PIRACY. 



[^Extract from the Times Newspajier of Nov. 8, 1834.] 



COURT OF CHANCERY, FRIDAY, NOV. 7, 1834. 

 RiDGWAY V. Henderson. 



Mr. Kindersley moved for an injunction to restrain the defendant from conti- 

 nuing the pubhcation of two numbers of a work in which it was alleged there 

 were piracies from the work of tlie plaintiff. The plaintiff had for some time past 

 published a work, entitled the " Botanical Register," which appeared monthly. 

 It contained plates, eight in each number, representing flowers and plants, and 

 descriptions of those plates. The defendant also published a periodical work on 

 botany, similar in some respects to the plaintiff's work, and he had copied in 

 two of his numbers two plates, one of which recently a])peared in the plaintiff's 

 work, and the other in a number published by the plaintiff some years ago. 

 The plaintifTs and the defendant's works were handed up to the Lord Chancellor, 

 who compared the jilates pointed out, and was satisfied that the one was copied 

 from the other. The letter-press was then referred to, and there also a great 

 similarity was apparent. It was pointed out by the counsel, that where in the 

 original work a reference had been made to a preceding number, in the words 

 " supra, vol. 2," the copier had mistaken the word supra for the name of some 

 author, and had so printed it. 



The Lord Chancellor said these were the pitfalls into which pirates often fell. 

 There was a curious instance of a similar mistake committed in a piracy upon Dr. 

 Johnson's Dictionary. The Doctor stated the word " curmudgeon" to be derived 

 from the French, cceur mechant, and added as his authority for this derivation 

 the words "vmknown correspondent." The copier (Dr. Ash) mistook these last 

 words, and gave the word curmudgeon as derived from the French cceur. unknown, 

 mechant, correspondent. In this case his Lordship said there was enough shewn 

 to warrant the injunction, which he ordered accordingly. 



We beff to call attention to the foreo-nino; extract. It 

 may not be generally known to the public, although it has 

 long been notorious to those who are conversant with the 

 publishing business, that there exists in this metropolis, 

 on the part of certain writers and booksellers, a system of 

 gross literary piracy ; that no sooner does valuable original 

 matter, which has been obtained at great expense by tlie 

 fair dealer, make its appearance, than it is snatched up and 

 republished verbatim by certain unprincipled persons ; in 

 particular, that there are books called cheap periodicals, 

 which are entirely maintained by the plunder of original 



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