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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



TEE ENGLISH REPORT ON INTERNA- 

 TIONAL COPYRIGHT. 



THE report of the English commis- 

 sion on the general subject of 

 copyright is now complete and before 

 the public. It shows that there has 

 been a searching investigation into the 

 existing condition and working of copy- 

 right-laws in that country, with an hon- 

 est view to such amendments as are 

 necessary to more thorough protection 

 of the right to literary property. The 

 report is able and exhaustive, and 

 recommends parliamentary measures 

 which, if carried out, will be of great 

 advantage to authors, and will be an 

 honor to England. The commissioners 

 found the subject encompassed with 

 serious and perplexing difficulties, but 

 they did not make these the occasion 

 of shrinking from the duty that had 

 been assigned to them. If any Ameri- 

 can wishes to preserve a decent self- 

 respect, we advise him not to pass from 

 the reading of the English copyright 

 report to the report of the United 

 States Senate upon the same subject, 

 made in 1873, by Mr. Morrill, of Maine. 

 The contrast between the two docu- 

 ments is remarkable. The English re- 

 port is grave and formidable, and shows 

 that there has been long and earnest 

 work over a question that is felt to be of 

 great national importance ; the Ameri- 

 can report is a miserable tract of half 

 a dozen pages, evincing by its meagre- 

 ness the utter indifference of those who 

 drew it up to the subject which they 

 had been appointed to consider. The 

 English report recognizes extensive de- 

 fects in the legislation of that country 

 upon the question, and recommends 

 bold changes in it to secure a better 

 state of things; the American report 

 sees nothing wrong that it is desirable 



to amend, and recommends Congress 

 to take no action in the matter. It 

 treats the subject from the low and 

 selfish point of view of the American 

 political demagogue, enters with a relish 

 into the sordid squabbles of book-man- 

 ufacturers, and pays not the slightest 

 attention to the important principles 

 that should be recognized as at the basis 

 of a just and enlightened policy of in- 

 ternational copyright. The English re- 

 port, on the contrary, treats the subject 

 with dignity and seriousness, bringing 

 out clearly the great principles that 

 should control it, and taking high and 

 impregnable moral ground in regard to 

 the duty of the English Parliament in 

 legislating with reference to it. It is 

 a question of international ethics, and 

 England has shot a long way forward 

 by adopting the Christian standard of 

 conduct in this relation, and saying we 

 are prepared to do as we would be done 

 by. The high-water mark of interna- 

 tional morality hitherto reached has 

 been to do as you are done by, to re- 

 ciprocate, to concede benefits if benefits 

 are granted, and to deny them if they 

 are denied. England takes the lead in 

 affirming that the thing which is right, 

 just, and equitable, must be done, 

 whether other nations reciprocate or 

 not. She took an important step in 

 this direction in entering upon the poli- 

 cy of free trade, and now proposes to 

 carry it out in her international treat- 

 ment of literary property and the rights 

 of authors. The commission recom- 

 mends to Parliament to grant copy- 

 rights to American authors whether 

 the United States will do the same 

 thing for English authors or not. They 

 say : " It has been suggested to us that 

 this country would be justified in taking 

 steps of a retaliatory character, with 



