Page 80

80                  A Couple of Mistakes in Candlesticks. 
which, as a poor and prudent man, he would be justified in sinking for the
sake of a 
remote and contingent profit-the market is closed against him. Of course
nobody 
will buy his invention without knowing all about it; and yet, the moment
it ceases to 
be a secret, it ceases, if unprotected, to have a particle of negotiable
value. 
"We trust that Lord Brougham will reconsider this vital part of the
question 
before proceeding further with his measure. No Patent Law reform can be just
or 
satisfactory which does not-at least to the extent of granting a preliminary
or provi- 
sional registration at a nominal cost-enable the skilled and ingenious artisan
to 
carry his invention into the open market and sell it for what it is worth."
Lord Granville's Bill is, in many important respects, an improvement on 
Lord Brougham's. In the first place, it would appear that the total fees
for 
three years' rights are only to be 191., instead of 301. ; but far more valuable
is 
the recognition of the principle of a provisional registration for six months,
which is to cost only 21., and is applicable to the whole United Kingdom.
In 
this, as in Lord Brougham's Bill, it is not defined how the fees are to be
applied, and one of the clauses (No. 18) seems to point out that some unspeci-
fied fees are still to be paid to the Attorney and Solicitor-General. Minute
criticism at present is needless, as both Bills are referred to a select
committee 
in the House of Lords, where they will be discussed, and are likely to be
modi- 
fied. The Society of Arts Committee has had its due influence, and there
is 
no doubt that it now practically rests with inventors and manufacturers them-
selves to determine the extent of the remedies they desire to have. 
A COUPLE OF MISTAKES IN CANDLESTICKS. 
OF the many hundred designs we have at different times examined in which
a single figure does duty as Caryatid, we have scarcely ever seen one in
which 
the great difficulties such a treat- 
ment entails have been success- 
fully met and overcome. Some- 
times the    figure  has  to  be 
grasped; sometimes a Hercules 
carries, with infinite muscular 
exertion, a load at the weight of 
which a school-boy would laugh; 
and sometimes a delicate female 
carries on her devoted head quite 
enough to break the back of a 
Samson. To the last of these 
anomalous classes the specimen 
in question belongs, and neither 
the grace of the figure, nor the 
light and pretty treatment of the 
cornucopia she is supporting, 
can reconcile us to the discre- 
pancy between her proportions 
and those of the burden she is 
doomed to bear in perpetuo. The 
basket at the top is extremely 
elegant, and the execution of the 
whole tasteful and pretty. The 
base is a decided failure, being 
not only too heavy in mass for 
the rest of the design, but com- 
pounded of uncomfortable con- 
ventional shell-work, and directly 
imitative foliage. A little piercing 
would have rendered it much 
more pleasing.