Social Animal 11th Edition Aronson

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1. “Hostile or negative attitudes toward a distinguishable group on the basis of
generalizations derived from faulty or incomplete information” is Aronson's definition
of:
A) discrimination.
B) bias.
C) stereotypes.
D) prejudice.

2. Which of the following components is NOT a part of prejudice?

A) emotional
B) political
C) cognitive
D) behavioral

3. Julia states, “all football players are just a bunch of thick-headed, beer-guzzling oafs.”
Her statement is best thought of as capturing the essence of:
A) stereotyping.
B) the self-fulfilling prophecy.
C) the psychology of inevitability.
D) scapegoating.

4. According to Aronson, which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a prejudice?

A) a hostile or unenthusiastic attitude
B) a negative attitude toward a particular group which is based on faulty or incomplete
information
C) any positive or negative attitude that predisposes the person
D) an attitude that could lead to hostile action towards a particular group

5. Suppose Fred and Margaret are both being persuaded about the best way to repair
lawnmowers and the best way to choose paint colors to decorate a kitchen. Based on the
recent work by Sistrunk and McDavid, you would expect:
A) Fred to be more persuaded about mower repair and Margaret about decorating.
B) Margaret to be more persuaded about mower repair and Fred about decorating.
C) Fred to be more persuaded about mower repair and decorating.
D) Margaret to be more persuaded about mower repair and decorating.

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6. What conclusion did Carl Word and his associates arrive at after conducting
experiments on whites interviewing minorities for a job?
A) White male interviewers spent more time with blacks in the interviewing because
they did not want to be labeled as prejudicial.
B) White male interviewers spent more time with women in the interviews because
they were aware of affirmative action.
C) White male interviewers spent less time with blacks and sat further away which
caused the interviewee to become uncomfortable.
D) White male interviewers spent less time with women but more time with blacks
because all the blacks were males and the interviewers identified more with the
males than females.

7. What conclusion did Glick and Fiske come to with regards to hostile and benevolent
sexism?
A) In some situations hostile sexism can be beneficial for women because they will
fight harder against the stereotype.
B) In general benevolent sexism is good for women because people have positive
feelings towards women.
C) Both hostile and benevolent sexism are limiting to women because they justify
relegating women to traditional roles.
D) Both hostile and benevolent sexists assume that women are the weaker and less
competent sex.

8. Crandall and Eshleman argue that prejudice requires energy and that we are inclined to
conserve mental energy. Therefore, in an effort to avoid cognitive dissonance we may:
A) be particularly attracted to information that justifies our prejudice and allows us to
express it, thereby saving the energy.
B) be very attentive to information that disconfirms our prejudice so that we could
eliminate it, thereby saving the energy we would have used to suppress it.
C) look for a dispositional reason to hold onto our attitudes, thereby saving the energy.
D) consciously edit our statements so that our prejudices do not leak out.

9. Frey and Gaertner, in a study involving prejudice and helping, found that:
A) whites, wishing to look “open-minded,” were actually more willing to help a black
than a white person.
B) whites discriminated against a black person only when such discrimination could
be easily rationalized.
C) whites and blacks discriminate against each other equally.
D) whites discriminated against blacks when their self-esteem was threatened.

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10. A key factor in justifying our biases is whether we believe an individual has:
A) used the prejudice directed at them for personal gain.
B) been discriminated against in the past.
C) control over his or her situation.
D) a likable personality.
E) all of these factors.

11. People find it easier to hold their prejudices against obese people if they believe:
A) their weight is due to a medical condition.
B) their weight is the result of a free choice to overeat and not exercise.
C) there is a family history of obesity.
D) they appear fragile and in need of help.
E) their weight is the result of free choice and there is a family history of obesity.

12. The research suggests that people find it easier to suspend their prejudices against obese
people if they believe:
A) their weight is due to a medical condition.
B) their weight is the result of a free choice to overeat and not exercise.
C) there is a family history of obesity.
D) they are making an effort to lose weight.
E) their weight is due to a medical condition and they are making an effort to lose
weight.

13. In an experiment by Harber, white college students read and evaluate poorly written
essays supposedly written by other students enrolled in a writing workshop. Half of the
students believed the writer was black while the other half believed the writer was
white. They found the evaluators:
A) said positive things about the subjective content (but not the objective mechanics)
of the black writer's essays.
B) said negative things about the subjective content (and the objective mechanics) of
the black writer's essays.
C) said positive things about the subjective content (but not the objective mechanics)
of the white writer's essays.
D) said negative things about the subjective content (and the objective mechanics) of
the white writer's essays.

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14. In an effort to not appear prejudice, whites sometimes:
A) praise the work of minorities but do not provide needed feedback if it might be
perceived as negative.
B) spend longer in interview with minority candidates, thereby giving them a false
sense of success.
C) interact pleasantly with minorities only to devalue their work after the interpersonal
interactions.
D) provide negative feedback to minorities about their work but in a such way that it
can be dismissed.

15. In a study by Richeson and Shelton, college students who differed in anti-black
prejudice were identified. Low and high prejudice students interacted with a
confederate. After having a conversation with the confederate, they took a test of
cognitive functioning. ___________ students scored far worse on the cognitive ability
test if they interacted with __________ confederates.
A) High prejudice; white
B) Low prejudice; white
C) High prejudice; black
D) Low prejudice; black

16. Which of the following is an interesting result seen in an experiment by Duncan in

which viewers watched a film of a black man and a white man arguing?
A) Women subjects reported that both men seemed to be violent, regardless of the
man's skin color.
B) Black subjects uniformly reported that the black man in the film was “right” in the
argument.
C) Both black and white subjects judged the black man in the film to be the more
violent of the two.
D) All of these results were reported in the research.

17. Suppose you are a subject in an experiment and are asked to make a parole decision
about two criminals, a Latino, José Ortega, and an upper middle class white man,
Matthew Smith. Both men were convicted of embezzling funds from the bank in which
they worked. Generalizing from a similar study conducted by Bodenhausen and Wyer,
you would most likely recommend parole for:
A) José but not Matthew.
B) Matthew but not José.
C) both José and Matthew.
D) neither José nor Matthew.

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18. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a stereotype?
A) Stereotyping provides a way of justifying our own biases.
B) Stereotyping leads people to make attributions that are consistent with their
prejudiced beliefs.
C) Stereotypes are relatively flexible and change if individuals are provided with new
information that is inconsistent with their beliefs.
D) Stereotypes tend to generate self-fulfilling prophecies.

