§ MR. HANBURY (Preston)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether in or about 1872 a Circular was issued by the Lords of the Treasury, calling attention to the case of officers in the Civil, Military, or Naval Service of the Crown employed on Committees of Inquiry or otherwise to judge of plans and inventions, and stating that, in their opinion, no officer while so employed should be permitted to obtain or hold, or be directly or indirectly interested, in any Letters Patent for any articles needed for the Government, nor to accept or derive any benefit whatever from any person interested as a patentee or otherwise in such inventions, and that no claim on behalf of an officer so employed should be admitted for compensation; and whether such Circular has since been withdrawn; or, if not, whether it still represents the views of the Treasury?
§ SIR J. T. HIBBERTThe Treasury has issued no Circular on the subject. In a letter addressed to the Admiralty and War Office in December, 1871, the Treasury expressed the opinion that it was inexpedient that officers interested in patents should be appointed to judge of inventions. I am not aware that this opinion has ever been modified, and, so far as I can judge, it seems a reasonable one.