BOOK I. Chapter II. Exaction of copies by legal deposit in Switzerland; in Denmark; in Sweden and Norway. ered to claim a copy of all those which are published within the province of Pomerania. In Saxony, a practice obtains which is different from all the usages on this head which I have hitherto had to notice. One copy only, it appears, work of every published in that Kingdom is exacted, the printer or publisher of which is to deliver it at a government office. where the works thus received are divided, according to their subject and character, between the Royal Library at Dresden and the University Library at Leipsic. To the former are sent books of History and Politics, and the more costly and elaborate works on the Arts and Sciences; and to the latter, works on Theology, Philosophy, Jurisprudence and Medicine, and other books of a professional or educational kind.1 In Switzerland, no Library, it would seem, but the Public Library of Geneva now enjoys this privilege of exacting copies from the publishers. That of Berne possessed it until 1830. To that of Zurich, we are told, publishers are in the habit of gratuitously presenting their publications. In Geneva, the right extends to two copies of original works and to one of reprints.2 By the laws of Denmark, the Royal Library of Copenhagen, from the end of the seventeenth century, has also had a right to two copies of all books, newspapers, and all other printed papers published in Denmark, Iceand, or the Danish Colonies. By those of Sweden and Norway, one copy of every work published in Sweden must be delivered to each of the following Libraries- 1 Returns of 1850, 346. 2 Ibid., 353-366. viz; 1, To the Royal Library at Stockholm; 2, to the University Library at Lund; 3, to the University Library at Upsal. This enactment does not apply to works printed in Norway.1 In Russia, the Imperial Library of St. Petersburgh is entitled to two copies of every work published within the empire. 2 BOOK I. Chapter II. Exaction of copies by legal deposit in Russia; States of By an Act of the Congress of the United States of in the United America of the 31 May 1790, continued and extended by subsequent Acts, one copy of every work in which a copy-right is secured must be deposited in the State Department at Washington. The works thus deposited are stated to number at present about 10,000 volumes, besides maps and charts, music and prints, and their average annual rate of increase, during the ten years preceding 1851, to be about 400 volumes.3 By the law in Brasil, etc.; of Brazil, the National Library at Rio de Janeiro is entitled to one copy of every work printed within the municipality of that capital; and by that of Peru, every printer within the State is enjoined to deliver two copies of every work and paper printed by him to the National Library at Lima. Kingdom. In England, as early as the year 1609, an agreement in the United was entered into by the Company of Stationers, with Sir Thomas Bodley, in virtue of which "one copy of 1 Returns of 1851, 46. 2 Returns of 1850, 338. 3 Jewett, Notices of Public Libraries in the United States of America (1851), 140. 4 Returns of 1852, 7. 5 Returns of 1851, 35. BOOK I. Chapter II. Copy-Tax. of every book which they should print thenceforward" was to be given to the Bodleian Library, and this agreement the Company is said (by Dr. Hudson, Bodley's Librarian in 1720,) to have very well observed, until the troublous times of the Long Parliament.1 Long before Bodley's day, however, copies had been exacted for delivery to the licensers of printing. But the first express parliamentary enactment by which printers were enjoined to deliver copies to Libraries, was that in the 'Sedition Act,' 14 Charles II, c. 33. Beginning with a recital that the regulation of printing is matter of public concern, it proceeds to forbid the printing of any book, without a license; to limit the number of printers and of presses; and then (in section 16) enacts: "That every printer shall reserve three printed copies, of the best and largest paper, of every new book printed by him, or reprinted with additions, and shall, before any public vending of the said book, bring them to the Master of the Company of Stationers, one whereof shall be delivered to the Keeper of His Majesty's Library, and the other two shall be sent to the ViceChancellors of the two Universities, respectively, for the use of the publique Libraries of the said Univer 1 Dr. Hudson's account of the Bodleian Library, printed in Macky's Journey through England (1722), 71, et seqq. 2 There is a decree of the Court of Star-Chamber, as early as 1637 (11 July), which recites the agreement between Bodley and the Stationers, and proceeds to "hereby order and declare that every printer shall reserve one book new printed or reprinted by him with additions, and shall, before any public vending of the said book, bring it to the Common Hall of the Company of Stationers, and deliver it to the officer thereof, to be sent to the Library at Oxford, accordingly, upon pain of imprisonment," etc. In 1640, however, this arbitrary Court was dissolved, and its decrees (virtually at least) annulled. BOOK 1. Chapter II. Sedition Acts. sities." This Act was to continue until the 10 June, 1664. By the 17 Charles II, c. 4, it was further continued, with an additional clause directing the Master of the Company to deliver the copies to the Libraries Provisions of the within ten days of their receipt, under penalties. This Act expired in May 1679, but was revived, for seven years, by 1 James II., c. 17, and again, by 4 William and Mary for a year, and to the end of the then next session of Parliament, when it was finally allowed to expire, after a Bill had been introduced for its continuance, on which the two Houses could not agree. Meanwhile, the frequent piracies of literary property led to much discussion and litigation, and in course of time to the introduction into Parliament of several measures for its protection. At length, after various failures, the famous Copyright Act' of the 8th of Queen Anne was passed and by its 5th section it enacted: "That nine copies of each book or books upon the best paper that after the said 10 April 1710, shall be printed and published as aforesaid, or reprinted and published, with additions, shall be ... delivered to the Warehouse-keeper of the Company of Stationers for the time being, .... for the use of the Royal Library, the Libraries of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the Libraries of the four Universities in Scotland, the Library of Sion College in London, and the Library of the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, respectively;" and the Warehouse-keeper was directed to deliver them to the Libraries within ten days after demand. The words in this clause-"printed and published as aforesaid"-were speedily laid hold of to BOOK I. Chapter II. Bentleys account of the Evasions his day. justify the substantial evasion of the enactment; it being contended that their effect must be to limit the exaction to such works, or parts of works only, as had been individually entered into the Register-book of the Stationers' Company, in order to the securing of Copyright therein, according to the 2nd section of this Act. That the former Acts-the last of which, as we have seen, expired in 1695—had been much evaded by the publishers, Bentley has told us, in a curious passage of the Act in of the preface to the Dissertation on Phalaris. When nominated to the Royal Library-keeper's office, "he was informed," he says, that the copies "had not of late been brought into the Library, according to the Act. Upon this, I made application to the Stationers' Company, and demanded the copies. The effect whereof was that I procured near 1000 volumes, of one sort or other, which are now lodged in the Library." And he adds, that chancing to call upon one of the London publishers, whilst this transaction was in hand, he'mentioned the circumstance. "But to my surprise, he answered me very pertly that he knew not what right the Parliament had to give away any man's property; that he hoped the Company of Stationers would refuse, and try it out at law; that they were a body, and had a common purse; and more to this purpose." At a period a little later than that here referred to, the booksellers, it must be owned, might have found a pretext for their violation of the law in the grossly neglected state into which the Royal Library had fallen, if we accept as authoritative, Bentley's own statement, in his paper entitled, A Proposal for building a Royal Library. "The |