12 
f Assembly 
possess l!ie work entire for 21 dollars, a price that, as your committee 
believe, would, considering the value of ihe infotmalion it contains, be- 
unparalleled in the annals of printing, fully sustaining the principle of 
reform in printing for the public, even to the utmost stretch of radical 
reform. 
Your committee are decidedly of the opinion that the present offers- 
a most favorable opportunity, in making the information contained in 
the worl\ under consideration the most valuable, for the fu-rther reason, 
that the plan meets the approbation of those gentlemen who were en- 
gaged in getting up the same, and who are best qualified to abridge 
and send forth an edition that will give to the work the just value it 
should possess. Tn saying this, your committee would not be under- 
stood to insinuate, that they alone, are capable of giving a correct 
abridgement or one that would be acceptable, yet your committee 
know of no guarantee, (if the present opportunity is suffered to pass 
unimproved,) that those persons who have had no interest in getting 
up the work, and are qualified for the task will undertake it. On the 
contrary, they believe that such persons are generally engaged, and 
the result would be, the abridging of the work would fall into the 
hands of such as are known to make books with scissors, a lamenta- 
ble but too frequent a result, and one that every friend of science can 
but deeply deplore. 
This reason we feel, cannot be urged too strongly upon the conside- 
ration of this Legislature, knowing that the argument will meet a rea- 
dy response in the minds of all, who are any way acquainted with the 
manner, adopted at the present day to fill the book trade with what 
are impudently called new works, and it is no new case where these 
scientific scissorers have mutually charged upon the other the crime 
of plagarism, each supposing himself to have been the first purloiner.. 
Demagoguism in authorship is no very recent feature in the scientific 
world, and we are firmly impressed with the conviction that the plan 
submitted for the deliberation of this Legislature, if adopted, will ef- 
fectually preclude any prostitution of the valuable information contain- 
ed in the Natural History" of this State to such a base and disrepu- 
table use. Nothing could be more afflicting to the pride of New- 
York than seeing the valuable history she has produced of her mine- 
ralogy, geology, zoology, botany, ornithology, &c. pirated and palm- 
ed off as the productions of men who visit localities, collect specimens, 
compare, arrange, describe, and analyze all in their own private study. 