19. Bond and his colleagues investigated a psychiatric hospital that had a racially mixed
population of patients but was run by an all-white staff. The results of this study
revealed that:
A) harsher methods of handling violent behavior were used against black patients than
against white patients.
B) black patients committed more violent acts while in the hospital than did white
patients.
C) black patients committed fewer violent acts while in the hospital than did white
patients.
D) the staff 's prejudiced treatment toward blacks increased over time.

20. What did Correll and his associates find in their research into police officers who
confront white and black suspects?
A) Black and white subjects were quicker to shoot at armed black suspects than armed
white suspects.
B) Subjects were able to quickly distinguish when suspects were holding a cell phone
instead of a gun.
C) Only white subjects showed different responses based on the skin color of the
suspects.
D) Time of day was the major factor that impacted subjects' responses.

21. Attribution theory is most concerned with explaining the:

A) tendency of people to make inferences about the causes of behavior.
B) tendency people have to make stereotypic statements about minority group
members.
C) tendency people have to derogate themselves.
D) tendency people have to look for situational explanations for the behavior of
others.

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22. According to the ultimate attribution error, if subjects thought a harm-doer was black,
they would be more likely to attribute his action to ________.When they thought he was
white, they would be more willing to attribute his action to ________.
A) his personality; the situation
B) the situation; his personality
C) the minority; the majority
D) the majority; the minority

23. Frank has started working in an office recently where Mary has worked for several
years. Mary is prejudiced against Jewish people, and Frank just happens to be Jewish.
While eating her lunch at work one day, Mary noticed that Frank had saved his lunch
bag after eating—rather than throwing it in the trash. “How cheap can you get?” Mary
thinks. “Those Jews won't spend a nickel if they don't have to!” What Mary doesn't
know is that Frank is an avid environmentalist who tries to recycle as many resources as
he can. Mary's comment is an example of:
A) scapegoating.
B) the psychology of inevitability.
C) the ultimate attribution error.
D) the self-fulfilling prophecy.

24. The “ultimate attribution error” has been defined by Pettigrew as:
A) the tendency to attribute one's own failures to the situation.
B) the tendency for people to make attributions that are consistent with their beliefs or
prejudices about others.
C) the tendency to make situational attributions about another's behavior.
D) the tendency to attribute another's behavior to both situational and dispositional
factors.

25. According to Jacobs and Eccles, what is the best way for mothers to encourage their
daughters to develop strong math skills?
A) to hold stereotypic beliefs and to communicate them to their daughters
B) to actively avoid gender stereotypes so that they are not transmitted to their
daughters
C) to become very good at math themselves and lead by example
D) to encourage their daughters to seek out their father for help on math homework

Page 6
26. Mary believes that she got her job as a lawyer because she has the potential to be a great
lawyer. Her sister, Patty, believes she got her lawyer's job because her firm “needed to
hire a woman.” Suppose both women come up against a very difficult case. Which
result would you be more likely to expect, based on research conducted by Turner and
Pratkanis?
A) Mary would work more hours, but be more likely to lose.
B) Patty would work more hours, but be more likely to lose.
C) Patty would be more likely to give up.
D) Mary would be more likely to give up.

27. Research on the self-fulfilling prophecy conducted by Mark Snyder and his colleagues
has revealed that:
A) women are more likely than men to be influenced by others' beliefs about them.
B) introverts are less likely than extroverts to test their hypotheses about other people.
C) the nature of the question that a person is asked can play a part in determining their
response.
D) when people are offered large rewards for being correct, they are less likely to use
a biased strategy in testing their hypotheses about others.

28. What did Steele and Aronson mean by their term, stereotype threat?
A) The stereotype of a group would be accepted by all people in society.
B) The minority group would act out more on the stereotypes about violence and
display more violence in society, which would threaten many people.
C) Society would devote more police resources to stop any minority threat to society.
D) The individuals who are a minority come to believe the cultural stereotypes and
they do not perform as well in society.

29. Steele and Aronson administered the verbal portion of the GRE to black and white
students, telling them either that the test was measuring their intellectual ability or that it
had nothing to do with their intellectual ability. The results of this study revealed that:
A) in general, students performed better when they thought the test was important,
regardless of race.
B) in general, students performed better when they thought the test was not important,
regardless of race.
C) black students did better than white, when they thought the test was important, but
worse when they thought it was not important.
D) white students performed equally well in both situations, but black students were
highly affected by the way the test was described.

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30. When a person has multiple “social identities,” including more than one “minority”
identity, how will these different identities impact behaviors?
A) Multiple minority identities will have an additive effect and cause more decrease in
abilities.
B) Having multiple minority identities strengthens an individual and increases
abilities.
C) Having multiple minority identities has no salient impact on behavior, because
everyone is a minority in some way.
D) The effect of multiple minority identities depends on the situation one is in when
they must perform.

31. Which of the following is a good example of blaming the victim?

A) People blaming a lower class person for being poor because they feel he is lazy,
stupid, and does not want to work.
B) People realizing that sometimes lower class people are poor because society has
not provided opportunities for good paying jobs.
C) After a person breaks his leg in a fall down the steps, people might say that the
steps were too steep.
D) A person is robbed at gunpoint, and people feel that this person is a victim of
society, which needs more gun control laws.

32. In the Lerner experiment, in which subjects observed the experimenter flipping a coin to
decide which of two people would be rewarded for his work, it was later found that:
A) the nonrewarded person was seen as having engaged in the task for its own sake
(dissonance effect).
B) the nonrewarded person was seen as having worked less on the task (blaming the
victim).
C) the nonrewarded person was liked better than the rewarded one (compensation
effect).
D) the rewarded person came to believe that he had worked harder on the task
(self-fulfilling prophecy).

33. Believing that the world is a “just place” tends to:

A) create a more just world by inducing the person to treat others as responsible for
their own outcomes.
B) create a more just world by reducing prejudiced beliefs and attitudes.
C) create a less just world by leading the person to derogate those who have received
bad outcomes through no fault of their own.
D) create a more just world by committing the person to the belief that it is.

Page 8
34. Jorge states, “I always knew that that white guy Johnson was a sneak. I'm not at all
surprised that they finally caught him stealing money out of the cash drawer.” Jorge's
statement is best thought of as an example of:
A) an authoritarian personality.
B) hindsight bias.
C) the psychology of inevitability.
D) mutual interdependence.

