In reading the extracts from the archives of the Hague, given by Moll, we may remark with great pleasure the promptitude with which the commissioners of the States-General examined Lippershey’s instruments. But their satisfaction soon gave way to displeasure, when they found a large number of opticians making these instruments, and selling them to foreigners, like so much spice from the East Indies. Later on one feels indignant at finding the commissioners of the States-General to be so wanting in proper feeling as to decide that the telescope must be considered imperfect until it could be used with both eyes, without either winking or seeing the reflection of the pupils in the eye-pieces. Consequently, instead of being permitted to expend his talent on perfecting the optical powers of the single telescope, Lippershey saw himself condemned to waste his time upon the double instrument. The States-General finished by giving Lippershey 900 florins; but they refused him a patent, on the ground that it was already notorious that other opticians had commenced the manufacture of similar instruments. Amongst others who were rivals of Lippershey, we must mention John Adrian Metius, the son of Adrian Metius, of Amsterdam, who discovered that the nearest relation of the circumference of a circle to its diameter was 355 to 113. He addressed a letter to the States-General on the 17th of October, 1608, conceived in the following terms:— “After two years’ labour and thought I have succeeded in making an instrument, by the aid of which objects which are too distant to be visible by the eye, are seen plainly. The one I show, although constructed out of bad materials, and simply as an experiment, is, in the judgment of the Stadtholder and of several other persons, as good as the one lately presented to the States-General by a citizen of Middleburg. I am sure of improving it still further in the course of time, and I beg to ask for a patent by which any person who is not already in possession of this invention will be forbidden, under pain of a heavy fine and confiscation, to make or sell similar instruments for twenty-two years.” The States-General refused to grant the patent in this case also, but enjoined Metius to perfect his instrument, reserving to themselves the power to reward him in the future if they thought fit.