374 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



after due and proper notice has 

 been given of the publication, to 

 a distribution in the first instance: 

 — and by affording an alternative 

 with respect to subsequent editions 

 in certain cases. 



" Your committee would how- 

 ever suggest one exception to these 

 rules, in favour of the British Mu- 

 seum; this national establishment, 

 augmenting every day in utility 

 and importance, ought, in the opi- 

 nion of your committee, to be fur- 

 nished with every publication that 

 issues from the press, in its most 

 splendid form. 



" Having presumed to advise 

 certain regulations with the view 

 of lightening as much as possible 

 the pressure, whatever may be its 

 amount, on all those connected with 

 the publication of books, your com- 

 mittee would be wanting in the 

 discharge of their duty, were they 

 not to recommend a strict enforce- 

 ment of such obligations, as for 

 useful purposes remains to be dis- 

 charged : by annexing suitable pe- 

 nalties to the neglect of perform- 

 ing them; and perhaps in some 

 cases by adding the forfeiture of 

 copyright. 



" The attention of your com- 

 mittee has naturally been directed 

 to the late decision in the court of 



king's bench, ascertaining the true 

 interpretation of the statute of queen 

 Anne; and they find, that, pre- 

 viously to that decision, an univer- 

 sal misapprehension existed as to 

 the real state of the law ; and that 

 works were undertaken, and con- 

 tracts made on the faith of long 

 established usage. Your commit- 

 tee are fully aware, that in ex- 

 pounding the law, no attention can 

 be paid by courts of justice to the 

 hardships that may incidentally be 

 produced ; but it will deserve the 

 serious deliberation of parliament, 

 whether all retrospective effect 

 should not be taken away from a 

 construction, which might be 

 thought to bear hardly on those 

 who have acted on a different un- 

 derstanding of the law. 



" Lastly, your committee have 

 taken into their consideration the 

 subject of copyright, which ex- 

 tends at present to fourteen years 

 certain, and then to a second pe- 

 riod of equal duration, provided 

 the author happens to survive the 

 first. They are inclined to think, 

 that no adequate reason can be 

 given for this contingent reversion, 

 and that a fixed term should be as- 

 signed beyond the existing period 

 of fourteen years." 



Ordered to lie on the table. 



