oceedings the case was
referred by the Commissioner of Patents, or Board of Extensions, to Dr.
Page, one of the Examiners of the office.

His report is as follows:

"Patent Office,

"Jan. 22d, 1848.

"Sir:

"In compliance with your requisition I have examined the patent of
Cyrus H. McCormick, dated 31st June, 1834, and found that the
principal features embraced in said patent, viz, the cutting-knife
and mode of operating it, the fingers to guide the grain and the
revolving rack for gathering the grain, were not new at the time
of granting said letters patent.

"The knife-fingers and general arrangements and operation of the
cutting apparatus are found in the reaping machine of O. Hussey,
patented 31st Dec., 1833.

"The revolving rack presents novelty chiefly in form, as its
operation is similar to the revolving frame of James Ten Eyck,
patented 2nd November, 1825.

"Respectfully submitted,

"CHAS. G. PAGE,
"Examiner.

"Hon. Edmund Burke, Com'r of Patents."

As some have enquired, and others may enquire, why a patent should issue
under these circumstances, we reply, that previous to 1836 but little, if
any, examination was made as to priority of inventions, or into preceding
Patents; the applicant made oath as to his invention, and the patent was
issued as a matter of course. And as another matter of course, if the
rival interests clashed, litigation was the result:--the Courts and
juries often decided what they little understood, and at times not at
all, after the pleading of well fee'd lawyers; a pretty fair illustration
of the fable of the boys and frogs; it may be _fun_ for the lawyers but
it is _death_ to the hopes of many a poor patentee. We are, however,
pleased to perceive a disposition manifested by the courts to sustain
patents; even if occasionally an unjust claim is recognized as a valid
one, it is better, according to the legal and moral maxim, that half a
dozen rogues should escape punishment for a time, than that one innocent
person should be unjustly convicted; the rogue is almost certain to be
caught in the end, and truth will ultimately triumph.

[Sidenote: McCormick-Hussey Controversy]

This testimony was taken in due form at Steele's Tavern, Augusta County,
Va., McCormick and Hussey both being present. It is too voluminous to
copy entire, but we will refer briefly to each, having read them
carefully, and obt