fusion shall follow the efforts of the stout heart and sturdy arm in their triumph over the obstacles of nature; if the woods, stretching beyond their confines, shall be haunted with visions of beauty which our poets have created; let those who thus are softening the ruggedness of young society have some present interest about which affection may gather, and at least let them be protected from those who would exhibit them mangled or corrupted to their transatlantic disciples. I do not in truth ask for literature favour; I do not ask for it charity; I do not even appeal to gratitude in its behalf; but I ask for it a portion, and but a portion, of that common justice which the coarsest industry obtains for its natural reward, and which nothing but the very extent of its claims, and the nobleness of the associations to which they are akin, have prevented it from receiving from our laws.

was the most successful advocate of his time, | old poets as their own immortal ancestry. And yet who was not more remarkable for his skill if this our literature shall be theirs; if its difin dealing with facts than for the grace with which he embellished them-by Lord Abinger -that the assignee of foreign copyright, deriving title from the author abroad to publish in this country, and creating that right within a reasonable time, may claim the protection of our courts against any infringement of his | copy.* If this is law-and I believe and trust it is-we shall make no sacrifice in so declaring it, and in setting an example which France, Prussia, America, and Germany, are prepared to follow. Let us do justice to our law and to ourselves. At present, not only is the literary intercourse of countries, who should form one great family, degraded into a low series of mutual piracies-not only are industry and talent deprived of their just reward, but our literature is debased in the eyes of the world, by the wretched medium through which they behold it. Pilfered, and disfigured in the pilfering, the noblest images are broken, wit falls pointless, and verse is only felt in fragments of broken music;-sad fate for an irritable race! The great minds of our time have now an audience to impress far vaster than it entered into the minds of their predecessors to hope for; an audience increasing as population thickens in the cities of America, and spreads itself out through its diminishing wilds, who speak our language, and who look on our

Sir, I will trespass no longer on the patience of the house, for which I am most grateful, but move that leave be given to bring in a bill "to consolidate and amend the laws relating to property in the nature of copyright in books, musical compositions, acted dramas, pictures, and engravings, to provide remedies for the violation thereof, and to extend the term of its duration."

The motion, seconded by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and supported by Sir Robert Harry Inglis, was carried without opposition; and the bill was ordered to be brought in by Sir Robert Harry Inglis, Lord Mahon, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in conjunction with the mover. The bill which under these auspices was introduced, contained, according to the proposition, clauses for the protection of the arts of painting and engraving, and provided for the recognition and security of copyright in the works of foreign authors, on certain condi tions. Its second reading was carried without debate or division; and it stood for committal when the death of the king precluded the further progress of all measures except those of urgency, and in a few weeks produced the dissolution of parliament. On the 14th December, 1838, the motion for leave to introduce the bill was renewed-with the difference that it had been found expedient to confine the measure to literature, and to defer until a suitable oppor. tunity the introduction of a separate measure for consolidating and amending the laws affecting the arts of painting, engraving, and also that of sculpture, which had not been included in the original measure. This separation of the objects of the bill received the approbation of Lord Mahon, who had previously concurred in its necessity, and of Sir Robert Peel, who suggested the expedience of appointing a select committee to report on the state of the law relat ing to the fine arts, before proceeding to the arduous but most needful work of legislating for their protection, and securing their reward. On this occasion, also, that part of the original measure which related to international copyright was, at the request of Mr. Poulett Thomson, resigned into the hands of ministers, under whose auspices a bill has since passed, enabling them to negotiate on this important subject with foreign powers. After expressions of approval from Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer and Mr. D'Israeli, leave was given to bring in the bill. The circumstances and character of the opposition which had, in the interval, been raised against it, sufficiently appear from the following speech on the motion that it be read a second time.

* D'Almaine and another v. Bossey, 1 Younge and Collyer's Reports, 288.

This case has been since overruled by that of Chappell v. Purday, in which the Court of Exchequer decided that a foreigner has no copyright in a work first published abroad."

SPEECH ON THE MOTION FOR THE SECOND READING OF THE

BILL TO AMEND THE LAW OF COPYRIGHT,

DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 1838.

