whole then must finally resolve in this question, should enter into the inquiry as between the author 'whether it is agreeable to natural principles, and the community in which he lives; but that the moral justice and fitness to allow him the copy, latter is quite as much bound to recognize his after publication as well as before. The general claims as those of any other citizen--nay, the very consent of this kingdom. for ages, is on the affir- fact that his profession requires peculiar securities, mative side. The legislative authority has taken establishes in him, peculiarly, the exclusive right it for granted; and interposed penalties to protect to his labors-since, what is peculiar to him is, for it for a time! The single opinion of such a man as that very reason, secure against any opposing inMilton, speaking after much consideration, upon terest or right of any other person. I have also the very point, is stronger than any inferences endeavored to show that it is no less the policy from gathering acorns and seizing upon a vacant than the duty of the community to yield this recog piece of ground, when the writers, so far from nition; and, by a brief history of the career of thinking of the very point, speak of an imaginary American letters, the surprising rapidity of their state of nature before the invention of letters. growth, and their almost equally rapid rise to a The judicial opinions of those eminent lawyers comparative perfection,-have shown their absoand great men, who granted or continued injunc-lute importance to the independence of the national tions, in cases after publication, not within 8 Queen mind. It has also been my purpose to prove, as Ann, uncontradicted by any book, judgment or saying, must weigh in any question of law; much more in a question of theory and speculation as to what is agreeable or repugnant to natural principles. I look upon these injunctions as equal to any final decree."

Yet, thus regarding them, with the natural veneration which one great mind unhesitatingly yields to another, we find no surrender of private judgment and original inquiry on the part of Lord Mansfield. It would please me to give the whole of his opinion. I commend it to the reader. It will do him good to see the ease, the strength, the dignity, with which the direct and analytic mind disperses the flimsy sophistries which the merely ingenious and the tortuous have thrown around the subject. You see at a glance that, while the one obscures, the other simplifies the problem,-strips it of unnecessary details, and referring it to the just principles by which it is governed, subjects it to the application of tests by which its claims, necessities, and laws, are made apparent to the simplest understanding. I shall now, without loss of time, hurry to the closing considerations which our analysis involves.

will be seen by a reference to the second letter of this series, that even the minor considerations of public interest and economy would not be unfavorably affected by a recognition of the leading principles and the policy urged in the extension of the privileges of Copyright. But the important matter lies in the question of the author's inherent right to the productions of his own pen and intellect. If this right be conceded, as, indeed, we can not well see how it can be denied, by any but the sophistical and basely interested, it follows, as matter of course, that the whole question is concluded; since, I take it, that no member of the American Congress will pretend that the public may discriminate between the absolute rights of the citizen, and while fully acknowledging those of one class, subject the other to wholesale privation and denial. This concession made, we are naturally brought to the demand made by the stranger without our gates, to equal security for this property with the citizen within. Copyright-the entering of the title of one's book in an office set aside by law for the purpose, does not, as we have seen, confer a right but a security. The office, thus established by law, is precisely in the nature of an office of ordinary, of mesne conveyance, of the Secretary of State,Having reached one of the natural divisions of or any other department, through which a private my subject, I propose, at some hazard of repeating act, legal in itself, is made known to the public. myself, to advert to the several points which it has It is in not perceiving this point that our opponents been the aim of the preceding pages to estab- have made all their blunders. Assuming that the lish. I have shown, I trust conclusively, that, statute for the protection of authors conferred agreeable to all the laws of justice, common right, rights which did not otherwise exist, they have common reason, and, consequently, Common Law, ascribed to the benevolence of a community, what the original author or composer of a book, has an was the result of its convictions of right. Coninherent right in the property thereof-that this vention confers no such benevolences at its own right is totally exclusive of the claims of any expense; and if the rights of the author had not other-and, that, according to all the rules of common honesty and common sense, it should be as little obnoxious to alienation, by the operation of law, as that which the citizen maintains in any other property, that it demands equally the protection of law, that the law-giver is equally bound to afford it-that no question of the expedient

been felt and acknowledged, the security would never have been accorded. The statute, as already shown, was only an additional remedy against a wrong which existing laws could reach in no other efficient manner; and did not, and could not be construed to take away, or lessen a right, which, as such, was wholly independent of it before. As

