§ MR. M'EWAN (Edinburgh, Central)asked the Postmaster General, If his refusal to grant a licence to the proprietors of the Writing Telegraph is indicative of a resolution to depart from the position taken up by the Government, as defined by Sir Henry James (then Attorney General), on the 15th December of 1880, in the case of "The Attorney General v. United Telephone Company," as follows:—
There is no desire on the part of the Crown to check invention. I most emphatically dis- 748 claim that Inventors and Companies will always be dealt with in a liberal spirit if they consent to become licencees of the Crown;and, seeing that the proprietors of the Writing Telegraph only wish to become licencees of the Crown, why should they be treated differently from other Companies using telegraph systems?
§ SIR HERBERT MAXWELL (A LORD of the TREASURY)(who replied) said (Wigton)The Postmaster General has not succeeded in finding a record of the statement attributed to the right hon. and learned Member for Bury (Sir Henry James.) The arguments in the ease of "The Attorney General v. The Edison Telephone Company" (it was not the United Telephone Company) were concluded on the 3rd of December, 1880. Judgment was given on the 20th, and there were no proceedings in Court on the 15th. In the absence of more specific information, therefore, I am not able to follow the hon. Member in his reference. I may observe, however, that the Telegraph Act of 1869 leaves it to the Postmaster General's discretion whether a licence shall or shall not be granted to a person or Company proposing to transmit telegrams; and the Government have never assumed the position of granting indiscriminately a licence to every inventor of a new form of apparatus.