Sept. 22. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



231 



Ciire must be taken to distinguish his family 

 from that of Sir Martin Bowes, who was his oo- 

 temporary, and of great note in London at that 

 time, as his arms in the great hall at Christ's 

 Hospital (the first of the series there displayed), 

 and also in the Goldsmiths' Hall (where his pic- 

 ture and other memorials may be seen), testify. 

 Perhaps other contributors, more able than my- 

 self, can give Mr. Wynen further particulars of 

 the gallant knight. A. B. 



IS COPYING A SERMON FELONY t 



(Vol. xii., p. 166.) 



The Query put by A Stickler for Facts, 

 when simply stated, must, I presume, stand thus : 

 What offence at law is it, to copy a sermon, MS. 

 or in print, without the sanction of tlie author, in 

 order for publication ? It may be readily answered 

 from the law-books ready at hand. 



" This is the right which an author may be supposed 

 to have in his own original literary compositions, so that 

 no other person, without his leave, may publish or make 

 profit of the copies." (Blackstone, Comm. B. il c. xxvi. 

 § 8.) " The exclusive property of the MS. and all which 

 it contains undoubtedly belongs to the author before it is 

 printed or published." — Ibid. 



The exclusive privilege conferred by common 

 law on an author of publishing his own composi- 

 tion was extended to the case of even an oral 

 lecture by 5 & 6 Will. III. c. 65. Mr. Justice 

 Coleridge observes : 



" By the 54 Geo. III. c. 156., the term of Copyright in 

 the author ... is extended to twenty-eight years ; . . . 

 whoever violates it, is liable to a special action in the 



case, with double costs Whether the work was 



in MS. or print, or whether the author did or did not in- 

 tend to make a profit by it, is immaterial." {Blackstone, 

 vol. ii. p., 407.) 



"The subject, however," says Mr. Stephens, "is now 

 mainly regulated by 5 & 6 Vict. c. 45., which provides 

 still more amply in favour of literature, by an enactment 

 that the copyright of every book (which includes every 

 volume, part, or division of a volume, pamphlet, sheet of 

 letter-press, .... separately published) which shall be 

 published in the lifetime of its author shall endure for his 

 natural life. {Comm. B. ii. c. iii. p. 96.) By § 25. of this 

 Act of Victoria, it is enacted, that all copyright shall be 

 deemed personal property. For an infringement of this 

 law penalties and forfeitures are imposed : an offence 

 against personal property is larceny (Blackstone, B. iv. 

 c. xvii. § 4.), and larceny is, strictly speaking, a felony, 

 as it subjects the committer of it to forfeiture." — Stephens, 

 Comm. B. vi. c. i. p. 58. 



Tomlins's Law Dictionary is equally conclusive 

 to the point ; 



" Though an individual may possess a MS., even by 

 the gift of the writer, yet the profit of multiplying copies 



by printing or otherwise is prohibited To make 



any other use of a MS. than to read it, is an infraction of 

 the author's right (p. 358.). The law defines a stealing 

 or larceny to be the taking and carrying awav with a 

 felonious intent (i. e. with the intention of unlawful ap- 



Xo. 308.] 



propriation) of the goods of another (p. 342.). Felony : 

 all crimes above simple larceny to treason. Larceny is a 

 felony by statute " (p. 240.). 



The only other case conceivable would be to 

 copy a MS. sermon without a view to publication, 

 but without the sanction of its author, and consti- 

 tute an offence against another law sufficiently 

 obvious. Matter of Fact. 



I cannot guess whence the clergyman took his 

 law, unless from Tristram Shandy (vol. iv. c. 54.), 

 where the author says : 



" For this sermon I shall be hanged, for I have stolen 

 the greatest part of it. Doctor Pidigunes found me out. 

 Set a thief to catch a thief." 



If plagiarism had been felony without benefit of 

 clergy in Sterne's time, he certainly would have 

 died with his shoes on. 



I wish the clergy could be induced to preach 

 against this sin, for a sin it surely Is, whatever 

 some authors may think. Even Bayle admits 

 this : 



" C'est sans doute un defaut moral et un vrai p^che que 

 le plagiat des auteurs." — Diet., 2nd edit., 2169. b. 



F. 



KUSSIAN MONARCHY WARRINGS. 



(Vol. 



p. 61.) 



Mr. Buckton has very nearly hit upon a great 

 historical truth, but like Gibbon and many others, 

 having got on that path of Germanic history, has 

 wandered away. 



Warwick, I have heretofore shown in its old 

 form of Waringwick, to have taken Its name 

 from the Warrings, and therefore not derived 

 from Guarth-wick ; and Rurlck is certainly not 

 the equivalent of Warwick. 



This is a convenient opportunity for settling 

 the position of the Warrings, and for which I will 

 briefly give the citations from the materials I have 

 collected for the history of that people. It has 

 certainly seemed to me little creditable to our 

 national school of history that no Inquiry has been 

 made as to a people, whose name from the earliest 

 records has been found associated with that of the 

 English. It would seem to be an inquiry so natural 

 for an Englishman, what has become of those 

 VarinI whom Tacitus associates with the Angli? 

 Had this Inquiry been made and prosecuted by 

 any one of the great men who have Incidentally 

 alluded to the Varini, this section of the history 

 of the English race would not have been neglected. 



The Varini, associated with the Angli by Tacitus 

 (Ger7nania, 40.), Pliny (bk. iv. c. 14.), Ptolemy 

 (bk. ii. c. 9.), are identified with the W^arnlof Pro- 

 copius, referred to In his Bellum Gothicum, bk. ii. 

 c. 15. ; bk. ill. c. 35. ; and bk. iv. c. 20., and 



