152 REVIEWS^ — AMERICAN REPRINTS. 



publisher that he need grudge him what would otherwise go to the 

 foreigner, who may, — as he not unfrequently does, — take any liberty 

 with the text that self-interest or caprice may dictate. 



But we would rather hope to see this question settled on a wider 

 basis, and embracing larger interests, wherein those of the author shall 

 not be entirely forgotten. Nor is such an idea altogether Utopian, A 

 recent notice of the New York Baily Times shows, at least, that the 

 project of an international copyright between Great Britain and the 

 United States, is not regarded as entirely hopeless. The following 

 are the terms of a proposed arrangement, the authorship of which is 

 ascribed to Mr. Godench : 



1. An author, being a citizen of Great BritKin, shall have copyright in the 

 United States for a period not exceeding fourteen years, on the following condi- 

 tions : 



2. He shall give due notice in the United States of his intention to secure his 

 copyright in this country three months before the publication of his book, and this 

 shall be issued in the United States within thirty days after its publication in Great 

 Britain. 



3. His work shall be published by an American citizen, who shall lodge a certi- 

 ficate in the office of the Clerk of the Court of the District where he resides, stating 

 in whose behalf the copyright is taken, and this shall be printed on the back of 

 the title page. 



4. The work shall be printed on American paper, and the binding shall be 

 wholly executed in the United States. 



5. This privilege shall be extended only to books, and not to periodicals. 



6. The arrangement thus made in behalf of the British authors in America to 

 be extended to American authors in Great Britain, and upon similar conditions. 



The terms, it will be seen, preclude periodicals from their operation, 

 and would, therefore, leave unprotected that important and highly 

 profitable feature of the feuilleton : the contribution of the novel, 

 biography, or tale of travels, to the pages of a periodical, before its 

 publication in a complete form. This, as it is one of the greatest 

 sources of direct profit both to the British and iimerican author, spe- 

 cially requires reconsideration. That the plan leaves the British 

 Quarterlies entirely out of the pale of all legal protection, we do not 

 overlook. We presume their publishers will at least retain the privilege 

 of bargaining for the price of "first sheets," so long as they continue 

 to be worth republication. That there is no doubt at present on this 

 latter question of their being worth republishing may be seen by the 

 following extract from Messrs. Scott & Co.'s last annual circular, 

 borrowed from the Chicago Tribune, with its gossip about the editorial 

 Staif not altogether up to the latest date : 



