LEGAL REMINISCENCES. IX. THE COMMON LAW AND THE CIVIL LAW: ENGLISH AND FRENCH SYSTEMS OF JURISPRUDENCE. By Hon. L. E. Ch1ttenden. I ONCE had an opportunity of contrast that the corporation decided to make the ap ing the English common law with the plication, though without much hope of suc civil law as it was then administered in cess. I was so familiar with the history of the France, which was both entertaining and invention, that I was requested to visit Lon instructive. The experience gave me a clear don, and give to the attorney and counsel impression of the impartiality and solidity there such assistance as I could in the pre of the common law, as interpreted by Eng sentation of our application. lish judges, and it also gave me my first The case was thorougly prepared. The knowledge of some of the usages of the value of the invention to the people of Great French courts of justice, which at the time Britain was conclusively proved. The point appeared extraordinary. of difficulty was the profits already made. My client was a corporation, the owner of Former decisions of the tribunal indicated a patent upon a machine, which, after many that if we did not present a plain and full years of trial, had gone into an extensive statement of the profits which could not be public use. The machine had been patented justly criticised, the Judicial Committee of in the United States, Great Britain, and the Privy Council, before whom the appli France, and was manufactured and sold in cation was pending, would reject it. We, all those countries. When the patent was therefore, under the direction of an expert about to expire in the United States, an ap accountant, prepared such a statement. plication had been made for its extension Our junior counsel was the now celebrated for a further period of seven years. Al Mr. Webster, then just coming into public though the extension had been opposed, I notice as a painstaking advocate, much was able to prove so strong a case of merit, esteemed by the judges. He had mastered that by having the machine operated in the every detail of our case. Our leader was presence of the commissioner of patents, we then probably the most powerful advocate obtained a decision in our favor, and the at the English bar. He was a man of pro patent here was duly extended. found scientific research and thought, the An application was then made for a pro author of one of the great intellectual suc cesses of the century — his treatise on " The longation of the British patent. This ap plication was not advised by our experienced Correlation of the Physical Forces," or the patent attorney in London, whose opinion convertibility of heat, light, and force into was, that the utility of the invention would each other. He was at that time (1868) be affirmed, but that the English judges the head of the patent-law bar, and within would decide that the inventor had been a few days after our trial was elevated to liberally rewarded by his profits during the the bench, where he still lives to administer original term for which the patent was justice with honor to Great Britain and the name of Sir W1ll1am Grove. granted. However, the value of the patent for the Our patent was upon a revolving hook, prolonged term of seven years was so great, scarcely larger than a dime, which was so
