The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1850-03-12
Foreign Items,

| The WORLDS FAIR OF 1s51.-Lord John Rus
sci made an excellent speech on this subject VS.
clip the following passage;
'Itffequently occurred, said his Lordship +" that
there were brought under his consideration inven-
tons exhibiting great skill, and displaying very
often, great science, which were for the purpose OF
Increasing the means by which men might destroy
one another. lthappened continually that he heard,
iof instance, that in one country means had been
discovered by which men might be killed at three
four times the distance hitherto possible that in
another country an invention had been hit upon
with respect to the musket enabling the soldiers to
fire six times in period wherein before they had
only been able to discharge their muskets once and
that in another place discoveries had been made by
which, it was said, that ship could, in a few mi
nutes, be so injured that the whole OF the crew
must perish in a very short time Such were the
inventions they continually heard of from different
parts and which every country, careful OF IT'S IN
dependence, was obliged to initiate and adopt, and
those who made the inventions reaped rewards from
the different Governments they served. But with
respect to the contemplated exhibition, its object
would be TO prove how the arts and benefits of
peace were to be improved to show that, while
some men were carrying to great perfection the arts
of destruction, there were others who taught how
mankind might have better and cheaper articles of
clothing how every house might be better furnished
and how people might be able to communicate with
one another from the most distant parts of the world
and reciprocate all those things which improve ci-
vilze, and elevate the character of man.
THE COPYRIGHT LAw-It has been decided in
England that the assignment by foreign author
conveyed no exclusive right, as a foreigner has no
copyright in England, and, of course, the author
can convey no greater right than he has himself
The result is that American authors can only de-
pend on such sale as can be made of the first
copy: For our own part. we oppose the Interna-
tional Copyright Law. Any man who writes a
book, worth printing. can be amply paid by the
monopoly of one country. Prescott, Bancroft, and
Irving realize large sums by the sale of their books
in this country. Macaulay, Carlyle and Dickens
receive sufficient compensation at home. We have
no idea Of enhancing the price of information. Our
Government relies for its existence on the ntelli-
genee of the people. Whatever tends to make books
cheap, strengthens that government--whatever en-
hances their cost, is injury to the republic. As
to the danger that authors will cease writing, we
only it is an event most to be desired
There is end to the manufacture of books-they
are as great "A drug cotton. If about nine
tenths of the men who write could be choked off,
the world would be greatly the gamer. Good books
will always pay the writer's sufficient price at
home; they would have larger circulation than
now, when many books little or no value share
with them the market But there is no danger that
the number of books will be diminished. The only
result of the proposed Copyright Law would be
to make books dearer. We believe the laborer is
worthy of his hire, but no more. We are too sound
in our democratic principles to tax our people for
the benefit of foreign authors when they are suffi
GENTLY maid nj home