and public opinion are now considered not only more proper, but the only efficient agents for the public good. The early portion of our Law is indeed little else than a record of the efforts of the State to regulate the price of labour and provisions, the employment of capital," the education of skill, and the conditions generally of foreign and internal trade. It even pretended to enforce mo

forms a prominent clause in Magna Charta (c. 16). The subject of laws by Edward I. of England and Robert the Bruce, in Scotland, it has never long been allowed to rest (for an abridgment of these acts, see Jacob's Law Dict. 1809, Art. "Fish," " Fisheries ;" Burn's Justice, "Fisheries"), and has, during the last forty years, been stirred up almost every session by Bills, Committees and Commissions. (Sessional Papers, 1824, 1836; Ed. Rev. 1851, xciii. 341; Qu. Rev. 1852, cxi. 361.) Yet recent experience (Times, 15 Apr. 1854) has shown, in the experiments in Galway and on the Tweed and Tay, that even so precarious an interest as this may safely be left to find its welfare in mere commercial speculation. "Sumptuary laws," says D'Avenant (v. 379), "are the best course of putting a stop to losing trades."

e

"Violent and ineffectual" are the terms applied to them by Hume. (Hist. 403); Paley's remark (p. 400), is—“ More is expected of them than laws can do."

f For Statutes as to combination of workmen, see (1852) Smith's Law of Masters and Servants, 331; (1854) M'Culloch on the Rate of Wages and Influence of Combinations.

For a list of Statutes and Royal Proclamations, fixing the price of food and imposing some singular restrictions on general dealing (25 Hen. VIII. c. 13; 3 & 4 Edw. VI. c. 19), see Illingworth (1800) on Forestalling.

h For a list of Statutes on this head, see Byles on Usury (1815), App. 164, and Kelly (1835) on Usury; Com. Dig. “ Usury.”

66

15 Eliz. 4, stat. " Apprentices," of which Adam Smith (ii. 222) remarks, "it was an encroachment upon natural liberty, without producing any beneficial result to the community." Entick's Hist. of London, i. 207, 212; ii. 8, 9; Rymer, xvii. 526; Tyrwhit and Tyndale's Digest of Statutes (1822), p. 27; Chitty's (1812) Law of Apprentices; Smith's Master and Servant (1852), Introd. xxxi.; (1851) Report, Manning the Navy; Hume, iii. 403; (1854) Mr. Wallis, Special Rep. Ind. Exhib. New York, 3.

Illing. 64; 5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 14.

rality, industry' and honesty," to dictate popular opinion and to repress luxury and eccentricies" in domestic life.

doctrine with

The new policy is distinctly opposed to interference of The laisser faire Government with Capital or Labour. In every depart- regard to ment of productive industry which has as yet had a fair trade. trial, direct interference by the Legislature has proved detrimental to its interests, and our national prosperity has increased in exact proportion as we have learnt to leave Commerce, where possible, to its own control, and to base what legislation is requisite on principle instead of impulse.P

In a rude and turbulent condition of Society, when the Possible good pursuit of Commerce was considered ignoble and Capital of state proteccould hardly be said to exist, it was natural, and perhaps

15 Eliz. 4, § 31, "to banish idleness."

m 7 Geo II. c. 8.

n 3 Edw. IV. c. 4.

Encyc. Met. "Commerce;" Encyc. Brit. "Commerce;" M'Culloch, "Commerce;" Say, i. 201.

P Mill. Pol. Ec. bk. v. c. xi. § 7; Ric. Pol. Ec. 3 ed. 355.

Verstegan, in his Titles of Honour (p. 367), mentions that in old times if a merchant so thrived that he was able to cross the seas thrice, he was ever after reputed a right worthy Thein, and capable of higher advancement.

For an enthusiastic advocacy of the dignity of trade, see the remarks in M. Savary's Dictionnaire Universel, art. "Commerce" (1741).

In the commencement of the fourteenth century, the French Government, to encourage the manufacture of glass, ordered that gentlemen or the sons of noblemen might exercise the trade without derogating from their rank. (Encyc. Met. "Manufacturing Processes," vi.)

The inference from the increase of manufactures during the reign of Elizabeth has been warmly contested by those who assert the doctrines of laisser aller in their extreme, They attribute it to the accidental circumstance of an influx of foreign merchants and skilled workmen, refugees from the persecutions of the Duke of Alva. It is the observation of Hume, v. 477, that "as her monopolies tended to extinguish all domestic industry, which is more valuable than foreign trade, as it is the foundation of it, so the general train of her conduct was ill calculated to serve the purpose at which she aimed, much less to promote the riches of her people." During the last few years of

No longer requisite.

Principle of

patents.

necessary, for the governing power, comprising by far the largest share of the intelligence of the nation, to induce the adoption of trade by special encouragement and take active measures for promoting its prosperity. With the general diffusion of education and the firm establishment of trade, such necessity is at an end. So soon as the arts of peace become popular pursuits, inducements are unneeded; and, at a period like the present, in which capital is abundant and men of Commerce the most intelligent in the State, so far from aiding, they actually hinder the progress of trade. The exotics reared under forced conditions has long been acclimated to our soil. It is at once sensitive enough to shrink from legislative interference, hardy enough to flourish under the free action of natural laws, and vigorous enough to force its way over all the obstacles that oppose its growth.

