These were examples which it would be very easy indeed to multiply, and if the objections he had urged against the meritorious Patents were well founded, what could be said in favour of the large proportion of Patents which were thus simply obstructing the trade and commerce of the country? Could any one doubt that in this advanced era of knowledge the public would gain, on the whole, by the abolition of the Patent-Laws? Before he left that part of the subject he wished to mention one very pregnant fact. There was in this country a powerful consumer—he meant the Government—which, with respect to fire-arms, cannon, ships, and things of that sort, would be placed in a very singular position indeed if it were subject to the Patent-Laws. During the time he had the honour of being a law officer of the Crown, an extensive war was, as the House was aware, unfortunately raging, and a large number of Patents had come under his consideration in connexion with so-called improvements in ordnance and ships. It would be seen from the evidence to which his honourable friend had referred that the authorities at the War-office and the Admiralty had patentees swarming like hornets about their ears, and that the public service seemed, in consequence, likely to be obstructed to a very inconvenient extent. The question was then tried whether the Crown was bound by Patents at all, and a decision was obtained to the effect that it was not. But while the Crown was free it should be remembered that the people at large were subject to the law as it stood, and if in the case of the Government the claims of patentees were found to be monstrously inconvenient, it might not be difficult to believe that they operated in the same way in the case of the rest of the world also. He should not enter into the minor details of the improvements which had been recommended by the Commission, but there was another point to which he wished briefly to advert before he sat down; he alluded to the question of the protection of the public against invalid and bad Patents. The whole argument in favour of Patents proceeded on the supposition that the public were likely to be really benefited by some discovery which was worth the price of all the inconvenience and obstruction to which they were exposed under the present system. But if they said that they gained nothing by the Patent, and that they only wanted to be set free, what was the position in which they stood in reference to the cardinal point of protection against bad Patents? Was there really any protection in that respect in the duties which were discharged by the law officers of the Crown? It was impossible for the law officers of the Crown, acting on the mere statement of the patentee, to know with certainty whether a so-called discovery was new or not. They could only examine into the question whether an alleged invention, as described on the face of it, was or was not satisfactory, but they could in no way protect the public