The Express.
London, England, 1862-02-04 00:00:00

'ice.
'1
88;

TheTinmortal Homer mitred hospitality in return
for amusement just as forgotten bards and nameless
organ-grinders have done in more recent times.
la neither Hebrew' Greek, Roman, nor feudal
law can any trace be found of that description of
property, now alleged to be the highest and most
natural of all—copyright. "Occupation," which
even Count Walewski admits to be the great primi-
tive root and evidence of all property, is essentially
negatived by the fact of " publication, " which
naturally throws the ideas published into the
common domain. But in very modern times—
times dating not much farther back than the age of
LouislClV. in France and Queen Anne in England—
it has been judged right and expedient in a highly
artificial state of society that the profits arising
from the sale of books should belong to their authors
during their lifetime and for a limited period
afterwards. Modern society has most justly
decided that the salt of the earth, those who
are gifted by genius with the art of instructing
and delighting mankind, should have a legal
right to receive contributions from those who
benefit by their labours, that the successful
author's home should not be desolate, and that
his death-bed should not be poisoned by the idea
that the work of his life would be of no benefit to
his children. The exact number of years that
copyright should endure after death must neces-
sarily be arbitrary. Whether it should be twenty
years, as is the case (I believe) in England, or
thirty, as in France, can only be settled by positive
law, and the expediency of a few years more or
lees must always be, in point of theory, an open
question. But the intelligible principle is that
the author should be enabled to leave the
profits of his works to those near and
dear to him for such • reasonable time
as that the generation immediately succeed-
ing should enjoy inherited resources, just as if
their ancestor had been engaged in material instead
of intellectual pursuits. To carry the doctrine fur-
ther
and establish perpetuity is to ride a principle
to death. It is to create a species of property un-
like anything that ever existed in the history of the
world. It would be (supposing it possible for the
principle to work, which I deny) to create an un-
heard-of class of drones--an aristocracy of a worse
and more contemptible kind than was ever before
seen. Succession to large landed inheritance im-
plies, as we see by numberless living examples, a
reasonable probability of a capacity to fulfil the
duties as well as to enjoy the rights of
property. But the heirs of Shakespeare,
Cervantes, Bacon, Rabelais, Milton, &c.
would, if the proposed law had been ensetel
• few centuries ago, be mere nati consomme frugal
—an unheard-of class of men, having a right
II to levy onerous tolls upon literature, but offering
no guarantee of likelihood that they would be
meld members of society. But the creation of
this special class of consumers would not by any
means be the worst part of the measure. I admit
that the sons of genius are few. But the giant
evil of the new law would be felt in its pernicious
interference with mediocrity. The copyright act
now sought for France must be argued as if meant
for the whole world, for the principle of inter-
national copyright is, to a greatextent, established,
and is likely to be extended. Hereafter no trans-
lation, no adaptation, no new edition of any work,
however obscure, could be attempted without
seeking out and obtaining the leave of the repre-
sentative of the author. Who does not see that
under these conditions nine-tenths of the under-
takings of enterprisin,g,oompeting booksellers would
never be attempted I The diffusion of literature
would be checked. To take an instance which
occurs to me : only the other day M. Alphonse
Royer published a most interesting translation of
the dramatic works of the author of " Don
Quixote" which were utterly unknown. It is very
doubtful whether the book will pay as it is, but it
would certainly never have appeared at all
had it been necessary, before entering on
the speculation, to seek out the heir of
Cervantes. Even the international copyright
with regard to translations of the works of living
authors, although I do not wish to be understood
as denying the justice of that, is • very doubtful
benefit to them. Many works would be translated
on speculation and thereby made notorious, which
now remain obscure because of the copyright which
nobody will pay for. A concluding remark against
perpetuity is that the author would get nothing by
it unless be were—against all the tendency of
modern legislation—prevented by law from alien-
ating
his property for more than a certain period.
The bookseller would insist upon having his whole
right, and would give him no more for a perpetuity
than for thirty years. As to the idea of creating •
majorat—a Blenheim or • Strathfieldsaye—in lite-
rary works, it is utterly abhorrent to an age which
preaches against even against that limited law of
entail which yet subsists in England.
The Bonne, after • short period of reaction,
closed with great brilliancy. The Bente rose 100.
for cash and 400. for account, closing at 71fr. 20c.
and 71fr. 450. Mobilier rose 7fr. 50c. The Italian
loan continues to be the favourite security in the
market ;it rose lir. 20c. The Southern Railway
rose 17fr.500. ; Lyons, 10fr. ; and Orleans, sfr. ;
the other lines were only a trifle higher.

A Turin journal glees a statistical summary of
the labours of the Member of Deputies since it resumed its
sittings. It Lee held 51 sittings, 16 of which were occupied
with the disc- dOll at 15 interpellations, and has adopted
24 bills.
Towards the dose of the past year it was an-
' Roamed by Professor d'Arrest, of Copenhagen, that a mobile
in the constellation Taurus, discovered on the 11th of Oa
Whey, 1652, had totally vanished from its plan in the
heavens. "That one of these objects," writes Mr. Hind,
"which all thegiant telemopes of the present day have taught
us to regard as assemblage, of stars in myriads at iIIIDIRDie
distances from the earth, should suddenly fads away, so as
to be quite imperceptible in powerful instruments, must, I
think, have been deemed a very improbable occurrence, even
by many who are well acquainted with he care and expe-
rience of the observer by whom the statement wu made.
Within the last few days, however, M. Leverrier has ob-
tained so drools a confirmation of its accuracy that there is
so Wager room for supposing it to have originated in one of
those swan of observation which every practical estrosancer
knows will creep into his work in spite of all his meow
tam."
Twit PACIFIC STSAMSNIP COMPANY'S STEAMER
Pine.—The Peri& Steam Navigation Commay's new seesaw
ship Penh which left Liverpool on the 31st December for
' Wawa, en roan for the Paciffo, arrived et that port oa
the 9th ult., all well, making the voyage in nine der two
hams, including a stoppage of six boon at Queenstown.
Her eennmption of coal was 264 tone, or 21 art per hoar, '
for ea indicated power of 1,200 hank or about 211 b. per
indicated horse power. This speaks etas few the Persia
double cylinder ermine.
Tan AOCIDINT to TIN INMAN COMPANY'S STRAM
Bur Erse.—As the Twatonia did not rash casenstown
In time to take forward the mails of the
sect on per the Asia. The Etna, after the c=ontithwte.ltree
Cheviot on Wednesday imam, sailed for Liverpool on
Friday, with bates stem and below water at the hew, and
is spite of the rise and fall of the water is the fore-eose-
pertinent to the mina of two feet, while the easel was in
motion. The bulkheads, however, withstood the e
ms en
preemie sormat , sod but • very poetise al the
cargo wm The satire cargo of the Ems me
teemiipped a hews tato the AIM ship Edinburgh,
widely with the
Let,Eins pa semen. wee to mil from Liver-
pool at midnight eipla
Carious 07 CoxiimuLas
Fm. L—B aroma from Hey West of lith .Lan_Laryi
the Casey, saKm under Hagfish alms, was
nem the" with • sup el °sum, aid =TO
Ship Island. The Yung. schooner, freak Piet 'label,
bound to • Coefederate port, was captured off Berwick's
Bay on the 36th December.