New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-09-17
LITERARY IIHEL

Society is 30 full of swlndles and swindlcrs
| that perhaps no one ought to be particularly
surprised at any new INVASION, however fla
grant and barbarous, Of the rights of property
Especially uuder these circumstances, we ought
not to marvel at any sort of outrage upon the
right of property in brains. Beef, pork, dry
good, and groceries have value which is APP
preciable by the average understanding of
man. Moreover, the sanctity OF ownership in
these and kindred commodities IL, to some OK
tent protected by police regulations; it cannot
be invaded altogether without risk. But a
property interest in the works of the human
mind is far less palpable TO the multitude, and
far less defensible from the piracy of specula
tors. How much and how widely authors have
suffered from the depredations of thieves, no
man needs to be told, who has been reader and
an observer Of such matters. One of the most
offensive and reprehenslble instances of literary
larceny that we have yet had occasion TO record
has prompted these remarks. 1t is q case not
alone of larceny, but Of swindling, and of con-
structive libel. The perpetrators of the outrage
are Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Tyler, publishers,
in the City of London. The victim is Mr.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich of Boston, who Is well
and honorably known among American poets.
The facts are these: In The Atloytic Monthly
for October, 1867, appeared poem, entitled
"The Flight of the Goddess written by Mr..
Aldrich, and of course purchased and paid
for by The atlantic, which prints none but
original articles. This poem has been taken
by Messrs Ward, Lock, and Tyler, and, with
out either acknowledgment, explanation, or
of rhotan Iaa IN
serted in reprint, published by them, of the
first volume of Household Words. In that
volume it appears at page 40, in the third
number of the periodical, under date of April
10, 1S50-thereby purporting to have been pub
lisled seventeen years before it was in fact
written A three-fold wrong has thus been
perpetrated. In the first place, Messrs. Ward
Lock, and Tyler of London have stolen a poem
from The Atlantic Monthly, thus violating not
an International Copyright Law, for, unhap-
PLY, no such law exists, but violating that
obligation of honor which, among gentle
men, is held more sacred than all
the laws in the world. In the second place,
Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Tyler have done their
utmost to libel an innocent man, the author of
the poem, by placing him in the attitude of
Pi"b"iIsV anu h"inuici' II icaucI, lBnorant
of the facts in the case, seeing "The Flight Of
" the Goddess" in o volume of Household
Words, dated 1850, and then seeing it in n
volume of The Atlantic Monthly, dated 1867,
would naturally infer that it was stolen from
the former, and sold rs original to the latter;
which inference would. as the facts show, man
ifestly reflect the gravest censure upon Mr..
Aldrich In the third place, Messrs. Ward,
Lock, and Tyler have swindled every purchaser
Of their pretended reprint Of the first volume
Of Household Words-because it is not a re-
print, though advertised and sold as such. In
.he original and correct edition of Household
Words, on page 40 of volume first, short
article, entitled "The Household Narrative"