The Sun.
London, England, 1838-04-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Mr. Wordsworth, we observe, has addressed a letter to
Mr. Sergeant Talfourd on the subject of his Copyright
Bill, in which he expresses a reluctance to petition Parlia-
ment, " because be would not ask as an individual suppli-
ant, what be conceives to he the right of a class." He
thinks that those who have now cried out against the ex-
tension of the term as is now proposed are bound to show
caute why the original right of authors in perpetuity should
not be restored. On a future day it is our intention to
enter at more length on the examination of this Bill, which
has caused great alarm to printers and publishers through-
out the country. With all deference to the great Poet of the
Lakes, his doctrine of an author's right in perpetuity to
the productions of his brain is, like many other doc-
trines, deserving of very little attention. The great thing
to be considered is, in what way will the public he most be-
nefited ? It is at best idle to talk of a right by common
law, which it is clear cannot be exercised. The question
then comes to be, what protection ought the Legislature
to give to authors ; for the public interest, as well as their
own, demands that some protection ought to be given.
Were an author or his bookseller to be refused protection
against pirates for a certain period, it is sufficiently clear
that the motive for literary exertion would be greatly
weakened, if not destroyed. In fixing the period, however,
the Legislature ought not to be influenced by fanciful con-
siderations. Before a work can become profitable to an
author, the aid of a number of others is necessary. The
capitalist is as necessary to the author as he is to the capi-
talist. Supposing a book then transiferred to the capitalist,
the protection, as far as the latter is concerned, ought not to
extend beyond the term which be considers of impor-
tance in fixing the price to be given for the copyright.
If a bookseller did not in reality give more for twenty-
eight years titan for fourteen, that affords a presumption, at
all events, that the value of a right for a longer period is
to him nothing. Should the author's right extend beyond
this period ? It seems to be admitted that an extension
beyond the definite period enjoyed by the bookseller would
be of no avail to the author. At the end of the twenty-
eight years the work would either be in demand or it would
not. If not in demand the author could not of course
sell the right. If the book should continue popular, the
bookseller could so overstock the market and fill his own
warehouses by editions printed prior to the expiration of
his term as to render the author's right illusory. But is
the advantage of the community to go for nothing in the
consideration of this question ? The author has been
protected for twenty-eight years—the Legislature has
enabled him to derive a profit from the production
of his brain which without its protection he could
not have derived. He might, indeed, have de-
rived money by communicating his thoughts in the
shape of oral lectures ; cv he might have recited
his poems, like Homer ; or sung them, if possessed of
a melodious voice, end levied a tax on his audience.
But without the Legislature ho could have derived no profit
from his compositions through the press, It seems but just,
then, that when a sufficient ground for affording encourage-
ment to literary productions has been afforded, that. then
the public ought in turn to be protected against a mono-.
poly price. A book may have ceased to be in demand at
the high price demanded for it by the original publisher,
and yet a great portion of the public may wish to have it
in a cheap form. We remember the time when many of
the most attractive works were sold by Chapman, printed
on the coarsest paper, at i very low price, within the reach
of the means of persons in humble life. The prices which
publishers must demand to remunerate them for copyright
money, advertising, &c., would have effectually pre-
vented the sale in such quarters. But why should a
cheap publisher, desirous of placing it work within the
reach of the humblest classes, be pvohibited by a
copyright, useless to the author and original publisher,
but which, nevertheless, might involve him in a ruin-
ous law-suit if he embarked in the undertaking without
their consent? Mr. Wordsworth makes rather too light
of the apprehensions of publishers and printers. These are
a numerous body, and they consider Mr. Sergeant Tal-
fourd's Bill fraught with the most ruinous consequences to
them. They look more particularly to the retrospective
clauses with alarm. Mauy publishers would, by such a re-
trospective effect, be altogether at the mercy of tile
descendants of authors. Let us take the case of the-
works of a popular writer, of one small portion of wide
the copyright may expire in a year or two, while th
greater portion would belong to the bookseller for a nu '
ber of years. Mr, Sergeant Talfourd'a Bill would enabi
the descendant of the author to come forward and say t'
the bookseller—you shall not publish this portion in th
works without paying me such and eueli a sum (an exor
bitant demand), end ha must either comply, or, if h
have not in anticipation printed off a sufficient shoo
before the expiration of the copyright, abandon
idea of continuing to sell the whole -works. Ca
least of this kind would be of frequent occurrence,
so think booksellers and printers. The author who wou
not be encouraged to publish by a monopoly of twenty-eig
years would not be encouraged one whit the more by
monopoly of five hundred years. Where are we to stop if
we wirer ourselves to leave out of sight all practical consi-
derations, and legislate for some fanciful encouragement
which is to operate on living authors by acting on their
hopes of reward at the distance of say half a century ?