35. How did America see the Chinese during the 19th century?
A) The Chinese were defined mostly in negative stereotypes and only in positive terms
when it came to their food in restaurants.
B) The Chinese were defined in negative stereotypes during economic hard times and
in very positive terms when their labor was needed for building the railroad.
C) When the Chinese first arrived in this country they worked very hard and other
people recognized their excellent work habits. By the late 19th century it led to
greater advances in industry and trade and became known as the model minority.
D) During the gold rush days there was little prejudice against the Chinese because it
was each man for himself.

36. The subject in Sherif 's study of two groups, the “Eagles” and the “Rattlers” were:
A) college students who volunteered to participate for extra credit.
B) normal 11–12 year old Boy Scouts.
C) male college students.
D) men age 24–27 from various occupations who volunteered to participate for
money.

37. After Muzafer Sherif and his associates had arbitrarily divided boys in a summer camp
into two groups, they found that intergroup hostility could be created by providing
________ and reduced by providing ________.
A) competitive activities; cooperative activities
B) more intergroup contact; less intergroup contact
C) negative stereotypes; positive stereotypes
D) oversufficient rewards; insufficient rewards

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38. Where did the word scapegoat come from?
A) It came from the Medieval times when Jews were placed in ghettos and would
escape from their neighborhood.
B) Ancient Hebrews had a custom during atonement where the priest placed his hands
on the goat and recited the sins of the people. Then they allowed the goat to escape.
C) The term developed in the south during the slavery days when blacks would escape
from a plantation and yet still carry the burden of slavery with them.
D) The term developed in the 1960s as child abuse research discovered that parents
labeled one child and would abuse that child, who was the scapegoat for all the
family's problems.

39. Which of the following is probably NOT a major cause of prejudice as discussed by
Aronson?
A) personality needs, such as authoritarianism
B) economic or political competition
C) scapegoating—the displacement of aggression
D) one's racial background

40. The lynchings of blacks and pogroms against Jews occur when members of the in-group
allow or approve such activities. Aronson refers to these historical atrocities as extreme
forms of:
A) the authoritarian personality.
B) the ultimate attribution error.
C) scapegoating.
D) the self-fulfilling prophecy.

41. Suppose you asked students to write stories about black and white characters. Some
students were prejudiced against blacks; others were not. Some students were frustrated
just before they wrote the stories and others were not. Generalizing from a similar
experiment, you would guess that the group that would write most negatively about
blacks in their stories were:
A) prejudiced, frustrated students.
B) non-prejudiced, frustrated students.
C) prejudiced, non-frustrated students.
D) non-prejudiced, non-frustrated students.

42. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic typical of an “authoritarian personality”?

A) conventional values
B) low respect for authority
C) intolerant of weaknesses
D) rigidity of beliefs

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43. Which of the following is NOT characteristic of people to whom Adorno and his
colleagues refer as the “authoritarian personality”?
A) They tend to be rigid and set in their beliefs.
B) In general, they tend to be intolerant of weakness.
C) They tend to possess conventional values and standards.
D) They tend to be authority figures.

44. An “authoritarian personality” is closely linked to which of the following dimensions?

A) mutual interdependence
B) the matching hypothesis
C) the self-fulfilling prophecy
D) prejudice

45. One aspect of the study on the authoritarian personality that should make us cautious is
that the authoritarian personality:
A) is based upon correlational research.
B) is most prevalent in the southern region of the United States.
C) is supported by the genetic research.
D) can be more simply explained by identification with parental attitudes.
E) is based upon correlational research and can be more simply explained by
identification with parental attitudes.

46. A more parsimonious social psychological explanation of the relationship between

prejudice and the authoritarian personality is that prejudice comes from:
A) unconscious hostility to and repressed fear of his/her parents.
B) identification with parental attitudes that are prejudice.
C) genetic similarity.
D) a fear of communist and socialist policies.

47. Joe was brought up in a household in which both of his parents worked outside the
home, and both they and the children shared responsibilities for housework. When Joe
left home and went to college, he joined a fraternity and became friends with some
members who held rather sexist attitudes towards women's roles. When Joe came home
for the summer, his parents were surprised to find that Joe expected his mother to do his
laundry and pick up after him. Joe's new attitudes were most likely a function of:
A) scapegoating.
B) his authoritarian personality.
C) the psychology of inevitability.
D) conformity processes.

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48. Studies on conformity and prejudice have shown that:
A) individuals who move into areas in which the norm is more prejudiced show
dramatic increases in their levels of prejudice.
B) individuals who are least likely to conform to a wide variety of social norms
usually show a higher degree of prejudice in environments that are highly
prejudiced.
C) individuals with nonconformist personalities tend to become less prejudiced when
they move into areas that are high in prejudice.
D) conformity to general norms and specific prejudices such as racism are not related.

49. In a study, research participants overheard others use an African-American racial slur
(Kirkland et al.). and when compared to research participants who had not heard the
slur, they:
A) punished more severely the white client of a black lawyer.
B) were more empathetic towards the white client of a black lawyer.
C) evaluated the black lawyer's performance more positively.
D) were more likely to give the black lawyer equal status with the white lawyer.

50. According to research cited in The Social Animal, whites in South Africa falsely
believed that blacks committed the vast majority of the crimes because of:
A) greater media exposure of violent crimes being committed by blacks against
whites.
B) the small numbers of blacks on the police forces.
C) the institutionalized social norm forbid white convicts from working in public.
D) poverty that most blacks experienced in South Africa.

51. According to The Social Animal, when important issues are involved, information
campaigns:
A) have been successful in changing prejudiced attitudes when given adequate media
coverage.
B) are not effective ways of undoing and changing prejudicial behavior.
C) are effective in eliminating distortions and deep-seated prejudiced attitudes when
individuals are forced to listen to the information.
D) are ineffective in changing prejudiced attitudes unless both sides of the issue are
presented.

52. Aronson's argument that “stateways change folkways” is based primarily on:
A) reactance theory.
B) the “just world” hypothesis.
C) conformity pressures.
D) the theory of cognitive dissonance.

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53. When it comes to changing deeply rooted attitudes and behavior, such as prejudice, the
most effective strategy is to:
A) place people in a situation in which they must change their behavior, then changes
in attitudes will follow.
B) give people lots of vivid and personal information that contradicts their attitudes,
then changes in behavior will follow.
C) offer people rewards and praise for changing their behavior, then changes in
attitudes will follow.
D) have a highly attractive and credible speaker present arguments that contradict the
person's attitudes, then changes in behavior will follow.

