The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-09 00:00:00

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Sin,—The meeting at the Hanover-square ROOM& -;`2114
some little time ago, presided ' over by : -.... F. B.
Lytton,: Bart., at which some iefluential i; '4+ ors de-
' litiered their sentiments, is beginning to de its work,
by exciting a spirit of inquiry amongst those most
ioterested in the issue of the conflicting judgments
1 between tkkttCourt of Exchequer and the Court of
1 Error. , Ift were called upon to say on which side
the 6c,u. it` ic, legal acumen, and just interpreta-
tionkt
oft hew preponderate; we have only to use
cur ecosaason sense in compariog the two, and there
would be no " error" about it. It, is one thing to say
Whet is. and another to determine what .should be the
law. The moral principle and the legal construction
and administration may be at issue with one another,
but let us not trust both in one set of hands ; if we
do, the law will vacillate into a thing of oircum-
stances and not of feet; whilst the functions of the
Legislature would merge in those who are appealed
to for a. right interpretation of the various Acts of
Parliament. The monopolists feel Lord Campbell's
deeision to be " a heavy blow and great disconrege-
meat " to their cause, for although it appears on the
surface to go along with their interests, it in
reality gives them more than they anticipated,
1 and thus verifies the old adage that "too much of
a good thing, is good for nothing.. " Their
faiourite doctrinea(the monopolists) has been, " 6h,
we hevc paid money, read therefore bought the article
end the right which attaches to it," forgetting that
" copy-sight," or the right to multiply copies, is one
given by the British Legislature to British authors
alone, and therefore, whilst an English publisher can
buy and retain a foreign manuscript as a chattel, he
cannot claim the English author's right for a thing
which is " foreign " to it, and use it for his own ad-
vantage. As easy would it be for a foreigner to say,
I have purchased an English freehold, which gave the
former possessor the elective franchise, and that i:*
course I have bought with it. The law requires
something to precede the latter, if not the right to
hold the former. Were every man able to buy any
privilege or exemption with money alone, that which
law is intended to regulate by giving rich and poor
equal rights, would be done away with, and corrup-
tion and monopoly thereby allowed to sap the very
foundation of legislative equality. If the law which
regulates copyright in this country is to extend to all
the world, it follows as a necessary consequence that
a foreigner cannot be allowed to do what would be an
infraction of the principle as applied to a native
writer. The former must therefore abide the liabili-
ties consequent upon claiming a British author's
rights, and the English assignee standing in the place
of either must establish the right or pay the penalty
of his assumption. Suppose that a foreigner residing
abroad was to send a manuscript here and dispose of
it, which afterwards had been found to have been dis-
posed of fraudulently, the publisher in en-
deavouring to maintain his supposed right against an
alleged piracy, would involve both • himself and
the defendant in a litigation which the
party who was the occasion of it would wholly es-
cape the consequences of. Literary publishers are
said to have given large sums of money for the works
of American authors, but what have they bought ?
Not the copyright certainly, for the alien had no
status by which he could assign, and the purchaser
has paid money in order to exercise illegally a right,
which belonged to a British subject. Of course be
could not maintain it, and must take the consequences
of his attempt to violate the law. Music publishers
have been " wiser in their generation" in regard to
outlay with foreign composers, for in all the cases
that have come before the courts it has been prove
that they have only given a nominal sum—not to the
author, but the foreign publisher—to effect priority,
or what has by a contrivance been called simulta-
neous publication. In by far the greater number of
1 cases they have paid nothing at all, but merely re-
I printed the works of foreign authors, making fraudu-
lent entries at Stationers'-hall for their copyright,
and deceiving themselves into the belief that by en-
graving these assumptive words, " This work is copy-
right," on their English editions, they could prevent
any competitor from meddling with, what they would
fain persuade others, was their property.
No greater proof could be adduced that the Eng-
lish publisher had no faith in his own power to ac-
quire copyright in the works of foreign authors than
the miserable pittance given to obtain the proof sheets,
or first copies, from the foreign proprietor, or by the
latter, that the sums received bore no prcportion to
the actual value of valid and positive copyright.
Any lawyer's clerk is competent to determine that
statutable property cannot be acquired by the same
process that governs the transfer of articles of mer-
chandise, and therefore injunctions, issues,
bills of exception, writs of error, and
appeals to the highest tribunal, are mere
efforts to substantiate by legal trickery that
which every one understands but those whose business
1 it is to " make the worse appear the better reason."
It is a bad state of things that enables a wrong-doer
to pursue any one who will not succumb to those who
desire to be law makers or law breakers, as best suits
their own cupidity, and thereby call the powers of
litigation into exercise for the purpose of turning law
into an engine of oppression. It has been, however,
proved that injunctions may be filed and dissolved—
supplementary bills proceeded with—issues directed,
and all the continuous quips and quirks of legal
forms put in force by a litigious plaintiff without a
scintilla of right to drag the defendant through this
expensive process, or leaving hints the means of ob-
taining redress—nay, more, that he may be ruined
by subornation of perjury.
What a state must British jurisprudence be in to
allow this to be said without any one daring to con-
tradict the fact. However, monopoly and perjury, if
they escape the consequences to outward appearances,
are made to pay the penalty in some way, sooner
or later. " Whatsoever a man sows that shall he also
reap." " The triumphing," therefore, " of the wicked
is short." " Chancery reform" is the first step to
put an end to filing of bills—directing issues—taking
out commissions—importing of foreign and irrespon-
sible witnesses, and a long train of evils connected
with " the law's delay" which have hitherto made it
worth the while of monopolists to spend a large sum
of money to bolster up a system which, after all, is but
" saving at the spigot and letting out at the bung-
hole," for the chicanery of " foreign copyrights" is
exploded, unless effect he given to the "International
Copyright Act" by the reciprocity it requires.
I am, Sir, yours, &c., P.

