“It is proper to introduce, in respect to industrial inventions, the principle of _expropriation_ [or acquisition for behoof of the public], with a view to general benefit, in order to reconcile the interests of industry and the requirements of free trade (_libre échange_) with the interests of the inventor. “It is desirable, for the satisfaction of the same interests, to establish between the different countries by means of stipulations with reference to Patents in International Treaties, uniformity of system, and, pursuant thereto, to provide a depôt where, without the necessity to patent in every particular country, specifications might be lodged that shall be recognised and published in all.” The House will observe that in connexion with the principle of State rewards, or, what is nearly allied to it, of expropriation, the Association commended another principle, that of international arrangements as to inventions. On the occasion when the report I quote from was adopted, another eminent French economist, Professor Wolowski, spoke as follows:— “The free competition which ought to exist between peoples requires that Patents should be everywhere ruled by uniform laws. Intellectual property must everywhere have limits within which there shall be exchange, in order that its products may everywhere circulate under the same conditions. International legislation with regard to Patents is an object to be earnestly pursued. It responds to the demands of free-trade, satisfies the needs of liberty of manufacture, and provides a compensation for a shortened term of Patent-right by extension of area.” But I come nearer home, and am happy to be able to quote concurrence in the idea of national rewards on the part of one of our great staple manufacturers, the sugar refiners. The refiners of Scotland many years ago petitioned Parliament in the following terms:— “That, in the opinion of the petitioners, it is highly desirable that your honourable House should devise some means whereby discoverers of valuable inventions (to whom alone Patents should be granted) might be rewarded by the State, and trade be relieved from the restrictive operation and expense of Patents altogether.” Tending in favour of rewards rather than Patents is the following evidence, given before the Royal Commission by Sir William Armstrong:—