54. According to the “psychology of inevitability,” if an individual anticipates close contact

with a group against which he or she is prejudiced:
A) that individual will change his or her prejudiced attitude so that it becomes more
favorable toward the group.
B) it will tend to increase that individual's prejudice toward the group.
C) there will be no change in the individual's attitude because he or she is being forced
into the situation.
D) that individual will pretend to be less prejudiced toward the group, but the real
prejudice will not change.

55. Aronson argues that the most effective way to reduce prejudice is to:
A) allow people to choose whether or not they will desegregate so that cognitive
dissonance causes them to change their attitudes.
B) use information campaigns to change people's attitudes.
C) require people to desegregate with no options of going back to segregation.
D) try to keep prejudiced groups apart as much as possible to reduce frustration and
competition.

56. In their investigations of the early years of school desegregation, Pettigrew and other
researchers found that violence tended to result when:
A) people were not given a choice about whether desegregation would occur.
B) desegregation took place in the South, rather than the North.
C) desegregation policies were implemented in a hesitant, gradual, or inconsistent
manner.
D) no efforts were made to reduce prejudice prior to desegregation.

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57. In general, early efforts to desegregate the schools resulted in:
A) an increase in the self-esteem of minority children, but a surprising decrease in the
self-esteem of nonminority children.
B) an unanticipated decrease in the self-esteem of minority children.
C) reduced prejudice among minority children, but not among nonminority children.
D) better academic performance among nonminority children.

58. How did Muzafer Sherif reduce the tension at the camp between the Eagles and
Rattlers?
A) After all the competition between the boys had been created, the head counselor
had to sit the boys down and tell them that it was an experiment. The little speech
saved the day.
B) They had a big campfire and all the boys had a good time.
C) They deliberately broke the water supply system, so it took all the boys in both
groups working together to fix it.
D) The situation got out of hand. The parents had to come and get the boys sooner
than was expected.

59. Mutual interdependence refers to a situation in which:

A) you depend on someone else to help you accomplish your goals.
B) individuals need, and are needed by, one another to accomplish their goals.
C) individuals allow each other the freedom to accomplish their own independent
goals.
D) individuals compete in a friendly way to accomplish a goal that each person values
highly.

60. Suppose you know a black person who feels that he is the victim of sexual
discrimination and prejudice. According to experimental data, which of the following
strategies will be effective in reducing this prejudice?
A) competing more aggressively with whites for economic and political power
B) creating counter-stereotypes aimed at the prejudiced group, such as “whitey”
C) drawing together with other blacks into highly cohesive groups which do not
include whites
D) working interdependently with white people in situations which allow both an
equal status

Page 14
61. Suppose you were a woman who felt she was the victim of sexual discrimination and
prejudice. According to experimental data, which of the following strategies will be
effective in reducing this prejudice?
A) working interdependently with men in situations which allow you both an equal
status
B) drawing together into highly cohesive groups which do not include men
C) assigning women leadership roles to demonstrate they can perform as well as, or
better than, men
D) changing people's attitudes by pointing out the injustice of prejudice against
women

62. According to The Social Animal, the jigsaw technique was successful in overcoming
hostility in the classroom because:
A) it appealed to natural altruistic tendencies in children before they outgrew them.
B) it capitalized on children's self-interest to do well in school.
C) teachers allowed students to choose the members of their group.
D) collaboration reduces the amount of time students need to spend with one another.

63. The major feature of jigsaw groups that Aronson believes accounts for their success in
reducing the negative effects of prejudice is:
A) lack of competition among children.
B) the necessity of depending on all group members for vital information.
C) the forbidding of any teasing or abuse of minority children.
D) the breaking down of a large, formal classroom into small, informal groups so the
children get a chance to know each other.

64. According to Aronson, which of the following is a result of a jigsaw classroom?

A) Anglo children experienced a reduction in self-esteem.
B) Anglo children learned less than in a traditional classroom.
C) minority children experienced a reduction in self-esteem.
D) minority children performed better than in a traditional classroom.

65. Recent research has shown that children who cooperate with each other in
interdependent classroom situations:
A) like each other less.
B) show decreases in their self-esteem.
C) enjoy school less.
D) develop more empathy.

Page 15
Answer Key
1. D
2. B
3. A
4. C
5. B
6. C
7. D
8. A
9. B
10. C
11. B
12. E
13. A
14. A
15. C
16. C
17. B
18. C
19. A
20. A
21. A
22. A
23. C
24. B
25. B
26. C
27. C
28. D
29. D
30. D
31. A
32. B
33. C
34. B
35. B
36. B
37. A
38. B
39. D
40. C
41. A
42. B
43. D
44. D

Page 16
45. E
46. B
47. D
48. A
49. A
50. C
51. B
52. D
53. A
54. A
55. C
56. C
57. B
58. C
59. B
60. D
61. A
62. B
63. B
64. D
65. D

Page 17
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
SPEECHES AND PAPERS ON THE
ABOLITION OF PATENTS.
 The following petition, which Mr. Macfie had the honour to present,
contains the motion which gave occasion for the speeches that form
the principal part of this compilation:—

To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of

Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The Petition of the Newcastle and Gateshead Chamber
of Commerce
Humbly sheweth,—
That your petitioners have had many opportunities of
becoming acquainted with the working of the laws under
which Patent-rights are granted to inventors in the United
Kingdom.
That your petitioners are informed that notice has been
given in your honourable House of a motion in the following
words:—

“That in the opinion of this House the time has arrived

when the interests of trade and commerce, and the
progress of the arts and sciences in this country, would
be promoted by the abolition of Patents for inventions.”

