AN ACCOUNT of the DECLARED VALUE of BRITISH and IRISH PRODUCE and MANUFACTURES EXPORTED from the UNITED KINGDOM to each FOREIGN COUNTRY and BRITISH POSSESSION in the Half Year ended 30th June, 1862.

Total to Foreign Countries

...

£41,195,264

Report of the Commissioners of Patent for Invention.

THE number of applications for provisional protection, recorded within the year 1861, was 3,276; the number of patents passed thereon was 2,047; the number of specifications filed in pursuance thereof was 2,015; the number of applications lapsed or forfeited, the applicants having neglected to proceed for their patents within the six months of provisional protection, was 1,229. The Act 16 Vict. c. 5 enacts that all letters patent for inventions to be granted under the provisions of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852, shall be made subject to the condition that the same shall be void at the expiration of three years and seven years respectively from the date thereof, unless there be paid, before the expiration of the said three years and seven years respectively, the stamp duties in the schedule thereunto annexed, viz., 50l. at the expiration of the third year, and 100l. at the expiration of the seventh year. The patent is granted for fourteen years.

Four thousand patents bear date between the 1st October, 1852 and the 17th June, 1854 (being the first 4,000 passed under the provisions of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852). The additional progressive stamp duty of 50l. was paid, at the end of the third year, on 1,186 of that number, and 2,814 became void. The additional progressive stamp duty of 100l. was paid, at the end of the seventh year, on 690 of the 1,183 patents remaining in force at the end of the third year, and 796 became void. Consequently nearly 70 per cent. of the 4,000 patents became void at the end of the third year, and nearly 90 per cent. became void at the end of the seventh year. The number of patents sealed in 1854 was 1,876; the progressive duty of 50%. due in 1858, was paid upon 558 of this number; and the progressive duty of 100%. due in 1861, was paid upon 142 only; therefore the proportionate number of patents becoming void, by reason of nonpayment, is increasing.

All the provisional, complete, and final specifications, filed in the office upon the patents granted under the Act since 1852, have been printed and published in continuation, with lithographic outline copies of the drawings accompanying the same, according to the provisions of the Act 16 & 17 Vict. c. 115. The provisional specifications filed in the office and lapsed and

forfeited, have also been printed and published in continuation. Printed certified copies of the specifications filed in the office, as also certified copies of patents, and of the record book of assignments of patents and licences, with copies of such assignments and licences, have been sent, in continuation, to the office of the director of Chancery in Edinburgh, and the enrolment office of the Court of Chancery in Dublin, pursuant to the Act of 1852 and the Act of 16 & 17 Vict. c. 115. The work of printing the specifications of patents under the old law, 13,561 in number, and dating from 1711 to 1852, was completed in 1858, and copies thereof are sold in the office at the cost of printing and paper.

Abstracts or abridgments of specifications, in classes and chronologically arranged, of all specifications of patents, from the earliest enrolled to the present time, are in course of preparation and publication.

On the subject of the public library and museum the commissioners made a special report, to which they subjoined the following:

The report of which the above is an abstract, was transmitted to her Majesty's Treasury in April, 1858, and it was immediately thereafter referred by the Treasury to her Majesty's Board of Works, with instructions to provide a convenient site for the proposed new offices and library, and to prepare plans and estimates to be laid before Parliament. A site was found in 1859 at the northern extremity of the gardens of Burlington House, and plans and estimates were prepared, being a portion of a design for the appropriation of the whole of Burlington House Gardens for various public buildings. This plan has, however, been suspended or altogether abandoned by the Government, and no other site has been since found for the patent office buildings. It is intended to make the patent office museum an historical and educational institution for the benefit and instruction of the skilled workmen employed in the various factories of the kingdom, a class which largely contributes to the surplus fund of the patent office in fees paid upon patents granted for their inventions. Exact models of machinery in subjects and series of subjects, showing the progressive steps of improvement in the machines for each branch of manufacture, are to be exhibited; for example, it is intended to show in series of exact models of machines, or in the machine itself, each important invention and improvement in steam propellers, from the first engine that drove a boat of two tons burthen to the powerful machinery of the present day, propelling the first-rate ship of war or of commerce. The original small experimental-engine that drove the boat of two tons burthen, above referred to, is now in the museum, and is numbered one in the series of propellers or models of propellers.

