day, they
caused it to be written in each servant's covenant, that if by chance he
invented aught, his invention was to belong to the Company. Providence
has mercifully arranged that no man or syndicate of men can buy the
"holy spirit of man" outright without suffering in some way or another
just as much as the purchase. America fully, and Germany in part,
recognises this law. The E. I. Railway's breach of it is thoroughly
English. They say, or it is said of them that they say, "We are afraid
of our men, who belong to us, wasting their time on trying to invent."

Is it wholly impossible, then, for men of mechanical experience and
large sympathies to check the mere patent-hunter and bring forward the
man with an idea? Is there no supervision in the "shops," or have the
men who play tennis and billiards at the institute not a minute which
they can rightly call their very own? Would it ruin the richest Company
in India to lend their model-shop and their lathes to half a dozen, or,
for the matter of that, half a hundred, abortive experiments? A
Massachusetts organ factory, a Racine buggy shop, an Oregon lumber-yard,
would laugh at the notion. An American toy-maker might swindle an
employe after the invention, but he would in his own interests help the
man to "see what comes of the thing." Surely a wealthy, a powerful and,
as all Jamalpur bears witness, a considerate Company might cut that
clause out of the covenant and await the issue. There would be quite
enough jealousy between man and man, grade and grade, to keep down all
but the keenest souls; and, with due respect to the steam-hammer and the
rolling-mill, we have not yet made machinery perfect. The "shops" are
not likely to spawn unmanageable Stephensons or grasping Brunels; but in
the minor turns of mechanical thought that find concrete expressions in
links, axle-boxes, joint packings, valves, and spring-stirrups something
might--something would--be done were the practical prohibition removed.
Will a North countryman give you anything but warm hospitality for
nothing? Or if you claim from him overtime service as a right, will he
work zealously? "Onything but t' brass," is his motto, and his ideas are
his "brass."

Gentlemen in authority, if this should meet your august eyes, spare it a
minute's thought, and, clearing away the floridity, get to the heart of
the mistake and see if it cannot be rationally put right. Above all,
remember that Jamalpur supplied no inform