diate course, and to argue the question, whe- ing compensation is stopped when it most ther a fair medium between two extremes has should increase. Now, surely, as to them, the been chosen. What is to be said in favour of question is not what remuneration is sufficient the line now drawn, except that it exists and in the judgment of the legislature to repay for bears an antiquity commencing in 1814? Is certain benefactions to society, but whether, there any magic in the term of twenty-eight having won the splendid reward, our laws shall years? Is there any conceivable principle of permit the winner to enjoy it? We could not justice which bounds the right, if the author decide the abstract question between genius survives that term, by the limit of his natural and money, because there exist no common life? As far as expediency shall prevail- properties by which they can be tested, if we as far as the welfare of those for whom it is were dispensing an arbitrary reward; but the the duty and the wish of the dying author to question how much the author ought to receive provide, may be regarded by Parliament; the is easily answered-so much as his readers period of his death is precisely that when they are delighted to pay him. When we say that will most need the worldly comforts which the he has obtained immense wealth by his writ property in his works would confer. And, as ings, what do we assert, but that he has multifar as analogy may govern, the very attribute plied the sources of enjoyment to countless which induces us to regard with pride the readers, and lightened thousands of else sad, works of intellect is, that they survive the or weary, or dissolute hours? The two promortal course of those who framed them-that positions are identical; the proof of the one they are akin to what is deathless. Why at once establishing the other. Why, then, should that quality render them profitless to should we grudge it, any more than we would those in whose affectionate remembrance their reckon against the soldier, not the pension or author still lives, while they attest a nobler the grant, but the very prize-money which immortality? Indeed, among the opponents attests the splendour of his victories, and in the of this measure, it is ground of cavil that it is amount of his gains proves the extent of ours? proposed to take the death of the author as a Complaints have been made by one in the starting point for the period which it adds to foremost rank in the opposition to this bill, the the present term. It is urged as absurd that pioneer of the noble army of publishers, bookeven the extent of this distant period should sellers, printers, and bookbinders, who are ar be affected by the accident of death; and yet rayed against it *-that in selecting the case those who thus argue are content to support of Sir Walter Scott as an instance in which the the system which makes that accident the final extension of copyright would be just, I had boundary at which the living efficacy of been singularly unfortunate, because that authorship, for the advantage of its professors, great writer received, during the period of subsisting copyright, an unprecedented revenue from the immediate sale of his works. But, sir, the question is not one of reward—it is

ceases.

I perfectly agree with the publishers in the evidence given in 1818, and the statements which have been repeated more recently-that the extension of time will be a benefit only in one case in five hundred of works now issuing from the press; and I agree with them that we are legislating for that five hundredth case. Why not? It is the great prize which, out of the five hundred risks, genius and goodness win. It is the benefit that can only be achieved by that which has stood the test of time-of that which is essentially true and pure-of that which has survived spleen, criticism, envy, and the changing fashions of the world. Granted that only one author in five hundred attains this end; does it not invite many to attempt it, and impress on literature itself a visible mark of permanence and of dignity? The writers who attain it must belong to one of two classes. The first class consists of authors who have laboured to create the taste which should appreciate and reward them, and only attain that reputation which brings with it a pecuniary recompense when the term for which that reward is secured to them wanes. Is it unjust in this case, which is that of Wordsworth, now in the evening of life, and in the dawn of his fame, to allow the author to share in the remuneration that society tardily awards him? The other classes includes those who, like Sir Walter Scott, have combined the art of ministering to immediate delight with that of outlasting successive races of imitators and apparent rivals; who do receive a large actual amount of recompense, but whose accumulat-I

*This allusion has been singularly misconceived by the gentleman to whom it applies-Mr. Tegg, who thus notices it in his letter "To the Editor of the Times," of 20th Feb., 1839: "The learned serjeant calls me a pioneer of literature, because I open my shop for the sale of books, and not for the encouragement of authors; but whatis the object of my customers who buy the books? Not one in a thousand would allege that he bought a book for the encouragement of the author; they come to procure the means of amusement, information, or instruction. The learned serjeant-a liberal-a friend to literature, a promoter of education--persists in bringing forward an e post facto law, to counteract the advantages of education. to check the diffusion of literature, and to abridge the innocent entertainment of the public, by enhancing the price of books. I glory in the difference of our position." It will be seen by the comparison of the text and the comment, that Mr. Tegg is mistaken in supposing I had called him "a pioneer of literature." I only called him the pioneer of the opponents of the bill;-and that he is equally mistaken in supposing that I complained that he opens his shop for the sale of books, and not for the encouragement of authors. I ask for no encouragement to authors, but that which arises from the purchase of books by those who seek in them "the means of amusement, information and instruction:"-who voluntarily tax themselves for their own benefit:-and I venture to think that, as the gains of the publisher are just as effec tually added to the price of a book as those of its author, book shared in the profit with the bookseller, even after it would be as beneficial to the public if the author of a the period to which the law now confines his interest in his own work, and when Mr. Tegg's good office in So far from regarding Mr. Tegg as the "pioneer of lite "opening his shop for its sale" sometimes commences. rature," I have always contemplated him in the very opposite position,-as a follower of the march, whom the law allows to collect the spoils which it denies to the soldier who has fought for them. He has abun dant reason, no doubt, "to glory in the difference of his position" and mine; but he quite mistakes his own, if he think he has any relation to literature, except as the depository of its winnings.

