cially by finding that some enlightened publishers, who have hitherto doubted the expediency of international copyright, in view of some such arrangement as is here suggested, are now earnestly in favor of it. Why, then, should we not try it?

One thing is certain the subject will never rest, until International Copyright is adopted, in some form or other. It is based on the same abstract but still manifest right, by which every laborer claims the use and behoof of the fruits of his toil; admitting that governments may regulate and modify these rights, according to the public good, still they may not altogether annihilate them. I have taken the ground that governments, in local copyright laws, deny the absolute and perpetual claim; they refuse to base their protection on common law; but still one thing is to be considered, and that is, that local copyright everywhere does in fact make some compensation to the author, and thus substantially admits his claim. We, who refuse international copyright, must reflect that so far as we are concerned, we deny all compensation to the foreign author, and thus are manifestly in the wrong.* We e may pretend, indeed, that local copy

* In France, copyright was regulated by royal decrees, till 1789, when a general law was passed, establishing the old practice, which gave the author copyright in perpetuity, except that in case of sale to a publisher, it terminated at his death. At present, by acts of 1793 and 1810, the author has copyright during his life, and then his children twenty years after. If there are no children, the actual heirs enjoy it for ten years. The copyright law of England is stated elsewhere.

In Holland and Belgium, the copyright laws of France are adopted.

right affords all needful encouragement; but is it fair for us, refusing ourselves to contribute to this, to take to our use and behoof the articles for which we thus refuse to pay—and that against the protest of those whose toil has produced them? Is that honorable-is it fair play?

The law is similar in Prussia, and also in the Zollverein, the heirs enjoying the right, however, for thirty instead of twenty years, after the author's decease.

In Russia, the law gives copyright during the lifetime of the author, and twenty-five years after. An additional period of ten years is granted, if an edition is published within five years before the expiration of the copyright.

Sardinia adopted the French law in 1846.

In Portugal the law is similar to that of Prussia.

Spain formerly gave unlimited copyright, but often to religious commmunities, and not to the author. At present, the author has copyright during his lifetime, and his heirs fifty years after his death.

Prussia was the first nation to pass a general act, offering International Copyright to all countries that would reciprocate the same. This was incorporated into her copyright law of 1837. England followed this example in 1838.

Treaties for International Copyright have been entered into between Austria, Sardinia, and Tessin, 1840; Prussia and England, 1846; France, Sardinia, Hanover, England, and Portugal, in 1846, 1850, and 1851.

France has added a law prohibiting the counterfeiting of foreign books and works of art, without requiring reciprocal stipulations from other countries.

It is to be remarked, that International Copyright between these European States, generally having different languages, and trifling interests at stake, is very easy and natural; it is practically a very different matter between England and the United States, which have the same language, and immense industrial arts, trades, and professions, directly connected with the subject. There may, indeed, be as good a reason why such an agreement should exist between Great Britain and the United States as between Great Britain and France, but still, as it involves infinitely greater consequences, it is reasonable to treat the subject with more mature and careful consideration.

LETTER LIV.

Statistics of the Book Trade-Its Extension-The Relative Increase of American Literature, as compared with British Literature.

MY DEAR C******

In my last letter I presented to you some suggestions respecting International Copyright. In doing this I have naturally gathered up my recollections of the book trade in the United States for the last forty years, and compared the past with the present. I am so impressed with certain prominent and remarkable results and inferences, that I deem it proper to present them to you. These may be grouped under two general heads:

1. The great extension of the book production in the United States.

2. The large and increasing relative proportion of American works.

Unfortunately we have no official resources for exact statistics upon this subject. The general fact of a vast development in all the branches of industry connected with the press, is palpable to all persons having any knowledge on the subject; but the details upon which this is founded, and the precise degree of increase, are to a considerable extent matters of conjecture. Nevertheless, there are some facts within our reach, and by the grouping of these, we

may approach the results we seek, with a sufficient degree of certainty, for all practical purposes.

I. As to the extension of the book manufacture.

THE BOOK PRODUCTION OR MANUFACTURE IN 1820.

Let us go back to the year 1820, and endeavor to estimate the gross amount of this trade in the United States at that period. The following statement, it is supposed, may approach the truth:

Amount of books manufactured and sold in the United States in 1820.

The space between 1820 and 1830 may be considered as the period in which our national literature was founded; it was the age in which Irving, Cooper, Bryant, Halleck, Paulding, J. R. Drake, John Neal, Brainard, Percival, Hillhouse, and others, redeemed the country from the sneer that nobody read American books. During this period we began to have confidence in American genius, and to dream of literary ambition. The North American Review, already established, kept on its steady way, and other attempts were made in behalf of periodical literature, but with little success.

THE BOOK MANUFACTURE IN 1880.

If we take 1830 as a period for estimating the product of the

Dook manufacture, we suppose it may stand thus:

This shows an increase of production of forty per cent. in ten years.

From 1880 to 1840 was an era of great and positive development, and the foundation of a still more active era of progress and expansion in the book trade. It may be considered as the point at which our litera ture became established in our own confidence, and to some degree, in the respect of the world. During this period, the following names either first appeared or became eminently conspicuous:

In History-Prescott, Sparks, Bancroft, Irving.

In Mathematics-Day, Farrar, and the self-taught Bowditch, whose translation of the Méchanique Celeste of Laplace, is admitted to be su perior to the original, by reason of its happy illustrations and added discoveries.

In Philology-Webster, whose quarto Dictionary is now admitted by high British authority to take precedence of all others.

In Theology-Bush, Barnes, Norton, Stuart, Woods, Jenks, Robinson, Spring, A. Alexander, Durbin, Hodge, Bangs, Olin, L. Beecher, Tyng, Thornwell.

In Political Economy, Philosophy, &c.-H. C. Carey, Colton, Lieber Wayland, Upham, Tucker.

In General Science, Natural History, &c.-Silliman, Henry, Morton, Rogers, Redfield, Espy, Audubon, Olmsted, Dana, Gray, Nuttall, Bur

ritt.

In Jurisprudence, International Law, &c.-Kent, Story, Wheaton, Duer, Cowen.

In Medicine and Surgery-Dunglison, N. Smith, N. R. Smith, Bigelow, Dewees, Beck, Doane, Wood, Mott, Eberle.

In Travels, Geography, &c.-Schoolcraft, Ruschenberger, Stephens, Farnham.

In Essay and Criticism-Channing, the two Everetts, Emerson. In Fiction-Cooper, Ware, Simms, Bird, Kennedy, Poe, Miss Sedgwick, Mrs. Child, Miss Leslie, Fay, Hoffman.

In Poetry-Bryant, Sprague, Pierpont, Dana, Willis, Longfellow, Whittier, Mrs. Sigourney, Mellen, Morris, McLellan, Prentice, Benjamin. In Educational and Church Music-Lowell Mason, probably the most successful author in the United States.

This period is to be noted for the effective labors of W. C.Woodbridge, James G. Carter, Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, and others, in behalf of common-school education, and an immense improvement in school-books, both in literary and mechanical execution, by means of which geography, grammar, and history, very extensively became com mon school studies. During the same period, history, chemistry, natural philosophy, moral philosophy, rhetoric, geology, were all popularized, and introduced into the public high-schools. The chauge in schoolbooks during this period amounted to a revolution, and resulted in that amazing expansion in their use and distribution, which now marks the subject of education in the United States. This also was the era of Annuals, which added largely to the amount of the book-trade.