in the full fruition of great and well-merited prosperity. But his history is destined to furnish another proof, if proof be wanting, of the inconstancy of public favour, even when won by distinguished services. No greatness was ever acquired by more incontestable, unalloyed, and exalted benefits rendered to mankind, yet none ever drew on its possessor more unremitting jealousy and defamation, or involved him in more unmerited distress and difficulty.

"Thus it is with illustrious merit; its very effulgence draws forth the rancorous passions of low and grovelling minds, which too often have a temporary influence in obscuring it to the world; as the sun, emerging with full splendour into the heavens, calls up, by the very fervour of its rays, the rank and noxious vapours which, for a time, becloud its glory." (Washington Irving's Life of Columbus, p. 174.)

All nations are more or less cruel to inventors. But the cruelty of the English nation is more reprehensible than that of other nations. Because no nation has derived so many advantages from the labours of inventors as the English nation. No nation has been placed in a favourable position for estimating the value of the labours of inventors. And no nation could so easily do justice to inventors as the English nation. Would it not be better for capitalists to lend money to inventors than to lose a hundred and fifty millions of it in loans to dishonest South American republics? "The feverish excitement of 1823 and 1824, originating in a great measure in the unbounded expectations of commercial prosperity which were generally entertained in this country from the final establishment of South American independence, only augmented the general distress, from the frightful catastrophe in which it terminated. All attempts to work the mines by British capital have failed, in consequence of the turbulence and insecurity of the country; and above a hundred and fifty millions of British money have been lost in those disastrous mining speculations, or in loans to the faithless insolvent republics of the New World. The amount lost by Britain in loans to North and South America and the revolutionary government of Spain, was stated by Lord Palmerston at this enormous amount in Parliament on the 17th July, 1847." (Alison's History of Europe, vol. xiv., page 361.)

Now would it not have been a hundred and fifty million times better for English capitalists to have lent their money

to English inventors than to dishonest South American republics?

However apethetic the nation may be in its treatment of inventors, there is not the slightest doubt that the Almighty is, by His providence, swift to avenge their wrongs.

There are innumerable evils from which the British nation suffers which inventors could easily remove. But who is going to be such a fool as to take trouble which is to be repaid only by persecution?

The nation suffers from agricultural depression. Inventors could show how that is to be removed. The nation suffers from parents not knowing what to do with their children. Inventors could show how that evil is to be remedied. The nation suffers from terrible depression in the shipping trade. Inventors could show how that difficulty is to be escaped. The nation suffers from the clogged and impeded condition of the legislative machinery. Inventors could show how that is to be put right. The nation suffers from the condition of litigation, which on account of its slowness, its awful costliness, and its occasional injustice, has become a positive curse to the country. Inventors could show how this is to be rectified without diminishing the fees of lawyers. The nation suffers much from the want of many suitable mechanical and chemical processes. Inventors could reveal these. But they will not, until they have a sufficient inducement to do so.

The obstacles in the way of inventors in England could hardly be better shown than by quoting the Second Shedule in Mr. Chamberlain's new Patent Law. Mr. Chamberlain deserves the thanks and the gratitude of every one interested in patents throughout the British Empire for his wise and successful Patent Law. Though very very far from being what an English Patent Law ought to be, it is yet a very great number of steps forward, compared with the most atrocious state of Patent Law before Mr. Chamberlain took its reform in hand.

The extraordinary and Herculean opposition made to reform in our laws is seen from the successful opposition made to Mr. Chamberlain's excessively modest demand for the prevention of murder by overloading. Every one possessing even a battered and injured conscience thought that Mr. Chamberlain's bill to prevent murder by overloading was one of the mildest remedies that could have been thought of. Most condemned it as a great deal too mild, holding that it should have had a little of the drastic in its

composition. Mild though it was, however, it excited the rage of mercantile murderers. It was therefore thrown overboard. Its fate ought to make inventors all the more grateful for Mr. Chamberlain's Patent Law. The fees for obtaining a patent are as follows

(b) Further before end of four years from date of patents.

On certificate of renewal

(c) Further before end of seven years, or in the case of patents granted after the commencement of this Act, before the end of eight years from date of patent.

