CONCERNING THE SUPPRESSED BOOK. 439 



" 38, Queen's-gardens, Bayswater, Loudon, W., June 9. 



" My dear Youmans : I returned borne last night, and only this morning 

 learned that in The Standard of Saturday last there was, in a telegram from 

 New York, a statement to the effect that Messrs. Appleton decline to destroy 

 the stock and plates of the reprinted controversy (as I had telegraphed them to 

 do), on the score that the book would be reprinted by some other publisher. In 

 this expectation they are probably right. But a reprint would necessarily be 

 without the notes ; since these, as implied in your preface, are your copyright 

 in America. Now, though these notes or, at least, those which I pointed out 

 as needful are corrections of erroneous statements of my views, yet, rather 

 than have it supposed that I wished to take any advantage of Mr. Harrison in 

 making such corrections, I will submit to the evil of re-issue by another pub- 

 lisher without them ; and I therefore repeat my request that the stock and stereo 

 plates may be destroyed, and the loss debited to me. 



" One word respecting the proposal of the Appletons to share the author's 

 profits between Mr. Harrison and myself. If any have at present accrued, or if, 

 in consequence of refusal to do as I have above requested, any should hereafter 

 accrue, then I wish to say that having been, and being now, absolutely indiffer- 

 ent to profit in the matter, I shall decline to accept any portion of the returns. 



" Ever sincerely yours, 



" Herbert Spencer." 



Several points in this correspondence, especially in its opening let- 

 ter, require some notice in this place ; but, before making the critical 

 corrections that seem to be required, I desire to say a few words on 

 the peculiar circumstances of American publication which have an im- 

 portant bearing on the present case. 



Mr. Frederic Harrison took offense at the American reprint in 

 a book of some review articles of his, and pronounces it " a case of 

 piracy." The organs of English opinion, in commenting upon these 

 letters, take the same view. The London " Times," after referring to 

 the graceful and honorable termination of the disagreeable difference 

 between Mr. Harrison and Mr. Spencer, devotes a leading editorial to 

 the discussion of American piracy on the basis of the fresh and strik- 

 ing illustration of it here afforded. Speaking of the effect of the 

 " tolerably rigid copyright law " of England, the " Times " says : 

 " But so far as America is concerned it is different. To the English 

 author that country seems to answer very much to Hobbes's idea of a 

 state of nature. Foreign authors are fair prey ; for them there is or 

 need be no selling or buying of copyrights, and a good book is to be 

 dealt with as a part of the common elements of nature. If any laws 

 govern the matter, it is only those which regulate the capture and re- 

 duction into possession of wild animals." The case is certainly bad 

 enough, but this is an exaggeration. 



At the outset I admit that on the question of international copy- 

 right, or the claims of foreign authors to property in their books, the 

 English are right and the Americans wrong, so flagrantly wrong as to 

 justify much of the denunciation we receive. The position of our Gov- 