That your petitioners, believing the proposed total abolition

of Patent-Laws will be of great benefit to the country, are most
desirous that the above-named resolution should be adopted
by your honourable House.
Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that the said motion
may pass your honourable House.
And your petitioners will ever pray, &c.
 NOTES OF SPEECH OF MR. MACFIE,
M.P.
Mr. Macfie, after apologies founded partly on the circumstance
that, so far as he knew, this was the first occasion when the policy of
granting Patents for Inventions had been discussed in Parliament,
proceeded to say, that manufacturers could not be indifferent to
improvements. It is indeed significant that they do dislike Patents,
while they appreciate and honour inventors, even those inventors
who claim from the State exclusive privileges, some of whom have
the glory of being among the greatest benefactors of mankind.
In considering the important subject which he now brought
forward, he submitted that it is not the interest of inventors, nor even
the interest of manufacturers, of agriculturists, of miners, nor of
shipping, that this House should consult, but those of the nation. The
question to be considered is, do Patents, on the whole, promote our
national welfare?
Another principle on which he proceeded is, that there can be no
property in ideas. The Creator has so constituted nature that ideas
can be held in common, which is not the case with things material.
Letters Patent for inventions have been instituted in order to confirm
to certain persons, and deprive every other person of, the common,
natural right to act on the ideas or knowledge there patented. These
exclusive privileges, while they last, are, of course, property.
Further: It is a recognised principle, that the State is not bound to
grant Patents. These are grants dictated by royal favour. In the
words of Stephens’ Commentaries: “The grant of a Patent-right is not
ex debito justitiæ, but an act of royal favour.” Every Patent is a
voluntary transference by the State to an individual of power for
fourteen years to tax at pleasure other persons for making or doing
the thing patented; aye, if he likes, to prohibit or withhold the thing
altogether.
Patent-right must not be confounded with Copyright. The latter
stands on perfectly different grounds, and can be advocated and
upheld, as he (Mr. Macfie) himself does, in perfect consistency with
disfavour for the former. There can be no rival claimant to the
authorship of any particular book; many persons may honestly and
indisputably claim originality in an invention. The true similarity
between these two subjects of privilege is not between the book and
the invention or machine, but the book and the specification of the
invention. When you buy a Murray’s handbook, a book on medicine,
or a commercial guide, you are at liberty to act on information you
find in it, and to travel, trade, or prescribe, according to the directions
you find there. But mark the contrast in what Patent-Law creates.
When you buy a specification, you know it tells only of certain things
that you are not at liberty to do.
Lastly: I acknowledge that it is legitimate to legislate with a view to
promote or protect trade. The interference, however, which is now
wanted is not a return to the old protective system of discriminative
duties, but the clearing away of evil laws, and especially deliverance
from the bondage and wrongs involved in Patent monopolies.
For the origin of our definite Patent legislation we go back to the
famous statute of James I. of England. At that time the people of this
kingdom were in a state somewhat resembling our present state.
They were desirous to extend trade and introduce new arts and
manufactures. Parliament was powerful and hated monopolies,
under which the people had been writhing. These it reprobated in the
spirit of the jurists of antiquity. While by that statute it swept away all
other monopolies, it permitted, or tolerated, that the Crown should
grant the exceptional privilege for “the sole working or making of any
manner of new manufactures within this realm, to the true and first
inventor and inventors of such manufactures, which others at the
time of making such Letters Patent and grants shall not use, so as
also they be not contrary to the law nor mischievous to the State, by
raising prices of commodities at home or hurt of trade or generally
inconvenient.”
 The House will keep steadily in view the wholly different condition
of commerce and the arts at that time. When these monopolies were
spared, trade was very far from being developed. The field of
commerce was still in a great measure clear and unoccupied. The
kingdom was, commercially as well as geographically, detached from
the continent. The operations of trade and the arts were slow, were
conducted on a small scale and on rude systems, and yielded large
profits. Exports to foreign parts were inconsiderable. There were no
periodicals to give information as to anything new in the arts and
sciences. Under such circumstances, if new kinds of business were
to be established, it was not unreasonably thought safe, or even
needful, to allure by promise of exclusive privileges. The very
reverse are our present circumstances and condition.
May I be allowed now to call particular attention to the Act.
Anybody may see that it authorised exclusive privileges as
something exceptional, something almost loathed, as “monopolies.”
The House may remember how, in conformity with this view, Patents
used to be construed by the judicial bench with a leaning against
them. It was clearly not contemplated that they were, as they are
now, to be had at a comparatively easy price, by a very simple
course of procedure organised to hand, at an office established and
with machinery ready to be set in motion for the purpose. A rigid
testing examination, or severe, perhaps somewhat adverse, scrutiny
was implied. They were granted for England only, then containing a
small population, and requiring not very much for its supply of any
new article. Moreover, the coveted privilege was a concession of no
more than leave or right to “work” or “make” (not vend), and that
within the kingdom, which, although it is the only thing the Act allows
Patents to be granted for, is not required now-a-days. The right was
conferrible only on the patentee himself; whereas now-a-days, and
perhaps from the first, the usage is altogether different; for the
patentee is now allowed to transfer his right, by licence, to others:
that is, to vend his “invention,” taking the noun, not in its sense of a
thing made, but of a method, or idea, or right to make or do a thing.
Without this licensing, it is of consequence to remember, the
monopoly would be too grossly and glaringly bad to be defensible or
maintainable. There is another contrast: by the words of the statute
nobody could be patentee but only the true and first inventor.
Besides, the subject of a Patent clearly was to be something
palpable and visible—something that admitted not of doubt as to
what it was or as to its being novel—something respecting which
there could be no fear whatever that it would interfere with any
already existing trade. Above all, a process or operation, especially
in a trade that already existed, does not appear to be contemplated
by the statute. How entirely and sadly different is the present
practice in this respect. Let me first quote from Brande’s Dictionary
the opening definition that shows how naturally, and as it seems,
unconsciously, writers speak of “processes,” as the great or only
subject-matter:—

“The word Patent is commonly used to denote a privilege

accorded to an inventor for the sole use of some process by
which an object in demand may be supplied to the public; or
some product already familiar to the public may be made
more easily and efficiently.”

So the commencement of a Paper on Patents, in the last volume

of the Proceedings of the Association for the Promotion of Social
Science—in the following words, “The point asserted in the following
paper is, that in a grant of Letters Patent, the subject of the grant is a
‘process,’ and not ‘product’”—shows as decisively the complete
change that has taken place, and, let us not forget it, without consent
of Parliament, who indeed have never been consulted. The alteration
of the practice, which is nothing less than a new law—a law
diametrically opposed to the spirit of the statute—is the work of the
courts of judicature. Better principles might have been expected to
prevail, for how just is the following reflection, taken from the most
important “Treatise on the Law of Patents:”—

“Every member of the community receives many benefits

from the society in which he lives, and he is therefore bound,
by every means in his power, to advance its interests. And it
seems to be but reasonable that he should be expected to
 promote the public weal by putting the community in
possession of any discovery he makes which may be for the
public good.”