However, if we must attend to such considerations, ;t
would be better for the state to bestow rewards on the de-
scendants of popular authors in all times coming equivalent
to the profit made by publishing their works. After the
lapse of a hundred years what would theehurclen on the
public amount to ? A good stall in Durham would pay all
the pensions eqdivalent to the profits by publishing books
of more than fifty years standing. On a future day we will
examine Mr. Sergeant Talfourd's Bill in detail. We have
no wish to deny to literature the most ample encourage-
ment ; we only wish to guard against making a fanciful on.
couragement to clash with the interests of numerous bodies
of men to whose welfare the Legislature is bound to attend,
as well as to the welfare of authors.—Morning Chronicle.
We take advantage of the pamphlet sent to us, entitled
" A Letter on Copyright, addressed to Authors, by a Friend
of Authors," to add a few more words on an important sub-
ject, which has now—portly through our ministration—
caused considerable excitement, and suggested a public
meeting in Lambeth, which is forthwith to be held. We
do so, wishing in common parlance to "say out our say;" or,
in other words, to complete the circle of our argument,
The view which we have taken may be new; but a new
era has dawned—we will nut say on the British republic of
letters, but on the general empire of mind. The time is
now fully come when the intellectual class—consisting of
their severel departments, literary, scientific, and artistical
—should come forward to assert and re-claim those rights
of which they have hitherto been despoiled. It is time for
the intellectual helots to break their chains. It is time for
the " hewers of wood and drawers of water"—the brick-
makers of Pharaoh, without straw to work with, and
without pay for their labour—to throw aside their
slavish implements—to go forth from the presence of their
masters—to exhibit their real strength—and to take up
an independent position by their side, What would the
mercantile and trading classes be without them ? Yet how
small a share of the large profits and accumulated capital
which they create, do the literary co-operatives obtain for
their labour a It is in vain, by throwing contempt on the
poverty of the literati, to impart an invidious character to
the nature of their labour. This will not do any longer.
We have shewn that immense capital, both in individual
and in general instances, is realized by literary and sci-
entific exertion. We do not hesitate to say that as
much substantial profit and capital are raised by it as
in any mercantile or in any trading avocation what-
•ever. If the class who create this capital be generally
oor, it is because they have been robbed. That is the
cry grievance to be now redressed. They have been
lundered systematically by those who have raised for-
tunes by their works, and systematically by the fo-
'reign reading public, who have everywhere raised them-
: andis
ne sl vt
ae
nss
ce inei
es n
btt i le:
feco r
es o coi
exertions.afl t scalehe l a
Tr bgayek
et
cl
tt
aeh
pi
eri t
ladsl i
of f
raised.,uosoio.
created
by
a literary Wet e gave
d by
Sir W. Scott's single pen—take the capital raised by
the scientific inventors of gas, of steam, and of every spe-
cies of machinery for accelerating the operations and in-
creasing the profits of commerce. We have an instance
even in yesterday's parer of the large profits which literary
labour is capable, single-handed, of reaping. M. Thiers,
for writing a leading article of the Constitutionnel, a daily
paper, receives 2,0001. a year ; viz., one-third more than
he got for his salary when a French Minister, and only
one-third less than the average pay of British Ministers,
profusely as they are paid. We have said enough to
prove the large profits realised by the intellectual class,
without the aid of the usual outlay of capital, and therefore
with less real need of assistance from the monied class. The

profit and the comparative independence indicate the true
position in society wl.ich they cught to enjoy. Take again
the instance of the education of the artizan, which the
intellectual classes have sugg,eqted, urged, and are now
promoting. It that a small benefit to the commercial
class? We assert that the general commerce of the
country depends upon their exertions in educating
the artisan. The inferiority of his present education
compared with that of the foreign artisan beats us out of
this foreign market, and practieally taxes the pockets, the
tills, the coffers of the mercantile class. The si;pteriority of
a single design incikes or 4,-cab the first mercantile houses,
and starve; or feeds the myriad-headed vnulation of Spi-
talfields or Manchester. Where is the remuneration:,; the
intellectual class ? where the profits which they derive from
Alj their inestimable services to the money-geithig classes ?
They poiitiyely get nothing, though their labours are
equal to a parfisership service. But let us come nearer
home—to the literary class only. The amount of remu-
Aeratipn which this class have obtained, aggregately, from

the publishing and bookselling tradesmen, who deal in their
works, is contemptibly small in comparison with the for-
tunes which the booksellers have made by their exertions.
Milton's 51. and Tonson's 30,000/. constitute only a
single instance of the relative share of tic profit which
is awarded to the real labourers. The crumbs have been
thrown to them from the rich man's table, for which they
have provided the dishes. It has been their own fault that
they have humiliated themselves to pick up the crumbs.