suming, on the other hand, that the whole right of ways, and upon other productions, confer upon the author-(in his own works, made by his hands, other persons by the common consent of mankind! and branded with his peculiar name)-came from This is the simple, but at the same time, the highest the benevolence of the community, nothing would and noblest principle by which we recognize a be more natural than that the American publishers right to property. The work of one's hands conshould question the propriety of conferring this fers a more sacred right to one's possessions, legitibenevolence upon the foreigner. "But," says the mate, by the very first law of God to man, than writer of a pamphlet before me, "a British writer any other mode of acquisition. We say that is no citizen of the world; he has become a com- society every where admits this-that nobody has ponent part of a body politic, and thereby surren- ever yet questioned the peculiar property of the dered no small portion of his original rights; and, book to be in the maker of it, and that the very what is more to the purpose, he has, so far as statutes in every country, by which its fruits are foreigners are concerned, merged his private pro- secured to him, though for a limited period, are yet perty in the general stock." This proves a little conclusive proofs of a general recognition of his too much if it proves any thing. The same argu- claim, as superior to that of all other persons. The ment will justify you in taking any other property idea that the Copyright confers a benevolence—a of the foreign citizen that you can lay hands on. charity-in giving the maker a privilege to use the This very moral proposition only proves the laxity very thing he makes, is a pure impertinence, the of our modes of thinking, since it is clear that the very terms of which are as offensive to the comperson who thinks in this manner would not scru- mon sense, as to the moral sense, of every justlyple to possess himself of any foreign property. minded person. We, in America, concede this That he confines himself to that of the author rather right to the author for twenty-eight years, and a than the iron-monger, only results from the facility further term of fourteen years, if either he, his with which he can steal and the safety with which wife or children survive that period. In France, he can carry off the stolen goods. But, to apply the property in a work is secured to the author for the general principle thus alleged, more directly his life, to his widow for her life, and after their to our case. The British author surrenders some-death to their children for twenty years. In Holthing of his rights to the British government as a land and Belgium, Copyright is secured to the condition for the protection of the rest. What he author for life, and to his heir for twenty years surrenders then may be safely appropriated; but after his death. In Prussia, he enjoys the right not that which he retains! He reserves a privilege for life, and his successors for thirty years from of Copyright, according to the British Law, and his death. In the greater part of Germany the this proves none of the common property of that Copyright extends the property in a work for a country. This is the property of the individual, as certain period beyond the death of an author for much so as his horse or his lands. The argument, the benefit of his heirs. In Denmark, the Copyaccording to the principle laid down by our oppo- right is perpetual. In Spain it is perpetual. In nent, is decidedly against his appropriation of the the two Sicilies the law is believed to be the same property while the author has an interest in it. as that of France. In Russia, it is during the It is urged as an objection also, that this privilege author's lifetime,-for twenty-five years after,should not be conferred upon one who incurs none and a farther term of ten years, if an edition of the responsibilities of citizenship-who con- shall be published within five years before the expitributes nothing to the country which yields the ration of the first term. In the Russian code, we privilege. As if the books themselves, the wisdom also find an enactment confirming certain titles of and science which they afford, the enjoyment which rank and honor, on corresponding degrees of sucthey bring, are not compensation fully equal to the cess in literature. The English Law confers the protection which we are required to bestow. But right for twenty-eight years. The "International these are really inferior points. The question must Copyright Bill" of Mr. Talfourd, secures to “fobe argued from first principles. If there be a reigners Copyright in their works there [in England]\ natural right of property in the English author, we where the government to which these foreigners are as certainly guilty of violating the laws of belong, allows to British subjects printing in their God and Justice, in divesting him of the actual dominions, similar rights." But the British Law profits of his writings, as we should be in divesting is still unsettled, and the public mind, like our own, him of any other property. The proposition is not very much unsettled in regard to it. to be gainsayed. All depends upon the simple In all countries which have made any advances inquiry-does the author, whether English or Ame- to civilization, an author's right of property has rican, who, by his industry, ingenuity, skill or ge- been recognized in his productions. Indeed, such nius, composes and invents a book, poem or history, a recognition, and the degree of security which it acquire such a peculiar right therein-in the values, confers, may be regarded as a very fair comparaprofits and results of such a performance-as simi- tive test of the moral progress of the several nalar labor, industry and ingenuity, exercised in other tions. If, then, this be a property in all countries,

