[ 108 ] 34 



ing the Smithsonian Institution. No penalty is attached to a neglect of 

 the requirement. It has therefore been generally held to be merely 

 directory. In the case of Jollie vs. Jaques, (Southern District New York,) 

 it was held that the delivery of copies to the two libraries was not a pre- 

 requisite to a title to copyright. By many also it is doubted whether, 

 inasmuch as this enactment does not purport to be an amendment to the 

 copyright law, a demand for the copy, in case it were refused, would be 

 enforced by the courts. 



Many publishers are not aware of the law ; others regard it as unjust, 

 and refuse to comply with it on that account ; others, again, find compliance 

 inconvenient, and, not considering it essential, neglect it. The consequence 

 is, that not half the books to which we are entitled are received by us. 

 Music being issued by fewer publishers, and being more easily sent, has gen- 

 erally been deposited ; so also have labels of patent medicines. The labor 

 of issuing certificates for these and recording them, is as great as for the 

 books, whilst they have scarcely any appreciable and permanent value. 



The books are frequently sent by mail, sometimes sealed, thus subjecting the 

 Institution to letter postage upon them. The postmaster is directed to open 

 such packages ; but not unfrequently sealed letters are found within them, 

 and thus the whole package is chargeable with letter rates. This indeed is 

 the case not only with respect to books received under the copyright law, 

 but also with respect to those received by donation. We have taken every 

 means to make known the fact that we do not possess the franking privi- 

 lege. We have invariably written to the publishers or donors of works 

 ■who have made to us these expensive presents, and have several times 

 received for reply that they were misinformed by the local postmaster, who 

 had stated to them that the Smithsonian Institution was entitled to receive 

 letters and packages without the payment of postage. It would seem to 

 be inferred from the connection of the Smithsonian Institution with the 

 government, that it of necessity possesses the franking privilege. We are 

 thus subjected to great expense, which it is impossible for us to avoid, or 

 materially to diminish. 



The whole value of the books received during the year 1851 by the 

 copyright clause of our charter has been estimated at four hundred and 

 fifty dollars, which is perhaps a low estimate, taking no account of maps, 

 music and other articles. The expenditure for postage and transportation 

 of these, together with the time and labor spent in issuing certificates, may 



pursue his researches in their most humble beginnings. Who would have imagined that the 

 obscure author of a small pamphlet, « Le Souper de Beaucaire,' would subsequently become 

 the Emperor Napoleon, and to write fully the life of the execrable Marat, one ought to have 

 the very insignificant essays on physics that he published before the revolution. Nothing 

 is too unimportant for wnoever wishes thoroughly to study the literary or scientific historj' 

 of a country, or for one who undertakes to trace the intellectual progress ol" eminent minds, 

 or to inform himself in detail of the changes which have taken place in the institutions and 

 in the manners of a nation. Without speaking of the commentaries or considerable additions 

 which have been introduced in the various reprints of an author, the successive editions of 

 the same work, which appear to resemble each other the most, are often distinguished from 

 each other by peculiarities worthy of much attention. 



"Amateurs of Italian literature seek with avidity for the various editions of the ' Orlando 

 Furioso,' and of the ' Jcrusalerame Liberata,' published in the lifetime of Ariosto and 

 Tasso, at the present day ; for these editions, generally rather imperfect, exhibit the labors 

 of the authors, and the changes of style and composition, as well as the ameliorations of 

 every kind, introduced by these two great poets in their works. It is by comparing these 

 different editions that we learn how those great mastew worked. In the same way, in the 

 first successive editions published of those famous ' Lettres Provinciales' of Pascal, which 



