404 



Can it be, that for any reafons of ftate concealed, but obvious, it 

 iliould be the wifli of certain perfons, to difcourage the genius of the 

 country, to reprefs the advances of tafle and literature, and tl^e diffu- 

 fion of knowledge, as being too intimately connefted, with a fpirit of 

 free enquiry ? — I will not think fo meanly of the government It mull 

 be obferved, dill more to the difgrace of Irclatid, that a country, new 

 in legiflation, and yet more new in literature, has felt the propriety 

 of fecuring literary property by law ; and accordingly we find a ftatute, 

 for that purpofc, in the American code. 



The want of this fecurity expofes to a certain lofs, from piracy, the 

 author of any original work, who fliall publiQi it, at his own expence ; 

 and the greater the merit of the work, the more certainly will the 

 author be expofed to this injury and damage. Nor is it mere litera- 

 tui-e, or book-learned purfuits, as the vulgar would call them, that 

 fufFer, from this infecurity of copy-right. The comprehenfive evil aflails, 

 geography — the fine arts — mufic — painting — engraving. It precludes all 

 improvement in the typography of this country, with refpeft to cor- 

 reftnefs, or beauty of type. Should any printer, of tafte and enter- 

 prize in his art, prepare an elegant and coftly edition of any work, 

 he is liable to have the fale of it ruined, by a fpurious and difgrace- 

 ful republication. 



It muft be confeft, that the legiflature is not altogether culpable in 

 this refpeft. I have been informed, that when fome enlightened mem- 

 bers of the Irlfh parliament, wilhed to bring forward a law, for the 

 fecurity of literary property, the printers and bookfellers of Dublin, moft 

 foolifhly raifed an outcry againft it, from an idle fear, that fuch a 

 meafure would interfere with what conftitutes, at prefent, the chief part 

 of the printing trade of Ireland, — cheap editions of Englifi books ; though 

 a moment's confideration might have convinced any intelligent man, that 

 a ftatute modelled on the EngUjh aft of A tine, for the purpofe of fe- 

 curing to the natives of Ireland, their literary property, could not inter- 

 fere with the republication of foreign books.* As 



• Since this Essay was written, the aft of Union past ; and the law for securing literary 

 vroperty in Ireland, was past in the Imperial Farliameat. 