DIABOLICAL OUTRAGE ON A FEMALE.
GLOUCESTER, PRIDAY.—One of the most horrid
atrocities, perhaps, ever committed in a civilised
country has just been perpetrated in the retired dis-
trict of her Majesty's Forest of Dean, in this county,
four of the perpetrators of which have been committed
to the Gloucester county gaol for trial. The outrage
is of such a nature as to render its details almost in-
credible, nine men being charged with having in suc-
cession violated the person of a poor, helpless, wander-
ing Irish widow, named Mary Macartby, who now
lies in one of the union workhouses on the borders of
the forest. The facts which came out before the
committing magistrates, Sir Martin Crawley Boevey,
Bart., and E. Jones, Esq., are as follow :—The
woman, who is 35 years of age, and has but recently
lost her husband, was journeying alone and
a.e.unpro-
tected through the Forest of Dean on her way to By! I! a
ney, at a late hour of the night, when she obsver%ed_he
light, and, being but half clad and wholly stewed, she
sought pro-
sought its cheering influence. The
ceeded from the fire of some charcoal burners
wearied
left their work for a short time, and the poor
nine in
hirEsrwho had
creature lay down before it until the men,
aboutl
one
number, returned to resume their labour, r
or two o'clock in the morning. A first the men
procured her a
treated her kindly, f the prisoners are
draught of water. The names
Ar, George Charles, and
James James, Richard
and at her
ICa-' arrived at about two
Thomas Stephens, and theyT prisoner Dear wished
The o'clock in the mornintribut
near and lie down. She
her to go into desire
a "lad that if she did not they would
declined, but
fire;wastean .
a she was then taken into the
put her on the sieeked in with James and another
hut, where she wol
The stranger mm d' t
cust e ia sly threw
man not in
A whYile James h ld her
e arms, violated
her down, an-, - • .
e other prisoners, together with five other
her; and
th
dsinsuccessio •
n committed the same crime
men,afterwar .
lowa] telling her, on her crying out " murder,"
one 0
to „held her tongue, and this shall be the last."
According to the woman's story, after the completion
of the offence by all the nine men, a quarrel arose
betwen two of them as to whether she should remain
in the hut, and one of them, taking up a shovel,
threatened to kill her if she did not leave at once. It
was then daybreak, and while the men were scuffling
together she went out and proceeded on her journey.
She met a woman on the road, and told her of the
treatment sbe bad experienced, end afterwards, be-
coming exhausted, she lay down under a hayrick,
where she was found by, a policeman some four-and-
twenty hours afterwards. She was conveyed to the
workhouse,when a surgeon examined her, and stated
before the magistrates that he found such marks of
violence upon her person as might have beenerThe
occa-
sioned by the transactions sworn to
by
prisoners,
it f
is hoped that
pol;ce succeeded in apprehending the four h
whom the prosecutrix identified, and _
the other ruffians will speedily be in custody.

A KNOT DIFFICULT TO TIE.—We observe, RS
mark of Puseyite progress, that last week the Rev. &nese
Hutchinson married a couple of young people at Devonport,
at which he was obliged to be assisted by two other clergy..
men.—Plymouth Journal.
BRITISH LADIEs' FEMALE EMIGRATION SOCIETY,
Her. Majesty has been graciously pleased to express her
approval of the objects of the society, and has subscribed
"
Nato its funds.
GLOUCESTER, Aux. 7.—Arrd. Palestine' t
Jones
lau. Std, Quebec Packet, and Ann MiLes
Quebec,