The Express.
London, England, 1850-01-23 00:00:00

Of all the utopias that we have soot with, this is
the suet modern in its ideas, sad temporale in its 11f j
mates. Indeed, if we hand as fault with its se
would my that it is amweely 'vs enoughttml
that the wail traveller in his self-oreated wend. le
too incessantly haunted by the evils. and shackled by
the limitations which characterise our own. But MI
regards the wants of our time, it is perhaps oat, the
essw lei elated to be useful on this seasaat.
And is these reforming days, the practical
ralemile sight do worse than amuse a leisure hour
wtlh thbeketatt of the ultimate bssedts which reform
soil emlitheing, consistently adhered to and unoor-
=by human fallibility, might be expected to
Unpretending as Mr. Forrest's little book is,
it abounds with practical suggestions, of which the
Mowing, on copyright, may serve as a specimen :
" How lees is a book :protected as copyright In
aegis ?" I 'squired.
-" How loss ?" exclaimed Kindly, la evident surprise;
" why, for ever y.
" Indeed !" I remarked; "that certainly is limiting the
ostensive of knowledge, as it enables ea author to fix a high
pike cm a favourite book, sad thus keep it out of the hands
of a grea minks of the publis. I em sari:obis' at such a
Psilotopia."
" Do sot emeure," rejoined Kindly, laughing I " antil I
have explained why we ham made this law. n the km
plate, we consider a book ought to be as much the p
of an author as a house is the property of its builder. It is
his creation, and therefore ne other person ought to rasp
the profits of hie labour. If he sell the coppight, of mune
the mine rule appUes to the holder of that copyright. To
avoid the siseopoly to which this law would often lead, we
have hietieuted a commission, whose duty It is to superin-
tend these asks; and when the copyright of a popular
book km been in the bands of a potty for a period of ten
years, sad a demand is still found for the work, they order
a cheap edition to be 'moved, for which the owner of the
book sends is as estimate of what he intends publishing it
at; if it is foetid to be soffielestly low to yield a moderate
profit, it is agreed to ; if not, the commissioners ex a prim,
which the author or bookeller is bound to publish the
book at, or, i,. cam of refusal, to yield op the right of pub-
lishing to the officers of the commission, the rata of
which go to the pub ie exchequer ; this, of course, does not
apply to illustrated work% and works which require en im-
mense outlay of capital."

" And wiien that cheap octillion is out of print, is the
next cheap edition offered to the holder of the copyright
spin?"
' Every new cheap edition of his book ►e can claim to
publiiit, if he please.'
• Does nouns copyright of many works fall to the go-
vernment In the cow.e of time, through families becon4g
artinat ?"

that ram," replied Kindly, " anybody can publish
the work • it becomes public property."
" I certainly must gamin your plan," I said, " although
I cannot see how such a system can be properly carried out ;
yeti have often thought that it is but just that an author
should possess his copyright for ever, jest as much as if it
were houses or lands. Ragland has restricted her period of
copyright to forty two years, which is a ooncemion of four-
teen more than it was a few years since. At the expiration
of ttat time, if the author be not living, anybody is at liberty
to publish the both, uithout any limitation as to size,
price, or quality. It the author be still alive, the copyright
mists until his death."
" I thought you would alter yenr opinion upon learning
low we !temp the law of copyright in Philotopie," said
Madly, so there outset be a fare" law then the eau we
have ia operatic.. Thee* eamilessee have so power to

alter the Zontents of works which 00E10 ander their'jurisilie.
tion ; th. it power is °paned simply to the sale of the book.
If the holder of &copyright publish a work at th• it estimate,
end loos oy it, he can recover his loss with a per °outage,
upon =eking an appeal"
" Of course the owner of the copy right continues to pub.
liih his other editions of the work.'

Certainly. Our government does sot interfere with the
week farther 'ban what I have stated to you. The profits of
a book are always guarantied to the holder of the copyright,
salsa he d.es not think proper to publish the cheap edition,
sad yields that up to the government."
" The works et your candud *ethers must bring an im-
mense profit to their respective (mum."
" They do, and likewise to their children ; and thus, if a
talented author has but the mesas to retain his copyright in
hie own pommies, he secures to kis children an existence
should he die prematurely, and thus avoids those appeals to
the public in behalf of orphans of men of genius which inn
frequent in other countries."

We have seen worse plans of perpetual copyright
than this. Mr. Forrest's suggestions will deserve to
be held in remembrance when the whole subject, as
it must in the course of time, shall come to be recon-
sidered and legislated for in a new spirit.