We tell them plainly the bitter but wholesome truth, that
their position is their own fault. " Keep your poet poor,"
was sneeringly said by the lordly patron of the great
Dryden. The axiom has been acted upon by the pre-
tended patrons of intellect up to the present time. A
charitable pity is affected for its avocations, and literature
is insidiously taught, not to rely upon the combined energy
of its members, but to look to the ultimate workhouse of
mendicating societies and literary funds. The literati
should have disdained these things. When any depart-
ment of the literary field failed, they should have gone
into some other avocation or profession. Surely talent will
everywhere and in every sphere make its way. It is not es-
sential either fur themselves or society that they should be for
ever writing, or living for ever in fire like salamanders. They
should have lived upon half a loaf rather than have de-
meaned themselves, and pleased their enemies bypicking up the
leavings from their own table. Of course, eleemosynary
institutions for decayed authors are patronized by those
who monopolize almost the entire profit of literary labour.
Of course, the patron (like Tonson) who gets 30,000/.,
where the patronized (like Milton) gets Si., will give 10/.
to a literary workhouse fur the substitute. It looks like
charity to the drudge, and it keeps him a degraded self,
firmed for further profitable and unremunerated labour.
The truth cannot and ought not to be disguised. Intel-
lectual labour is envied on account of its presumed supe-
riority, while its powers are valued and its profits are
coolly pocketed. The animal and mechanical labour of
most trades is not only inferior in character, but in-
ferior in the amount of real profit which it produces.
But the profit is unfairly distributed. The maker of
wealth is poor. It is time that this great grievance,
which we have thus briefly analyzed, should be re-
medied. The period is fully come when the literary
and scientific classes are bound to assert their rights. The
agitation and excitement caused by the question of copy-
right now now puts the means in their power. If they
neglect the opportunity now, a long time may elapse before
it recurs. Of this we have no doubt—that ultimately the
intellectual class will be placed at the head of society. It
will be its administrative head. Nature intended this su-
premacy for the body politic-=just as she intended, and
causes the functions of the head to rule over the body
natural. Even at the present time, by means of the press
(however they may be humiliated by envy—deteroriated
in their means by extortion—or degraded by their own su-
pine and slavish submission to social wrong)—they possess,
in their combined character, a real sceptre—as real as ever
was wielded by hand. They wield the sovereignty of public
opinion ; as practical and substantial in the blows which it
strikes at t 3 rants andbad Ministers as the profits of incomeand
capital which it creates are practical and substantial. Its
thunderstroke traverses all space, and consecrates or oblite-
rates where it falls. It is natural that the real sovereignty
should be united with the ostensible. That it will be so
some day we do not doubt. It is delayed for the present
only by the mouldering barrier of patrician self-arrogation
and feudal distinction. It is for the intellectual co-opera-
tives of all classes to hasten or retard the advent of the in-
tellectual millenium which shall remunerate them ade-
quately for their vast services to society, and place them in
the social position for which they were destined. The lite-
rary co-operatives must combine like the co-operatives of all
other trades, The reins are now in their own hands. To
turn to the right or left, or to retrogade will be fatal. Wa
give them the advice of the Naiad .to Ulysses, Look not
back; in conjunction with the advice of Apollo to Phaeton,
In medic tutissime ibis.—Morning Advertiser.
The Sun adverts, last night, to our statement, that, in
consequence of the anticipated success of Colonel Scale's
Bill, English speculators had bought foreign grain in such
quantities, as to raise its price in the chief continental
depots for corn. Our contemporary observes :
1
" The fact of the rise of prices abroad is, we believe, cos
rect; and though the purchases of our merchants may has
cauaed that rise; we are induced to attribute them, in part, a
least, to a more provident foresight than the expectation tha
Colonel Seale's Bill would become law. Our merchants kno
the influence of the landlords in the House of Peers too wet
to speculate on the chance of their passing that measure
'Their purchases are made in relation, we believe, to a muc
more inteseiging, and, for the half-starved people of England
a fearful anticipation. The store of corn on the Continent i'
by no means large. An absolute d.larth is already said to bar
made Itself felt in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, Tile sea:
son has commenced here roost inauspiciously. All the pro'
vincial newspapers received in town within the last few days
speak ;o, the most gloomy terms of the cold and wet weather.
It has long ago been observed that a cold, wet spring, is, in
England, the sure fo,er,anner of a greatly deficient harvest.
To a knowledge of all these cireametemmees we attribute the
reported purchases of our merchants."
