepossessed in
favour of his own views. And yet what was the result ? When
the question was put, that "It is expedient, &c"—(A laugh )
—the Committee divi led equally, and the resolution was ac-
cordingly carried by the casting vote of the Hon. Gentleman ;
and one of those who voted on the same side had never inter,
ded the meetings of the Committee, and only came down on
that occasion to give his vote in support of the Honourdble
Gentleman's proposition. Now the cotton printing was
one of the most important branches of our manufactures.
It was almost the only branch of our trade which was in a
flourishing condition. There had been exported during the
present year 25 millions of yards of printed cotton more than
had been exported during the preceding year. The prevent
law had been in existence upwards of 50 years, and he thought
the House ought to pause before it altered a law which had
worked so wel,. It was strange that while they had some of
the first persons in the cotton-printing trade Members of that
House, the subject should have been left to be brought forward
by the Hon. Member for Belfast. No one connected with the
trade had expressed the least wish for any alteration in the law.
About 22 years since an attempt had been made to alter the
law, and a Bill had been introduced for that purpose, which
had passed through the House of Commons, but which had
been referred by the House of Lords to a Select Committee,
and had, after an investigation, been dropped. The lion.
Gentleman had by no means stated the evidence taken before
the Committee with fairness. One of the gentlemen exa-
mined before that Committee had stated that he bad been en-
gaged in the trade mat), years, and that he had never seen
above two original designs in his life. The fact was all ori-
ginality of design was exhausted. The manner in which new
patterns were made was by looking over old ones, end
taking figures from them to form fresh combinations.
He considered the Bill was a complete fallacy as to giving a
property of the nature it proposed to convey, and if it passed
the greatest injury would ensue, and litigation would arise
among the trade. A person may go into Chancery and con•
tinue a suit there for twenty years on a matter which did_not
amount to half-a-crown. The Hon. Gentleman referred to
tLis evidence of. Mr. Lucas, one of the largest West India
merchants in the Country, but the Hon. Gentleman forgot that
that was two years since and circumstances were now changed.
Mr. Lucas would now be placed in a different position, and
such difficulties would be thrown in the way of the trade by
the Bill, that Mr. Lucas would be compelled altogether to
abandon the shipment of printed calicoes, the manutacture of
this country. Mr. Lucas also stated that -the object
of the extension of the Copyright was to give increased
profits or to ge higher prices for goods. That .cheapness of
production was the only means of maintaining the ascend-
ency of our manufactures, and they would never be able to
continue in their present condition if they shackled trade in
this manner. lier Majesty's Government were now intro-
ducing to the House a great and extensive relaxation of the
restrictions in trade, and here was the Hon. Gentleman, on
the ether hand, introducing a measure for extending monopoly
in one of the most important branches of trade, and that in
an article which really did not belong to anybody. The Hon.
Gentleman had referred to the evidence given by Mr. Stirling,
who had alluded to the establishment of Mr. Henry, at Dublin.
He had no doubt that Mr. Henry was the cause of t. e Bill
being brought forward, and had it not been for the fact of
Mr. Henry having established a print work at Dublin, they
would never have heard of the Bill. Mr. Stirling stated that
Mr. Henry had been in business ten years, and during that
time be was always in the habit of producing the patterns of
others, but without violating the law, as it did not extend to
Ireland. After that period he ceased to be a copyist, and
employed persons as designers. What was the ad-
vantage ? While he was a copyist, he effected not
only a saving in wa es, but als) in the engraving
of his rollers for printing, in consequence of going to the same
engravers as those employed by those to whom the original
prints belonged, and thus saved half the expense. If there was
an advantage in being a copyist, why did he abandon it when
be could continue to copy withont an infringement of the law?
