The Sun.
London, England, 1838-04-12 00:00:00

Our readers will perceive that the petition of various
operative printers was presented in the House of Commo,is
last night by Mr. Wakley, and that Mr. Sergeant Tal-
foerd's Copyright Bill, against which the petition was di-
rected, having been committed last night, the discussion
upon it will take place on the third reading after the Easter
recess. Since yesterday we have received two more pam-
phlets on the subject of Mr. Sergeant Talfourd's Copyright
Bill, one by Mr. T. Tegg, and the other by Mr. R. Mudie.
Both those additional pamphlets concur with the leading
article of a Morning Contemporary of yesterday in con-
demning the Bill. We also condemn Mr. Sergeant Tal-
feurd's measure ; but then we condemn it on a different
ground. They condemn it because it goes too far ;
we condemn it because it does not go far enough.
They think it takes off too many links from the chain
which presses upon literary labour. We complain of
it because it leaves any links behind, because it does
not entirely abrogate even the impress of the chain.
Our opinion concurring with the adage that "honesty
is the best policy" is not in the slightest degree altered by
this new accession of strength to the hostile phalanx. The
ease of Sir Walter Scott, with which we concluded yes-
terday, speaks volumes against the injustice of any legisla-
tive enactment for limiting, or rather proscribing, an
author's right to his own property. The susceptibility to
honourable punctilio which distinguishes all the higher order
of talent (of which.' Sir Walter Scott was only one ex-
ample), deserves and demands an equally vigilant punctilio
on the part of the Legislature in protecting the due remu-
neration of its exertions. Real talent disdains all artificial
aid, mendicated succour, or derogatory relief. It is always
straightforward—contemning the assistance of. circuitous
trickery in its advancement, it relies upon itself. That is
another reason why the public should especially take care
that it is not defrauded of its just dues by less scrupulous
competition. There is, again, another reason why legislation
should be extremely cautious and fastidious in trenching
upon property raised by literary exertion. The literary or
scientific labourerin most cases can prevent other parties from
profiting by his exertions during a stipulated number of
years, unless they make him a pecuniary equivalent. But
in a large proportion of instances nothing can prevent
classes of men and society at large from benefiting by his
exertions, without feeling the slightest necessity to make
him a remuneration. This circumstance proves how much
more beneficial to society his labours are than any other
description of industry, which is confined to a merely
selfish object. Again, some of the results of scientific
and literary labour produce an inappreciable amount of
profit to classes and to society at large, from which
the labourer or the inventor cannot expect to reap
more than the most contemptible amount of partici-
pation. The trading men of this country, as a class,
are too often apt to disvalue literary labour. 'What
would they do—where would they now be—were it not
for the great scientific discoveries latterly effected by
that laborious class ? While they affect to disdain them,
we do not find that they disdain to pocket, in substantial
cash, the results of their scientific labours, whether exhi-
evhbzi
Iti.sentde
avodn,voatfah,te.aa
ermagnificenti
ecs ottenraiamnd?
ienrge
communication.
resultse sl
i have
frLe stolfpoeekadttnof
r?
t)othame-
the intellectual classes in this particular alone. They get
their letters at the present day in six weeks from India,
instead of six, eight, or nine months, as formerly. Let
them, we say, disdain the pounds, shillings, and pence which
they put into their coffers by that process. Why, millions
would not repay the intellectual class for that service, and
how small is their remuneration out of the immense pro-
fits which they thus accumulate for others ! Sic vos non
volis. Where are the public meetings?—the votes of
thanks ?—the presentations of plate by those who reap
the benefit to those whose labours have produced that
profitable result ? The names of its scientific and
literary promoters are sufficiently notorious. But, no ;
they belong to the Helot class. They are to remain
" hewers of wood and drawers of water" for others who
pocket the profits of their labours, while they disdain the
labour and the labourers. Often do the benefited parties
forget their creators, while they live by their creation ; and
while in the very act of swallowing the biTad which they
bestow, spit it into the faces of the givers. A morning
contemporary repeats the argument which we noticed yes-
terday with much apparent satisfaction, as to the disadvan-
tage which certain trades would suffer, as well as public in-
formation and amusement generally, unless, after a certain
eurnue. e ..-.,es flip anti, tvnc - -
rend rush of, plundering marauders into tho domains of
lite/eau.property. There is something laughably cool in
terms and manner with which this modest and moral
plea is maintained. The plea amounts to this. The
public at large hunger for instruction. Look at the
injury you will do if you prevent them from gratifying
their hunger by putting bolts and bars upon literary
property. The morning print in question dolefully la-
ments that Mr. Sergeant Talfourd's Bill " declares selec-
tions, compilations, and abridgments to be piratical, thus
sadly reducing the number of cheap and really readable
hooks." A sad thing, truly, to prevent robbery ! There
is an easy and honest way to prevent the imagined evil.
