AN ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
faction both in England and in Canada.‘ In order to remedy the griev- 
ances it was proposed in 1869 that the Governor-General-in-Council 
should grant licences to Canadian publishers to publish English books 
on payment of a royalty or excise duty of 124%. This involved, of 
course, the publication with or without the consent of the author. Ob- 
jections were made to this proposal and it was dropped. 
After correspondence in 1873 and 1874 between the Colonial Office 
and Mr. Mackenzie, then Premier of Canada, an Act was passed in the 
Dominion Parliament in 1875 giving power to any person domiciled in 
any part of the British Dominions to obtain copyright in Canada for 28 
years, with a second term of 14 years. The condition being that the 
book should be printed and published or reprinted and republished in 
Canada. Under section 15? “ nothing in the Act shall be held to pro- 
hibit the importation from the United Kingdom of copies of such works 
legally printed there.” “The practical effect of the Canadian Act was 
to exclude, during the term of Canadian Copyright, foreign reprints of 
such books if they obtained the benefit of the special Canadian Copyright 
by being published and printed in Canada.”* Doubts arose concerning 
the validity of this Act, because of its repugnance to the Order-in-Council 
passed in accordance with the Foreign Reprints Act. An enabling Act 
was therefore passed by Imperial Parliament (The Canada Copyright Act, 
1875, 38 and 39 Vict. c. 53). A clause (Sec. 4) was, however, inserted 
into this Act at the instance of the British publishers, prohibiting the 
introduction into England of Canadian reprints. The Act of 1875 so 
rendered valid appears now with immaterial formal alterations as 49 
Vict. c. 62. This discussion led to the appointment of a Royal Com- 
mission upon copyright in 1876. This Commission reported finally in 
1879, and among their recommendations was, that should the owner of 
a copyright in England refrain from availing himself of the provisions 
of the colonial copyright law, that a licence may be granted to republish 
the work in the colony upon the payment of a royalty to the author. It 
was recommended that the colony be left to settle the details.4 The 
Commission also recommended the continuance, with modifications of 
the Foreign Reprints Act. The Foreign Reprints Act has been modified 

1 The causes of this dissatisfaction may be found in detail in Copyright Commis- 
sion Report, 1897. 
? The original Act is to be found in Statutes of Canada, 39 Vict., vol. I., p. xxi., 
out of its proper order in the Statutes, as it was a reserved Act. It is properly de- 
scribed as 38 Vict., c. 88. 
3 Report Departmental Representatives. Jb., p. 1285. 
4 Report of Copyright Commission of 1876, quoted in Correspondence, etc., 
Ottawa, 1896, p. 1296. 
