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diff --git a/old/14295-8.txt b/old/14295-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..785ba59 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14295-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3826 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters on International Copyright; Second +Edition, by Henry C. Carey + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Letters on International Copyright; Second Edition + +Author: Henry C. Carey + +Release Date: December 7, 2004 [EBook #14295] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT *** + + + + +Produced by A Project Gutenberg Volunteer + + + + +LETTERS + +ON + +INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT: + +BY + +H. C. CAREY, + +AUTHOR OF "PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL SCIENCE," ETC. ETC. + +SECOND EDITION. + +NEW YORK: + +PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON, + +459 BROOME STREET. + +1868. + +RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: + +PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. + + + + + +PREFACE. + + +At the date, now fourteen years since, of the first publication of these +letters, the important case of authors _versus_ readers--makers of books +_versus_ consumers of facts and ideas--had for several years been again +on trial in the high court of the people. But few years previously the +same plaintiffs had obtained a verdict giving large extension of _time_ to +the monopoly privileges they had so long enjoyed. Not content therewith, +they now claimed greater _space_, desiring to have those privileges so +extended as to include within their domain the vast population of the +British Empire. To that hour no one had appeared before the court on the +part of the defendants, prepared seriously to question the plaintiffs' +assertion to the effect that literary property stood on the same precise +footing, and as much demanded perpetual and universal recognition, as +property in a house, a mine, a farm, or a ship. As a consequence of +failure in this respect there prevailed, and most especially throughout +the Eastern States, a general impression that there was really but one +side to the question; that the cause of the plaintiffs was that of truth; +that in the past might had triumphed over right; that, however doubtful +might be the expediency of making a decree to that effect, there could be +little doubt that justice would thereby be done; and that, while rejecting +as wholly _inexpedient_ the idea of perpetuity, there could be but slight +objection to so far recognizing that of universality as to grant to +British authors the same privileges that thus far had been accorded to our +own. + +Throughout those years, nevertheless, the effort to obtain from the +legislative authority a decree to that effect had proved an utter failure. +Time and again had the case been up for trial, but as often had the +plaintiffs' counsel wholly failed to agree among themselves as to the +consequences that might reasonably be expected to result from recognition +of their clients' so-called rights. Northern and Eastern advocates, +representing districts in which schools and colleges abounded, insisted +that perpetuity and universality of privilege must result in giving the +defendants cheaper books. Southern counsel, on the contrary, representing +districts in which schools were rare, and students few in number, insisted +that extension of privilege would have the effect of giving to planters +handsome editions of the works they needed, while preventing the +publication of "cheap and nasty" editions, fitted for the "mudsills" of +Northern States. Failing thus to agree among themselves they failed to +convince the jury, mainly representing, as it did, the Centre and the +West, as a consequence of which, verdicts favorable to the defendants had, +on each and every occasion, been rendered. + +A thoroughly adverse popular will having thus been manifested, it was now +determined to try the Senate, and here the chances for privilege were +better. With a population little greater than that of Pennsylvania, the +New England States had six times the Senatorial representation. With +readers not a fifth as numerous as were those of Ohio, Carolina, Florida, +and Georgia had thrice the number of Senators. By combining these +heterogeneous elements the will of the people--so frequently and +decidedly expressed--might, it was thought, be set aside. To that end, +the Secretary of State, himself one of the plaintiffs, had negotiated the +treaty then before the Senate, of the terms of which the defendants had +been kept in utter ignorance, and by means of which the principle of +taxation without representation was now to be established. + +Such was the state of affairs at the date at which, in compliance with the +request of a Pennsylvania Senator, the author of these letters put on +paper the ideas he had already expressed to him in conversation. By him +and other Senators they were held to be conclusive, so conclusive that the +plaintiffs were speedily brought to see that the path of safety, for the +present at least, lay in the direction of abandoning the treaty and +allowing it to be quietly laid in the grave in which it since has rested. +That such should have been their course was, at the time, much regretted +by the defendants, as they would have greatly preferred an earnest and +thorough discussion of the question before the court. Had opportunity been +afforded it _would_ have been discussed by one, at least, of the master +minds of the Senate;[1] and so discussed as to have satisfied the whole +body of our people, authors and editors, perhaps, excepted, that their +cause was that of truth and justice; and that if in the past there had +been error it had been that of excess of liberality towards the plaintiffs +in the suit. + + [Footnote 1: Senator Clayton of Delaware.] + +The issue that was then evaded is now again presented, eminent counsel +having been employed, and the opening speech having just now been made.[2] +Having read it carefully, we find in it, however, nothing beyond a labored +effort at reducing the literary profession to a level with those of the +grocer and the tallow-chandler. It is an elaborate reproduction of Oliver +Twist's cry for "more! more!"--a new edition of the "Beggar's Petition," +perusal of which must, as we think, have affected with profound disgust +many, if not even most, of the eminent persons therein referred to. In it, +we have presented for consideration the sad case of one distinguished +writer and admirable man who, by means of his pen alone, had been enabled +to pass through a long life of most remarkable enjoyment, although his +money receipts had, by reason of the alleged injustice of the consumers of +his products, but little exceeded $200,000; that of a lady writer who, by +means of a sensational novel of great merit and admirably adapted to the +modes of thought of the hour, had been enabled to earn in a single year, +the large sum of $40,000, though still deprived of two hundred other +thousands she is here said to have fairly earned; of a historian whose +labors, after deducting what had been applied to the creation of a most +valuable library, had scarcely yielded fifty cents per day; of another who +had had but $1000 per month; and, passing rapidly from the sublime to the +ridiculous, of a school copy-book maker who had seen his improvements +copied, without compensation to himself, for the benefit of English +children. + + [Footnote 2: See _Atlantic Monthly_ for October.] + +These may and perhaps should be regarded as very sad facts; but had not +the picture a brighter side, and might it not have been well for the +eminent counsel to have presented both? Might he not, for instance, have +told his readers that, in addition to the $200,000 above referred to, and +wholly as acknowledgment of his literary services, the eminent recipient +had for many years enjoyed a diplomatic sinecure of the highest order, by +means of which he had been enabled to give his time to the collection of +materials for his most important works? Might he not have further told us +how other of the distinguished men he had named, as well as many others +whose names had not been given, have, in a manner precisely similar, been +rewarded for their literary labors? Might he not have said something of +the pecuniary and societary successes that had so closely followed the +appearance of the novel to whose publication he had attributed so great an +influence? Might he not, and with great propriety, have furnished an +extract from the books of the "New York Ledger," exhibiting the tens and +hundreds of thousands that had been paid for articles which few, if any, +would care to read a second time? Might he not have told his readers of +the excessive earnings of public lecturers? Might he not, too, have said a +word or two of the tricks and contrivances that are being now resorted to +by men and women--highly respectable men and women too--for evading, +on both sides of the Atlantic, the spirit of the copyright laws while +complying with their letter? Would, however, such a course of proceeding +have answered his present purpose? Perhaps not! His business was to pass +around the hat, accompanying it with a strong appeal to the charity of the +defendants, and this, so far as we can see, is all that thus far has been +done. + +Might not, however, a similar, and yet stronger, appeal now be made in +behalf of other of the public servants? At the close of long lives devoted +to the public service, Washington, Hamilton, Clay, Clayton, and many other +of our most eminent men have found themselves largely losers, not gainers, +by public service. The late Governor Andrew's services were surely worth +as much, per hour, as those of the authoress of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," yet +did he give five years of his life, and perhaps his life itself, for far +less than half of what she had received for the labors of a single one. +Deducting the expenses incident to his official life, Mr. Lincoln would +have been required to labor for five and twenty years before he could have +received as much as was paid to the author of the "Sketch Book." The +labors of the historian of Ferdinand and Isabella have been, to himself +and his family, ten times more productive than have been those of Mr. +Stanton, the great war minister of the age.--Turning now, from civil to +military life, we see among ourselves officers who have but recently +rendered the largest service, but who are now quite coolly whistled down +the wind, to find where they can the means of support for wives and +children. Studying the lists of honored dead, we find therein the names of +men of high renown whose widows and children are now starving on pensions +whose annual amount is less than the monthly receipt of any one of the +authors above referred to. + +Such being the facts, and, that they are facts cannot be denied, let us +now suppose a proposition to be made that, with a view to add one, two, +three, or four thousand dollars to the annual income of ex-presidents, and +ex-legislators, and half as much to that of the widows and children of +distinguished officers, there should be established a general pension +system, involving an expenditure of the public moneys, and consequent +taxation, to the extent of ten or fifteen millions a year, and then +inquire by whom it might be supported. Would any single one of the editors +who are now so earnest in their appeals for further grants of privilege +venture so to do? Would not the most earnest of them be among the first to +visit on such a proposition the most withering denunciations? Judging from +what, in the last two years, we have read in various editorial columns, we +should say that they would be so. Would, however, any member of either +house of Congress venture to commit himself before the world by offering +such a proposition? We doubt it very much. Nevertheless it is now coolly +proposed to establish a system that would not only tax the present +generation as many millions annually, but that would grow in amount at a +rate far exceeding the growth of population, doing this in the hope that +future essayists might be enabled to count their receipts by half instead +of quarter millions, and future novelists to collect abroad and at home +the hundreds of thousands that, as we are assured, are theirs of _right_, +and that are now denied them. When we shall have determined to grant to +the widows and children of the men who in the last half dozen years have +perished in the public service, some slight measure of justice, it may be +time to consider that question, but until then it should most certainly be +deferred. + +The most active and earnest of all the advocates of literary _rights_ +was, two years since, if the writer's memory correctly serves him, the +most thorough and determined of all our journalists in insisting on the +prompt dismissal of thousands and tens of thousands of men who, at their +country's call, had abandoned the pursuits and profits of civil life. Did +he, however, ever propose that they should be allowed any extra pay on +which to live, and by means of which to support their wives and children, +in the interval between discharge from military service and +re-establishment in their old pursuits? Nothing of the kind is now +recollected. Would he now advocate the enactment of a law by means of +which the widow and children of a major-general who had fallen on the +field should, so far as pay was concerned, be placed on a level with an +ordinary police officer? He might, but that he would do so could not with +any certainty be affirmed. She and they would, nevertheless, seem to have +claims on the consideration of American men and women fully equal to those +of the authoress of "Lady Audley's Secret," already, as she is understood +to be, in the annual receipt from this country of more than thrice the +amount of the widow's pension, in addition to tens of thousands at home.[1] + + [Footnote 1: The London correspondent of Scribner and Co.'s "_Book + Buyer_" says that Miss Braddon's first publisher, Mr. Tinsley (who died + suddenly last year), called the elegant villa he built for himself at + Putney "Audley House," in grateful remembrance of the "Lady" to whose + "Secret" he was indebted for fortune; and Miss Braddon herself, through + her man of business, has recently purchased a stately mansion of Queen + Anne's time, "Litchfield House," at Richmond.] + +It is, however, as we are gravely told, but ten per cent. that she asks, +and who could or should object to payment of such a pittance? Not many, +perhaps, if unaccompanied by monopoly privleges that would _multiply the +ten by ten and make it an hundred!_ Alone, the cost to our readers might +not now exceed an annual million. Let Congress then pass an act +appropriating that sum to be distributed among foreign authors whose works +had been, or might be republished here. _That_ should have the writer's +vote, but he objects, and will continue to object, to any legislative +action that shall tend towards giving to already "great and wealthy" +publishing houses the _nine_ millions that they certainly will charge for +collecting the single _one_ that is to go abroad. + +"Great and wealthy" as they are here said to be, and as they certainly +are, we are assured that even they have serious troubles, against which +they greatly need to be protected. In common with many heretofore +competing railroad companies they have found that, however competition +among themselves might benefit the public, it would tend rather to their +own injury, and therefore have they, by means of most stringent rules, +established a "courtesy" copyright, the effect of which exhibits itself in +the fact, that the prices of reprinted books are now rapidly approaching +those of domestic production. Further advances in that direction might, +however, prove dangerous; "courtesy" rules not, as we are here informed, +being readily susceptible of enforcement. A salutary fear of interlopers +still restrains those "great and wealthy houses," at heavy annual cost to +themselves, and with great saving to consumers of their products. That +this may all be changed; that they may build up fortunes with still +increased rapidity; that they may, to a still greater extent, monopolize +the business of publication; and, that the people may be taxed to that +effect; all that is now needed is, that Congress shall pass a very simple +law by means of which a few men in Eastern cities shall be enabled to +monopolize the business of republication, secure from either Eastern or +Western competition. That done, readers will be likely to see a state of +things similar to that now exhibited at Chicago, where railroad companies +that have secured to themselves all the exits and entrances of the city, +are, as we are told, at this moment engaged in organizing a combination +that shall have the effect of dividing in fair proportion among the wolves +the numerous flocks of sheep. + +On all former occasions Northern advocates of literary monopolies assured +us that it was in that direction, and in that alone, we were to look for +the cheapening of books. Now, nothing of this sort is at all pretended. On +the contrary, we are here told of the extreme impropriety of a system +which makes it necessary for a New England essayist to accept a single +dollar for a volume that under other circumstances would sell for half a +guinea; of the wrong to such essayists that results from the issue of +cheap "periodicals made up of selections from the reviews and magazines of +Europe;" of the "abominable extravagance of buying a great and good novel +in a perishable form for a few cents;" of the increased accessibility of +books by the "masses of the people" that must result from increasing +prices; and of the greatly increased facility with which circulating +libraries may be formed whensoever the "great and wealthy houses" shall +have been given power to claim from each and every reader of Dickens's +novels, as their share of the monopoly profits, thrice as much as he now +pays for the book itself! This, however, is only history repeating itself +with a little change of place, the argument of to-day, coming from the +North, being an almost exact repetition of that which, twenty years since, +came from the South--from the mouths of men who rejoiced in the fact +that no newspapers were published in their districts, and who well _knew_ +that the way towards preventing the dissemination of knowledge lay in the +direction of granting the monopoly privileges that had been asked. The +anti-slavery men of the present thus repeat the argument of the +pro-slavery men of the past, extremes being thus brought close together. + +Our people are here assured that Russia, Sweden, and other countries are +ready to unite with them in recognizing the "rights" now claimed. So, too, +it may be well believed, would it be with China, Japan, Bokhara, and the +Sandwich Islands. Of what use, however, would be such an union? Would it +increase the facilities for transplanting the ideas of American authors? +Are not the obstacles to such transplantation already sufficiently great, +and is it desirable that they should be at all increased? Germany has +already tried the experiment, but whether or not, when the time shall +come, the existing treaties will be renewed, is very doubtful. Where she +now pays dollars, she probably receives cents. Discussion of the question +there has led to the translation and republication of the letters here now +republished, and the views therein expressed have received the public +approbation of men whose opinions are entitled to the highest +consideration. What has recently been done in that country in reference to +domestic copyright, and what has been the effect, are well exhibited in an +article from an English journal just now received, a part of which, +American moneys having been substituted for German ones, is here given, as +follows: + + "We have so long enjoyed the advantage of unrestricted competition in the + production of the works of the best English writers of the past, that we + can hardly realize what our position would have been had the right to + produce Shakespeare, or Milton, or Goldsmith, or any of our great classic + writers, been monopolized by any one publishing-house,--certainly we + should never have seen a shilling Shakespeare, or a half-crown Milton; + and Shakespeare, instead of being, as he is,' familiar in our mouths as + household words,' would have been known but to the scholar and the + student. We are far from condemning an enlightened system of copyright, + and have not a word to say in favor of unreasoning competition; but we do + think that publishers and authors often lose sight of their own interest + in adhering to a system of high prices and restricted sale. Tennyson's + works supply us with a case in point--here, to possess a set of + Tennyson's poems, a reader must pay something like 38_s_. or 40_s_.--in + Boston you may buy a magnificent edition of all his works in two volumes + for something like 15_s_., and a small edition for some four or five + shillings. The result is the purchasers in England are numbered by + hundreds, in America by thousands. In Germany we have almost a parallel + case. There the works of the great German poets, of Schiller, of Goethe, + of Jean Paul, of Wieland, and of Herder, are at the present time 'under + the protecting privileges of the most illustrious German Confederation,' + and, by special privilege, the exclusive property of the Stuttgart + publishing firm of J. G. Cotta. On the forthcoming 9th of November this + monopoly will cease, and all the works of the above-mentioned poets will + be open to the speculation of German publishers generally. It may be + interesting to our readers to learn the history of these peculiar legal + restrictions, which have so long prevailed in the German booktrade, and + the results likely to follow from their removal. + + "Until the beginning of this century literary piracy was not prohibited + in the German States. As, however, protection of literary productions + was, at last, emphatically urged, the Acts of the Confederation (on the + reconstruction of Germany in the year 1815) contained a passage to the + effect, that the Diet should, at its first meeting, consider the + necessity of uniform laws for securing the rights of literary men and + publishers. The Diet moved in the matter in the year 1818, appointing a + commission to settle this question; and, thanks to that supreme + profoundness which was ever applied to the affairs of the father-land by + this illustrious body, after twenty-two years of deliberation, on the + 9th of Nov., 1837, decreed the law, that the rights of authorship should + be acknowledged and respected, at least, for the space of ten years; + copyright for a longer period, however, being granted for voluminous and + costly works, and for the works of the great German poets. + + "In the course of time, however, a copyright for ten years proved + insufficient even for the commonest works; it was therefore extended by a + decree of the Diet, dated June 19, 1845, over the natural term of the + author's life and for thirty years after his death. With respect to the + works of all authors deceased before the 9th of November, 1837-- + including the works of the poets enumerated above--the Diet decided + that they could all be protected until the 9th of November, 1867. + + "It was to be expected that the firm of J. G. Cotta, favored until now + with so valuable a monopoly, would make all possible exertions not to be + surpassed in the coming battle of the Publishers, though it is a somewhat + curious sight to see this haughty house, after having used its privileges + to the last moment, descend now suddenly from its high monopolistic stand + into the arena of competition, and compete for public favor with its + plebeian rivals. Availing itself of the advantage which the monopoly + hitherto attached to it naturally gives it, the house has just commenced + issuing a cheap edition of the German classics, under the title + 'Bibliothek für Alle. Meisterwerke deutscher Classiker,' in weekly parts, + 6 cts. each; containing the selected works of Schiller, at the price of + 75 cts., and the selected works of Goethe, at the price of $1.50. And + now, just as the monopoly is gliding from their hands, the same firm + offers, in a small 16mo edition, Schiller's complete works, 12 vols., + for 75 cts. + + "Another publisher, A. H. Payne, of Leipzig, announces a complete edition + of Schiller's works, including some unpublished pieces, for 75 cts. + + "Again, the well-known firm of F. A. Brockhaus holds out a prospectus of + a corrected critical edition of the German poets of the eighteenth and + nineteenth century, which we have every reason to believe will merit + success. A similar enterprise is announced, just now, by the + Bibliographical Institution of Hildburghausen, under the title, + 'Bibliothek der deutschen Nationalliteratur,' edited by Heinr. Kurz, in + weekly parts of 10 sheets, at the price of 12 cts. each. Even an + illustrated edition of the Classics will be presented to the public, in + consequence of the expiration of the copyright. The Grotesche + Buchhandlung, of Berlin, is issuing the 'Hausbibliothek deutscher + Classiker,' with wood-cut illustrations by such eminent artists as + Richter, Thumann, and others; and the first part, just published, + containing Louise, by Voss, with truly artistic illustrations, has met + with general approbation. But, above all, the popular edition of the + poets, issued by G. Hempel, of Berlin, under the general title of + 'National Bibliothek sämmtlicher deutscher Classiker,' 8vo. in parts, 6 + cts. each, seems destined to surpass all others in popularity, though not + in merit. _Of the first part (already published), containing Bürger's + Poems, 300,000 copies have been sold, and 150,000 subscribers' names have + been registered for the complete series. This immense sale, unequalled in + the annals of the German book-trade, will certainly induce many other + publishers to embark in similar enterprises._"--Trübner's _Literary + Record_, Oct. 1867. + +Judging from this, there will, five years hence, be a million of families +in possession of the works of Schiller, Bürger, Goethe, Herder and others, +that thus far have been compelled to dispense with their perusal. Sad to +think, however, they will be of those cheap editions now so much despised +by American advocates of monopoly privileges! How much better for the +German people would it not have been had their Parliament recognized the +perpetuity of literary _rights_, and thus enabled the "great and wealthy +house" of Cotta and Co. to carry into full effect the idea that their own +editions should alone be published, thereby adding other millions to the +very many of which they already are the owners! + +At this moment a letter from Mr. Bayard Taylor advises us that German +circulating libraries impede the sale of books; that the circulation of +even highly popular works is limited within 20,000; and that, as a +necessary consequence, German authors are not paid so well as of right +they should be.[1] This, however, is precisely the state of things that, +as we are now assured, should be brought about in this country, prices +being raised, and readers being driven to the circulating library by +reason of the deficiency of the means required for forming the private +one. It is the one that _would_ be brought about should our authors, +unhappily for themselves, succeed in obtaining what is now demanded. + + [Footnote 1: New York _Tribune_, Nov. 29] + +The day has passed, in this country, for the recognition of either +perpetuity or universality of literary _rights_. The wealthy Carolinian, +anxious that books might be high in price, and knowing well that monopoly +privileges were opposed to freedom, gladly cooperated with Eastern authors +and publishers, anti-slavery as they professed to be. The enfranchised +black, on the contrary, desires that books may be cheap, and to that end +he and his representatives will be found in all the future co-operating +with the people of the Centre and the West in maintaining the doctrine +that literary _privileges_ exist in virtue of grants from the people who +own the materials out of which books are made; that those privileges have +been perhaps already too far extended; that there exists not even a shadow +of reason for any further extension; and that to grant what now is asked +would be a positive wrong to the many millions of consumers, as well as an +obstacle to be now placed in the road towards civilization. + +The amount now paid for public service under our various governments is +more than, were it fairly distributed, would suffice for giving proper +reward to all. Unfortunately the _distribution_ is very bad, the largest +compensation generally going to those who render the smallest service. So, +too, is it with regard to literary employments; and so is it likely to +continue throughout the future. Grant all that now is asked, and the +effect will be seen in the fact, that of the vastly increased taxation +ninety per cent. will go to those who work for money alone, and are +already overpaid, leaving but little to be added to the rewards of +conscientious men with whom their work is a labor of love, as is the case +with the distinguished author of the "History of the Netherlands." + +Twenty years ago, Macaulay advised his literary friends to be content, +believing, as he told them, that the existing "wholesome copyright" was +likely to "share in the disgrace and danger" of the more extended one +which they then so much desired to see created. Let our authors reflect on +this advice! Success now, were it possible that it should be obtained, +would be productive of great danger in the already not distant future. In +the natural course of things, most of our authorship, for many years to +come, will be found east of the Hudson, most of the buyers of books, +meanwhile, being found south and west of that river. International +copyright will give to the former limited territory an absolute monopoly +of the business of republication, the then great cities of the West being +almost as completely deprived of participation therein as are now the +towns and cities of Canada and Australia. On the one side, there will be +found a few thousand persons interested in maintaining the monopolies that +had been granted to authors and publishers, foreign and domestic. On the +other, sixty or eighty millions, tired of taxation and determined that +books shall be more cheaply furnished. War will then come, and the +domestic author, sharing in the "disgrace and danger" attendant upon his +alliance with foreign authors and domestic publishers, may perhaps find +reason to rejoice if the people fail to arrive at the conclusion that the +last extension of _his own privileges_ had been inexpedient and should be +at once recalled. Let him then study that well-known fable of Aesop +entitled "The Dog and the Shadow," and take warning from it! + +The writer of these Letters had no personal interest in the question +therein discussed. Himself an author, he has since gladly witnessed the +translation and republication of his works in various countries of Europe, +his sole reason for writing them having been found in a desire for +strengthening the many against the few by whom the former have so long, to +a greater or less extent, been enslaved. To that end it is that he now +writes, fully believing that the _right_ is on the side of the consumer of +books, and not with their producers, whether authors or publishers. +Between the two there is, however, a perfect harmony of all real and +permanent interests, and greatly will he be rejoiced if he shall have +succeeded in persuading even some few of his literary countrymen that such +is the fact, and that the path of safety will be found in the direction of +letting well enough alone. + +The reward of literary service, and the estimation in which literary men +are held, both grow with growth in that power of combination which results +from diversification of employments; from bringing consumers and producers +close together; and from thus stimulating the activity of the societary +circulation. Both decline as producers and consumers become more widely +separated and as the circulation becomes more languid, as is the case in +all the countries now subjected to the British free trade influence. Let +American authors then unite in asking of Congress the establishment of a +fixed and steady policy which shall have the effect of giving us that +industrial independence without which there can be neither political nor +literary independence. That once secured, they would thereafter find no +need for asking the establishment of a system of taxation which would +prove so burdensome to our people as, in the end, to be ruinous to +themselves. + + H. C. C. + +PHILADELPHIA,_ +Dec_. 1867. + + + + + +LETTERS + +ON + +INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. + + + + + +LETTER I. + +Dear Sir:--You ask for information calculated to enable you to act +understandingly in reference to the international copyright treaty now +awaiting the action of the Senate. The subject is an important one, more +so, as I think, than is commonly supposed, and being very glad to see that +it is now occupying your attention, it will afford me much pleasure to +comply, as far as in my power, with your request. + +Independently of the principle involved, it seems to me that the course +now proposed to be pursued is liable to very grave objection. It is an +attempt to substitute the action of the Executive for that of the +Legislature, and in a case in which the latter is fully competent to do +the work. For almost twenty years, Congress has been besieged with +applications on the subject, but without effect. Senate Committees have +reported in favor of the measure, but the lower House, composed of the +direct representatives of the people, has remained unmoved. In despair of +succeeding under any of the ordinary forms of proceeding, its friends have +invoked the legislation of the Executive power, and the result is seen in +the fact, that the Senate, as a branch of the Executive, is now called +upon to sanction a law, in the enactment of which the House of +Representatives could not be induced to unite. This may be, and doubtless +is, in accordance with the letter of the Constitution, but it is so +decidedly in opposition to its spirit that, even were there no other +objection, the treaty should be rejected. That, however, is but the +smallest of the objections to it. + +If the people required such a law, nothing could be more easy than to act +in this case as we have done before in similar ones. When we desired to +arrange for reciprocity in relation to navigation, we fixed the terms, and +declared that all the other nations of the earth might accede to them if +they would. No treaty was needed, and we therefore became bound to no one. +It was in our power to repeal the law when we chose. So, again, in regard +to patents. Foreigners exercise the power of patenting their inventions, +but they do so under a law that is liable to repeal at the pleasure of +Congress. In both of these cases, the bills underwent public discussion, +and the people that were to be subjected to the law, saw, and understood, +and amended the bills before they became laws. Contrast, I beg of you, +this course of proceeding with the one now proposed to be pursued in +reference to one of the largest branches of our internal trade. Finding +that no bill that could be prepared could stand the ordeal of public +discussion, a treaty has been negotiated, the terms of which seem to be +known to none but the negotiators, and that treaty has been sent to your +House of Congress, there to be discussed in secret session by a number of +gentlemen, most of whom have given little attention to the general +principle involved, while not even a single one can be supposed qualified +to judge of the practical working of the provisions by whose aid the +principle is to be carried out. Once confirmed, the treaty can be changed +only with the consent of England. Here we have secrecy in the making of +laws, and irrevocability of the law when made; whereas, in all other +cases, we have had publicity and revocability. Legislation like that now +proposed would seem to be better suited to the monarchies of Europe, than +to the republic of the United States. The reason why this extraordinary +course has been adopted is, that the people have never required the +passage of such a law, and could not be persuaded to sanction it now, were +it submitted to them. + +The French and English copyright treaty has, as I understand, caused great +deterioration in the value of property that had been accumulated in France +under the system that had before existed, and such may prove to be the +case with the one now under consideration. Should it be so, the +deterioration would prove to be fifty times greater in amount than it was +in France. Will it do so? No one knows, because those whose interests are +to be affected by the law are not permitted to read the law that is to be +made. They know well that they have not been consulted, and equally well +do they know that the negotiator is not familiar with the trade that is to +be regulated, and is liable, therefore, to have given his assent to +provisions that will work injury never contemplated by him at the time the +treaty had been made. Again, provisions may have been inserted, with a +view to prevent injury to the publishers, or to the public, that would be +found in practice to be utterly futile, or even to augment the difficulty +instead of remedying it. That such result would follow the adoption of +some of those whose insertion has been urged, I can positively assert. In +this state of things, it would seem to be proper that we should know +whether the provisions of the treaty were submitted to the examination of +any of the parties interested for or against it, and if so, to whom. So +far as I can learn, none of those opposed to it have had any opportunity +afforded them of reading the law, and if any advice has been taken, it +must have been of those publishers who are in favor of it. Those +gentlemen, however, are precisely the persons likely most to profit by the +adoption of the principle recognized by the treaty; and the more +disadvantageous to others the provisions for carrying that principle into +effect, the greater must be the advantage to themselves. They, therefore, +can be regarded as little more than the exponents of the wishes of their +English friends, who were counselling the British Minister on the one +hand, while on the other they were, through their friends here, +counselling the American one. A treaty negotiated under such +circumstances, would seem little likely to provide for the general +interests of the American people. + +When, in 1837, the attempt was first made to secure for English authors +the privilege of copyright, a large number of them united in an agreement +declaring a certain New York house to be "the sole authorized publishers +and issuers" of their works. Now, had that house volunteered its advice to +the Secretary of State of that day, he would scarcely have regarded it as +sufficiently disinterested to be qualified for the office it had +undertaken; and yet, if any advice in the present case has been asked, it +would seem that it must have been from houses that now look forward to +filling the place then occupied by that single one, and that cannot, +therefore, be regarded as fitted for the office of counsellors to the +Secretary of the present day. Recollect, I am, as is everybody else, +entirely in the dark. No one knows who furnished advice as to the treaty, +nor does any one know what is to be the law when it shall have been +confirmed. Neither can any one tell how the errors that may now be made +will be corrected. With a law regularly passed through both Houses of +Congress, these difficulties could not arise. They are a natural +consequence of this attempt to substitute the will of the Executive for +that of the people, as expressed by the House of Representatives, and +should, as I think, weigh strongly on the minds of Senators when called to +vote upon the treaty. Their constituents have a right to see, and to +discuss, the laws that are proposed before those laws are finally made, +and whenever it is attempted, as in the present case, to stifle +discussion, we may reasonably infer that wrong is about to be done. This +is, I believe, the first case in which, on account of the unpopularity of +the law proposed, it has been attempted to deprive the popular branch of +Congress of its constitutional share in legislation, and if this be +sanctioned it is difficult to see what other interests may not be +subjected to similar action on the part of the Executive. In all such +cases, it is the first step that is most difficult, and before making the +one now proposed, you should, as I think, weigh well the importance of the +precedent about to be established. No one can hold in greater respect than +I do, the honorable gentleman who negotiated this treaty; but in thus +attempting to substitute the executive will for legislative action, he +seems to me to have made a grave mistake. + +In the claim now made in behalf of English authors, there is great +apparent justice; but that which is not true, often puts on the appearance +of truth. For thousands of years, it seemed so obviously true that the sun +revolved around the earth that the fact was not disputed, and yet it came +finally to be proved that the earth revolved around the sun. Ricardo's +theory of the occupation of the earth, the foundation-stone of his system, +had so much apparent truth to recommend it, that it was almost universally +adopted, and is now the basis of the whole British politico-economical +system; and yet the facts are directly the reverse of what Ricardo had +supposed them to be. Such being the case, it might be that, upon a full +examination of the subject, we should find that, in admitting the claim of +foreign authors, we should be doing injustice and not justice. The English +press has, it is true, for many years been engaged in teaching us that we +were little better than thieves or pirates; but that press has been so +uniformly and unsparingly abusive of us, whenever we have failed to grant +all that it has claimed, that its views are entitled to little weight. At +home, many of our authors have taken the same side of the question; and +the only answer that has ever, to my knowledge, been made, has been, that +if we admitted the claims of foreign authors, the prices of books would be +raised, and the people would be deprived of their accustomed supplies of +cheap literature--as I think, a very weak sort of defense. If nothing +better than this can be said, we may as well at once plead guilty to the +charge of piracy, and commence a new and more honest course of action. +Evil may not be done that good may come of it, nor may we steal an +author's brains that our people may be cheaply taught. To admit that the +end justifies the means, would be to adopt the line of argument so often +used by English speakers, in and out of Parliament, when they defend the +poisoning of the Chinese people by means of opium introduced in defiance +of their government, because it furnishes revenue to India; or that which +teaches that Canada should be retained as a British colony, because of the +facility it affords for violation of our laws; or that which would have us +regard smugglers, in general, as the great reformers of the age. We stand +in need of no such morality as this. We can afford to pay for what we +want; but, even were it otherwise, our motto here, and everywhere, should +be the old French one: "_Fais ce que doy, advienne que pourra_"--Act +justly, and leave the result to Providence. Before acting, however, we +should determine on which side justice lies. Unless I am greatly in error, +it is not on the side of international copyright. My reasons for this +belief will now be given. + +The facts or ideas contained in a book constitute its body. The language +in which they are conveyed to the reader constitute the clothing of the +body. For the first no copyright is allowed. Humboldt spent many years of +his life in collecting facts relative to the southern portion of this +continent; yet so soon as he gave them to the light they ceased to be his, +and became the common property of all mankind. Captain Wilkes and his +companions spent several years in exploring the Southern Ocean, and +brought from there a vast amount of new facts, all of which became at once +common property. Sir John Franklin made numerous expeditions to the North, +during which he collected many facts of high importance, for which he had +no copyright. So with Park, Burkhard, and others, who lost their lives in +the exploration of Africa. Captain McClure has just accomplished the +Northwest Passage, yet has he no exclusive right to the publication of the +fact. So has it ever been. For thousands of years men like these-- +working men, abroad and at home--have been engaged in the collection of +facts; and thus there has been accumulated a vast body of them, all of +which have become common property, while even the names of most of the men +by whom they were collected have passed away. Next to these come the men +who have been engaged in the arrangement of facts and in their comparison, +with a view to deduce therefrom the laws by which the world is governed, +and which constitute science. Copernicus devoted his life to the study of +numerous facts, by aid of which he was at length enabled to give to the +world a knowledge of the great fact that the earth revolved around the +sun; but he had therein, from the moment of its publication, no more +property than had the most violent of his opponents., The discovery of +other laws occupied the life of Kepler, but he had no property in them. +Newton spent many years of his life in the composition of his "Principia," +yet in that he had no copyright, except for the mere clothing in which his +ideas were placed before the world. The body was common property. So, too, +with Bacon and Locke, Leibnitz and Descartes, Franklin, Priestley, and +Davy, Quesnay, Turgot, and Adam Smith, Lamarck and Cuvier, and all other +men who have aided in carrying science to the point at which it has now +arrived. They have had no property in their ideas. If they labored, it was +because they had a thirst for knowledge. They could expect no pecuniary +reward, nor had they much reason even to hope for fame. New ideas were, +necessarily, a subject of controversy; and cases are, even in our time, +not uncommon, in which the announcement of an idea at variance with those +commonly recorded has tended greatly to the diminution of the enjoyment of +life by the man by whom it has been announced. The contemporaries of +Harvey could scarcely be made to believe in the circulation of the blood. +Mr. Owen might have lived happily in the enjoyment of a large fortune had +he not conceived new views of society. These he gave to the world in the +form of a book, that led him into controversy which has almost lasted out +his life, while the effort to carry his ideas into effect has cost him his +fortune. Admit that he had been right, and that the correctness of his +views were now fully established, he would have in them no property +whatever; nor would his books be now yielding him a shilling, because +later writers would be placing them before the world in other and more +attractive clothing. So is it with the books of all the men I have named. +The copyright of the "Principia" would be worth nothing, as would be the +case with all that Franklin wrote on electricity, or Davy on chemistry. +Few now read Adam Smith, and still fewer Bacon, Leibnitz, or Descartes. +Examine where we may, we shall find that the collectors of the facts and +the producers of the ideas which constitute the body of books, have +received little or no reward while thus engaged in contributing so largely +to the augmentation of the common property of mankind. + +For what, then, is copyright given? For the clothing in which the body is +produced to the world. Examine Mr. Macaulay's "History of England" and you +will find that the body is composed of what is common property. Not only +have the facts been recorded by others, but the ideas, too, are derived +from the works of men who have labored for the world without receiving, +and frequently without the expectation of receiving, any pecuniary +compensation for their labors. Mr. Macaulay has read much and carefully, +and he has thus been enabled to acquire great skill in arranging and +clothing his facts; but the reader of his books will find in them no +contribution to positive knowledge. The works of men who make +contributions of that kind are necessarily controversial and distasteful +to the reader; for which reason they find few readers, and never pay their +authors. Turn now to our own authors, Prescott and Bancroft, who have +furnished us with historical works of so great excellence, and you will +find a state of things precisely similar. They have taken a large quantity +of materials out of the common stock, in which you, and I, and all of us +have an interest; and those materials they have so reclothed as to render +them attractive of purchasers; but this is all they have done. Look to Mr. +Webster's works, and you will find it the same. He was a great reader. He +studied the Constitution carefully, with a view to understand what were +the views of its authors, and those views he reproduced in different and +more attractive clothing, and there his work ended. He never pretended, as +I think, to furnish the world with any new ideas; and if he had done so, +he could have claimed no property in them. Few now read the heavy volumes +containing the speeches of Fox and Pitt. They did nothing but reproduce +ideas that were common property, and in such clothing as answered the +purposes of the moment. Sir Robert Peel did the same. The world would now +be just as wise had he never lived, for he made no contribution to the +general stock of knowledge. The great work of Chancellor Kent is, to use +the words of Judge Story, "but a new combination and arrangement of old +materials, in which the skill and judgment of the author in the selection +and exposition, and accurate use of those materials, constitute the basis +of his reputation, as well as of his copyright." The world at large is the +owner of all the facts that have been collected, and of all the ideas that +have been deduced from them, and its right in them is precisely the same +that the planter has in the bale of cotton that has been raised on his +plantation; and the course of proceeding of both has, thus far, been +precisely similar; whence I am induced to infer that, in both cases, right +has been done. When the planter hands his cotton to the spinner and the +weaver, he does not say, "Take this and convert it into cloth, and keep +the cloth;" but he does say, "Spin and weave this cotton, and for so doing +you shall have such interest in the cloth as will give you a fair +compensation for your labor and skill, but, when that shall have been +paid, _the cloth will be mine_." This latter is precisely what society, +the owner of facts and ideas, says to the author: "Take these raw +materials that have been collected, put them together, and clothe them +after your own fashion, and for a given time we will agree that nobody +else shall present them in the same dress. During that time you may +exhibit them for your own profit, but at the end of that period the +clothing will become common property, as the body now is. It is to the +contributions of your predecessors to our common stock that you are +indebted for the power to make your book, and we require you, in your +turn, to contribute towards the augmentation of the stock that is to be +used by your successors." This is justice, and to grant more than this +would be injustice. + +Let us turn now, for a moment, to the producers of works of fiction. Sir +Walter Scott had carefully studied Scottish and Border history, and thus +had filled his mind with facts preserved, and ideas produced, by others, +which he reproduced in a different form. He made no contribution to +knowledge. So, too, with our own very successful Washington Irving. He +drew largely upon the common stock of ideas, and dressed them up in a new, +and what has proved to be a most attractive form. So, again, with Mr. +Dickens. Read his "Bleak House" and you will find that he has been a most +careful observer of men and things, and has thereby been enabled to +collect a great number of facts that he has dressed up in different forms, +but that is all he has done. He is in the condition of a man who had +entered a large garden and collected a variety of the most beautiful +flowers growing therein, of which he had made a fine bouquet. The owner of +the garden would naturally say to him: "The flowers are mine, but the +arrangement is yours. You cannot keep the bouquet, but