Let the cheap publishers pay for what they want, as all
honest people are obliged to do in other cases. According
to these moral pleaders, the man who hungers for a loaf of
bread, ought by legislative enactment to be allowed after a
certain delay, to break into the baker's shop, and steal it
from the owner. They are generous enough to provide
that the plunderer is not to steal the whole loaf, but to re-'
" best
? st
Ifpossible
they instructors"
are
na to
t, set
they iip. W
are el
turn a portion to the rightful owner. This is a pretty code
(I: NI- 0 morals
rt
a the
ie
nut the copied work, or the extracts from good works, be
not worth taking' If they are worth taking they are
worth pay
• a for. The idea of works being dievalued
ma ,
because piratical improvements in them are not permitted
is worthy of the swell mob. The reply to all this is simple;
be honest—pay for the literary commodity which you want
as for every other commodity. There will he no want of
for
purchasers or sellers ; the supply will always equal the de-
mand ; and the public has no especial taste for purchasing
wares merely because they are stolen, nor for the encou-
ragementproperty,dapl orocededsfom an obliquity of
judgment
barbarous times as to the
assumed inferior value of intellectual labour compared with
the value of animal labour ; that is to say, with the labour
t s
mulcting miserable
(it fee
derived
thes c,rel;d , receiverse
farna eay (
feudal
ofo t
argument)ao
stolen goods. The r
mutilation
of the half-civilized savages who made those laws against
• a class of exertions which they_ could not comprehend, or
comprehending, envied ands
andonght to degrade. It was
very well for those uncultivated uninstructed barba-
rians ;but is
not fit for the legislation of the nineteenth century to fol-
low their ignominious and pernicious example.—Morning
Advertiser.
a Ips ionigo
ti notolite
to
oatthh
eo. of order andof Ttroarn;
to depreciate and proscribe literary labour • •
Were we asked for an irrefragable proof of the advance
the rapid and continued improvements
th
mloiydoni
huscEett
colours,
onlyTogn
:rsoi
oco:rru,nhi
Journals,
n:hc: egaleislassio,hnevosaeatmmrnaydme committed—but
blazoned
deteza—norpndybreooduofrot
proportion
orrrttooroi
tguohesntihnioi the
of the country—not to the constabulary returns, manifest-
g
f
jquu(ii whichlgleitsy, Irelandpwr proclaiming
ias
should
rnl making
indefatigable
itmanifest-
inggesoughtmparo esdj tauaaiprejudices
pyt
ocprdea
s
their fellow-subjects, and blinding them' to the gratifying
fact that the charm has at length been discovered by which a
third part of the empire may be reclaimed from that bar-
barism to which Tory Government had reduced it and ren-
dered fruitful and productive. What would be thought of
Irish journals that would act towards England in the
same slanderous and malignant spirit as that which
actuates the Tory press with regard to Ireland ? Suppose
carerY murder (and in no country are there murders of a
more inhuman character than those which, we are sorry to
sEayng, oflliisai:epeo le
plate years been committed in our own), to be
made the subject of their leading articles, portrayed in all
its most afflicting circumstances, in order to ,vilify the
what mind,
not and hold
depraved,ld themu
uto,oopldopouolatr
revolt from
the disgraceful traffic, and what house would suffer its
walls to be polluted by the admission of such vehicles of
falsehood and instruments of national disunion ? The
Assizes in Ireland having terminated in a manner unprece-
dented in that country, the Judges not having left, we be-
lieve, one single individual for execution, and this while no
one has ventured to assert that the law has not been exe-
cuted as efficiently as it is in England, who would not have
thought that this blessed circumstance would have si-
lenced the el:amours 'of the Tory Press, if not drawn
from them an aAnOwledgment of, and a thanksgiving
for, a change so gratifying and important ? But what
course do these honest enlighteners of the public mind
pursue ? They conceal the fact we have stated ; they
suppress all the pregnant evidences of the general improve-
ment of the country, while tlisiy, ransack every provincial
journal for every local outrage.; and give it as much publi-
city, and annex to it as mucCiiiipertance, as though our
armies had suffered a defeat, or as though our commercial
credit had received its death-blow. Thus within the last