Because he found it answered his purpose much better to pro-
dime his own patterns or compositions, he called his own, than
to copy those of others. The system of copying from the de-
signs of others had of late been declining ; that was the state-
ment of every individual who had given his evidence before the
Committee of 1840. One gentleman, to whom the Hon. Gen-
tleman had alluded, stated he had been in the business during
the last thirty years, and that he had been in the habit
of copying much more frequently during the first twenty
years of that time than during the remaining period. But
he had not acted, dishonestly in taking . those copies, for
that Gentleman stated that no man had a property in those pa-
tents, and that they were the common right of all. The fact
was, that many of the designs, which it had been complained
were copied, were themselves but copies from the Drench.
The whole system was founded upon the practice of imitating
and co,tving from preceding designs, and it could not be pro-
perly said that there was any exclusive right to any design.
The lion. Gentleman had referred to Mr. Tnompson. Now
this gentleman was no doubt the most eminent calico-printer in
Lancashire, but that gentleman never gave evidence upon that
Committee. He (Mr. Williams) could have wished the plea-
sure of seeing that gentleman bef.ire that Committee, for the
purpose of giving evidence; but instead of that he wrote cer-
tain letters. Now it would have been very convenient to some
of the Members of that Committee to have heard some ex-
planation of some of the opinions expressed in those letters.
He had no doubt given very satisfactory answers to some of
tnem. But he (Mr. Williams) would like to know the nature
of those answers, instead of depending on ex parte statements.
He would say, that if the parties on that Committee had acted
with even-handed justice between ail parties, they would never
have allowed the introduction of those letters as part of the
evidence taken before them. The Hon. Gentleman had been
pleased to allude to what would be the probable argument used
by him (Mr. Williams), viz., the effect of this change on
the foreign trade of this country. It was stated by
the principal witness upon that Committee that there
opinion was, that if any extension of the present copyright
should ever take place, that it would lead to a most extensive
system of copying from our patterns by foreign calico printers.
One if the gentlemen stated, that it would answer his purpose
to establish print works in Belgium, for the express purpose of
copying patterns for foreign orders. Another gentleman stated,
that the first thing they would have to do, would be to commu-
nicate with the calico • twitters in the different countries on the
Continent, to ascertain what they would perform the different
sorts of work for. They could calculate to the greatest pos-
sible nicety the cost of every article which could be placed be-
fore them connected with their trade, by looking at the_qtrelity
of the e:oth, and the number of colours it contained. He was
convinced that the carrying of the pioposed measure would in..
terfere with the calico printing trade to a most injurious ex-
tent. If the Hon. Gentleman meant to legislate at all on this
question, it ought to be in an opposite extent; but for this there
was no necessity, as every one was satisfied with the present law.
The Hon. Gentleman had referred to a strong feeling on this
subject existing in Scotland. What did Mr. Dalgleish, the
only Gentleman from Scotland who gave evidence before the
Committee, say? He said that there was so little cotton in
Scotland that printers scarcely ever protected their patterns ;
he produced four or five hundred patterns a-year, and he
printed about 200,000 pieces, but he never knew any of them
copied; he had seen none, but he had heard of one or two.
Mr. Lockett, who was the greatest printer in this country, said
he engraved 2,500 pieces a-year, but he only mentioned one
instance of copying : anti whin one or two pieces were'shovrn
to Mr. Potter he could not undertake to say whether they were
copies of the same pattern ; he said be should say that
they were taken from the same design, but he could
not say that they were actually from the same pattern.
How was it possible for them to devise a mode of a.certaining
what were and what were not original patterns, when practical
men, who had been engaged in the trade for their whole lives
were unable to distinguish them? If the law passed it would
involve endless litigation ; and the consequence would be that
numt ers of pen.ons who were engaged in the trade would be
compelled to abandon it. He entreated the House to pause
before they gave their assent to this measure The late Sir
Robert Peel, who was the most distinguished person engaged
in the trade, had never proposed an alteration in the trade, al-
though if he had done so he would not have had the least diffi-
culty in carrying his proposal. The same might be said of
several other Gentlemen who had sat in that House at different
periods. Unless a case of the strongest kind were made out,
he trusted the Howe would not pass the Bill. He should feel
it to be his duty to offer every opposition which it was in his
power to give to it.
