THE ENGLISH COPYRIGHT COMMISSION. 41 



I receive a certain proportion of those profits. I do this for the pur- 

 pose of detaching myself as much as possible from business questions 

 when the work is done. 



Q. Under the present law you make your own arrangements for 

 the sale of each edition. ? 



A. I do. 



Q. And under the proposed change of the law, as you apprehend 

 it, instead of your having the freedom to do that and make an arrange- 

 ment on your own terms with your publisher, the law would step in 

 after the first edition and insist upon a certain rate of remuneration 

 being afforded 3'ou by any publisher who chose to take your work and 

 publish a new edition of it ? 



A. That is the impression that I have received of the proposed 

 scheme, and I conceive that nothing can be more unfair. I think it 

 would be simply flagitious to interfere with the rights of an author to 

 that extent. 



Q. [Sir J. Benedict). Could you imagine any change in the law 

 which you would propose to facilitate the acquirement by the public 

 of works of such a character as you write yourself, or would it be pos- 

 sible to make the agreement such that the price of the books, which 

 now is the great bar to their popularity in the first instance, could be 

 lowered without injury to the author and to the publisher ? 



A. That is a subject on which at the moment I should not like to 

 offer an opinion. I am here speaking of an author's rights over the 

 produce of his own hard work. I may perhaps refer to a fact that was 

 brought to my mind by the examination of the gentleman who pre- 

 ceded me. I think it perfectly fair for an author, if he thinks fit, to 

 write a work that appeals to the wealthier classes of the community.' 

 I wrote a little book some years ago called " Faraday as a Discoverer," 

 in which I gave a sketch of Faraday's life and work. The book was 

 published at 6s. or 7s. ; it is a small book ; I gave myself great trouble 

 to write it, and the edition was very soon sold. Many of my friends 

 urged upon me that it was almost a duty for me, and that for the pub- 

 lic it would be a boon if a cheap edition of that book were published. 

 It was accordingly published at the price of 3s. Qd., but the sale of 

 that book was by no means so rapid or so remunerative as the sale of 

 the dearer one had been. 



Q. (Sir H. D. Wolff). In regard to that book, will you forgive my 

 asking you, do not you think that the reason why the sale of the cheap 

 edition at 3s. Qd. was slower than of the edition at 6s. was owing- to the 

 two prices being rather near each other ; there is not that enormous 

 gap between the prices that there is, for instance, between 25s. and ds. ? 

 A. Tliat is true ; but I should not be inclined to ascribe the slower 

 sale of the cheaper book to the smallness of the gap. I think the first 



* Mr. Gould, for example, wrote books on birds so sumptuously illustrated, that none 

 but the wealthy could buy them. 