The observations I have been making are founded on the words of

the statute. It is possible, and perhaps I may say probable, that
outside of the statute there was an influence drawing in an opposite
direction, which found expression in the Letters Patent. If these were
scrutinised, it is not unlikely even the earliest would be found not to
contain the strict conditions and limitations which are laid down in the
Act. An incidental proof of this tendency I notice in one Patent which
has met my eye, where, though the duration of the Patent in England
was confined within the permitted period of fourteen years, the
duration in Ireland, which was not subject to the limitation, was in
same grant made so long as between thirty and forty years. I do not
find, in the excellent Chronological Index issued by Mr. Woodcraft on
behalf of the Patent-office, anything at all to indicate that desire to
favour trade was the motive for granting Patents even after the
statute was passed. On the contrary, a money consideration seems
to have been customary. The Crown stipulated for yearly payments
of various amount, some of these being fixed sums, others a tenth,
or three-tenths, or a quarter, or a half, of the clear benefit. In one
case 4d. per bushel of salt was claimed. In another case 6d. per
100lbs. of bones was stipulated for. In another I find 5s. per ton of
metal stipulated. All this is suggestive, but not less the condition,
introduced occasionally, that the articles manufactured should be
sold at moderate rates. The moderate rates appear to have been
sometimes defined, e.g., 100 seals of a new kind were to be sold for
1d. Similar and more stringent care was taken when Copyright first
became the subject of systematic legislation, to prevent the
monopoly from making books dear. All such precautions have, in our
modern unwisdom, disappeared. Grotius requires under monopoly a
restriction on price.
One thing, I presume, may be regarded as certain, that neither in
the Act nor in the Letters is there any vestige of the modern political
heresy that an invention may be legislated for as in any sense
property. Even the high-sounding phrase, “the rights of inventors,”
appears a recent introduction.
It is not forty years since the greatest number of persons allowed
to participate in a Patent was five. This limitation was a lingering
remain of the traditional character of Patents, as monopolies which
ought not to be provided with facilities for extension but rather be
confined within the narrowest bounds.
It is proper I should now prove from that and other authorities in
law, what is the correct interpretation of the word “manufactures” in
the statute, on whose meaning so much depends. My quotations will
exhibit progressive development—a thing justly viewed with
suspicion, whether its sphere be the ecclesiastical or the legal. What
I now bring under notice, taken in connexion with the startling
perversion of the words “first and true inventor” and the setting at
nought the letter and spirit of the words “to make within this realm,”
matches the whimsical and ruinous sophistications we smile at in the
“Tale of a Tub.”
My first appeal is to Sir E. Coke’s “Institutes:”—

“If the substance was in being before, and a new addition

made thereunto, though that addition made the former more
profitable, yet it is not a new manufacture in law.”

That by a manufacture was meant something so definite as to

involve or imply an art in the sense of a trade, will be seen by
another quotation which I make from Serjeant Hawkins, who says
—“the King may grant the sole use of an art invented or first brought
into the realm.” So also in “Bacon’s Abridgment.” The Court of King’s
Bench held—

“A grant of the sole use of a new invented art is good....

This is tied up by the statute to the term of fourteen years; for
after that time it is presumed to be a known trade.”

Mr. Hindmarch writes—

 “It was long doubted whether a mode, method, or process
of itself, and apart from its produce or results, could legally be
made the subject of a Patent privilege.”

After citing cases, he adds—

“These cases show clearly that a process of manufacturing,

separate and apart, may be made the subject of a Patent
privilege.”

Mr. Coryton, in his volume on “The Law of Letters Patent,”

expresses his mind thus plainly:—

“On the assumption that a Patent confers a monopoly, it

follows directly that the subject-matter of the Patent must be a
material thing, capable of sale,[2] and cannot be either an
improvement, principle, method, process, or system. In other
words, the subject-matter must be, as it was originally
defined, a ‘new manufacture.’ A thousand evils have arisen
from affixing other than the literal interpretation to the terms,”
&c.

He quotes Justice Heath, who said—

“That which is the subject of a Patent ought to be vendible;

otherwise it cannot be a new manufacture.”

So Tyndal—

“That it is a manufacture can admit of no doubt: it is a

vendible article, produced by the art and hand of man.”

Mark from the words of Justice Buller, on the same occasion, the
sentiment which was permitted to prevail and neutralise the statute:
—

“Few men possess greater ingenuity, or have greater merit.

If their (Boulton and Watt’s) Patent can be sustained in point
of law, no man ought to envy them the profit and advantages
arising from it. Even if it cannot be supported, no man ought
to envy them the profit,” &c.

We come to C. J. Eyre:—

“According to the letter of the statute, the words ... fall very
short ... but most certainly the exposition of the statute, so far
as usage will expound it, has gone very much beyond the
letter. ‘A deliberate surrender,’ comments Mr. Coryton, ‘of
judicial power in favour of an accumulation of popular
errors.’... Later judges, following in the same course, have
striven rather to regulate the inconsistencies they found, than
to address themselves to the cause and thus prevent the
possibility of their recurrence. Writers on this subject have on
this head followed in the course indicated by the Bench.”

A practical commentary, and a confirmation of Mr. Coryton’s views,

are furnished by the fact that the number of Patents granted in the
six reigns preceding that of Geo. III. was only 540 in 85 years, or
less than 6½ a-year; whereas now a greater number is granted daily.
The actual administration of Patents is exhibited to us by a Return
which the House has been good enough to order on my motion. That
return shows how the rate of multiplication has increased, especially
in Scotland and Ireland.
There have been granted for—

In England
England. Scotland. Ireland. for the
Colonies.
In 1650—None.
 1700 2
1750 7
1800 96 13 2 6
1825 250 62 33 87
1850 523 227 531 191
1866 2,121 2,121 2,121 none
1867 2,292 2,292 2,292 none

There were in operation in the United Kingdom at the end of last

year no fewer than 11,369.
The House is aware that the Patent-office makes a classification of
Patents. The classification for 1866, the latest year that could be
given in the Return, shows that there are nearly 300 classes, and
there were Patents granted that year affecting those classes to the
number of more than thirty each on the average. Taking the
manufacture and refining of sugar as a test of other classes, the
Return shows that in that trade there were granted more than thirty
“affecting processes or operations” (without including hundreds of
others of a more general character, to which manufacturers of all
sorts are subjected, as, for instance, Patents for motive power,
heating, &c.). Many noteworthy matters will meet the eye of any
person who examines the Return, such as the following: For
medical, curative, and similar “revelations,” there were granted about
80; for improvements tending to safety, nearly 350; affecting food,
about 400; affecting steam-boilers, about 160; steam-engines, about
120.
But we have yet to consider the most material points in the Act. To
these I now call attention. The conditions or limitations which the
statute makes necessary are extremely significant. They are in these
words—“Not contrary to the law nor mischievous to the State, by
raising prices of commodities at home or hurt of trade or generally
inconvenient.”
On these words Sir Edward Coke remarks—

“There must be urgens necessitas and evidens utilitas.”

