OTHER WORKS PRINTED AT THE PUblic chargE. 619 pear in various forms by authority of government departments and Boards, and the expense of which is, wholly or in part, defrayed from the public purse. Some of these relate to the natural sciences-some to archæology and the arts-some to the affairs or contents of particular national establishments-others again to Political Affairs, domestic or foreign. There is nowhere any complete list of such works. No systematic scheme for their distribution has ever been framed. No one public officer could tell-even had he the offer of a well-paid "Commissionership" of something for his reward—what they have cost, or what stock of them remains on hand. And, very recently, when a member of Parliament desirous of getting some information on these points, after consulting various official persons, found at last the functionary within whose province it seemed to lie, he was assured that it could not be supplied for two reasons: the first-that the obtainable information on the subject was so little as to be valueless; and the second, that the cost of printing it (it was proposed to obtain a "return" in the ordinary form) would be "enormous." BOOK I. Chapter IV. Public Historio graphy and Pub lic Printing. of distributing al and State Documents. Before dismissing this section of the subject it may American system be useful to glance at the system of dealing with Con- the Congressiongressional and State documents which obtains in the United States of America. Often in point of literary workmanship, and always in point of typographical execution, these American State papers make a poor figure beside our own. But in respect of their systematic use for the creation of public opinion and for BOOK I. Chapter IV. graphy and Pub lic Printing. the furtherance of education, the American practice is Public Historio- greatly in advance of ours. This liberality of distribution is, I believe, carried sometimes into profusion and excess, but taking it as a whole it is useful and praiseworthy. Of the current Congressional Debates every Member of Congress is entitled to 24 copies for distribution. A collective series of the "Annals of Congress" from 1789 is in course of publication, in an edition of 2000 copies. Of these, each of the 282 members of Congress has one copy; five copies are assigned to the Library of Congress; two to those of the executive departments; one to that of the President; 50 copies to the Library of the House of Representatives; 25 to the Document Room of the Senate; 306 to Public and Incorporated Libraries, Colleges, and other literary institutions; 85 copies for foreign legations and exchanges; two copies to the executive office of each State and Territory; and one copy to Circuit-Court and District-Court of the United States; the residue being deposited in the Department of State subject to the future disposition of Congress. Of Reports and Papers presented to Congress the number printed is various according to the character of the paper; 1500 is the minimum number and the maximum has-in one instance, at least; that of the Patent Office Report upon Agriculture, reached 100,000. Of all papers 500 copies are uniformly reserved to be bound at the end of the session into sets for the Public Libraries, Historical Societies and Colleges of the Union. By a law dating as far back as 1814, it was provided that all incorporated Colleges and Historical Societies throughout the Union AMERICAN SYSTEM OF DISTRIBUTION. 621 BOOK I. Chapter IV. Public Historio graphy and Pub lic Printing. the Legislature New York. shall receive a bound set of all the documents gratuitously, and the list of institutions and Libraries thus privileged has been enlarged by several subsequent laws. A similar course has been pursued with the Collections of the Laws and Treaties of the United States. Publications of As respects the public documents of the principal in- of the State of dividual States of the Union, a like liberality obtains, and this is especially true of the State of New York, the Legislature of which has distinguished itself by the production of some scientific works of great value, amongst which, the Natural History of the State (in seventeen volumes, quarto, published between the years 1842 and 1852,) is very noticeable. The liberality which has characterized the distribution of all the works I have mentioned, has been by no means confined to the Union itself, but has largely extended to foreign countries. Very wisely, however, it has been sought to make this foreign circulation the basis of INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES, a subject to which I now advert. CHAPTER V. INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES. A general system of International Communication... has been established which will tend to render the results of the labours of each country, in Literature and Science, common to all, and to produce a community of interest, of knowledge, and of kindly feeling among men. Smithsonian Report for 1853-4, 235. BOOK I. Chapter V. exchanges. on the subject of OCCASIONAL and sometimes munificent interchanInternational ges of the literary and scientific productions of different countries are by no means of recent origin; but until lately they have been accidental rather than systematic, and our own country has been somewhat backward in Treasury Minute their encouragement. In July 1832, a Treasury Minute literary inter- was recorded to the following effect: "The Chancellor changes, of the Exchequer informs the Board that there is the prospect of an arrangement being made between His Majesty's Government and the Government of the King of the French, by which an interchange of all new literary publications will be secured for the use of the Library of the British Museum in the one country, and the Bibliothèque du Roi in the other. The Chancellor national ex July, 1832. TREASURY MINUTE OF JULY, 1832. 623 BOOK 1. Chapter V. exchanges. of the Exchequer also states, that arrangements of the same nature have already been carried into effect, International under the authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons, for a mutual communication of the Parliamentary Publications and Proceedings of that branch of the Legislature of the United Kingdom and [of the Chamber of Deputies?] of France." And the Minute proceeds to recommend that purchase of the Copyright privilege of Aberdeen University, to which I have referred in a preceding section of this article. But, as I have stated, the contemplated arrangement was never carried into effect. About the time when this negotiation between London and Paris was on foot, the attention of M. Alexandre Vattemare seems to have been attracted to the subject, and from that date almost to the present he appears to have devoted himself to the advocacy and the agency of such interchanges,-especially between the leading States of Europe and those of America, with a zeal which would probably have attained greater succes, had it been more largely tempered with discretion. In several respects Mr. Vattemare appears to have laid himself open to unfriendly criticism, but there is abundant proof that he has given important furtherance in a good work. The evidence on this point of an intelligent and competent witness, Mr. Henry Stevens of Vermont, before the Select Committee in Public Libraries of 1849, merits quotation: "About three fourths of the American States," he says, "have given many copies of all their publications to M. Vattemare to be sent to France. ...... Most of the States have given him many books, and sufficient |