The commissioners are in possession of a large number of valuable models, remaining in their cases, for the reason that room cannot be found for exhibition in the very small space assigned to them in the museum at South Kensington; they are also, and for the same reason, obliged to postpone the acceptance of many valuable models offered as gifts by manufacturers and inventors.

The public library at the patent office is in the same condition; the books daily increase in number, and many remain in cases, for the reason that shelf room cannot be found, much less room for the readers. The surplus of the fee fund applicable to building purposes amounted, in the aggregate, at the end of 1860, to 92,000l.

During the year 1861 the following stamp duties were received under the Act to substitute stamp duties for fees (16 Vict. c. 5):

3,276 petitions for grant of letters patent, at 51. each; 2,273 notices of intention to proceed with application, at 57. each; 30 notices of objection to the grant of letters patent, at 27. each; 2,049 warrants for patents, at 51. each; 2,047 patents sealed, at 5l. each; 1,967 final specifications filed, at 5l. each; 48 complete specifications filed, at 51. each; 577 entries of assignments of patents and licences, at 5s. each; 755 searches and inspections, at 18. each; 11,040 folios of office copies of documents, at 2d. per folio; 540 patents upon which the progressive stamp duty of 50l. has been paid; 142 patents upon which the progressive stamp duty of 1007. has been paid; 6 duplicate patents issued in lieu of original patents lost or destroyed, 51. each; 14 petitions on application for disclaimers, 57. each; 10 caveats against disclaimers, at 21. each; 5 new patents, being prolongations of patents granted previous to the Act, at 51. each. Making a total of 99,9791.

Besides the 99,9791. as above for stamp duties, 2,0517. 17s. were received by sale of prints of specifications, indexes, &c., making in all 102,036/. 17s. The expenditure for the year amounted to 65,0521. 13s. 3d., leaving a surplus for the year of 36,9841. 3s. 9d. The aggregate surplus income, on balance of accounts from the 1st of October, 1852, to the end of the year 1861, and applicable to building purposes, amounted to the sum of 129,000l.

CUSTOMS.

Sixth Report of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Customs.

THE trade of the United Kingdom during the year has been directly affected by two important events; 1st, favourably, by the alterations of the revenue laws of France, achieved by the commercial treaty of 1860; and, 2nd, unfavourably, by the prohibitory tariff on imports adopted by the Government of the United States.

To begin with the comparison of the real values of British exports for the year 1861 with those of the three former years, we find that the figures are as follows:-1858, 116,608,756.; 1859, 130,411,529l.; 1860, 135,891,2271.; 1861, 125,115,1331.; showing a falling off in 1861 of 10,776,094., or 8 per cent. from the return of 1860, and of 5,296,396l., or 5 per cent., from that of 1859; though there is still a considerable increase over that of 1858. Of this ten millions in round numbers, nine is on the exports to foreign countries, and one to British possessions. The whole decrease may, we think, fairly be attributed to the effect of the American war, and to the operation of the prohibitory policy in that country introduced by the Morrill tariff. In the return of the values of our exports to the United States, we find that the astonishing amount given in our last year's report, viz., 21 millions, has declined to nine millions, a decrease of more than twelve millions, or nearly sixty per cent.