The Sun is in error as to the cause of the rise in price of
continental wheat. The purchases, to which we adverted,
were made several weeks ago—and were made, expressly
in time belief that Colonel, Seale's Bill would be carried, and,
when carried, would open up almost unlimited facilities fo
the introduction of foreign grain into England. At iii
period to which we advert, the character of the season wa ,
not decided ; nor yet, chilly and ungonial as our spring h .
been, is it, in any degree, more chilly and ungenia_, tha
a
was the spring of' 1837. Last year, however—although
li
the risk of scanty crops was, at least, as imminent as it is att
present, there was no corresponding speculation in f o!•eigni
lure. As to the .
grain—and, by consequence, no correspondinsgnormsßeilii, in itstnr.
ther e.
price. The reason is obvious, There wa
ret)i
Colonel
alleged Sdeeaal
ret' Scale's,
inthe
Sweden,, i,bef: o rDe
Denmark,
a rl ekg:
as Iliad.
u,
Norway,--it may be sufficient to observe, that if the,
rise of price in continental corn wero connected with the
condition of the northern markets, that rise would have
made itself felt, independently altogether of the move-
ments of English speculators. Such, however, has not
been the ease, The rise has followed the pureheees for
the English market, as closely as an effect can follow its.
cause. We have stated that Colonel Seale's Bill, if per-.
mitted to pass, will be found but a prelude to the repeal of
the corn laws, The tone of the advocates of the measure
now before Parliament justifies the supposition. The
Evening Contemporary, for instance, from whom we have
already quoted, treats of the corn laws in the following
strain :
" So determined are the unblushing advocates of that sin.
righteous scheme, to enrich the landlords, by stinting the
people of food, to uphold it, that they object to Colonel
Seale's Bill, that it may enable our ship-owners to victual
their vessels at a cheaper rate, and so compete with the ship,
ping of other nations. The selfish landlords would, in fact,
strike down Great Britain's commercial marine, and her uteri-
time greatness, rather than allow our seamen to eat biscuit
and beef which has paid no rent to them. The present
aspect of the seasons, however, make us look forward with
hope for the speedy termination of the starvation law. 1/i.
therto it has been preserved by being only imperceptibly ape.
rative."
This tirade against the Corn laws, is very similar in
character to these which, from time to time, meet our eyes
in the columns of the free-trade journals. It is no less
wild, and self-contradictory, than such cheap declamations
usually are. In the passage just quoted, the Corn-laws
are denounced as an " unrighteous scheme," the advocates
of which must be incapable of blushing—a " scheme,"
which " enriches the landlords," and " stints the people
of food"—a " scheme" which prevents our ship-owners
from " competing with the shipping of other nations"—
a " scheme" to " strike down Great Britain's maritime
greatness," for the gratification of " the selfish land-
lords ;" a larger or more mischievous progeny, in short,
few legislative measures (if The Sun speaks truly) may
claim ; yet this ° scheme," so fearful in its character
and tendencies, has been, sill the while (by the confes-
sion of the writer, whose words we have quoted), inope-
rative, or " only imperceptibly operative !" If time defen-
ders of the Corn Laws—if the defenders, in other words,
of the system which seeks to secure the home market to
the English growers of food—should deem it fitting, to re-
iply to any portion of the rambling inculpation of the
le,i,ting law, which we have quoted from The Sun, they
[night urge, perhaps, that there can be no grosser perver-
sion of the truth, than the assertion that the principle in-
-Ivolved in the Corn Laws is a principle which tends to
stint the people of food," or to " strike down Great I3ri-
ain's commercial marine." The principle, which would
ecure home markets to home producers, is a principle
'hie!), if fairly" carried out," would secure ample and pros
table employment to the humblest labourer, and—by
ecessary consequence—invest him with the power
f ,
es
ome
f, commanding,,ol ; ata n d all
in
s taimefsd'ir ameassuuffirecientep lr thoef h 0
i
principle,nu'rfshhaitp-oliners,
of
moreover, so far.
the power to.
fmOrtohe r t
er,ding necessaries
tn deprive
.
" compete with the shipping of other nations," would, by
secortng to British ship-owners, the whole of our coasting,
and colonial sintetiog trade, together with a monopoly of
the carriage of our foreign experte ansl impprts, A
destroy
altogether
altogether that unfair competition on the part of time shit*
owners of foreign countriee, which has already wrought;
such fearful havoc upon British marine intepesL4: The
policy which woolwouldleeve native industry without protection has already succeeded to a fearful extent, a, the mi-i
gory of half a million of starving hand-loom weavers testis;
oely cause, why.
flee. The parital j7rv!etion of native industry, secured
b:fiye igttlel,olpe gets of
operation
tthhee I pazrunrina; ,?ii
populationthe
in
o;glaild ,
pot reduced to the Ipy& of the . hand-loom Weavers! i.—
Mosesing Iferuld;
A sudden gloom has come over the bright Ministerial
vision of the Queen's visit to Ireland. The Morning
C,t'orficlF of yesterday brings up the rear of a long succes-