Prefatory Note
To all who are serving their generation as employers and employed, in the Arts, Manufactures, and Trades, of Leith, Musselburgh, and Portobello, and have seen and felt the evils inherent in the present State method of dealing with Inventions, these pages are inscribed,—with congratulations that in the front rank of statesmen, as well within the Cabinet as beyond it, there are earnest advocates of that emancipation of British productive industry from artificial restraints which is the needful accompaniment and the complement of free trade;—and in hope that public attention will now at length be turned towards procuring such a solution as will satisfy at same time all just pretensions of meritorious inventors and men of science.
My own bulky contribution to the attack on the last stronghold of monopoly is to be regarded as but a rough-and-ready earthwork thrown up by a pair of willing hands in front of powerful artillery whose every shot is telling. It comprises the jottings and materials which I collected for a speech intended to be delivered on 28th May, when proposing a motion in favour of abolishing Patents for Inventions.
Notwithstanding imperfections in execution, the present compilation may acceptably supply a desideratum and prepare the way for further discussions, and especially for the Committee which Her Majesty’s Government continue to view with favour and will heartily support.
R. A. M.
June 9, 1869.
While in the hands of the printer, fresh matter has, through the kindness of honoured fellow-workers in the cause, reached me almost daily, part of which is added. The reader will find in this accession to the testimonies on behalf of freedom of industry, besides some new arguments, such a striking concurrence and oneness in the principles enunciated, and even in the illustrations made use of, as, coming from various quarters independently, may fairly be regarded as presumptive proof of their accuracy.
The Government has been so good as agree to produce, in conformity with a request from Parliament, any documents in possession of the Foreign-office which show the reasons or motives of the Prussian and Dutch Governments for proposing the abolition of Patents in Germany and the Netherlands. The adoption in the latter country of abolition pure and simple, without (so far as I can see) the slightest indication of a substitute, may well reconcile professional inventors and all who unite with them to the propositions with which I close my “speech.” Now that the continental stones are dropping out of the arch which forms the System of Patents, the rest cannot long keep their place. The antiquated fabric may be expected to tumble. For public safety, the sooner Parliament and all concerned set themselves to take it down, the better.
A communication from Professor Thorold Rogers, and remarks on a recent Review, are given herewith, the former on account of its value as a vindication of economic truth and justice, the latter by way of correcting the reviewer’s accidental mistakes.
The Daily News, in a leading article on the 27th July, having attached importance altogether undue to a small meeting called under peculiar circumstances on the 24th, which was supposed to express opinions and wishes of artisans and operatives,1 I addressed letters to that influential paper, which will be found in its issues of the 29th, 30th, and 31st. Of course Sir Roundell Palmer, who did the promoter of the meeting the honour to take the chair, had not, any more than myself, the smallest connexion with its origination and arrangements.
Appended are suggestions and information regarding Copyright, which came in my way while in the press about Patent-right, and which may be useful if international negotiations are contemplated for one or other or both of these kindred subjects.
I hope imperfections of translation, which I regret, and errors of the press, for which I take blame without correcting them, will be indulgently pardoned, as well as faults entirely my own in the unaccustomed part of advocate and compiler.
July 31.
⁂ No rights are reserved. Mr. Macfie will be glad to be favoured, at Ashfield Hall, Neston, Chester, with a copy of any transcripts made or any printed matter illustrating the question of Patents.
Notes
1 When members of “Inventors’ Associations” ask mechanics to join a crusade against freedom of industry, the best rejoinder is to ask a statement in writing to show how it can be for the interest of the millions to perpetuate fetters for the sake of investing a few hundred individuals with a chance of obtaining personal advantage by means of the power of fettering.