one of justice. How would this gentleman | author. It will not be denied that it is desiraapprove of the application of a similar rule to ble to extend the benefit to both classes, if it his own honest gains? From small beginnings can be done without injury to the public, or to this very publisher has, in the fair and honour- subsisting individual interests. The suggested able course of trade, I doubt not, acquired a injury to the public is, that the price of books splendid fortune, amassed by the sale of works, would be greatly enhanced; and on this asthe property of the public-of works, whose sumption the printers and bookbinders have authors have gone to their repose, from the been induced to sustain the publishers in refevers, the disappointments, and the jealousies sisting a change which is represented as tendwhich await a life of literary toil. Who grudges ing to paralyze speculation-to cause fewer it to him? Who doubts his title to retain it? books to be written, printed, bound, and bought And yet this gentleman's fortune is all, every -to deprive the honest workmen of their subfarthing of it, so much taken from the public, sistence, and the people of the opportunity of in the sense of the publisher's argument; it is enjoying the productions of genius. Even if all profit on books bought by that public, the such consequences are to be dreaded, and jusaccumulation of pence, which, if he had sold tice requires the sacrifice, it ought to be made. his books without profit, would have remained The community have no right to be enriched in the pockets of the buyers. On what princi- at the expense of individuals, nor is the Liple is Mr. Tegg to retain what is denied to Sir berty of the Press (magic words, which I have Walter? Is it the claim of superior merit? heard strangely blended in the din of this conIs it greater toil? Is it larger public service? troversy) the liberty to smuggle and to steal. His course, I doubt not, has been that of an Still, if to these respectable petitioners, men honest laborious tradesman; but what have often of intelligence and refinement beyond been its anxieties, compared to the stupendous their sphere, which they have acquired from labour, the sharp agonies of him, whose deadly their mechanical association with literature, alliance with those very trades whose mem- I could think the measure fraught with such bers oppose me now, and whose noble resolu- mischiefs, I should regard it with distrust tion to combine the severest integrity with the and alarm. But never, surely, were the aploftiest genius, brought him to a premature prehensions of intelligent men so utterly grave-a grave which, by the operation of the baseless. In the first place, I believe that the law, extends its chillness even to the result of existence of the copyright, even in that fivethose labours, and despoils them of the living hundredth case, would not enhance the price efficacy to assist those whom he has left to of the fortunate work; for the author or the mourn him? Let any man contemplate that bookseller, who enjoys the monopoly, as it is heroic struggle of which the affecting record called, is enabled to supply the article at a has just been completed; and turn from the much cheaper rate when a single press is resad spectacle of one who had once rejoiced in quired to print all the copies offered for sale, the rapid creation of a thousand characters instead of the presses and establishments of glowing from his brain, and stamped with in- competing publishers; and I believe a comdividuality for ever, straining the fibres of the parison between the editions of standard works mind till the exercise which had been delight in which there is copyright, with those in became torture-girding himself to the mighty which there is none, would confirm the truth task of achieving his deliverance from the load of the inference. To cite, as an instance to which pressed upon him, and with brave en- the contrary, "Clarendon's History of the Redeavour, but relaxing strength, returning to the bellion," is to confess that a fair test would toil till his faculties give way, the pen falls disprove the objection; for what analogy is from his hand on the unmarked paper, and the there between the motives and the acts of a silent tears of half-conscious imbecility fall great body, having no personal stimulus or upon it-to some prosperous bookseller in his interest, except to retain what is an ornament country house, calculating the approach of the to their own power, and those of a number of time (too swiftly accelerated) when he should individual proprietors? But, after all, it is be able to publish for his own gain those works only in this five-hundredth case-the one rare fatal to life, and then tell me, if we are to ap- prize in this huge lottery-that even this effect portion the reward to the effort, where is the is to be dreaded. Now, this effect is the posjustice of the bookseller's claim? Had Sir sible enhancing the price of the five-hundredth Walter Scott been able to see, in the distance, or five-thousandth book, and this is actually an extension of his own right in his own pro- supposed "to be a heavy blow and great disductions, his estate and his heart had been set couragement to literature," enough to paralyze free, and the publishers and printers, who are the energies of publishers, and to make Paterour opponents now, would have been grateful noster-row a desert! Let it only be announced, to him for a continuation of labour and re- say our opponents, that an author, whose works wards which would have impelled and aug- may outlast twenty-eight years, shall bequeath mented their own. to his children the right which he enjoyed, that

These two classes comprise, of necessity, all the instances in which the proposed change would operate at all; the first, that of those whose copyright only becomes valuable just as it is about to expire; the last, that of whose works which, at once popular and lasting, have probably, in the season of their first success, enriched the publisher far more than the

The case of the Scriptures seems decisive on this point,-on which the entire argument against the bill hinges. In the First of Books there is perpetual copyright; and does any one believe it would be cheaper than it is if it were the subject of competition? The truth is, that the only way in which the printer could suffer by the extension of copyright is by a process which would make books cheaper the employment of one press, instead of many, to produce the same number of copies.