VE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
opposed administrations to the effect that without an enabling act of 
Parliament, Canada had no power to legislate upon copyright excepting 
as regards books first published in Canada. Matters were in this posi- 
tion when Sir John Thompson died. Had he lived it is possible that 
he would have been able to find some solution of the difficult position 
into which the matter had by force of circumstances drifted. 
The British Authors’ Association, represented by Mr. Hall Caine, 
together with the Copyright Association of Great Britain, represented 
by Mr. F. R. Daldy, and the Canadian Copyright Association, repre- 
sented by Mr. John Ross Robertson and Mr. D. Rose, made in 1895 an 
endeavour to arrive at a settlement of the subject. A Bill was drawn up 
and submitted to the Government at Ottawa; but it was not proceeded 
with. The measure was to a large extent upon the lines of the Act 
of 1889. 
During the years covered by this controversy important changes had 
been taking place in the trade of publishing. The three volume novel 
had come to a violent end at the hands of the six shilling book and then 
for reasons which need not be detailed it became a matter of importance 
for the British publisher to make stereotype plates of his books. These 
stereotype plates were readily reproducible and thus there was an ad- 
vantage alike for the Canadian publisher who wished to print in this 
country and for the British publisher who had his plates to sell in the 
handing of the plates over to the Canadian publisher on certain terms. 
During the past few years this practice had been growing up with regard 
to books published in the United States, and the benefit of the arrange- 
ment was felt by the Canadian printing and allied trades, since many 
books were printed in Canada from plates which it would not have paid 
to set up here in type. The practice also obtained to some extent with 
regard to English books. In the case of books printed from plates 
procured from the United States or books composed and printed in 
Canada the original copyrights of which were United States copyrights, 
large editions could be printed in Canada without fear that they would 
be restricted in their market by editions coming in from the other side 
of the line; but the printing in Canada of books first copyrighted in 
England was protected by no such provision. The clause (Sec. 15 in Act 
of 1875 and Sec. 6 in Act of 1886, Canadian Statutes) entitled any Eng- 
lish edition to come into Canada whether the market had been sold by 
the English to the Canadian publisher or not. To remedy this it was 
necessary to secure for Canada a separate market. The population of 
Canada had grown greatly between 1847 when the Foreign Reprints Act 
was passed and 1897. The conditions were no longer the same either as 
