We come, then, to the conclusion that it is for the general interest that Patent-Laws should be abolished, and that their abolition will do no great harm to any one—least of all, to the great mass of inventors or improvers. Perhaps we may point out that, if the circumstances are as described, this country has a special interest in abolishing such laws. As the leading manufacturing country in the world, a Patent here is likely to be worth more to its holder than anywhere else; consequently our manufacturers are more exposed than any others to the interruption and worry of Patents. It may well be that other countries which are less tempting to patentees will find the balance of competition weighted in their favour in consequence. Looked at another way, the more that invention falls into the hands of great capitalists, the more likely is it to strengthen the manufacturing of a country which is already most powerful. The normal condition of things is all in our favour, and we should do nothing to thwart it. _Leading Article from the “Spectator,” June 5, 1869._ Those who doubt whether there are subjects upon which no conclusion is possible, which baffle the ablest and most judicial minds possessing the best attainable information, should read the debate which has just taken place on the proposed abolition of the Patent Laws. The most remarkable fact of the debate was the uncompromising attack upon these laws by Sir Roundell Palmer, his eager advocacy of the opinion that they should be at once abolished; but the most significant speech was made by Lord Stanley, who exhibited perfectly the incapacity of reasonable men to come to a wholly satisfactory judgment upon them. In fact, there is a real balance of considerations which were almost exhaustively stated by Lord Stanley. If you look at one set of facts, you see good reason for conceding Patent rights; if you look at another set, you find innumerable mischiefs arising from the concession; and there is hardly any means of measuring which set of arguments preponderates. The motive of granting Patents is _primâ facie_ very simple and unobjectionable. You wish to encourage inventions, by which the wealth of the world is so much increased, and you therefore promise inventors a temporary monopoly of their use, on the single condition that the inventions shall be made public. But for some such guarantee, it is said, many inventors would have no temptation to rack their brains, and capitalists would be afraid to help them in putting their ideas into a complete shape. That invention, as a matter of fact, is to some extent encouraged, is certain, though Lord Stanley hardly touched upon the point. On the other hand, hardly any Patent-Law can do what it professes, while it is certain to do much harm; and this is, at least, the character of our own law. The rewards with which it tempts inventors are too often delusive, and they at least would have small real cause to complain of its abolition. No