CONNECTICUT. 



COPYRIGHT. 



223 



the hospital. The number of patients in it at 

 the end of the year was 481, all of whom were 

 State beneficiaries except 27, who are paying 

 patients. The Commissioners created by the 

 Legislature at the January session of 1878, and 

 appointed by the Governor, " to investigate the 

 necessity for the erection of another hospital 

 for the insane poor of the State," upon inquiry, 

 have already ascertained that, besides the above- 

 mentioned, there are 365 indigent insane per- 

 sons in Connecticut, maintained at the charge 

 of towns, as follows : in almshouses, 156 ; not 



in almshouses, but supported wholly or in part 

 by towns, 162 ; in hospitals out of the State, 

 but supported at the expense of towns, 47. 



The number of convicts in the State Peniten- 

 tiary on November 30, 1878, was 278. The re- 

 ceipts of the prison during the year amounted 

 to $30,951.89, the expenses to $32,369.09. The 

 labor of the prisoners has now been contracted 

 for better prices than formerly. Concerning 

 management and discipline, the Legislative 

 Committee on the State Prison, by joint resolu- 

 tion passed at the January session of 1878, was 



NETV HAVE3, FHOM FOIU 1 HILL. 



directed to inquire into its management, and 

 report. They attended to their duty by sum- 

 moning before them the officers of the prison and 

 others, and found that the rules of the prison 

 liad not been strictly enforced; that in some 

 cases there had been partiality to prisoners; 

 and that they " had conclusive evidence prov- 

 ing that, through some agency, liquor had been 

 furnished to the prisoners." 



The military force of Connecticut, under the 

 appellation of " National Guard," is in an effi- 

 cient condition. The Governor avers that, in 

 regard to discipline, drill, and equipment, it is 

 not surpassed by the militia of any other State. 

 This force has had an increase of 152 men, and 

 two new companies have been added to its or- 

 ganization during the year. At the last muster, 

 November 25-29, 1878, its total was 2,444 men. 

 The expense of maintaining this force is met by 

 the commutation tax, which in 1878 amounted 

 to $95,176. An act was passed by the Legis- 

 lature at the January session to furnish the Na- 

 tional Guard with new uniforms at the charge 

 of the State. It allows $25 to each man for his 

 uniform. 



COPYRIGHT. The report of the Royal 

 Commissioners on copyright submitted to Par- 

 liament in June, 1878, gave rise to a general 

 discussion of this subject both in England and 

 the United States. The necessity of some 



remedy for the uncertainty into which the law 

 of copyright has fallen has long been recog- 

 nized. The Commission which has now re- 

 ported was appointed April 17, 1876, and com- 

 prised Lord John Manners, the Earl of Devon, 

 Sir Charles Young, Sir Henry T. Holland, Sir 

 John Rose, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, Sir 

 Louis Mallet, Sir James Stephen, Sir Julius Ben- 

 edict, Farrer Herschell, Edward Jenkins, Wil- 

 liam Smith, James Anthony Froude, Anthony 

 Trollope, and Frederick Richard Daldy. The 

 Commissioners found the law in a state of great 

 uncertainty and confusion. There are fourteen 

 statutes in force, passed at various times, with 

 little reference to one another. "The piece- 

 meal way in which the subject has been dealt 

 with," says the report, "affords the only pos- 

 sible explanation of a number of apparently 

 arbitrary distinctions between the provisions 

 made upon matters which would seem to be 

 of the same nature." Thus, the term of copy- 

 right in books is forty-two years from the first 

 publication, or during the life of the author 

 and seven years after his death, whichever 

 shall be the longer period ; in engravings and 

 prints, twenty-eight years from publication; 

 in paintings, drawings, and photographs, dur- 

 ing the life of the artist and seven years after 

 his death; in sculpture, fourteen years from 

 the first "putting forth or publishing" the 



