capital will do with the greater skill and industry. Whoever administers best to the community will inevitably prevail, and, as in a vast number of manufactures skill and industry are of much greater importance than large capital, any means by which adequate capital may be brought within the reach of the man of principle and ability, must be hailed as likely to become highly beneficial. An admirable measure, with respect to the leading principle involved, was proposed in the last session of Parliament, by which the principle of limited liability could be applied to ordinary commercial partnerships, in the case of anyone providing capital. The measure met with much opposition, but it is to be revived again this year. Those who were unfriendly to it proposed that all commercial establishments receiving support by the means provided by the Bill should bear a public announcement which would intimate the fact abroad. As, however, any such provision would deter very many men from availing themselves of the measure, if they had the power of doing so, and as the only persons interested to know the particulars of a man's status, could be easily furnished with the necessary information by such means as give to preferential securities a certain publicity, the promoters of the measure may be considered to have acted wisely in refusing concurrence to a principle that might render the measure almost nugatory. The success of the limited liability principle, applied to joint stock companies, has been very great. It has, no doubt, been too great, and many may have, therefore, to reap disagreeable consequences from putting implicit faith in the representations of the unprincipled. But a great public want has been supplied, and there can hardly be a doubt that, when the same facility is given for the use of capital in an ordinary commercial enterprise, the skill, industry, and moral principle of one man will be found ultimately to present a not less sure promise of adequate return for capital than similar qualifications in the promoters and directors of public companies. Another thing which will assist the inventor is the falling away of the old system of long credit, which system is becoming more and more impossible with the increase of knowledge and competition. And, of equal importance for his interests, is to avail himself of the liberty secured to him by law of affixing his name or mark to his productions. If he gain any repute, this will be of the greatest service to him, as the public will, for two reasons, very generally give preference to him over others. And if he is not a manufacturer, but would have to offer his services professionally, identically the same causes would be found to operate; and it may not be impossible that, even in the case of the manufacturer, who is most inconvenienced by the introduction of anything new, and who is now too often inimical to the inventor, that free enterprise and competition will not only compel him to accept changes as part of the inevitable consequences of trade, but that the same influences will often induce him to seek the assistance of the inventor, as the fittest exponent of his discovery, and the most reliable to superintend the arrangements for giving it full effect. A movement, in relation to the laboring classes, has recently begun, which has much connection with invention, and which is one of many excellent signs that those classes are awakening to a knowledge of the means by which their position can become gradually ameliorated. The industrial exhibitions which are now held tend to bring out the mechanic as an inventor, but, unfortunately, some well intentioned though most mistaken men, have been leading him into a delusive notion of the blessings of the patent system. Much harm will not, perhaps, be done; and it is satisfactory to find that, though some may not always comprehend what will be clearly for the working man's benefit, there is nevertheless a spirit abroad, which, when it works in the right channels, will do a vast amount of good. By reducing excessive hours of labor, by raising the working man's pay where it can be done with reason, by encouraging him to avail himself of opportunities for obtaining know• ledge of the most practically useful character, by teaching him that, if he offers sobriety, perseverance, and moral principle, as an inducement to capital, capital will be surely found to respond and to prove a most true friend,-it is by such means as these, and by teaching him, above all, that he must depend chiefly on his own hand and head, that the sum total of happiness will be greatly increased, and some awful stains upon our civilization eventually removed. The spirit of one has just gone to its rest who did more than any man in our day to remove trammels from our industry, and to make knowledge practically available for the well-being and happiness of his race. His spirit has gone, and yet it remains. His features were not those of a hard, shrewd, and unsympathizing worldly schemer, who weaves his miserable devices, and his fate is very different. He fought nobly for the good and the true, and he descends loved and honored to the grave. Worldly rank and wealth are not often the lot of such men. They bear in them rank and wealth higher than man can bestow. Their reward is far higher than fame. It is the satisfaction of using the faculties given by the Eternal to promote the good of their kind. It is the progress of a few firm steps in the onward path by which the strong soul is purged of its dross and advances in the scale of being. "Studisi ognun giovare altrui; chè rade List showing the number of Letters Patent for Inventions granted yearly, from 1618 to 1852, deduced from "Titles of Patents of Inventions," chronologically arranged, from March 2, 1617 (14 James I.) to October 1, 1852 (16 Victoria). By Bennet Woodcroft, Suprintendent of " Specifications, Indices, &c." The figures include extensions of patents. |