[108] 



It is manliest, however, that inasmuch as the law is intended to encour- 

 age the production of books, no conditions shoukl be annexed to it which 

 would be onerous to publishers ; for such conditions would tend to defeat 

 the very end proposed to be answered by the statute. Too many copies 

 should not therefore be required. In England at one time eleven copies 

 were demanded. It was made to appear that the law, with such condi- 

 tions, operated as a discouragement to the publication of expensive works ; 

 it was, in consequence, changed. Five copies are now required, and a sum 

 of money amounting to =£2,800 a year is paid by the government to the 

 other six libraries, in compensation for the loss of the privilege which they 

 previously enjoyed. 



The benefit of the deposit to the public is very great. It is universally 

 allowed to be important for the interests of learning that in every country 

 there should be at least one library where every book, pamphlet, or literary 

 production of any kind, issued in the country should be carefully preserved. 

 Now, it is utterly impossible to collect the whole in any other way than 

 by making the deposit a condition to the vesting of the right of copy.* 



The advantage of the deposit to learning seems to have been the sole 

 motive for its first introduction, and not, as is sometimes supposed, the 

 censorship. Francis the first, of France, in 1537, gives as the ground for 

 requiring a copy for the royal library at Blois, that these books " will be 

 veritable proofs of that praiseworthy restoration of letters occurring in our 

 time through our diligence, care and labor, * * * and that 

 recourse may be had to them if perchance the books should perish from the 

 memory of man, or be varied from the true and original publication.'" (See 

 Renouard, Traite des Droits d'Auteurs, T. i, p. 42.) No mention is made 

 of their use for the purposes of the censorship, which, indeed, must be exer- 

 cised before the printing of the book, and not afterwards. In another ordi- 

 nance of the same year, explanatory to the one above cited, the king 

 expressly declares, that it was not intended to affect the censorship in any 

 way; and again, in an ordinance of lo38, appointing Nicobar, Greek printer, 

 it is ordered that " a copy of every book printed shall be deposited in the 

 royal library, to the end that should any calamities befall literature, pos- 

 terity might there find a resource for repairing, in part, the loss of books." 

 (Renouard ut sup.) The legal deposit, it is manifest, had its origin in an 

 enlightened regard for learning, and not in any odious restrictions upon the 

 liberty of the press. 



* This point is discussed with great abihty by Professor Libri in a letter to the chairman 

 of the committee of the House of Commons on public libraries, dated May, 1849. The 

 following extracts deserve particular attention. They occur in a work but rarely to be found 

 in this country, and are strikingly appropriate and convincing. I hope, therefore, that I 

 shall be excused for inserting them, notwithstanding their great length. (See report of 

 the House of Commons on public libraries, for 1849, page 118 to 120.) " As I have already 

 stated in my evidence, in my opinion, and as all educated men agree, it is necessary that in a 

 great country there should be at least one library in which one may expect to find, as far as 

 it is possible, all books which learned men, men who occupy themselves upon any subject 

 whatever, and who cultivate one of the branches of human knowledge, may require to con- 

 sult. Of these there is nothing useless, nothing ought to be neglected ; the most insignificant 

 in appearance, those which on their publication have attracted the least attention, sometimes 

 become the source of valuable and unexpected information. 



"You know I)etter than me, sir, that it is in the fragments, now so rare and precious, of 

 some alphabets, of some small grannaars published for the use of schools about the middle 

 of the (ifteentli century, or in the letters distributed in Germany by the religious bodies 

 commissioned to collect alms, that bibliographers now seek to discover the first process em- 

 ployed by the inventors of xylography and of typography. It is in a forgotten collection 



