698 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that tlie foreign book-maker has no 

 rights that such an arrangement would 

 violate, and that equity would be com- 

 pletely gained if the foreign author 

 was required to make his bargain with 

 some American publisher. There are 

 American reasons for this policy, the 

 force and validity of which Americans 

 must be left to judge of; but justice will 

 be satisfied when the foreign author is 

 put upon the same basis as the Ameri- 

 can author. 



A reply or at least a rejoinder to 

 this article, by an English lawyer, fol- 

 lowed it in the same number of the 

 Magazine. Mr. Conant had said that 

 the need of some adequate copyright 

 arrangement between the two coun- 

 tries was pressing; his critic undertook 

 to be very sarcastic at this, declaring 

 that leading American publishers were 

 now beginning to suffer from the car- 

 rying out of their own vicious system, 

 and had suddenly discovered that the 

 case is pressing. He said that he saw 

 no particular symptoms of urgency in 

 England, and doubted if the Americans 

 were very eager about it, so that on 

 the whole the matter might as well be 

 at present let alone. 



Mr. Conant returned a crushing reply 

 to his critic, but "Macmillan" declined 

 to print it. It, however, appeared in the 

 London " Academy." He showed that 

 the quibble over the word " pressing " 

 was aside from the argument, and that 

 that term simply indicated the actual 

 status of tlie question in both countries. 

 If business had become more demoral- 

 ized here, under a bad system, than be- 

 fore, it only furnished a more potent 

 reason for remedial action. No change 

 certainly had taken place on this side 

 of the water which could lessen the in- 

 terest of the British author in inter- 

 national copyright. On the contrary, 

 the system in this country was working 

 out results more and more damaging 

 to foreign authors. As to the state of 

 feeling in England, Mr. Conant showed 

 that her authors at any rate did not 



share the assumed indifference of 

 " Macmillan's " critic. He showed that 

 the recent Eoyal Commission relat- 

 ing to home, colonial, and international 

 copyright, gave prominent and earnest 

 attention to the relations of England 

 and the United States with regard to 

 authors and reprints, and that their re- 

 port bristled with evidences of the inter- 

 est felt in that country over this ques- 

 tion. And, finally, he clinched the case 

 by putting in the recent statement of 

 fifty eminent English authors, not only 

 recognizing the importance of the ques- 

 tion, but accepting the American view 

 of it, and expressing their readiness to 

 acquiesce in it as an entirely fair and 

 just arrangement. 



So the tables are now turned, and 

 the English publishers, who oppose a 

 measure satisfactory to the parties 

 rightly interested there, and which is 

 the only practical measure that can pos- 

 sibly be carried out here, are now in the 

 position of obstructives, and enemies of 

 copyright. Mr. Conant's pamphlet puts 

 the thing in a nutshell, and those con- 

 cerned with the progress of the discus- 

 sion can obtain it by application to 

 Harper «& Brothers, New York. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



SPENCER'S SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY. 



Ceremonial Institutions. Being Part 17. 



of " The Principles of Sociology." By 



Herbert Spencer. Pp. 237. Price, 



$1.25. 



Having paused for a short time in the 

 elaboration of his " Principles of Sociology " 

 to anticipate a portion of the next treatise 

 on "Ethics," Mr. Herbert Spencer has re- 

 sumed his labors in their regular order, as 

 the volume before us attests. The first 

 volume of the " Sociology " — a work of over 

 seven hundred pages, devoted to its funda- 

 mental data and inductions — was published 

 more than a year ago. Mr. Spencer finds 

 serious disadvantages in bringing out his 

 system in these large volumes, which are 

 both formidable to read and appear at such 