it is a property apart from convention. The uni- Great Britain or America. I should much preversality of the acceptation declares it to be such; fer to deal with the uncommitted report of Mr. and as such, it is imperative upon the moral sense Berrien, to which this writer refers with some earof every nation to put it on a like footing of secu- nestness, since it is always more grateful to encounrity with every other species of property. There ter those who take the higher and more permanent can be no evasion of this simple requisition of jus-views of a subject; and I object, in limine, to the tice. There can be no plea to the effect that it is a attempt to prejudice a case by any reference to property easily appropriated, not easily protected, the supposed opinions and arguments of any distinand very profitable to the appropriator. The lan-guished individual, from whom we have nothing

guage of the moral law is imperative :-" Fiat tangible. I am not sure that Mr. Berrien would justitia, ruat cœlum." be such an authority on the subject of the literary

I have endeavored to show that the "right of interests of this country, as to justify his accepcopy" should be conceded to the foreign author, as tance, by the popular mind, in preference to that a matter of policy for the protection of the native. of its domestic writers. The truth is, the quarrel This word "protection" has been made something of the latter with the members of Congress, is of a bugbear, and as few modern philosophers go that so little consideration has been yielded to the more than skin deep in the dissection of their sub- subject. A farther reproach is, that when they jects, it has been found sufficient to terrify some did attempt its examination, they suffered themof the advocates of the free-trade doctrines. 1 selves to be surrounded and influenced by the active use the word now with some reluctance. I am too partisanship of persons, who, by their own showmuch of a free-trader myself, not to avoid any ing, were deeply interested in opposition to the seeming sanction given to principles and a practice, measure. Such persons as the writer of the pamwhich I regard with antipathy. But the word phlet before us, were not adequate authorities. I "protection" here, is not that sort of protection must confess, I see not why they should have been which the manufacturer desires. While the lat- referred to at all. Were the subject that of paperter would exclude foreign goods, or only admit of making instead of book-making, the reference their entry upon hard conditions, it is the prayer of might be legitimate enough,—but there ends. Conthe American author, that his foreign competitor gress might well be distrustful of opinions volunshould be put upon the very same footing with him- teered with so much pains-taking and at some exself-should come into the market free of duty-pense, by parties not themselves engaged in the on the same terms with the native, the latter business of authorship. They might well distrust asking nothing more than a fair field and no favor. those persons of whom the authors of the country The peculiar working of the existing system, by distinctly allege that they are interested to mainwhich he is moved to this prayer, is sufficiently tain things in their present condition. The latter developed in my first and second letters. This have rather forborne pressing their arguments upon concession is demanded by what is due to native the law-giver, simply because it might naturally authority-by the kindred character and language be assumed that governing considerations of duty of the applicant, and by the requisitions of natural would, of themselves, have led the representative justice. If, thus admitted, the superior ability of mind of the country to every inquiry, in every the British can drive the native author entirely quarter, which was requisite to a just comprehenfrom the shops of the publisher, be it so! we shall have no reason to complain, and certainly no right to do so. But such a fear is entertained only by those who oppose the objects of our application. It is an argument due to their excessive, and, as we believe, overstrained sympathies for an interest, to which, in our thinking, there are no worse foes than themselves.

sion of the interest under adjudication. They might naturally take for granted that, of all persons, they were the very first who should have been applied to in preference to paper manufacturers and publishers;—and this for reasons, some of which have become proverbial ;—the sufficient one being, that they constitute a liberal profession. It does not need to show, since the whole history of liteThe arguments against the measure are chiefly rature declares it, that they have worked liberally drawn from expediency. They are sometimes slen- and have generally remained poor. It seems they der enough, and, not unfrequently, inconsistent with were mistaken in this calculation. Senators seem each other. Among others which lie before me to have expected that the literary men of the nanow, are those of Mr. John Campbell, who is un-tion should throng the lobbies, cheek by jowl, and derstood to be a manufacturer of paper; we trust cap in hand, with the busy crowd of interested exthat his reams are more fair and much stronger pectants which ordinarily inhabit there in deferthan his arguments. Something he says against ence to place. The policy or propriety of this forthe right of the author to his own wares, but noth bearance-shall we call it pride? may well be quesing much, his chief force lying in the argumen- tioned, when it is found that such performances as tum ad crumenam-certainly the very best mode the one before us are suffered to prejudice and imfor influencing the Anglo-Saxon nature whether in pair their rights. But that I am told that this pam

