Page:A Letter on the Subject of the Cause (1797).djvu/73

 ; I will take the liberty to make a ſhort comment on the ſubject.

A ſtatement of the plain truth will diſcover this inner wheel, and how it always turns with the outer, or viſible one; then by comparing the profits of this patent with thoſe granted to others, the, fallacy and bombaſt of this part of the ſubject will, like the reſt, very obviouſly appear.

It has ever been an idea prevalent with me, that the views of every patentee who has invented an article of ſale (and I myſelf am the inventor and ſole proprietor of at leaſt ten ſuch patents) muſt be, that he ſhall derive his emolument from the ſale only of ſuch article. And farther, if he is a good man, he expects this gain from the quantity occaſioned by his monopoly ſold at a reaſonable rate, and not from an exorbitant profit on each.

Had the Plaintiffs acted conformable to this rule in bringing to market what they actually took a patent for (viz. a method of ſaving fuel rather than an Engine) they would have ſtood on the ground of other men; and would have been highly juſtifiable in fixing one third of the