CHAP. XXXIX.] INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 253 



After paying entrance duties, and necessary outlay for advertise 

 ments in London, and the agency, it was found that the price 

 must be as high as 1 6s. 



The party who are in favor of an international copyright be 

 tween England and the United States, seems to be steadily 

 gaining strength among the booksellers, publishers, and authors, 

 although the editors of newspapers and their readers may per 

 haps oppose the measure for some time. The number of reprisals 

 now made by English speculators are very numerous. According 

 to a statement lately presented to Congress by Mr. Jay, of New 

 York, there are about 600 original American works &quot;pirated&quot; 

 in Great Britain ; or, to speak more correctly, while the law 

 remains in its present state, reprinted without leave of their 

 American authors, or any pecuniary acknowledgment to them. 



Many are of opinion that the small print of cheap editions in 

 the United States, will seriously injure the eyesight of the rising 

 generation, especially as they often read in railway cars, devouring 

 whole novels, printed in newspapers, in very inferior type. Mr. 

 Everett, speaking of this literature, in an address to the students 

 of Harvard College, said, &quot;If cheap it can be called, which begins 

 by costing a man his eyes, and ends by perverting his taste and 

 morals.&quot; 



As an illustration of the mischievous tendency of the indiscrim 

 inate reading of popular works by the multitude, when the higher 

 classes and clergy can exert little or no control in the selection 

 of the books read, the wonderful success of Eugene Sue s &quot; Wan 

 dering Jew&quot; was pointed out to me by many, with no small 

 concern. This led me to ask Mr. Harper how many copies he 

 had disposed of, and he answered, &quot;80,000, issued in different 

 shapes, and at various prices.&quot; It had so often been thrust into 

 my hands in railway cars, and so much talked of, that, in the 

 course of my journey, I began to read it in self-defense ; and, 

 having begun, could not stop till I had finished the whole, 

 although the style of the original loses half its charms in an 

 imperfect translation. &quot; Le vieux dragon,&quot; for example, is 

 always rendered the &quot; old dragon,&quot; instead of &quot; dragoon,&quot; and 

 the poetry of a brilliant passage is nearly destroyed by &quot;defense&quot; 