 What might be understood by being “generally inconvenient” in the
statute, and how little disposition there was to render that
disqualification a dead letter, we may gather from the following
extract, which shows that saving of labour was in those early days,
so far from being a recommendation, an inconvenience. Hear the
same authority:—

“There was a new invention found out that bonnets and

caps might be thickened in a fulling mill, by which means
more might be done than by the labours of fourscore men
who got their living by it. It was ordained by an Act, 7 Edward
VI. c. 8, that bonnets and caps should be thickened and fulled
by the strength of men, and not by a fulling mill, for it was
holden inconvenient to turn so many labouring men to
idleness.”

On which passage Mr. Farey (a gentleman eminent on Patent

questions), who quotes it in an elaborate review of Patent-Law at the
end of the Blue Book of 1829, the Report of the Committee on
Patents for Inventions, makes the following remarks: “If this decision
had been followed, it would have set aside every Patent for
invention.” True, and the more’s the pity, perhaps! Let us hail the
admission.
Sir Edward explains, and I read, the whole passage that I have
cited, not as a lawyer might who wished to ascertain whether by
oversight in drawing the Act or by the malleability and elasticity of
language it could be interpreted even non-naturally to suit a purpose,
but as honest, blunt Englishmen would understand it, as the English
gentlemen who passed the Act must have understood it and meant
the Crown to understand it. I submit, Mr. Speaker, that at this
moment, and by this statute, and according to the common law
which this statute declares, Patents are illegal which raise prices or
hurt trade. The framing of the sentence leaves no doubt whatever
that the antecedent to the words “they be not contrary to the law nor
mischievous to the State, by raising prices of commodities at home
or hurt of trade,” are these words, “Letters Patent and grants of
privilege.” The preceding section contains the same words. That
section was introduced in order to shorten the duration of Patents
granted previously, and to nullify any that raised prices or hurt trade.
It is plain that the intention of Parliament and of the Sovereign was to
allow no monopoly to exist whose effect would be either to interfere
with the extent or efficiency of industrial occupations, or to make
prices, even of the new manufacture or commodity, dearer under the
restriction than they would be without it. Even so late as the last
century, the consistency of monopoly with cheapening of prices was
believed in. As an example, I have been told that when the
Paraphrases of the Church of Scotland were issued, the monopoly
was given to a particular printer, with this purpose expressly stated.
What language can be plainer than that of the statute? As that
statute is still the charter of our commercial freedom and the chart by
which we may discover the track we must follow in order to our
return to the open and safe, and as its sound limitations are still the
law of the land, I am entitled at the outset to contend that they ought
to be put in force. They have been utterly neglected, and the nation
suffers much from the neglect. As to this, hear my witnesses. I
produce them chiefly from the following Blue-books: That issued by
the Committee of this House which sat in 1829, that issued by the
Committee of the House of Lords which sat in 1851, and that issued
by the Royal Commission in 1865. Here remark the strange failures
of expectations that characterise the proceedings of Parliament in
regard to Patent-Law. The Committee of 1829 recommended that
they should be allowed to continue their investigations next Session,
but they appear not to have been allowed. After the inquiries of 1851
there was, as a Petition which I have perused, presented to this
House, shows, an understanding that the whole subject would be
inquired into; but this never has been done down to this day. A
Commission was indeed appointed in 1862, but they were confined
to the question of the “working” of the laws. Indications were given,
both before and after it, that the question of the policy of these laws
should be examined into. The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce
repeatedly urged this; e.g., in March, 1862, when that body
petitioned the House thus: “They therefore pray that your honourable
House will appoint a Select Committee to inquire into the policy and
operation of those laws.” But the matter is still in abeyance, and,
notwithstanding promises in a Royal Speech, legislative action is
suspended.
To proceed: Mr. Lennard in this House, in April, 1829, declared his
opinion—“It was not desirable to facilitate overmuch the obtaining of
Patents by any reduction of expense.”
So Sir Robert Peel, in the interest of the manufacturers of
Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire, deprecated cheapening of
Patents and their consequent multiplication. At that period another
member objected even to the publishing of specifications, because

“It enabled persons to carry the invention abroad, where, of

course, the Patent article was made, the foreign market shut
against the real invention, and the undue benefit granted
foreigners of having the free use of the invention fourteen
years before the patentee’s countrymen.”

The House will observe that the complaint here is not that we were
hurt in British markets—for these the protective system of duties
closed—but that we lost our hold of foreign markets.
Sir Mark Isambard Brunel, the eminent engineer, told the
Committee of 1829:—

“I have had several Patents myself; I think that Patents are

like lottery offices, where people run with great expectations,
and enter anything almost.
“And if they were very cheap, there would be still more
obstacles in the way of good ones. I think the expense of
Patents should be pretty high in this country, or else, if it is
low, you will have hundreds of Patents more yearly, and you
would obstruct very much the valuable pursuits.”

That Patents are, indeed, a lottery in respect to the uncertainty

whether the patentees draw a prize or a blank, I refer to the words of
Mr. Curtis before the Royal Commission:—

“We have taken out a number of Patents, and frequently

those to which we have attached the least importance have
become the most valuable, and, on the contrary, those from
which we have expected large things we have reaped
comparatively no advantage.”

Mr. Coryton says in a note:—

“The opinions of the witnesses examined before the

Committee of the House of Commons in 1829 were almost
unanimous to the effect that Patents should not be too cheap,
lest the country should be inundated with them.”

