I have thus, sir, at your request given you the facts and ideas which occur to me on the subject. I have done it without reserve, although I have not the pleasure of knowing you personally. In thus frankly committing myself to you, I trust you will feel it as a point of honour and candour to make no use of my letter, which might bring disquietude on myself;* and particularly I should be unwilling to be brought into any difference with Mr. Evans, whom, however, I believe too reasonable to take offence at an honest difference of opinion. I esteem him much, and sincerely wish him wealth and honour. I deem him a valuable citizen of uncommon ingenuity and usefulness; and had I not esteemed still more the establishment of sound principles, I should now have been silent. If any of the matter I have offered can promote that object, I have no objection to its being so used. If it offers nothing new, it will of course not be used at all. I have gone with some minuteness into the mathematical history of the elevator, because it belongs to a branch of science, in which, as I have before observed, it is not incumbent on lawyers to be learned; and it is possible, therefore, that some of the proofs I have quoted, may have escaped on their former argu ments. On the law of the subject I should not have touched, because more familiar to those who have already discussed it, but I wished to state my own view of it merely in justification of myself; my name and approbation being subscribed to the act. With these explanations accept the assurances of my respect. TH: JEFFERSON. I have looked into the Code Napoleon of the year 14, for the law of France relating to Brevets d'invention, and into the published speeches of orators on that code, but I cannot find any thing on the subject. Having now given all the information I am in possession of, as to the existing circumstances of patent rights, I shall offer my own suggestions on this difficult and interesting subject. And First, I would premise, that although I do not consider persons whose time is so exclusively dedicated to legal discussions as the gentlemen of the profession in England, and indeed in this country, as fully competent to decide all the questions that can * It is proper to observe, that though the author did not at the time writ ing this letter, contemplate its publication, yet his permission has since been obtained. arise upon patents; yet I would by no means exclude the lights to be derived from a court of law. I think the preceding summary of decisions will shew, that much good sense, in the decision, has been the result of much and patient reflection in considering the subject of patent rights in England. Nor can we well dispense with the accuracy and precision of a court of law. But in the case of Liardet and Johnson which I remember; in the case of Turner against Winter, reported; in the case of Oliver Evans at Baltimore; in the case of Livingston and Fulton against Van Ingen, before chancellor Lansing, notwithstanding the known abilities of the judges, a scientific man cannot but feel the want of scientific knowledge in the bench and the bar; and the narrow views taken of the subjects discussed. Yet more able men in their own profession, are not easily found. I can well remember being sent up by a committee of manufacturers from Manchester, to oppose a patent for bleaching with oxymuriatic acid founded upon Berthollet's process. The question was heard before Macdonald, master of the rolls at his chambers: Graham was employed by the applicant for the patent, who hearing the torrent of voluble but unintelligible declamation uttered by his counsel, quitted the room in disgust, and left the mas ter of the rolls to decide according to the best of his comprehension: who certainly did not understand one syllable of what was spoken, any more than the speaker. Hence, secondly, I would propose a board of scientific men, to whom should be submitted, in the first instance, all applications for patents. Should they reject the application, let the applicant nevertheless take out his patent at his own risk; but accompanied with the reasons of the board for rejecting it; which reasons should be evidence for the consideration of a court and jury, in case the claim should be contested; and double costs awarded in all cases of final judgment against the patentee of an application thus rejected. Thirdly, some provision should be made, to promulgate the patents taken out, at present, the specifications are as utterly unknown to the public at large, as if they had been filed only among the records of China. The office is useless: who but Dr. Thornton knows what it contains? And it is greatly to be doubted whether that gentleman, intelligent as he is, be much the wiser for the records of his office, for I do not know that it is his business to be so. At any rate, the public are not. Suppose, a volume every year, or oftener if need be, were published under the direction of the board, of the specifications and plates filed in the office--the sale would bear the expence: if not, raise the fees on issuing patents to cover the cost of publication. If this were done, the public might stand the chance of knowing a little of what is going forward in the patent