phlet has had some sway with members of Con- umes, than which none better could be furnished to gress, I should scarcely suppose that it needed any any people, were no longer attainable by the doanswer, since a moderate amount of thought and mestic publisher. inquiry would soon lay bare its deficiencies, as an "Can, then, reasons be adduced which are suffiargument to any understanding. Mr. Campbell is cient to warrant such a procedure? It is thought one of those persons who work in figures,--a mode not the more particularly when it is recollected of discussion, which, in spite of the commercial that in an arrangement between government and proverb, is, of all others, the most likely to be dis-government, where much is conceded, something ingenuous and dishonest. His figures have this approximating at least to an equivalent is always character. To much of his opinions and state- expected in return." ments, a sufficient answer will be found in the preceding papers. But, it may not be amiss, at the risk of saying things a second time, to consider them once more, seriatim.

Thus Mr. Campbell: In answer, we have to say, first, that we have no right to expect any thing in return for an act of simple justice. Next: we concede nothing to the British Government at all. "Surely," says Mr. Campbell," an act which That Government simply proposes to treat with us, would greatly and injuriously affect the current on behalf of certain individuals of her communityliterature of an entire community, and a commu-as every good Government, considerate of the innity so numerous, and so generally capable of read-terests of its citizens should-and these individuals ing, as are the inhabitants of these United States, alone reap the benefits of the treaty. will not be passed unadvisedly by their representa- It is not true that there is to be no equivalent. It tives ?" is an assumption in the face of the fact. The

Thirdly.

I hope not. We concur in this aspiration of Mr. equivalents are twofold. In the first place, the Campbell ;-for really, the complaint of the Ame-books are themselves an equivalent, in the lessons rican author is that, what has been done by Con- which they teach, the knowledge which they begress, in the present interest, has been done under stow, the amusement they afford. Surely, if the very bad advice. But what is meant by the "cur- American people had paid ten cents to Walter rent literature of an entire community?" Current Scott for each work of his genius which they prices of books is probably the thing intended to bought, instead of paying the whole profit to the be said, for the current literature of a community American publisher, they would have had ample must be its own, unborrowed; and that, as I have equivalent for the outlay in the treasures which sufficiently shown, and as every body knows, has they have gathered from his hands, and for which been injuriously affected,-nay, destroyed, by the no return was ever given. For the second mode existing condition of things among us;-as we as- of equivalent let me refer you to my first letter, sert, by the absence of a proper law of Copyright. where I have shown you, from the excellent tables Be as ingenious as you will, argue as profoundly, of Mr. Putnam, that, for many years, up to 1834, yet, at the close, the truth stares you still in the the original works, produced and published in Ameface-native authorship is very fairly at an end. rica were equal to the number of European reprints The native writer no longer finds entrance to the in the same space of time. What, if a mutual office of the publisher, and the very best among system of Copyright prevailed in both countries, us, are now compelled to publish for themselves, would it prevent the American author from disporemain in abeyance, or turn to some other branch sing of his Copyright in Europe, on the same footing of business. There must be something terribly with the Englishman? We are told that the British wrong, and needing prompt remedy, in a condition prefer their own literature. Grant this to some of things which drives a whole profession from a extent, and yet, even after all allowance for Bridepartment of industry, to which they have hith- tish prejudice, the quid would be given us in very erto addressed their lives. Their books are no fair proportion to our claims. We have proof of longer published, and what have we in their place? this already-Cooper and Irving are writers who Let the Representatives of the country ask them- have always been in demand, and always well paid selves that question, and ask, further, in what de- by the British publisher :-others might be named; gree the national mind and morals would be the and we see by the same tables of Mr. Putnam, that worse for its total exclusion from the national press? hundreds of American works have been republished But this writer argues improperly in another re- in England, without the privity of the author, frespect, indeed, the whole sentence is a begging of quently without his name, and sometimes with a the question. He argues as if books were not to most base perversion of it to make it pass for oribe published again-as if we were to deprive the ginal and European. Our reviews, magazines and people, at one fell swoop, of all their literary ali- newspapers, have, in this way, been furnishing ocment-as if we were not only to exclude all modern casional material, for many years, to the British British authors, but, as if no American were to journalists of corresponding character. In short, take their place;-and as if the whole world and if the mutual system of Copyright prevailed, an wealth of past British Literature-myriads of vol- 'American book would appear in England without

