The whole history of humanity protests against this assertion of M. le Hardy de Beaulieu, that inventions “being realisable only on the condition of a just remuneration, sufficient for the exceptional work which they require, and of a compensation in proportion to the risks they cause, property in them, which alone can assure this remuneration and this compensation, is necessary.” Let us remark, first, that by a just and sufficient remuneration he probably means a special, exceptional, and exclusive one. We will now ask it to be observed that man’s most indispensable and useful tools were invented, and were everywhere in daily use, many years or centuries before there was any question of property of invention. We shall only cite the hammer, the file, the saw, the screw, the pincers, the plough, spades, needles, &c. Did any of the inventors of these tools take out a Patent? Did he who first put a shoe on a horse claim a property in the idea? All the great inventions, with the exception of a few of the most modern, and for which it was not possible to take a Patent, date from the earliest times. Who, then, invented the art of smelting the ores of iron, copper, lead, and tin? of making malleable iron and steel? When did man first invent the manufacture of glass, of pottery, porcelain, paper, ink, boats, and carriages? Railways existed in a rudimentary state in the coal mines of Northumberland and Durham long before Patents were dreamed of. Printing and gunpowder appeared in the world without the guarantee of Patents; so also with the tanning of hides, the spinning of thread, weaving, dyeing, printing, &c. The electric telegraph is the result of a series of studies, and of the social capital of knowledge which these studies, and others foreign to the object as it were, have formed. Patents or rewards which have since been granted only concern modifications, more or less ingenious, of the original principle. For what are inventors now doing? Without seeking in any way to detract from the merit of their labours, we may boldly assert that they modify in a profitable and economical way the older processes; instead of welding iron, they roll it; instead of the cold, they use the hot blast, in smelting.