140 REVIEWS AMERICAN REPRINTS. 



As if still further bent on committing the whole American nation to 

 this wholesale act of literary piracy, our New York publishers print a 

 column of " commendatory notices of distinguished individuals," rela- 

 tive to the American reprints of the Edinburgh and London Quarterlies, 

 commenced so long ago as 1812. Judge Story considers commenda- 

 tion almost useless. 



Richard Rush, " for one, most heartily wishes them a wide circulation in this 

 country. They cannot fail to help the cause of literature and genius." Dr. David 

 Hosack is certain " they have already done much, and are calculated to improve 

 still further the literary taste of our country." De Witt Clinton ventures to 

 aifirm that " the merits of these Reviews are in his opinion pre-eminently great 

 as literary works, and the American publishers are entitled to public patronage." 

 Dr. Eliphalet Nott considers " Whatever diversity of opinion may be entertained 

 as to their distinctive merits, the information concentrated and the talent evolved 

 in each is such as to render their possession to the American scholar and statesman 

 an object of the first importance ;" and the Hon. C. A. Rodney., U. S. Senator 

 from Delaware, remarks of the Edinburgh Review, " taking it altogether it em- 

 braces within its grasp every art and science. It strews with flowers the most 

 intricate and thorny paths of learning, and renders the most abstruse subjects 

 familiar to common minds. In it the scholar, philosopher, and statesman may all 

 find lessons of instruction, and neither of them should be without a copy. To the 

 professional man and to those in the common walks of life it affords a fund of 

 rational entertainment and valuable informatiou. It is the key that unlocks the 

 vast and various stores of literary and scientific treasure which its writers have 

 amassed by toiling in the inexhaustible mines of knowledge." 



Most true is it, honorable and august senator of the great American 

 nation, these stores of literary and scientific treasure, which you are 

 thus appropriating as your o^vn, have been amassed by the hard toil of 

 writers, whose unremunerated labors go to enrich your wealthy repub- 

 lic, heedless though the toiler starve. "Behold, the hire of the 

 labourer, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth." But, " No !" 

 elagantly and logically responds all America, through her able editor : 

 " the articles which appear in these Reviews cost the concern by which 

 they are originally published about twenty-five dollars per page ; ergo, 

 being already so well paid for, we may surely appropriate them to our- 

 selves, in all conscience, at the price of a pair of boots !" And 

 '' No !" also indignantly responds the virtuous publisher, who after 

 carrying on this unblushing robbery for years, under the high national 

 sanction of America's copyright buccaneering system, now plumes 

 himself, and congratulates his subscribers on the fact that he has at 

 length brought the owners to his own terms, and has effected an ar- 

 rangement for the receipt of advanced sheets from the British pub- 

 lishers, so that these reprints can be put into the hands of the Ameri- 