you may smell it, +or show it for your own profit, for an hour or two, but then it must come +to me. If you prefer it, I am willing to pay you for your services, giving +you a fair compensation for your time and taste." This is exactly what +society says to Mr. Dickens, who makes such beautiful literary bouquets. +What is right in the individual, cannot be wrong in the mass of +individuals of which society is composed. Nevertheless, the author objects +to this, insisting that he is owner of the bouquet itself, although he has +paid no wages to the man who raised the flowers. Were he asked to do so, +he would, as I shall show in another letter, regard it as leading to great +injustice. + + + + + +LETTER II. + +Let us suppose, now, that you should move, in the Senate, a resolution +looking to the establishment of the exclusive right of making known the +facts, or ideas, that might be brought to light, and see what would be the +effect. You would, as I think, find yourself at once surrounded by the +gentlemen who dress up those facts and ideas, and issue them in the form +of books. The geographer would say to you: "My dear sir, this will never +do. Look at my book, and you will see that it is drawn altogether from the +works of others, many of whom have sunk their fortunes, while others have +lost their lives, in pursuit of the knowledge that I so cheaply give the +world. You will find there the essence of the works of Humboldt, and of +Wilkes. All of Franklin's discoveries are there, and I am now waiting only +for the appearance of McClure's voyage in the Arctic regions to give a new +edition of my book. Reflect, I beseech you, upon what you are about to do. +Very few persons have leisure to read, or means to pay for the books of +these travellers. A few hundred copies are sufficient to satisfy the +demand, and then their works die out. Of mine, on the contrary, the sale +is ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand annually, and thus is knowledge +disseminated throughout the world, enabling the men who furnish me with +facts to reap _a rich harvest of never dying fame_. Grant them a copyright +to the new ideas they may supply to the world, and at once you put a stop +to the production of such books as mine, to my great injury and to the +loss of mankind at large. Facts and ideas are common property, and their +owners, the public, have a right to use them as they will." + +The historian would say: "Mr. Senator, if you persist in this course, you +will never again see histories like mine. Here are hundreds of people +scattered over the country, industriously engaged in disinterring facts +relating to our early history. They are enthusiasts, and many of them are +very poor. Some of them contrive to publish, in the form of books, the +results of their researches, while others give them to the newspapers, or +to the historical societies, and thus they are enabled to come before the +world. Few people buy such things, and it not unfrequently happens that +men who have spent their lives in the collection of important facts, waste +much of their small means in giving them to an ungrateful nation. +Nevertheless, they have their reward in the consciousness that they are +thus enabling others to furnish the world with accurate histories of their +country. I find them of infinite use. They are my hewers of wood and +drawers of water, and they never look for payment for their labor. Deprive +me of their services, and I shall be obliged to abandon the production of +books, and return to the labors of my profession--and they will be +deprived of fame, while the public will be deprived of knowledge." + +The medical writer would say: "Mr. Senator, should you succeed in carrying +out the idea with which you have commenced, you will, I fear, be the cause +of great injury to our profession, and probably of great loss of life, for +you will thereby arrest the dissemination of knowledge. We have, here and +abroad, thousands of industrious and thoughtful men, more intent upon +doing good than upon pecuniary profit, who give themselves to the study of +particular diseases, furnishing the results to our journals, and not +unfrequently publishing monographs of the highest value. The sale of these +is always small, and their publication not unfrequently makes heavy drafts +on the small means of their authors. Such men are of infinite use to me, +for it is by aid of their most valuable labors that I have found myself +enabled to prepare the numerous and popular works that I have given to the +world. Look at them. There are several volumes of each, of which I sell +thousands annually, to my great profit. Deprive me of the power to avail +myself of the brains of the working men of the profession and my books +will soon cease to be of any value, and I shall lose the large income now +realized from them, while the public will suffer in their health by reason +of the increased difficulty of disseminating information." + +The professor would ask you to look at his lectures and satisfy yourself +that they contained no single idea that had originated with himself. +"How," he would ask, "could these valuable lectures have been produced, +had I been deprived of the power to avail myself of the facts collected by +the working-men, and the principles deduced from them by the thinkers of +the world? I have no leisure to collect facts or analyze them. For many +years past, these lectures have yielded me a large income, and so will +they continue to do, provided I be allowed to do in future as in time past +I have done, appropriate to my own use all the new facts and new ideas I +meet with, crediting their authors or not as I find it best to suit my +purpose. Abandon your idea, my dear sir; it cannot be carried out. The men +who work, and the men who think, must content themselves with fame, and be +thankful if the men who write books and deliver lectures do not +appropriate to themselves the entire credit of the facts they use, and the +ideas they borrow." + +The teacher of natural science would say: "My friend, have you reflected +on what you are about to do? Look at our collections, and see how they +have been enlarged within the last half century. Asia and Africa, and the +islands of the Southern Ocean, have been traversed by indefatigable men +who, at the hazard of life, and often at the cost of fortune, have +quadrupled our knowledge of vegetable and animal life. Such men do not ask +for compensation of any kind. They are willing to work for nothing. Why, +then, not let them? Look at the vast contributions to geological knowledge +that have been made throughout the Union by men who were content with a +bare support, and glad to have the results of their labors published, as +they have been, at the public cost. Such men ask no copyright. When they +publish, it is almost always at a loss. Wilson lived and died poor. So did +Audubon, to whose labors we are indebted for so much ornithological +knowledge. Morton expended a large sum in the preparation and publication +of his work on crania. Agassiz did the same with his great work on fishes. +Cuvier had nothing but fame to bequeath to his family. Lamarck's great +work on the _invertebratae_ sold so slowly that very many years elapsed +before the edition was exhausted; but he would have found his reward had +he lived to see his ideas appropriated without acknowledgment, and +reclothed by the author of 'Vestiges of Creation,' of which the sale has +been so large. This, my friend, is the use for which such men as Lamarck +and Cuvier were intended. They collect and classify the facts, and we +popularize them to our own profit. Look at my works and see, bulky as they +are, how many editions have been printed, and think how profitable they +must have been to the publisher and myself. Look further, and see how +numerous are the books to which my labors have indirectly given birth. See +the many school-books in relation to botany and other departments of +natural science, the authors of which know little of what they undertake +to teach, except what they have drawn from me and others like myself. +Again, see how numerous are the 'Flora's Emblems,' and the 'Garlands of +Flowers,' and the 'Flora's Dictionaries,' and how large is their sale-- +and how large must be the profits of those engaged in their production. To +recognize in such men as Cuvier and Lamarck the existence of any right to +either their facts or their deductions would be an act of great injustice +towards the race of literary men, while most inexpedient as regards the +world at large, now so cheaply supplied with knowledge. As regards the +question of international copyright now before the Senate, my views are +different. Several of my books have been published abroad, and my +publisher here tells me, that to prevent the republication of others he is +obliged to supply them cheaply for foreign markets, and thus am I deprived +of a fair and just reward for my labors. Copyright should be universal and +eternal, and such, I am persuaded, will be the result at which you will +arrive when you shall have thoroughly studied the subject." + +Having studied it, and having given full consideration to the views that +they and others had presented, your answer would probably be to the +following effect: "It is clear, gentlemen, from your own showing, that +there are two distinct classes of persons engaged in the production of +books--the men who furnish the body, and those who dress it up for +production before the world. The first class are generally poor, and +likely to continue so. They labor without any view to pecuniary advantage. +They are, too, very generally helpless. Animated to their work solely by a +desire to penetrate into the secrets of nature the character of their +minds unfits them for mixing in a money-getting world, while you are +always in that world, ready to enforce your claims to its consideration. +As a consequence of this, they are rarely allowed even the credit that is +due to them. Their discoveries become at once common property, to be used +by men like yourselves, and for your own individual profit. We have here +among ourselves a gentleman who has given to astronomy a new and highly +important law essential to the perfection of the science, the discovery of +which has cost him the labor of a life, as a consequence of which he is +poor and likely so to remain. Important as was his discovery, his name is +already so completely forgotten that there is probably not a single one +among you that can now recall it, and yet his law figures in all the +recent books. Is this right? Has _he_ no claim to consideration?" + +"In answer, you will say, that 'to admit the existence of any such rights +is not only impossible, but _inexpedient_, even were it possible. +Knowledge advances by slow and almost imperceptible steps, and each is but +the precursor of a new and more important one. Were each discoverer of a +new truth to be authorized to monopolize the teaching of it millions of +men, to whom, by our aid, it is communicated, would remain in ignorance of +it, and thus would farther advance be prevented. In all times past, such +truths have been regarded as common property; and so,' you will add, 'they +must continue to be regarded. Rely upon it, the best interests of society +require that such shall continue to be the case, however great the +apparent injustice to the discoverer.' + +"Here, you will observe, you waive altogether the question of right which +you so strongly enforce in regard to yourselves. It may be that you have +reason; but if so, how do you yourselves stand in your relations with the +great mass of human beings whose right to this common property is equal +with your own? For thousands of years working men, collectors of facts and +philosophers, have been contributing to the common stock, and the treasure +accumulated is now enormously great; and yet the mass of mankind remain +still ignorant, and are poor, depraved, and wretched, because ignorant. +Under such circumstances, justice would seem to require of the legislator +that he should sanction no measure tending to throw unnecessary difficulty +in the way of the dissemination of knowledge. To do so, would be to +deprive the many of the power to profit by their interest in the common +property. To do so, would be to deprive the men who have contributed to +the accumulation of this treasure of even the reward to which, as you +admit, they justly may make a claim. If they are to be satisfied with +fame, we must do nothing tending to limit the dissemination of their +ideas, because to do so would be to limit their power to acquire fame. If +they are to be satisfied with the idea of doing good to their fellow-men, +we must avoid every thing tending to limit the knowledge of their +discoveries, because to do so would be to deprive them of much of their +small reward. The state of the matter is, as I conceive, as follows: On +one side of you stand the contributors to the vast treasure of knowledge +that mankind has accumulated, and is accumulating--men who have, in +general, labored without fee or reward; on the other side of you stand the +owners of this vast treasure, desirous to have it fashioned in a manner to +suit their various tastes and powers, that all may be enabled to profit by +its possession. Between them stand yourselves, middlemen between the +producers and the consumers. It is your province to combine the facts and +ideas, as does the manufacturer when he takes the raw materials of cloth, +and, by the aid of the skill of numerous working men, past and present, +elaborates them into the beautiful forms that so much gratify our eyes in +passing through the Crystal Palace. For this service you are to be paid; +but to enable you to receive payment you need the aid of the legislator, +as the common law grants no more copyright for the form in which ideas are +expressed than for the ideas themselves. In granting this aid he is +required to see that, while he secures that you have justice, he does no +injustice to the men who produce the raw material of your books, nor to +the community whose common property it is. In granting it, he is bound to +use his efforts to attain the knowledge needed for enabling him to do +justice to all parties, and not to you alone. The laws which elsewhere +govern the distribution of the proceeds of labor, must apply in your case +with equal force. Looking at them, we see that, with the growth of +population and of wealth, there is everywhere a tendency to diminution in +the proportion of the product that is allowed to the men who stand between +the producer and the consumer. In new settlements, trade is small and the +shopkeeper requires large profits to enable him to live; and, while the +consumer pays a high price, the producer is compelled to be content with a +low one. In new settlements, the miller takes a large toll for the +conversion of corn into flour, and the spinner and weaver take a large +portion of the wool as their reward for converting the balance into cloth. +Nevertheless, the shopkeeper, the miller, the spinner, and the weaver are +poor, because trade is small. As wealth and population grow, we find the +shopkeeper gradually reducing his charge, until from fifty it falls to +five per cent.; the miller reducing his, until he finds that he can afford +to give all the flour that is yielded by the corn, retaining for himself +the bran alone; and the spinner and weaver contenting himself with a +constantly diminishing proportion of the wool; and now it is that we find +shopkeepers, millers, and manufacturers grow rich, while consumers are +cheaply supplied because of the vast increase of trade. In your case, +however, the course of proceeding has been altogether different. Half a +century since, when our people were but four millions in number, and were +poor and scattered, gentlemen like you were secured in the monopoly of +their works for fourteen years, with a power of renewal for a similar +term. Twenty years since, when the population had almost tripled, and +their wealth had sixfold increased, and when the facilities of +distribution had vastly grown, the term was fixed at twenty-eight years, +with renewal to widow or children for fourteen years more. At the present +moment, you are secured in a monopoly for forty-two years, among a +population of twenty-six millions of people, certain, at the close of +twenty years more, to be fifty millions and likely, at the close of +another half century, to be a hundred millions, and with facilities, for +the disposal of your products, growing at a rate unequaled in the world. +With this vast increase of market, and increase of power over that market, +the consumer should be supplied more cheaply than in former times; yet +such is not the case. The novels of Mrs. Rowson and Charles B. Brown, and +the historical works of Dr. Ramsay, persons who then stood in the first +rank of authors, sold as cheaply as do now the works of Fanny Fern, the +'Reveries' of Ik Marvel, or the history of Mr. Bancroft; and yet, in the +period that has since elapsed, the cost of publication has fallen probably +twenty-five per cent. We have here an inversion of the usual order of +things, and it is with these facts before us that you claim to have your +monopoly extended over another thirty millions of people; in consideration +of which, our people are to grant to the authors of foreign countries a +monopoly of the privilege of supplying them with books produced abroad. +This application strikes me as unwise. It tends to produce inquiry, and +that will, probably, in its turn, lead rather to a reduction than an +extension of your privileges. Can it be supposed that when, but a few +years hence, our population shall have attained a height of fifty +millions, with a demand for books probably ten times greater than at +present, the community will be willing to continue to you a monopoly, +during forty-two years, of the right of presenting a body that is common +property, as compensation for putting it in a new suit of clothing? I +doubt it much, and would advise you, for your own good, to be content with +what you have. Aesop tells us that the dog lost his piece of meat in the +attempt to seize a shadow, and such may prove to be the case on this +occasion. So, too, may it be with the owners of patents. The discoverers +of principles receive nothing, but those who apply them enjoy a monopoly +created by law for their use. Everybody uses chloroform, but nobody pays +its discoverer. The man who taught us how to convert India rubber into +clothing has not been allowed even fame, while our courts are incessantly +occupied with the men who make the clothing. Patentees and producers of +books are incessantly pressing upon Congress with claims for enlargement +of their privileges, and are thus producing the effect of inducing an +inquiry into the validity of their claim to what they now enjoy. Be +content, my friends; do not risk the loss of a part of what you have in +the effort to obtain more." + +The question is often asked: Why should a man not have the same claim to +the perpetual enjoyment of his book that his neighbor has in regard to the +house he has built? The answer is, that the rights of the parties are +entirely different. The man who builds a house quarries the stone and +makes the bricks of which it is composed, or he pays another for doing it +for him. When finished, his house is all, materials and workmanship, his +own. The man who makes a book uses the common property of mankind, and all +he furnishes is the workmanship. Society permits him to use its property, +but it is on condition that, after a certain time, the whole shall become +part of the common stock. To find a parallel case, let it be supposed that +liberal men should, out of their earnings, place at the disposal of the +people of your town stone, bricks, and lumber, in quantity sufficient to +find accommodation for hundreds of people that were unable to provide for +themselves; next suppose that in this state of things your authorities +should say to any man or men, "Take these materials, and procure lime in +quantity sufficient to build a house; employ carpenters, bricklayers, and +architects, and then, in consideration of having found the lime and the +workmanship, you shall have a right to charge your own price to every +person who may, for all times, desire to occupy a room in it "; would this +be doing justice to the men who had given the raw materials for public +use? Would it be doing justice to the community by which they had been +given? Would it not, on the contrary, be the height of injustice? +Unquestionably it would, and it would raise a storm that would speedily +displace the men who had thus abused their trust. Their successors would +then say: "Messrs.---- our predecessors, did what they had no right to +do. These materials are common property. They were given without fee or +reward, with a view to benefit the whole people of our town, many of whom +are badly accommodated, while others are heavily taxed for helping those +who are unable to help themselves. To carry out the views of the +benevolent men to whom we are indebted for all these stone, bricks, and +lumber, they must remain common property. You may, if you will, convert +them into a house, and, in consideration of the labor and skill required +for so doing, we will grant you, during a certain time, the privilege of +letting the rooms, at your own price, to those who desire to occupy them; +but at the close of that time the building must become common property, to +be disposed of as we please." This is exactly what the community says to +the gentlemen who employ themselves in converting its common property into +books, and to say more would be doing great injustice. + +The length of time for which the building should be thus granted would +depend upon the number of persons that would be likely to use the rooms, +and the prices they would be willing to pay. If lodgers were likely to be +few and poor, a long time would be required to be given; but if, on the +contrary, the community were so great and prosperous as to render it +certain that all the rooms would be occupied every day in the year, and at +such prices as would speedily repay the labor and skill that had been +required, the time allowed would be short. Here, as we see, the course of +things would be entirely different from that which is observed in regard +to books, the monopoly of which has increased in length with the growth, +in wealth and number, of the consumers, and is now attempted, by the aid +of international copyright, to be extended over millions of men who are +yet exempt from its operation. + +The people of this country own a vast quantity of wild land, which by slow +degrees acquires a money value, that value being due to the contributions +of thousands and tens of thousands of people who are constantly making +roads towards them, and thus facilitating the exchange of such commodities +as may be raised from them. These lands are common property, but the whole +body of their owners has agreed that whenever any one of their number +desires to purchase out the interest of his partners he may do so at $1.25 +per acre. They do not _give_ him any of the common property; they require +him to purchase and pay for it. + +With authors they pursue a more liberal course. They say: "We have +extensive fields in which hundreds of thousands of men have labored for +many centuries. They were at first wild lands, as wild as those of the +neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains, but this vast body of laborers has +felled the trees and drained the swamps, and has thus removed nearly all +the difficulties that stood opposed to profitable cultivation. They have +also' opened mines of incalculable richness; mines of gold, silver, lead, +copper, iron, and other metals, and all of these are common property. The +men who executed these important works were our slaves, ill fed, worse +clothed, and still worse lodged; and thousands of the most laborious and +useful of them have perished of disease and starvation. Great as are the +improvements already made, their number is constantly increasing, for we +continue to employ such slaves--active, intelligent, and useful men-- +in extending them, and scarcely a day elapses that does not bring to light +some new discovery, tending greatly to increase the value of _our common +property_. We invite you, gentlemen, to come and cultivate these lands and +work these mines. They are free to all. During the long period of +forty-two years you shall have the whole product of your labor, and all we +shall ask of you, at the close of that period, will be that you leave +behind the common property of which we are now possessed, increased by the +addition of such machinery as you may yourselves have made. The corn that +you may have extracted, and the gold and silver that you may have mined +during that long period, will be the property of yourselves, your wives, +and your children. We charge no rent for the use of the lands, no wages +for the labor of our slaves." Not satisfied with this, however, the +persons who work these rich fields and mines claim to be absolute owners, +not only of all the gold and silver they extract, but of all the machinery +they construct out of the common property; and out of this claim grows the +treaty now before the Senate. + +If justice requires the admission of foreigners to the enjoyment of a +monopoly of the sale of their books it should be conceded at once to all, +and it should be declared that no book should be printed here without the +consent of its author, let him be Englishman, Frenchman, German, Russian, +or Hindoo. This would certainly greatly increase the difficulty now +existing in relation to the dissemination of knowledge; but if justice +does require it let it be done. Would it, however, benefit the men who +have real claims on our consideration? Let us see. A German devotes his +life to the study of the history of his country, and at length produces a +work of great value, but of proportional size. Real justice says that his +work may not be used without his permission; that the facts he has brought +to light from among the vast masses of original documents he has examined +are his property, and can be published by none others but himself. The +legislation, whose aid is invoked in the name of justice by literary men, +speaks, however, very differently. It says: "This work is very cumbrous. +To establish his views this man has gone into great detail. If translated, +his book will scarcely sell to such extent as to pay the labor. The facts +are common property. Out of this book you can make one that will be much +more readable, and that will sell, for it will not be of more than one +third the size. Take it, then, and extract all you need, and you will do +well. You will have, too, another advantage. Translation confers no +reputation; but an _original_ work, such as I now recommend to you, will +give you such a standing as may lead you on to fortune. Few people know +any thing of the original work, and it will not be necessary for you to +mention that all your materials are thence derived." On the other hand, a +lady who has read the work of this poor German finds in it an episode that +she expands into a novel, which sells rapidly, and she reaps at home a +large reward for her labors; while the man who gave her the idea starves +in a garret. A literary friend of the lady novelist, delighted with her +success, finds in his countrywoman's treasury of facts the material for a +poem out of which he, too, reaps a harvest. Both of these are protected by +international copyright, _because they have furnished nothing but the +clothing of ideas;_ but the man who supplied them with the ideas finds +that his book is condensed abroad, and given to the public, perhaps, +without even the mention of his name. + +The whole tendency of the existing system is to give the largest reward to +those whose labors are lightest, and the smallest to those whose labors +are most severe; and every extension of it must necessarily look in that +direction. The "Mysteries of Paris" were a fortune to Eugene Sue, and +"Uncle Tom's Cabin" has been one to Mrs. Stowe. Byron had 2,000 guineas +for a volume of "Childe Harold," and Moore 3,000 for his "Lalla Rookh;" +and yet a single year should have more than sufficed for the production of +any one of them. Under a system of international copyright, Dumas, already +so largely paid, would be protected, whereas Thierry, who sacrificed his +sight to the gratification of his thirst for knowledge, would not. +Humboldt, the philosopher _par excellence_ of the age, would not, because +he furnishes his readers with things, and not with words alone. Of the +books that record his observations on this continent, but a part has, I +believe, been translated into English, and of these but a small portion +has been republished in this country, although to be had without claim for +copyright. In England their sale has been small, and can have done little +more than pay the cost of translation and publication. Had it been +required to pay for the privilege of translation, but a small part of +even those which have been republished would probably have ever seen the +light in any but the language of the author. This great man inherited a +handsome property which he devoted to the advancement of science, and what +has been his pecuniary reward may be seen in the following statement, +derived from an address recently delivered in New York:-- + +"There are now living in Europe two very distinguished men, barons, both +very eminent in their line, both known to the whole civilized world; one +is Baron Rothschild, and the other Baron Humboldt; one distinguished for +the accumulation of wealth, the other for the accumulation of knowledge. +What are the possessions of the philosopher? Why, sir, I heard a gentleman +whom I have seen here this afternoon, say that, on a recent visit to +Europe, he paid his respects to that distinguished philosopher, and was +admitted to an audience. He found him, at the age of 84 years, fresh and +vigorous, in a small room, nicely sanded, with a large deal table +uncovered in the midst of that room, containing his books and writing +apparatus. Adjoining this, was a small bed-room, in which he slept. Here +this eminent philosopher received a visitor from the United States. He +conversed with him; he spoke of his works. 'My works,' said he, 'you will +find in the adjoining library, but I am too poor to own a copy of them. I +have not the means to buy a full copy of my own works.'" + +After having furnished to the gentlemen who produce books more of the +material of which books are composed than has ever been furnished by any +other man, this illustrious man finds himself, at the close of life, +altogether dependent on the bounty of the Prussian government, which +allows him, as I have heard, less than five hundred dollars a year. In +what manner, now, would Humboldt be benefited by international copyright? +I know of none; but it is very plain to see that Dumas, Victor Hugo, and +George Sand, might derive from it immense revenues. In confirmation of +this view, I here ask you to review the names of the persons who urge most +anxiously the change of system that is now proposed, and see if you can +find in it the name of a single man who has done any thing to extend the +domain of knowledge. I think you will not. Next look and see if you do not +find in it the names of those who furnish the world with new forms of old +ideas, and are largely paid for so doing. The most active advocate of +international copyright is Mr. Dickens, who is said to realize $70,000 per +annum from the sale of works whose composition is little more than +amusement for his leisure hours. In this country, the only attempt that +has yet been made to restrict the right of translation is in a suit now +before the courts, for compensation for the privilege of converting into +German a work that has yielded the largest compensation that the world has +yet known for the same quantity of literary labor. + +We are constantly told that regard to the interests of science requires +that we should protect and enlarge the rights of authors; but does science +make any such claim for herself? I doubt it. Men who make additions to +science know well that they have, and can have, no rights whatever. Cuvier +died very poor, and all the copyright that could have been given to him or +Humboldt would not have enriched either the one or the other. Laplace knew +well that his great work could yield him nothing. Our own Bowditch +translated it as a labor of love, and left by his will the means required +for its publication. The gentlemen who advocate the interests of science +are literary men who use the facts and ideas furnished by scientific men, +paying nothing for their use. Now, literature is a most honorable +profession, and the gentlemen engaged in it are entitled not only to the +respect and consideration of their fellow-men, but also to the protection +of the law; but in granting it, the legislator is bound to recollect, that +justice to the men who furnish the raw materials of books, and justice to +the community that owns those raw materials, require that protection shall +not, either in point of space or time, be greater than is required for +giving the producer of books a full and fair compensation for his labor. +How the present system operates in regard to English and American authors, +I propose to consider in another letter. + + + + + + +LETTER III. + +We are assured that justice requires the admission of foreign authors to +the privilege of copyright, and in support of the claim that she presents +are frequently informed of the extreme poverty of many highly popular +English writers. Mrs. Inchbald, so well known as author of the "Simple +Story" and other novels, as well as in her capacity of editor, dragged on, +as we are told, to the age of sixty, a miserable existence, living always +in mean lodgings, and suffering frequently from want of the common +comforts of life. Lady Morgan, so well known as Miss Owenson, a brilliant +and accomplished woman, is now to some extent dependent upon the public +charity, administered in the form of a pension of less than five hundred +dollars a year. Mrs. Hemans, the universally admired poetess, lived and +died in poverty. Laman Blanchard lost his senses and committed suicide in +consequence of being compelled, by his extreme poverty, to the effort of +writing an article for a periodical while his wife lay a corpse in the +house. Miss Mitford, so well known to all of us, found herself, after a +life of close economy, so greatly reduced as to have been under the +necessity of applying to her American readers for means to extricate her +little property from the rude hands of the sheriff. Like Lady Morgan, she +is now a public pensioner. Leigh Hunt is likewise dependent on the public +charity. Tom Hood, so well known by his "Song of a Shirt"--the delight +of his readers, and a mine of wealth to his publishers; a man without +vices, and of untiring industry--lived always from day to day on the +produce of his labor. On his death-bed, when his lungs were so worn with +consumption that he could breathe only through a silver tube, he was +obliged to be propped up with pillows, and, with shaking hand and dizzy +head, force himself to the task of amusing his readers, that he might +thereby obtain bread for his unhappy wife and children. With all his +reputation, Moore found it difficult to support his family, and all the +comfort of his declining years was due to the charity of his friend, Lord +Lansdowne. In one of his letters from Germany, Campbell expresses himself +transported with joy at hearing that a double edition of his poems had +just been published in London. "This unexpected fifty pounds," says he, +"saves me from jail." Haynes Bayley died in extreme poverty. Similar +statements are furnished us in relation to numerous others who have, by +the use of their pens, largely contributed to the enjoyment and +instruction of the people of Great Britain. It would, indeed, be difficult +to find very many cases in which it had been otherwise with persons +exclusively dependent on the produce of literary labor. With few and +brilliant exceptions, their condition appears to have been, and to be, one +of almost hopeless poverty. Scarcely any thing short of this, indeed, +would induce the acceptance of the public charity that is occasionally +doled out in the form of pensions on the literary fund. + +This is certainly an extraordinary state of things, and one that makes to +our charitable feelings an appeal that is almost irresistible. +Nevertheless, before giving way to such feelings, it would be proper to +examine into the real cause of all this poverty, with a view to satisfy +ourselves if real charity would carry us in the direction now proposed. +The skilful physician always studies the cause of disease before he +determines on the remedy, and this course is quite as necessary in +prescribing for moral as for physical disorder. Failing to do this, we +might increase instead of diminishing the evil, and might find at last +that we had been taxing ourselves in vain. + +What is claimed by English authors is perpetuity and universality of +property in the clothing they supply for the body that is furnished to the +world by other and unpaid men; and an examination of the course of +proceeding in that country for the last century and a half shows that each +step that has been taken has been in that direction. While denying to the +producers of facts and ideas any right whatsoever, every act of +legislation has tended to give more and more control over their +dissemination to men who appropriated them to their own use, and brought +them in an attractive form before the reader. Early in the last century +was passed an act well known as the Statute of Queen Anne, giving to +authors fourteen years as the period during which they were to have a +monopoly of the peculiar form of words they chose to adopt in coming +before the world. The number of persons then living in England and Wales, +and subjected to that monopoly, was about five millions. Since that time +the field of its operation has been enlarged, until it now embraces not +only England and Wales, but Scotland, Ireland, and the British colonies, +containing probably thirty-two millions of people who use the English +language. The time, too, has been gradually extended until it now reaches +forty-two years, or thrice the period for which it was originally granted. +Nevertheless, no life is more precarious than that of an Englishman +dependent upon literary pursuits for support. Such men are almost +universally poor, and leading men among them, Tennyson and Sir Francis +Head for instance, gladly accept the public charity, in the form of +pensions for less than five hundred dollars a year. This is not a +consequence of limitation in the field of action, for that is six times +greater than it was when Gay netted £1,600 from a single opera, and Pope +received £6,000 for his "Homer;" five times greater than when Fielding had +£1,000 for his "Amelia;" and four times more than when Robertson had +£4,500 for his "Charles V.," Gibbon £5,000 for the second part of his +history, and McPherson £1,200 for his "Ossian."[1] Since that time money +has become greatly more abundant and less valuable; and if we desired to +compare the reward of these authors with those of the present day, the +former should be trebled in amount, which would give Robertson more than +sixty thousand dollars for a work that is comprised in three 8vo. volumes +of very moderate size. It is not a consequence of limitation of time, for +that has grown from fourteen to forty-two years--more than is required +for any book except, perhaps, one in five or ten thousand. It should not +be a consequence of poverty in the nation, for British writers assure us +that wealth so much abounds that wars are needed to prevent its too rapid +growth, and that foreign loans are indispensable for enabling the people +of Britain to find an outlet for all their vast accumulations. What, then, +is the cause of disease? Why is it that in so wealthy a nation literary +men and women are so generally poor that it should be required to bring +their poverty before the world, to aid in the demand for an extension to +other countries of the monopoly so well secured at home? In that country +the fortunes of wealthy men count by millions, and, that being the case, +an average contribution of a shilling a head towards paying for the +copyright of books, would seem to be the merest trifle to be given in +return for the pleasure and the instruction derived from the perusal of +the works of English authors, and yet even that small sum does not appear +to be paid. Thirty-two millions of shillings make almost eight millions of +dollars; a sum sufficient to give to six hundred authors more than +thirteen thousand dollars a year, being more than half the salary of the +chief magistrate of our Union. Admitting, however, that there were a +thousand authors worthy to be paid, and that would most certainly cover +them all, it would give to each eight thousand dollars, or one third more +than we have been accustomed to allow to men who have devoted their lives +to the service of the public, and have at length risen to be Secretaries +of State. If English authors were thus largely paid, it would be deemed an +absurdity to ask an enlargement of their monopoly; but, as they are not +thus paid, it is asked. There is probably but a single literary man in +England that receives $8,000 a year for his labors, and it may be doubted +if it would be possible to name ten whose annual receipts equal $6,000; +while those of a vast majority of them are under $1,500, and very many of +them greatly under it. Even were we to increase the number of authors to +fifteen hundred, one to every 4,000 males between the ages of 20 and 60 in +the kingdom, and to allow them, on an average, $2,000 per annum, it would +require but three millions of dollars to pay them, and that could be done +by an average contribution of five pence per head of the population, a +wonderfully small amount to be paid for literary labor by a nation +claiming to be the wealthiest in the world. A shilling a head would give +to the whole fifteen hundred salaries nearly equal to those of our +Secretaries; and yet we see clever and industrious men, writers of +eminence whose readers are to be found in every part of the civilized +world, living on in hopeless poverty, and dying with the knowledge that +they are leaving widows and children to the "tender mercies" of a world in +which they themselves have shone and starved. Viewing all these facts, it +may, I think, well be doubted if the annual contributions of the people +subject to the British copyright act for the support of the persons who +produce their books, much exceeds three pence, or six cents, per head; and +here it is that we are to find the real difficulty--one not to be +removed by us. The home market is the important one, whether for words or +things, and when that is bad but little benefit can be derived from any +foreign one; and every effort to extend the latter will, under such +circumstances, be found to result in disappointment. It can act only as a +plaster to conceal the sore, while the sore itself becomes larger and more +dangerous from day to day. To effect a cure, the sore itself must be +examined and its cause removed. To cure the disease so prevalent among +British authors we must first seek for the causes why the home market for +the products of their labor is so very small, and that will be found in +the steadily growing tendency towards centralization, so obvious in every +part of the operations of the British empire. Centralization and +civilization have in all countries, and at all periods of the world, been +opposed to each other, and that such is here the case can, I think, +readily be shown. + + [Footnote 1: The several figures here given are from a statement in a + British journal. Whether they are perfectly accurate, or not, I have no + means of determining.] + +Among the earliest cases in which this tendency was exhibited was that of +the Union by which the kingdom of Scotland was reduced to the condition of +a province of England, and Edinburgh, from being the capital of a nation, +to becoming a mere provincial town. By many and enlightened Scotchmen a +federal union would have been preferred; but a legislative one was formed, +and from that date the whole public revenue of Scotland tended towards +London, towards which tended also, and necessarily, all who sought for +place, power, or distinction. An absentee government produced, of course, +absentee landholders, and with each step in this direction there was a +diminution in the demand at home for talent, which thenceforward sought a +market in the great city to which the rents were sent. The connection +between the educated classes of Scotland and the Scottish seats of +learning tended necessarily to decline, while the connection between the +former and the universities of England became more intimate. These results +were, of course, gradually produced, but, as is the case with the stone as +it falls towards the earth, the attraction of centralization grew with the +growth of the city that was built out of the contributions of distant +provinces, while the counteracting power of the latter as steadily +declined, and the greater the decline the more rapid does its progress now +become. Seventy years after the date of the Union, Edinburgh was still a +great literary capital, and could then offer to the world the names of +numerous men of whose reputation any country of the world might have been +proud: Burns and McPherson; Robertson and Hume; Blair and Kames; Reid, +Smith, and Stewart; Monboddo, Playfair, and Boswell; and numerous others, +whose reputation has survived to the present day. Thirty-five years later, +its press furnished the world with the works of Jeffrey and Brougham; +Stewart, Brown, and Chalmers; Scott, Wilson, and Joanna Baillie; and with +those of many others whose reputation was less widely spread, among whom +were Galt, Hogg, Lockhart, and Miss Ferrier, the authoress of "Marriage." +The "Edinburgh Review" and "Blackwood's Magazine," then, to a great +extent, represented Scottish men, and Scottish modes of thought. Looking +now on the same field of action, it is difficult, from this distance, to +discover more than two Scottish authors, Alison and Sir William Hamilton, +the latter all "the more conspicuous and remarkable, as he now," says the +"North British Review" (Feb. 1853), "stands so nearly alone in the ebb of +literary activity in Scotland, which has been so apparent during this +generation." McCulloch and Macaulay were both, I believe, born in +Scotland, but in all else they are English. Glasgow has recently presented +the world with a new poet, in the person of Alexander Smith, but, unlike +Ramsay and Burns, there is nothing Scottish about him beyond his place of +birth. "It is not," says one of his reviewers, "Scottish scenery, Scottish +history, Scottish character, and Scottish social humor, that he represents +or depicts. Nor is there," it continues, "any trace in him of that feeling +of intense nationality so common in Scottish writers. London," as it adds, +"a green lane in Kent, an English forest, an English manorhouse, these are +the scenes where the real business of the drama is transacted."[1] + + [Footnote 1: _North British Review_, Aug. 1863.] + +The "Edinburgh Review" has become to all intents and purposes an English +journal, and "Blackwood" has lost all those characteristics by which it +was in former times distinguished from the magazines published south of +the Tweed. + +Seeing these facts, we can scarcely fail to agree with the Review already +quoted, in the admission that there are "probably fewer leading individual +thinkers and literary guides in Scotland at present than at any other +period of its history since the early part of the last century," since the +day when Scotland itself lost its individuality. The same journal informs +us that "there is now scarcely an instance of a Scotchman holding a +learned position in any other country," and farther says that "the small +number of names of literary Scotchmen known throughout Europe for eminence +in literature and science is of itself sufficient to show to how great an +extent the present race of Scotchmen have lost the position which their +ancestors held in the world of letters." [1] + + [Footnote 1: _North British Review_, May, 1853.] + +How, indeed, could it be otherwise? Centralization tends to carry to +London all the wealth and all the expenditure of the kingdom, and thus to +destroy everywhere the local demand for books or newspapers, or for men +capable of producing either. Centralization taxes the poor people of the +north of Scotland, and their complaints of distress are answered by an +order for their expulsion, that place may be made for sheep and shepherds, +neither of whom make much demand for books. Centralization appropriates +millions for the improvement of London and the creation of royal palaces +and pleasure-grounds in and about that city, while Holyrood, and all other +of the buildings with which Scottish history is connected, are allowed to +go to ruin. Centralization gives libraries and museums to London, but it +refuses the smallest aid to the science or literature of Scotland. +Centralization deprives the people of the power to educate themselves, by +drawing from them more than thirty millions of dollars, raised by +taxation, and it leaves the professors in the colleges of Scotland in the +enjoyment of chairs, the emoluments of many of which are but $1,200 per +annum. Whence, then, can come the demand for books, or the power to +compensate the people who make them? Not, assuredly, from the mass of +unhappy people who occupy the Highlands, whose starving condition +furnishes so frequent occasion for the comments of their literary +countrymen; nor, as certainly, from the wretched inhabitants of the wynds +of Glasgow, or from the weavers of Paisley. Centralization is gradually +separating the people into two classes--the very rich, who live in +London, and the very poor, who remain in Scotland; and with the progress +of this division there is a gradual decay in the feeling of national +pride, that formerly so much distinguished the people of Scotland. The +London "Leader" tells its readers that "England is a power made up of +conquests over nationalities;" and it is right. The nationality of +Scotland has disappeared; and, however much it may annoy our Scottish +friends[1] to have the energetic and intelligent Celt sunk in the "slow +and unimpressible" Saxon, such is the tendency of English centralization, +everywhere destructive of that national feeling which is essential to +progress in civilization. + + [Footnote 1: See Blackwood's Magazine, Sept. 1853, art. "Scotland since + the Union."] + +Looking to Ireland, we find a similar state of things. Seventy years +since, that country was able to insist upon and to establish its claim for +an independent government, and, by aid of the measures then adopted, was +rapidly advancing. From that period to the close of the century the demand +for books for Ireland was so great as to warrant the republication of a +large portion of those produced in England. The _kingdom_ of Ireland of +that day gave to the world such men as Burke and Grattan, Moore and +Edgeworth, Curran, Sheridan, and Wellington. Centralization, however, +demanded that Ireland should become a province of England, and from that +time famines and pestilences have been of frequent occurrence, and the +whole population is now being expelled to make room for the "slow and +unimpressible" Saxon race. Under these circumstances, it is matter of +small surprise that Ireland not only produces no books, but that she +furnishes no market for those produced by others. Half a century of +international copyright has almost annihilated both the producers and the +consumers of books. + +Passing towards England we may for a moment look to Wales, and then, if we +desire to find the effects of centralization and its consequent +absenteeism, in neglected schools, ignorant teachers, decaying and decayed +churches, and drunken clergymen with immoral flocks, our object will be +accomplished by studying the pages of the "Edinburgh Review" [2] In such a +state of things as is there described there can be little tendency to the +development of intellect, and little of either ability or inclination to +reward the authors of books. In my next, I will look to England herself. + + [Footnote 2: April, 1853, art. "The Church in the Mountains."] + + + + + +LETTER IV. + +Arrived in England, we find there everywhere the same tendency towards +centralization. Of the 200,000 small landed proprietors of the days of +Adam Smith but few remain, and of even those the number is gradually +diminishing. Great landed estates have everywhere absentees for owners, +agents for managers, and day laborers for workmen. The small landowner was +a resident, and had a personal interest in the details of the +neighborhood, not now felt by either the owner or the laborer. This state +of things existed to a considerable extent five-and-thirty years ago, but +it has since grown with great rapidity. At that time Great Britain could +exhibit to the world perhaps as large a body of men and women of letters, +with world-wide reputation, as ever before existed in any country or +nation, as will be seen from the following list:-- + + + Byron, Wilson, Clarkson, + Moore, Hallam, Landor, + Scott, Roscoe, Wellington,[1] + Wordsworth, Malthus, Robert Hall, + Rogers, Ricardo, Taylor, + Campbell, Mill, Romilly, + Joanna Baillie, Chalmers, Edgeworth, + Southey, Coleridge, Hannah More, + Gifford, Heber, Dalton, + Jeffrey, Bentham, Davy, + Sydney Smith, Brown, Wollaston, + Brougham, Mackintosh, The Herschels, + Horner, Stewart, Dr. Clarke. + + + [Footnote 1: Wellington's dispatches place him in the first rank of + historians.] + +DeQuincey was then just coming on the stage. Crabbe, Shelley, Keats, +Croly, Hazlitt, Lockhart, Lamb, Hunt, Galt, Lady Morgan, Miss Mitford, +Horace Smith, Hook, Milman, Miss Austen, and a host of others, were +already on it. Many of these appear to have received rewards far greater +than fall now to the lot of some of the most distinguished literary men. +Crabbe is said to have received 3,000 guineas, or $15,000, for his "Tales +of the Hall," and Theodore Hook 2,000 guineas for "Sayings and Doings," +and, if the facts were so, they prove that poets and novelists were far +more valued then than now. At that time, Croker, Barrow, and numerous +other men of literary reputation co-operated with Southey and Gifford in +providing for the pages of the "Quarterly." All these, men and women, were +the product of the last century, when the small landholders of England yet +counted by hundreds of thousands. + +Since then, centralization has made great progress. The landholders now +amount, as we are informed, to only 30,000, and the gulf which separates +the great proprietor from the cultivator has gradually widened, as the one +has become more an absentee and the other more a day laborer. The greater +the tendency towards the absorption of land by the wealthy banker and +merchant, or the wealthy cotton-spinner like Sir Robert Peel, the greater +is the tendency towards its abandonment by the small proprietor, who has +an interest in local self government, and the greater the tendency towards +the centralization of power in London and in the great seats of +manufacture. In all those places, it is thought that the prosperity of +England is dependent upon "a cheap and abundant supply of labor."