any distinctive marks of its origin, other than those a sufficiency for any appetite seeking knowledge afforded by its contents. The publishers would and that moral succor which the soul and the affecoffend no prejudices, if there were any, among the tions demand at the hands of the intellect. These people. They are a class, very much alike, we writings, in millions, are in our possession, and suspect, in both countries-taking care to do noth- can not be taken from our grasp by the operations ing which should impair the sale of publications, of any law of Copyright. So far, therefore, as which, if likely to be successful, they would ac- the materials for making men wise are concerned, cept at any hands. These British prejudices, we we are already endowed with very vast abundance. may add, do not seem particularly incorrigible, It is not then for the wisdom of the moderns, but since I have before me a list of no less than fifty- the amusement which they offer that we demand six American novels, published as such, with the their books. Well, the poor man confessedly has authors' names, by a single house in London. I as much right,-perhaps a greater right, to be have every assurance too, that they were bought amused, than any other person. But what is the and read with avidity. But, even if we had no value of the sort of amusement to him, his wife authors, there would be no force in this objection and innocent daughter, which is offered by much of of Mr. Campbell ;-for we are not to argue against the very cheap literature of the present day-and the capacity of a people to create, who have hith- how much time has the poor man for reading the erto been denied by law the use of this capacity. myriads of closely printed pages that are hourly This is arguing in a circle. We discourage them set upon the shelves of the bookseller? Doubtless, from making books, and then argue from their non- the estimate of the paper manufacturer, on this performance against their ability. Free the same subject, is very much the creature of his hope. people from these restraints-suffer them to enter He sees millions of sheets consumed in a single equally into the same field with their competitors, month-he fancies they are bought and read by the and only then would the reproach and argument be poor. He is mistaken, and we now begin to see, legitimate in the event of their failure. Fettered that these millions cease to be printed. Cheap by necessity, by convention, and the inappreciating books are getting to be less numerous. and hostile opposition of such persons as Mr. be too much of a good thing; for, after all, let the Campbell, at home, and there is no occasion for man be able to buy what he may desire, he still wonder at their non-performance. That they should finds it a physical impossibility to spare the time do any thing is the miracle. Leave it to our paper- for its perusal. Reducing the price to the most manufacturers, and the chance is, that we should miserable standards, it was not only necessary to never possess a native volume for publication in print in the most wretched style, but to put forth either country. the most enormous quantity, in order to secure a "But the mischief which would arise from grant-moderate profit. The consequence is, that public ing to transatlantic writers the exclusive privilege appetite is gorged, and turns, with loathing, from of republishing their works in this country, is by the surfeit. There is, after all that is said of the no means limited to a balance of dollars and cents. intelligence of our people, a limit to the number of The rich might, and doubtless would, continue to readers. Failing this calculation, our cheap pubpurchase at the enhanced price, but what would be lishers have been playing the game of the Kilkenthe condition of the middling and lower classes of ny cats with each other-a matter, which, in all our population, whose characteristics, be it remem- probability, will produce a very considerable change bered, is intelligence; and whence do they derive of opinion, before another year is well over, in the that intelligence which so honorably and happily opinion even of some of our adversary pamphledistinguishes them from persons abroad in corres-teers. Let me not be understood as adverse to a ponding spheres of life? Why, from the circulation, cheapening of book publishing, having reference to to be sure, of every species of knowledge in the cheapest form put forth by rival publishers striving to supply the intellectual market on the lowest possible terms."

There may

prices as they were anterior to 1839, or '40. The error is in having made them too cheap. The present system is destroying publishers, and disgusting readers; and, by the way, when we look back This is plausible,-but nothing more. The ad to the circulating libraries, which the cheap syscaptandum is easily disposed of. We take it, that tem has broken up entirely, we are at a loss to see the intelligence of our people was found and fam- in what the popular intelligence could have reason ed long before the era proverbially known among to complain under the old prices. A good book us as that of cheap literature. They are not much might be procured from these libraries at twelve indebted for their wisdom to the labors of Sue and cents-a book in two volumes. The whole library Dickens. If mere books were the sources of their was free to the student, at prices ranging from intelligence, they have, as before suggested, the three to five dollars per annum. Here, the books funded wealth of British Literature, from the days were of superior character, of good print and paof St. Columbanus to those of our modern saint, per, clear, open type, and the poor man might read Columbus-to descend no later;-Heaven knows just as much, or just as little, as he pleased. Now,