LITERATURE AND LITEEABY PBOGBESS IN 1872. 



433 



in South Carolina, he published a large num- 

 ber of important works, among which were 

 the following : " A Manual of Political Ethics " 

 (2 vols., 8vo, Boston, 1838), adopted as a 

 text-book by Harvard, and commended by 

 Kent and Story; "Legal and Political Her- 

 meneutics, or Principles of Interpretation and 

 Construction in Law and Politics; " "Laws of 

 Property: Essays on Property and Labor" 

 (18mo, New York, 1842) ; "Civil Liberty and 

 Self-Government" (2 vols., 12mo, Philadel- 

 phia, 1853). Special branches of civil polity 

 also largely occupied his attention, particularly 

 the subject of penal legislation, on which he 

 wrote "Essays on Subjects of Penal Law and 

 the Penitentiary System," published by the 

 Philadelphia Prison Discipline Society; "Abuse 

 of the Penitentiary Power," published by the 

 Legislature of New York ; "Remarks on Mrs. 

 Fry's Views of Solitary Confinement," pub- 

 lished in England ; " Letter on the Pardoning 

 System," published by the Legislature of South 

 Carolina. Among his more notable occasional 

 papers are: "Letter on Anglican and Galli- 

 can Liberty," translated into German, and an- 

 notated by the distinguished jurist, Mitter- 

 maier, who also superintended a translation of 

 " Civil Liberty ; " a paper on the vocal sounds 

 of Laura Bridgman, the blind deaf-mute, com- 

 pared with the elements of phonetic language, 

 published in the " Smithsonian Contributions 

 to Knowledge ; " a series of political articles in 

 Putnam's Monthly, on " Napoleon and Utah," 

 and numerous anniversary and other addresses. 

 Among his valuable writings, since assuming 

 the professorship in Columbia College, are, his 

 inaugural address, entitled "Individualism and 

 Socialism, or Communism," in which he main- 

 tains that these are the two elements on which 

 human life hinges, and that the problem is, to 

 exclude neither, but to ascertain their true 

 limits; and his discourse, introductory to a 

 course of lectures on the State, in the Colum- 

 bia Law School, entitled "The Ancient and 

 the Modern Teacher of Politics." He also 

 prepared two or three important State papers 

 at the request of the Government, during the 

 late war : one on the exchanges of prisoners, 

 and another on the principles to be observed in 

 the intercourse between the contending forces. 

 He was appointed arbitrator of the Mexican 

 claims, and held that position at the time of 

 his death. 



LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROG- 

 RESS IN 1872. The preoccupation of the 

 public mind with politics in the year of a presi- 

 dential election, with causes affecting the gen- 

 eral interests of trade, might be expected to 

 limit the production of books, and by this sign 

 to indicate a diminished literary activity. If 

 the aggregate of publications, good, bad, and 

 indifferent, has not been much, if any, dimin- 

 ished, the number of works that can be said 

 to bear witness to " literary progress" is rela- 

 tively smaller. But it is sufficiently large to 

 show that the impulse to production is constant, 



and their quality is sufficiently meritorious to 

 be a favorable augury for American culture. 

 And it is superfluous to say that, in this point 

 of view, a small number, having the insignia 

 of original power and of genuine art, are worth 

 more than the most voluminous catalogue of 

 dilutions, compilations, and imitations. It will 

 be seen that the year is honored by some of 

 this select worth, the presence of which more 

 than compensates for any deficiency in other 

 respects. The question once asked, with more 

 justice than our national susceptibility per- 

 mitted us to see, " Who reads an American 

 book ? " now admits of no doubtful or hesitat- 

 ing answer. And, as we are every year be- 

 coming more characteristically a nation of 

 readers, the question in a commercial version 

 of it, " Who buys an American book ?" need con- 

 cern none but ourselves. But books that are 

 worth .buying for ourselves cannot fail to be 

 in request abroad, and whatever doubt may 

 be raised as to some of the conclusions of politi- 

 cal economy nothing but good can come from 

 the freest interchange of thought. With due 

 security for literary property, we may at once 

 do justice to foreign authors, and place our 

 own in a condition to exact justice for them- 

 selves. 



The question of an international copyright 

 has made no apparent progress. Any thing 

 not involving "politics," or "money," has 

 little chance of gaining the attention of Con- 

 gress, or of keeping for any length of time the 

 attention of the general public. But a change 

 in the British copyright law, by which Cana- 

 dian publishers are placed in a condition to 

 become rivals of ours in the business of re- 

 printing English books on terms of advantage, 

 promises to diminish, in a sensible degree, the 

 commercial obstacles to a just treatment of 

 foreign authors. It is to be hoped that the 

 improved tone of sentiment in England upon 

 the copyright question, and the response of 

 eminent authors to the suggestion (AMERICAN 

 ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1871, p. 455) of an 

 authors' as distinguished from a publishers' 

 international copyright, will have a favorable 

 effect upon public opinion in this country. 



A noticeable feature in the publishing busi- 

 ness is the increase in the number of books 

 sold by subscription. This was formerly a 

 business by itself, never adopted by the regu- 

 lar book-trade except in the issue of works 

 the great cost of which made it necessary for 

 the publisher to assure himself, beforehand, of 

 a remunerative patronage. The inferior char- 

 acter of many of the works sold in this way, 

 by those who made it a specialty, was an oc- 

 casion of prejudice against the very name of a 

 subscription-book. But it is undeniable that 

 it is a method of sale by which books can be 

 pushed into a larger circulation than they 

 would reach, save in very exceptional instances, 

 by the ordinary channels of trade, and it is 

 coming to be adopted by some of the largest 

 houses. With this extension of the business, 



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