office, and be somewhat the wiser for the discoveries of individuals: at present they know nothing; and patents are taken out by persons who may innocently infringe upon the discoveries of others. Fourthly. The exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the United States, gives rise to vexatious levies on the community. It is worth no man's while in the back country of any state, to resist a claim of 2 or 300 dollars, however unfounded, if he is to be dragged to the metropolis, court after court, to encounter an adversary, whose interest it is to render such a suit, by delays and removals, too expensive to be continued; and to bear down opposition, by the trouble and the cost attending upon it, The remedy is difficult to be suggested; but I should suppose, that it would sufficiently guard the patentee against vexatious contests, if after one decision in any court of a state in his favour on the point in contest, he should be entitled, on producing the record, to double costs in every other suit on the same point, tried in the same state, wherein final judgment should be passed in his favour. In all suits brought by the patentee, every person interested ought to be allowed to become joint defendant, on motion after notice. Such are my present opinions, which I throw out for public consideration. T. C. COOKERY. Cum labor extuderit fastidia, siccus, inanis, THE art of cookery, is or ought to be employed for the purpose of rendering human food, 1st, more digestible. 2dly, more palatable. 3dly, to extract the greatest quantity of nutriment from a given quantity of food. 4thly, to ascertain what articles of food best combine the qualities of cheapness, pleasantness, wholesomeness, nutrition, and easy cookery. Under this view of the subject I shall offer to your consideration, my good friend, in the first place, what occurs to me on the Economy of cookery, and the principles that belong to the Culina Pauperum, and perhaps we may strike out something that even the rich may not despise. Something like this has been done by the Pharmacopæia Pauperum* of the British medical school, which under the notion of killing or curing the poor at a trifling expence, has introduced many valuable remedies. The use of the cold bath so much more extensively than heretofore, the use of Fowler's ague drop, and the substitution of oak bark and gentian for the Jesuit's bark, are among the truly valuable improvements. You will say the poor do not read the Emporium: neither do they read Horace or Count Rumford: though I do almost think they would be almost as well employed in studying Rumford's essays on cookery, or Barlow's poem on hasty pudding, as Barlow's advice to the privileged orders, or his Conspiracy of Kings. But improvements in the condition of the poor, must be derived from knowledge communicated by those who are not poor. The poor have no time to think for themselves: unluckily the course of human affairs requires (less indeed in this country than elser * I do not know of any regular Pharmacopeia under that name; but there is such a system in practicę. where) that their time shall be occupied in the labour of the body so much, as almost to exclude the labour of the mind. But it may serve an useful purpose to consider the subject on principle. The distinctive characters of a poor man's kitchen and a rich man's kitchen are these: The aim of the poor man is to satisfy the cravings of hunger at the cheapest rate, at the least expence of food. The aim of the rich man is to indulge the cravings of the pa late, so that he may consume as much food pleasurably, as a due regard to health will permit. Hence the poor man should consult in the food he purchases, 1st, cheapness. 2dly, nutriment. 3dly, that kind of food that will most speedily satisfy hunger, and at the same time afford sufficient nutriment. For like reason, the rich man, would be led to purchase and prepare those articles, of which the greatest quantity can be con. sumed, consistently with health, previous to the appetite being satisfied: price, being a secondary consideration. Hence, the provision of the poor should be insipid, so that no more food be consumed than the cravings of hunger absolutely require; sapidity incites to the devouring of needless quantity: while the provisions of the rich man, should be sapid; and his kitchen and his table abound in condiments. Count Rumford, therefore, was considerate and humane, but on principle he was wrong, when he recommended hard-baked bread, cut in dices, to be mixed with the soup of the poor-and that it should be flavoured with herring to gratify the palate and prolong the repast. Upon strict principles of economy, there should be no temptation to indulgence beyond what nature absolutely requires. At times when indulgence may be invited, the question is changed: at such times the principles bear upon the cookery of the affluent. Let us then consider what is the kind of food, that, at the cheapest price, afford most nutriment: and first of vegetables. Wheat: rye barley: oats: Indian corn: buckwheat: potatoes: rice. I will suppose wheat, for instance at Carlisle, at 150 cents. Rye, 100. Barley, 125. Oats, 50. Indian corn, 75. Buckwheat, 75. Potatoes, 50. The wheat will weigh 60lbs. The rye and |