to them were not overlooked by the framers of the act, but it was not deemed necessary to enter on the difficulties and incur the responsibility of making any novel arrangement on this head. The procedure, however, was made obvious and easy, by providing forms of information and conviction, and the option of proceeding in the higher courts is retained. A provision was introduced to amend an erroneous registration, which, under the prior law, was fatal to the real owner's right. The enactment against the fraudulent use of the word registered, was perhaps suggested by an (abortive) attempt at a similar regulation as to patents. The time for proceedings was extended from six to twelve months; and, to meet the anticipations of vexatious litigation, the thirteenth clause was inserted at the third reading of the bill, giving costs to a successful defendant. The extension of the act to sellers as well as makers of a piratical article was much contested (some difficulty occurred in Sheriff's case as to the seller, probably as to proof of his knowledge); without this, however, the act would have been in all probability so easily evasible as to be worthless. To meet the objections to the cost and trouble of registering, the fees were expressly restricted in amount as to calico, paper-hangings and some other articles, and the number of copies altered from three to two.

The drawing of the act was much criticised in M'Crea's case; it has however been in operation to the present time, and is generally adopted and acquiesced in by the more important classes of manufacturers; the few cases of infringement have generally been sustained, and thus a check given to the dishonest and unscrupulous portion of the members of a trade. Shortly afterwards, the calico printers who supported the measure presented Mr. Tennent with 3000 ounces of plate, in acknowledgment of his services in obtaining the law; and at the dinner, Mr. Tennent said, to show how the more extended period made the right worth claiming, that during three years previous to the bill, the number of registered designs of every class were but 1423, out of which fifty were for wool, shawls, silk and

paper, while in rather less than half a year after the act, the numbers were of all classes 2934; of shawls, &c. 425; and of cotton articles 2356.

On one point difficulty arose, viz. the incessant attempts on the part of inventors of utilities to squeeze in along with their more fortunate brethren the inventors of ornament. Patents were, from their expense, in a multitude of cases quite out of the question. A registration, though evidently an unsound title, might give, in the eyes of the public, a certain protection, and if it failed, there was but three pounds lost. The abuse had begun under the old act; of three police cases under it, one at least was a matter of utility. The registrar refused to register some designs, and issued warnings to inventors; but the evil continued, and next year the practice was only stopped by providing a substitute. The want of such a copyright was obvious, and equally so that a revenue was to be made of it. The new act, 1843, was the first recognition of copyright in useful form; it was modelled on its predecessor; the other is in many official documents called the ornamental act, this the non-ornamental. The opportunity was taken of revising the machinery of registration, &c. in both. Some differences occur in the marking and in the mode of registration; labels and wrappers are excluded and ornamentals; there is no other description or limitation of the subjects of the act except that of immoral designs. (As this last proviso is not in the 2nd section of the act, ergo, logically, an immoral design is copyright but not registrable.) A subsequent stamp act added £5 to the cost of registration.

The act has on the whole worked well, and no doubt will, by its practical operation, supply its own best interpretation. Many of the police cases however have failed, especially with reference to the fastidiousness about mechanical action, &c. exhibited also by the repeated additions on this head to the registrar's instructions. Most of the patent agents have taken part against either the whole system, or a large portion of its application, and the collision with

unspecified patents has been dwelt upon.

A few pamphlets and articles in periodicals on these questions have been published, but no general treatise on the subject, with the exception of a little work by Mr. Brace (1842), who took an active part in carrying the ornamental act, and whose book is an exposition of the act, and an exultation at its success. The subjects registered under this class, though less numerous than might have been anticipated (the annual number falling much short of that of patents), are sufficiently various. All sorts of industrials make their appearance in the list: ploughs and beehives for the farmer; archimedean minnows for the sportsman; stoves and chimneys innumerable for the builder; tools, omnibusses and wheels, shirts, coats and buttons, umbrellas and umbrella dryers, artificial teeth and artificial leeches, lamps and coffeepots, stationery and mathematical instruments.

The continued complaints of patentees, and the importance of the property affected (the annual number of patents is about 500), have led to some amendment already, and it is probable that more will be effected both in them and registration, and in defining their respective provinces. And it is nnderstood that it is in contemplation at the Registration Office, by a new bill during the present session, to render the term of a registration extensible, at the will of the owner, to a period of ten years, subject, as in the analogous case of a patent, to the renewal of the expense, and substituting the control and discretion of the registrar for that of the privy council in patents. With reference to prints, it may be mentioned that, in 1842, when the last literary act was under discussion, it was proposed to include prints, giving them a term of sixty years. The right was to be to the first engraver, with consent of the designer or proprietor of the picture, supposing him not to be the engraver or employer of the engraver. The proprietor was to have no power to give a second license; and when there was no proprietor, as in case of a national gallery, &c. the right would be simply in the first engraver. At Sir Robert Peel's recommendation, however, engravings were omitted, partly

to make the remainder of the bill more manageable, and partly with a view to some comprehensive measure on art in general. With reference to the commercial value of this branch of copyright, a recent work estimated the number of printsellers in London at twenty, and their average amount of business at £16,000. Some questions of interest, relating not indeed to copyright, but to the anterior right to allow the creation of it, have occurred in the recent case of Prince Albert, the first case it seems in fine art analogous to those on MSS. in book property. The last law on the subject is the international act of 1844, which assimilates prints and sculpture to literary property, providing a registration for them, and requiring the deposit of a copy of a print. The registration fee is one shilling in each and every ease, which stands in strong contrast to the heavy and capricious fees of the designs acts. It is however as yet practically inoperative.