Concerning the Suppressed Book. 571 



that having been, and being now, absolutely indifferent to profit in 

 the matter, I shall decline to accept any portion of the returns. 

 " Ever sincerely yours, 



"HERBERT SPENCER." 



Several points in this correspondence, especially in its 

 opening letter, require some notice in this place ; but, before 

 making the critical corrections that seem to be required, I 

 desire to say a few words on the peculiar circumstances of 

 American publication which have an important bearing 

 on the present case. 



Mr. Frederic Harrison took offence at the American re- 

 print in a book of some review articles of his, and pro- 

 nounces it " a case of piracy." The organs of English 

 opinion, in commenting upon these letters, take the same 

 view. The London Times, after referring to the grace- 

 ful and honourable termination of the disagreeable dif- 

 ference between Mr. Harrison and Mr. Spencer, devotes 

 a leading editorial to the discussion of American piracy 

 on the basis of the fresh and striking illustration of it 

 here afforded. Speaking of the effect of the "tolerably 

 rigid copyright law " of England, the Times says : " But so 

 far as America is concerned it is different. To the English 

 author that country seems to answer very much to Hobbes's 

 idea of a state of nature. Foreign aulhors are fair prey ; 

 for them there is or need be no selling or buying of copy- 

 rights, and a good book is to be dealt with as a part of the 

 common elements of Nature. If any laws govern the mat- 

 ter, it is only those which regulate the capture and reduc- 

 tion into possession of wild animals." The case is cer- 

 tainly bad enough, but this is an exaggeration. 



At the outset I admit that on the question of interna- 

 tional copyright, or the claims of foreign authors to prop- 

 erty in their books, the English are right and the Ameri- 

 cans wrong so flagrantly wrong as to justify much of the 



