Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-01-12
.AiEsTX AN.D@IAs
THURSDAY MORNING. JANUARY y. 1896.


We insert to-day synopsis OF the Bill, re-
norted by the District Committee, for the E.
rec,ion of Penitentiary in the District Of Co
lumbia, to reform the Penal Laws of said Dis
,r;c,. and for building Jail, in the county OF
.,.r,nar;, We have not examined this Bill,
with sufficient accuracy to speak Of It's merits.
Our papers and price currents from New
Orleans are no later than the 18th ultimo, but
advices have been received at New-York to the
alst inclusve-they represent commercial al
fairs as in gloomy state. The proposed union
of the Tennessee and alabama waters, by means
of canals, has excited no little alarm in that
city, through just apprehension OF serious
loss of trade. The French house of Sabatier
Grima had failed. One Of the partners is said
20 have forged notes and checks to the amount
of $4,000, and absconded with the avails-
Cotton and other produce was rapidly accumu-
lating, and decline in prices anticipated
Sugar was held at Sol, and molasses, at the
plantations near the city, at Is TO 20 cents
Freights continued dull.
The small pox prevailed in the city; there had
been such number of deaths by this disease,
that quarantine on passengers had been esta-
blished al Natchez.
The contract for cutting the Canal round the
Falls of Ohio, has been taken by two companies
from New-York, at much less than the engi-
neers' estimates. The work will be commenc-
ed Immediately with large force.
An act passed the popular branch OF the N.
York legislature on Thursday last, fixing the
nth inst. yesterday as the time for electing
Senator in Congress, in the place Of MIR. King.
NIessrs. Printers:
Ithas been stigma, fear, too Justly cast on
the American Government, by foreigners, that
their extreme economy prevents them from
giving that encouragement to Science and IN
vention, which native genius merits Our pre-
sent President, is is true, recommends an ex-
tension Of our iberality on these heads, highly
hOnOraOle 10 nlnSCli, ootu aS " ma" " S~-~''~~
and the chief of an enlightened people.
Yet highly as prize the value OF the objects
of his recon mendation, think there are others
IN which he has not touched in his message,
more intimately connected with the interests
ofmen of genius and invention in our own coun-
try. 1t is well known that patentees, who WISH
% make pronr by rncrr inventions, and are in
circumstances for the journey, go to Europe
for their patents; where premium is allowed
in proportion to the usefulness of the invention,
while we are degraded by having the benefit of
our own native genius brought to US at second
hand.
The law allowing the use ofinventions to the
patentees for IA years, seems, in theory, both
reasonable and liberal; but when brought to the
test Of practice, most generally fails Of being
beneficial TO the inventor. 1t is most generally
found that those, the most fruitful in invention,
are of an distracted turn of mind-more fit for
the closet than society-and very uniting to
pedde their inventions over the country, and
recommend them for sale as the works OF their
own ingenuity. From this, and other similar
causes, numerous useful inventions, which
Nigh, be very beneficial to the country, sink in
to oblivion, and are lost to the community. 1t
requires one kind of genius to invent, and ano-
ther to make profit by the inventon-these two
are seldom combined in the same person; and
unless they are, the patentee becomes looser
by his ingenuity.
To render inventions beneficial to the inven-
tors-to keep them from being lost to society
and to make the Patent Office source of reve-
nue. to the United States, is the object Of this
inquiry.
To grant premium on all patents without
the government receiving any benefit therefrom
would be waste of money, and frequently at
tended with the loss of the invention; for when
some patentees had received the emoluments,
they would be little solicitous about the pro-
mitigation of the invention. But for the Uni
ted States to grant premiums and become the
I'll L. Al