This more than covers the entire loss above given. It is true, indeed, that the Hanseatic Towns have taken in 1861 less of our manufactures by the value of a million than they did in 1860, and Turkey by a million and a half; while there is also a decrease in the British East Indies of 500,000l., and a small decline in several of the minor markets of the world; but, on the other hand, there has been a considerable increase in the values of our exports to Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Syria, and China; while France, in return for the concessions made to that country by the commercial treaty, has taken nearly nine millions instead of five. We cannot, therefore, attribute the loss we have sustained to any general overtrading on the part of our manufacturers or merchants, which has glutted the foreign and colonial markets, but must come, on the contrary, to the conclusion that but for the condition and policy of America, any deficiency of demand in certain countries would have been more than compensated by the increase in others; and our comparison of exports for the year 1860 would have shown, as on all former occasions (with the exception of 1858), an increase surely and steadily advancing.

In examining the particulars of the decrease of our exports to America, and of the increase to France, during the whole twelve months of the past year, we find, in the first, a very considerable decrease in the export of every article, with the exception of coals, the trade in which is, in these days of steam-power, naturally benefited by war. It is difficult to estimate how much of this loss is to be attributed to the operation of the Morrill tariff, and how much is owing to the war, the doubts of American solvency, and the blockade of the Southern ports. The greatest falling-off appears to be in cottons, linens, iron, and other metals, and woollens, all articles extensively exported from this country. The Act of Congress passed in

February, 1861, has restored the highest protective character to the American tariff, replacing the ad valorem duties on many of these goods by complicated and harassing specific duties, and raising the ad valorem rates, when retained, from a minimum of fifteen and a maximum of twenty-four per cent., in almost all cases, to a minimum of twenty and a maximum of thirty per cent.

On the other hand, in the French return we find the greatest improve ment (leaving corn, to which we shall advert in a later paragraph of this report, out of the question) to be in these very same articles above enumerated; the exports of woollens, linens, and of iron and metal manufactures having increased 200 per cent., and that of cotton goods 250 per cent. This vast advance appears the more wonderful from the fact that, with the exception of iron, &c., the new French tariff did not come into operation till late in 1861, the tariff for yarns and tissues of flax, hemp, and jute, only taking effect on the 1st of June in that year; and that for chemical products and dye stuffs, for glass and crystal ware, earthenware and pottery, all included in the unenumerated articles, only on the 1st November. The growth, therefore, in the export of these articles can only be considered to be as yet in its infancy, and we have no doubt that the effect of these last tariffs will be much more prominently displayed in the course of the year 1862. In the meantime it is already clear that our accounts of exports would have been placed in a much more disadvantageous position but for the opportune development of our commerce with France, through the extensive modifications in the French tariff effected by the commercial treaty. The real value of the exports of foreign and colonial merchandize, depending as it does upon the amount of our importations, has, on the other hand, more than kept up the progressive increase of the two preceding years. The figures are-1859, 25,281,446.; 1860, 28,630,124l.; 1861, 35,694,2971.; showing an increase of 20 per cent.

Part of this may no doubt be accounted for by the fact that the trade between America and other foreign countries in 1861, in order to avoid the risk of capture by the cruizers of one belligerent or the other, was diverted from its natural course, much foreign and colonial produce intended for the supply of that country having been brought to England in the first instance, and again forwarded to its destination in British vessels.

The return of the computed real values of the imports, though satisfactory on the whole, has, however, not retained the same proportion to those of former years; the increase in 1861 over 1860 having been but 3 per cent., as compared with 8 per cent. which 1859 showed over 1858, and 17 per cent. which 1860 showed over 1859. The figures are-1858, 164,583,8321.; 1859, 179,182,355l.; 1860, 210,530,8737.; 1861, 217,351,8817.

We find an increase in the quantities imported in ten out of fourteen of the principal articles, the same number as last year, though the articles themselves are different. The four that show a decrease are:-1st. Cotton, which has fallen from 12,419,096 cwt. in 1860 to 11,223,078 cwt. in 1861, a difference of 1,196,018 cwt. The loss upon cotton from America alone has been 2,646,340 cwt. This, however, being on the importation of the whole twelve months, can by no means be taken as a basis for any calculation for the future. The whole of the crop for 1860 had been received from America before the commencement of the blockade, and there had been, if anything, greater activity shown in forwarding it in consequence of the impending troubles. The later monthly returns for 1861, and that for