The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-20 00:00:00

INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.

A popular author, who, some twenty years since,
before he became known to the public, was a cor-
respondent of this journal (New York Evening Post),
writes us the following letter :
" The International Copyright Bill, now before
Congress, is at once ample in its provisions and
liberal in its terms; creditable to your Government
for its initiation, and worthy the acceptance of
your great nation.

" I do not now intrude upon you from any appre-
hension of its miscarrying. It is to be hoped that
this question is definitively settled, and that every
member, both of House and Senate, is satisfied not
only of the justice, but the expediency, of the
measure.

" Upon the question of justice, argument seems
superfluous. Surely no one will deny to the author,
who has laboured twelve months in producing a
book, the same protection afforded to him who
spends perhaps not so many hours in contriving a
new crank to a chaff machine, or screw to a turnip
cutter ! Upon such narrow-minded individuals, if
there be such, words would be only wasted.
"As to the expediency of the proposed act, a
multitude of reasons may be advanced in its favour.
Space only permits mention of a few, such as the
encouragement of your national literature, the
spread of those ideas lately so nobly defended by
your nation's sword, and which will yet gain greater
lustre from its pen, the production of a higher
class of works not only increasing the circle of in-
tellectual pleasure, but extending the sphere of eco-
nomic usefulness. All these advantages, with a
score of others, will accrue from the passing of this
simple statute.

" No doubt your readers see this as plainly as I.
But there is one point upon which, I think, their
perception is not quite so clear ; and it is of this I
would speak, since it is in danger of being regarded
in the light of a drawback. Hitherto the chief ob-
jection on the part of the American people to a
literary concordat with England has, if I mistake
not, been the fear of not being able to purchase
the works of English authors at a fair and reason-
able price. This idea, suiting the interests of some
half dozen publishing pirates, has been by them
carefully cultivated into a popular belief. As a writer
of books a little read on both sides of the Atlantic,
as one not unacquainted with the commercial sta-
tistics of book production, I hesitate not to pro-
nounce the idea a sophism, and the fear utterly
groundless.
" The compass of a newspaper letter will not
allow me to enter into details, else this might be
easily shown. But, indeed, the whole question is
contained in a nutshell, and may be formulized in
a single sentence, as follows : It is not the amount
given to the author that fixes the price of the pub-
lisher, in other words, the price of the book. In
days of limited circulation, happily long gone by, it
was different, and the author's pecunium had an in-
fluence on the price of his work. Now it is nothing,
or so slight as not to affect it beyond the most insig-
nificant fraction.

" The book that does not come under this cate-
gory is not worth putting into print.
" It is not the writer's compensation then, but the
press work and paper, that rules the bookvendor,
wholesale or retail. As proof look to the railway
bookstands of Great Britain, where the works of
every English author of note, under the nose and
protection of copyright, can be bought for the
merest fraction above the material cost of their pro-
duction. Be sure the books not thus cheaply exposed
are not worth buying at all.
" You need nave no fear that the International
Copyright Act will increase the price of your im-
ported literature ; while it will certainly improve
the quality of the native manufacture.' With
this double claim upon your Congress, it ought
surely to be acceptable both to Protectionist and
Free-trader,

" That both will see in it an advantage to Ame-
rica, as to all mankind, is the hope and expectation
of your obedient servant, " MAYNE REID.
" Newport, It. 1., Feb. 26, 1868."

THE ST. ALBAN'S RITUAL CASE.—Sir Robert
Phillimore, the Dean of Arches, will give judgment on
Saturday week, the 28th inst., in the St. Alban's Ritual
case, "Martin v. Mackonnochie," and also in the case of
"Flainank v. Simpson," for Ritualistic practices at East
Teignmonth. Both cases will be included in one judg-
ment on Ritualism in the Church of England.