Literary Property and International Copyright. 109 



It is not strange that the judgment of the House of Lords caused 

 surprise and alarm among men of letters, and especially among book- 

 sellers who had large investments in copyrights, which they had un- 

 derstood to be perpetual but which now were outlawed. They had 

 asked for a fish, and, in the judgment of the House of Lords, Par- 

 liament had given them a scorpion. 



In this exigency an appeal was again made to Parliament for relief 

 which met with favor from the House of Commons, but failed of suc- 

 cess through the hostile attitude of the House of Lords. Efforts to 

 secure favorable action by Parliament were renewed from time to time 

 till 1842, when they resulted in the present law, which is more liberal 

 in its provisions than any prior statute. The last movement, which 

 thus resulted, was led in the House of Commons with consummate 

 ability by Sergeant Talfourd, whose efforts were aided by petitions 

 from some of the most distinguished British authors, including Sir 

 Walter Scott, Prof. Wilson', Archibald Alison, Sir David Brewster, 

 Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Campbell, Charles Dickens, Robert Brown- 

 ing, Douglas Jerrold, Leigh Hunt, Mary Russell .Mil Ford and Thomas 

 Hood. 



A petition of Mr. Hood, not actually presented to Parliament, is so 

 full of mingled truth, wisdom and wit, that the temptation to quote 

 a few passages from it in this connection is irresistible. It runs thus : 

 "The humble petition of the undersigned, Thomas Hood, sheweth — 



"That your petitioner is the proprietor of certain copyrights which 

 the law treats as copyhold, but which, in justice and equity, should be 

 his freeholds. He cannot conceive how Hood's Own, without a change 

 in the title-deeds as well as the title, can become Everybody's Own 

 hereafter." * * * 



"That cheap bread is as desirable and necessary as cheap books ; but 

 it hath not yet been thought just or expedient to ordain that, after a 

 certain number of crops, all cornfields shall become public property." 



" That when your petitioner shall be dead and buried, lie might with 

 as much propriety and decency have his body snatched as his literary 



'•That vour petitioner hath two children, who look up to him not 

 only as the author of the Comic Annual, but as the author of their 

 being. That the effect of the law as regards an author is virtually to 

 disinherit his next of kin, and cut him off with a book instead of a 

 shilling. 



"That your petitioner is very willing to write for posterity on the 

 lowest terms, and would not object to the long credit; but that, when 



