“You have taken out a Patent?—I took out a Patent in the year 1807. “Has your attention been at all directed to the advantages or disadvantages of the present system?—Yes, it has been drawn to the subject very frequently indeed; but the more it was drawn to it, and the more I saw of it, the less I approved of it; but with that disapproval I could not satisfy myself how to devise anything much better; whether to make alterations, or whether to do away with Patents altogether would be best, I can hardly determine. “Will you state, generally, your objections to the present system?—The objections to the present system are the very advanced state of scientific and practical knowledge, which renders it difficult to secure anything. The principles of mechanism being very well known and very well understood, inventions involving exactly the same principle and to effect the same object may be practically and apparently so different, that Patents may be taken out for what is only a difference in form, intended to produce the same effect, without there being any difference in principle.” So Sir W. Armstrong:— “My firm conviction is, that if there was no artificial reward for invention you would have just as much as at present.” Mr. Grove perhaps goes at least part of the way:— “The Patent is to encourage invention; if, therefore, you would get the same inventions as we now get without Letters Patent, I would have no Letters Patent at all. I believe that, with respect to the minor class of inventions, you would get them.” Mr. Platt also has his doubts:— “Is not almost every Patent which is now granted a Patent for an improvement?—A great many Patents are granted for things which are no improvement at all. “I would simply limit the Patent-Law to that extent. I think there are so many Patents granted that it is a great question with me, I confess, if Patents for these combinations are to be granted, whether it would not be better to abolish the Patent-Laws altogether, as it becomes such a nuisance in conducting a large business.” How emphatic was Mr. I. Kingdom Brunel:— “Do you think that there would be an equal inducement for a man to turn his attention to improvements if there were no Patent-Laws, as compared with the present state of things, which lead him to the expectation and hope that he will obtain some exclusive advantage from the discovery of some new improvement?