Lord FRANCIS EGERTON said that Hon. Gentlemen
had pointed out the source to which the Bill prop sed by his
Honourable Friend (Mr. Tennent) was traced; but in his (Lord
F. Egerton's)opinion it was a matter of very small consequence
to whom that Bill was primarily traced—whoever originated
the measure, the manufacturers of the country would be greatly
indebted to the House for carrying it into effect; for his part
he (Sir F. Egerton) would be sorry to oppose a Bill which, in
his opinion, was founded upon the soundest principles of mo-
rality and justice, but at the same time he owed that deference
to the opinions of practical men, who were capable of judging
of their own interests, that he would not assent to the Bill if
they had any objection to its conten's. If they gave it anything
like opposition, it would be a very strong reason to induce him
(Lord F. Egerton) to accept the invitasion of the Hon. Gen-
tleman (Mr. Williams) to pause, at least, before he gave it his
consent; he (Lord F. Egerton) had looked into the evidence
before the House, and he believed he was justified in saying
that, out of 176 firms there were only 36 firms which had
given opposition to the Bill, and in Manchester, where he be-
lieved the majority of those firms were, be found that a major.
rite of 48 firms were against that 36, and in favour of the Bill.
He thought he could safely say that in supporting that Bill
himself he only acted in accordance with the opinions of the
respectability, and wealth, and intelligence of the constituency
which he represented. The Hon. Gentleman who had just sat
down, had traced the advantages which the French
have over this country in consequence of their schools
of design—he did not know what was the reason
there were not BC ools of design in this country. He
believed the reason was that there was no interest taken in the
matter, as there were no chances of succeeding, owing to the
state of the law upon the subject. He understood the Govern-
ment were about to give a sum of money to Manchester for
schools of design in that town. If designs were to have their
proper value—if artisans were to receive a just remuneration
tor their skid, were they to be told that that was monopoly ? It
seemed to him that that was a strange misapplication of
the term. It had been said that there was not much
Scotch evidence before the Committee that sat on this
subject. In a letter which he had received from a
gentleman whose opinion on the matter was of consequence,
the writer stated that the Bill which had been laid before Par-
liament contained provisions enough to promote the object of
it, and that, therefore, no material alteration was requisite, and
that without seeking any additional evidence on the cueition,
thy Hon. Members ought to support the Bill. The Noble Lord
read another letter from a merchant connected with the S' uth
American trade, stating that, in the South American markets,
the English prints were spoken of as made only for sale, and not
for use. On the part of his Hon. Friend, he begged leave be
state that the majority in the Co r mittee who voted in favour of
the extension, was six to three.

111 r. SIIIEL said, that he had paid great attention to the
proceedings of the Committee, and he remembered that he ex-
pressed in the Committee that the evidence only should be re•
ported, and that the Committee should withhold the expres-
sion of any opinion. On that question being put, the
parties were equal, but by the vote of the gm:
man, the proposition was negatived. The Committee
then divided on the question, "That it was expedient ttoce . y _
the copyright of design," and the resolution was
(ci_aertrie-nrgebne!
majority i,f six to three. Ile agreed will the ret,tt I i
he did not.
think that Ihe copyright should be extended ;
think that in the eaze of pr;nted calicoes theht,:lbl,nt'is'inx°::igol:,ttit,so
be to so long a time as nine months.
quite long enough. He had also verylieretat doubtsg as to the
expediency of adoptingtomachinery
the
ef registration.-•--
(Hear.)—lnproperty which
the
giving a due protection
a man had in his own invention, care should be taken
that they did not injure the public. The Right Hoe.
for 'farnworth, had made a
Gentleman, the Member
speech in February, 1/440, in which he had strongly im-
pressed upon the House the importance of having the evidence
of practical men. The Right Hon. Gentleman on that occa.
sion had said, that he felt great difficulty in coming to a con-
clusion, tirst, as to the extension of the copyright ', and, se.
condly, as to what ought to be the time to thick it should be