too prominently kept in view. PATENT RIGHTS AND PATENT WRONGS. Sir,—On page 279, in speaking of steel rails, you say: “Could a better result than that achieved by Mr. Bessemer, and by those who hold licences under him, have been arrived at under the ‘No-Patent’ system?” Decidedly not, for it has landed them in wealth; but I will suppose a by no means improbable case. Suppose Belgian manufacturers had secured Patent-rights in England, and demanded a royalty preventing English manufacturers from selling their steel rails, as you state, under 12_l._ per ton, when without such royalty they could be sold at 9_l._ per ton. Now, the case would stand thus: the Belgian manufacturers could be supplying the world with steel rails at 9_l._ per ton, while the English manufacturers were prevented _by their own laws for fourteen years_ from manufacturing them under 12_l._ per ton, although all the materials were lying at their doors, and both masters and men wanting the work. If England wishes to maintain her position in the trading and manufacturing world, monopolies and prejudice must be things of the past.... You will say the inventor has a right to the invention. Granted; there were no laws to prevent him from finding it out, and getting all the advantage he could out of it, and there ought not then to have been a law made to prevent any one else finding out the process or improving upon it. I cannot see the right of giving anyone the power to block the public highway of thought and enterprise. Necessity is the mother of all useful inventions, and if steel rails were required, English manufacturers would have soon found out how to make them, without a Patent Law to help them. R. R. S. —From the _English Mechanic_. REPORT OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF COLOGNE ON THE PATENT QUESTION. For the following translation I am indebted to the Hon. J. C. Heustler, of the Legislative Council of Queensland:— The resolution to abolish Patents on inventions, arrived at by the Chamber of Commerce of Cologne, at their sitting of the 15th Sept., 1863, has been confirmed in a report to the Ministry of Commerce, as follows:— The Patent is a monopoly, and if it has been said in its favour that it is justifiable and only temporary, it is, notwithstanding, subject to all the disadvantages in its consequences which are common to all monopolies. Endeavours to compete in the sphere of inventions are suddenly checked by Patents, while, on the other hand, many a patentee, instead of continuing to work with zeal, and to advance in the direction commenced, simply occupies himself to watch with jealousy possible infringements of others on his monopoly during the currency of his Patent.