Mr. Chamberlain, at the same meeting, stamped on his enemies.
He had to deal with persons who were denying his administrative skill, and, of course, he had an easy victory. He- smiled at the "experience" his opponents had had of Bills which only came into operation on January 1st, and then gave the result of the experience of his own office. It was said that his new Patent Law would prove oppressive. Well, the object of that law was to stimulate invention, and whereas in 1883, 6,421 patents were taken out, in the first four weeks of this year- there were 2,288 patents, or nearly 30,000 per annum, a number in excess even of the American average ; and the Controller of Patents says the inventions are at least as valuable as before. Of course, this number will not be kept up, as there was a rush, of patents kept down by the old Act, but clearly invention has been stimulated. Upon the Bankruptcy Act, Mr. Chamberlain was even more vigorous. Two millions sterling had been divided quite suddenly under dread of his clauses, and the Trustees had paid £400,000 more into the Treasury. Then, having done that,. they wrote in the papers, under various signatures, that the Act was expensive and unworkable. It was not expensive, and it would work well, if only creditors who happened not to have- trustworthy friends among the committees of settlement would just send their proxies to the Official Beceiver, a bit of advice- we recommend all business men to write up in their offices. We- do not believe the outside public yet know how bad the old. system has been. We speak with the experience of a quarter of a century, when we say that we have never known a bankruptcy case in our own business in which we received in cash half-a- crown in the pound, except after years of waiting.
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