Among my private papers, I find in 1851 the Manchester Chamber

of Commerce expressing the same fear in a letter to Mr. F. Hill, a
portion of which I now present:—

“It is considered by this Board to be a primary axiom that

every Patent granted is, during its exclusiveness, a limitation
to a certain extent of the general rights of the people, and that
in those Patents which have reference to manufacturing
processes there may be a disturbance of the general industry
of the people. This Board would, therefore, deprecate a too
great facility in the obtaining of Patents. If the cost be made
cheap, every trifling improvement in every process of
manufacture would be secured by a Patent. In a few years no
man would be able to make such improvement in his
machinery, or processes, as his own experience may
suggest, without infringing upon some other person’s Patent.
Endless litigation would follow, and the spirit of invention in
small matters would be rather checked than encouraged.”
 The realisation of these fears, as well as the inconsistency of our
practice with the conditions which our forefathers, more wise than
the present generation, imposed, will be seen from the specimen
extracts which I will now read, begging that it be remembered a very
large reduction in the cost of Patents was made in 1852. The House
will pardon me if it finds these extracts are not arranged with any
rigid regard to order, but form a too rudis indigestaque moles.
The following prove that there is a natural tendency to excessive
multiplication of Patents, and to the making of the same inventions,
and of inventions directed to the same end, or moving on the same
line, by a number of persons at or about one and the same time.
This very week you read in the papers a judgment given by the
Lord Chancellor, which contains the declaration that a person in
specifying an invention may be held as preventing “the loss for a
year or more to the public of the fruits of the ingenuity of many minds
which commonly are working together in regard to the same
invention.”
The Journal of Jurisprudence says well:—

“The rights of the inventor are also liable to interference of

another kind. A rival manufacturer invents independently the
same machine, or one involving the same principle. He is
then, by natural law, at liberty to publish his invention without
regard to the rights of the first inventor, seeing that he did not
acquire his knowledge of its powers from the latter, and
experience proves that, in point of fact, the same processes
are frequently discovered by different individuals
independently of each other. In an age of mechanical
invention, an inventor cannot deprive the world of a new
process by keeping it a secret. He can at most only retard the
progress of discovery by a few years.... We submit that the
fundamental principle of any legislative contract between
inventors and the public should be, that the right of using the
invention should be open to all Her Majesty’s subjects.
Exclusive privileges, conferred for the purpose of enabling
 patentees to divide their profits with a few favoured
manufacturing establishments, are indefensible upon any
recognised principles of economy. Patents are in fact, as they
are in law considered to be, trading monopolies; and the
interests of the public imperatively require that, as
monopolies, they should be swept away.”

Mr. Webster, Q.C., a high authority, says:—

“I mean the discovery, for instance, of some chemical

property, or the application of some property, of matter of
recent discovery, or a certain effect, for instance, in dyeing;
that becoming known as a chemical law, then persons rush to
obtain Patents for different applications and different
modifications of it.”

See by my next quotations how great is the obstruction the

multiplication of Patents creates, or, in the words of the Act, the
“general inconvenience” they occasion.
Mr. James Meadows Rendel, Civil Engineer, in 1851:—

“During the twenty-five years that I have been in practice, I

have frequently felt the inconvenience of the present state of
the Patent-Law, particularly with reference to the excessive
number of Patents taken out for frivolous and unimportant
inventions, which I think are much more embarrassing than
the Patents that apply to really important inventions.
“I have found them interfere in a way that very much
embarrasses an engineer in carrying out large works, without
being of the slightest advantage to the inventors, excepting
that in some cases a man who takes out a Patent finds a
capitalist (however frivolous the invention) who will buy the
Patent, as a sort of patent-monger, who holds it, not for any
useful purpose, but as a means of making claims which
embarrass persons who are not prepared to dispute
 questions of that sort. I think that in that way many Patents
are granted which are but of little benefit to the real inventor,
serving only to fill the coffers of parties who only keep them to
inconvenience those who might have occasion to use the
particular invention in some adjunct way which was never
contemplated by the inventor.
“After you have designed something that is really useful in
engineering works, you are told that some part of that design
interferes with some Patent granted for an entirely different
purpose, and which might in itself be frivolous, but important
in the new combination; and one has such a horror of the
Patent-Laws, that one evades it by designing something else,
perhaps as good in itself, but giving one infinite trouble,
without any advantage to the holder of the Patent. I have
frequently found this to be the case.”

Mr. W. S. Hale, candle manufacturer, said in 1851, in answer to

the question—

“At present they are obstructions to you?—Decidedly.

“You say that, practically, you have found the existence of
Patents in themselves useless—a great obstruction to the
introduction of inventions which would otherwise have been of
value?—Certainly.
“The great objection which I conceive many parties have to
introduce real improvements arises from useless Patents. I
am in treaty now for one or two which in themselves are
useless, yet they contain the germ of something, and it is
worth my while, if I can get them for a small sum, to purchase
them; but directly you make application for a Patent of that
description, it becomes very valuable all at once; the party
conceives you are desirous of possessing yourself of it, and
that you will be inclined to give anything for the use of it.”
 In like manner Sir William Armstrong answered this question, put
in 1864—

“Is it within your knowledge that considerable

inconvenience does exist in those branches of business with
which you are most conversant from the multiplicity of
Patents?—Most certainly, and great obstruction.”

So also Mr. James Spence, of Liverpool, a well-known

correspondent of the Times during the American war, said—

“It is difficult for a manufacturer to move in any direction

without treading on the toes of some sort of a patentee.”

Likewise Mr. Montague E. Smith, Q.C., M.P., said:—

“In several cases in which I have myself been counsel, very

great inconvenience has arisen from the multiplicity of Patents
which an inventor has had to wade through to see that he has
not been anticipated.”

How truly did Sir W. Armstrong observe to the Commission—

“You cannot grant a monopoly without excluding other

persons who are working upon the same subject.”

Again:—

“Here the State grants to an individual a monopoly, and

therefore the public are at his mercy.”

Mr. J. S. Russell, who himself has taken out a good many Patents,
speaks more specifically:—
 “There are a great many Patents of that kind taken out for
boilers of steam-engines, and boilers of steam-engines admit
of a very enormous variety of shape and proportion without
damaging their efficiency.... The consequence is, that I have
not defended any of my own. I have never made of mine
more than a mere registry of priority of invention. I have not
made mine a source of money, but I have suffered in this way
from Patents: I have gone on, in the course of my business,
doing my ordinary work, and I have found other people taking
out Patents for what I was doing without calling it an
invention, and then prosecuting me under the Patent they had
taken out for my own inventions, and it appears that there is
nothing to prohibit them from doing that.”

This I can from experience endorse. He is then asked—

“If you were able to prove that you had been carrying on an
invention, whatever it might be, at the time when the person
claiming to hold a Patent for it took out his Patent, would not
that relieve you from all difficulty in the matter?—It would only
give me the pleasure of defending a law-suit.”

Mr. Curtis, engineer, Manchester, said:—

“Many parties in trade have made alterations without being

aware of their being patented, and when they have used them
for a length of time, they have found that the patentee has
come upon them and made a claim for Patent-right.”

Mr. Platt, of Oldham, whom you are happy to see as a member,

said:—

“I think that there is scarcely a week, certainly not a month,

that passes but what we have a notice of some kind or other
of things that we have never heard of in any way, and do not