[1] The +"Times" assures its readers that it is "to the cheap labor of Ireland that +England is indebted for all her great works;" and that note is repeated by +a large portion of the literary men of England who now ask for protection +in the American market against the effects of the system they so generally +advocate. + + [Footnote 1: _North British Review_, November, 1852.] + +The more the people of Scotland can be driven from the land to take refuge +in Glasgow and Paisley, the cheaper must be labor. The more those of +Ireland can be driven to England, the greater must be the competition in +the latter for employment, and the lower must be the price of labor. The +more the land of England can be centralized, the greater must be the mass +of people seeking employment in London, Liverpool, Manchester, and +Birmingham, and the cheaper must labor be. + +Low-priced laborers cannot exercise self-government. All they earn is +required for supplying themselves with indifferent food, clothing, and +lodging, and they cannot control the expenditure of their wages to such +extent as to enable them to educate their children, and hence it is that +the condition of the people of England is as here described:-- + +"About one half of our poor can neither read nor write. The test of +signing the name at marriage is a very imperfect absolute test of +education, but it is a very good relative one: taking that test, how +stands Leeds itself in the Registrar-General's returns? In Leeds, which is +the centre of the movement for letting education remain as it is, left +entirely to chance and charity to supply its deficiencies, how do we find +the fact? This, that in 1846, the last year to which these returns are +brought down, of 1,850 marriages celebrated in Leeds and Hunslet, 508 of +the men and 1,020 of the women, or considerably more than one half of the +latter, signed their names with marks. 'I have also a personal knowledge +of this fact--that of 47 men employed upon a railway in this immediate +neighborhood, only 14 can sign their names in the receipt of their wages; +and this not because of any diffidence on their part, but positively +because they cannot write.' And only lately, the "Leeds Mercury" itself +gave a most striking instance of ignorance among persons from Boeotian +Pudsey: of 12 witnesses, 'all of respectable appearance, examined before +the Mayor of Bradford at the court-house there, only one man could sign +his name, and that indifferently.' Mr. Neison has clearly shown, in +statistics of crime in England and Wales from 1834 to 1844, that crime is +invariably the most prevalent in those districts where the fewest numbers +in proportion to the population can read and write. Is it not, indeed, +beginning at the wrong end to try and reform men after they have become +criminals? Yet you cannot begin with children, from want of schools. +Poverty is the result of ignorance, and then ignorance is again the +unhappy result of poverty. 'Ignorance makes men improvident and +thoughtless--women as well as men; it makes them blind to the future-- +to the future of this life as well as the life beyond. It makes them dead +to higher pleasures than those of the mere senses, and keeps them down to +the level of the mere animal. Hence the enormous extent of drunkenness +throughout this country, and the frightful waste of means which it +involves.' At Bilston, amidst 20,000 people, there are but two struggling +schools--one has lately ceased; at Millenhall, Darlaston, and Pelsall, +amid a teeming population, no school whatever. In Oldham, among 100,000, +but one public day-school for the laboring classes; the others are an +infant-school, and some dame and factory schools. At Birmingham, there are +21,824 children at school, and 23,176 at no school; at Liverpool, 50,000 +out of 90,000 at no school; at Leicester, 8,200 out of 12,500; and at +Leeds itself, in 1841 (the date of the latest returns), some 9,600 out of +16,400 were at no school whatever. It is the same in the counties. 'I have +seen it stated that a woman for some time had to officiate as clerk in a +church in Norfolk, there being no adult male in the parish able to read +and write.' For a population of 17,000,000 we have but twelve normal +schools; while in Massachusetts they have three such schools for only +800,000 of population." + +Poverty and ignorance produce intemperance and crime, and hence it is that +both so much abound throughout England. Infanticide, as we are told, +prevails to an extent unknown in any other part of the world. Looking at +all these facts, we can readily see that the local demand for information +throughout England must be very small, and this enables us to account for +the extraordinary fact, that in all that country there has been no daily +newspaper printed out of London. There is, consequently, no local demand +for literary talent. The weekly papers that are published require little +of the pen, but much of the scissors. The necessary consequence of this +is, that every young man who fancies he can write, must go to London to +seek a channel through which he may be enabled to come before the public. +Here we have centralization again. Arrived in London, he finds a few daily +papers, but only one, as we are told, that pays its expenses, and around +each of them is a corps of writers and editors as ill-disposed to permit +the introduction of any new laborers in their field as are the +street-beggars of London to permit any interference with their "beat." If +he desires to become contributor to the magazines, it is the same. To +obtain the privilege of contributing his "cheap labor" to their pages, he +must be well introduced, and if he make the attempt without such +introduction he is treated with a degree of insolence scarcely to be +imagined by any one not familiar with the "answers to correspondents" in +London periodicals. If disposed to print a book he finds a very limited +number of publishers, each one surrounded with his corps of authors and +editors, and generally provided with a journal in which to have his own +books well placed before the world. If, now, he succeeds in gaining +favorable notice, he finds that he can obtain but a very small proportion +of the price of his book, even if it sell, because centralization requires +that all books shall be advertised in certain London journals that charge +their own prices, and thus absorb the proceeds of no inconsiderable +portion of the edition. Next, he finds the Chancellor of the Exchequer +requiring a share of the proceeds of the book for permission to use paper, +and further permission to advertise his work when printed.[1] Inquiring to +what purpose are devoted the proceeds of all these taxes, he learns that +the centralization which it is the object of the British cheap-labor +policy to establish, requires the maintenance of large armies and large +fleets which absorb more than all the profits of the commerce they +protect. The bookseller informs him that he must take the risk of finding +paper, and of paying the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the "Times" and +numerous other journals; that every editor will expect a copy; that the +interests of science require that he, poor as he is, shall give no less +than eleven copies to the public; and that the most that can be hoped for +from the first edition is, that it will not bring him in debt. His book +appears, but the price is high, for the reason that the taxes are heavy, +and the general demand for books is small. Cheap laborers cannot buy +books; soldiers and sailors cannot buy books; and thus does centralization +diminish the market for literary talent while increasing the cost of +bringing it before the world. Centralization next steps in, in the shape +of circulating libraries, that, for a few guineas a year, supply books +throughout the kingdom, and enable hundreds of copies to do the work that +should be done by thousands, and hence it is that, while first editions of +English works are generally small, so very few of them ever reach second +ones. Popular as was Captain Marryat, his first editions were, as he +himself informed me, for some time only 1,500, and had not then risen +above 2,000. Of Mr. Bulwer's novels, so universally popular, the first +edition never exceeded 2,500; and so it has been, and is, with others. +With all Mr. Thackeray's popularity, the sale of his books has, I believe, +rarely gone beyond 6,000 for the supply of above thirty millions of +people. Occasionally, a single author is enabled to fix the attention of +the public, and he is enabled to make a fortune--not from the sale of +large quantities at low prices, but of moderate quantities at high prices. +The chief case of the kind now in England is that of Mr. Dickens, who +sells for twenty shillings a book that costs about four shillings and +sixpence to make, and charges his fellow-laborers in the field of +literature an enormous price for the privilege of attaching to his numbers +the advertisements of their works, as is shown in the following paragraph +from one of the journals of the day:-- + +"Thus far, no writer has succeeded in drawing so large pecuniary profits +from the exercise of his talents as Charles Dickens. His last romance, +"Bleak House," which appeared in monthly numbers, had so wide a +circulation in that form that it became a valuable medium for advertising, +so that before its close the few pages of the tale were completely lost in +sheets of advertisements which were stitched to them. The lowest price for +such an advertisement was £1 sterling, and many were paid for at the rate +of £5 and £6. From this there is nothing improbable in the supposition +that, in addition to the large sum received for the tale, its author +gained some £15,000 by his advertising sheets. The "Household Words" +produces an income of about £4,000, though Dickens, having put it entirely +in the hands of an assistant editor, has nothing to do with it beyond +furnishing a weekly article. Through his talents alone he has raised +himself from the position of a newspaper reporter to that of a literary +Croesus." + + [Footnote 1: The tax on advertisements has just now been repealed, but + that tax was a small one when compared with that imposed by + centralization.] + +Centralization produces the "cheap and abundant supply of labor" required +for the maintenance of the British manufacturing system, and "cheap labor" +furnishes Mr. Dickens with his "Oliver Twist," his "Tom-all-alone's," and +the various other characters and situation by aid of whose delineation he +is enabled, as a German writer informs us, to have dinners + + "at which the highest aristocracy is glad to be present, and where he + equals them in wealth, and furnishes an intellectual banquet of wit and + wisdom which they, the highest and most refined circles, cannot + imitate." + +Centralization enables Mr. Dickens to obtain vast sums by advertising the +works of the poor authors by whom he is surrounded, most of whom are not +only badly paid, but insolently treated, while even of those whose names +and whose works are well known abroad many gladly become recipients of the +public charity. In the zenith of her reputation, Lady Charlotte Bury +received, as I am informed, but £200 ($960) for the absolute copyright of +works that sold for $7.50. Lady Blessington, celebrated as she was, had +but from three to four hundred pounds; and neither Marryat nor Bulwer ever +received, as I believe, the selling price of a thousand copies of their +books as compensation for the copyright.[1] Such being the facts in regard +to well-known authors, some idea may be formed in relation to the +compensation of those who are obscure. The whole tendency of the "cheap +labor" system, so generally approved by English writers, is to destroy the +value of literary labor by increasing the number of persons who must look +to the pen for means of support, and by diminishing the market for its +products. What has been the effect of the system will now be shown by +placing before you a list of the names of all existing British authors +whose reputation can be regarded as of any wide extent, as follows:-- + + + Tennyson, Thackeray, Grote, McCulloch, + Carlyle, Bulwer, Macaulay, Hamilton, + Dickens, Alison, J. S. Mill, Faraday. + + + [Footnote 1: This I had from Captain Marryat himself.] + +This list is very small as compared with that presented in the same field +five-and-thirty years since, and its difference in weight is still greater +than in number. Scott, the novelist and poet, may certainly be regarded as +the counterpoise of much more than any one of the writers of fiction in +this list. Byron, Moore, Rogers, and Campbell enjoyed a degree of +reputation far exceeding that of Tennyson. Wellington, the historian of +his own campaigns, would much outweigh any of the historians. Malthus and +Ricardo were founders of a school that has greatly influenced the policy +of the world, whereas McCulloch and Mill are but disciples in that school. +Dalton, Davy, and Wollaston will probably occupy a larger space in the +history of science than Sir Michael Faraday, large, even, as may be that +assigned to him. + +Extraordinary as is the existence of such a state of things in a country +claiming so much to abound in wealth, it is yet more extraordinary that we +look around in vain to see who are to replace even these when age or death +shall withdraw them from the literary world. Of all here named, +Mr. Thackeray is the only one that has risen to reputation in the last ten +years, and he is no longer young; and even he seeks abroad that reward for +his efforts which is denied to him by the "cheap labor" system at home. Of +the others, nearly, if not quite all, have been for thirty years before +the world, and, in the natural course of things, some of them must +disappear from the stage of authorship, if not of life. If we seek their +successors among the writers for the weekly or monthly journals, we shall +certainly fail to find them. Looking to the Reviews, we find ourselves +forced to agree with the English journalist, who informs his readers that +"it is said, and with apparent justice, that the quarterlies are not as +good as they were." From year to year they have less the appearance of +being the production of men who looked to any thing beyond mere pecuniary +compensation for their labor. In reading them we find ourselves compelled +to agree with the reviewer who regrets to see that the centralization +which is hastening the decline of the Scottish universities is tending to +cause the mind of the whole youth of Scotland to be + + "Cast in the mould of English universities, institutions which, from + their very completeness, exercise on second-rate minds an influence + unfavorable to originality and power of thought."--_North British + Review_, May 1853. + +Their pupils are, as he says, struck "with one mental die," than which +nothing can be less favorable to literary or scientific development. + +Thirty years since, Sir Humphrey Davy spoke with his countrymen as +follows:-- + + "There are very few persons who pursue science with true dignity; it is + followed more as connected with objects of profit than fame."-- + _Consolation in Travel_. + +Since then, Sir John Herschel has said to them:-- + + "Here whole branches of continental study are unstudied, and indeed + almost unknown by name. It is in vain to conceal the melancholy truth. + We are fast dropping behind."--_Treatise on Sound_. + +A late writer, already quoted, says that learning is in disrepute. The +English people, as he informs us, have + + "No longer time or patience for the luxury of a learned treatment of + their interests; and a learned lawyer or statesmen, instead of being + eagerly sought for, is shunned as an impediment to public business." +--_North British Review_. + +The reviewer is, as he informs us, "far from regarding this tendency, +unfavorable as it is to present progress, as a sign of social +retrogression." He thinks that + + "Reference to general principles for rules of immediate action on the + part of those actually engaged in the dispatch of business, must, from + the delay which it necessarily occasions, come to be regarded as a + worse evil than action which is at variance with principle altogether." + +Demand tends to procure supply. Destroy the demand, and the supply will +cease. Science, whether natural or social, is not in demand in Great +Britain, and hence the diminution of supply. We have here the secret of +literary and scientific decline, so obvious to all who study English books +or journals, or read the speeches of English statesmen. Empiricism +prevails everywhere, and there is a universal disposition to avoid the +study of principles. The "cheap labor" system, which it is the object of +the whole British policy to establish, cannot be defended on principle, +and therefore principles are avoided. Centralization, cheap labor, and +enslavement of the body and the mind, travel always in company, and with +each step of their progress there is an increasing tendency towards the +accumulation of power in the hands of men who should be statesmen, the +difficulties of whose positions forbid, however, that they should refer to +scientific principles for their government. Action must be had, and +immediate action in opposition to principle is preferable to delay; and +hence it is that real statesmen are "shunned as an impediment to public +business." The greater the necessity for statesmanship, the more must +statesmen be avoided. The nearer the ship is brought to the shoal, the +more carefully must her captain avoid any reference to the chart. That +such is the practice of those charged with the direction of the affairs of +England, and such the philosophy of those who control her journals, is +obvious to all who study the proceedings of the one or the teachings of +the other. From year to year the ship becomes more difficult of +management, and there is increasing difficulty in finding responsible men +to take the helm. Such are the effects upon mind that have resulted from +that "destruction of nationalities" required for the perfection of the +British system of centralization. + +England is fast becoming one great shop, and traders have, in general, +neither time nor disposition to cultivate literature. The little +proprietors disappear, and the day laborers who succeed them can neither +educate their children nor purchase books. The great proprietor is an +absentee, and he has little time for either literature or science. From +year to year the population of the kingdom becomes more and more divided +into two great classes; the very poor, with whom food and raiment require +all the proceeds of labor, and the very rich who prosper by the cheap +labor system, and therefore eschew the study of principles. With the one +class, books are an unattainable luxury, while with the other the absence +of leisure prevents the growth of desire for their purchase. The sale is, +therefore, small; and hence it is that authors are badly paid. In strong +contrast with the limited sale of English books at home, is the great +extent of sale here, as shown in the following facts: Of the octavo +edition of the "Modern British Essayists," there have been sold in five +years no less than 80,000 volumes. Of Macaulay's "Miscellanies," 3 vols. +12mo., the sale has amounted to 60,000 volumes. Of Miss Aguilar's +writings, the sale, in two years, has been 100,000 volumes. Of Murray's +"Encyclopedia of Geography," more than 50,000 volumes have been sold, and +of McCulloch's "Commercial Dictionary," 10,000 volumes. Of Alexander +Smith's poems, the sale, in a few months, has reached 10,000 copies. The +sale of Mr. Thackeray's works has been quadruple that of England, and that +of the works of Mr. Dickens counts almost by millions of volumes. Of +"Bleak House," in all its various forms--in newspapers, magazines, and +volumes--it has already amounted to several hundred thousands of copies. +Of Bulwer's last novel, since it was completed, the sale has, I am told, +exceeded 35,000. Of Thiers's "French Revolution and Consulate," there have +been sold 32,000, and of Montagu's edition of Lord Bacon's works 4,000 +copies. + +If the sales of books were as great in England as they are here, English +authors would be abundantly paid. In reply it will be said their works are +cheap here because we pay no copyright. For payment of the authors, +however, a very small sum would be required, if the whole people of +England could afford, as they should be able to do, to purchase books. A +contribution of a shilling per head would give, as has been shown, a sum +of almost eight millions of dollars, sufficient to pay to fifteen hundred +salaries nearly equal to those of our Secretaries of State. +Centralization, however, destroys the market for books, and the sale is, +therefore, small; and the few successful writers owe their fortunes to the +collection of large contributions made among a small number of readers; +while the mass of authors live on, as did poor Tom Hood, from day to day, +with scarcely a hope of improvement in their condition. + +Sixty years since, Great Britain was a wealthy country, abounding in +libraries and universities, and giving to the world some of the best, and +best paid, writers of the age. At that time the people of this country +were but four millions, and they were poor, while unprovided with either +books or libraries. Since then they have grown to twenty-six millions, +millions of whom have been emigrants, in general arriving here with +nothing but the clothing on their backs. These poor men have had every +thing to create for themselves--farms, roads, houses, libraries, +schools, and colleges; and yet, poor as they have been, they furnish now a +demand for the principal products of English mind greater than is found at +home. If we can make such a market, why cannot they? If they had such a +market, would it not pay their authors to the full extent of their merits? +Unquestionably it would; and if they see fit to pursue a system tending to +cheapen the services of the laborer in the field, in the workshop, and at +the desk, there is no more reason for calling upon the people of this +country to make up their deficiencies towards those who contribute to +their pleasure or instruction by writing books, than there would be in +asking us to aid in supporting the hundreds of thousands of day laborers, +their wives and children, whom the same system condemns, unpitied, to the +workhouse. + +But, it will be asked, is it right that we should read the works of +Macaulay, Dickens, and others, without compensation to the authors? In +answer, it may be said, that we give them precisely what their own +countrymen have given to their Dalton, Davy, Wollaston, Franklin, Parry, +and the thousands of others who have furnished the bodies of which books +are composed--and more than we ourselves give to the men among us +engaged in cultivating science--fame. This, it will be said, is an +unsubstantial return; yet Byron deemed it quite sufficient when he first +saw an American edition of his works, coming, as it seemed to him, "from +posterity." Miss Bremer found no small reward for her labors in knowing +the high regard in which she was held; and it was no small payment when, +even in the wilds of the West, she met with numerous persons who would +gladly have her travel free of charge, because of the delight she had +afforded them. Miss Carlen tells her readers that "of one triumph" she was +proud. "It was," she says, "when I held in my hand, for the first time, +one of my works, translated and published in America. My eyes filled with +tears. The bright dreams of youth again passed before me. Ye Americans had +planted the seed, and ye also approved of the fruit!" This is the feeling +of a writer that cultivates literature with some object in view other than +mere profit. It differs entirely from that of English authors, because in +England, more than in any other country, book-making is a trade, carried +on exclusively with a view to profit; and hence it is that the character +of English books so much declines. + +But is it really true that foreign authors derive no pecuniary advantage +from the republication of their books in this country? It is not. Mr. +Macaulay has admitted that much of his reputation, and of the sale of his +books at home, had been a consequence of his reputation here, where his +Essays were first reprinted. At the moment of writing this, I have met +with a notice of his speeches, first collected here, from which the +following is an extract:-- + + "We owe much to America. Not content with charming us with the works of + her native genius, she teaches us also to appreciate our own. She steps + in between the timidity of a British author, and the fastidiousness of + the British public, and by using her' good offices' brings both parties + to a friendly understanding."--_Morning Chronicle_. + +If the people of England are largely indebted to America for being made +acquainted with the merits of their authors, are not these latter also +indebted to America for much of their pecuniary reward? Undoubtedly they +are. Mr. Macaulay owes much of his fortune to American publishers, +readers, and critics; and such is the case to perhaps a greater extent +with Mr. Carlyle, whose papers were first collected here, and their merits +thus made known to his countrymen. Lamb's papers of "Elia" were first +collected here. It is to the diligence of an American publisher that De +Quincey owes the publication of a complete edition of his works, now to be +followed by a similar one in England. The papers of Professor Wilson owe +their separate republication to American booksellers. The value of Mr. +Thackeray's copyrights has been greatly increased by his reception here. +So has it been with Mr. Dickens. All of those persons profit largely by +their fame abroad, while the men who contribute to the extension of +knowledge by the publication of facts and ideas never reap profit from +their publication abroad, and are rarely permitted to acquire even fame. +Godfrey died poor. The merchants of England gave no fortune to his +children, and Hadley stole his fame. The people of that country, who +travel in steam-vessels, have given to the family of Fulton no pecuniary +reward, while her writers have uniformly endeavored to deprive him of the +reputation which constituted almost the sole inheritance of his family. +The whole people of Europe are profiting by the discovery of chloroform; +but who inquires what has become of the family of its unfortunate +discoverer? Nobody! The people of England profit largely by the +discoveries of Fourcroy, Berzelius, and many other of the continental +philosophers; but do those who manufacture cheap cloth, or those who wear +it, contribute to the support of the families of those philosophers? Did +they contribute to their support while alive? Certainly not. To do so +would have been in opposition to the idea that the real contributors to +knowledge should be "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for the +gentlemen who dress up their facts and ideas in an attractive form and +place them before the world in the form of cloth or books. + +We are largely indebted to the labors of literary men, and they should be +well paid, but their claims to pecuniary reward have been much +exaggerated, because they have held the pen and have had always a high +degree of belief in their own deserts. Their right in the books they +publish is precisely similar to, and no greater than, that of the man who +culls the flowers and arranges the bouquets; and, when that is provided +for, their books are entitled to become common property. English authors +are already secured in a monopoly for forty-two years among a body of +people so large that a contribution of a shilling a head would enable each +and all of them to live in luxury; and if British policy prevents their +countrymen from paying them, it is to the British Parliament they should +look for redress, and not to our Executive. When they shall awaken to the +fact that "cheap labor" with the spade, the plough, and the loom, brings +with it necessarily "cheap labor" with the pen, they will become +opponents, and cease to be advocates of the system under which they +suffer. All that, in the mean time, we can say to them is, that we protect +our own authors by giving them a monopoly of our own immense and rapidly +growing market, and that if they choose to come and live among us we will +grant them the same protection. We may now look to the condition of our +own literary men. + + + + + +LETTER V. + +Our system is based upon an idea directly the reverse of the one on which +rests the English system--that of decentralization; and we may now study +its effects as shown in the development of literary tendencies and in the +reward of authors. + +Centralization tends towards taxing the people for building up great +institutions at a distance from those who pay the taxes; decentralization +towards leaving to the people to tax themselves for the support of common +and high schools in their immediate neighborhood. The first tends towards +placing the man who has instruction to sell at a distance from those who +need to buy it; while the other tends towards bringing the teacher to the +immediate vicinity of the scholars, and thus diminishing the cost of +education. The effects of the latter are seen in the fact that the new +States, no less than the old ones, are engaged in an effort to enable all, +without distinction of sex or fortune, to obtain the instruction needful +for enabling them to become consumers of books, and customers to the men +who produce them. Massachusetts exhibits to the world 182,000 scholars in +her public schools; New York, 778,000 in the public ones, and 75,000 in +the private ones; and Iowa and Wisconsin are laying the foundation of a +system that will enable them, at a future day, to do as much. Boston taxes +herself $365,000 for purposes of education, while Philadelphia expends +more than half a million for the same purposes, and exhibits 50,000 +children in her public schools. Here we have, at once, a great demand for +instructors, offering a premium on intellectual effort, and its effect is +seen in the numerous associations of teachers, each anxious to confer with +the others in regard to improvement in the modes of education. School +libraries are needed for the children, and already those of New York +exhibit about a million and a half of volumes. Books of a higher class are +required for the teachers, and here is created another demand leading to +the preparation of new and improved books by the teachers themselves. The +scholars enter life and next we find numerous apprentices' libraries and +mercantile libraries, producing farther demand for books, and aiding in +providing reward for those to whom the world is indebted for them. +Everybody must learn to read and write, and everybody _must_ therefore +have books; and to this universality of demand it is due that the sale of +those required for early education is so immense. Of the works of Peter +Parley it counts by millions; but if we take his three historical books +(price 75 cents each) alone, we find that it amounts to between half a +million and a million of volumes. Of Goodrich's United States it has been +a quarter of a million. Of Morse's Geography and Atlas (50 cents) the sale +is said to be no less than 70,000 per annum. Of Abbott's histories the +sale is said to have already been more than 400,000, while of Emerson's +Arithmetic and Reader it counts almost by millions. Of Mitchell's several +geographies it is 400,000 a year. + +In other branches of education the same state of things is seen to exist. +Of the Boston Academy's collection of sacred music the sale has exceeded +600,000; and the aggregate sale of five books by the same author has +probably exceeded a million, at a dollar per volume. Leaving the common +schools we come to the high schools and colleges, of which latter the +names of no less than 120 are given in the American Almanac. Here again we +have decentralization, and its effect is to bring within reach of almost +the whole people a higher degree of education than could be afforded by +the common schools. The problem to be solved is, as stated by a recent and +most enlightened traveller, "How are citizens to be made thinking beings +in the greatest numbers?" Its solution is found in making of the +educational fabric a great pyramid, of which the common schools form the +base and the Smithsonian Institute the apex, the intermediate places being +filled with high schools, lyceums, and colleges of various descriptions, +fitted to the powers and the means of those who need instruction. All +these make, of course, demand for books, and hence it is that the sale of +Anthon's series of classics (averaging $1) amounts, as I am told, to +certainly not less than 50,000 volumes per annum, while of the "Classical +Dictionary" of the same author ($4) not less than thirty thousand have +been sold. Of Liddell and Scott's "Greek Lexicon" ($5), edited by Prof. +Drisler, the sale has been not less than 25,000, and probably much larger. +Of Webster's 4to. "Dictionary" ($6) it has been, I am assured, 60,000, and +perhaps even 80,000; and of the royal 8vo. one ($3.50), 250,000. Of +Bolmar's French school books not less than 150,00 volumes have been sold. +The number of books used in the higher schools--text-books in +philosophy, chemistry, and other branches of science--is exceedingly +great, and it would be easy to produce numbers of which the sale is from +five to ten thousand per annum; but to do so would occupy too much space, +and I must content myself with the few facts already given in regard to +this department of literature. + +Decentralization, or local self-government, tends thus to place the whole +people in a condition to read newspapers, while the same cause tends to +produce those local interests which give interest to the public journals, +and induce men to purchase them. Hence it is that their number is so +large. The census of 1850 gives it at 2,625; and the increase since that +time has been very great. The total number of papers printed can scarcely +be under 600,000,000, which would give almost 24 for every person, old and +young, black and white, male and female, in the Union. But recently the +newspaper press of the United Kingdom was said to require about 160,000 +reams of paper, which would give about 75,000,000 of papers, or two and a +half per head. + +The number of daily papers was returned at 350, but it has greatly +increased, and must now exceed four hundred. Chicago, which then was a +small town, rejoices now in no less than 24 periodicals, seven of which +are daily, and five of them of the largest size. At St. Louis, which but a +few years since was on the extreme borders of civilization, we find +several, and one of these has grown from a little sheet of 8 by 12 inches +to the largest size, yielding to its proprietors $50,000 per annum, while +Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham are still compelled to depend upon +their tri-weekly sheets. St. Louis itself furnishes the type, and +Louisville furnishes the paper. Everywhere, the increase in size is +greater than that in the number of newspapers, and the increase of ability +in both the city and country press, greater than in either number or size. +These things are necessary consequences of that decentralization which +builds school-houses and provides teachers, where centralization raises +armies and provides generals. The schools enable young men to read, think, +and write, and the local newspaper is always at hand in which to publish. +Beginning thus with the daily or weekly journal, the youth of talent makes +his way gradually to the monthly or quarterly magazine, and ultimately to +the independent book. + +Examine where we may through the newspaper press, there is seen the +activity which always accompanies the knowledge that men _can rise_ in the +world _if they will_; but this is particularly obvious in the daily press +of cities, whose efforts to obtain information, and whose exertions to lay +it before the public, are without a parallel. Centralization, like that of +the London "Times," furnishes its readers with brief paragraphs of +telegraphic news, where decentralization gives columns. The New York +"Tribune" furnishes, for two cents, better papers than are given in London +for ten, and it scatters them over the country by hundreds of thousands. +Decentralization is educating the whole mind of the country, and it is to +this it is due that the American farmer is furnished with machines which +are, according to the London "Times," "about twice as light in draught as +the lightest of English machines of the same description, doing as much, +if not more work than the best of them, and with much less power; dressing +the grain, which they do not, and which can be profitably disposed of at +one half, or at least one third less money than its British rivals"--and +is thus enabled to purchase books. Centralization, on the other hand, +furnishes the English farmer, according to the same authority, "with +machines strong and dear enough to rob him of all future improvements, and +tremendously heavy, either to work or to draw;" and thus deprives him of +all power to educate his children, or to purchase for himself either books +or newspapers. + +Religious decentralization exerts also a powerful influence on the +arrangements for imparting that instruction which provides purchasers for +books. The Methodist Society, with its gigantic operations; the +Presbyterian Board of Publication; the Baptist Association; the +Sunday-school, and other societies, are all incessantly at work creating +readers. The effect of all these efforts for the dissemination of cheap +knowledge is shown in the first instance in the number of semi-monthly, +monthly, and quarterly journals, representing every shade of politics and +religion, and every department of literature and science. + +The number of these returned to the census was 175; but that must, I +think, have been even then much below the truth. Since then it has been +much increased. Of two of them, Putnam's and Harper's, the first +exclusively original, and the latter about two thirds so, the sale is +about two millions of numbers per annum; while of three others, published +in Philadelphia, it is about a million. Cheap as are these journals, at +twenty-five cents each, the sum total of the price paid for them by the +consumers is about $700,000. The quantity of paper required for a single +one of them is about 16,000 reams of double medium, being one tenth as +much as has recently been given as the consumption of the whole newspaper +press of Great Britain and Ireland. Every pursuit in life, and almost +every shade of opinion, has its periodical. A single city in Western New +York furnishes no less than four agricultural and horticultural journals, +one of them published weekly, with a circulation of 15,000, and the +others, monthly, with a joint circulation of 25,000. The "Merchants' +Magazine," which set the example for the one now published in London, has +a circulation of 3,500. The "Bankers' Magazine" also set the example +recently followed in England. Medicine and Law have their numerous and +well supported journals; and Dental Surgery alone has five, one of which +has a circulation of 5,000 copies, while all Europe has but two, and those +of very inferior character.[1] North, south, east, and west, the +periodical press is collecting the opinions of all our people, while +centralization is gradually limiting the expression of opinion, in +England, to those who live in and near London. Upon this extensive base of +cheap domestic literature rests that portion of the fabric composed of +reproduction of foreign books, the quantities of some of which were given +in my last. The proportion which these bear to American books has been +thus given for the six months ending on the 30th of June last: + + + Republications 169 + Original 522 + + 691 + + + [Footnote 1: It is a remarkable fact that there should be in this + country no less than four Colleges of Dental Surgery, while all Europe + presents not even a single one.] + +Of these last, 17 were original translations. + +We see, thus, that the proportion of domestic to foreign products is +already more than three to one. How the sale of the latter compares with +that of the former, will be seen by the following facts in relation to +books of almost all sizes, prices, and kinds; some of which have been +furnished by the publishers themselves, whilst others are derived from +gentlemen connected with the trade whose means of information are such as +warrant entire reliance upon their statements. + +Of all American authors, those of school-books excepted, there is no one +of whose books so many have been circulated as those of Mr. Irving. Prior +to the publication of the edition recently issued by Mr. Putnam, the sale +had amounted to some hundreds of thousands; and yet of that edition, +selling at $1.25 per volume, it has already amounted to 144,000 vols. Of +"Uncle Tom," the sale has amounted to 295,000 copies, partly in one, and +partly in two volumes, and the total number of volumes amounts probably to +about 450,000. + + + _Price per vol._ _Volumes._ + + + Of the two works of Miss Warner, + Queechy, and the Wide, Wide World, the + price and sale have been. $ 88 104,000 + + Fern Leaves, by Fanny Fern, in six months. 1 25 45,000 + + Reveries of a Bachelor, and other books, + by Ike Marvel. 1 25 70,000 + + Alderbrook, by Fanny Forester, 3 vols. 50 33,000 + + Northup's Twelve Years a Slave 1 00 20,000 + + Novels of Mrs. Hentz, in three years 63 93,000 + + Major Jones' Courtship and Travels 50 31,000 + + Salad for the Solitary, by a new author, + in five months 1 25 5,000 + + Headley's Napoleon and his Marshals, Washington + and his Generals, and other works. 1 25 200,000 + + Stephen's Travels in Egypt and Greece. 87 80,000 + + " " Yucatan and Central America 2 50 60,000 + + Kendall's Expedition to Santa Fe 1 25 40,000 + + Lynch's Expedition to the Dead Sea, 8vo. $3 00 15,000 + + " " 2mo. 1 25 8,000 + + Western Scenes 2 50 14,000 + + Young's Science of Government 1 00 12,000 + + Seward's Life of John Quincy Adams. 1 00 30,000 + + Frost's Pictorial History of the World, + 3 vols. 2 50 60,000 + + Sparks' American Biography, 25 vols 75 100,000 + + Encyclopaedia Americana, 14 vols. 2 00 280,000 + + Griswold's Poets and Prose Writers + of America, 3 vols. 3 00 21,000 + + Barnes' Notes on the Gospels, Epistles, &c., + 11 vols. 75 300.000 + + Aiken's Christian Minstrel, in two years. 62 40,000 + + Alexander on the Psalms, 3 vols. 1 17 10,000 + + Buist's Flower Garden Directory 1 25 10,000 + + Cole on Fruit Trees. 50 18,000 + + " Diseases of Domestic Animals 50 34,000 + + Downing's Fruits and Fruit Trees. 50 15,000 + + " Rural Essays. 3 50 3,000 + + " Landscape Gardening. 3 50 9,000 + + " Cottage Residences. 2 00 6,250 + + " Country Homes. 4 00 3,500 + + Mahan's Civil Engineering. 3 00 7,500 + + Leslie's Cookery and Receipt-books. 1 00 96,000 + + Guyot's Lectures on Earth and Man. 1 00 6,000 + + Wood and Bache's Medical Dispensatory 5 00 60,000 + + Dunglison's Medical Writings, + in all 10 vols. 2 50 50,000 + + Pancoast's Surgery, 4to. 10 00 4,000 + + Rayer, Ricord, and Moreau's Surgical Works + (translations). 15 00 5,500 + + Webster's Works, 6 vols. 2 00 46,800 + + Kent's Commentaries, 4 vols. 3 38 84,000 + + +Next to Chancellor Kent's work comes Greenleaf on Evidence, 3 vols., +$16.50; the sale of which has been exceedingly great, but what has been +its extent, I cannot say. + +Of Blatchford's General Statutes of New York, a local work, price $4.50, +the sale has been 3,000; equal to almost 30,000 of a similar work for the +United Kingdom. + +How great is the sale of Judge Story's books can be judged only from the +fact that the copyright now yields, and for years past has yielded, more +than $8,000 per annum. Of the sale of Mr. Prescott's works little is +certainly known, but it cannot, I understand, have been less than 160,000 +volumes. That of Mr. Bancroft's History, has already risen, certainly to +30,000 copies, and I am told it is considerably more; and yet even that is +a sale, for such a work, entirely unprecedented. + +Of the works of Hawthorne, Longfellow, Bryant, Willis, Curtis, Sedgwick, +Sigourney, and numerous others, the sale is exceedingly great; but, as not +even an approximation to the true amount can be offered, I must leave it +to you to judge of it by comparison with those of less popular authors +above enumerated. In several of these cases, beautifully illustrated +editions have been published, of which large numbers have been sold. Of +Mr. Longfellow's volume there have been no less than ten editions. These +various facts will probably suffice to satisfy you that this country +presents a market for books of almost every description, unparalleled in +the world. + +In reflecting upon this subject, it is necessary to bear in mind that the +monopoly, granted to authors and their families, is for the term of no +less than forty-two years, and that in that period the number of persons +subjected to it is likely to grow to little short of a hundred millions, +with a power of consumption that will probably be ten times greater than +now exists. If the Commentaries of Chancellor Kent continue to maintain +their present position, as they probably will, may we not reasonably +suppose that the demand for them will continue as great, or nearly so, as +it is at present, and that the total sale during the period of copyright +will reach a quarter of a million of volumes? So, too, of the histories of +Bancroft and Prescott, and of other books of permanent character. + +Such being the extent of the market for the products of literary labor, we +may now inquire into its rewards. + +Beginning with the common schools, we find a vast number of young men and +young women acting as teachers of others, while qualifying themselves for +occupying other places in life. Many of them rise gradually to become +teachers in high schools and professors in colleges, while all of them +have at hand the newspaper, ready to enable them, if gifted with the power +of expressing themselves on paper, to come before the world. The numerous +newspapers require editors and contributors, and the amount appropriated +to the payment of this class of the community is a very large one. Next +come the magazines, many of which pay very liberally. I have now before me +a statement from a single publisher, in which he says that to Messrs. +Willis, Longfellow, Bryant, and Alston, his price was uniformly $50 for a +poetical article, long or short--and his readers know that they were +generally very short; in one case only fourteen lines. To numerous others +it was from $25 to $40. In one case he has paid $25 per page for prose. To +Mr. Cooper he paid $1,800 for a novel, and $1,000 for a series of naval +biographies, the author retaining the copyright for separate publication; +and in such cases, if the work be good, its appearance in the magazine +acts as the best of advertisements. To Mr. James he paid $1,200 for a +novel, leaving him also the copyright. For a single number of the journal +he has paid to authors $1,500. The total amount paid for original matter +by two magazines--the selling price of which is $3 per annum--in ten +years, has exceeded $130,000, giving an average of $13,000 per annum. The +Messrs. Harper inform me that the expenditure for literary and artistic +labor required for their magazine is $2,000 per month, or $24,000 a year. + +Passing upwards, we reach the producers of books, and here we find rewards +not, I believe, to be paralleled elsewhere. Mr. Irving stands, I imagine, +at the head of living authors for the amount received for his books. The +sums paid to the renowned Peter Parley must have been enormously great, +but what has been their extent I have no means of ascertaining. Mr. +Mitchell, the geographer, has realized a handsome fortune from his +schoolbooks. Professor Davies is understood to have received more than +$50,000 from the series published by him. The Abbotts, Emerson, and +numerous other authors engaged in the preparation of books for young +persons and schools, are largely paid. Professor Anthon, we are informed, +has received more than $60,000 for his series of classics. The French +series of Mr. Bolmar has yielded him upwards of $20,000. The school +geography of Mr. Morse is stated to have yielded more than $20,000 to the +author. A single medical book, of one 8vo. volume, is understood to have +produced its authors $60,000, and a series of medical books has given to +its author probably $30,000. Mr. Downing's receipts from his books have +been very large. The two works of Miss Warner must have already yielded +her from $12,000 to $15,000, and perhaps much more. Mr. Headley is stated +to have received about $40,000; and the few books of Ike Marvel have +yielded him about $20,000; a single one, "The Reveries of a Bachelor," +produced more than $4,000 in the first six months. Mrs. Stowe has been +very largely paid. Miss Leslie's Cookery and Receipt books have paid her +$12,000. Dr. Barnes is stated to have received more than $30,000 for the +copyright of his religious works. Fanny Fern has probably received not +less than $6,000 for the 12mo. volume published but six months since. Mr. +Prescott was stated, several years since, to have then received $90,000 +from his books, and I have never seen it contradicted. According to the +rate of compensation generally understood to be received by Mr. Bancroft, +the present sale of each volume of his yields him more than $15,000, and +he has the long period of forty-two years for future sale. Judge Story +died, as has been stated, in the receipt of more than $8,000 per annum; +and the amount has not, as it is understood, diminished. Mr. Webster's +works, in three years, can scarcely have paid less than $25,000. Kent's +Commentaries are understood to have yielded to their author and his heirs +more than $120,000, and if we add to this for the remainder of the period +only one half of this sum, we shall obtain $180,000, or $45,000 as the +compensation for a single 8vo. volume, a reward for literary labor +unexampled in history. What has been the amount received by Professor +Greenleaf I cannot learn, but his work stands second only, in the legal +line, to that of Chancellor Kent. The price paid for Webster's 8vo. +Dictionary is understood to be fifty cents per copy; and if so, with a +sale of 250,000, it must already have reached $125,000. If now to this we +add the quarto, at only a dollar a copy, we shall have a sum approaching +to, and perhaps exceeding, $180,000; more, probably, than has been paid +for all the dictionaries of Europe in the same period of time. What have +been the prices paid to Messrs. Hawthorne, Longfellow, Bryant, Willis, +Curtis, and numerous others, I cannot say; but it is well known that they +have been very large. It is not, however, only the few who are liberally +paid; all are so who manifest any ability, and here it is that we find the +effect of the decentralizing system of this country as compared with the +centralizing one of Great Britain. There Mr. Macaulay is largely paid for +his Essays, while men of almost equal ability can scarcely obtain the +means of support. Dickens is a literary Croesus, and Tom Hood dies leaving +his family in hopeless poverty. Such is not here the case. Any +manifestation of ability is sure to produce claimants for the publication +of books. No sooner had the story of "Hot Corn" appeared in "The Tribune," +than a dozen booksellers were applicants to the author for a book. The +competition is here for the _purchase_ of the privilege of printing, and +this competition is not confined to the publishers of a single city, as is +the case in Britain. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and even Auburn and +Cincinnati, present numerous publishers, all anxious to secure the works +of writers of ability, in any department of literature; and were it +possible to present a complete list of our well-paid authors, its extent +could not fail to surprise you greatly, as the very few facts that have +come to my knowledge in reference to some of the lesser stars of the +literary world have done by me. You will observe that I have confined +myself to the question of demand for books and compensation to their +authors, without reference to that of the ability displayed in their +preparation. That we may have good books, all that is required is that we +make a large market for them, which is done here to an extent elsewhere +unknown. + +Forty years since, the question was asked by the "Edinburgh Review," Who +reads an American book? Judging from the facts here given, may we not +reasonably suppose that the time is fast approaching, when the question +will be asked, Who does not read American books? + +Forty years since, had we asked where were the _homes of American +authors_, we should generally have been referred to very humble houses in +our cities. Those who now inquire for them will find their answer in the +beautiful volume lately published by Messrs. Putnam and Co., the precursor +of others destined to show the literary men of this country enjoying +residences as agreeable as any that had been occupied by such men in any +part of the world; and in almost every case, those homes have been due to +the profits of the pen. Less than half a century since, the race of +literary men was scarcely known in the country, and yet the amount now +paid for literary labor is greater than in Great Britain and France +combined, and will probably be, in twenty years more, greater than in all +the world beside. With the increase of number, there has been a +corresponding increase in the consideration in which they are held; and +the respect with which even unknown authors are treated, when compared +with the disrespect manifested in England towards such men, will be +obvious to all familiar with the management of the journals of that +country who read the following in one of our principal periodicals:-- + +"The editor of Putnam's Monthly will give to every article forwarded for +insertion in the Magazine a careful examination, and, when requested to do +so, will return the MS. if not accepted." + +Here, the competition is among the publishers to _buy_ the products of +literary labor, whereas, abroad, the competition is to _sell_ them, and +therefore is the treatment of our authors, even when unknown, so +different. Long may it continue to be so! + +Such having been the result of half a century, during which we have had to +lay the foundation of the system that has furnished so vast a body of +readers, what may not be expected in the next half century, during which +the population will increase to a hundred millions, with a power to +consume the products of literary labor growing many times faster than the +growth of numbers? If this country is properly termed "the paradise of +women," may it not be as correctly denominated the paradise of authors, +and should they not be content to dwell in it as their predecessors have +done? Is it wise in them to seek a change? Their best friends would, I +think, unite with me in advising that it is not. Should they succeed in +obtaining what they now desire, the day will, as I think, come, when they +will be satisfied that their real friends had been, those who opposed the +confirmation of the treaty now before the Senate. + + + + + +LETTER VI. + +We have commenced the erection of a great literary and scientific edifice. +The foundation is already broad, deep, and well laid, but it is seen to +increase in breadth, depth, and strength, with every step of increase in +height; and the work itself is seen to assume, from year to year, more and +more the natural form of a true pyramid. To the height that such a +building may be carried, no living man will venture to affix a limit. What +is the tendency to durability in a work thus constructed, the pyramids of +Egypt and the mountains of the Andes and of the Himalaya may attest. That +edifice is the product of decentralization. + +Elsewhere, centralization is, as has been shown, producing the opposite +effect, narrowing the base, and diminishing the elevation. Having +prospered under decentralization, our authors seek to introduce +centralization. Failing to accomplish their object by the ordinary course +of legislation, they have had recourse to the executive power; and thus +the end to be accomplished, and the means used for its accomplishment, are +in strict accordance with each other. + +We are invited to grant to the authors and booksellers of England, and +their agent or agents here, entire control over a highly important source +from which our people have been accustomed to derive their supplies of +literary food. Before granting to these persons any power here, it might +be well to inquire how they have used their power at home. Doing this, we +find that, as is usually the case with those enjoying a monopoly, they +have almost uniformly preferred to derive their profits from high prices +and small sales, and have thus, in a great degree, deprived their +countrymen of the power to purchase books; a consequence of which has been +that the reading community has, very generally, been driven to dependence +upon circulating libraries, to the injury of both the authors and the +public. The extent to which this system of high prices in regard to +school-books has been carried, and the danger of intrusting such men with +power, are well shown in the fact that the same government which has so +recently concluded a copyright treaty with our own, has since entered +"into the bookselling trade on its own account," competing "with the +private dealer, who has to bear copyright charges." The subjects of this +"reactionary step" on the part of a government that so much professes to +love free trade, are, as we are told, "the famous school-books of the +Irish national system."[1] A new office has been created, "paid for with a +public salary," for "the issue of books to the retail dealers;" and the +centralization of power over this important portion to the trade is, we +are told,[2] defended in the columns of the "Times," as "tending to bring +down the price of school-books; for booksellers who possess copyrights, +now sell their books at exorbitant prices, and, by underselling them, the +commissioners will be able to beat them." Judging from this, it would seem +almost necessary, if this treaty is to be ratified, that there should be +added some provision authorizing our government to appoint commissioners +for the regulation of trade, and for "underselling" those persons who "now +sell their books at exorbitant prices." If it be ratified, we shall be +only entering on the path of centralization; and it may not be amiss that, +before ratification, we should endeavor to determine to what point it will +probably carry us in the end. + + [Footnote 1: _Spectator_, June 4, 1853.] + + [Footnote 2: _Ibid_.] + +The question is often asked, What difference can it make to the people of +this country whether they do, or do not, pay to the English author a few +cents in return for the pleasure afforded by the perusal of his book? Not +very much, certainly, to the wealthy reader; but as every extra cent is +important to the poorer one, and tends to limit his power to purchase, it +may be well to calculate how many cents would probably be required; and, +that we may do so, I give you here a list[1] of the comparative prices of +English and American editions of a few of the books that have been +published within the last few years:-- + + + + _English._ _Amer._ + + Brande's Encyclopaedia $15 00 $4 00 + + Ure's Dictionary of Manufactures 15 00 5 00 + + Alison's Europe, cheapest edition 25 00 5 00 + + D'Aubignd's Reformation 11 50 2 25 + + Bulwer's "My Novel" 10 50 75 + + Lord Mahon's England 13 00 4 00 + + Macaulay's England, per vol. 4 50 40 + + Campbell's Chief Justices. 7 50 3 50 + + " Lord Chancellors 25 50 12 00 + + Queens of England, 8 vols. 24 00 10 00 + + Queens of Scotland 15 00 6 00 + + Hallam's Middle Ages 7 50 1 75 + + Arnold's Rome 12 00 3 00 + + Life of John Foster 6 00 1 25 + + Layard's Nineveh, complete edition. 9 00 1 75 + + Mrs. Somerville's Physical Sciences 2 50 50 + + Whewell's Elements of Morality. 7 50 1 00 + + Napier's Peninsular War 12 00 3 25 + + Thirlwall's Greece, cheapest edition 7 00 3 00 + + Dick's Practical Astronomer 2 50 50 + + Jane Eyre 7 50 25 + + + [Footnote 1: Copied from an article in the New York _Daily Times_.] + +The difference, as we see, between the selling price in London and in New +York, of the first book in this list, is no less than eleven dollars, or +almost three times as much as the whole price of the American edition. To +what is this extraordinary difference to be attributed? To any excess in +the cost of paper or printing in London? Certainly not; for paper and +printers' labor are both cheaper there than here. Is it, then, to the +necessity for compensating the author? Certainly not; for there are in +this country fifty persons as fully competent as Mr. Brande for the +preparation of such a work, who would willingly do it for a dollar a copy, +calculating upon being paid out of a large sale. As the sale of books in +England is not large, it might be necessary to allow him two dollars each; +but even this would still leave nine dollars to be accounted for. Where +does all this go? Part of it to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, part to +the "Times," and other newspapers and journals that charge monopoly prices +for the privilege of advertising, and the balance to the booksellers who +"possess copyrights," and "sell their books at such exorbitant prices" +that they have driven the government to turn bookseller, with a view to +bring down prices; and these are the very men to whom it is now proposed +to grant unlimited control over the sale of all books produced abroad. + +It will, perhaps, be said that the treaty contains a proviso that the +author shall sell his copyright to an American publisher, or shall himself +cause his book to be republished here. Such a proviso may be there, but +whether it is so, or not, no one knows, for every thing connected with +this effort to extend the Executive power is kept as profoundly secret as +were the arrangements for the Napoleonic _coup d'etat_ of the 2d of +December. Secrecy and prompt and decisive action are the characteristics +of centralized governments--publicity and slow action those of +decentralized ones. Admit, however, that such limitations be found in the +treaty, by what right are they there? The basis of such a treaty is the +absolute right of the author to his book; and if that be admitted, with +what show of consistency or of justice can we undertake to dictate to him +whether he shall sell or retain it--print it here or abroad? With none, +as I think. + +Admit, however, that he does print it, does the treaty require that the +market shall _always_ be supplied? Perhaps it does, but most probably it +does not. If it does, does it also provide for the appointment of +commissioners to see that the provision is always complied with? If it +does not, nothing would seem to be easier than to send out the plates of a +large book, print off a small edition, and by thus complying with _the +letter_ of the law, establishing the copyright for the long term of +forty-two years, the moment after which the plates could be returned to +the place whence they came, and from that place the consumers could be +supplied on condition of paying largely to the Chancellor of the +Exchequer, to the "Times," to the profits of Mr. Dickens' advertising +sheet, to the author, to the London bookseller, to his agent in America, +and the retail dealer here. In cases like this, and they would be +numerous, the "few cents" would probably rise to be many dollars; and no +way can, I think, be devised to prevent their occurrence, except to take +one more step forward in centralization by the appointment of +commissioners in various parts of the Union, to see that the market is +properly supplied, and that the books offered for sale have been actually +printed on this side of the Atlantic. + +If the treaty does provide for publication here, it probably allows some +time therefor, say one, two, or three months. It is, however, well-known +that of very many books the first few weeks' sales constitute so important +a part of the whole that were the publisher here deprived of them, the +book would never be republished. No one could venture to print until the +time had elapsed, and by that time the English publisher would so well +have occupied the ground with the foreign edition that publication here +would be effectually stopped. Even under the present _ad valorem_ system +of duties this is being done to a great extent. One, two, or three hundred +copies of large works are cheaply furnished, and the market is thus just +so far occupied as to forbid the printing of an edition of one or more +thousands--to the material injury of paper-makers, printers, and +book-binders, and without any corresponding benefit to the foreign author. +Under the proposed system this would be done to a great extent. + +Admit, however, that the spirit of the law be fully complied with, and let +us see its effects. Mr. Dickens sells his book in England for 21_s_. +($5.00); and he will, of course, desire to have for it here as large a +price as it will bear. Looking at our prices for those books which are +copyright and of which the sale is large, he finds that "Bleak House" +contains four times as much as the "Reveries of a Bachelor," which sells +for $1.25, and he will be most naturally led to suppose that $3 is a +reasonable price. The number of copies of his book that has been supplied +to American readers, through newspapers and magazines, is certainly not +less than 250,000, and the average cost has not been' more than fifty +cents, giving for the whole the sum of + + $125,000 + +To supply the same number at his price would cost. + 750,000 + +Difference + $625,000 + + +Of Mr. Bulwer's last work, the number that has been supplied to American +consumers is probably but about two thirds as great, and the difference +might not amount to more than + + $350,000 + +Mr. Macaulay would not be willing to sell his book more cheaply than that +of Mr. Bancroft's is sold, or $2 per volume, and he might ask $2.50. +Taking it at the former price, the 125,000 copies that have been sold +would cost the consumer + $500,000 + +They have been supplied for + 100,000 + +The difference would be + $400,000 + + +Mr. Alison's work would make twelve such volumes as those of Mr. Bancroft, +and his price would not be less than $25. The sale has amounted, as I +understand, to 25,000 copies, which would give as the cost of the whole + + $625,000 + +The price at which they have been sold is $5, giving + 125,000 + +Difference + $500,000 + + +Of "Jane Eyre" there have been sold 80,000, and if the price had been +similar to that of "Fanny Fern," they would have cost the consumers. + + + $100,000 + +They have cost about + 25,000 + +Difference + $75,000 + + +Total result of a "few cents" on five books, $1,950,000 + +Under the system of international copyright, one of two things must be +done--either the people _must_ be taxed in the whole of this amount for +the benefit of the various persons, abroad and at home, who are now to be +invested with the monopoly power, or they must largely diminish their +purchases of literary food. + +The quantity of books above given cannot be regarded as more than one +twentieth of the total quantity of new ones annually printed. Admit, +however, that the total were but ten times greater, and that the +differences were but one fourth as great, it would be required that this +sum of $1,950,000 should be multiplied two and a half times, and that +would give about five millions of dollars; which, added to the sum already +obtained, would make seven millions _per annum_; and yet we have arrived +only at the commencement of the operation. All these books would require +to be reprinted in the next year, and the next, and so on, and for the +long period of forty-two years the payment on old books would require to +be added to those on new ones, until the sum would become a very startling +one. To enable us to ascertain what it must become, let us see what it +would now be had this system existed in the past. Every one of Scott's +novels would still be copyright, and such would be the case with Byron's +poems, and with all other books that have been printed in the last +forty-two years, of which the annual sale now amounts to many millions of +volumes. To the present price of these let us add the charge of the +author, and the monopoly charges of the English and American publishers, +and it will be found quite easy to obtain a further sum of five millions, +which, added to that already obtained, would make twelve millions _per +annum_, or enough to give to one in every four thousand males in the +United Kingdom, between the ages of twenty and sixty, a salary far +exceeding that of our Secretaries of State. Let this treaty be confirmed, +and let the consumption of foreign works continue at its present rate, and +payment of this sum must be made. We can escape its payment only on +condition of foregoing consumption of the books. + +The real cause of difficulty is not to be found in "the few cents" +required for the author, but in the means required to be adopted for their +collection. Everybody that reads "Bleak House," or "Oliver Twist," would +gladly pay their author some cents, however unwilling he might be to pay +dollars, or pounds. So, too, everybody who uses chloroform would willingly +pay something to its discoverer; and every one who believes in and profits +by homeopathic medicines would be pleased to contribute "a few cents" for +the benefit of Hahnemann, his widow, or his children. A single cent paid +by all who travel on steam vessels would make the family of Fulton one of +the richest in the world; but how collect these "few cents"? Grant me a +monopoly, says the author, and I will appoint an agent, who shall supply +other agents with my books, and I will settle with him. Grant us a +monopoly, say the representatives of Hahnemann, and we will grant +licenses, throughout the Union, to numerous men who shall be authorized to +practice homeopathically and collect our taxes. Were this experiment +tried, it would be found that millions would be collected, out of which +they would receive tens of thousands. Grant us a monopoly, might say the +representatives of Fulton, and we will permit no vessels to be built +without license from us, and our agents will collect "a few cents" from +each passenger, by which we shall be enriched. So they might be; but for +every cent that reached them the community would be taxed dollars in loss +of time and comfort, and in extra charges. It is the monopoly privilege, +and not the "few cents," that makes the difficulty. + +We are, however, advised by the advocates of this treaty that English +authors must be "required" to present their books in American "mode and +dress," and that regard to their own interests will cause them to be +presented "at MODERATE PRICES for general consumption." If, however, they +have acted differently at home, why should they pursue this course here? +That they have so acted, we have proof in the fact that the British +government has just been forced to turn bookseller, with a view to +restrain the owners of copyrights in the exercise of power. Who, again, is +to determine what prices are really "moderate" ones? The authors? Will Mr. +Macaulay consent that his books shall be sold for less than those of Mr. +Bancroft or Mr. Prescott? Assuredly not. The bookseller, then? Will he not +use his power in reference to foreign books precisely as he does now in +regard to domestic ones? If he deems it now expedient to sell a 12mo +volume for a dollar or a dollar and a quarter, is it probable that the +ratification of this treaty will open his eyes to the fact that it would +be better for him to sell Mr. Dickens's works at fifty cents than at three +dollars? Scarcely so, as I think. It is now about thirty years since the +"Sketch Book" was printed, and the cheapest edition that has yet been +published sells for one dollar and twenty-five cents. "Jane Eyre" contains +probably about the same quantity of matter, and sells for twenty-five +cents. Of the latter, about 80,000 have been printed, costing the +consumers $20,000; but if they were to purchase the same quantity of the +former, they would pay for them $100,000; difference, $80,000. What, now, +would become of this large sum? But little of it would reach the author; +not more, probably, than $10,000. Of the remaining $70,000, some would go +to printers, paper-makers, and bookbinders, and the balance would be +distributed among the publisher, the trade-sale auctioneers, and the +wholesale and retail dealers; the result being that the public would pay +five dollars where the author received one, or perhaps the half of one. We +have here the real cause of difficulty. The monopoly of copyright can be +preserved only by connecting it with the monopoly of publication. Were it +possible to say that whoever chose to publish the "Sketch Book" might do +so, on paying to its author "a few cents," the difficulty of this _double +monopoly_ would be removed; but no author would consent to this, for he +could have no certainty that his book might not be printed by unprincipled +men, who would issue ten thousand while accounting to him for only a +single thousand. To enable him to collect his dues, he _must_ have a +monopoly of publication. + +It may be said that if he appropriate to his use any of the common +property of which books are made up, and so misuse his privilege as to +impose upon his readers the payment of too heavy a tax, other persons may +use the same facts and ideas, and enter into competition with him. In no +other case, however, than in those of the owners of patents and +copyrights, where the public recognizes the existence of exclusive claim +to any portion of the common property, does it permit the party to fix the +price at which it may be sold. The right of eminent domain is common +property. In virtue of it, the community takes possession of private +property for public purposes, and frequently for the making of roads. Not +unfrequently it delegates to private companies this power, but it always +fixes the rate of charge to be made to persons who use the road. This is +done even when general laws are passed authorizing all who please, on +compliance with certain forms, to make roads to suit themselves. In such +cases, limitation would seem to be unnecessary, as new roads could be made +if the tolls on old ones were too high; and yet it is so well understood +that the making of roads does carry with it monopoly power, that the rates +of charge are always limited, and so limited as not to permit the +road-makers to obtain a profit disproportioned to the amount of their +investments. In the case of authors there can be no such limitation. They +must have monopoly powers, and the law therefore very wisely limits the +time within which they may be exercised, as in the other case it limits +the price that may be charged. In France, the prices to be paid to +dramatic authors are fixed by law, and all who pay may play; and if this +could be done in regard to all literary productions, permitting all who +paid to print, much of the difficulty relative to copyright would be +removed; but this course of operation would be in direct opposition to the +views of publishers who advocate this treaty on the ground that it would +add to "the security and respectability of the trade." They would +_prefer_ to pay for the copyright of every foreign book, because it would +bring with it monopoly prices and monopoly profits, both of which would +need to be paid by the consumers of books. To the paper-maker, printer, +and bookbinder, called upon to supply one thousand of a book for _the +few_, where before they had supplied ten thousand for _the many_, it +would be small consolation to know that they were thereby building up the +fortunes of two or three large publishing houses that had obtained a +monopoly of the business of republication, and were thus adding to the +"security and respectability of the trade." As little would probably be +derived from this source by the father of a family who found that he had +now to pay five dollars for what before had cost but one, and must +therefore endeavor to borrow, where before he had been accustomed to buy, +the books required for the amusement and instruction of his children. + +Our State of New Jersey levies a transit duty of eight cents per ton on +all the merchandise that crosses it. Had the imposition of this tax been +accompanied by a law permitting all who chose to make roads, no one would +have complained of it, as it would have been little more than a fair tax +on the property of the railroad and other companies. Unfortunately, +however, the course was different. To the company that collected it was +granted a monopoly of the power of transportation, and that power has been +so used that while the State received but eight cents the transporters +charged three, five, six, and eight dollars for work that should have been +done for one. The position in which the authors are necessarily placed is +precisely the one in which our State has voluntarily placed itself. To +enable them to collect their dues, some person or persons must have a +monopoly of publication, and they must and will collect five, ten, and +often twenty dollars for every one that reaches the author. The Union +would gain largely by paying into our treasury thrice the sum we receive +for transit duty, on the simple condition that we abolished the monopoly +of transportation; and it would gain far more largely by doing the same +with foreign authors. If justice does really call upon us to pay them, our +true course would be to do it directly from the Treasury, placing, if +necessary, a million of dollars annually at the disposal of the British +government, upon the simple condition that it releases us from all claim +to the monopoly of publication. Such a release would be cheap, even at two +millions; enough to give $4,000 a year to five hundred persons, and that +number would certainly include all who can even fancy us under any +obligation to them. My own impression is, that no such payment is required +by justice, either as regards our own authors or foreign ones. Of the +former, all can be and are well paid, _who can produce books that the +public are willing to read_, and no law that could be made would secure +payment to those who cannot. Their monopoly extends over a smaller number +of persons than does the English one; and if the more than thirty millions +of people who are subject to the latter cannot support their few writers, +the cause of difficulty is to be found at home, and there must the remedy +be applied. Nevertheless, by adopting the course suggested, we should +certainly free ourselves from any necessity for choosing between the +payment of many millions annually to authors and the men who stand between +them and the public, on the one hand, and of dispensing largely with the +purchase of books, on the other. If the nation must pay, the fewer persons +through whose hands the money passes the smaller will be the cost to it, +and the greater the gain to authors. + +The ratification of the treaty would impose upon us a very large amount of +taxation that must inevitably be paid either in money or in abstinence +from intellectual nourishment; and our authors should be able to satisfy +themselves that the advantage to them would bear some proportion to the +loss inflicted upon others. Would it do so? I think not. On the contrary, +they would find their condition greatly impaired. All publishers prefer +copyright books, because, having a monopoly, they can charge monopoly +profits. To obtain a copyright, they constantly pay considerable sums at +home for editorship of foreign books; but from the moment that this treaty +shall take effect, the necessity for doing this will cease, and thus will +our literary men be deprived of one considerable source of profit. Again, +literary labor in England is cheap, because of want of demand; but +international copyright, by opening to it our vast market, will quicken +the demand, and many more books will be produced, the authors of all of +which will be competitors with our own, who will then possess no +advantages over them. The rates of American authors will then fall +precisely as those of the British ones will rise; and this result will be +produced as certainly as the water in the upper chamber of a canal lock +will fall as that in the lower one is made to rise. On one side of the +Atlantic literary labor is well paid, and on the other it is badly paid. +International copyright will establish a level; and how much reason our +authors have to desire that it shall be established, I leave it for them +to determine. + +The direct tendency of the system now proposed will be found to be that of +diminishing the domestic competition for the production of books, and +increasing our dependence on foreigners for the means of amusement and +instruction; and yet the confirmation of the treaty is urged on the ground +that it will increase the first and diminish the last. If it would have +this latter effect, it is singular that the authors of England should be +so anxious for the measure as they are. It is not usual for men to seek to +diminish the dependence of others on themselves. + +These, however, are, as I think, but a small part of the inconveniences to +which our authors are now proposing to subject themselves. They have at +present a long period allowed them, during which they have an absolute +monopoly of the particular forms of words they offer to the reading +public; and this monopoly has, in a very few years, become so productive, +that authorship offers perhaps larger profits than any other pursuit +requiring the same amount of skill and capital. Twenty years hence, when +the market shall be greatly increased, it may, and as I think will, become +a question whether the monopoly has not been granted for too long a +period, and many persons may then be found disposed to unite with Mr. +Macaulay in the belief that the disadvantages of long periods preponderate +so greatly over their advantages, as to make it proper to retrace in part +our steps, limiting the monopoly to twenty-one years, or one half the +present period. The inquiry may then come to be made, what is the present +value of a monopoly of forty-two years, as compared with what would be +paid for one of twenty-one years; and when it is found that, in nine +hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, one will sell for exactly +as much as the other, it will perhaps be decided that no reason exists for +maintaining the present law, even if no change be now made. Suppose, +however, the treaty to be confirmed, establishing the monopoly of +foreigners in our market, and that the people who have been accustomed to +consume largely of cheap literature now find themselves deprived of it, +would not this tend to hasten the period at which the existing law would +come under consideration? I cannot but think it would. The common school +makes a great demand for school-books, and both make a great demand for +newspapers. All of these combine to make a demand for cheap books among an +immense and influential portion of our community, that cannot yet afford +to pay $1.25 for "Fern Leaves" or for the "Reveries of a Bachelor," +although they can well afford 25 cents for a number of "Harper's +Magazine," or for "Jane Eyre." Let us now suppose that the novels of +Dickens and Bulwer, the books of Miss Aguilar, and those of other authors +with which they have been accustomed to supply themselves, should at once +be raised to monopoly prices and thus placed beyond their reach, would it +not produce inquiry into the cause, and would not the answer be that we +had given English authors a monopoly in our market to enable our own to +secure a monopoly in that of England? Would not the sufferers next inquire +by what process this had been accomplished, seeing that the direct +representatives of the people had always been so firmly opposed to it; and +would not the answer be that the literary men of the two countries had +formed a combination for the purpose of taxing the people of both; and +that when they had failed to accomplish their object by means of +legislation, they had induced the Executive to interpose and make a law in +their favor, in defiance of the well-known will of the House of +Representatives? Under such circumstances, would it be extraordinary if we +should, within three years from the ratification of the treaty, see the +commencement of an agitation for a change in the copyright system? It +seems to me that it would not. + +The time for the arrival of this agitation would probably be hastened by +an extension of the system of centralization that would next be claimed; +for the present measure can be regarded as little more than the entering +wedge for others. France and England profit enormously by setting the +fashions for the world. New patterns and new articles are invented that +sell in the first season for treble or quadruple the price at which they +are gladly supplied in the second; and it is by aid of the perpetual +changes bf fashion that foreigners so much control our markets. Recently, +our manufacturers have been enabled to reproduce many new articles in very +short time, and this has tended greatly to reduce the profits of +foreigners, who are of course dissatisfied. Copyrights are now granted in +both those countries for new patterns, new forms of clothing, &c. &c., and +our next step will be towards the arrangement of a treaty for, securing to +the inventor of a print, or a new fashion of paletot, the monopoly of its +production in our markets; and when the claim for this shall be made, it +will be found to stand on precisely the same ground with that now made in +behalf of the producers of books, and must be granted. The Frenchman will +then have the exclusive right of supplying us with new _mousselines de +laine_, and the Englishman with new carpets and new forms of earthenware; +and we shall be told that that is the true mode of developing +manufacturing and artistic skill among ourselves. How much farther the +system may be carried it is difficult to tell, for, when we shall once +have established the system of regulating foreign and domestic trade by +treaty, the House of Representatives will scarcely be troubled with much +discussion of such affairs. Extremes generally meet, and it will be +extraordinary, if progress in that direction shall not be followed by +progress in the other, until our authors shall, at length, become +perfectly satisfied of the accuracy of Mr. Macaulay, when he told the +British authors, then claiming an extension of their monopoly to sixty +years, that "the wholesome copyright" already existing would "share in the +disgrace and danger of the new copyright" they desired to create.[1] They +could scarcely do better than study his speech at length. At present, they +are ill-advised, and their best friends will be those senators who, like +Mr. Macaulay, shall oppose their literary countrymen. + + [Footnote 1: _Macaulay's Speeches_, vol. i. p. 403.] + +Admitting, however, that the measure proposed should not in any manner +endanger existing privileges, what would be the gain to our authors in +obtaining the control of the British market, compared with what they would +lose from surrendering the control of our own? In the former, the sale of +books is certainly not large. Few have been more popular than Tupper's +"Proverbial Philosophy," and the price has been, as I learn, only 7_s._, +or $1,68. Nevertheless, a gentleman fully informed in regard to it assures +me that in fifteen years the average sale has been but a thousand a year, +or 15,000 in all.[2] Compare this with the sale of a larger number of the +"Reveries of a Bachelor," or of thrice the quantity of "Fern Leaves," at +but little lower prices, in the short period of six months, and it will be +seen how inferior is the foreign market to the domestic one. Were it +otherwise--were the market of Britain equal to our own--could it be +that we should so rarely hear of her literary men, dependent on their own +exertions, but as being poor and anxious for public employment? Were it +otherwise, should we need now to be told of the "utter destitution" of the +widow and children of Hogg, so widely known as author of "The Queen's +Wake," and as "The Shepherd" of "Blackwood's Magazine?" Assuredly not. Had +literary ability been there in the demand in which it now is here, he +would have written thrice as much, would have been thrice as well paid, +and would have provided abundantly for his widow and his children. +Nevertheless, our authors desire to trade off this great market for the +small one in which he shone and left his family to starve, and thus to +make an exchange similar to that of Glaucus when he gave a suit of golden +armor for one of brass. + + [Footnote 2: The sale here has been 200,000, at an average price of 50 + cents. Had it been copyright, the price would have been double, and + the "few cents" would have made a difference on this single book of + $100,000. The same gentleman to whom I am indebted for the above facts + informs me that he has paid to the author of a 12mo volume of 200 pages + more than $23,000, and could not now purchase the copyright for + $10,000; that for another small 12mo volume he has paid $7,000, and + Expects to pay as much more; that to a third author his payments for + the year have been $2500, and are likely to continue at that rate for + years to come; and that it would be easy to furnish other and numerous + cases of similar kind.] + + +What, however, are the prospects for the future? Will the British market +grow? It would seem not, for death and emigration are diminishing the +population, and the people who remain are in a state of constant warfare +with their employers, who promised "cheap food" that they might obtain +"cheap labor," and now offer low wages in connection with high-priced corn +and beef. The people who receive such wages cannot buy books. Hundreds of +thousands of persons are now out "on strike," or are "locked out" by the +gentlemen who advocate this "cheap labor" system; and the result of all +this extraordinary cessation from labor can be none other than the +continued growth of poverty, intemperance, and crime. The picture that is +presented by that country is one of unceasing discord between _the few_ +and _the many_, in which the former always triumph; and a careful +examination of it cannot result in leading us to expect an increase in the +desire to purchase books, or in the ability to pay for them. + +Having looked upon that picture, let our authors next look to the one now +presented by this country, as compared with that which could have been +offered forty, thirty, or even twenty years since, and to obtain aid in +understanding the facts presented to their view, let them read the +following extract from a speech recently delivered by Mr. Cobden:-- + + "You cannot point to an instance in America, where the people are more + educated than they are here, of total cessation from labor by a whole + community or town, given over, as it were, to desolation. When I came + through Manchester the other day, I found many of the most influential + of the manufacturing capitalists talking very carefully upon a report + which had reached them from a gentleman who was selected by the + government to go out to America, to report upon the great exhibition in + New York. That gentleman was one of the most eminent mechanicians and + machine-makers in Manchester, a man known in the scientific world, and + appreciated by men of science, from the astronomer royal downwards. He + has been over to America, to report upon the progress of manufactures + and the state of the mechanical arts in the United States, and he has + returned. No report from him to the government has yet been published. + But it has oozed out in Manchester that he found in America a degree of + intelligence amongst the manufacturing operatives, a state of things in + the mechanical arts, which has convinced him that if we are to hold our + own, if we are not to fall back in the rear of the race of nations we + must educate our people to put them upon a level with the more educated + artisans of the United States. We shall all have the opportunity of + judging when that report is delivered; but sufficient has already oozed + out to excite a great interest, and I might almost say some alarm." + + +Having done this, let them next ask themselves what have been the causes +of the vast change in the relative positions of the two countries. Doing +this, will not the answer be, common schools, cheap school-books, cheap +newspapers, and cheap literature? Has not each and every one of these +aided in making authors, and in creating a market for their products? +Having thus laid the foundation of a great edifice, are we likely to stop +in the erection of the walls? Having in so brief a period created a great +market for literature, is it not certain that it must continue to grow +with increased rapidity? Assuredly it is; and yet it is that vast market +that our authors desire to barter for one in which Hood was permitted +almost to starve, in which Leigh Hunt, Lady Morgan, Miss Mitford, +Tennyson, and Sir Francis Head even now submit to the degradation of +receiving the public charity to the extent of a hundred pounds a year! The +law as it now exists, invites foreign authors to come and live among us, +and participate in our advantages. The treaty offers to tax ourselves for +the purpose of offering them a bounty upon staying at home and increasing +their numbers and their competition with the well-paid literary labor of +this country. Were Belgrave Square to make a treaty with Grub Street, +providing that each should have a plate at the tables of the other, the +population of the latter would probably grow as rapidly as the dinners of +the former would decline in quality, and it might be well for our authors +to reflect if such might not be the result of the treaty now proposed. + +Its confirmation is, as I understand, urged on some senators on the ground +that consistency requires it. Being in favor of protection elsewhere, they +are told that it would be inconsistent to refuse it here. In reply to +this, it might fairly be retorted that nearly all the supporters of +international copyright are advocates of the system called, in England, +Free Trade; and that it is quite inconsistent in them to advocate +protection here. To do this would however be as unnecessary as it would be +unphilosophical. Both are perfectly consistent. Protection to the farmer +and planter in their efforts to draw the artisan to their side, looks to +carrying out the doctrine of decentralization by the annihilation of the +monopoly of manufactures established in Britain; and our present copyright +system looks to the decentralization of literature by offering to all who +shall come and live among us the same perfect protection that we give to +our own authors. What is called free trade looks to the maintenance of the +foreign monopoly for supplying us with cloth and iron; and international +copyright looks to continuing the monopoly which Britain has so long +enjoyed of furnishing us with books; and both tend towards centralization. + +The rapid advance that has been made in literature and science is the +result of the _perfect protection_ afforded by decentralization. Every +neighborhood collects taxes to be expended for purposes of education, and +it is from among those who would not otherwise be educated, and who are +thus protected in their efforts to obtain instruction, that we derive many +of our most thoughtful and intelligent men, and our best authors. The +advocates of free trade and international copyright are, to a great +extent, disciples in that school in which it is taught that it is an +unjust interference with the rights of property to compel the wealthy to +contribute to education of the poor. Common schools, and a belief in the +duty of protection, are generally found together. Decentralization, by the +production of local interests, _protects_ the poor printer in his efforts +to establish a country newspaper, and thus affords to young writers of the +neighborhood the means of coming before the world. Decentralization next +raises money for the establishment of colleges in every part of the Union, +and thus _protects_ the poor but ambitious student in his efforts to +obtain higher instruction than can be afforded by the common school. +Decentralization next _protects_ him in the manufacture of school-books, +by creating a large market for the productions of his pen, very much of +which is paid for out of the product of taxes the justice of which is +denied by those who advocate the British policy. Rising to the dignity of +author of books for the perusal of already instructed men and women he +finds himself _protected_ by an absolute monopoly, having for its object +to enable him to provide for himself, his wife, and his children. Of all +the people of the Union, none enjoy such perfect protection as those +connected with literature; yet many of them oppose protection to all +others, while actively engaged in enlarging and extending the monopoly +they themselves enjoy. It will scarcely answer for them to charge +inconsistency on others. + +How far the protection already granted has favored the development of +literary tendencies, may be judged after looking to the single case of +dramatic writers, who are not protected against representation without +their consent; and, as that is their mode of publication, it follows that +they do not enjoy the advantages granted to other authors. The consequence +is, that we make so little progress in that department of literature, +while advancing rapidly in every other. Permit me, my dear sir, to suggest +that this is a matter worthy of your attention. There would seem to be no +good reason for refusing to one class of authors what we grant so freely +to all others. + +Whether or not I shall have convinced you that international copyright +should not be established, I cannot say, but I feel quite safe in +believing that you must be convinced it is a question which requires to be +publicly and fully discussed before we adopt any action looking in that +direction. It is not a case of urgency. If the treaty be not confirmed, +the only inconvenience to the authors will be delay, and this should be +afforded, were it only to enable them to reflect at leisure upon the +probable consequences of the measure in aid of which they have invoked the +Executive power. Should they continue to believe their interests likely to +be promoted by the adoption of such a measure as that which has been so +pertinaciously urged the doors of Congress will always be open to them, +and justice, though it may be delayed, will assuredly be done. Let them +proceed in a constitutional way, and then, should their desires be +gratified, they will have the satisfaction of knowing that their rights +have been admitted after full and fair discussion before the people. +Should they now succeed in obtaining, in secret session, the confirmation +of a treaty negotiated in private, and in haste, they will, I think, +"repent at leisure;" but repentance may, and probably will, come too late. +The mischief will then have been done. + +Having now, my dear sir, to the best of my ability, complied with your +request, I remain, + +Yours, very respectfully, + + HENRY C. CAREY. + _Burlington_, Nov. 28, 1853. + +Hon. James Cooper. + + + + + +NOTE. + + December 31, 1867. + +Mr. Dickens's tale of "No Thoroughfare" is now being reprinted here in +daily and weekly journals, and to such extent as to warrant the belief +that the number in the hands of readers of the Union, will speedily exceed +a million; obtained, too, at a cost so small as scarcely to admit of +calculation. Under a system of International Copyright a similar number +would, at the least, have cost $500,000. At 50 cents, however, the sale +would not have exceeded 50,000, yielding to author and publisher probably +$10,000. Would it be now expedient that, to enable these latter to divide +among themselves this small amount, the former should tax themselves in +one so greatly larger? Would it be right or proper that they should so do +in the hope that American novelists and poets-should in like manner be +enabled to tax the British people? Outside of the class of gentlemen who +live by the use of their pens, there are few who, having examined the +question, would, it is believed, be disposed to give to these questions an +affirmative reply. + +Of all living authors there is none that, in his various capacities of +author, editor, and lecturer, is, in both money and fame, so largely paid +as Mr. Dickens. That he and others are not doubly so is due to the fact +that British policy, from before the days of Adam Smith, has tended +uniformly to the division of society, at home and abroad, into two great +classes, the very poor becoming daily more widely separated from the very +rich, and daily more and more unfitted for giving support to British +authors. That the reader may understand this fully, let him turn to recent +British journals and study the accounts there given of "an agricultural +gang system," whose horrors, as they tell their readers, "make the British +West Indies almost an Arcadia" when compared with many of the home +districts. Next, let him study in the "Spectator," now but a fortnight +old, the condition of the 630,000 wretched people inhabiting Eastern +London; and especially that of the 70,000 mainly dependent on ship and +engine building, "too poor to go afield for employment, too poor to +emigrate, too poor to do any thing but die," and wholly dependent on a +weekly allowance per house, of front twenty to forty cents and a loaf of +bread; that allowance, wretched as it is, to be obtained only at the cost +of "standing hours among crowds made brutal by misery and privation." +Further, let him read in the same journal its description of the almost +universal dishonesty which has resulted from a total repudiation of the +idea that international morality could exist; and then determine for +himself if, under a different system, Britain might not have made at home +a market for her authors that would far more than have compensated for +deprivation of that one they now so anxiously covet abroad. + +Seeking further evidence in reference to this important question, let him +then turn to the "North British Review" for the current month and study +the social sores of Britain. + +For more than a century she has been sowing the wind, carrying, and in the +direct ratio of their connection with her, poverty and slavery into +important countries of the earth. She is now only reaping the whirlwind. +When her literary men shall have begun to teach her people this--when +they shall have said to them that public immorality and private morality +cannot co-exist--when they shall have commenced to repudiate the idea +that the end sanctifies the means--then, _but not till then_, the time +may, perhaps, have come for lecturing the world on the moral side of the +question of International Copyright. To this moment, so far as the +writer's memory serves him, no one of them has yet entered on the +performance of this important work. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters on International Copyright; +Second Edition, by Henry C. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/14295-8.zip b/old/14295-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b71a2d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14295-8.zip diff --git a/old/14295.txt b/old/14295.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..87a6fae --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14295.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3826 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters on International Copyright; Second +Edition, by Henry C. Carey + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Letters on International Copyright; Second Edition + +Author: Henry C. Carey + +Release Date: December 7, 2004 [EBook #14295] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT *** + + + + +Produced by A Project Gutenberg Volunteer + + + + +LETTERS + +ON + +INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT: + +BY + +H. C. CAREY, + +AUTHOR OF "PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL SCIENCE," ETC. ETC. + +SECOND EDITION. + +NEW YORK: + +PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON, + +459 BROOME STREET. + +1868. + +RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: + +PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. + + + + + +PREFACE. + + +At the date, now fourteen years since, of the first publication of these +letters, the important case of authors _versus_ readers--makers of books +_versus_ consumers of facts and ideas--had for several years been again +on trial in the high court of the people. But few years previously the +same plaintiffs had obtained a verdict giving large extension of _time_ to +the monopoly privileges they had so long enjoyed. Not content therewith, +they now claimed greater _space_, desiring to have those privileges so +extended as to include within their domain the vast population of the +British Empire. To that hour no one had appeared before the court on the +part of the defendants, prepared seriously to question the plaintiffs' +assertion to the effect that literary property stood on the same precise +footing, and as much demanded perpetual and universal recognition, as +property in a house, a mine, a farm, or a ship. As a consequence of +failure in this respect there prevailed, and most especially throughout +the Eastern States, a general impression that there was really but one +side to the question; that the cause of the plaintiffs was that of truth; +that in the past might had triumphed over right; that, however doubtful +might be the expediency of making a decree to that effect, there could be +little doubt that justice would thereby be done; and that, while rejecting +as wholly _inexpedient_ the idea of perpetuity, there could be but slight +objection to so far recognizing that of universality as to grant to +British authors the same privileges that thus far had been accorded to our +own. + +Throughout those years, nevertheless, the effort to obtain from the +legislative authority a decree to that effect had proved an utter failure. +Time and again had the case been up for trial, but as often had the +plaintiffs' counsel wholly failed to agree among themselves as to the +consequences that might reasonably be expected to result from recognition +of their clients' so-called rights. Northern and Eastern advocates, +representing districts in which schools and colleges abounded, insisted +that perpetuity and universality of privilege must result in giving the +defendants cheaper books. Southern counsel, on the contrary, representing +districts in which schools were rare, and students few in number, insisted +that extension of privilege would have the effect of giving to planters +handsome editions of the works they needed, while preventing the +publication of "cheap and nasty" editions, fitted for the "mudsills" of +Northern States. Failing thus to agree among themselves they failed to +convince the jury, mainly representing, as it did, the Centre and the +West, as a consequence of which, verdicts favorable to the defendants had, +on each and every occasion, been rendered. + +A thoroughly adverse popular will having thus been manifested, it was now +determined to try the Senate, and here the chances for privilege were +better. With a population little greater than that of Pennsylvania, the +New England States had six times the Senatorial representation. With +readers not a fifth as numerous as were those of Ohio, Carolina, Florida, +and Georgia had thrice the number of Senators. By combining these +heterogeneous elements the will of the people--so frequently and +decidedly expressed--might, it was thought, be set aside. To that end, +the Secretary of State, himself one of the plaintiffs, had negotiated the +treaty then before the Senate, of the terms of which the defendants had +been kept in utter ignorance, and by means of which the principle of +taxation without representation was now to be established. + +Such was the state of affairs at the date at which, in compliance with the +request of a Pennsylvania Senator, the author of these letters put on +paper the ideas he had already expressed to him in conversation. By him +and other Senators they were held to be conclusive, so conclusive that the +plaintiffs were speedily brought to see that the path of safety, for the +present at least, lay in the direction of abandoning the treaty and +allowing it to be quietly laid in the grave in which it since has rested. +That such should have been their course was, at the time, much regretted +by the defendants, as they would have greatly preferred an earnest and +thorough discussion of the question before the court. Had opportunity been +afforded it _would_ have been discussed by one, at least, of the master +minds of the Senate;[1] and so discussed as to have satisfied the whole +body of our people, authors and editors, perhaps, excepted, that their +cause was that of truth and justice; and that if in the past there had +been error it had been that of excess of liberality towards the plaintiffs +in the suit. + + [Footnote 1: Senator Clayton of Delaware.] + +The issue that was then evaded is now again presented, eminent counsel +having been employed, and the opening speech having just now been made.[2] +Having read it carefully, we find in it, however, nothing beyond a labored +effort at reducing the literary profession to a level with those of the +grocer and the tallow-chandler. It is an elaborate reproduction of Oliver +Twist's cry for "more! more!"--a new edition of the "Beggar's Petition," +perusal of which must, as we think, have affected with profound disgust +many, if not even most, of the eminent persons therein referred to. In it, +we have presented for consideration the sad case of one distinguished +writer and admirable man who, by means of his pen alone, had been enabled +to pass through a long life of most remarkable enjoyment, although his +money receipts had, by reason of the alleged injustice of the consumers of +his products, but little exceeded $200,000; that of a lady writer who, by +means of a sensational novel of great merit and admirably adapted to the +modes of thought of the hour, had been enabled to earn in a single year, +the large sum of $40,000, though still deprived of two hundred other +thousands she is here said to have fairly earned; of a historian whose +labors, after deducting what had been applied to the creation of a most +valuable library, had scarcely yielded fifty cents per day; of another who +had had but $1000 per month; and, passing rapidly from the sublime to the +ridiculous, of a school copy-book maker who had seen his improvements +copied, without compensation to himself, for the benefit of English +children. + + [Footnote 2: See _Atlantic Monthly_ for October.] + +These may and perhaps should be regarded as very sad facts; but had not +the picture a brighter side, and might it not have been well for the +eminent counsel to have presented both? Might he not, for instance, have +told his readers that, in addition to the $200,000 above referred to, and +wholly as acknowledgment of his literary services, the eminent recipient +had for many years enjoyed a diplomatic sinecure of the highest order, by +means of which he had been enabled to give his time to the collection of +materials for his most important works? Might he not have further told us +how other of the distinguished men he had named, as well as many others +whose names had not been given, have, in a manner precisely similar, been +rewarded for their literary labors? Might he not have said something of +the pecuniary and societary successes that had so closely followed the +appearance of the novel to whose publication he had attributed so great an +influence? Might he not, and with great propriety, have furnished an +extract from the books of the "New York Ledger," exhibiting the tens and +hundreds of thousands that had been paid for articles which few, if any, +would care to read a second time? Might he not have told his readers of +the excessive earnings of public lecturers? Might he not, too, have said a +word or two of the tricks and contrivances that are being now resorted to +by men and women--highly respectable men and women too--for evading, +on both sides of the Atlantic, the spirit of the copyright laws while +complying with their letter? Would, however, such a course of proceeding +have answered his present purpose? Perhaps not! His business was to pass +around the hat, accompanying it with a strong appeal to the charity of the +defendants, and this, so far as we can see, is all that thus far has been +done. + +Might not, however, a similar, and yet stronger, appeal now be made in +behalf of other of the public servants? At the close of long lives devoted +to the public service, Washington, Hamilton, Clay, Clayton, and many other +of our most eminent men have found themselves largely losers, not gainers, +by public service. The late Governor Andrew's services were surely worth +as much, per hour, as those of the authoress of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," yet +did he give five years of his life, and perhaps his life itself, for far +less than half of what she had received for the labors of a single one. +Deducting the expenses incident to his official life, Mr. Lincoln would +have been required to labor for five and twenty years before he could have +received as much as was paid to the author of the "Sketch Book." The +labors of the historian of Ferdinand and Isabella have been, to himself +and his family, ten times more productive than have been those of Mr. +Stanton, the great war minister of the age.--Turning now, from civil to +military life, we see among ourselves officers who have but recently +rendered the largest service, but who are now quite coolly whistled down +the wind, to find where they can the means of support for wives and +children. Studying the lists of honored dead, we find therein the names of +men of high renown whose widows and children are now starving on pensions +whose annual amount is less than the monthly receipt of any one of the +authors above referred to. + +Such being the facts, and, that they are facts cannot be denied, let us +now suppose a proposition to be made that, with a view to add one, two, +three, or four thousand dollars to the annual income of ex-presidents, and +ex-legislators, and half as much to that of the widows and children of +distinguished officers, there should be established a general pension +system, involving an expenditure of the public moneys, and consequent +taxation, to the extent of ten or fifteen millions a year, and then +inquire by whom it might be supported. Would any single one of the editors +who are now so earnest in their appeals for further grants of privilege +venture so to do? Would not the most earnest of them be among the first to +visit on such a proposition the most withering denunciations? Judging from +what, in the last two years, we have read in various editorial columns, we +should say that they would be so. Would, however, any member of either +house of Congress venture to commit himself before the world by offering +such a proposition? We doubt it very much. Nevertheless it is now coolly +proposed to establish a system that would not only tax the present +generation as many millions annually, but that would grow in amount at a +rate far exceeding the growth of population, doing this in the hope that +future essayists might be enabled to count their receipts by half instead +of quarter millions, and future novelists to collect abroad and at home +the hundreds of thousands that, as we are assured, are theirs of _right_, +and that are now denied them. When we shall have determined to grant to +the widows and children of the men who in the last half dozen years have +perished in the public service, some slight measure of justice, it may be +time to consider that question, but until then it should most certainly be +deferred. + +The most active and earnest of all the advocates of literary _rights_ +was, two years since, if the writer's memory correctly serves him, the +most thorough and determined of all our journalists in insisting on the +prompt dismissal of thousands and tens of thousands of men who, at their +country's call, had abandoned the pursuits and profits of civil life. Did +he, however, ever propose that they should be allowed any extra pay on +which to live, and by means of which to support their wives and children, +in the interval between discharge from military service and +re-establishment in their old pursuits? Nothing of the kind is now +recollected. Would he now advocate the enactment of a law by means of +which the widow and children of a major-general who had fallen on the +field should, so far as pay was concerned, be placed on a level with an +ordinary police officer? He might, but that he would do so could not with +any certainty be affirmed. She and they would, nevertheless, seem to have +claims on the consideration of American men and women fully equal to those +of the authoress of "Lady Audley's Secret," already, as she is understood +to be, in the annual receipt from this country of more than thrice the +amount of the widow's pension, in addition to tens of thousands at home.[1] + + [Footnote 1: The London correspondent of Scribner and Co.'s "_Book + Buyer_" says that Miss Braddon's first publisher, Mr. Tinsley (who died + suddenly last year), called the elegant villa he built for himself at + Putney "Audley House," in grateful remembrance of the "Lady" to whose + "Secret" he was indebted for fortune; and Miss Braddon herself, through + her man of business, has recently purchased a stately mansion of Queen + Anne's time, "Litchfield House," at Richmond.] + +It is, however, as we are gravely told, but ten per cent. that she asks, +and who could or should object to payment of such a pittance? Not many, +perhaps, if unaccompanied by monopoly privleges that would _multiply the +ten by ten and make it an hundred!_ Alone, the cost to our readers might +not now exceed an annual million. Let Congress then pass an act +appropriating that sum to be distributed among foreign authors whose works +had been, or might be republished here. _That_ should have the writer's +vote, but he objects, and will continue to object, to any legislative +action that shall tend towards giving to already "great and wealthy" +publishing houses the _nine_ millions that they certainly will charge for +collecting the single _one_ that is to go abroad. + +"Great and wealthy" as they are here said to be, and as they certainly +are, we are assured that even they have serious troubles, against which +they greatly need to be protected. In common with many heretofore +competing railroad companies they have found that, however competition +among themselves might benefit the public, it would tend rather to their +own injury, and therefore have they, by means of most stringent rules, +established a "courtesy" copyright, the effect of which exhibits itself in +the fact, that the prices of reprinted books are now rapidly approaching +those of domestic production. Further advances in that direction might, +however, prove dangerous; "courtesy" rules not, as we are here informed, +being readily susceptible of enforcement. A salutary fear of interlopers +still restrains those "great and wealthy houses," at heavy annual cost to +themselves, and with great saving to consumers of their products. That +this may all be changed; that they may build up fortunes with still +increased rapidity; that they may, to a still greater extent, monopolize +the business of publication; and, that the people may be taxed to that +effect; all that is now needed is, that Congress shall pass a very simple +law by means of which a few men in Eastern cities shall be enabled to +monopolize the business of republication, secure from either Eastern or +Western competition. That done, readers will be likely to see a state of +things similar to that now exhibited at Chicago, where railroad companies +that have secured to themselves all the exits and entrances of the city, +are, as we are told, at this moment engaged in organizing a combination +that shall have the effect of dividing in fair proportion among the wolves +the numerous flocks of sheep. + +On all former occasions Northern advocates of literary monopolies assured +us that it was in that direction, and in that alone, we were to look for +the cheapening of books. Now, nothing of this sort is at all pretended. On +the contrary, we are here told of the extreme impropriety of a system +which makes it necessary for a New England essayist to accept a single +dollar for a volume that under other circumstances would sell for half a +guinea; of the wrong to such essayists that results from the issue of +cheap "periodicals made up of selections from the reviews and magazines of +Europe;" of the "abominable extravagance of buying a great and good novel +in a perishable form for a few cents;" of the increased accessibility of +books by the "masses of the people" that must result from increasing +prices; and of the greatly increased facility with which circulating +libraries may be formed whensoever the "great and wealthy houses" shall +have been given power to claim from each and every reader of Dickens's +novels, as their share of the monopoly profits, thrice as much as he now +pays for the book itself! This, however, is only history repeating itself +with a little change of place, the argument of to-day, coming from the +North, being an almost exact repetition of that which, twenty years since, +came from the South--from the mouths of men who rejoiced in the fact +that no newspapers were published in their districts, and who well _knew_ +that the way towards preventing the dissemination of knowledge lay in the +direction of granting the monopoly privileges that had been asked. The +anti-slavery men of the present thus repeat the argument of the +pro-slavery men of the past, extremes being thus brought close together. + +Our people are here assured that Russia, Sweden, and other countries are +ready to unite with them in recognizing the "rights" now claimed. So, too, +it may be well believed, would it be with China, Japan, Bokhara, and the +Sandwich Islands. Of what use, however, would be such an union? Would it +increase the facilities for transplanting the ideas of American authors? +Are not the obstacles to such transplantation already sufficiently great, +and is it desirable that they should be at all increased? Germany has +already tried the experiment, but whether or not, when the time shall +come, the existing treaties will be renewed, is very doubtful. Where she +now pays dollars, she probably receives cents. Discussion of the question +there has led to the translation and republication of the letters here now +republished, and the views therein expressed have received the public +approbation of men whose opinions are entitled to the highest +consideration. What has recently been done in that country in reference to +domestic copyright, and what has been the effect, are well exhibited in an +article from an English journal just now received, a part of which, +American moneys having been substituted for German ones, is here given, as +follows: + + "We have so long enjoyed the advantage of unrestricted competition in the + production of the works of the best English writers of the past, that we + can hardly realize what our position would have been had the right to + produce Shakespeare, or Milton, or Goldsmith, or any of our great classic + writers, been monopolized by any one publishing-house,--certainly we + should never have seen a shilling Shakespeare, or a half-crown Milton; + and Shakespeare, instead of being, as he is,' familiar in our mouths as + household words,' would have been known but to the scholar and the + student. We are far from condemning an enlightened system of copyright, + and have not a word to say in favor of unreasoning competition; but we do + think that publishers and authors often lose sight of their own interest + in adhering to a system of high prices and restricted sale. Tennyson's + works supply us with a case in point--here, to possess a set of + Tennyson's poems, a reader must pay something like 38_s_. or 40_s_.--in + Boston you may buy a magnificent edition of all his works in two volumes + for something like 15_s_., and a small edition for some four or five + shillings. The result is the purchasers in England are numbered by + hundreds, in America by thousands. In Germany we have almost a parallel + case. There the works of the great German poets, of Schiller, of Goethe, + of Jean Paul, of Wieland, and of Herder, are at the present time 'under + the protecting privileges of the most illustrious German Confederation,' + and, by special privilege, the exclusive property of the Stuttgart + publishing firm of J. G. Cotta. On the forthcoming 9th of November this + monopoly will cease, and all the works of the above-mentioned poets will + be open to the speculation of German publishers generally. It may be + interesting to our readers to learn the history of these peculiar legal + restrictions, which have so long prevailed in the German booktrade, and + the results likely to follow from their removal. + + "Until the beginning of this century literary piracy was not prohibited + in the German States. As, however, protection of literary productions + was, at last, emphatically urged, the Acts of the Confederation (on the + reconstruction of Germany in the year 1815) contained a passage to the + effect, that the Diet should, at its first meeting, consider the + necessity of uniform laws for securing the rights of literary men and + publishers. The Diet moved in the matter in the year 1818, appointing a + commission to settle this question; and, thanks to that supreme + profoundness which was ever applied to the affairs of the father-land by + this illustrious body, after twenty-two years of deliberation, on the + 9th of Nov., 1837, decreed the law, that the rights of authorship should + be acknowledged and respected, at least, for the space of ten years; + copyright for a longer period, however, being granted for voluminous and + costly works, and for the works of the great German poets. + + "In the course of time, however, a copyright for ten years proved + insufficient even for the commonest works; it was therefore extended by a + decree of the Diet, dated June 19, 1845, over the natural term of the + author's life and for thirty years after his death. With respect to the + works of all authors deceased before the 9th of November, 1837-- + including the works of the poets enumerated above--the Diet decided + that they could all be protected until the 9th of November, 1867. + + "It was to be expected that the firm of J. G. Cotta, favored until now + with so valuable a monopoly, would make all possible exertions not to be + surpassed in the coming battle of the Publishers, though it is a somewhat + curious sight to see this haughty house, after having used its privileges + to the last moment, descend now suddenly from its high monopolistic stand + into the arena of competition, and compete for public favor with its + plebeian rivals. Availing itself of the advantage which the monopoly + hitherto attached to it naturally gives it, the house has just commenced + issuing a cheap edition of the German classics, under the title + 'Bibliothek fuer Alle. Meisterwerke deutscher Classiker,' in weekly parts, + 6 cts. each; containing the selected works of Schiller, at the price of + 75 cts., and the selected works of Goethe, at the price of $1.50. And + now, just as the monopoly is gliding from their hands, the same firm + offers, in a small 16mo edition, Schiller's complete works, 12 vols., + for 75 cts. + + "Another publisher, A. H. Payne, of Leipzig, announces a complete edition + of Schiller's works, including some unpublished pieces, for 75 cts. + + "Again, the well-known firm of F. A. Brockhaus holds out a prospectus of + a corrected critical edition of the German poets of the eighteenth and + nineteenth century, which we have every reason to believe will merit + success. A similar enterprise is announced, just now, by the + Bibliographical Institution of Hildburghausen, under the title, + 'Bibliothek der deutschen Nationalliteratur,' edited by Heinr. Kurz, in + weekly parts of 10 sheets, at the price of 12 cts. each. Even an + illustrated edition of the Classics will be presented to the public, in + consequence of the expiration of the copyright. The Grotesche + Buchhandlung, of Berlin, is issuing the 'Hausbibliothek deutscher + Classiker,' with wood-cut illustrations by such eminent artists as + Richter, Thumann, and others; and the first part, just published, + containing Louise, by Voss, with truly artistic illustrations, has met + with general approbation. But, above all, the popular edition of the + poets, issued by G. Hempel, of Berlin, under the general title of + 'National Bibliothek saemmtlicher deutscher Classiker,' 8vo. in parts, 6 + cts. each, seems destined to surpass all others in popularity, though not + in merit. _Of the first part (already published), containing Buerger's + Poems, 300,000 copies have been sold, and 150,000 subscribers' names have + been registered for the complete series. This immense sale, unequalled in + the annals of the German book-trade, will certainly induce many other + publishers to embark in similar enterprises._"--Truebner's _Literary + Record_, Oct. 1867. + +Judging from this, there will, five years hence, be a million of families +in possession of the works of Schiller, Buerger, Goethe, Herder and others, +that thus far have been compelled to dispense with their perusal. Sad to +think, however, they will be of those cheap editions now so much despised +by American advocates of monopoly privileges! How much better for the +German people would it not have been had their Parliament recognized the +perpetuity of literary _rights_, and thus enabled the "great and wealthy +house" of Cotta and Co. to carry into full effect the idea that their own +editions should alone be published, thereby adding other millions to the +very many of which they already are the owners! + +At this moment a letter from Mr. Bayard Taylor advises us that German +circulating libraries impede the sale of books; that the circulation of +even highly popular works is limited within 20,000; and that, as a +necessary consequence, German authors are not paid so well as of right +they should be.[1] This, however, is precisely the state of things that, +as we are now assured, should be brought about in this country, prices +being raised, and readers being driven to the circulating library by +reason of the deficiency of the means required for forming the private +one. It is the one that _would_ be brought about should our authors, +unhappily for themselves, succeed in obtaining what is now demanded. + + [Footnote 1: New York _Tribune_, Nov. 29] + +The day has passed, in this country, for the recognition of either +perpetuity or universality of literary _rights_. The wealthy Carolinian, +anxious that books might be high in price, and knowing well that monopoly +privileges were opposed to freedom, gladly cooperated with Eastern authors +and publishers, anti-slavery as they professed to be. The enfranchised +black, on the contrary, desires that books may be cheap, and to that end +he and his representatives will be found in all the future co-operating +with the people of the Centre and the West in maintaining the doctrine +that literary _privileges_ exist in virtue of grants from the people who +own the materials out of which books are made; that those privileges have +been perhaps already too far extended; that there exists not even a shadow +of reason for any further extension; and that to grant what now is asked +would be a positive wrong to the many millions of consumers, as well as an +obstacle to be now placed in the road towards civilization. + +The amount now paid for public service under our various governments is +more than, were it fairly distributed, would suffice for giving proper +reward to all. Unfortunately the _distribution_ is very bad, the largest +compensation generally going to those who render the smallest service. So, +too, is it with regard to literary employments; and so is it likely to +continue throughout the future. Grant all that now is asked, and the +effect will be seen in the fact, that of the vastly increased taxation +ninety per cent. will go to those who work for money alone, and are +already overpaid, leaving but little to be added to the rewards of +conscientious men with whom their work is a labor of love, as is the case +with the distinguished author of the "History of the Netherlands." + +Twenty years ago, Macaulay advised his literary friends to be content, +believing, as he told them, that the existing "wholesome copyright" was +likely to "share in the disgrace and danger" of the more extended one +which they then so much desired to see created. Let our authors reflect on +this advice! Success now, were it possible that it should be obtained, +would be productive of great danger in the already not distant future. In +the natural course of things, most of our authorship, for many years to +come, will be found east of the Hudson, most of the buyers of books, +meanwhile, being found south and west of that river. International +copyright will give to the former limited territory an absolute monopoly +of the business of republication, the then great cities of the West being +almost as completely deprived of participation therein as are now the +towns and cities of Canada and Australia. On the one side, there will be +found a few thousand persons interested in maintaining the monopolies that +had been granted to authors and publishers, foreign and domestic. On the +other, sixty or eighty millions, tired of taxation and determined that +books shall be more cheaply furnished. War will then come, and the +domestic author, sharing in the "disgrace and danger" attendant upon his +alliance with foreign authors and domestic publishers, may perhaps find +reason to rejoice if the people fail to arrive at the conclusion that the +last extension of _his own privileges_ had been inexpedient and should be +at once recalled. Let him then study that well-known fable of Aesop +entitled "The Dog and the Shadow," and take warning from it! + +The writer of these Letters had no personal interest in the question +therein discussed. Himself an author, he has since gladly witnessed the +translation and republication of his works in various countries of Europe, +his sole reason for writing them having been found in a desire for +strengthening the many against the few by whom the former have so long, to +a greater or less extent, been enslaved. To that end it is that he now +writes, fully believing that the _right_ is on the side of the consumer of +books, and not with their producers, whether authors or publishers. +Between the two there is, however, a perfect harmony of all real and +permanent interests, and greatly will he be rejoiced if he shall have +succeeded in persuading even some few of his literary countrymen that such +is the fact, and that the path of safety will be found in the direction of +letting well enough alone. + +The reward of literary service, and the estimation in which literary men +are held, both grow with growth in that power of combination which results +from diversification of employments; from bringing consumers and producers +close together; and from thus stimulating the activity of the societary +circulation. Both decline as producers and consumers become more widely +separated and as the circulation becomes more languid, as is the case in +all the countries now subjected to the British free trade influence. Let +American authors then unite in asking of Congress the establishment of a +fixed and steady policy which shall have the effect of giving us that +industrial independence without which there can be neither political nor +literary independence. That once secured, they would thereafter find no +need for asking the establishment of a system of taxation which would +prove so burdensome to our people as, in the end, to be ruinous to +themselves. + + H. C. C. + +PHILADELPHIA,_ +Dec_. 1867. + + + + + +LETTERS + +ON + +INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. + + + + + +LETTER I. + +Dear Sir:--You ask for information calculated to enable you to act +understandingly in reference to the international copyright treaty now +awaiting the action of the Senate. The subject is an important one, more +so, as I think, than is commonly supposed, and being very glad to see that +it is now occupying your attention, it will afford me much pleasure to +comply, as far as in my power, with your request. + +Independently of the principle involved, it seems to me that the course +now proposed to be pursued is liable to very grave objection. It is an +attempt to substitute the action of the Executive for that of the +Legislature, and in a case in which the latter is fully competent to do +the work. For almost twenty years, Congress has been besieged with +applications on the subject, but without effect. Senate Committees have +reported in favor of the measure, but the lower House, composed of the +direct representatives of the people, has remained unmoved. In despair of +succeeding under any of the ordinary forms of proceeding, its friends have +invoked the legislation of the Executive power, and the result is seen in +the fact, that the Senate, as a branch of the Executive, is now called +upon to sanction a law, in the enactment of which the House of +Representatives could not be induced to unite. This may be, and doubtless +is, in accordance with the letter of the Constitution, but it is so +decidedly in opposition to its spirit that, even were there no other +objection, the treaty should be rejected. That, however, is but the +smallest of the objections to it. + +If the people required such a law, nothing could be more easy than to act +in this case as we have done before in similar ones. When we desired to +arrange for reciprocity in relation to navigation, we fixed the terms, and +declared that all the other nations of the earth might accede to them if +they would. No treaty was needed, and we therefore became bound to no one. +It was in our power to repeal the law when we chose. So, again, in regard +to patents. Foreigners exercise the power of patenting their inventions, +but they do so under a law that is liable to repeal at the pleasure of +Congress. In both of these cases, the bills underwent public discussion, +and the people that were to be subjected to the law, saw, and understood, +and amended the bills before they became laws. Contrast, I beg of you, +this course of proceeding with the one now proposed to be pursued in +reference to one of the largest branches of our internal trade. Finding +that no bill that could be prepared could stand the ordeal of public +discussion, a treaty has been negotiated, the terms of which seem to be +known to none but the negotiators, and that treaty has been sent to your +House of Congress, there to be discussed in secret session by a number of +gentlemen, most of whom have given little attention to the general +principle involved, while not even a single one can be supposed qualified +to judge of the practical working of the provisions by whose aid the +principle is to be carried out. Once confirmed, the treaty can be changed +only with the consent of England. Here we have secrecy in the making of +laws, and irrevocability of the law when made; whereas, in all other +cases, we have had publicity and revocability. Legislation like that now +proposed would seem to be better suited to the monarchies of Europe, than +to the republic of the United States. The reason why this extraordinary +course has been adopted is, that the people have never required the +passage of such a law, and could not be persuaded to sanction it now, were +it submitted to them. + +The French and English copyright treaty has, as I understand, caused great +deterioration in the value of property that had been accumulated in France +under the system that had before existed, and such may prove to be the +case with the one now under consideration. Should it be so, the +deterioration would prove to be fifty times greater in amount than it was +in France. Will it do so? No one knows, because those whose interests are +to be affected by the law are not permitted to read the law that is to be +made. They know well that they have not been consulted, and equally well +do they know that the negotiator is not familiar with the trade that is to +be regulated, and is liable, therefore, to have given his assent to +provisions that will work injury never contemplated by him at the time the +treaty had been made. Again, provisions may have been inserted, with a +view to prevent injury to the publishers, or to the public, that would be +found in practice to be utterly futile, or even to augment the difficulty +instead of remedying it. That such result would follow the adoption of +some of those whose insertion has been urged, I can positively assert. In +this state of things, it would seem to be proper that we should know +whether the provisions of the treaty were submitted to the examination of +any of the parties interested for or against it, and if so, to whom. So +far as I can learn, none of those opposed to it have had any opportunity +afforded them of reading the law, and if any advice has been taken, it +must have been of those publishers who are in favor of it. Those +gentlemen, however, are precisely the persons likely most to profit by the +adoption of the principle recognized by the treaty; and the more +disadvantageous to others the provisions for carrying that principle into +effect, the greater must be the advantage to themselves. They, therefore, +can be regarded as little more than the exponents of the wishes of their +English friends, who were counselling the British Minister on the one +hand, while on the other they were, through their friends here, +counselling the American one. A treaty negotiated under such +circumstances, would seem little likely to provide for the general +interests of the American people. + +When, in 1837, the attempt was first made to secure for English authors +the privilege of copyright, a large number of them united in an agreement +declaring a certain New York house to be "the sole authorized publishers +and issuers" of their works. Now, had that house volunteered its advice to +the Secretary of State of that day, he would scarcely have regarded it as +sufficiently disinterested to be qualified for the office it had +undertaken; and yet, if any advice in the present case has been asked, it +would seem that it must have been from houses that now look forward to +filling the place then occupied by that single one, and that cannot, +therefore, be regarded as fitted for the office of counsellors to the +Secretary of the present day. Recollect, I am, as is everybody else, +entirely in the dark. No one knows who furnished advice as to the treaty, +nor does any one know what is to be the law when it shall have been +confirmed. Neither can any one tell how the errors that may now be made +will be corrected. With a law regularly passed through both Houses of +Congress, these difficulties could not arise. They are a natural +consequence of this attempt to substitute the will of the Executive for +that of the people, as expressed by the House of Representatives, and +should, as I think, weigh strongly on the minds of Senators when called to +vote upon the treaty. Their constituents have a right to see, and to +discuss, the laws that are proposed before those laws are finally made, +and whenever it is attempted, as in the present case, to stifle +discussion, we may reasonably infer that wrong is about to be done. This +is, I believe, the first case in which, on account of the unpopularity of +the law proposed, it has been attempted to deprive the popular branch of +Congress of its constitutional share in legislation, and if this be +sanctioned it is difficult to see what other interests may not be +subjected to similar action on the part of the Executive. In all such +cases, it is the first step that is most difficult, and before making the +one now proposed, you should, as I think, weigh well the importance of the +precedent about to be established. No one can hold in greater respect than +I do, the honorable gentleman who negotiated this treaty; but in thus +attempting to substitute the executive will for legislative action, he +seems to me to have made a grave mistake. + +In the claim now made in behalf of English authors, there is great +apparent justice; but that which is not true, often puts on the appearance +of truth. For thousands of years, it seemed so obviously true that the sun +revolved around the earth that the fact was not disputed, and yet it came +finally to be proved that the earth revolved around the sun. Ricardo's +theory of the occupation of the earth, the foundation-stone of his system, +had so much apparent truth to recommend it, that it was almost universally +adopted, and is now the basis of the whole British politico-economical +system; and yet the facts are directly the reverse of what Ricardo had +supposed them to be. Such being the case, it might be that, upon a full +examination of the subject, we should find that, in admitting the claim of +foreign authors, we should be doing injustice and not justice. The English +press has, it is true, for many years been engaged in teaching us that we +were little better than thieves or pirates; but that press has been so +uniformly and unsparingly abusive of us, whenever we have failed to grant +all that it has claimed, that its views are entitled to little weight. At +home, many of our authors have taken the same side of the question; and +the only answer that has ever, to my knowledge, been made, has been, that +if we admitted the claims of foreign authors, the prices of books would be +raised, and the people would be deprived of their accustomed supplies of +cheap literature--as I think, a very weak sort of defense. If nothing +better than this can be said, we may as well at once plead guilty to the +charge of piracy, and commence a new and more honest course of action. +Evil may not be done that good may come of it, nor may we steal an +author's brains that our people may be cheaply taught. To admit that the +end justifies the means, would be to adopt the line of argument so often +used by English speakers, in and out of Parliament, when they defend the +poisoning of the Chinese people by means of opium introduced in defiance +of their government, because it furnishes revenue to India; or that which +teaches that Canada should be retained as a British colony, because of the +facility it affords for violation of our laws; or that which would have us +regard smugglers, in general, as the great reformers of the age. We stand +in need of no such morality as this. We can afford to pay for what we +want; but, even were it otherwise, our motto here, and everywhere, should +be the old French one: "_Fais ce que doy, advienne que pourra_"--Act +justly, and leave the result to Providence. Before acting, however, we +should determine on which side justice lies. Unless I am greatly in error, +it is not on the side of international copyright. My reasons for this +belief will now be given. + +The facts or ideas contained in a book constitute its body. The language +in which they are conveyed to the reader constitute the clothing of the +body. For the first no copyright is allowed. Humboldt spent many years of +his life in collecting facts relative to the southern portion of this +continent; yet so soon as he gave them to the light they ceased to be his, +and became the common property of all mankind. Captain Wilkes and his +companions spent several years in exploring the Southern Ocean, and +brought from there a vast amount of new facts, all of which became at once +common property. Sir John Franklin made numerous expeditions to the North, +during which he collected many facts of high importance, for which he had +no copyright. So with Park, Burkhard, and others, who lost their lives in +the exploration of Africa. Captain McClure has just accomplished the +Northwest Passage, yet has he no exclusive right to the publication of the +fact. So has it ever been. For thousands of years men like these-- +working men, abroad and at home--have been engaged in the collection of +facts; and thus there has been accumulated a vast body of them, all of +which have become common property, while even the names of most of the men +by whom they were collected have passed away. Next to these come the men +who have been engaged in the arrangement of facts and in their comparison, +with a view to deduce therefrom the laws by which the world is governed, +and which constitute science. Copernicus devoted his life to the study of +numerous facts, by aid of which he was at length enabled to give to the +world a knowledge of the great fact that the earth revolved around the +sun; but he had therein, from the moment of its publication, no more +property than had the most violent of his opponents., The discovery of +other laws occupied the life of Kepler, but he had no property in them. +Newton spent many years of his life in the composition of his "Principia," +yet in that he had no copyright, except for the mere clothing in which his +ideas were placed before the world. The body was common property. So, too, +with Bacon and Locke, Leibnitz and Descartes, Franklin, Priestley, and +Davy, Quesnay, Turgot, and Adam Smith, Lamarck and Cuvier, and all other +men who have aided in carrying science to the point at which it has now +arrived. They have had no property in their ideas. If they labored, it was +because they had a thirst for knowledge. They could expect no pecuniary +reward, nor had they much reason even to hope for fame. New ideas were, +necessarily, a subject of controversy; and cases are, even in our time, +not uncommon, in which the announcement of an idea at variance with those +commonly recorded has tended greatly to the diminution of the enjoyment of +life by the man by whom it has been announced. The contemporaries of +Harvey could scarcely be made to believe in the circulation of the blood. +Mr. Owen might have lived happily in the enjoyment of a large fortune had +he not conceived new views of society. These he gave to the world in the +form of a book, that led him into controversy which has almost lasted out +his life, while the effort to carry his ideas into effect has cost him his +fortune. Admit that he had been right, and that the correctness of his +views were now fully established, he would have in them no property +whatever; nor would his books be now yielding him a shilling, because +later writers would be placing them before the world in other and more +attractive clothing. So is it with the books of all the men I have named. +The copyright of the "Principia" would be worth nothing, as would be the +case with all that Franklin wrote on electricity, or Davy on chemistry. +Few now read Adam Smith, and still fewer Bacon, Leibnitz, or Descartes. +Examine where we may, we shall find that the collectors of the facts and +the producers of the ideas which constitute the body of books, have +received little or no reward while thus engaged in contributing so largely +to the augmentation of the common property of mankind. + +For what, then, is copyright given? For the clothing in which the body is +produced to the world. Examine Mr. Macaulay's "History of England" and you +will find that the body is composed of what is common property. Not only +have the facts been recorded by others, but the ideas, too, are derived +from the works of men who have labored for the world without receiving, +and frequently without the expectation of receiving, any pecuniary +compensation for their labors. Mr. Macaulay has read much and carefully, +and he has thus been enabled to acquire great skill in arranging and +clothing his facts; but the reader of his books will find in them no +contribution to positive knowledge. The works of men who make +contributions of that kind are necessarily controversial and distasteful +to the reader; for which reason they find few readers, and never pay their +authors. Turn now to our own authors, Prescott and Bancroft, who have +furnished us with historical works of so great excellence, and you will +find a state of things precisely similar. They have taken a large quantity +of materials out of the common stock, in which you, and I, and all of us +have an interest; and those materials they have so reclothed as to render +them attractive of purchasers; but this is all they have done. Look to Mr. +Webster's works, and you will find it the same. He was a great reader. He +studied the Constitution carefully, with a view to understand what were +the views of its authors, and those views he reproduced in different and +more attractive clothing, and there his work ended. He never pretended, as +I think, to furnish the world with any new ideas; and if he had done so, +he could have claimed no property in them. Few now read the heavy volumes +containing the speeches of Fox and Pitt. They did nothing but reproduce +ideas that were common property, and in such clothing as answered the +purposes of the moment. Sir Robert Peel did the same. The world would now +be just as wise had he never lived, for he made no contribution to the +general stock of knowledge. The great work of Chancellor Kent is, to use +the words of Judge Story, "but a new combination and arrangement of old +materials, in which the skill and judgment of the author in the selection +and exposition, and accurate use of those materials, constitute the basis +of his reputation, as well as of his copyright." The world at large is the +owner of all the facts that have been collected, and of all the ideas that +have been deduced from them, and its right in them is precisely the same +that the planter has in the bale of cotton that has been raised on his +plantation; and the course of proceeding of both has, thus far, been +precisely similar; whence I am induced to infer that, in both cases, right +has been done. When the planter hands his cotton to the spinner and the +weaver, he does not say, "Take this and convert it into cloth, and keep +the cloth;" but he does say, "Spin and weave this cotton, and for so doing +you shall have such interest in the cloth as will give you a fair +compensation for your labor and skill, but, when that shall have been +paid, _the cloth will be mine_." This latter is precisely what society, +the owner of facts and ideas, says to the author: "Take these raw +materials that have been collected, put them together, and clothe them +after your own fashion, and for a given time we will agree that nobody +else shall present them in the same dress. During that time you may +exhibit them for your own profit, but at the end of that period the +clothing will become common property, as the body now is. It is to the +contributions of your predecessors to our common stock that you are +indebted for the power to make your book, and we require you, in your +turn, to contribute towards the augmentation of the stock that is to be +used by your successors." This is justice, and to grant more than this +would be injustice. + +Let us turn now, for a moment, to the producers of works of fiction. Sir +Walter Scott had carefully studied Scottish and Border history, and thus +had filled his mind with facts preserved, and ideas produced, by others, +which he reproduced in a different form. He made no contribution to +knowledge. So, too, with our own very successful Washington Irving. He +drew largely upon the common stock of ideas, and dressed them up in a new, +and what has proved to be a most attractive form. So, again, with Mr. +Dickens. Read his "Bleak House" and you will find that he has been a most +careful observer of men and things, and has thereby been enabled to +collect a great number of facts that he has dressed up in different forms, +but that is all he has done. He is in the condition of a man who had +entered a large garden and collected a variety of the most beautiful +flowers growing therein, of which he had made a fine bouquet. The owner of +the garden would naturally say to him: "The flowers are