COPYRIGHT ACT, OPPRESSIVE. 399 



entitled to that name, is a mere trifle, amounting 

 only to the price of the paper of eleven copies, if 

 the work is a successful one ; but if the work does 

 not sell, the tax becomes nothing, for the eleven 

 copies have no value ; and it is better for the author 

 that they should be deposited in the public libraries 

 than converted into waste paper. Hence it follows, 

 that the author of a work has his property secured 

 to him by statute, without paying for the privilege." * 

 Against reasons so forcibly urged, and apparently 

 so conclusive, little, it may be thought, can be said ; 

 and yet, if applied to the case of illustrative works 

 on natural history, that is to say, with coloured 

 plates, they are perfectly erroneous. This error 

 originates from overlooking the simple fact, that 

 ordinary printed books are perfected by one manu- 

 facturing process, while such as have coloured 

 plates undergo two, the last of these, which con- 

 stitutes the finishing, being generally much more 

 expensive than the first process. To bring this 

 fact at once home to the conviction of the rea- 

 der, he has only to remember, that after the ex- 

 pense is incurred of the setting up, in printers' 

 types, the pages of a book, there is little more 

 expense in printing off two hundred and fifty copies, 

 than in printing a single one ; the only additional cost 

 is the paper, which, upon each copy, is a mere trifle. 

 The book is then finished by one process, and 

 comes perfect from the hands of the printer. But, 

 if it is to be illustrated with coloured plates, as 

 these plates occupy one third, or (what is very 



Quarterly Review. 



