New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-07-07
RESIGNA zion OF JUDGE MASON.
Correspondence Of The N. Y Tribune.

Correspondence Of The N. Y Tribune.
WASHINGTON, Tuesday, July 8 1855.
Judge Mason has at last resigned, as | fore
told. believe / express the sentiment of the
inventors as a body, and in fact of almost every
body connected with the Office, when say thas
the resignation of the Judge is deeply regretted
by all Of them. He was undoubtedly the best,
the ablest and che most successful man that ever
stood at the head of this highly important De-
partment, and probably the most efficient officer
the present Government has had to boast of. An
iron adherence TO strict inpartiaity, clear in
eight into the principles of mechanics q keen per-
ception in legal matters, and noble devotion to the
inventiDg interest of the country are the great
qualities which marked his business career, aud
which, whoever his successor may be, Will hardly
be surpassed. One of the Examiners OF the office
and one of the Patent lawyers in the city are spo
ken of as aspirants for the vacant post There
are three Commissionerships vacated-Pubhc
Lands Pensions and Patents--and no doubt there
will be no want of applicants for them The sala-
nv of the Commissioner of Patents is not adequate
TO the laborious duties and responsibility of the
situation Both the other posts, | believe, can be
well filed by any man OF sound common sense,
whereas the administration of Patent Office matters
requires qualifications which can only be acquired
BY talent and study and a man who possesses
such qualifications has generally found wide and
lucrative field of action which he often hestates
or refuses TO exchange for an ephemeral Govern
ment office with three thousand year.
1t greatly to be regretted that some of the most
valuable suggestions of Commissioner Mason have
been rejected not acted upon by the last Congress
So even his great plan of making popular book of
the Annual Report-spreading knowledge of the
most useful Kind, and in shape worthy Of the
subject all over the country-has not been re.
eeiyed by Congress as il so highly deserved. Con
gress which voted hundred Thousand dollars for
new fancy cupola for the Capitol deemed tnot ad-
yisable to spend hundred thousand dollars for the
publication Of National book, embodying the re-
ports of the labOrs of two thousand OF our in
ventors. The engravings, which had been prepared
under his direction with cOnsummate skill and ar
tistic perfection. copied and pOOr-luOking
wood-cuts are made of them, which, moreover,
have been arranged without the necessary regard
10 the text accompanying them, so that separate
index has TO be printed to enable perssn to find
the drawing belonging to certain part of the text
The cost OF these woOdcuts will be for the whole
edition something near fifty thousand dollars In
spite of these imperiections, however, the book
viii mark new era in the publication of the An
nual Reports Of the Patent Office, and perhaps of
public documents in general, and will be lasting
monument TO the highly intelligent administration
of Commissioner Mason. The alterations in the
Patent Office laws which he strongly urged dur
ing the last Congress will still hni, have no
doubt more successful if not more able advocates,
and so his beneficial influence viii be felt even
after he has lett.
.. The volume Of oOPperpsie snsrsvias 'OsSber with the