mine, but the +arrangement is yours. You cannot keep the bouquet, but you may smell it, +or show it for your own profit, for an hour or two, but then it must come +to me. If you prefer it, I am willing to pay you for your services, giving +you a fair compensation for your time and taste." This is exactly what +society says to Mr. Dickens, who makes such beautiful literary bouquets. +What is right in the individual, cannot be wrong in the mass of +individuals of which society is composed. Nevertheless, the author objects +to this, insisting that he is owner of the bouquet itself, although he has +paid no wages to the man who raised the flowers. Were he asked to do so, +he would, as I shall show in another letter, regard it as leading to great +injustice. + + + + + +LETTER II. + +Let us suppose, now, that you should move, in the Senate, a resolution +looking to the establishment of the exclusive right of making known the +facts, or ideas, that might be brought to light, and see what would be the +effect. You would, as I think, find yourself at once surrounded by the +gentlemen who dress up those facts and ideas, and issue them in the form +of books. The geographer would say to you: "My dear sir, this will never +do. Look at my book, and you will see that it is drawn altogether from the +works of others, many of whom have sunk their fortunes, while others have +lost their lives, in pursuit of the knowledge that I so cheaply give the +world. You will find there the essence of the works of Humboldt, and of +Wilkes. All of Franklin's discoveries are there, and I am now waiting only +for the appearance of McClure's voyage in the Arctic regions to give a new +edition of my book. Reflect, I beseech you, upon what you are about to do. +Very few persons have leisure to read, or means to pay for the books of +these travellers. A few hundred copies are sufficient to satisfy the +demand, and then their works die out. Of mine, on the contrary, the sale +is ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand annually, and thus is knowledge +disseminated throughout the world, enabling the men who furnish me with +facts to reap _a rich harvest of never dying fame_. Grant them a copyright +to the new ideas they may supply to the world, and at once you put a stop +to the production of such books as mine, to my great injury and to the +loss of mankind at large. Facts and ideas are common property, and their +owners, the public, have a right to use them as they will." + +The historian would say: "Mr. Senator, if you persist in this course, you +will never again see histories like mine. Here are hundreds of people +scattered over the country, industriously engaged in disinterring facts +relating to our early history. They are enthusiasts, and many of them are +very poor. Some of them contrive to publish, in the form of books, the +results of their researches, while others give them to the newspapers, or +to the historical societies, and thus they are enabled to come before the +world. Few people buy such things, and it not unfrequently happens that +men who have spent their lives in the collection of important facts, waste +much of their small means in giving them to an ungrateful nation. +Nevertheless, they have their reward in the consciousness that they are +thus enabling others to furnish the world with accurate histories of their +country. I find them of infinite use. They are my hewers of wood and +drawers of water, and they never look for payment for their labor. Deprive +me of their services, and I shall be obliged to abandon the production of +books, and return to the labors of my profession--and they will be +deprived of fame, while the public will be deprived of knowledge." + +The medical writer would say: "Mr. Senator, should you succeed in carrying +out the idea with which you have commenced, you will, I fear, be the cause +of great injury to our profession, and probably of great loss of life, for +you will thereby arrest the dissemination of knowledge. We have, here and +abroad, thousands of industrious and thoughtful men, more intent upon +doing good than upon pecuniary profit, who give themselves to the study of +particular diseases, furnishing the results to our journals, and not +unfrequently publishing monographs of the highest value. The sale of these +is always small, and their publication not unfrequently makes heavy drafts +on the small means of their authors. Such men are of infinite use to me, +for it is by aid of their most valuable labors that I have found myself +enabled to prepare the numerous and popular works that I have given to the +world. Look at them. There are several volumes of each, of which I sell +thousands annually, to my great profit. Deprive me of the power to avail +myself of the brains of the working men of the profession and my books +will soon cease to be of any value, and I shall lose the large income now +realized from them, while the public will suffer in their health by reason +of the increased difficulty of disseminating information." + +The professor would ask you to look at his lectures and satisfy yourself +that they contained no single idea that had originated with himself. +"How," he would ask, "could these valuable lectures have been produced, +had I been deprived of the power to avail myself of the facts collected by +the working-men, and the principles deduced from them by the thinkers of +the world? I have no leisure to collect facts or analyze them. For many +years past, these lectures have yielded me a large income, and so will +they continue to do, provided I be allowed to do in future as in time past +I have done, appropriate to my own use all the new facts and new ideas I +meet with, crediting their authors or not as I find it best to suit my +purpose. Abandon your idea, my dear sir; it cannot be carried out. The men +who work, and the men who think, must content themselves with fame, and be +thankful if the men who write books and deliver lectures do not +appropriate to themselves the entire credit of the facts they use, and the +ideas they borrow." + +The teacher of natural science would say: "My friend, have you reflected +on what you are about to do? Look at our collections, and see how they +have been enlarged within the last half century. Asia and Africa, and the +islands of the Southern Ocean, have been traversed by indefatigable men +who, at the hazard of life, and often at the cost of fortune, have +quadrupled our knowledge of vegetable and animal life. Such men do not ask +for compensation of any kind. They are willing to work for nothing. Why, +then, not let them? Look at the vast contributions to geological knowledge +that have been made throughout the Union by men who were content with a +bare support, and glad to have the results of their labors published, as +they have been, at the public cost. Such men ask no copyright. When they +publish, it is almost always at a loss. Wilson lived and died poor. So did +Audubon, to whose labors we are indebted for so much ornithological +knowledge. Morton expended a large sum in the preparation and publication +of his work on crania. Agassiz did the same with his great work on fishes. +Cuvier had nothing but fame to bequeath to his family. Lamarck's great +work on the _invertebratae_ sold so slowly that very many years elapsed +before the edition was exhausted; but he would have found his reward had +he lived to see his ideas appropriated without acknowledgment, and +reclothed by the author of 'Vestiges of Creation,' of which the sale has +been so large. This, my friend, is the use for which such men as Lamarck +and Cuvier were intended. They collect and classify the facts, and we +popularize them to our own profit. Look at my works and see, bulky as they +are, how many editions have been printed, and think how profitable they +must have been to the publisher and myself. Look further, and see how +numerous are the books to which my labors have indirectly given birth. See +the many school-books in relation to botany and other departments of +natural science, the authors of which know little of what they undertake +to teach, except what they have drawn from me and others like myself. +Again, see how numerous are the 'Flora's Emblems,' and the 'Garlands of +Flowers,' and the 'Flora's Dictionaries,' and how large is their sale-- +and how large must be the profits of those engaged in their production. To +recognize in such men as Cuvier and Lamarck the existence of any right to +either their facts or their deductions would be an act of great injustice +towards the race of literary men, while most inexpedient as regards the +world at large, now so cheaply supplied with knowledge. As regards the +question of international copyright now before the Senate, my views are +different. Several of my books have been published abroad, and my +publisher here tells me, that to prevent the republication of others he is +obliged to supply them cheaply for foreign markets, and thus am I deprived +of a fair and just reward for my labors. Copyright should be universal and +eternal, and such, I am persuaded, will be the result at which you will +arrive when you shall have thoroughly studied the subject." + +Having studied it, and having given full consideration to the views that +they and others had presented, your answer would probably be to the +following effect: "It is clear, gentlemen, from your own showing, that +there are two distinct classes of persons engaged in the production of +books--the men who furnish the body, and those who dress it up for +production before the world. The first class are generally poor, and +likely to continue so. They labor without any view to pecuniary advantage. +They are, too, very generally helpless. Animated to their work solely by a +desire to penetrate into the secrets of nature the character of their +minds unfits them for mixing in a money-getting world, while you are +always in that world, ready to enforce your claims to its consideration. +As a consequence of this, they are rarely allowed even the credit that is +due to them. Their discoveries become at once common property, to be used +by men like yourselves, and for your own individual profit. We have here +among ourselves a gentleman who has given to astronomy a new and highly +important law essential to the perfection of the science, the discovery of +which has cost him the labor of a life, as a consequence of which he is +poor and likely so to remain. Important as was his discovery, his name is +already so completely forgotten that there is probably not a single one +among you that can now recall it, and yet his law figures in all the +recent books. Is this right? Has _he_ no claim to consideration?" + +"In answer, you will say, that 'to admit the existence of any such rights +is not only impossible, but _inexpedient_, even were it possible. +Knowledge advances by slow and almost imperceptible steps, and each is but +the precursor of a new and more important one. Were each discoverer of a +new truth to be authorized to monopolize the teaching of it millions of +men, to whom, by our aid, it is communicated, would remain in ignorance of +it, and thus would farther advance be prevented. In all times past, such +truths have been regarded as common property; and so,' you will add, 'they +must continue to be regarded. Rely upon it, the best interests of society +require that such shall continue to be the case, however great the +apparent injustice to the discoverer.' + +"Here, you will observe, you waive altogether the question of right which +you so strongly enforce in regard to yourselves. It may be that you have +reason; but if so, how do you yourselves stand in your relations with the +great mass of human beings whose right to this common property is equal +with your own? For thousands of years working men, collectors of facts and +philosophers, have been contributing to the common stock, and the treasure +accumulated is now enormously great; and yet the mass of mankind remain +still ignorant, and are poor, depraved, and wretched, because ignorant. +Under such circumstances, justice would seem to require of the legislator +that he should sanction no measure tending to throw unnecessary difficulty +in the way of the dissemination of knowledge. To do so, would be to +deprive the many of the power to profit by their interest in the common +property. To do so, would be to deprive the men who have contributed to +the accumulation of this treasure of even the reward to which, as you +admit, they justly may make a claim. If they are to be satisfied with +fame, we must do nothing tending to limit the dissemination of their +ideas, because to do so would be to limit their power to acquire fame. If +they are to be satisfied with the idea of doing good to their fellow-men, +we must avoid every thing tending to limit the knowledge of their +discoveries, because to do so would be to deprive them of much of their +small reward. The state of the matter is, as I conceive, as follows: On +one side of you stand the contributors to the vast treasure of knowledge +that mankind has accumulated, and is accumulating--men who have, in +general, labored without fee or reward; on the other side of you stand the +owners of this vast treasure, desirous to have it fashioned in a manner to +suit their various tastes and powers, that all may be enabled to profit by +its possession. Between them stand yourselves, middlemen between the +producers and the consumers. It is your province to combine the facts and +ideas, as does the manufacturer when he takes the raw materials of cloth, +and, by the aid of the skill of numerous working men, past and present, +elaborates them into the beautiful forms that so much gratify our eyes in +passing through the Crystal Palace. For this service you are to be paid; +but to enable you to receive payment you need the aid of the legislator, +as the common law grants no more copyright for the form in which ideas are +expressed than for the ideas themselves. In granting this aid he is +required to see that, while he secures that you have justice, he does no +injustice to the men who produce the raw material of your books, nor to +the community whose common property it is. In granting it, he is bound to +use his efforts to attain the knowledge needed for enabling him to do +justice to all parties, and not to you alone. The laws which elsewhere +govern the distribution of the proceeds of labor, must apply in your case +with equal force. Looking at them, we see that, with the growth of +population and of wealth, there is everywhere a tendency to diminution in +the proportion of the product that is allowed to the men who stand between +the producer and the consumer. In new settlements, trade is small and the +shopkeeper requires large profits to enable him to live; and, while the +consumer pays a high price, the producer is compelled to be content with a +low one. In new settlements, the miller takes a large toll for the +conversion of corn into flour, and the spinner and weaver take a large +portion of the wool as their reward for converting the balance into cloth. +Nevertheless, the shopkeeper, the miller, the spinner, and the weaver are +poor, because trade is small. As wealth and population grow, we find the +shopkeeper gradually reducing his charge, until from fifty it falls to +five per cent.; the miller reducing his, until he finds that he can afford +to give all the flour that is yielded by the corn, retaining for himself +the bran alone; and the spinner and weaver contenting himself with a +constantly diminishing proportion of the wool; and now it is that we find +shopkeepers, millers, and manufacturers grow rich, while consumers are +cheaply supplied because of the vast increase of trade. In your case, +however, the course of proceeding has been altogether different. Half a +century since, when our people were but four millions in number, and were +poor and scattered, gentlemen like you were secured in the monopoly of +their works for fourteen years, with a power of renewal for a similar +term. Twenty years since, when the population had almost tripled, and +their wealth had sixfold increased, and when the facilities of +distribution had vastly grown, the term was fixed at twenty-eight years, +with renewal to widow or children for fourteen years more. At the present +moment, you are secured in a monopoly for forty-two years, among a +population of twenty-six millions of people, certain, at the close of +twenty years more, to be fifty millions and likely, at the close of +another half century, to be a hundred millions, and with facilities, for +the disposal of your products, growing at a rate unequaled in the world. +With this vast increase of market, and increase of power over that market, +the consumer should be supplied more cheaply than in former times; yet +such is not the case. The novels of Mrs. Rowson and Charles B. Brown, and +the historical works of Dr. Ramsay, persons who then stood in the first +rank of authors, sold as cheaply as do now the works of Fanny Fern, the +'Reveries' of Ik Marvel, or the history of Mr. Bancroft; and yet, in the +period that has since elapsed, the cost of publication has fallen probably +twenty-five per cent. We have here an inversion of the usual order of +things, and it is with these facts before us that you claim to have your +monopoly extended over another thirty millions of people; in consideration +of which, our people are to grant to the authors of foreign countries a +monopoly of the privilege of supplying them with books produced abroad. +This application strikes me as unwise. It tends to produce inquiry, and +that will, probably, in its turn, lead rather to a reduction than an +extension of your privileges. Can it be supposed that when, but a few +years hence, our population shall have attained a height of fifty +millions, with a demand for books probably ten times greater than at +present, the community will be willing to continue to you a monopoly, +during forty-two years, of the right of presenting a body that is common +property, as compensation for putting it in a new suit of clothing? I +doubt it much, and would advise you, for your own good, to be content with +what you have. Aesop tells us that the dog lost his piece of meat in the +attempt to seize a shadow, and such may prove to be the case on this +occasion. So, too, may it be with the owners of patents. The discoverers +of principles receive nothing, but those who apply them enjoy a monopoly +created by law for their use. Everybody uses chloroform, but nobody pays +its discoverer. The man who taught us how to convert India rubber into +clothing has not been allowed even fame, while our courts are incessantly +occupied with the men who make the clothing. Patentees and producers of +books are incessantly pressing upon Congress with claims for enlargement +of their privileges, and are thus producing the effect of inducing an +inquiry into the validity of their claim to what they now enjoy. Be +content, my friends; do not risk the loss of a part of what you have in +the effort to obtain more." + +The question is often asked: Why should a man not have the same claim to +the perpetual enjoyment of his book that his neighbor has in regard to the +house he has built? The answer is, that the rights of the parties are +entirely different. The man who builds a house quarries the stone and +makes the bricks of which it is composed, or he pays another for doing it +for him. When finished, his house is all, materials and workmanship, his +own. The man who makes a book uses the common property of mankind, and all +he furnishes is the workmanship. Society permits him to use its property, +but it is on condition that, after a certain time, the whole shall become +part of the common stock. To find a parallel case, let it be supposed that +liberal men should, out of their earnings, place at the disposal of the +people of your town stone, bricks, and lumber, in quantity sufficient to +find accommodation for hundreds of people that were unable to provide for +themselves; next suppose that in this state of things your authorities +should say to any man or men, "Take these materials, and procure lime in +quantity sufficient to build a house; employ carpenters, bricklayers, and +architects, and then, in consideration of having found the lime and the +workmanship, you shall have a right to charge your own price to every +person who may, for all times, desire to occupy a room in it "; would this +be doing justice to the men who had given the raw materials for public +use? Would it be doing justice to the community by which they had been +given? Would it not, on the contrary, be the height of injustice? +Unquestionably it would, and it would raise a storm that would speedily +displace the men who had thus abused their trust. Their successors would +then say: "Messrs.---- our predecessors, did what they had no right to +do. These materials are common property. They were given without fee or +reward, with a view to benefit the whole people of our town, many of whom +are badly accommodated, while others are heavily taxed for helping those +who are unable to help themselves. To carry out the views of the +benevolent men to whom we are indebted for all these stone, bricks, and +lumber, they must remain common property. You may, if you will, convert +them into a house, and, in consideration of the labor and skill required +for so doing, we will grant you, during a certain time, the privilege of +letting the rooms, at your own price, to those who desire to occupy them; +but at the close of that time the building must become common property, to +be disposed of as we please." This is exactly what the community says to +the gentlemen who employ themselves in converting its common property into +books, and to say more would be doing great injustice. + +The length of time for which the building should be thus granted would +depend upon the number of persons that would be likely to use the rooms, +and the prices they would be willing to pay. If lodgers were likely to be +few and poor, a long time would be required to be given; but if, on the +contrary, the community were so great and prosperous as to render it +certain that all the rooms would be occupied every day in the year, and at +such prices as would speedily repay the labor and skill that had been +required, the time allowed would be short. Here, as we see, the course of +things would be entirely different from that which is observed in regard +to books, the monopoly of which has increased in length with the growth, +in wealth and number, of the consumers, and is now attempted, by the aid +of international copyright, to be extended over millions of men who are +yet exempt from its operation. + +The people of this country own a vast quantity of wild land, which by slow +degrees acquires a money value, that value being due to the contributions +of thousands and tens of thousands of people who are constantly making +roads towards them, and thus facilitating the exchange of such commodities +as may be raised from them. These lands are common property, but the whole +body of their owners has agreed that whenever any one of their number +desires to purchase out the interest of his partners he may do so at $1.25 +per acre. They do not _give_ him any of the common property; they require +him to purchase and pay for it. + +With authors they pursue a more liberal course. They say: "We have +extensive fields in which hundreds of thousands of men have labored for +many centuries. They were at first wild lands, as wild as those of the +neighborhood of the Rocky Mountains, but this vast body of laborers has +felled the trees and drained the swamps, and has thus removed nearly all +the difficulties that stood opposed to profitable cultivation. They have +also' opened mines of incalculable richness; mines of gold, silver, lead, +copper, iron, and other metals, and all of these are common property. The +men who executed these important works were our slaves, ill fed, worse +clothed, and still worse lodged; and thousands of the most laborious and +useful of them have perished of disease and starvation. Great as are the +improvements already made, their number is constantly increasing, for we +continue to employ such slaves--active, intelligent, and useful men-- +in extending them, and scarcely a day elapses that does not bring to light +some new discovery, tending greatly to increase the value of _our common +property_. We invite you, gentlemen, to come and cultivate these lands and +work these mines. They are free to all. During the long period of +forty-two years you shall have the whole product of your labor, and all we +shall ask of you, at the close of that period, will be that you leave +behind the common property of which we are now possessed, increased by the +addition of such machinery as you may yourselves have made. The corn that +you may have extracted, and the gold and silver that you may have mined +during that long period, will be the property of yourselves, your wives, +and your children. We charge no rent for the use of the lands, no wages +for the labor of our slaves." Not satisfied with this, however, the +persons who work these rich fields and mines claim to be absolute owners, +not only of all the gold and silver they extract, but of all the machinery +they construct out of the common property; and out of this claim grows the +treaty now before the Senate. + +If justice requires the admission of foreigners to the enjoyment of a +monopoly of the sale of their books it should be conceded at once to all, +and it should be declared that no book should be printed here without the +consent of its author, let him be Englishman, Frenchman, German, Russian, +or Hindoo. This would certainly greatly increase the difficulty now +existing in relation to the dissemination of knowledge; but if justice +does require it let it be done. Would it, however, benefit the men who +have real claims on our consideration? Let us see. A German devotes his +life to the study of the history of his country, and at length produces a +work of great value, but of proportional size. Real justice says that his +work may not be used without his permission; that the facts he has brought +to light from among the vast masses of original documents he has examined +are his property, and can be published by none others but himself. The +legislation, whose aid is invoked in the name of justice by literary men, +speaks, however, very differently. It says: "This work is very cumbrous. +To establish his views this man has gone into great detail. If translated, +his book will scarcely sell to such extent as to pay the labor. The facts +are common property. Out of this book you can make one that will be much +more readable, and that will sell, for it will not be of more than one +third the size. Take it, then, and extract all you need, and you will do +well. You will have, too, another advantage. Translation confers no +reputation; but an _original_ work, such as I now recommend to you, will +give you such a standing as may lead you on to fortune. Few people know +any thing of the original work, and it will not be necessary for you to +mention that all your materials are thence derived." On the other hand, a +lady who has read the work of this poor German finds in it an episode that +she expands into a novel, which sells rapidly, and she reaps at home a +large reward for her labors; while the man who gave her the idea starves +in a garret. A literary friend of the lady novelist, delighted with her +success, finds in his countrywoman's treasury of facts the material for a +poem out of which he, too, reaps a harvest. Both of these are protected by +international copyright, _because they have furnished nothing but the +clothing of ideas;_ but the man who supplied them with the ideas finds +that his book is condensed abroad, and given to the public, perhaps, +without even the mention of his name. + +The whole tendency of the existing system is to give the largest reward to +those whose labors are lightest, and the smallest to those whose labors +are most severe; and every extension of it must necessarily look in that +direction. The "Mysteries of Paris" were a fortune to Eugene Sue, and +"Uncle Tom's Cabin" has been one to Mrs. Stowe. Byron had 2,000 guineas +for a volume of "Childe Harold," and Moore 3,000 for his "Lalla Rookh;" +and yet a single year should have more than sufficed for the production of +any one of them. Under a system of international copyright, Dumas, already +so largely paid, would be protected, whereas Thierry, who sacrificed his +sight to the gratification of his thirst for knowledge, would not. +Humboldt, the philosopher _par excellence_ of the age, would not, because +he furnishes his readers with things, and not with words alone. Of the +books that record his observations on this continent, but a part has, I +believe, been translated into English, and of these but a small portion +has been republished in this country, although to be had without claim for +copyright. In England their sale has been small, and can have done little +more than pay the cost of translation and publication. Had it been +required to pay for the privilege of translation, but a small part of +even those which have been republished would probably have ever seen the +light in any but the language of the author. This great man inherited a +handsome property which he devoted to the advancement of science, and what +has been his pecuniary reward may be seen in the following statement, +derived from an address recently delivered in New York:-- + +"There are now living in Europe two very distinguished men, barons, both +very eminent in their line, both known to the whole civilized world; one +is Baron Rothschild, and the other Baron Humboldt; one distinguished for +the accumulation of wealth, the other for the accumulation of knowledge. +What are the possessions of the philosopher? Why, sir, I heard a gentleman +whom I have seen here this afternoon, say that, on a recent visit to +Europe, he paid his respects to that distinguished philosopher, and was +admitted to an audience. He found him, at the age of 84 years, fresh and +vigorous, in a small room, nicely sanded, with a large deal table +uncovered in the midst of that room, containing his books and writing +apparatus. Adjoining this, was a small bed-room, in which he slept. Here +this eminent philosopher received a visitor from the United States. He +conversed with him; he spoke of his works. 'My works,' said he, 'you will +find in the adjoining library, but I am too poor to own a copy of them. I +have not the means to buy a full copy of my own works.'" + +After having furnished to the gentlemen who produce books more of the +material of which books are composed than has ever been furnished by any +other man, this illustrious man finds himself, at the close of life, +altogether dependent on the bounty of the Prussian government, which +allows him, as I have heard, less than five hundred dollars a year. In +what manner, now, would Humboldt be benefited by international copyright? +I know of none; but it is very plain to see that Dumas, Victor Hugo, and +George Sand, might derive from it immense revenues. In confirmation of +this view, I here ask you to review the names of the persons who urge most +anxiously the change of system that is now proposed, and see if you can +find in it the name of a single man who has done any thing to extend the +domain of knowledge. I think you will not. Next look and see if you do not +find in it the names of those who furnish the world with new forms of old +ideas, and are largely paid for so doing. The most active advocate of +international copyright is Mr. Dickens, who is said to realize $70,000 per +annum from the sale of works whose composition is little more than +amusement for his leisure hours. In this country, the only attempt that +has yet been made to restrict the right of translation is in a suit now +before the courts, for compensation for the privilege of converting into +German a work that has yielded the largest compensation that the world has +yet known for the same quantity of literary labor. + +We are constantly told that regard to the interests of science requires +that we should protect and enlarge the rights of authors; but does science +make any such claim for herself? I doubt it. Men who make additions to +science know well that they have, and can have, no rights whatever. Cuvier +died very poor, and all the copyright that could have been given to him or +Humboldt would not have enriched either the one or the other. Laplace knew +well that his great work could yield him nothing. Our own Bowditch +translated it as a labor of love, and left by his will the means required +for its publication. The gentlemen who advocate the interests of science +are literary men who use the facts and ideas furnished by scientific men, +paying nothing for their use. Now, literature is a most honorable +profession, and the gentlemen engaged in it are entitled not only to the +respect and consideration of their fellow-men, but also to the protection +of the law; but in granting it, the legislator is bound to recollect, that +justice to the men who furnish the raw materials of books, and justice to +the community that owns those raw materials, require that protection shall +not, either in point of space or time, be greater than is required for +giving the producer of books a full and fair compensation for his labor. +How the present system operates in regard to English and American authors, +I propose to consider in another letter. + + + + + + +LETTER III. + +We are assured that justice requires the admission of foreign authors to +the privilege of copyright, and in support of the claim that she presents +are frequently informed of the extreme poverty of many highly popular +English writers. Mrs. Inchbald, so well known as author of the "Simple +Story" and other novels, as well as in her capacity of editor, dragged on, +as we are told, to the age of sixty, a miserable existence, living always +in mean lodgings, and suffering frequently from want of the common +comforts of life. Lady Morgan, so well known as Miss Owenson, a brilliant +and accomplished woman, is now to some extent dependent upon the public +charity, administered in the form of a pension of less than five hundred +dollars a year. Mrs. Hemans, the universally admired poetess, lived and +died in poverty. Laman Blanchard lost his senses and committed suicide in +consequence of being compelled, by his extreme poverty, to the effort of +writing an article for a periodical while his wife lay a corpse in the +house. Miss Mitford, so well known to all of us, found herself, after a +life of close economy, so greatly reduced as to have been under the +necessity of applying to her American readers for means to extricate her +little property from the rude hands of the sheriff. Like Lady Morgan, she +is now a public pensioner. Leigh Hunt is likewise dependent on the public +charity. Tom Hood, so well known by his "Song of a Shirt"--the delight +of his readers, and a mine of wealth to his publishers; a man without +vices, and of untiring industry--lived always from day to day on the +produce of his labor. On his death-bed, when his lungs were so worn with +consumption that he could breathe only through a silver tube, he was +obliged to be propped up with pillows, and, with shaking hand and dizzy +head, force himself to the task of amusing his readers, that he might +thereby obtain bread for his unhappy wife and children. With all his +reputation, Moore found it difficult to support his family, and all the +comfort of his declining years was due to the charity of his friend, Lord +Lansdowne. In one of his letters from Germany, Campbell expresses himself +transported with joy at hearing that a double edition of his poems had +just been published in London. "This unexpected fifty pounds," says he, +"saves me from jail." Haynes Bayley died in extreme poverty. Similar +statements are furnished us in relation to numerous others who have, by +the use of their pens, largely contributed to the enjoyment and +instruction of the people of Great Britain. It would, indeed, be difficult +to find very many cases in which it had been otherwise with persons +exclusively dependent on the produce of literary labor. With few and +brilliant exceptions, their condition appears to have been, and to be, one +of almost hopeless poverty. Scarcely any thing short of this, indeed, +would induce the acceptance of the public charity that is occasionally +doled out in the form of pensions on the literary fund. + +This is certainly an extraordinary state of things, and one that makes to +our charitable feelings an appeal that is almost irresistible. +Nevertheless, before giving way to such feelings, it would be proper to +examine into the real cause of all this poverty, with a view to satisfy +ourselves if real charity would carry us in the direction now proposed. +The skilful physician always studies the cause of disease before he +determines on the remedy, and this course is quite as necessary in +prescribing for moral as for physical disorder. Failing to do this, we +might increase instead of diminishing the evil, and might find at last +that we had been taxing ourselves in vain. + +What is claimed by English authors is perpetuity and universality of +property in the clothing they supply for the body that is furnished to the +world by other and unpaid men; and an examination of the course of +proceeding in that country for the last century and a half shows that each +step that has been taken has been in that direction. While denying to the +producers of facts and ideas any right whatsoever, every act of +legislation has tended to give more and more control over their +dissemination to men who appropriated them to their own use, and brought +them in an attractive form before the reader. Early in the last century +was passed an act well known as the Statute of Queen Anne, giving to +authors fourteen years as the period during which they were to have a +monopoly of the peculiar form of words they chose to adopt in coming +before the world. The number of persons then living in England and Wales, +and subjected to that monopoly, was about five millions. Since that time +the field of its operation has been enlarged, until it now embraces not +only England and Wales, but Scotland, Ireland, and the British colonies, +containing probably thirty-two millions of people who use the English +language. The time, too, has been gradually extended until it now reaches +forty-two years, or thrice the period for which it was originally granted. +Nevertheless, no life is more precarious than that of an Englishman +dependent upon literary pursuits for support. Such men are almost +universally poor, and leading men among them, Tennyson and Sir Francis +Head for instance, gladly accept the public charity, in the form of +pensions for less than five hundred dollars a year. This is not a +consequence of limitation in the field of action, for that is six times +greater than it was when Gay netted L1,600 from a single opera, and Pope +received L6,000 for his "Homer;" five times greater than when Fielding had +L1,000 for his "Amelia;" and four times more than when Robertson had +L4,500 for his "Charles V.," Gibbon L5,000 for the second part of his +history, and McPherson L1,200 for his "Ossian."[1] Since that time money +has become greatly more abundant and less valuable; and if we desired to +compare the reward of these authors with those of the present day, the +former should be trebled in amount, which would give Robertson more than +sixty thousand dollars for a work that is comprised in three 8vo. volumes +of very moderate size. It is not a consequence of limitation of time, for +that has grown from fourteen to forty-two years--more than is required +for any book except, perhaps, one in five or ten thousand. It should not +be a consequence of poverty in the nation, for British writers assure us +that wealth so much abounds that wars are needed to prevent its too rapid +growth, and that foreign loans are indispensable for enabling the people +of Britain to find an outlet for all their vast accumulations. What, then, +is the cause of disease? Why is it that in so wealthy a nation literary +men and women are so generally poor that it should be required to bring +their poverty before the world, to aid in the demand for an extension to +other countries of the monopoly so well secured at home? In that country +the fortunes of wealthy men count by millions, and, that being the case, +an average contribution of a shilling a head towards paying for the +copyright of books, would seem to be the merest trifle to be given in +return for the pleasure and the instruction derived from the perusal of +the works of English authors, and yet even that small sum does not appear +to be paid. Thirty-two millions of shillings make almost eight millions of +dollars; a sum sufficient to give to six hundred authors more than +thirteen thousand dollars a year, being more than half the salary of the +chief magistrate of our Union. Admitting, however, that there were a +thousand authors worthy to be paid, and that would most certainly cover +them all, it would give to each eight thousand dollars, or one third more +than we have been accustomed to allow to men who have devoted their lives +to the service of the public, and have at length risen to be Secretaries +of State. If English authors were thus largely paid, it would be deemed an +absurdity to ask an enlargement of their monopoly; but, as they are not +thus paid, it is asked. There is probably but a single literary man in +England that receives $8,000 a year for his labors, and it may be doubted +if it would be possible to name ten whose annual receipts equal $6,000; +while those of a vast majority of them are under $1,500, and very many of +them greatly under it. Even were we to increase the number of authors to +fifteen hundred, one to every 4,000 males between the ages of 20 and 60 in +the kingdom, and to allow them, on an average, $2,000 per annum, it would +require but three millions of dollars to pay them, and that could be done +by an average contribution of five pence per head of the population, a +wonderfully small amount to be paid for literary labor by a nation +claiming to be the wealthiest in the world. A shilling a head would give +to the whole fifteen hundred salaries nearly equal to those of our +Secretaries; and yet we see clever and industrious men, writers of +eminence whose readers are to be found in every part of the civilized +world, living on in hopeless poverty, and dying with the knowledge that +they are leaving widows and children to the "tender mercies" of a world in +which they themselves have shone and starved. Viewing all these facts, it +may, I think, well be doubted if the annual contributions of the people +subject to the British copyright act for the support of the persons who +produce their books, much exceeds three pence, or six cents, per head; and +here it is that we are to find the real difficulty--one not to be +removed by us. The home market is the important one, whether for words or +things, and when that is bad but little benefit can be derived from any +foreign one; and every effort to extend the latter will, under such +circumstances, be found to result in disappointment. It can act only as a +plaster to conceal the sore, while the sore itself becomes larger and more +dangerous from day to day. To effect a cure, the sore itself must be +examined and its cause removed. To cure the disease so prevalent among +British authors we must first seek for the causes why the home market for +the products of their labor is so very small, and that will be found in +the steadily growing tendency towards centralization, so obvious in every +part of the operations of the British empire. Centralization and +civilization have in all countries, and at all periods of the world, been +opposed to each other, and that such is here the case can, I think, +readily be shown. + + [Footnote 1: The several figures here given are from a statement in a + British journal. Whether they are perfectly accurate, or not, I have no + means of determining.] + +Among the earliest cases in which this tendency was exhibited was that of +the Union by which the kingdom of Scotland was reduced to the condition of +a province of England, and Edinburgh, from being the capital of a nation, +to becoming a mere provincial town. By many and enlightened Scotchmen a +federal union would have been preferred; but a legislative one was formed, +and from that date the whole public revenue of Scotland tended towards +London, towards which tended also, and necessarily, all who sought for +place, power, or distinction. An absentee government produced, of course, +absentee landholders, and with each step in this direction there was a +diminution in the demand at home for talent, which thenceforward sought a +market in the great city to which the rents were sent. The connection +between the educated classes of Scotland and the Scottish seats of +learning tended necessarily to decline, while the connection between the +former and the universities of England became more intimate. These results +were, of course, gradually produced, but, as is the case with the stone as +it falls towards the earth, the attraction of centralization grew with the +growth of the city that was built out of the contributions of distant +provinces, while the counteracting power of the latter as steadily +declined, and the greater the decline the more rapid does its progress now +become. Seventy years after the date of the Union, Edinburgh was still a +great literary capital, and could then offer to the world the names of +numerous men of whose reputation any country of the world might have been +proud: Burns and McPherson; Robertson and Hume; Blair and Kames; Reid, +Smith, and Stewart; Monboddo, Playfair, and Boswell; and numerous others, +whose reputation has survived to the present day. Thirty-five years later, +its press furnished the world with the works of Jeffrey and Brougham; +Stewart, Brown, and Chalmers; Scott, Wilson, and Joanna Baillie; and with +those of many others whose reputation was less widely spread, among whom +were Galt, Hogg, Lockhart, and Miss Ferrier, the authoress of "Marriage." +The "Edinburgh Review" and "Blackwood's Magazine," then, to a great +extent, represented Scottish men, and Scottish modes of thought. Looking +now on the same field of action, it is difficult, from this distance, to +discover more than two Scottish authors, Alison and Sir William Hamilton, +the latter all "the more conspicuous and remarkable, as he now," says the +"North British Review" (Feb. 1853), "stands so nearly alone in the ebb of +literary activity in Scotland, which has been so apparent during this +generation." McCulloch and Macaulay were both, I believe, born in +Scotland, but in all else they are English. Glasgow has recently presented +the world with a new poet, in the person of Alexander Smith, but, unlike +Ramsay and Burns, there is nothing Scottish about him beyond his place of +birth. "It is not," says one of his reviewers, "Scottish scenery, Scottish +history, Scottish character, and Scottish social humor, that he represents +or depicts. Nor is there," it continues, "any trace in him of that feeling +of intense nationality so common in Scottish writers. London," as it adds, +"a green lane in Kent, an English forest, an English manorhouse, these are +the scenes where the real business of the drama is transacted."[1] + + [Footnote 1: _North British Review_, Aug. 1863.] + +The "Edinburgh Review" has become to all intents and purposes an English +journal, and "Blackwood" has lost all those characteristics by which it +was in former times distinguished from the magazines published south of +the Tweed. + +Seeing these facts, we can scarcely fail to agree with the Review already +quoted, in the admission that there are "probably fewer leading individual +thinkers and literary guides in Scotland at present than at any other +period of its history since the early part of the last century," since the +day when Scotland itself lost its individuality. The same journal informs +us that "there is now scarcely an instance of a Scotchman holding a +learned position in any other country," and farther says that "the small +number of names of literary Scotchmen known throughout Europe for eminence +in literature and science is of itself sufficient to show to how great an +extent the present race of Scotchmen have lost the position which their +ancestors held in the world of letters." [1] + + [Footnote 1: _North British Review_, May, 1853.] + +How, indeed, could it be otherwise? Centralization tends to carry to +London all the wealth and all the expenditure of the kingdom, and thus to +destroy everywhere the local demand for books or newspapers, or for men +capable of producing either. Centralization taxes the poor people of the +north of Scotland, and their complaints of distress are answered by an +order for their expulsion, that place may be made for sheep and shepherds, +neither of whom make much demand for books. Centralization appropriates +millions for the improvement of London and the creation of royal palaces +and pleasure-grounds in and about that city, while Holyrood, and all other +of the buildings with which Scottish history is connected, are allowed to +go to ruin. Centralization gives libraries and museums to London, but it +refuses the smallest aid to the science or literature of Scotland. +Centralization deprives the people of the power to educate themselves, by +drawing from them more than thirty millions of dollars, raised by +taxation, and it leaves the professors in the colleges of Scotland in the +enjoyment of chairs, the emoluments of many of which are but $1,200 per +annum. Whence, then, can come the demand for books, or the power to +compensate the people who make them? Not, assuredly, from the mass of +unhappy people who occupy the Highlands, whose starving condition +furnishes so frequent occasion for the comments of their literary +countrymen; nor, as certainly, from the wretched inhabitants of the wynds +of Glasgow, or from the weavers of Paisley. Centralization is gradually +separating the people into two classes--the very rich, who live in +London, and the very poor, who remain in Scotland; and with the progress +of this division there is a gradual decay in the feeling of national +pride, that formerly so much distinguished the people of Scotland. The +London "Leader" tells its readers that "England is a power made up of +conquests over nationalities;" and it is right. The nationality of +Scotland has disappeared; and, however much it may annoy our Scottish +friends[1] to have the energetic and intelligent Celt sunk in the "slow +and unimpressible" Saxon, such is the tendency of English centralization, +everywhere destructive of that national feeling which is essential to +progress in civilization. + + [Footnote 1: See Blackwood's Magazine, Sept. 1853, art. "Scotland since + the Union."] + +Looking to Ireland, we find a similar state of things. Seventy years +since, that country was able to insist upon and to establish its claim for +an independent government, and, by aid of the measures then adopted, was +rapidly advancing. From that period to the close of the century the demand +for books for Ireland was so great as to warrant the republication of a +large portion of those produced in England. The _kingdom_ of Ireland of +that day gave to the world such men as Burke and Grattan, Moore and +Edgeworth, Curran, Sheridan, and Wellington. Centralization, however, +demanded that Ireland should become a province of England, and from that +time famines and pestilences have been of frequent occurrence, and the +whole population is now being expelled to make room for the "slow and +unimpressible" Saxon race. Under these circumstances, it is matter of +small surprise that Ireland not only produces no books, but that she +furnishes no market for those produced by others. Half a century of +international copyright has almost annihilated both the producers and the +consumers of books. + +Passing towards England we may for a moment look to Wales, and then, if we +desire to find the effects of centralization and its consequent +absenteeism, in neglected schools, ignorant teachers, decaying and decayed +churches, and drunken clergymen with immoral flocks, our object will be +accomplished by studying the pages of the "Edinburgh Review" [2] In such a +state of things as is there described there can be little tendency to the +development of intellect, and little of either ability or inclination to +reward the authors of books. In my next, I will look to England herself. + + [Footnote 2: April, 1853, art. "The Church in the Mountains."] + + + + + +LETTER IV. + +Arrived in England, we find there everywhere the same tendency towards +centralization. Of the 200,000 small landed proprietors of the days of +Adam Smith but few remain, and of even those the number is gradually +diminishing. Great landed estates have everywhere absentees for owners, +agents for managers, and day laborers for workmen. The small landowner was +a resident, and had a personal interest in the details of the +neighborhood, not now felt by either the owner or the laborer. This state +of things existed to a considerable extent five-and-thirty years ago, but +it has since grown with great rapidity. At that time Great Britain could +exhibit to the world perhaps as large a body of men and women of letters, +with world-wide reputation, as ever before existed in any country or +nation, as will be seen from the following list:-- + + + Byron, Wilson, Clarkson, + Moore, Hallam, Landor, + Scott, Roscoe, Wellington,[1] + Wordsworth, Malthus, Robert Hall, + Rogers, Ricardo, Taylor, + Campbell, Mill, Romilly, + Joanna Baillie, Chalmers, Edgeworth, + Southey, Coleridge, Hannah More, + Gifford, Heber, Dalton, + Jeffrey, Bentham, Davy, + Sydney Smith, Brown, Wollaston, + Brougham, Mackintosh, The Herschels, + Horner, Stewart, Dr. Clarke. + + + [Footnote 1: Wellington's dispatches place him in the first rank of + historians.] + +DeQuincey was then just coming on the stage. Crabbe, Shelley, Keats, +Croly, Hazlitt, Lockhart, Lamb, Hunt, Galt, Lady Morgan, Miss Mitford, +Horace Smith, Hook, Milman, Miss Austen, and a host of others, were +already on it. Many of these appear to have received rewards far greater +than fall now to the lot of some of the most distinguished literary men. +Crabbe is said to have received 3,000 guineas, or $15,000, for his "Tales +of the Hall," and Theodore Hook 2,000 guineas for "Sayings and Doings," +and, if the facts were so, they prove that poets and novelists were far +more valued then than now. At that time, Croker, Barrow, and numerous +other men of literary reputation co-operated with Southey and Gifford in +providing for the pages of the "Quarterly." All these, men and women, were +the product of the last century, when the small landholders of England yet +counted by hundreds of thousands. + +Since then, centralization has made great progress. The landholders now +amount, as we are informed, to only 30,000, and the gulf which separates +the great proprietor from the cultivator has gradually widened, as the one +has become more an absentee and the other more a day laborer. The greater +the tendency towards the absorption of land by the wealthy banker and +merchant, or the wealthy cotton-spinner like Sir Robert Peel, the greater +is the tendency towards its abandonment by the small proprietor, who has +an interest in local self government, and the greater the tendency towards +the centralization of power in London and in the great seats of +manufacture. In all those places, it is thought that the prosperity of +England is dependent upon "a cheap and abundant supply of labor."