304 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



not for penalties, but for damages, 

 on account of the infringement on 

 their property, by publishing these 

 additional poems, the copyright of 

 which had not yet become free. 

 The bill of suspension and inter- 

 dict was passed, and conjoined 

 ' with the action of damages. 



This action the Court of Ses- 

 sion decided (16th May, 1804) 

 by recalling the interdicts, sustain- 

 ing the defences against the action 

 of damages, and assoilzieing the 

 defender ; to which interlocutor, 

 on its being again brought under 

 their consideration, they adhered. 



The pursuers complained against 

 these judgments to the House of 

 Lords, when it was decided (16th 

 July, 1811), that 



" Although no person trenching 

 on literary property isliable to any of 

 the penalties or forfeitures thereby 

 enacted, unless the titles to the 

 copies of such books shall, before 

 publication, be entered in the re- 

 gister book of the company of 

 stationers, as by the said act is di- 

 rected ; yet, that the persons to 

 whom the sole liberty of printing 

 books is thereby given for the term 

 or terms therein mentioned, have, 

 by the said statute, a right vested 

 in them, entitling them to main- 

 tain a suit for damages in case of 

 a violation of such right, and also 

 entitling them to maintain a suit 

 in order to prevent the violation 

 thereof, by interdict for the term 

 or terms for which the statute hath 

 given them such so.e liberties, al- 

 though there shall not have been 

 such entry made before publica- 

 tion, as aforesaid : and it is hereby 

 ordered, that with this declaration 

 the said cause be remitted back to 

 the Court of Session in Scotland, to 

 review the interlocutors complain- 



ed of, and further to do therein 

 what may be meet." 



In virtue of the declaration and 

 remit contained in the judgment 

 of the House of Lords above re- 

 cited, the pursuers presented a pe- 

 tition to the Court of Session, pray- 

 ing their Lordships to review the 

 before-recited interlocutors, and to 

 do in the cause as to their lord- 

 ships should seem meet. The court, 

 in appplying the principles laid 

 down in the judgment of the 

 House of Lords (Jan. 24, 1812), 

 altered their former interlocutors, 

 found damages due, and remitted 

 the case to the Lord Ordinary, to 

 ascertain the quantum. 



It may now, therefore, he held, 

 as law in Scotland, as it has long 

 been in England, that authors or 

 theirassigneeshavea statutory right 

 to their literary property for four- 

 teen or twenty-eight years, as the 

 case may be, which entitles them 

 to prosecute for damages at com- 

 mon law, all who may violate that 

 right, though their works may not 

 have been entered in Stationers* 

 Hall ; such entries being only ne- 

 cessary to entitle them to recover 

 the statutory penalties. 



Trial of John BelUnghamJhr the 

 murder ofthe Rt. Honourable Speii- 

 cer Perceval. — Old Bailey, May 15. 

 — Before the prisoner was called 

 upon to plead, his counsel, Mr. 

 Alley, rose to make application for 

 the postponement of the trial, 

 founded upon statements which 

 went to show that he could be 

 proved insane, if sufficient time 

 were allowed for witnesses to ap- 

 pear. It was ruled, however, that 

 this was not the time for such ap- 

 plication, and that the prisonei' 

 must first plead to the indictment. 



This 