It being then the general feeling that authoritative interference with trade is unadvisable-that Monopoly ⚫ created by such means is a general grievance-and that the practical effect of Letters-patent is to impose a considerable restraint upon the public"—nothing but principles of justice or public policy can justify the Crown, as the steward of public rights, in sanctioning such privileges as those awarded to Patentees." The reward of the inventor for the benefit he has conferred on trade, and the obtaining from him for public use the full benefit of the improvement he has effected, are objects which the Executive, as representative of the community, should endeavour to effect with the least possible disturbance of public rights.

her reign it is stated that the shipping of this country diminished to the extent of one-third.

• Ure's Dict. "Silk," 1100; “Glass," 572; "Calico printing," &c. Introd. 2nd ed. Suppl. to Ure's Dict. "Arts and Manufactures." "M'Culloch, "Ships;" Com. Dic. P. 1119.

▾ Adam Smith, W. N. bk. iv. c. 8.

economical

Assuming the policy" of rewarding inventors by the Patents most State, and this is the side on which the question receives form of reits general support, a judiciously limited monopoly in the wards. advantages of a discovery is not only the most appropriate and economical, but by far the most effectual encouragement in the great majority of improvements.* Without such protection it is clearly the interest of every one who has made a discovery available in trade to conceal it from the public, and, notwithstanding the difficulties attending such concealment, they are not insuperable, when the ingenuity of invention is diverted to devise methods of concealment."

a

In the words of Benthama-"It is an instance of Bentham's opinion. reward peculiarly adapted to the nature of the service, and adapts itself with the utmost nicety to those rules of proportion to which it is most difficult for reward, artificially instituted by the Legislature, to confer. If confined, as it ought to be, to the precise point in which the originality of the invention consists, it is conferred with the least possible waste of expense. It causes a service to be rendered, which, without it, a man would not have a motive for rendering; and that only by for

Renouard, c. 2, § 2, p. 42; Westm. Rev. xliii. 1835.

* "The reasons for recognizing the rights of inventors rest on much higher grounds than the encouragement of invention itself. They are precisely those which induce men to adopt civilized rather than savage life." Society of Arts First Report on the Rights of Inventors, 1851. "Not to regard a discovery in industry as the property of the discoverer would be to attack the rights of man in their essence." (Decree of the French National Assembly, 1791; Renouard, 423.)

See Lord Brougham's speech, Hansard, xxviii. 476, and Qu. Rev. xliii.

Turner on Pat. 2 (1851). The lamentable apathy on the part of our Government and want of confidence on the part of inventors, could hardly be more signally illustrated than in the case of the late Captain Warner. However exaggerated bis own estimate of its value, there can be no doubt that he possessed the secret of a terribly destructive instrument. Ann. Register, lxxxvi. p. 77, A. D. 1844.

a Rationale of Rewards, 92.

bidding others from doing that which, were it not for that service, it would not have been possible for them to have done. Even with regard to such inventions, for such there will be, where others besides him who possesses the reward have scent of the invention, it is still of use by stimulating all parties and setting them to strive which shall first bring the discovery to bear. With all this it unites every property that can be wished for in a reward. It is variable, equable, commensurable, characteristic, exemplary, frugal, promotive of perseverance, subservient to compensation, popular and reasonable.”

Inventors, as a class, are singularly deficient in the qualifications for prosecuting a new trade with a probability of success, if exposed to unlimited competition.d Without the encouragement of a Patent, how is any man to engage in a novel and expensive process, if the moment he succeeds, at the cost of all this outlay, he must be sure that his neighbours, who were cautious enough to shun all chances of loss, will come into competition with him and make his remuneration impossible? Notwithstanding the strong opinion expressed to the

b Godbolt, 252.

The Marquis of Worcester, in a petition to Parliament in the reign of Charles II., offered to publish the hundred processes and machines enumerated in his very curious "Centenary of Inventions," on condition that the money should be granted to extricate him from the difficulties in which he had involved himself by the prosecution of useful discoveries. The petition does not appear to have been attended to! Many of these admirable inventions were lost. The steam engine and telegraph may be traced among them. (Dis. Cur. Lit. i. 52.) "I consider the inventive mania," says Professor Woodcroft, in his evidence (1625) before the Committee, "a disease always injurious to the patient, but very often beneficial to the public."

d Sir D. Brewster's Evid. (1851.)

e West. Rev. xliii.

As to the disproportionate cost of the first machine in many instances, see Select Committee (1831) of H. of Commons on Machinery, 243. Bobbinet machines after ten years' practice made at one-third of the expense. Mr. Babbage's Economy of Manufactures says one-fifth is a fair average. (Turner on Patents, p. 5.)