[1] The +"Times" assures its readers that it is "to the cheap labor of Ireland that +England is indebted for all her great works;" and that note is repeated by +a large portion of the literary men of England who now ask for protection +in the American market against the effects of the system they so generally +advocate. + + [Footnote 1: _North British Review_, November, 1852.] + +The more the people of Scotland can be driven from the land to take refuge +in Glasgow and Paisley, the cheaper must be labor. The more those of +Ireland can be driven to England, the greater must be the competition in +the latter for employment, and the lower must be the price of labor. The +more the land of England can be centralized, the greater must be the mass +of people seeking employment in London, Liverpool, Manchester, and +Birmingham, and the cheaper must labor be. + +Low-priced laborers cannot exercise self-government. All they earn is +required for supplying themselves with indifferent food, clothing, and +lodging, and they cannot control the expenditure of their wages to such +extent as to enable them to educate their children, and hence it is that +the condition of the people of England is as here described:-- + +"About one half of our poor can neither read nor write. The test of +signing the name at marriage is a very imperfect absolute test of +education, but it is a very good relative one: taking that test, how +stands Leeds itself in the Registrar-General's returns? In Leeds, which is +the centre of the movement for letting education remain as it is, left +entirely to chance and charity to supply its deficiencies, how do we find +the fact? This, that in 1846, the last year to which these returns are +brought down, of 1,850 marriages celebrated in Leeds and Hunslet, 508 of +the men and 1,020 of the women, or considerably more than one half of the +latter, signed their names with marks. 'I have also a personal knowledge +of this fact--that of 47 men employed upon a railway in this immediate +neighborhood, only 14 can sign their names in the receipt of their wages; +and this not because of any diffidence on their part, but positively +because they cannot write.' And only lately, the "Leeds Mercury" itself +gave a most striking instance of ignorance among persons from Boeotian +Pudsey: of 12 witnesses, 'all of respectable appearance, examined before +the Mayor of Bradford at the court-house there, only one man could sign +his name, and that indifferently.' Mr. Neison has clearly shown, in +statistics of crime in England and Wales from 1834 to 1844, that crime is +invariably the most prevalent in those districts where the fewest numbers +in proportion to the population can read and write. Is it not, indeed, +beginning at the wrong end to try and reform men after they have become +criminals? Yet you cannot begin with children, from want of schools. +Poverty is the result of ignorance, and then ignorance is again the +unhappy result of poverty. 'Ignorance makes men improvident and +thoughtless--women as well as men; it makes them blind to the future-- +to the future of this life as well as the life beyond. It makes them dead +to higher pleasures than those of the mere senses, and keeps them down to +the level of the mere animal. Hence the enormous extent of drunkenness +throughout this country, and the frightful waste of means which it +involves.' At Bilston, amidst 20,000 people, there are but two struggling +schools--one has lately ceased; at Millenhall, Darlaston, and Pelsall, +amid a teeming population, no school whatever. In Oldham, among 100,000, +but one public day-school for the laboring classes; the others are an +infant-school, and some dame and factory schools. At Birmingham, there are +21,824 children at school, and 23,176 at no school; at Liverpool, 50,000 +out of 90,000 at no school; at Leicester, 8,200 out of 12,500; and at +Leeds itself, in 1841 (the date of the latest returns), some 9,600 out of +16,400 were at no school whatever. It is the same in the counties. 'I have +seen it stated that a woman for some time had to officiate as clerk in a +church in Norfolk, there being no adult male in the parish able to read +and write.' For a population of 17,000,000 we have but twelve normal +schools; while in Massachusetts they have three such schools for only +800,000 of population." + +Poverty and ignorance produce intemperance and crime, and hence it is that +both so much abound throughout England. Infanticide, as we are told, +prevails to an extent unknown in any other part of the world. Looking at +all these facts, we can readily see that the local demand for information +throughout England must be very small, and this enables us to account for +the extraordinary fact, that in all that country there has been no daily +newspaper printed out of London. There is, consequently, no local demand +for literary talent. The weekly papers that are published require little +of the pen, but much of the scissors. The necessary consequence of this +is, that every young man who fancies he can write, must go to London to +seek a channel through which he may be enabled to come before the public. +Here we have centralization again. Arrived in London, he finds a few daily +papers, but only one, as we are told, that pays its expenses, and around +each of them is a corps of writers and editors as ill-disposed to permit +the introduction of any new laborers in their field as are the +street-beggars of London to permit any interference with their "beat." If +he desires to become contributor to the magazines, it is the same. To +obtain the privilege of contributing his "cheap labor" to their pages, he +must be well introduced, and if he make the attempt without such +introduction he is treated with a degree of insolence scarcely to be +imagined by any one not familiar with the "answers to correspondents" in +London periodicals. If disposed to print a book he finds a very limited +number of publishers, each one surrounded with his corps of authors and +editors, and generally provided with a journal in which to have his own +books well placed before the world. If, now, he succeeds in gaining +favorable notice, he finds that he can obtain but a very small proportion +of the price of his book, even if it sell, because centralization requires +that all books shall be advertised in certain London journals that charge +their own prices, and thus absorb the proceeds of no inconsiderable +portion of the edition. Next, he finds the Chancellor of the Exchequer +requiring a share of the proceeds of the book for permission to use paper, +and further permission to advertise his work when printed.[1] Inquiring to +what purpose are devoted the proceeds of all these taxes, he learns that +the centralization which it is the object of the British cheap-labor +policy to establish, requires the maintenance of large armies and large +fleets which absorb more than all the profits of the commerce they +protect. The bookseller informs him that he must take the risk of finding +paper, and of paying the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the "Times" and +numerous other journals; that every editor will expect a copy; that the +interests of science require that he, poor as he is, shall give no less +than eleven copies to the public; and that the most that can be hoped for +from the first edition is, that it will not bring him in debt. His book +appears, but the price is high, for the reason that the taxes are heavy, +and the general demand for books is small. Cheap laborers cannot buy +books; soldiers and sailors cannot buy books; and thus does centralization +diminish the market for literary talent while increasing the cost of +bringing it before the world. Centralization next steps in, in the shape +of circulating libraries, that, for a few guineas a year, supply books +throughout the kingdom, and enable hundreds of copies to do the work that +should be done by thousands, and hence it is that, while first editions of +English works are generally small, so very few of them ever reach second +ones. Popular as was Captain Marryat, his first editions were, as he +himself informed me, for some time only 1,500, and had not then risen +above 2,000. Of Mr. Bulwer's novels, so universally popular, the first +edition never exceeded 2,500; and so it has been, and is, with others. +With all Mr. Thackeray's popularity, the sale of his books has, I believe, +rarely gone beyond 6,000 for the supply of above thirty millions of +people. Occasionally, a single author is enabled to fix the attention of +the public, and he is enabled to make a fortune--not from the sale of +large quantities at low prices, but of moderate quantities at high prices. +The chief case of the kind now in England is that of Mr. Dickens, who +sells for twenty shillings a book that costs about four shillings and +sixpence to make, and charges his fellow-laborers in the field of +literature an enormous price for the privilege of attaching to his numbers +the advertisements of their works, as is shown in the following paragraph +from one of the journals of the day:-- + +"Thus far, no writer has succeeded in drawing so large pecuniary profits +from the exercise of his talents as Charles Dickens. His last romance, +"Bleak House," which appeared in monthly numbers, had so wide a +circulation in that form that it became a valuable medium for advertising, +so that before its close the few pages of the tale were completely lost in +sheets of advertisements which were stitched to them. The lowest price for +such an advertisement was L1 sterling, and many were paid for at the rate +of L5 and L6. From this there is nothing improbable in the supposition +that, in addition to the large sum received for the tale, its author +gained some L15,000 by his advertising sheets. The "Household Words" +produces an income of about L4,000, though Dickens, having put it entirely +in the hands of an assistant editor, has nothing to do with it beyond +furnishing a weekly article. Through his talents alone he has raised +himself from the position of a newspaper reporter to that of a literary +Croesus." + + [Footnote 1: The tax on advertisements has just now been repealed, but + that tax was a small one when compared with that imposed by + centralization.] + +Centralization produces the "cheap and abundant supply of labor" required +for the maintenance of the British manufacturing system, and "cheap labor" +furnishes Mr. Dickens with his "Oliver Twist," his "Tom-all-alone's," and +the various other characters and situation by aid of whose delineation he +is enabled, as a German writer informs us, to have dinners + + "at which the highest aristocracy is glad to be present, and where he + equals them in wealth, and furnishes an intellectual banquet of wit and + wisdom which they, the highest and most refined circles, cannot + imitate." + +Centralization enables Mr. Dickens to obtain vast sums by advertising the +works of the poor authors by whom he is surrounded, most of whom are not +only badly paid, but insolently treated, while even of those whose names +and whose works are well known abroad many gladly become recipients of the +public charity. In the zenith of her reputation, Lady Charlotte Bury +received, as I am informed, but L200 ($960) for the absolute copyright of +works that sold for $7.50. Lady Blessington, celebrated as she was, had +but from three to four hundred pounds; and neither Marryat nor Bulwer ever +received, as I believe, the selling price of a thousand copies of their +books as compensation for the copyright.[1] Such being the facts in regard +to well-known authors, some idea may be formed in relation to the +compensation of those who are obscure. The whole tendency of the "cheap +labor" system, so generally approved by English writers, is to destroy the +value of literary labor by increasing the number of persons who must look +to the pen for means of support, and by diminishing the market for its +products. What has been the effect of the system will now be shown by +placing before you a list of the names of all existing British authors +whose reputation can be regarded as of any wide extent, as follows:-- + + + Tennyson, Thackeray, Grote, McCulloch, + Carlyle, Bulwer, Macaulay, Hamilton, + Dickens, Alison, J. S. Mill, Faraday. + + + [Footnote 1: This I had from Captain Marryat himself.] + +This list is very small as compared with that presented in the same field +five-and-thirty years since, and its difference in weight is still greater +than in number. Scott, the novelist and poet, may certainly be regarded as +the counterpoise of much more than any one of the writers of fiction in +this list. Byron, Moore, Rogers, and Campbell enjoyed a degree of +reputation far exceeding that of Tennyson. Wellington, the historian of +his own campaigns, would much outweigh any of the historians. Malthus and +Ricardo were founders of a school that has greatly influenced the policy +of the world, whereas McCulloch and Mill are but disciples in that school. +Dalton, Davy, and Wollaston will probably occupy a larger space in the +history of science than Sir Michael Faraday, large, even, as may be that +assigned to him. + +Extraordinary as is the existence of such a state of things in a country +claiming so much to abound in wealth, it is yet more extraordinary that we +look around in vain to see who are to replace even these when age or death +shall withdraw them from the literary world. Of all here named, +Mr. Thackeray is the only one that has risen to reputation in the last ten +years, and he is no longer young; and even he seeks abroad that reward for +his efforts which is denied to him by the "cheap labor" system at home. Of +the others, nearly, if not quite all, have been for thirty years before +the world, and, in the natural course of things, some of them must +disappear from the stage of authorship, if not of life. If we seek their +successors among the writers for the weekly or monthly journals, we shall +certainly fail to find them. Looking to the Reviews, we find ourselves +forced to agree with the English journalist, who informs his readers that +"it is said, and with apparent justice, that the quarterlies are not as +good as they were." From year to year they have less the appearance of +being the production of men who looked to any thing beyond mere pecuniary +compensation for their labor. In reading them we find ourselves compelled +to agree with the reviewer who regrets to see that the centralization +which is hastening the decline of the Scottish universities is tending to +cause the mind of the whole youth of Scotland to be + + "Cast in the mould of English universities, institutions which, from + their very completeness, exercise on second-rate minds an influence + unfavorable to originality and power of thought."--_North British + Review_, May 1853. + +Their pupils are, as he says, struck "with one mental die," than which +nothing can be less favorable to literary or scientific development. + +Thirty years since, Sir Humphrey Davy spoke with his countrymen as +follows:-- + + "There are very few persons who pursue science with true dignity; it is + followed more as connected with objects of profit than fame."-- + _Consolation in Travel_. + +Since then, Sir John Herschel has said to them:-- + + "Here whole branches of continental study are unstudied, and indeed + almost unknown by name. It is in vain to conceal the melancholy truth. + We are fast dropping behind."--_Treatise on Sound_. + +A late writer, already quoted, says that learning is in disrepute. The +English people, as he informs us, have + + "No longer time or patience for the luxury of a learned treatment of + their interests; and a learned lawyer or statesmen, instead of being + eagerly sought for, is shunned as an impediment to public business." +--_North British Review_. + +The reviewer is, as he informs us, "far from regarding this tendency, +unfavorable as it is to present progress, as a sign of social +retrogression." He thinks that + + "Reference to general principles for rules of immediate action on the + part of those actually engaged in the dispatch of business, must, from + the delay which it necessarily occasions, come to be regarded as a + worse evil than action which is at variance with principle altogether." + +Demand tends to procure supply. Destroy the demand, and the supply will +cease. Science, whether natural or social, is not in demand in Great +Britain, and hence the diminution of supply. We have here the secret of +literary and scientific decline, so obvious to all who study English books +or journals, or read the speeches of English statesmen. Empiricism +prevails everywhere, and there is a universal disposition to avoid the +study of principles. The "cheap labor" system, which it is the object of +the whole British policy to establish, cannot be defended on principle, +and therefore principles are avoided. Centralization, cheap labor, and +enslavement of the body and the mind, travel always in company, and with +each step of their progress there is an increasing tendency towards the +accumulation of power in the hands of men who should be statesmen, the +difficulties of whose positions forbid, however, that they should refer to +scientific principles for their government. Action must be had, and +immediate action in opposition to principle is preferable to delay; and +hence it is that real statesmen are "shunned as an impediment to public +business." The greater the necessity for statesmanship, the more must +statesmen be avoided. The nearer the ship is brought to the shoal, the +more carefully must her captain avoid any reference to the chart. That +such is the practice of those charged with the direction of the affairs of +England, and such the philosophy of those who control her journals, is +obvious to all who study the proceedings of the one or the teachings of +the other. From year to year the ship becomes more difficult of +management, and there is increasing difficulty in finding responsible men +to take the helm. Such are the effects upon mind that have resulted from +that "destruction of nationalities" required for the perfection of the +British system of centralization. + +England is fast becoming one great shop, and traders have, in general, +neither time nor disposition to cultivate literature. The little +proprietors disappear, and the day laborers who succeed them can neither +educate their children nor purchase books. The great proprietor is an +absentee, and he has little time for either literature or science. From +year to year the population of the kingdom becomes more and more divided +into two great classes; the very poor, with whom food and raiment require +all the proceeds of labor, and the very rich who prosper by the cheap +labor system, and therefore eschew the study of principles. With the one +class, books are an unattainable luxury, while with the other the absence +of leisure prevents the growth of desire for their purchase. The sale is, +therefore, small; and hence it is that authors are badly paid. In strong +contrast with the limited sale of English books at home, is the great +extent of sale here, as shown in the following facts: Of the octavo +edition of the "Modern British Essayists," there have been sold in five +years no less than 80,000 volumes. Of Macaulay's "Miscellanies," 3 vols. +12mo., the sale has amounted to 60,000 volumes. Of Miss Aguilar's +writings, the sale, in two years, has been 100,000 volumes. Of Murray's +"Encyclopedia of Geography," more than 50,000 volumes have been sold, and +of McCulloch's "Commercial Dictionary," 10,000 volumes. Of Alexander +Smith's poems, the sale, in a few months, has reached 10,000 copies. The +sale of Mr. Thackeray's works has been quadruple that of England, and that +of the works of Mr. Dickens counts almost by millions of volumes. Of +"Bleak House," in all its various forms--in newspapers, magazines, and +volumes--it has already amounted to several hundred thousands of copies. +Of Bulwer's last novel, since it was completed, the sale has, I am told, +exceeded 35,000. Of Thiers's "French Revolution and Consulate," there have +been sold 32,000, and of Montagu's edition of Lord Bacon's works 4,000 +copies. + +If the sales of books were as great in England as they are here, English +authors would be abundantly paid. In reply it will be said their works are +cheap here because we pay no copyright. For payment of the authors, +however, a very small sum would be required, if the whole people of +England could afford, as they should be able to do, to purchase books. A +contribution of a shilling per head would give, as has been shown, a sum +of almost eight millions of dollars, sufficient to pay to fifteen hundred +salaries nearly equal to those of our Secretaries of State. +Centralization, however, destroys the market for books, and the sale is, +therefore, small; and the few successful writers owe their fortunes to the +collection of large contributions made among a small number of readers; +while the mass of authors live on, as did poor Tom Hood, from day to day, +with scarcely a hope of improvement in their condition. + +Sixty years since, Great Britain was a wealthy country, abounding in +libraries and universities, and giving to the world some of the best, and +best paid, writers of the age. At that time the people of this country +were but four millions, and they were poor, while unprovided with either +books or libraries. Since then they have grown to twenty-six millions, +millions of whom have been emigrants, in general arriving here with +nothing but the clothing on their backs. These poor men have had every +thing to create for themselves--farms, roads, houses, libraries, +schools, and colleges; and yet, poor as they have been, they furnish now a +demand for the principal products of English mind greater than is found at +home. If we can make such a market, why cannot they? If they had such a +market, would it not pay their authors to the full extent of their merits? +Unquestionably it would; and if they see fit to pursue a system tending to +cheapen the services of the laborer in the field, in the workshop, and at +the desk, there is no more reason for calling upon the people of this +country to make up their deficiencies towards those who contribute to +their pleasure or instruction by writing books, than there would be in +asking us to aid in supporting the hundreds of thousands of day laborers, +their wives and children, whom the same system condemns, unpitied, to the +workhouse. + +But, it will be asked, is it right that we should read the works of +Macaulay, Dickens, and others, without compensation to the authors? In +answer, it may be said, that we give them precisely what their own +countrymen have given to their Dalton, Davy, Wollaston, Franklin, Parry, +and the thousands of others who have furnished the bodies of which books +are composed--and more than we ourselves give to the men among us +engaged in cultivating science--fame. This, it will be said, is an +unsubstantial return; yet Byron deemed it quite sufficient when he first +saw an American edition of his works, coming, as it seemed to him, "from +posterity." Miss Bremer found no small reward for her labors in knowing +the high regard in which she was held; and it was no small payment when, +even in the wilds of the West, she met with numerous persons who would +gladly have her travel free of charge, because of the delight she had +afforded them. Miss Carlen tells her readers that "of one triumph" she was +proud. "It was," she says, "when I held in my hand, for the first time, +one of my works, translated and published in America. My eyes filled with +tears. The bright dreams of youth again passed before me. Ye Americans had +planted the seed, and ye also approved of the fruit!" This is the feeling +of a writer that cultivates literature with some object in view other than +mere profit. It differs entirely from that of English authors, because in +England, more than in any other country, book-making is a trade, carried +on exclusively with a view to profit; and hence it is that the character +of English books so much declines. + +But is it really true that foreign authors derive no pecuniary advantage +from the republication of their books in this country? It is not. Mr. +Macaulay has admitted that much of his reputation, and of the sale of his +books at home, had been a consequence of his reputation here, where his +Essays were first reprinted. At the moment of writing this, I have met +with a notice of his speeches, first collected here, from which the +following is an extract:-- + + "We owe much to America. Not content with charming us with the works of + her native genius, she teaches us also to appreciate our own. She steps + in between the timidity of a British author, and the fastidiousness of + the British public, and by using her' good offices' brings both parties + to a friendly understanding."--_Morning Chronicle_. + +If the people of England are largely indebted to America for being made +acquainted with the merits of their authors, are not these latter also +indebted to America for much of their pecuniary reward? Undoubtedly they +are. Mr. Macaulay owes much of his fortune to American publishers, +readers, and critics; and such is the case to perhaps a greater extent +with Mr. Carlyle, whose papers were first collected here, and their merits +thus made known to his countrymen. Lamb's papers of "Elia" were first +collected here. It is to the diligence of an American publisher that De +Quincey owes the publication of a complete edition of his works, now to be +followed by a similar one in England. The papers of Professor Wilson owe +their separate republication to American booksellers. The value of Mr. +Thackeray's copyrights has been greatly increased by his reception here. +So has it been with Mr. Dickens. All of those persons profit largely by +their fame abroad, while the men who contribute to the extension of +knowledge by the publication of facts and ideas never reap profit from +their publication abroad, and are rarely permitted to acquire even fame. +Godfrey died poor. The merchants of England gave no fortune to his +children, and Hadley stole his fame. The people of that country, who +travel in steam-vessels, have given to the family of Fulton no pecuniary +reward, while her writers have uniformly endeavored to deprive him of the +reputation which constituted almost the sole inheritance of his family. +The whole people of Europe are profiting by the discovery of chloroform; +but who inquires what has become of the family of its unfortunate +discoverer? Nobody! The people of England profit largely by the +discoveries of Fourcroy, Berzelius, and many other of the continental +philosophers; but do those who manufacture cheap cloth, or those who wear +it, contribute to the support of the families of those philosophers? Did +they contribute to their support while alive? Certainly not. To do so +would have been in opposition to the idea that the real contributors to +knowledge should be "hewers of wood and drawers of water" for the +gentlemen who dress up their facts and ideas in an attractive form and +place them before the world in the form of cloth or books. + +We are largely indebted to the labors of literary men, and they should be +well paid, but their claims to pecuniary reward have been much +exaggerated, because they have held the pen and have had always a high +degree of belief in their own deserts. Their right in the books they +publish is precisely similar to, and no greater than, that of the man who +culls the flowers and arranges the bouquets; and, when that is provided +for, their books are entitled to become common property. English authors +are already secured in a monopoly for forty-two years among a body of +people so large that a contribution of a shilling a head would enable each +and all of them to live in luxury; and if British policy prevents their +countrymen from paying them, it is to the British Parliament they should +look for redress, and not to our Executive. When they shall awaken to the +fact that "cheap labor" with the spade, the plough, and the loom, brings +with it necessarily "cheap labor" with the pen, they will become +opponents, and cease to be advocates of the system under which they +suffer. All that, in the mean time, we can say to them is, that we protect +our own authors by giving them a monopoly of our own immense and rapidly +growing market, and that if they choose to come and live among us we will +grant them the same protection. We may now look to the condition of our +own literary men. + + + + + +LETTER V. + +Our system is based upon an idea directly the reverse of the one on which +rests the English system--that of decentralization; and we may now study +its effects as shown in the development of literary tendencies and in the +reward of authors. + +Centralization tends towards taxing the people for building up great +institutions at a distance from those who pay the taxes; decentralization +towards leaving to the people to tax themselves for the support of common +and high schools in their immediate neighborhood. The first tends towards +placing the man who has instruction to sell at a distance from those who +need to buy it; while the other tends towards bringing the teacher to the +immediate vicinity of the scholars, and thus diminishing the cost of +education. The effects of the latter are seen in the fact that the new +States, no less than the old ones, are engaged in an effort to enable all, +without distinction of sex or fortune, to obtain the instruction needful +for enabling them to become consumers of books, and customers to the men +who produce them. Massachusetts exhibits to the world 182,000 scholars in +her public schools; New York, 778,000 in the public ones, and 75,000 in +the private ones; and Iowa and Wisconsin are laying the foundation of a +system that will enable them, at a future day, to do as much. Boston taxes +herself $365,000 for purposes of education, while Philadelphia expends +more than half a million for the same purposes, and exhibits 50,000 +children in her public schools. Here we have, at once, a great demand for +instructors, offering a premium on intellectual effort, and its effect is +seen in the numerous associations of teachers, each anxious to confer with +the others in regard to improvement in the modes of education. School +libraries are needed for the children, and already those of New York +exhibit about a million and a half of volumes. Books of a higher class are +required for the teachers, and here is created another demand leading to +the preparation of new and improved books by the teachers themselves. The +scholars enter life and next we find numerous apprentices' libraries and +mercantile libraries, producing farther demand for books, and aiding in +providing reward for those to whom the world is indebted for them. +Everybody must learn to read and write, and everybody _must_ therefore +have books; and to this universality of demand it is due that the sale of +those required for early education is so immense. Of the works of Peter +Parley it counts by millions; but if we take his three historical books +(price 75 cents each) alone, we find that it amounts to between half a +million and a million of volumes. Of Goodrich's United States it has been +a quarter of a million. Of Morse's Geography and Atlas (50 cents) the sale +is said to be no less than 70,000 per annum. Of Abbott's histories the +sale is said to have already been more than 400,000, while of Emerson's +Arithmetic and Reader it counts almost by millions. Of Mitchell's several +geographies it is 400,000 a year. + +In other branches of education the same state of things is seen to exist. +Of the Boston Academy's collection of sacred music the sale has exceeded +600,000; and the aggregate sale of five books by the same author has +probably exceeded a million, at a dollar per volume. Leaving the common +schools we come to the high schools and colleges, of which latter the +names of no less than 120 are given in the American Almanac. Here again we +have decentralization, and its effect is to bring within reach of almost +the whole people a higher degree of education than could be afforded by +the common schools. The problem to be solved is, as stated by a recent and +most enlightened traveller, "How are citizens to be made thinking beings +in the greatest numbers?" Its solution is found in making of the +educational fabric a great pyramid, of which the common schools form the +base and the Smithsonian Institute the apex, the intermediate places being +filled with high schools, lyceums, and colleges of various descriptions, +fitted to the powers and the means of those who need instruction. All +these make, of course, demand for books, and hence it is that the sale of +Anthon's series of classics (averaging $1) amounts, as I am told, to +certainly not less than 50,000 volumes per annum, while of the "Classical +Dictionary" of the same author ($4) not less than thirty thousand have +been sold. Of Liddell and Scott's "Greek Lexicon" ($5), edited by Prof. +Drisler, the sale has been not less than 25,000, and probably much larger. +Of Webster's 4to. "Dictionary" ($6) it has been, I am assured, 60,000, and +perhaps even 80,000; and of the royal 8vo. one ($3.50), 250,000. Of +Bolmar's French school books not less than 150,00 volumes have been sold. +The number of books used in the higher schools--text-books in +philosophy, chemistry, and other branches of science--is exceedingly +great, and it would be easy to produce numbers of which the sale is from +five to ten thousand per annum; but to do so would occupy too much space, +and I must content myself with the few facts already given in regard to +this department of literature. + +Decentralization, or local self-government, tends thus to place the whole +people in a condition to read newspapers, while the same cause tends to +produce those local interests which give interest to the public journals, +and induce men to purchase them. Hence it is that their number is so +large. The census of 1850 gives it at 2,625; and the increase since that +time has been very great. The total number of papers printed can scarcely +be under 600,000,000, which would give almost 24 for every person, old and +young, black and white, male and female, in the Union. But recently the +newspaper press of the United Kingdom was said to require about 160,000 +reams of paper, which would give about 75,000,000 of papers, or two and a +half per head. + +The number of daily papers was returned at 350, but it has greatly +increased, and must now exceed four hundred. Chicago, which then was a +small town, rejoices now in no less than 24 periodicals, seven of which +are daily, and five of them of the largest size. At St. Louis, which but a +few years since was on the extreme borders of civilization, we find +several, and one of these has grown from a little sheet of 8 by 12 inches +to the largest size, yielding to its proprietors $50,000 per annum, while +Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham are still compelled to depend upon +their tri-weekly sheets. St. Louis itself furnishes the type, and +Louisville furnishes the paper. Everywhere, the increase in size is +greater than that in the number of newspapers, and the increase of ability +in both the city and country press, greater than in either number or size. +These things are necessary consequences of that decentralization which +builds school-houses and provides teachers, where centralization raises +armies and provides generals. The schools enable young men to read, think, +and write, and the local newspaper is always at hand in which to publish. +Beginning thus with the daily or weekly journal, the youth of talent makes +his way gradually to the monthly or quarterly magazine, and ultimately to +the independent book. + +Examine where we may through the newspaper press, there is seen the +activity which always accompanies the knowledge that men _can rise_ in the +world _if they will_; but this is particularly obvious in the daily press +of cities, whose efforts to obtain information, and whose exertions to lay +it before the public, are without a parallel. Centralization, like that of +the London "Times," furnishes its readers with brief paragraphs of +telegraphic news, where decentralization gives columns. The New York +"Tribune" furnishes, for two cents, better papers than are given in London +for ten, and it scatters them over the country by hundreds of thousands. +Decentralization is educating the whole mind of the country, and it is to +this it is due that the American farmer is furnished with machines which +are, according to the London "Times," "about twice as light in draught as +the lightest of English machines of the same description, doing as much, +if not more work than the best of them, and with much less power; dressing +the grain, which they do not, and which can be profitably disposed of at +one half, or at least one third less money than its British rivals"--and +is thus enabled to purchase books. Centralization, on the other hand, +furnishes the English farmer, according to the same authority, "with +machines strong and dear enough to rob him of all future improvements, and +tremendously heavy, either to work or to draw;" and thus deprives him of +all power to educate his children, or to purchase for himself either books +or newspapers. + +Religious decentralization exerts also a powerful influence on the +arrangements for imparting that instruction which provides purchasers for +books. The Methodist Society, with its gigantic operations; the +Presbyterian Board of Publication; the Baptist Association; the +Sunday-school, and other societies, are all incessantly at work creating +readers. The effect of all these efforts for the dissemination of cheap +knowledge is shown in the first instance in the number of semi-monthly, +monthly, and quarterly journals, representing every shade of politics and +religion, and every department of literature and science. + +The number of these returned to the census was 175; but that must, I +think, have been even then much below the truth. Since then it has been +much increased. Of two of them, Putnam's and Harper's, the first +exclusively original, and the latter about two thirds so, the sale is +about two millions of numbers per annum; while of three others, published +in Philadelphia, it is about a million. Cheap as are these journals, at +twenty-five cents each, the sum total of the price paid for them by the +consumers is about $700,000. The quantity of paper required for a single +one of them is about 16,000 reams of double medium, being one tenth as +much as has recently been given as the consumption of the whole newspaper +press of Great Britain and Ireland. Every pursuit in life, and almost +every shade of opinion, has its periodical. A single city in Western New +York furnishes no less than four agricultural and horticultural journals, +one of them published weekly, with a circulation of 15,000, and the +others, monthly, with a joint circulation of 25,000. The "Merchants' +Magazine," which set the example for the one now published in London, has +a circulation of 3,500. The "Bankers' Magazine" also set the example +recently followed in England. Medicine and Law have their numerous and +well supported journals; and Dental Surgery alone has five, one of which +has a circulation of 5,000 copies, while all Europe has but two, and those +of very inferior character.[1] North, south, east, and west, the +periodical press is collecting the opinions of all our people, while +centralization is gradually limiting the expression of opinion, in +England, to those who live in and near London. Upon this extensive base of +cheap domestic literature rests that portion of the fabric composed of +reproduction of foreign books, the quantities of some of which were given +in my last. The proportion which these bear to American books has been +thus given for the six months ending on the 30th of June last: + + + Republications 169 + Original 522 + + 691 + + + [Footnote 1: It is a remarkable fact that there should be in this + country no less than four Colleges of Dental Surgery, while all Europe + presents not even a single one.] + +Of these last, 17 were original translations. + +We see, thus, that the proportion of domestic to foreign products is +already more than three to one. How the sale of the latter compares with +that of the former, will be seen by the following facts in relation to +books of almost all sizes, prices, and kinds; some of which have been +furnished by the publishers themselves, whilst others are derived from +gentlemen connected with the trade whose means of information are such as +warrant entire reliance upon their statements. + +Of all American authors, those of school-books excepted, there is no one +of whose books so many have been circulated as those of Mr. Irving. Prior +to the publication of the edition recently issued by Mr. Putnam, the sale +had amounted to some hundreds of thousands; and yet of that edition, +selling at $1.25 per volume, it has already amounted to 144,000 vols. Of +"Uncle Tom," the sale has amounted to 295,000 copies, partly in one, and +partly in two volumes, and the total number of volumes amounts probably to +about 450,000. + + + _Price per vol._ _Volumes._ + + + Of the two works of Miss Warner, + Queechy, and the Wide, Wide World, the + price and sale have been. $ 88 104,000 + + Fern Leaves, by Fanny Fern, in six months. 1 25 45,000 + + Reveries of a Bachelor, and other books, + by Ike Marvel. 1 25 70,000 + + Alderbrook, by Fanny Forester, 3 vols. 50 33,000 + + Northup's Twelve Years a Slave 1 00 20,000 + + Novels of Mrs. Hentz, in three years 63 93,000 + + Major Jones' Courtship and Travels 50 31,000 + + Salad for the Solitary, by a new author, + in five months 1 25 5,000 + + Headley's Napoleon and his Marshals, Washington + and his Generals, and other works. 1 25 200,000 + + Stephen's Travels in Egypt and Greece. 87 80,000 + + " " Yucatan and Central America 2 50 60,000 + + Kendall's Expedition to Santa Fe 1 25 40,000 + + Lynch's Expedition to the Dead Sea, 8vo. $3 00 15,000 + + " " 2mo. 1 25 8,000 + + Western Scenes 2 50 14,000 + + Young's Science of Government 1 00 12,000 + + Seward's Life of John Quincy Adams. 1 00 30,000 + + Frost's Pictorial History of the World, + 3 vols. 2 50 60,000 + + Sparks' American Biography, 25 vols 75 100,000 + + Encyclopaedia Americana, 14 vols. 2 00 280,000 + + Griswold's Poets and Prose Writers + of America, 3 vols. 3 00 21,000 + + Barnes' Notes on the Gospels, Epistles, &c., + 11 vols. 75 300.000 + + Aiken's Christian Minstrel, in two years. 62 40,000 + + Alexander on the Psalms, 3 vols. 1 17 10,000 + + Buist's Flower Garden Directory 1 25 10,000 + + Cole on Fruit Trees. 50 18,000 + + " Diseases of Domestic Animals 50 34,000 + + Downing's Fruits and Fruit Trees. 50 15,000 + + " Rural Essays. 3 50 3,000 + + " Landscape Gardening. 3 50 9,000 + + " Cottage Residences. 2 00 6,250 + + " Country Homes. 4 00 3,500 + + Mahan's Civil Engineering. 3 00 7,500 + + Leslie's Cookery and Receipt-books. 1 00 96,000 + + Guyot's Lectures on Earth and Man. 1 00 6,000 + + Wood and Bache's Medical Dispensatory 5 00 60,000 + + Dunglison's Medical Writings, + in all 10 vols. 2 50 50,000 + + Pancoast's Surgery, 4to. 10 00 4,000 + + Rayer, Ricord, and Moreau's Surgical Works + (translations). 15 00 5,500 + + Webster's Works, 6 vols. 2 00 46,800 + + Kent's Commentaries, 4 vols. 3 38 84,000 + + +Next to Chancellor Kent's work comes Greenleaf on Evidence, 3 vols., +$16.50; the sale of which has been exceedingly great, but what has been +its extent, I cannot say. + +Of Blatchford's General Statutes of New York, a local work, price $4.50, +the sale has been 3,000; equal to almost 30,000 of a similar work for the +United Kingdom. + +How great is the sale of Judge Story's books can be judged only from the +fact that the copyright now yields, and for years past has yielded, more +than $8,000 per annum. Of the sale of Mr. Prescott's works little is +certainly known, but it cannot, I understand, have been less than 160,000 +volumes. That of Mr. Bancroft's History, has already risen, certainly to +30,000 copies, and I am told it is considerably more; and yet even that is +a sale, for such a work, entirely unprecedented. + +Of the works of Hawthorne, Longfellow, Bryant, Willis, Curtis, Sedgwick, +Sigourney, and numerous others, the sale is exceedingly great; but, as not +even an approximation to the true amount can be offered, I must leave it +to you to judge of it by comparison with those of less popular authors +above enumerated. In several of these cases, beautifully illustrated +editions have been published, of which large numbers have been sold. Of +Mr. Longfellow's volume there have been no less than ten editions. These +various facts will probably suffice to satisfy you that this country +presents a market for books of almost every description, unparalleled in +the world. + +In reflecting upon this subject, it is necessary to bear in mind that the +monopoly, granted to authors and their families, is for the term of no +less than forty-two years, and that in that period the number of persons +subjected to it is likely to grow to little short of a hundred millions, +with a power of consumption that will probably be ten times greater than +now exists. If the Commentaries of Chancellor Kent continue to maintain +their present position, as they probably will, may we not reasonably +suppose that the demand for them will continue as great, or nearly so, as +it is at present, and that the total sale during the period of copyright +will reach a quarter of a million of volumes? So, too, of the histories of +Bancroft and Prescott, and of other books of permanent character. + +Such being the extent of the market for the products of literary labor, we +may now inquire into its rewards. + +Beginning with the common schools, we find a vast number of young men and +young women acting as teachers of others, while qualifying themselves for +occupying other places in life. Many of them rise gradually to become +teachers in high schools and professors in colleges, while all of them +have at hand the newspaper, ready to enable them, if gifted with the power +of expressing themselves on paper, to come before the world. The numerous +newspapers require editors and contributors, and the amount appropriated +to the payment of this class of the community is a very large one. Next +come the magazines, many of which pay very liberally. I have now before me +a statement from a single publisher, in which he says that to Messrs. +Willis, Longfellow, Bryant, and Alston, his price was uniformly $50 for a +poetical article, long or short--and his readers know that they were +generally very short; in one case only fourteen lines. To numerous others +it was from $25 to $40. In one case he has paid $25 per page for prose. To +Mr. Cooper he paid $1,800 for a novel, and $1,000 for a series of naval +biographies, the author retaining the copyright for separate publication; +and in such cases, if the work be good, its appearance in the magazine +acts as the best of advertisements. To Mr. James he paid $1,200 for a +novel, leaving him also the copyright. For a single number of the journal +he has paid to authors $1,500. The total amount paid for original matter +by two magazines--the selling price of which is $3 per annum--in ten +years, has exceeded $130,000, giving an average of $13,000 per annum. The +Messrs. Harper inform me that the expenditure for literary and artistic +labor required for their magazine is $2,000 per month, or $24,000 a year. + +Passing upwards, we reach the producers of books, and here we find rewards +not, I believe, to be paralleled elsewhere. Mr. Irving stands, I imagine, +at the head of living authors for the amount received for his books. The +sums paid to the renowned Peter Parley must have been enormously great, +but what has been their extent I have no means of ascertaining. Mr. +Mitchell, the geographer, has realized a handsome fortune from his +schoolbooks. Professor Davies is understood to have received more than +$50,000 from the series published by him. The Abbotts, Emerson, and +numerous other authors engaged in the preparation of books for young +persons and schools, are largely paid. Professor Anthon, we are informed, +has received more than $60,000 for his series of classics. The French +series of Mr. Bolmar has yielded him upwards of $20,000. The school +geography of Mr. Morse is stated to have yielded more than $20,000 to the +author. A single medical book, of one 8vo. volume, is understood to have +produced its authors $60,000, and a series of medical books has given to +its author probably $30,000. Mr. Downing's receipts from his books have +been very large. The two works of Miss Warner must have already yielded +her from $12,000 to $15,000, and perhaps much more. Mr. Headley is stated +to have received about $40,000; and the few books of Ike Marvel have +yielded him about $20,000; a single one, "The Reveries of a Bachelor," +produced more than $4,000 in the first six months. Mrs. Stowe has been +very largely paid. Miss Leslie's Cookery and Receipt books have paid her +$12,000. Dr. Barnes is stated to have received more than $30,000 for the +copyright of his religious works. Fanny Fern has probably received not +less than $6,000 for the 12mo. volume published but six months since. Mr. +Prescott was stated, several years since, to have then received $90,000 +from his books, and I have never seen it contradicted. According to the +rate of compensation generally understood to be received by Mr. Bancroft, +the present sale of each volume of his yields him more than $15,000, and +he has the long period of forty-two years for future sale. Judge Story +died, as has been stated, in the receipt of more than $8,000 per annum; +and the amount has not, as it is understood, diminished. Mr. Webster's +works, in three years, can scarcely have paid less than $25,000. Kent's +Commentaries are understood to have yielded to their author and his heirs +more than $120,000, and if we add to this for the remainder of the period +only one half of this sum, we shall obtain $180,000, or $45,000 as the +compensation for a single 8vo. volume, a reward for literary labor +unexampled in history. What has been the amount received by Professor +Greenleaf I cannot learn, but his work stands second only, in the legal +line, to that of Chancellor Kent. The price paid for Webster's 8vo. +Dictionary is understood to be fifty cents per copy; and if so, with a +sale of 250,000, it must already have reached $125,000. If now to this we +add the quarto, at only a dollar a copy, we shall have a sum approaching +to, and perhaps exceeding, $180,000; more, probably, than has been paid +for all the dictionaries of Europe in the same period of time. What have +been the prices paid to Messrs. Hawthorne, Longfellow, Bryant, Willis, +Curtis, and numerous others, I cannot say; but it is well known that they +have been very large. It is not, however, only the few who are liberally +paid; all are so who manifest any ability, and here it is that we find the +effect of the decentralizing system of this country as compared with the +centralizing one of Great Britain. There Mr. Macaulay is largely paid for +his Essays, while men of almost equal ability can scarcely obtain the +means of support. Dickens is a literary Croesus, and Tom Hood dies leaving +his family in hopeless poverty. Such is not here the case. Any +manifestation of ability is sure to produce claimants for the publication +of books. No sooner had the story of "Hot Corn" appeared in "The Tribune," +than a dozen booksellers were applicants to the author for a book. The +competition is here for the _purchase_ of the privilege of printing, and +this competition is not confined to the publishers of a single city, as is +the case in Britain. Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and even Auburn and +Cincinnati, present numerous publishers, all anxious to secure the works +of writers of ability, in any department of literature; and were it +possible to present a complete list of our well-paid authors, its extent +could not fail to surprise you greatly, as the very few facts that have +come to my knowledge in reference to some of the lesser stars of the +literary world have done by me. You will observe that I have confined +myself to the question of demand for books and compensation to their +authors, without reference to that of the ability displayed in their +preparation. That we may have good books, all that is required is that we +make a large market for them, which is done here to an extent elsewhere +unknown. + +Forty years since, the question was asked by the "Edinburgh Review," Who +reads an American book? Judging from the facts here given, may we not +reasonably suppose that the time is fast approaching, when the question +will be asked, Who does not read American books? + +Forty years since, had we asked where were the _homes of American +authors_, we should generally have been referred to very humble houses in +our cities. Those who now inquire for them will find their answer in the +beautiful volume lately published by Messrs. Putnam and Co., the precursor +of others destined to show the literary men of this country enjoying +residences as agreeable as any that had been occupied by such men in any +part of the world; and in almost every case, those homes have been due to +the profits of the pen. Less than half a century since, the race of +literary men was scarcely known in the country, and yet the amount now +paid for literary labor is greater than in Great Britain and France +combined, and will probably be, in twenty years more, greater than in all +the world beside. With the increase of number, there has been a +corresponding increase in the consideration in which they are held; and +the respect with which even unknown authors are treated, when compared +with the disrespect manifested in England towards such men, will be +obvious to all familiar with the management of the journals of that +country who read the following in one of our principal periodicals:-- + +"The editor of Putnam's Monthly will give to every article forwarded for +insertion in the Magazine a careful examination, and, when requested to do +so, will return the MS. if not accepted." + +Here, the competition is among the publishers to _buy_ the products of +literary labor, whereas, abroad, the competition is to _sell_ them, and +therefore is the treatment of our authors, even when unknown, so +different. Long may it continue to be so! + +Such having been the result of half a century, during which we have had to +lay the foundation of the system that has furnished so vast a body of +readers, what may not be expected in the next half century, during which +the population will increase to a hundred millions, with a power to +consume the products of literary labor growing many times faster than the +growth of numbers? If this country is properly termed "the paradise of +women," may it not be as correctly denominated the paradise of authors, +and should they not be content to dwell in it as their predecessors have +done? Is it wise in them to seek a change? Their best friends would, I +think, unite with me in advising that it is not. Should they succeed in +obtaining what they now desire, the day will, as I think, come, when they +will be satisfied that their real friends had been, those who opposed the +confirmation of the treaty now before the Senate. + + + + + +LETTER VI. + +We have commenced the erection of a great literary and scientific edifice. +The foundation is already broad, deep, and well laid, but it is seen to +increase in breadth, depth, and strength, with every step of increase in +height; and the work itself is seen to assume, from year to year, more and +more the natural form of a true pyramid. To the height that such a +building may be carried, no living man will venture to affix a limit. What +is the tendency to durability in a work thus constructed, the pyramids of +Egypt and the mountains of the Andes and of the Himalaya may attest. That +edifice is the product of decentralization. + +Elsewhere, centralization is, as has been shown, producing the opposite +effect, narrowing the base, and diminishing the elevation. Having +prospered under decentralization, our authors seek to introduce +centralization. Failing to accomplish their object by the ordinary course +of legislation, they have had recourse to the executive power; and thus +the end to be accomplished, and the means used for its accomplishment, are +in strict accordance with each other. + +We are invited to grant to the authors and booksellers of England, and +their agent or agents here, entire control over a highly important source +from which our people have been accustomed to derive their supplies of +literary food. Before granting to these persons any power here, it might +be well to inquire how they have used their power at home. Doing this, we +find that, as is usually the case with those enjoying a monopoly, they +have almost uniformly preferred to derive their profits from high prices +and small sales, and have thus, in a great degree, deprived their +countrymen of the power to purchase books; a consequence of which has been +that the reading community has, very generally, been driven to dependence +upon circulating libraries, to the injury of both the authors and the +public. The extent to which this system of high prices in regard to +school-books has been carried, and the danger of intrusting such men with +power, are well shown in the fact that the same government which has so +recently concluded a copyright treaty with our own, has since entered +"into the bookselling trade on its own account," competing "with the +private dealer, who has to bear copyright charges." The subjects of this +"reactionary step" on the part of a government that so much professes to +love free trade, are, as we are told, "the famous school-books of the +Irish national system."[1] A new office has been created, "paid for with a +public salary," for "the issue of books to the retail dealers;" and the +centralization of power over this important portion to the trade is, we +are told,[2] defended in the columns of the "Times," as "tending to bring +down the price of school-books; for booksellers who possess copyrights, +now sell their books at exorbitant prices, and, by underselling them, the +commissioners will be able to beat them." Judging from this, it would seem +almost necessary, if this treaty is to be ratified, that there should be +added some provision authorizing our government to appoint commissioners +for the regulation of trade, and for "underselling" those persons who "now +sell their books at exorbitant prices." If it be ratified, we shall be +only entering on the path of centralization; and it may not be amiss that, +before ratification, we should endeavor to determine to what point it will +probably carry us in the end. + + [Footnote 1: _Spectator_, June 4, 1853.] + + [Footnote 2: _Ibid_.] + +The question is often asked, What difference can it make to the people of +this country whether they do, or do not, pay to the English author a few +cents in return for the pleasure afforded by the perusal of his book? Not +very much, certainly, to the wealthy reader; but as every extra cent is +important to the poorer one, and tends to limit his power to purchase, it +may be well to calculate how many cents would probably be required; and, +that we may do so, I give you here a list[1] of the comparative prices of +English and American editions of a few of the books that have been +published within the last few years:-- + + + + _English._ _Amer._ + + Brande's Encyclopaedia $15 00 $4 00 + + Ure's Dictionary of Manufactures 15 00 5 00 + + Alison's Europe, cheapest edition 25 00 5 00 + + D'Aubignd's Reformation 11 50 2 25 + + Bulwer's "My Novel" 10 50 75 + + Lord Mahon's England 13 00 4 00 + + Macaulay's England, per vol. 4 50 40 + + Campbell's Chief Justices. 7 50 3 50 + + " Lord Chancellors 25 50 12 00 + + Queens of England, 8 vols. 24 00 10 00 + + Queens of Scotland 15 00 6 00 + + Hallam's Middle Ages 7 50 1 75 + + Arnold's Rome 12 00 3 00 + + Life of John Foster 6 00 1 25 + + Layard's Nineveh, complete edition. 9 00 1 75 + + Mrs. Somerville's Physical Sciences 2 50 50 + + Whewell's Elements of Morality. 7 50 1 00 + + Napier's Peninsular War 12 00 3 25 + + Thirlwall's Greece, cheapest edition 7 00 3 00 + + Dick's Practical Astronomer 2 50 50 + + Jane Eyre 7 50 25 + + + [Footnote 1: Copied from an article in the New York _Daily Times_.] + +The difference, as we see, between the selling price in London and in New +York, of the first book in this list, is no less than eleven dollars, or +almost three times as much as the whole price of the American edition. To +what is this extraordinary difference to be attributed? To any excess in +the cost of paper or printing in London? Certainly not; for paper and +printers' labor are both cheaper there than here. Is it, then, to the +necessity for compensating the author? Certainly not; for there are in +this country fifty persons as fully competent as Mr. Brande for the +preparation of such a work, who would willingly do it for a dollar a copy, +calculating upon being paid out of a large sale. As the sale of books in +England is not large, it might be necessary to allow him two dollars each; +but even this would still leave nine dollars to be accounted for. Where +does all this go? Part of it to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, part to +the "Times," and other newspapers and journals that charge monopoly prices +for the privilege of advertising, and the balance to the booksellers who +"possess copyrights," and "sell their books at such exorbitant prices" +that they have driven the government to turn bookseller, with a view to +bring down prices; and these are the very men to whom it is now proposed +to grant unlimited control over the sale of all books produced abroad. + +It will, perhaps, be said that the treaty contains a proviso that the +author shall sell his copyright to an American publisher, or shall himself +cause his book to be republished here. Such a proviso may be there, but +whether it is so, or not, no one knows, for every thing connected with +this effort to extend the Executive power is kept as profoundly secret as +were the arrangements for the Napoleonic _coup d'etat_ of the 2d of +December. Secrecy and prompt and decisive action are the characteristics +of centralized governments--publicity and slow action those of +decentralized ones. Admit, however, that such limitations be found in the +treaty, by what right are they there? The basis of such a treaty is the +absolute right of the author to his book; and if that be admitted, with +what show of consistency or of justice can we undertake to dictate to him +whether he shall sell or retain it--print it here or abroad? With none, +as I think. + +Admit, however, that he does print it, does the treaty require that the +market shall _always_ be supplied? Perhaps it does, but most probably it +does not. If it does, does it also provide for the appointment of +commissioners to see that the provision is always complied with? If it +does not, nothing would seem to be easier than to send out the plates of a +large book, print off a small edition, and by thus complying with _the +letter_ of the law, establishing the copyright for the long term of +forty-two years, the moment after which the plates could be returned to +the place whence they came, and from that place the consumers could be +supplied on condition of paying largely to the Chancellor of the +Exchequer, to the "Times," to the profits of Mr. Dickens' advertising +sheet, to the author, to the London bookseller, to his agent in America, +and the retail dealer here. In cases like this, and they would be +numerous, the "few cents" would probably rise to be many dollars; and no +way can, I think, be devised to prevent their occurrence, except to take +one more step forward in centralization by the appointment of +commissioners in various parts of the Union, to see that the market is +properly supplied, and that the books offered for sale have been actually +printed on this side of the Atlantic. + +If the treaty does provide for publication here, it probably allows some +time therefor, say one, two, or three months. It is, however, well-known +that of very many books the first few weeks' sales constitute so important +a part of the whole that were the publisher here deprived of them, the +book would never be republished. No one could venture to print until the +time had elapsed, and by that time the English publisher would so well +have occupied the ground with the foreign edition that publication here +would be effectually stopped. Even under the present _ad valorem_ system +of duties this is being done to a great extent. One, two, or three hundred +copies of large works are cheaply furnished, and the market is thus just +so far occupied as to forbid the printing of an edition of one or more +thousands--to the material injury of paper-makers, printers, and +book-binders, and without any corresponding benefit to the foreign author. +Under the proposed system this would be done to a great extent. + +Admit, however, that the spirit of the law be fully complied with, and let +us see its effects. Mr. Dickens sells his book in England for 21_s_. +($5.00); and he will, of course, desire to have for it here as large a +price as it will bear. Looking at our prices for those books which are +copyright and of which the sale is large, he finds that "Bleak House" +contains four times as much as the "Reveries of a Bachelor," which sells +for $1.25, and he will be most naturally led to suppose that $3 is a +reasonable price. The number of copies of his book that has been supplied +to American readers, through newspapers and magazines, is certainly not +less than 250,000, and the average cost has not been' more than fifty +cents, giving for the whole the sum of + + $125,000 + +To supply the same number at his price would cost. + 750,000 + +Difference + $625,000 + + +Of Mr. Bulwer's last work, the number that has been supplied to American +consumers is probably but about two thirds as great, and the difference +might not amount to more than + + $350,000 + +Mr. Macaulay would not be willing to sell his book more cheaply than that +of Mr. Bancroft's is sold, or $2 per volume, and he might ask $2.50. +Taking it at the former price, the 125,000 copies that have been sold +would cost the consumer + $500,000 + +They have been supplied for + 100,000 + +The difference would be + $400,000 + + +Mr. Alison's work would make twelve such volumes as those of Mr. Bancroft, +and his price would not be less than $25. The sale has amounted, as I +understand, to 25,000 copies, which would give as the cost of the whole + + $625,000 + +The price at which they have been sold is $5, giving + 125,000 + +Difference + $500,000 + + +Of "Jane Eyre" there have been sold 80,000, and if the price had been +similar to that of "Fanny Fern," they would have cost the consumers. + + + $100,000 + +They have cost about + 25,000 + +Difference + $75,000 + + +Total result of a "few cents" on five books, $1,950,000 + +Under the system of international copyright, one of two things must be +done--either the people _must_ be taxed in the whole of this amount for +the benefit of the various persons, abroad and at home, who are now to be +invested with the monopoly power, or they must largely diminish their +purchases of literary food. + +The quantity of books above given cannot be regarded as more than one +twentieth of the total quantity of new ones annually printed. Admit, +however, that the total were but ten times greater, and that the +differences were but one fourth as great, it would be required that this +sum of $1,950,000 should be multiplied two and a half times, and that +would give about five millions of dollars; which, added to the sum already +obtained, would make seven millions _per annum_; and yet we have arrived +only at the commencement of the operation. All these books would require +to be reprinted in the next year, and the next, and so on, and for the +long period of forty-two years the payment on old books would require to +be added to those on new ones, until the sum would become a very startling +one. To enable us to ascertain what it must become, let us see what it +would now be had this system existed in the past. Every one of Scott's +novels would still be copyright, and such would be the case with Byron's +poems, and with all other books that have been printed in the last +forty-two years, of which the annual sale now amounts to many millions of +volumes. To the present price of these let us add the charge of the +author, and the monopoly charges of the English and American publishers, +and it will be found quite easy to obtain a further sum of five millions, +which, added to that already obtained, would make twelve millions _per +annum_, or enough to give to one in every four thousand males in the +United Kingdom, between the ages of twenty and sixty, a salary far +exceeding that of our Secretaries of State. Let this treaty be confirmed, +and let the consumption of foreign works continue at its present rate, and +payment of this sum must be made. We can escape its payment only on +condition of foregoing consumption of the books. + +The real cause of difficulty is not to be found in "the few cents" +required for the author, but in the means required to be adopted for their +collection. Everybody that reads "Bleak House," or "Oliver Twist," would +gladly pay their author some cents, however unwilling he might be to pay +dollars, or pounds. So, too, everybody who uses chloroform would willingly +pay something to its discoverer; and every one who believes in and profits +by homeopathic medicines would be pleased to contribute "a few cents" for +the benefit of Hahnemann, his widow, or his children. A single cent paid +by all who travel on steam vessels would make the family of Fulton one of +the richest in the world; but how collect these "few cents"? Grant me a +monopoly, says the author, and I will appoint an agent, who shall supply +other agents with my books, and I will settle with him. Grant us a +monopoly, say the representatives of Hahnemann, and we will grant +licenses, throughout the Union, to numerous men who shall be authorized to +practice homeopathically and collect our taxes. Were this experiment +tried, it would be found that millions would be collected, out of which +they would receive tens of thousands. Grant us a monopoly, might say the +representatives of Fulton, and we will permit no vessels to be built +without license from us, and our agents will collect "a few cents" from +each passenger, by which we shall be enriched. So they might be; but for +every cent that reached them the community would be taxed dollars in loss +of time and comfort, and in extra charges. It is the monopoly privilege, +and not the "few cents," that makes the difficulty. + +We are, however, advised by the advocates of this treaty that English +authors must be "required" to present their books in American "mode and +dress," and that regard to their own interests will cause them to be +presented "at MODERATE PRICES for general consumption." If, however, they +have acted differently at home, why should they pursue this course here? +That they have so acted, we have proof in the fact that the British +government has just been forced to turn bookseller, with a view to +restrain the owners of copyrights in the exercise of power. Who, again, is +to determine what prices are really "moderate" ones? The authors? Will Mr. +Macaulay consent that his books shall be sold for less than those of Mr. +Bancroft or Mr. Prescott? Assuredly not. The bookseller, then? Will he not +use his power in reference to foreign books precisely as he does now in +regard to domestic ones? If he deems it now expedient to sell a 12mo +volume for a dollar or a dollar and a quarter, is it probable that the +ratification of this treaty will open his eyes to the fact that it would +be better for him to sell Mr. Dickens's works at fifty cents than at three +dollars? Scarcely so, as I think. It is now about thirty years since the +"Sketch Book" was printed, and the cheapest edition that has yet been +published sells for one dollar and twenty-five cents. "Jane Eyre" contains +probably about the same quantity of matter, and sells for twenty-five +cents. Of the latter, about 80,000 have been printed, costing the +consumers $20,000; but if they were to purchase the same quantity of the +former, they would pay for them $100,000; difference, $80,000. What, now, +would become of this large sum? But little of it would reach the author; +not more, probably, than $10,000. Of the remaining $70,000, some would go +to printers, paper-makers, and bookbinders, and the balance would be +distributed among the publisher, the trade-sale auctioneers, and the +wholesale and retail dealers; the result being that the public would pay +five dollars where the author received one, or perhaps the half of one. We +have here the real cause of difficulty. The monopoly of copyright can be +preserved only by connecting it with the monopoly of publication. Were it +possible to say that whoever chose to publish the "Sketch Book" might do +so, on paying to its author "a few cents," the difficulty of this _double +monopoly_ would be removed; but no author would consent to this, for he +could have no certainty that his book might not be printed by unprincipled +men, who would issue ten thousand while accounting to him for only a +single thousand. To enable him to collect his dues, he _must_ have a +monopoly of publication. + +It may be said that if he appropriate to his use any of the common +property of which books are made up, and so misuse his privilege as to +impose upon his readers the payment of too heavy a tax, other persons may +use the same facts and ideas, and enter into competition with him. In no +other case, however, than in those of the owners of patents and +copyrights, where the public recognizes the existence of exclusive claim +to any portion of the common property, does it permit the party to fix the +price at which it may be sold. The right of eminent domain is common +property. In virtue of it, the community takes possession of private +property for public purposes, and frequently for the making of roads. Not +unfrequently it delegates to private companies this power, but it always +fixes the rate of charge to be made to persons who use the road. This is +done even when general laws are passed authorizing all who please, on +compliance with certain forms, to make roads to suit themselves. In such +cases, limitation would seem to be unnecessary, as new roads could be made +if the tolls on old ones were too high; and yet it is so well understood +that the making of roads does carry with it monopoly power, that the rates +of charge are always limited, and so limited as not to permit the +road-makers to obtain a profit disproportioned to the amount of their +investments. In the case of authors there can be no such limitation. They +must have monopoly powers, and the law therefore very wisely limits the +time within which they may be exercised, as in the other case it limits +the price that may be charged. In France, the prices to be paid to +dramatic authors are fixed by law, and all who pay may play; and if this +could be done in regard to all literary productions, permitting all who +paid to print, much of the difficulty relative to copyright would be +removed; but this course of operation would be in direct opposition to the +views of publishers who advocate this treaty on the ground that it would +add to "the security and respectability of the trade." They would +_prefer_ to pay for the copyright of every foreign book, because it would +bring with it monopoly prices and monopoly profits, both of which would +need to be paid by the consumers of books. To the paper-maker, printer, +and bookbinder, called upon to supply one thousand of a book for _the +few_, where before they had supplied ten thousand for _the many_, it +would be small consolation to know that they were thereby building up the +fortunes of two or three large publishing houses that had obtained a +monopoly of the business of republication, and were thus adding to the +"security and respectability of the trade." As little would probably be +derived from this source by the father of a family who found that he had +now to pay five dollars for what before had cost but one, and must +therefore endeavor to borrow, where before he had been accustomed to buy, +the books required for the amusement and instruction of his children. + +Our State of New Jersey levies a transit duty of eight cents per ton on +all the merchandise that crosses it. Had the imposition of this tax been +accompanied by a law permitting all who chose to make roads, no one would +have complained of it, as it would have been little more than a fair tax +on the property of the railroad and other companies. Unfortunately, +however, the course was different. To the company that collected it was +granted a monopoly of the power of transportation, and that power has been +so used that while the State received but eight cents the transporters +charged three, five, six, and eight dollars for work that should have been +done for one. The position in which the authors are necessarily placed is +precisely the one in which our State has voluntarily placed itself. To +enable them to collect their dues, some person or persons must have a +monopoly of publication, and they must and will collect five, ten, and +often twenty dollars for every one that reaches the author. The Union +would gain largely by paying into our treasury thrice the sum we receive +for transit duty, on the simple condition that we abolished the monopoly +of transportation; and it would gain far more largely by doing the same +with foreign authors. If justice does really call upon us to pay them, our +true course would be to do it directly from the Treasury, placing, if +necessary, a million of dollars annually at the disposal of the British +government, upon the simple condition that it releases us from all claim +to the monopoly of publication. Such a release would be cheap, even at two +millions; enough to give $4,000 a year to five hundred persons, and that +number would certainly include all who can even fancy us under any +obligation to them. My own impression is, that no such payment is required +by justice, either as regards our own authors or foreign ones. Of the +former, all can be and are well paid, _who can produce books that the +public are willing to read_, and no law that could be made would secure +payment to those who cannot. Their monopoly extends over a smaller number +of persons than does the English one; and if the more than thirty millions +of people who are subject to the latter cannot support their few writers, +the cause of difficulty is to be found at home, and there must the remedy +be applied. Nevertheless, by adopting the course suggested, we should +certainly free ourselves from any necessity for choosing between the +payment of many millions annually to authors and the men who stand between +them and the public, on the one hand, and of dispensing largely with the +purchase of books, on the other. If the nation must pay, the fewer persons +through whose hands the money passes the smaller will be the cost to it, +and the greater the gain to authors. + +The ratification of the treaty would impose upon us a very large amount of +taxation that must inevitably be paid either in money or in abstinence +from intellectual nourishment; and our authors should be able to satisfy +themselves that the advantage to them would bear some proportion to the +loss inflicted upon others. Would it do so? I think not. On the contrary, +they would find their condition greatly impaired. All publishers prefer +copyright books, because, having a monopoly, they can charge monopoly +profits. To obtain a copyright, they constantly pay considerable sums at +home for editorship of foreign books; but from the moment that this treaty +shall take effect, the necessity for doing this will cease, and thus will +our literary men be deprived of one considerable source of profit. Again, +literary labor in England is cheap, because of want of demand; but +international copyright, by opening to it our vast market, will quicken +the demand, and many more books will be produced, the authors of all of +which will be competitors with our own, who will then possess no +advantages over them. The rates of American authors will then fall +precisely as those of the British ones will rise; and this result will be +produced as certainly as the water in the upper chamber of a canal lock +will fall as that in the lower one is made to rise. On one side of the +Atlantic literary labor is well paid, and on the other it is badly paid. +International copyright will establish a level; and how much reason our +authors have to desire that it shall be established, I leave it for them +to determine. + +The direct tendency of the system now proposed will be found to be that of +diminishing the domestic competition for the production of books, and +increasing our dependence on foreigners for the means of amusement and +instruction; and yet the confirmation of the treaty is urged on the ground +that it will increase the first and diminish the last. If it would have +this latter effect, it is singular that the authors of England should be +so anxious for the measure as they are. It is not usual for men to seek to +diminish the dependence of others on themselves. + +These, however, are, as I think, but a small part of the inconveniences to +which our authors are now proposing to subject themselves. They have at +present a long period allowed them, during which they have an absolute +monopoly of the particular forms of words they offer to the reading +public; and this monopoly has, in a very few years, become so productive, +that authorship offers perhaps larger profits than any other pursuit +requiring the same amount of skill and capital. Twenty years hence, when +the market shall be greatly increased, it may, and as I think will, become +a question whether the monopoly has not been granted for too long a +period, and many persons may then be found disposed to unite with Mr. +Macaulay in the belief that the disadvantages of long periods preponderate +so greatly over their advantages, as to make it proper to retrace in part +our steps, limiting the monopoly to twenty-one years, or one half the +present period. The inquiry may then come to be made, what is the present +value of a monopoly of forty-two years, as compared with what would be +paid for one of twenty-one years; and when it is found that, in nine +hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, one will sell for exactly +as much as the other, it will perhaps be decided that no reason exists for +maintaining the present law, even if no change be now made. Suppose, +however, the treaty to be confirmed, establishing the monopoly of +foreigners in our market, and that the people who have been accustomed to +consume largely of cheap literature now find themselves deprived of it, +would not this tend to hasten the period at which the existing law would +come under consideration? I cannot but think it would. The common school +makes a great demand for school-books, and both make a great demand for +newspapers. All of these combine to make a demand for cheap books among an +immense and influential portion of our community, that cannot yet afford +to pay $1.25 for "Fern Leaves" or for the "Reveries of a Bachelor," +although they can well afford 25 cents for a number of "Harper's +Magazine," or for "Jane Eyre." Let us now suppose that the novels of +Dickens and Bulwer, the books of Miss Aguilar, and those of other authors +with which they have been accustomed to supply themselves, should at once +be raised to monopoly prices and thus placed beyond their reach, would it +not produce inquiry into the cause, and would not the answer be that we +had given English authors a monopoly in our market to enable our own to +secure a monopoly in that of England? Would not the sufferers next inquire +by what process this had been accomplished, seeing that the direct +representatives of the people had always been so firmly opposed to it; and +would not the answer be that the literary men of the two countries had +formed a combination for the purpose of taxing the people of both; and +that when they had failed to accomplish their object by means of +legislation, they had induced the Executive to interpose and make a law in +their favor, in defiance of the well-known will of the House of +Representatives? Under such circumstances, would it be extraordinary if we +should, within three years from the ratification of the treaty, see the +commencement of an agitation for a change in the copyright system? It +seems to me that it would not. + +The time for the arrival of this agitation would probably be hastened by +an extension of the system of centralization that would next be claimed; +for the present measure can be regarded as little more than the entering +wedge for others. France and England profit enormously by setting the +fashions for the world. New patterns and new articles are invented that +sell in the first season for treble or quadruple the price at which they +are gladly supplied in the second; and it is by aid of the perpetual +changes bf fashion that foreigners so much control our markets. Recently, +our manufacturers have been enabled to reproduce many new articles in very +short time, and this has tended greatly to reduce the profits of +foreigners, who are of course dissatisfied. Copyrights are now granted in +both those countries for new patterns, new forms of clothing, &c. &c., and +our next step will be towards the arrangement of a treaty for, securing to +the inventor of a print, or a new fashion of paletot, the monopoly of its +production in our markets; and when the claim for this shall be made, it +will be found to stand on precisely the same ground with that now made in +behalf of the producers of books, and must be granted. The Frenchman will +then have the exclusive right of supplying us with new _mousselines de +laine_, and the Englishman with new carpets and new forms of earthenware; +and we shall be told that that is the true mode of developing +manufacturing and artistic skill among ourselves. How much farther the +system may be carried it is difficult to tell, for, when we shall once +have established the system of regulating foreign and domestic trade by +treaty, the House of Representatives will scarcely be troubled with much +discussion of such affairs. Extremes generally meet, and it will be +extraordinary, if progress in that direction shall not be followed by +progress in the other, until our authors shall, at length, become +perfectly satisfied of the accuracy of Mr. Macaulay, when he told the +British authors, then claiming an extension of their monopoly to sixty +years, that "the wholesome copyright" already existing would "share in the +disgrace and danger of the new copyright" they desired to create.[1] They +could scarcely do better than study his speech at length. At present, they +are ill-advised, and their best friends will be those senators who, like +Mr. Macaulay, shall oppose their literary countrymen. + + [Footnote 1: _Macaulay's Speeches_, vol. i. p. 403.] + +Admitting, however, that the measure proposed should not in any manner +endanger existing privileges, what would be the gain to our authors in +obtaining the control of the British market, compared with what they would +lose from surrendering the control of our own? In the former, the sale of +books is certainly not large. Few have been more popular than Tupper's +"Proverbial Philosophy," and the price has been, as I learn, only 7_s._, +or $1,68. Nevertheless, a gentleman fully informed in regard to it assures +me that in fifteen years the average sale has been but a thousand a year, +or 15,000 in all.[2] Compare this with the sale of a larger number of the +"Reveries of a Bachelor," or of thrice the quantity of "Fern Leaves," at +but little lower prices, in the short period of six months, and it will be +seen how inferior is the foreign market to the domestic one. Were it +otherwise--were the market of Britain equal to our own--could it be +that we should so rarely hear of her literary men, dependent on their own +exertions, but as being poor and anxious for public employment? Were it +otherwise, should we need now to be told of the "utter destitution" of the +widow and children of Hogg, so widely known as author of "The Queen's +Wake," and as "The Shepherd" of "Blackwood's Magazine?" Assuredly not. Had +literary ability been there in the demand in which it now is here, he +would have written thrice as much, would have been thrice as well paid, +and would have provided abundantly for his widow and his children. +Nevertheless, our authors desire to trade off this great market for the +small one in which he shone and left his family to starve, and thus to +make an exchange similar to that of Glaucus when he gave a suit of golden +armor for one of brass. + + [Footnote 2: The sale here has been 200,000, at an average price of 50 + cents. Had it been copyright, the price would have been double, and + the "few cents" would have made a difference on this single book of + $100,000. The same gentleman to whom I am indebted for the above facts + informs me that he has paid to the author of a 12mo volume of 200 pages + more than $23,000, and could not now purchase the copyright for + $10,000; that for another small 12mo volume he has paid $7,000, and + Expects to pay as much more; that to a third author his payments for + the year have been $2500, and are likely to continue at that rate for + years to come; and that it would be easy to furnish other and numerous + cases of similar kind.] + + +What, however, are the prospects for the future? Will the British market +grow? It would seem not, for death and emigration are diminishing the +population, and the people who remain are in a state of constant warfare +with their employers, who promised "cheap food" that they might obtain +"cheap labor," and now offer low wages in connection with high-priced corn +and beef. The people who receive such wages cannot buy books. Hundreds of +thousands of persons are now out "on strike," or are "locked out" by the +gentlemen who advocate this "cheap labor" system; and the result of all +this extraordinary cessation from labor can be none other than the +continued growth of poverty, intemperance, and crime. The picture that is +presented by that country is one of unceasing discord between _the few_ +and _the many_, in which the former always triumph; and a careful +examination of it cannot result in leading us to expect an increase in the +desire to purchase books, or in the ability to pay for them. + +Having looked upon that picture, let our authors next look to the one now +presented by this country, as compared with that which could have been +offered forty, thirty, or even twenty years since, and to obtain aid in +understanding the facts presented to their view, let them read the +following extract from a speech recently delivered by Mr. Cobden:-- + + "You cannot point to an instance in America, where the people are more + educated than they are here, of total cessation from labor by a whole + community or town, given over, as it were, to desolation. When I came + through Manchester the other day, I found many of the most influential + of the manufacturing capitalists talking very carefully upon a report + which had reached them from a gentleman who was selected by the + government to go out to America, to report upon the great exhibition in + New York. That gentleman was one of the most eminent mechanicians and + machine-makers in Manchester, a man known in the scientific world, and + appreciated by men of science, from the astronomer royal downwards. He + has been over to America, to report upon the progress of manufactures + and the state of the mechanical arts in the United States, and he has + returned. No report from him to the government has yet been published. + But it has oozed out in Manchester that he found in America a degree of + intelligence amongst the manufacturing operatives, a state of things in + the mechanical arts, which has convinced him that if we are to hold our + own, if we are not to fall back in the rear of the race of nations we + must educate our people to put them upon a level with the more educated + artisans of the United States. We shall all have the opportunity of + judging when that report is delivered; but sufficient has already oozed + out to excite a great interest, and I might almost say some alarm." + + +Having done this, let them next ask themselves what have been the causes +of the vast change in the relative positions of the two countries. Doing +this, will not the answer be, common schools, cheap school-books, cheap +newspapers, and cheap literature? Has not each and every one of these +aided in making authors, and in creating a market for their products? +Having thus laid the foundation of a great edifice, are we likely to stop +in the erection of the walls? Having in so brief a period created a great +market for literature, is it not certain that it must continue to grow +with increased rapidity? Assuredly it is; and yet it is that vast market +that our authors desire to barter for one in which Hood was permitted +almost to starve, in which Leigh Hunt, Lady Morgan, Miss Mitford, +Tennyson, and Sir Francis Head even now submit to the degradation of +receiving the public charity to the extent of a hundred pounds a year! The +law as it now exists, invites foreign authors to come and live among us, +and participate in our advantages. The treaty offers to tax ourselves for +the purpose of offering them a bounty upon staying at home and increasing +their numbers and their competition with the well-paid literary labor of +this country. Were Belgrave Square to make a treaty with Grub Street, +providing that each should have a plate at the tables of the other, the +population of the latter would probably grow as rapidly as the dinners of +the former would decline in quality, and it might be well for our authors +to reflect if such might not be the result of the treaty now proposed. + +Its confirmation is, as I understand, urged on some senators on the ground +that consistency requires it. Being in favor of protection elsewhere, they +are told that it would be inconsistent to refuse it here. In reply to +this, it might fairly be retorted that nearly all the supporters of +international copyright are advocates of the system called, in England, +Free Trade; and that it is quite inconsistent in them to advocate +protection here. To do this would however be as unnecessary as it would be +unphilosophical. Both are perfectly consistent. Protection to the farmer +and planter in their efforts to draw the artisan to their side, looks to +carrying out the doctrine of decentralization by the annihilation of the +monopoly of manufactures established in Britain; and our present copyright +system looks to the decentralization of literature by offering to all who +shall come and live among us the same perfect protection that we give to +our own authors. What is called free trade looks to the maintenance of the +foreign monopoly for supplying us with cloth and iron; and international +copyright looks to continuing the monopoly which Britain has so long +enjoyed of furnishing us with books; and both tend towards centralization. + +The rapid advance that has been made in literature and science is the +result of the _perfect protection_ afforded by decentralization. Every +neighborhood collects taxes to be expended for purposes of education, and +it is from among those who would not otherwise be educated, and who are +thus protected in their efforts to obtain instruction, that we derive many +of our most thoughtful and intelligent men, and our best authors. The +advocates of free trade and international copyright are, to a great +extent, disciples in that school in which it is taught that it is an +unjust interference with the rights of property to compel the wealthy to +contribute to education of the poor. Common schools, and a belief in the +duty of protection, are generally found together. Decentralization, by the +production of local interests, _protects_ the poor printer in his efforts +to establish a country newspaper, and thus affords to young writers of the +neighborhood the means of coming before the world. Decentralization next +raises money for the establishment of colleges in every part of the Union, +and thus _protects_ the poor but ambitious student in his efforts to +obtain higher instruction than can be afforded by the common school. +Decentralization next _protects_ him in the manufacture of school-books, +by creating a large market for the productions of his pen, very much of +which is paid for out of the product of taxes the justice of which is +denied by those who advocate the British policy. Rising to the dignity of +author of books for the perusal of already instructed men and women he +finds himself _protected_ by an absolute monopoly, having for its object +to enable him to provide for himself, his wife, and his children. Of all +the people of the Union, none enjoy such perfect protection as those +connected with literature; yet many of them oppose protection to all +others, while actively engaged in enlarging and extending the monopoly +they themselves enjoy. It will scarcely answer for them to charge +inconsistency on others. + +How far the protection already granted has favored the development of +literary tendencies, may be judged after looking to the single case of +dramatic writers, who are not protected against representation without +their consent; and, as that is their mode of publication, it follows that +they do not enjoy the advantages granted to other authors. The consequence +is, that we make so little progress in that department of literature, +while advancing rapidly in every other. Permit me, my dear sir, to suggest +that this is a matter worthy of your attention. There would seem to be no +good reason for refusing to one class of authors what we grant so freely +to all others. + +Whether or not I shall have convinced you that international copyright +should not be established, I cannot say, but I feel quite safe in +believing that you must be convinced it is a question which requires to be +publicly and fully discussed before we adopt any action looking in that +direction. It is not a case of urgency. If the treaty be not confirmed, +the only inconvenience to the authors will be delay, and this should be +afforded, were it only to enable them to reflect at leisure upon the +probable consequences of the measure in aid of which they have invoked the +Executive power. Should they continue to believe their interests likely to +be promoted by the adoption of such a measure as that which has been so +pertinaciously urged the doors of Congress will always be open to them, +and justice, though it may be delayed, will assuredly be done. Let them +proceed in a constitutional way, and then, should their desires be +gratified, they will have the satisfaction of knowing that their rights +have been admitted after full and fair discussion before the people. +Should they now succeed in obtaining, in secret session, the confirmation +of a treaty negotiated in private, and in haste, they will, I think, +"repent at leisure;" but repentance may, and probably will, come too late. +The mischief will then have been done. + +Having now, my dear sir, to the best of my ability, complied with your +request, I remain, + +Yours, very respectfully, + + HENRY C. CAREY. + _Burlington_, Nov. 28, 1853. + +Hon. James Cooper. + + + + + +NOTE. + + December 31, 1867. + +Mr. Dickens's tale of "No Thoroughfare" is now being reprinted here in +daily and weekly journals, and to such extent as to warrant the belief +that the number in the hands of readers of the Union, will speedily exceed +a million; obtained, too, at a cost so small as scarcely to admit of +calculation. Under a system of International Copyright a similar number +would, at the least, have cost $500,000. At 50 cents, however, the sale +would not have exceeded 50,000, yielding to author and publisher probably +$10,000. Would it be now expedient that, to enable these latter to divide +among themselves this small amount, the former should tax themselves in +one so greatly larger? Would it be right or proper that they should so do +in the hope that American novelists and poets-should in like manner be +enabled to tax the British people? Outside of the class of gentlemen who +live by the use of their pens, there are few who, having examined the +question, would, it is believed, be disposed to give to these questions an +affirmative reply. + +Of all living authors there is none that, in his various capacities of +author, editor, and lecturer, is, in both money and fame, so largely paid +as Mr. Dickens. That he and others are not doubly so is due to the fact +that British policy, from before the days of Adam Smith, has tended +uniformly to the division of society, at home and abroad, into two great +classes, the very poor becoming daily more widely separated from the very +rich, and daily more and more unfitted for giving support to British +authors. That the reader may understand this fully, let him turn to recent +British journals and study the accounts there given of "an agricultural +gang system," whose horrors, as they tell their readers, "make the British +West Indies almost an Arcadia" when compared with many of the home +districts. Next, let him study in the "Spectator," now but a fortnight +old, the condition of the 630,000 wretched people inhabiting Eastern +London; and especially that of the 70,000 mainly dependent on ship and +engine building, "too poor to go afield for employment, too poor to +emigrate, too poor to do any thing but die," and wholly dependent on a +weekly allowance per house, of front twenty to forty cents and a loaf of +bread; that allowance, wretched as it is, to be obtained only at the cost +of "standing hours among crowds made brutal by misery and privation." +Further, let him read in the same journal its description of the almost +universal dishonesty which has resulted from a total repudiation of the +idea that international morality could exist; and then determine for +himself if, under a different system, Britain might not have made at home +a market for her authors that would far more than have compensated for +deprivation of that one they now so anxiously covet abroad. + +Seeking further evidence in reference to this important question, let him +then turn to the "North British Review" for the current month and study +the social sores of Britain. + +For more than a century she has been sowing the wind, carrying, and in the +direct ratio of their connection with her, poverty and slavery into +important countries of the earth. She is now only reaping the whirlwind. +When her literary men shall have begun to teach her people this--when +they shall have said to them that public immorality and private morality +cannot co-exist--when they shall have commenced to repudiate the idea +that the end sanctifies the means--then, _but not till then_, the time +may, perhaps, have come for lecturing the world on the moral side of the +question of International Copyright. To this moment, so far as the +writer's memory serves him, no one of them has yet entered on the +performance of this important work. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters on International Copyright; +Second Edition, by Henry C. 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