35 [ 108 3 



be estimated at two hundred and twenty-five dollars. It will thus be seen 

 that the privilege is, in its present condition, far from being so important as 

 it was intended and supposed to be. 



The same remarks apply probably with equal force to the subject as it 

 concerns the library of Congress. It would seem, therefore, from this state- 

 ment, that the law is not satisfactory to any of the parties affected by it][ 

 A thorough change of system, so far as the deposit of copies is concerned, 

 seems to be required in order to give the security promised to authors, to 

 relieve publishers from the trouble, expense and uncertainty attending their 

 efforts to comply with the conditions of the present law, and to provide 

 for the public benefit and the transmission to posterity of materials for the 

 history of our own times. 



The interests of all parties may be secured by a much simpler method 

 than the present. After much consultation with those more particularly 

 coiicerned, I have been led to believe that the following plan would prove 

 generally acceptable : 



1. To require a claim of copyright under the name of the proprietor, 

 (to which should be subjoined his residence, with the date of the com- 

 mencement of such claim, to be printed upon the title-page or the reverse 

 of the title of every copy of his work, as follows : 



" Copyright in this work is claimed from and after tlie 6th of August, 1852, by me, as 

 author, [or proprietor,"} 



A B — , 



Or Boston, Massachusetts. 



2. To require the deposit of one or more copies of the book within one 

 month after the date of the claim, (if the book be published in any of the 

 States east of the Mississippi river,) and within three months if published 

 west of the same. The books to be transmitted by mail or otherwise, at 

 the risk and cost of the claimant of the copyright. 



The person depositing the book should be entitled to a certificate of 

 deposit, on the payment of a small fee, which certificate should be made 

 receivable in all courts of justice as prima facie evidence of compliance 

 with the conditions of the law. 



The omission to deposit within the time specified should not invalidate 

 (he copyright, but every proprietor of copyright should be allowed to 



in the sevnteenth century struck so severe a blow at the society of the Jesuits, are to bo met 

 with when examined with care, roniaikuble diflerenccs iii language and style, which reveal 

 to us in some measure the .secret of the composition of that illustrious writer. 



" Only to borrow one single fact of this kind from the scientific history of England, it will 

 ."luftice to recall to memory all the discussions which a slight alteration introduced in the 

 lifetime of the author, in one of the editions of the admirable ' Frincipia' of Newton, has 

 occasioned. Of many books pubhshed, more or less recently, the particulars are known, 

 and the manager of a large libraiy ought particularly to apply himself to procure those 

 works, whicli, sooner or later, will be asked for and consulted with profit by men who de- 

 sire to examine things thoroughly. This takes for granted that a man entrusted with the 

 direction of such an undertaking, i)ossesses a very extensive and profound science ; it as- 

 Bumea also that he has at his disposition suflicient money to obtain, when the opportunity 

 offers, all those books which are usually rare and expensive. Ho requires also sufficient 

 room to place and arrange them in the best possible manner, in order that studious men may 

 derive from them easily all desirable advantage. To a large library, to a metropolitan li- 

 brary, intended to supply all the intellectual requirements of a nation, certainly no limits caa 

 be assigned. 



♦•• »•»»••• 



" Without stopping here to name the rare books, the valuable editions, the typographical 

 Konuments 9f all kind.? thftt ?v large library ought n9c«BsarJiy to contain to be eoiapkte, I 



