The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-03-19 00:00:00

6.-MISCELLANEOUS.

Hannah More derived £3OOO. per annum from her copy.
rights during many of the latter years of her life.
Rundall's "Domestic Cookery," £2OOO.
" Nicholas Nickleby," £3OOO.
Eustace's " Classical Tour," 2100.
" Heber's Journal."—l have understood that Sir R. In.
glis obtained for the beautiful and interesting widow of
Bishop Heber by the sale of this work £5OOO.

" Murphy's Almanac," £3OOO. --
The copyright of " Marmion" expired in 1836, and since
that time we " pioneers of literature," as the learned ser-
geant calls us, have disseminated much more than two hun-
dred thousand copies at a very low rate, viz., 25., ls. 6d.,
and 10d., among the humble classes of the public. The
copyright of that beautiful poem " The Lady of the Lake"
expired in 1838, since when different publishers have brought
out editions and sold the poem at one-tenth of the price it
had ever been sold at during the existence of the copyright.
If the spirit of the author could look down upon this diffu-
sion of his pure and elegant writings, it would derive plea-
sure from this result, and rejoice in having contributed to
the innocent gratification and to the improvement of the
human race ; but this the House of Commons is called upon
to prevent by the retrospective clauses in the bill of Sergeant
Talfourd, which would operate also on the works of many
other authors at present supplied at the lowest possible rate
to the public by the competition of booksellers ; all these
works have been long sold at these cheap rates on the conti-
nent and in America; is it reasonable, is it fair, to deny
them to the British public after 28 years' copyright mono-
poly, because they are the countrymen of the author?
What I have said hitherto entirely applies to the cause of
the public, at least it is far more for their interest than mine
that the market should be supplied with useful and entertain-
ing books at the lowest competition prices. I will now beg to
say a few words as to the retrospective operation of the bill
on my own property and that of other booksellers. I pur-
chased of the executors of Dr. Adam Clarke, his Bible and
Commentary for £l9OO, there being at that time seven years
of the copyright unexpired. I printed the work in the best
style, and sold it at a much cheaper rate than it had been
offered before, and by the expenditure of £2OOO in advertis-
ing and making it known I have established for it a regular
sale. The copyright has now four years to run, but lam
satisfied that the competition of other publishers would not
deprive me of the subsequent' sale of this book, which is a
work of magnitude, and I have not left them sufficient margin
to undersell me and recover the expense of working the book
by advertising, &c., I paid my £l9OO on the existing law, in
the conviction that I was purchasing a small annuity, but
now a new law is proposed to take this property away from
me, and not only restore the book to the executors without
my recovering any part of the £l9OO, but to give them also
the benefit of my expenditure in advertising the work.
Another sort of case is "Dr. Ure's Dictionary of Chymis-
try," which I purchased of the editor for £lO5. I paid him
for the correction of the second edition £ll5, for the third.
£2lO, for the fourth £2lO, and I must now obtain his assis-
tance, or that of some other eminent man who can better af-
ford time, to prepare the work firir the fifth edition by correct-
ing it according to the latest discoveries and improvements
in the sciences. All sciences and arts are progressive ; books
on astronomy, geography, botany, mathematics, medicine,
architecture, even works on history (Dr. Lingard received
£366 13s. 4d. per volume for correcting the second edition of
his history) biography, education, and law, require the same
sort of revision, and would become useless without it ; and,
on the other hand, may be much improved by the application
of it ; and my case with Dr. Ure is one instance among a
thousand of the injustice and absurdity of the proposed law.
I buy a book for 100 guineas, and during the term of the
copyright must expend more than £lOOO upon it, either by
payment to the author or any other person of equal reputa-
tion, with the effect of altering almost every page of the ori-
ginal work, and at the end of 30 years the representatives of
the Doctor may claim the original work and title, and com-
pel me to buy it over again at a much higher price, or to lose
all that I have subsequently expended on it. This is truly
one way to " amend the law of copyright." I should like
to see the learned sergeant propound such a scheme of
" amendment " to the 12 judges, to those sophistry-proof
persons who are habituated, as I may say, to the protection
of property and the discrimination of truth.
If this were called a private bill, which it is in fact, the
learned sergeant would break down in his preamble, for it
would be made to appear that the supply of literature is in
every branch superabundant ; that owing to the copyright
monopoly already established (but as I think justly and pro-
perly established) the price of English books is dearer in
Britain than in any other country ; that the progress of edu-
cation has enormously increased, and will much further in-
crease the remuneration of authors, and that it ought to be
accompanied with cheap literature, which this bill is calcula-
ted to prevent ; and further, that the proposed measure,
which is so opposed to the public interest, is also a flagrant
invasion of private rights and property, and uncalled for by
that class whose interest it professes to promote.
Cheapside, Feb. 50. THOMAS TEGG.

EXECUTION.—The last sentence of the law was, on Wed-
nesday morning, carried into effect upon Thomas Taylor,
who was convicted, at the late assizes at Hertford, of the
murder of William Bennett, an old pensioner residing at
Towen, Middlesex. The prisoner absconded immediately
after the commission of the offence, and enlisted in the 15th
regiment ; and he would probably have escaped detection but
for the fact of his having written a letter to his mother in an
assumed name, and the circumstance coming to the know-
ledge of the police at Hertford, an inquiry was instituted, and
this led to his detection. Taylor's mother came to see him
on Monday, but the interview was described as not being by
any means of a painful character. She asked him whether
he wanted any of his clothes washed, and he replied that the
clothes he had been tried in would do Very well for him.
Neither of them appeared at all concerned when the moment
arrived for their separation. The convict's father, an aged
man, went to him on Tuesday, and, after some little conver-
sation, the father told the convict " to die like a man, and
go to the gallows with the same firmness he had borne his
trial and sentence." The unhappy young man replied, " I
will, father ;" and so they separated. Taylor walked up the
scaffold without any'assistance. The bolt was then drawn,
and, after struggling for about three minutes, he ceased to
exist. The unfortunate convict was only twenty-two years
old.—Sun.