Literary and artistic Copyright has for its province visible, tangible works, intended only for the eye or the ear, or inner man through these senses—objects to be looked upon, listened to, thought of; not things to be worked with or employed, nor things consumable, nor mere modes of doing a thing, like the subjects of Patent-right. It has no regard to processes, operations, implements. Therefore, unlike Patent-right, it interferes not with manufacturers, artisans, miners, farmers, shipping. Its sphere is in finished productions, works of art in their completed state—objects that are permanent and unmistakable. Infringements, therefore, are necessarily both manifest and of set purpose, whereas infringements of Patent-right are often doubtful, even when the subjects or results can be exhibited, and when the facts of the case are assented to by all parties; and if it is a question of processes, its infringements are often undetectable after the fleeting moment during which they are alleged to have taken place. Further, as before said, contraventions of Patent-right may be, and not unfrequently are, done unconsciously or unwittingly. MODIFICATIONS OF THE PATENT SYSTEM. The following paper on Patent Monopolies is reproduced from the _Liverpool Courier_, partly for the sake of presenting a past phase of opinion with respect to the means of mitigating the injurious influence of the exclusive privilege contained in Patents:— At the Social Science Congress at Sheffield, in 1865, Mr. Macfie read a paper on the following subject: “Long Restrictions on the Use of Inventions, and Obligation to make heavy Payments to Patentees, incompatible with free and fair trade.” He said:—