On certificate of renewal

4 0 0

50 0 0

100 0 0

Or in lieu of the fees of £50 and 100 the following annual fees:

Before the expiration of the fourth year from

the date of the patent..

Before the expiration of the fifth year..

ΙΟ

ΙΟ O 0

So that a patent in England costs £154. And if an agent is employed, the agent's expenses are extra. And if drawings are necessary, the cost of drawings is extra. £154, though moderate compared with the old extortionate fees, places patents quite beyond the reach of the working

man. In America a patent costs only £8, in India only £10, in Belgium only £8 or £9. Therefore, though very much has been gained by Chamberlain's wise Patent Law, yet it indicates a spirit of cruelty towards inventors which is very deplorable. While an American can secure a full patent for eight pounds sterling, an Englishman requires to pay one hundred and fifty-four. Yet England is a poorer country than America. Some nations treat their cattle more kindly than the English nation treats its inventors. The Arabs, for instance, treat their horses much kinder than the English do their inventors.

"The Asiatic lives with his horse; his children play with it from their mutual infancy; the attachment on both sides grows with their growth, and strengthens with their strength; and when he has arrived at the full maturity of his powers, the noble Arab steed, endued almost with human sagacity, and fraught with more than human devotion, will die in the strenuous effort to save the playfellow of his infancy from captivity or death. A most moving incident, illustrative of the extraordinary strength as well as attachment of the Arab horses, is given by Lamartine in his Travels in the East.' 'An Arab chief, with his tribe, had attacked in the night a caravan of Dumas', and plundered it; when loaded with their spoil, however, the robbers were overtaken on their return by some horsemen of the Pasha of Acre, who killed several, and bound the remainder with cords. In this state of bondage they brought one of the prisoners, named Abou el Marck, to Acre, and laid him, bound hand and foot, and wounded as he was, at the entrance to their tent, as they slept during the night. Kept awake by the pain of his wounds, the Arab heard his horse's neigh at a little distance, and being desirous to stroke, for the last time, the companion of his life, he dragged himself, bound as he was, to his horse, which was picketed at a little distance. "Poor friend," said he, "what will you do among the Turks? You will be shut up under the roof of a khan, with the horses of a pasha or an aga; no longer will the women and children of the tent bring you barley, camel's milk, or dourra in the hollow of their hand; no longer will you gallop free as the wind of Egypt in the desert; no longer will you cleave with your bosom the waters of the Jordan, which cool your sides as pure as the foam of your lips. If I am to be a slave, at least may you go free. Go: return to our tent, which you know so well; tell my

wife that Abou el Marck will return no more; but put your head still into the folds of the tent, and lick the hands of my beloved children." With these words, as his hands were tied, he undid with his teeth the fetters which held the courser bound, and set him at liberty; but the noble animal, on recovering its freedom, instead of bounding away to the desert, bent its head over its master, and seeing him in fetters and on the ground, took his clothes gently in his teeth, lifted him up, and set off at full speed towards home. Without ever resting, he made straight for the distant but well-known tent in the mountains of Arabia. He arrived there in safety, and laid his master safe down at the feet of his wife and children, and immediately dropped down dead with fatigue. The whole tribe mourned him; the poets celebrated his fidelity; and his name is still constantly in the mouths of the Arabs of Jericho.' (Lamartine, 'Voyage dans l'Orient,' vi., 236.) This beautiful anecdote paints the manners and the horses of Arabia better than a thousand volumes. It is unnecessary to say, after it, that the Arabs are, and ever will be, the first horsemen, and have the finest race of horses in the world." (Alison's History of Europe, vol. xv., page 128.)

Now, English inventors would be satisfied if the nation would treat them with half the kindness with which the Arabs treat their horses.

What then is to be done? The first thing to be done is the nation must make an effort to get out of the niggardly ditch into which it has fallen. All classes of the poor and helpless in England are crying, because they are so shamefully neglected by the rich. The whole nation must make an effort to learn that befriending the poor enriches the nation, and that neglecting the poor impoverishes the nation. "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." "Give and it shall be given you, good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again." "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy fruit-bins shall be pressed down with a great abundance of ripe grapes."

The next thing is-the Patent Law must be changed,